Upon hearing this, Han Li thought to himself: "So he really did ask about this!"
But on the surface, he put on a look of surprise and said: "Primordial Spirit? I didn't see any Primordial Spirit. Did Senior Brother Lin's Primordial Spirit escape from his body before he died?"
Han Li had already made up his mind. The moment anyone asked about the Primordial Spirit, he would firmly claim to know nothing. Otherwise, how could he explain that the man had attempted to seize his body with his Primordial Spirit, only to have his Primordial Spirit destroyed instead?
"You didn't see it?"
The fat man studied Han Li with a half-smile for a while, his gaze making Han Li's skin crawl, his heart pounding like a drum.
"Hmm, since you didn't see it, then this Junior Nephew Lin's Primordial Spirit must have gotten lost in the grand formation and dissipated on its own!" After a moment, the fat man turned his face away and said indifferently.
Hearing these words, Han Li finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, he knew perfectly well that the fat man would never believe this explanation. But judging from Senior Uncle Lei's indifferent attitude toward Senior Brother Lin's fate just now, he clearly had no intention of pressing the matter further.
After all, everyone knew that the first thing a cultivator's Primordial Spirit would do after leaving the body was immediately seek to seize a host in order to regain physical form. But inside the formation, aside from Han Li, there had been no other cultivator present — so the only possible target for body seizure would have been Han Li himself. Since Han Li was clearly still in good condition, that meant Senior Brother Lin's attempt to seize his body must have failed, and his Primordial Spirit had been destroyed.
As for whether Han Li's body had already been taken over by Senior Brother Lin's Primordial Spirit — whether it was actually Senior Brother Lin acting through Han Li's flesh now — that was even more obvious at a glance!
Body seizure was an act that severely damaged the Primordial Spirit. Even if the seizure succeeded, without at least a month of secluded rest, one could not possibly control another person's body with any facility. Senior Uncle Lei would surely have noticed something amiss.
Thus, both Han Li and Lei Wanhe knew exactly what had happened to Senior Brother Lin's Primordial Spirit.
But this fat man, having taken a liking to Han Li at first impression and being far too lazy to bother with such trifles, simply let the matter slide with a perfunctory wave. And Han Li played along in deliberate ignorance, because regardless of the reason, word of him harming a fellow disciple would be disastrous for him.
That said, this whole affair actually made Han Li feel that this Senior Uncle Lei was far more agreeable than his own master.
"Junior Nephew, this cave dwelling of yours is really too shabby! How can you receive guests like this? We cultivators may not put much stock in such things, but it should still be passable!" For some reason, Senior Uncle Lei did not leave immediately after handling the matter. Instead, he stood at the entrance of Han Li's cave dwelling, leisurely appraising it.
Han Li gave a bitter smile. This cave dwelling had been hastily thrown together in just a few days — how could it possibly be refined? But hearing the fat man's words reminded him of something.
He smiled and addressed Lei Wanhe respectfully:
"Junior Nephew has some matters he would like to consult Senior Uncle Lei about. Would Senior Uncle be willing to enter the cave dwelling for a brief rest, while Junior Nephew explains at length? Also, Junior Nephew has some rather fine herbs of considerable age and would like Senior Uncle to verify their authenticity, so that Junior Nephew can use them for alchemy with confidence."
"Herbs?"
The fat man's expression had remained unchanged when Han Li first asked him to enter the cave dwelling. But the moment Han Li mentioned herbs of considerable age, a thin smile finally appeared on his face. He nodded in agreement.
Han Li then led Lei Wanhe into the extremely spacious main hall and had him sit down. He excused himself to retrieve the herbs and hurried to his storage chamber, where he took out two medicinal plants several hundred years old as backup stock. He then returned to the main hall.
The reason Han Li had not stored these herbs in his storage pouch was precisely to preserve their medicinal properties for as long as possible.
Using jade boxes or similar magical artifacts to hold spirit herbs was merely a temporary storage method. Over time, the medicinal potency would gradually dissipate. That was why nearly every cultivator's cave dwelling was equipped with a storage chamber fitted with special restrictions — only this way could the spirit herbs' essence be permanently preserved.
However, to prevent Senior Uncle Lei's spiritual sense from being sharp enough to peer into the contents of his storage chamber and the Spirit Eye Spring hidden within, Han Li had long since activated the special variation of the Soul-Sealing Restriction from the Inverted Five Elements Grand Formation.
If Senior Uncle Lei tried to spy on anything now, he was probably feeling quite frustrated.
The jade slip had made it abundantly clear that this Soul-Sealing Restriction variation, because it was extremely simple and easy to implement, had been incorporated into the formation at its full original power without any reduction whatsoever. It was the only feature that matched the original formation's full capability.
After setting up the grand formation, Han Li had tested this variation's power himself. Sure enough, his spiritual sense could only circulate within a radius of several feet and could not extend any further.
As for Senior Uncle Lei, even though he was a Core Formation cultivator whose spiritual sense far surpassed Han Li's, it was inconceivable that it could extend beyond the confines of the hall, which spanned only several dozen zhang. This was precisely why Han Li had dared to invite him in so casually. Otherwise, if the fat man's spiritual sense had swept through his storage chamber and the other Spirit Eye Spring he had sealed away...
He was certain that Lei Wanhe would most likely harbor some very unfavorable thoughts.
But if he had refused to invite Senior Uncle Lei in from the very beginning, that would have been even worse — it would only deepen the man's suspicion. After all, when a senior uncle came to a junior's cave dwelling and was not even invited inside, that was truly abnormal.
Even if the fat man had overlooked it initially, what if he thought about it later? That would be even more troublesome!
Moreover, Han Li genuinely did have matters to consult this fat senior uncle about, and he was intent on building a rapport with the man. After all, he was a Core Formation cultivator — cultivating a good relationship with this senior uncle would bring great benefits in the future.
As Han Li silently pondered these things, he carried two medicine boxes into the hall. Then, in front of Lei Wanhe, he opened each box one by one and invited the man to perform his so-called appraisal.
At that moment, Lei Wanhe was feeling quite displeased.
Because he had indeed released his spiritual sense while Han Li went to retrieve the herbs, attempting to probe the size and scale of this cave dwelling.
It was not that he harbored any malicious intentions — it was merely the instinctive, automatic action of a Core Formation cultivator.
But when his spiritual sense extended beyond ten zhang from his body, it encountered a resistance as heavy as a thousand jin, unable to spread even a fraction further.
The big man's face immediately showed a look of shock.
This phenomenon of spiritual sense being restricted was not something he had never encountered before. At several friends' cave dwellings, he had experienced the same thing. It was clearly the work of some kind of restriction designed to block spiritual sense probes.
But all those friends of his were Core Formation cultivators. Having such restrictions in their cave dwellings was not unusual. Yet this junior nephew was clearly only a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and this cave dwelling appeared to have been built only recently. The appearance of such a restriction here was rather peculiar!
Lei Wanhe did not connect the appearance of this restriction with the grand formation outside the cave dwelling.
In his view, the grand formation outside was already remarkable for its powerful defensive and enemy-repelling capabilities. If it also possessed additional variations such as spiritual sense blocking, then wouldn't this formation be on par with the guardian formations of some smaller sects?
How could such a powerful restriction formation possibly exist outside the cave dwelling of a Foundation Establishment disciple?
Lei Wanhe could never have imagined that Han Li's grand formation was actually a simplified version of the famous "Inverted Five Elements Formation"! Even at merely one-tenth of the original formation's power, it was no inferior to those so-called sect-guarding formations.
Thus, when Han Li opened the medicine boxes to show him, the fat man was still absent-mindedly mulling over the matter. His gaze did not immediately fall upon the contents of the boxes — he wore an expression suggesting he could not care less.
But when his eyes finally settled on those two medicinal plants that were several hundred years old, his previously languid demeanor instantly vanished! All thoughts of restrictions and spiritual sense were thrown to the back of his mind.
All that remained in Lei Wanhe's eyes were these two herbs brimming with spiritual energy!
"These two spirit herbs were purchased by Junior Nephew from outside at great cost in spirit stones. But Junior Nephew's experience is too limited — I simply cannot determine their precise age. I have never dared to use them. Now that Senior Uncle Lei is here, perhaps you could appraise them for me!"
"Mm!..."
Lei Wanhe was not listening to a word Han Li said! After a few absent hums, he carefully picked up one of the spirit herbs and examined it with intense focus.
Han Li secretly observed the man's expression and smiled to himself. It seemed he had brought out the right herbs.
He had long heard that Core Formation cultivators craved spirit herbs even more desperately than Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Because at the Core Formation stage, forget about transforming one's Core into a Nascent Soul — even advancing one's magical power by a single tier was an extraordinarily difficult endeavor.
Therefore, consuming large quantities of pills and elixirs had become the common path for Core Formation cultivators to enhance their magical power.