Han Li carefully stored the two golden pages back, then began to contemplate his future plans.
Since he intended to cultivate both the Green Yuan Sword Art and the Three Revolutions Heavy Origin Art, he would need to make full use of the mysterious small bottle's green liquid. Therefore, he needed to gather the alchemical ingredients from the two ancient formulas as soon as possible. For those he already had, he would accelerate their growth. For those he didn't, he would need to seek them elsewhere—collecting what he could find and purchasing what he couldn't. He couldn't afford to miss any opportunities.
Come to think of it, aside from the spiritual power contained within the green liquid, he still found its other components utterly mysterious. Spiritual power alone couldn't produce such miraculous plant growth.
After entering Yellow Maple Valley, he had experimented several times. No matter how diluted the spiritual liquid was, as long as even a trace of green liquid was present in the water, all the test animals would burst their bodies in the same manner. It seemed the problem wasn't about dilution, but about that unknown component wreaking havoc.
After obtaining identical results multiple times, Han Li had no choice but to reluctantly give up investigating further.
But using the bottle's miraculous power only for alchemy seemed like too narrow an application! Han Li felt that the plant-growth miracle certainly had other great uses, and not utilizing it fully would be wasteful.
After careful consideration, Han Li concluded that during Foundation Establishment stage battles, besides artifacts and techniques, mid-grade talismans were absolutely essential. These mid-grade talismans were incredibly expensive—often costing dozens of spirit stones just to purchase a single one! The price alone made Han Li shake his head.
But many mid-grade and above elemental techniques were indeed immensely powerful, life-saving arts.
The catch was that these techniques, due to their high rank, required considerable time and energy to cast, even for Foundation Establishment cultivators. This meant buying a few talismans for emergency use had become a necessary precaution.
Thus, Han Li turned his thoughts to talisman crafting—and specifically mid-grade talismans.
The blank talisman paper required for crafting, whether low-grade or mid-grade, was made from certain spiritual herbs of considerable age. For Han Li, this was perfect—he could fully utilize the bottle's miraculous effect to grow these materials.
Of course, high-grade talisman paper couldn't be made this way. It required special spirit beast hides, something currently beyond Han Li's reach.
As for the vermillion ink used in talisman crafting, there was nothing to be picky about. It was refined from various spirit beast blood, mostly drawn from domesticated spirit beasts, and cost practically nothing.
The brush used in talisman crafting did matter, but Han Li still had his Golden Bamboo Brush, which should suffice.
The moment he thought of the Golden Bamboo Brush, he naturally thought of that easily embarrassed little girl Han Yunzhi... He couldn't help but smile faintly. She was probably still at Spirit Beast Mountain by now!
But in the next instant, Han Li refocused his mind, re-evaluating the feasibility and implications of talisman crafting.
With tools and an endless supply of raw materials, the biggest limitation for talisman crafters—the consumption of materials—was no problem for him. The only remaining obstacle was mastering mid-grade and above techniques.
Because to craft a talisman of any particular type, the crafter must first be able to cast that technique themselves. Otherwise, there was no way to conjure a technique onto talisman paper from thin air. After all, talismans were merely a method of pre-sealing techniques.
The thought of having to master mid-grade techniques gave Han Li a headache!
He didn't know if it was truly because his spiritual roots were too mixed, but he seemed utterly lacking in talent when learning elemental techniques. Even expending several times the effort and time of ordinary cultivators, he often achieved nothing, unable to grasp the essence of the art.
However, since entering Foundation Establishment, he could easily learn low-grade techniques and even cast most of them instantaneously. But with mid-grade techniques, he was back to square one, leaving Han Li sighing at the heavens!
Even if mid-grade techniques were difficult to master, Han Li believed he could still learn a few of them. Sealing those into talismans would be enough. He never harbored the illusion of learning all mid-grade techniques to craft into freely usable talismans.
With a large stock of mid-grade talismans, not only could he gain a significant advantage in battle, but he could also openly sell them without attracting too much attention.
This way, Han Li could break free from his spirit stone shortage. He no longer dared to exchange spiritual herbs for spirit stones—it was too conspicuous!
Furthermore, Han Li had another thought: if he ever had to disperse his cultivation and start over, that period of rebuilding would undoubtedly be his most vulnerable time. If enemies or grudge holders came knocking then, how dangerous would that be! After all, the cultivation world was no paradise—anything could happen.
But with a handful of talismans at hand, he could maintain a certain level of strength. Even if he couldn't defeat his enemies, using talismans to escape was entirely possible!
Although taking time for talisman crafting would certainly slow his cultivation progress, weighing everything, the benefits clearly outweighed the costs!
After pacing around his chamber several times, Han Li decided to cultivate the Green Yuan Sword Art and practice talisman crafting simultaneously.
Having considered everything thoroughly, Han Li immediately sprang into action.
In the first few days, he made two trips to the market districts of his own sect and the Celestial Star Sect, gathering alchemical ingredients and spiritual herb seeds and seedlings for crafting talisman paper.
Since these alchemical ingredients were recorded in ancient formulas, they were naturally valuable and extremely rare. Fortunately, Han Li had no particular age requirements for these herbs, so he luckily managed to gather all the ingredients needed for one type of pill—"Qi-Gathering Powder." This discovery delighted him greatly.
As for the talisman paper ingredients, since he would start with low-grade talismans, they were easy to obtain. Of course, a large supply of vermillion ink was also essential.
Three or four days later, Han Li activated the protective formations around his cave dwelling at full power, sealed the entrance, and began his first closed-door cultivation since achieving Foundation Establishment.
...
Time flew when cultivating. Four years passed in the blink of an eye. The cave dwelling's entrance, hidden beneath the formation's concealment, had remained sealed since that day and had never opened again.
Until this day, when from the distant horizon, a beam of blue light suddenly flew over. It circled the formation several times before transforming into a smiling scholar, holding a peculiar blue wooden board in his hand.
"So this is Junior Brother's cave dwelling! Why choose such a remote location, and the spiritual energy here isn't very abundant either? If Uncle-Master Lei hadn't pointed the way, it would have been truly difficult to find!" the scholar murmured with evident surprise.
The scholar then examined the protective formation outside the cave dwelling, a look of eagerness suddenly appearing in his eyes.
"Uncle-Master Lei said this Junior Brother's protective formation is incredibly powerful—even a Core Formation cultivator might not fare well against it. Is that really true? Could it truly be that formidable? Should I give it a try?"
But after a moment's consideration, the scholar sighed dejectedly and muttered to himself:
"Better not. I shouldn't delay Master's important matter!"
With that, he produced a voice transmission talisman and threw it toward Han Li's formation. The talisman immediately transformed into a beam of firelight that silently permeated the formation.
Then the scholar tossed the wooden board into the air, mounted his flying artifact, and departed.
Inside the cave dwelling, in the seclusion chamber of the Spirit Eye Spring, Han Li was sitting in meditation with his eyes closed.
His appearance was identical to four years ago—not a single change. A faint layer of blue-green light enveloped his body, flickering continuously, creating a dreamlike, misty effect of extraordinary beauty.
But looking around the rest of the chamber, one would be left speechless. Except for the area where Han Li sat in meditation, the rest of the space was littered with talismans of various grades—from low-grade basic ones like "Fireball Technique" and "Ice Arrow Technique" to low-grade advanced ones like "Earth Wall Technique" and "Fire Cloud Technique." It looked like a talisman warehouse! Additionally, there were empty vermillion ink containers and many blank talisman papers scattered among them, making the scene even more chaotic!
After an indeterminate amount of time, Han Li furrowed his brow slightly, sensing something, and opened his eyes.
After a moment of contemplation, he suddenly stood up and walked out of the seclusion chamber. The instant he rose, all the talismans and other items on the floor silently disappeared into his storage bag, leaving the room spotlessly clean.
As soon as he exited the seclusion chamber, Han Li flipped his hand, and a small yellow flag appeared in his palm. He then tossed it, and the flag transformed into a beam of yellow light that shot outward.
In just a moment—before Han Li even reached his bedroom—the yellow light returned, leading a firelight beam behind it.
Seeing this, Han Li calmly beckoned, and the flag flew back to his hand. His other hand spread its five fingers, instantly spraying a wave of blue-green light that swept the firelight before him.