Han Li was pondering alone in his bedroom when a sudden look crossed his face. He turned and walked out.
When he arrived at the main entrance of his cave abode, which had been sealed for many years, he immediately saw seven or eight transmission talismans of different colors colliding aimlessly within the protective formations before the cave.
Seeing this, Han Li raised his eyebrows, took out his formation token, and spat out the word "Collect." Instantly, all the transmission talismans flew into his hand as if granted amnesty.
Han Li did not leave the spot but examined them one by one without changing his expression.
More than half of these talismans were congratulatory messages from nearby Core Formation cultivators. The rest were recruitment offers from several organizations of varying sizes. Some were willing to reserve the honorary position of guest elder for him, others offered rare treasures as a recruitment fee, and one even offered a pair of beautiful maids as a gift to entice him.
Hearing these contents, Han Li secretly rolled his eyes.
He politely replied to the Core Formation cultivators' talismans but directly rejected the offers from the organizations.
He did not believe that reaching the Core Formation stage meant he could rest easy. It was better to spend some time consolidating his realm and maintain a low profile!
In the following days, Han Li frequently visited the cave abodes of nearby Core Formation cultivators, humbly asking for advice on matters to pay attention to after reaching Core Formation.
Since what he inquired about were not secret matters, these cultivators were quite willing to guide him casually during their conversations.
This benefited Han Li greatly!
However, these cultivators also greatly envied Han Li for maintaining such a youthful appearance after reaching Core Formation.
After all, unless one had exceptional innate talent or, like Han Li, had numerous spiritual medicines to aid cultivation, most cultivators were not young when they reached Core Formation.
Even though their lifespan greatly increased after Core Formation, their appearance would not return to their youth; at most, the aging process would be significantly slowed.
Of course, some cultivators practiced techniques that naturally had the wondrous effect of preserving one's appearance, allowing them to remain as young as teenagers even after Core Formation.
This time, Han Li did not hoard his treasures. He immediately exchanged some Age-Preserving Pills he had for rare items from them, making everyone happy.
After a few such interactions, although Han Li and these cultivators could not be called good friends, they had at least become familiar faces to each other.
They addressed each other as "Fellow Daoist" and "Brother," getting along quite well.
During this period, Han Li also refined the "Green Gleaming Sword" and searched everywhere for materials to refine magical treasures and level-three puppets.
There were many materials for refining magical treasures, and the methods were all sorts of varied and different.
When spending the same time and effort on nurturing, magical treasures refined with superior materials had vastly different power and greater potential for improvement compared to those made with ordinary materials.
Moreover, even with the same materials, if the secret methods for refining the same type of treasure differed, their power and functions could be quite different.
Therefore, apart from some common magical treasure refining methods that everyone knew, any slightly special secret methods were not easily leaked by any sect or power.
But this did not mean that with the best materials and the best treasure-refining methods, the resulting magical treasure would necessarily be infinitely powerful.
The true power of a magical treasure mainly depended on the cultivator who refined it continuously nurturing and nourishing it within their spiritual sense.
If the treasure's owner was lazy and unwilling to spend time on it, it was quite normal for a rare treasure's power to be inferior to an ordinary one.
The "Green Bamboo Peak Cloud Sword" that Han Li wanted to refine, as the name suggested, mainly required spirit bamboo that was thousands of years old.
Originally, with Han Li's small bottle's growth-accelerating function and some time, this material would have been easy to obtain. However, he did not consider ordinary bamboo suitable. Instead, he wanted to find some legendary rare divine bamboo as the main material for refining the magical treasure.
As a result, Han Li had been lingering in the market of Heavenly Star City until now but had never obtained a variety that satisfied him.
Although somewhat anxious, Han Li adhered to the principle of "better to lack than to have something mediocre," so he temporarily set aside the matter of refining the magical treasure!
Fortunately, he still had the "Green Gleaming Sword" and a few talisman treasures for protection, so he was still worry-free for the time being!
Since he could not start refining the magical treasure, Han Li naturally turned his attention to the creation of new puppets.
According to the "Puppet True Scripture," a level-three puppet's full-force strike was equivalent to that of a Foundation Establishment mid-stage cultivator. The materials required for refining were also becoming more expensive, and several different forms of puppets appeared.
After deliberation, Han Li chose the ape-type puppet, which primarily used wooden materials.
Although this puppet required ironwood of a much greater age and the inclusion of rare Heavenly Crystal Wood during refining,
since they were all wooden materials, Han Li could naturally use the green liquid to cultivate them, greatly reducing the cost.
Even so, the other auxiliary materials needed for the upgrade were still a huge expense. Added to the fact that the number of puppets he could control had increased, the total cost was naturally even more staggering.
Although these spirit stones did not make Han Li bankrupt, they did leave him destitute again after he gathered the materials.
In desperation, Han Li had no choice but to release some rare materials from level-five demon beasts again to alleviate his financial predicament.
But what Han Li did not expect was that even though he was extremely careful, this release of materials still caught the attention of some observant people.
One day, after completing a transaction with a small merchant from out of town with some materials, he was about to return to his cave abode when he was stopped on the street by a young girl who was as beautiful as a flower.
"Is this Senior Han? My Madam invites Senior to the Qinghe Teahouse not far away for a chat! Would Senior be so kind as to go? If you don't, this humble servant will be severely punished by the Madam." The girl said pitifully.
"Not interested!" Han Li glanced at the girl and refused without hesitation.
At a glance, he could tell that although the girl was only at the Qi Condensation stage, she seemed to have cultivated some kind of charm technique and was using it indiscriminately and recklessly towards him, so he naturally would not give her a pleasant look.
Hearing Han Li's words, the sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl became somewhat panicked and hurriedly pleaded repeatedly:
"Senior Han! If you don't go, it will be really hard for this junior to report back. Even if this junior begs you..."
Before the girl could finish, Han Li turned and walked away with an expressionless face.
Although he did not know who the other party was, he had no interest in meeting some unknown woman.
"Senior Han, please wait! This junior, Fan Jingmei of the Wonderful Sound Gate, greets Senior Han. I have not disciplined my subordinate properly, and Lian'er was just rude. Please forgive her, Senior!"
Just as Han Li had shaken off the girl and taken two steps away, a sweet female voice came from behind.
He could not help but stop and glance back.
He saw that at some point, another woman wearing a light veil had appeared beside the girl. Although her face could not be seen clearly, her skin was fair as snow, her hair was black and shiny, coiled high, and her clear eyes were like water, fixed unwaveringly on Han Li.
"I do not know the Madam. If there is something, please be brief. I need to return to my abode to cultivate!" Han Li said calmly, his words carrying a tone that kept people at a distance.
The woman who called herself "Fan Jingmei" was slightly stunned upon hearing this, but immediately said with a light smile:
"Since Senior Han is so straightforward, this humble servant will speak plainly. Did Senior recently sell a large batch of rare demon beast materials? Our sect is very interested in these materials and would like to have a good talk with Senior. However, it is crowded and noisy here. Why don't you come with me to a private room in the teahouse, Senior?"
Hearing her self-introduction and invitation, Han Li narrowed his eyes and stared intently at her for quite a while, until the woman's eyes revealed a hint of shyness, before he said stiffly:
"Fine, lead the way!"
"Thank you for your kindness, Senior. Please come this way, Senior Han!" The woman's eyes showed a touch of joy. She quickly took a light step forward, while the girl followed behind dejectedly.
However, although the girl was walking ahead, she could not help but turn her head to steal another glance. Her eyes met Han Li's gaze directly, startling the girl named Lian'er, who quickly turned back, a flush of red rising to the base of her ears.
This made Han Li show a faintly amused expression, and he found it somewhat funny in his heart.
The teahouse mentioned by the Wonderful Sound Gate woman was not far away. After a short while, Han Li followed them into a building with a huge "Tea" banner hanging outside.
There were not many people drinking tea at the moment. A middle-aged man who was sipping tea saw the woman and the girl enter and immediately stood up, ran to them, and said:
"Martial Aunt, the room is ready! You can go in with the guest!"
"Good, stay outside the door when the time comes," Fan Jingmei instructed indifferently.
"Yes."
Then, led by the middle-aged man, the two women and Han Li went up to the second floor and entered an elegant private room.
To his surprise, there was already an old man in gray robes inside, calmly brewing a pot of hot tea. The tea was steaming hot. When Han Li and the others entered, he did not even twitch an eyelid.