Doctor Mo was quite pleased that Han Li devoted all his time to cultivation.
But his progress with the Nameless Secret Formula still struck him as too slow.
In recent years, the illness afflicting Doctor Mo seemed to have worsened. His coughing fits grew more frequent, and each episode lasted longer than before.
As his condition deteriorated, Doctor Mo appeared to grow ever more concerned about Han Li's cultivation progress. From the urgent tone of his repeated exhortations, one could hear the anxiety lurking within.
Doctor Mo clearly valued Han Li enormously. Not only did he pay him far more silver than any other disciple received, but the way he looked at Han Li was peculiar—like someone gazing upon a priceless treasure, cherishing it with boundless tenderness.
Yet Han Li, now at the third layer of the Secret Formula, possessed senses of startling acuity. He had noticed, almost by accident, that behind those warm and caring looks there occasionally flickered something else—a trace of greed, a glimmer of covetous desire that sent a chill crawling up his spine.
Those expressions made Han Li's flesh creep. He could not shake the feeling that Doctor Mo was not looking at a living person, but at a thing.
It left him bewildered. What could he possibly possess that Doctor Mo would want?
Nothing at all, he assured himself with conviction.
Han Li sometimes even suspected that his years of intensive training had made him paranoid—that secretly suspecting Doctor Mo was a profoundly ungrateful thing to do.
And yet, deep in the most hidden recesses of his heart, a seed of wariness toward Doctor Mo had taken root, and with each passing day that wariness only grew stronger.
Now a serious problem loomed before Han Li. He had hit a bottleneck in his cultivation, and worse still, after years of intensive practice and pill consumption, the precious medicines in Doctor Mo's possession had been completely exhausted.
It was painfully obvious that Han Li was no prodigy blessed by heaven. Without medicinal supplements, his progress had ground to a complete halt.
This made Han Li feel deeply ashamed in Doctor Mo's presence.
Doctor Mo had poured nearly all of his life's savings and painstaking effort into Han Li, creating the finest possible conditions for his cultivation—and Han Li had been unable to deliver what was asked of him.
It made it hard for Han Li to face Doctor Mo, to meet those eager, probing questions day after day.
Strangely enough, despite his considerable martial prowess, Doctor Mo could not directly observe the details of Han Li's cultivation. He could only glean fragmentary information from taking his pulse, so for a long while he had been unaware of the predicament Han Li now faced.
Some time ago, his conscience finally getting the better of him, Han Li had confessed the truth of his situation to Doctor Mo.
When Doctor Mo heard that Han Li had made no improvement in the Secret Formula for over a year, his sallow complexion turned ghostly pale. His usually expressionless face became utterly grim.
Doctor Mo did not rebuke him. He simply told Han Li that he would need to leave the mountain for a time to gather certain medicinal herbs, and that Han Li should train hard while he was gone and not neglect the Secret Formula.
Two days later, Doctor Mo departed from the Seven Mysteries Sect alone, carrying his luggage and herb-gathering tools.