This was Han Li's first time seeing mid-grade spirit stones. One was a fire-attribute spirit stone that shimmered with red light, while the other was an earth-attribute spirit stone of deep yellow. Both were the most commonly seen types of mid-grade spirit stones.
They looked completely different from those low-grade spirit stones with their faint attribute colors — not just in terms of luster, but also in the powerful spiritual waves they radiated. There was absolutely no chance of confusing the two.
The three magic treasures were also quite impressive, befitting items forged by a Foundation Establishment expert. They were far superior to the junk Han Li had seen at the Tainan Gathering.
The first was a ring that appeared to be made of refined steel. Once activated with a spell, it would automatically fly out to lock onto a target, and it could freely change size within a certain range. Han Li had once, on a whim, poured all his magical power into it. The ring had emitted a faint yellow glow and expanded to a terrifying size — large enough to encircle his entire thatched hut — leaving him clicking his tongue in amazement for a good while.
The second was a small black triangular flag. This treasure was even simpler to use. By infusing spiritual energy into the flag and giving it a wave, it would immediately conjure clouds of black mist around its owner, blinding enemies attacking from the front and concealing the user's traces. It was an excellent defensive treasure.
The first two treasures were already rare, high-quality items seldom seen in the outside world, but what had initially sent Han Li into a frenzy of joy was the last one — an auxiliary treasure. It was a brass bottle that could prevent the spiritual energy within stored items from dissipating.
The moment Han Li got his hands on this bottle-shaped treasure, he immediately thought of a solution to his long-standing problem of how to store the mysterious green liquid.
Ever since learning about the existence of spiritual energy, Han Li had long suspected that the small bottle was absorbing and condensing the natural spiritual energy of heaven and earth every night. However, he had lacked the means to verify this, so the theory had remained buried deep in his heart as nothing more than a guess.
Now, with the appearance of this brass bottle treasure, he finally had a way to test his hypothesis. That very night, he placed the condensed green liquid into the brass bottle to see if the treasure could preserve it.
But the result left him greatly disappointed.
The brass bottle could only extend the green liquid's preservation time from the original quarter of an hour to a single day. Beyond that deadline, the liquid still vanished from the bottle without a trace. It seemed this liquid was far more than a simple condensation of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy — there had to be something more complex mixed into it.
After completing this test, Han Li had the good sense to recognize that this mystery was certainly not something he could easily unravel at his current stage. So he simply stopped racking his brain over the problem, deciding to let things take their course from now on. After all, the small bottle's current functions were already more than enough to benefit him immensely.
With that weight off his mind, Han Li resumed using the green liquid's properties to prepare batches upon batches of "Yellow Dragon Pills" and "Gold Marrow Pills." He planned to keep consuming these diminished-effect pills for the time being while searching within the valley for more potent pill recipes to use as substitutes.
However, Han Li understood full well that this matter couldn't be rushed.
As a newly admitted disciple, if he went around openly inquiring about pill recipes, it would be tantamount to shouting "there's no silver buried here!" — a dead giveaway that would inevitably draw suspicion and speculation, potentially leading to his death!
So Han Li planned to keep his head down and cultivate quietly in the herb garden for a few years. Once he had thoroughly familiarized himself with the sect's affairs and become a veteran of the Yellow Maple Valley who wouldn't attract anyone's attention, only then would he consider the matter of pill recipes.
As for the herbs he was required to submit every so often, he had even less to worry about. With the diluted green liquid's help, what herb couldn't he mature overnight? It was completely trivial. He had already prepared to settle down in this herb garden for the long haul, and he was sure that Uncle-Master Ma wouldn't have any objections.
And so, Han Li fell into a regular routine, busying himself with his own affairs each day.
After spending the daytime reading through the old man's notes of experience, he would dash off to visit his technique-instructing senior brother Wu Feng, learning quite a few practical incantations for basic spells before returning to the herb garden to study and master them on his own.
Moreover, Han Li consumed "Yellow Dragon Pills" and "Gold Marrow Pills" daily in enormous quantities, popping them like beans. In his own thinking, if quality wasn't sufficient, couldn't he compensate through quantity? Accumulated in sufficient numbers, these pills would still produce effects.
Just like that, time flew by like a shuttle! Before he knew it, Han Li had been part of the Yellow Maple Valley — one of the Seven Great Immortal Sects — for over two years.
Many things had happened during those two years. Not long after Han Li began his secluded cultivation, the sect held its once-a-decade grand recruitment of new disciples. Over a thousand youths with decent spirit roots and attributes from various immortal cultivation families, both large and small, were admitted into the Yellow Maple Valley. Among them even appeared a pair of twin brothers with the same rare "variant spirit roots" — the "Thunder Spirit Root," renowned among variant types for its destructive power.
The appearance of these brothers completely captured the attention of the valley's upper echelons. Even an elder who had been in closed-door cultivation for a long time at the Core Formation stage made a special exception to come out. After examining the twins' spirit roots, he publicly declared that if the two could successfully reach Foundation Establishment, he would take them under his personal tutelage and instruct them himself.
This announcement naturally made all the other fellow disciples green with envy. But beyond these two brothers, this batch of disciples also produced several other prodigies of remarkable talent.
For instance, a youth surnamed Li from a minor family had already pushed the basic cultivation technique to the ninth level's peak at merely eleven or twelve years of age, without ever consuming any pills. His progress was astonishingly swift, seemingly no less impressive than those possessing variant spirit roots.
Another child, surnamed Wang, seven or eight years old, was even more extraordinary. Not only was he direct bloodline of the great cultivation family Wang, but he was also born with the "Mysterious Yin Eye," which could cultivate the long-lost "Gaze of Celestial Radiance" — a technique supremely effective against all manner of yin spirits and ghosts under heaven.
Of course, besides these two, there were other outstanding talents clearly a cut above the average disciple. Compared to previous recruitment rounds, this batch represented a truly remarkable haul, keeping Sect Master Zhong beaming for days on end. He had even momentarily wondered whether the heavens themselves had opened their eyes, hoping to elevate the Yellow Maple Valley above all other sects!
But when word arrived from outside the valley that "Yan Yue Sect," the strongest among the Seven Great Sects, had discovered a young girl with a "Heavenly Spirit Root" among their new recruits, the newly ambitious Sect Master Zhong was choked speechless for a good while.
Regardless, this batch of new disciples had completely captured the attention of the entire Yellow Maple Valley, top to bottom. Even the earlier-generation low-ranking disciples talked constantly about which genius junior disciple had advanced another level in the basic technique today, or which had pulled off some other astounding feat!
And so, beneath the radiance of so many dazzling newcomers, Han Li — the disciple who had only gotten in by carrying an Ascension Token — was completely forgotten by Sect Master Zhong and the valley's administrators.
To make matters more conducive to his anonymity, Han Li spent his days holed up in the herb garden, rarely venturing out to see anyone. The number of people who even knew him was pitifully small — perhaps only his technique-instructing senior brother Wu Feng and Steward Yu of the Hundred Mechanisms Hall occasionally recalled Han Li's existence. After all, those two still saw him when he came to ask about techniques and collect his monthly spirit stone allowance.
Whatever others might think of him, Han Li was quite satisfied with his current semi-reclusive cultivation lifestyle. And the old man who came every few months to collect the required herbs was even more satisfied with him! Where else could he find a garden disciple like Han Li, who always submitted the specified goods on time and never fell behind?
To keep this garden-management genius firmly in place, the old man increased Han Li's spirit stone rewards steadily — from the original two low-grade spirit stones per month all the way up to the current five. This made Han Li one of the genuinely high earners among the low-ranking disciples. After all, the average income for an ordinary disciple was only three spirit stones per month. This only deepened Han Li's goodwill toward his Uncle-Master Ma.
As for that Hall Master Ye who had gone back on his word and swallowed most of Han Li's belongings — Han Li heard that the nephew-grandson in whom the man had placed such high hopes had still failed to achieve Foundation Establishment after taking the Foundation Establishment Pill, remaining stuck helplessly at the peak of the Qi Condensation stage. It had put the old man in a terrible mood. Upon hearing this news, Han Li chuckled quietly to himself, feeling his spirits lift considerably.
Additionally, under the relentless push of countless pills, Han Li's Eternal Spring Technique had stubbornly broken through two consecutive levels, reaching the eleventh level. This brought him up to the middle tier among the valley's low-ranking disciples. But by this point, the "Yellow Dragon Pills" and "Gold Marrow Pills" had completely lost their effectiveness — no matter how many more he consumed, they produced not the slightest result!
With this, Han Li had no choice but to move his plans forward and set his sights on other types of pills.
Fortunately, at this point no one in the valley would be interested in a nobody like him. As long as he exercised reasonable caution, his activities would not attract anyone's attention.
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(End of Chapter)