Han Li carefully put the two golden pages away again, then focused his mind on planning his next steps.
Since he intended to cultivate both the Green Essence Sword Art and the Three Revolutions Heavy Origin Technique, the mysterious small bottle's Green Liquid would need to be put to full use. The medicinal ingredients listed on those two ancient prescriptions had to be gathered as soon as possible. Whatever he already had on hand, he would cultivate right away. Anything he didn't have would need to be collected from other sources—found, purchased, or bartered for. He couldn't let anything slip by.
Come to think of it, aside from spiritual power, the other components contained within the Green Liquid remained a mystery to him even now. Spiritual energy alone couldn't possibly produce such miraculous effects on plant growth.
After entering Yellow Maple Valley, he had experimented with it several more times. No matter how much he diluted the spiritual liquid, any animal that drank even a trace of water containing the faintest hint of Green Liquid would suffer the same fate—its body would burst apart. It seemed this wasn't a question of dilution at all, but rather some unknown component wreaking havoc.
After getting the same results time and again, Han Li had no choice but to give up on further research with a heavy heart.
But using the bottle's miraculous power solely for refining pills seemed like far too narrow an application! Han Li felt that this extraordinary ability to promote plant growth surely had other important uses—it felt like something of a waste.
After careful deliberation, Han Li concluded that during Foundation Establishment stage combat, apart from magical tools and cultivation techniques, mid-grade or higher talismans were absolutely indispensable. And those mid-grade talismans came at an astronomical price! Each one could cost dozens of spirit stones. Han Li couldn't help but shake his head every time he saw the prices.
But many mid-grade and higher Five Element spells were indeed incredibly powerful—life-saving techniques of sharp effectiveness.
The problem was that these spells, owing to their high rank, required considerable magical power and time even for Foundation Establishment cultivators to cast. This made purchasing a few talismans to keep on hand for emergencies an unavoidable necessity.
So Han Li set his sights on crafting talismans—and mid-grade talismans at that.
The blank talisman paper needed for crafting, whether low-grade or mid-grade, was refined from certain spirit herbs of considerable age. This played right into the bottle's miraculous ability, allowing him to make full use of it.
Of course, high-grade talisman paper couldn't be produced this way—it required the spirit skin of certain special demonic beasts to make, and that was beyond what Han Li could currently access.
As for the cinnabar used in crafting, there wasn't much to be picky about. It was refined from the blood of various spirit beasts, most of which could simply be drawn from captive spirit beasts and wasn't worth much at all.
The talisman brush used in crafting did require some consideration, but Han Li still had a Golden Bamboo Brush on hand, which should be more than sufficient.
The moment he thought of the Golden Bamboo Brush, Han Li naturally recalled that easily embarrassed little girl Han Yunzhi. He couldn't help but smile faintly—she was probably still at Spirit Beast Mountain by now, wasn't she?
But in the next instant, Han Li gathered his thoughts back together and re-evaluated the feasibility of crafting talismans along with its pros and cons.
With the tools and an endless supply of raw materials, the material consumption that most constrained talisman crafters was simply not an issue for him. The only thing still limiting him was the cultivation of mid-grade or higher spells.
Because in order to craft a particular talisman, a talisman master first had to be able to cast that spell themselves. Otherwise, there was simply no way to conjure a spell onto talisman paper from nothing. After all, a talisman was merely a means of pre-sealing a spell for later use.
The thought of having to cultivate mid-grade spells made Han Li's head ache!
He didn't know whether it truly had to do with his overly mixed spirit roots, but he seemed to have virtually no talent for Five Element spell cultivation. Even spending several times the effort and time of an ordinary cultivator, he would usually end up with nothing, unable to grasp the essence of the techniques.
However, ever since he had entered the Foundation Establishment stage, those low-level spells had become easy to learn, and he could even cast most of them instantaneously. But when it came to mid-grade spells, he found himself back at square one, leaving Han Li with nothing but a long sigh directed at the heavens.
Even though mid-grade spells were difficult to cultivate, Han Li was confident he could still master a few of them. Sealing those into talismans would be enough. He had never harbored the ambition of being able to craft every mid-grade spell into a readily usable talisman.
With a large stockpile of mid-grade talismans, he would not only gain a significant advantage in combat against enemies, but he could even sell them openly without drawing too much attention.
This way, Han Li could free himself from his predicament of spirit stone shortages. He didn't dare trade spirit herbs for spirit stones anymore—that drew far too many eyes.
Moreover, Han Li had another concern: if he truly had to disperse his cultivation and start over, then during the period of re-cultivating his magical power, he would undoubtedly be at his most vulnerable. If enemies or grudge-holders came knocking at that time, how dangerous that would be! The cultivation world was hardly a peaceful place—anything could happen.
But if he had a large stash of talismans on hand, he could maintain his strength at a certain level. Even if he couldn't defeat his enemies, escaping with the help of talismans was still very much a possibility!