Over the past two years, Han Li had made several trips to the market district to replenish materials for crafting puppets. His generous spending had helped him become familiar with several shop owners.
So, after asking one of them about the matter, he quickly obtained the information he sought and then went with Qu Hun to a bookstore called the "White Gate Pavilion."
True enough, the shop possessed records of all the demon beasts discovered in the Scattered Star Seas to date. This perked Han Li's spirits, and he spent over a hundred spirit stones to copy the entire collection.
As for information on the demon beast islands of the Outer Star Seas, he found what he needed in another, more inconspicuous little shop.
With his goal achieved, Han Li had originally planned to return immediately to his cave dwelling. However, as he passed a shop specializing in "storage pouches" and "spirit beast pouches," a thought struck him, and he went inside.
He was carrying far too many things with him now!
Setting aside everything else, the two hundred-plus puppet beasts alone occupied three or four storage pouches, which was quite inconvenient.
Moreover, since he intended to go out to sea to hunt demon beasts, besides the demon cores, the rare materials from their bodies were also quite valuable, and naturally couldn't be discarded.
In that case, he naturally needed to prepare a few storage pouches with even larger capacities.
Half an hour later, Han Li exited the shop, wincing a little at the cost.
He had spent over a thousand spirit stones to finally purchase two large-capacity storage pouches, each with nearly ten times the capacity of his previous ones. That should be sufficient for his needs.
Afterward, as Han Li passed the "Feng Le Auction House," known as the top auction house in Sky Star City, he couldn't help but glance at it a few more times.
The auction catalog displayed in front of the auction hall truly made Han Li covetous!
It not only listed demon cores from rare fifth and sixth-level demon beasts, but also many advanced materials for refining magical treasures, not to mention numerous rare items he had never even heard of before.
Unfortunately, although the items auctioned by this top auction house in Sky Star City were excellent, they were not something cultivators like Han Li, with only a few thousand spirit stones to their name, could afford.
No matter how rare an item was, once it entered this auction house, its original price would almost certainly increase by more than half.
Given the rarity of thousand-year spirit herbs, they could certainly fetch a high price at the auction house.
But unfortunately, Han Li didn't want to attract trouble.
After all, while he felt his spirit stone reserves were insufficient, they weren't so critically lacking that he absolutely had to take risks. Naturally, less trouble was better than more.
Looking at those sky-high priced auction items, Han Li felt a sour twinge in his heart and headed directly back to his cave dwelling.
In the following month, Han Li did nothing but study the habits and weaknesses of the demon beasts found in the Outer Star Seas.
He also brainstormed what methods would be most suitable to deal with them if he encountered any.
Then, one day a month later, Han Li suddenly burst into loud laughter, holding a jade slip in his hands and dancing about with glee, his face full of excitement.
He then quickly ran out of his cave dwelling and flew back towards the market district...
In the blink of an eye, another half a year passed.
Han Li and Qu Hun appeared in the fiftieth-level zone of Sky Star City.
Before them now was a grand hall constructed of white marble, featuring an enormous plaque several zhang long, inscribed with the three large characters "Starfall Hall" in gold powder.
The entrance to the great hall was completely empty.
Han Li, leading Qu Hun, calmly walked inside.
After passing through a short, not lengthy corridor, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a spacious hall over twenty zhang in length and width.
Inside this hall, five cultivators—four men and one woman—were conversing with a white-robed cultivator of the Sky Star Palace.
Behind these five people stood several rows of identical teleportation arrays of various sizes.
In front of each array was a small stone marker inscribed with the name of the array's destination, making it clear at a glance.
Han Li didn't linger over those arrays. Instead, he briefly swept his spiritual sense over the five cultivators and felt a jolt of alarm.
Among these six cultivators, three actually possessed Core Formation cultivation. Even the other three were at the mid-to-late Foundation Establishment stage.
The moment Han Li and Qu Hun walked in, the group turned to look, somewhat surprised.
The white-robed Core Formation cultivator remained composed, though a flicker of confusion crossed his face at the sight of only Qu Hun and Han Li, he quickly regained his normal demeanor.
As for the other five cultivators, upon seeing two more people arrive, most of them actually showed looks of pleasure.