"Red Coral Island! This is the nearest coral island — let's do it here!"
Han Li stood on the Divine Wind Boat, muttering to himself. He then drove the artifact in a rapid circuit around the island and circled in the air for a while.
After confirming that there were indeed no other cultivators or demon beasts in the vicinity of the coral island, Han Li and Qu Hun slowly descended onto it.
The island was not large, forming an irregular ring shape, pieced together from numerous coral reefs of varying sizes, clustered here and there.
Han Li stood on the smooth, solid ground, rubbing the dark-red, sand-like powder beneath his boots with his heel, then raised his head to carefully survey the island's terrain.
Before long, he narrowed his eyes, a thoughtful gleam appearing in his gaze.
Suddenly, Han Li ordered Qu Hun to stand guard nearby while he began roaming the island.
With Qu Hun on patrol, Han Li spent two days wandering back and forth, looking here and there.
He inspected every section of the coral island. In the end, he even dove into the seabed at the center of the ring-shaped isle and didn't emerge for half a day.
By the third day, Han Li finally stopped — his mind was made up.
He ordered Qu Hun to begin laying down three major formations at several chosen locations: the Inverted Five Elements Formation, the Heavenly Wind Fury Formation, and the Illusory Shape Heavenly Net Formation.
These formations blocked the three main paths leading into the center of Red Coral Island.
Only then did Han Li use up all his remaining formation tools at the ring-shaped island's core, setting up several smaller magical arrays to completely seal off the surroundings.
With this in place, it could truly be called an inescapable net — both heaven and earth covered.
After completing everything, Han Li inspected everything once more in careful detail, confirming that nothing had been overlooked. Only then did he pull a jade box from inside his robes.
He ran his hand over the surface of the jade box for a moment, a mysterious smile gracing his face, and gently lifted the lid.
Inside was a spirit herb about an inch tall, bearing a single stem and thirteen leaves!
All of the herb's leaves — more than a dozen — were curled into cylindrical shapes, giving it a rather peculiar appearance.
But what was even more remarkable was that its entire body was shrouded in a hazy white glow, emanating a faint, rosy light that was dazzlingly brilliant. It looked very much like something from an immortal's realm.
This was Han Li's greatest trump card for this journey — the Rainbow Garment Grass.
In truth, while this herb couldn't be called common, it wasn't exactly rare either. It could be found on the coral reefs of the Sea of Chaotic Stars.
However, if planted in ordinary soil, away from a vividly colored environment, the Rainbow Garment Grass would wither and die within a day or two — quite the peculiar plant.
The most wondrous thing was that the glow it emitted would always match its surroundings, shifting with changes in the environmental colors — it might radiate red light, or blue light, or any number of other hues.
Its medicinal properties, however, were not particularly important to cultivators — nowhere near as appealing as its stunning appearance might suggest. It served merely as a catalyst ingredient for refining some low-grade pills and generally wouldn't attract cultivators' attention.
But the Rainbow Garment Grass had another, far more eerie name — "Demon Luring Grass" — and it had once caused quite a stir in the cultivation world of the Sea of Chaotic Stars.
At the time, some cultivator had discovered by accident that this extraordinarily beautiful herb, though it appeared with thirteen curled cylindrical leaves from the start, would gradually unfurl one leaf every hundred years. The unfurling process lasted six to seven days, during which it emitted a peculiar scent.
This scent had no effect on cultivators, but for the majority of demon beasts in the sea, it was utterly irresistible.
Any demon beast that caught a whiff within a certain range would come searching for it, immediately scrambling to devour the herb.
Moreover, the older the Rainbow Garment Grass, the larger the area it could affect when unfurling a leaf, and the greater its pull on higher-level demon beasts.
It was said that once, a Nascent Soul stage expert had stumbled upon a "Treasure Light Grass" over a thousand years old deep in the Outer Star Sea. The herb happened to be unfurling its eleventh leaf at the time.
The expert had witnessed dozens of sixth- and seventh-level demon beasts charging toward him all at once, and was so terrified that he fled for his life without looking back.
After this discovery became public knowledge in the cultivation world, many cultivators hit upon the idea of using this herb to lure demon beasts so they could slay them and harvest their cores.
For most cultivators, fifth-level demon beasts were the ideal targets. Sixth- and seventh-level ones meant risking someone's life. As for demon beasts of the eighth level and above, aside from those old monsters at the Nascent Soul stage, cultivators of all other ranks would flee at the mere whiff of one.