The Unburdening Acupuncture and the Ephemeral Pill

Han Li let out a bitter laugh. He had dealt with the Giant Sword Sect fellow, but one major problem still remained.

The green-clad girl’s slender, fragile frame, her pale, gaunt face, and the look of panic in her eyes—all of it was clearly imprinted in his mind in the brief moment he glanced sideways. She had clearly been severely shaken by the ordeal.

He did not answer her question. Instead, he bent down, picked up the storage pouch from the large man’s corpse, and flicked a small fireball onto the body with a casual gesture. The corpse was instantly reduced to ashes. Then, the azure light that had been restraining the silver sword and golden blade retracted back into the Azure Condensation Mirror, freeing the two weapons. He stored them away in his own pouch.

Only then did Han Li turn around and walk toward the girl, his expression utterly blank.

When the girl saw Han Li approach her, her already pale face drained of even the last trace of blood. She instinctively shrank back, taking several steps away.

“What do you want? Come any closer, and I won’t be polite!” The green-clad girl finally mustered her courage, reaching into her storage pouch and pulling out a small black sword, pointing it at the approaching Han Li. But with a single glance, Han Li could already tell it was merely a low-quality mid-grade magic tool. That yellow silk handkerchief was clearly the only top-grade magic tool she possessed.

“Is this how you treat a life-saving benefactor?” Han Li suddenly rubbed his nose and forced a faint smile.

“Life-saving benefactor?” The girl blinked, confused by the stark contrast in Han Li’s demeanor before and after. She seemed not to have caught on yet.

“You really are the forgetful type! If it weren’t for me saving you from under that man’s blade just now, why would I have had to kill him to silence him?” Han Li said, caught between laughter and exasperation.

“Oh… I’m so sorry! I… I was just so scared just now that I forgot!” The girl finally snapped back to reality, remembering the incident. She quickly began to stammer an apology, her face flushed bright red. Her flustered, tongue-tied appearance was rather endearing.

“It’s nothing. After our brief encounter at the Tai Nan Meeting, to meet again here… it’s hard to believe.” Han Li waved his hand and spoke affably, feeling an inexplicable fondness for her shy appearance. It reminded him of facing his own little sister.

“My name is Han Li. May I ask the young lady’s name?” Han Li asked casually, with no particular emphasis.

“I… my name is Han Yunzhi.” The girl hesitated for a moment before finally speaking her name, a blush creeping onto her face. Revealing her name so willingly in front of a young man felt incredibly embarrassing to her.

“Han Yunzhi? A very nice name. It suits you well.” Han Li repeated the girl’s name with a light laugh.

“Is that so?” Han Yunzhi felt another wave of heat rise to her cheeks.

“But, Miss Han, why did you join Spirit Beast Mountain and then take part in the Blood Forbidden Trial?” Han Li asked with a hint of curiosity.

“This…” Han Yunzhi’s face showed a look of hesitation, and she was reluctant to speak.

“Haha! Since it’s inconvenient, you don’t have to tell me. I was just asking on a whim.” Han Li said considerately, earning him a deep look of gratitude from the girl.

“By the way, we should go into the stone room and gather the spiritual herbs. There’s no point in lingering and risking others showing up,” Han Li suddenly suggested after a few more casual exchanges.

Han Yunzhi immediately nodded vigorously, but then spoke in a small voice, a little embarrassed:

“Brother Han, could you let me have those few Blazing Sun Fruits? I only want those. I wouldn’t ask for anything else.”

“Of course. Even if you hadn’t asked, I was planning to do just that.” Han Li smiled and readily agreed.

“Thank you so much, Brother Han!” The girl’s face lit up with joy as she repeatedly expressed her gratitude, her sense of indebtedness to Han Li deepening.

“In that case, why don’t you go pick the Blazing Sun Fruits first? Wouldn’t want me to accidentally take them,” Han Li suggested with a composed smile.

“Alright.” The girl found this reasonable, so she bowed slightly to Han Li before turning to walk toward the stone room.

But as soon as she turned her back, she heard a sigh from Han Li. The next moment, she felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck, her vision went dark, and she collapsed face-first to the ground. Yet just inches from the earth, she was caught from behind and cradled in someone’s arms.

It was Han Li. Taking advantage of the moment she turned away, he had closed the distance in a flash, landing a light blow to knock her unconscious, then reached out and caught her, holding a bundle of fragrant softness in his arms.

Holding the girl’s delicate body and breathing in her faint, pure scent, Han Li’s heart stirred for a moment. He couldn’t help but lower his head and plant a kiss on her jade-white cheek. But reason quickly reasserted itself. He bit the tip of his tongue, and his mind cleared immediately. Staring at the girl’s jade-like face, his smile turned wry and bitter.

He gently laid the girl down against the wall of the stone room, then in a flash, he entered the building. Moments later, having swept the room clean of its spiritual herbs, Han Li emerged, picked up the girl once again, and with a few flickering movements, vanished into the nearby pile of rocks.

On a natural stone ledge near the top of the ring-shaped mountain, Han Li laid the girl flat on the ground. He then sat cross-legged nearby, closed his eyes, and rested.

Before long, Han Li opened his eyes, a brief glint of spiritual light passing through them. His body, pushed to its limits by the extreme-speed movement technique, had finally recovered some strength. He reached into his storage pouch and pulled out a palm-sized, exquisite silver case.

He stared at the silver case, momentarily lost in thought.

After a while, he silently lifted the lid, revealing a neat row of silver needles inside—the very same acupuncture tools he had frequently used back in the Seven Mysteries Sect.

He raised a finger and gently traced the needles, large and small. The figures of Doctor Mo, Li Feiyu, and others involuntarily appeared vividly before his eyes. The days at Colored Sunset Mountain and Divine Hand Valley seemed like only yesterday. A wave of emotion washed over him.

After a brief journey through his memories, Han Li’s thoughts returned to the present. He steadied his mind, deftly plucked a long, thin silver needle with two fingers, and it appeared between his fingertips with practiced ease.

Then, Han Li looked at the girl and then at the silver needle in his hand. A look of helplessness crossed his brow.

“Miss Han, if it weren’t for the Unburdening Acupuncture technique to erase short-term memory, I really wouldn’t know how to handle the risk of a leak. Although I believe you would keep my secret in good faith, this world has too many unforeseen accidents. You might accidentally let something slip, or be interrogated by another cultivator’s secret art and not even know it. I have to guard against that.” Han Li murmured to himself.

He then pulled a red porcelain bottle from his storage pouch, poured out a single fiery-red pill with an exotic fragrance, and without any hesitation, slipped it into the girl’s mouth.

“Good thing I still carried the Ephemeral Pill I casually concocted back then. That way, I can use the Unburdening Acupuncture technique without any worries. There might still be some risk, but it won’t be a major issue. She will only forget everything that happened in the last half-day. I never thought this acupuncture technique, learned from Doctor Mo’s legacy, would one day be useful in the cultivation world.” Han Li stroked the girl’s hair, speaking with a hint of tenderness.

Several hours later, Han Li emerged from the cave, his face pale. He quickly hid himself in a nearby treetop, focusing his attention on the cave entrance.

A quarter of an hour after that, Han Yunzhi walked out, clutching a few Blazing Sun Fruits in her hands, a look of bewilderment on her face. She glanced around the cave entrance, placed a hand over her brow, and a puzzled expression gradually appeared in her eyes.

Suddenly, as if remembering something important, she hastily put the Blazing Sun Fruits into her storage pouch and hurriedly left the area, rushing down the mountain.

Shortly after she disappeared, Han Li leaped down from the tree. He stared in the direction the girl had vanished, let out a long sigh, and then slowly made his way toward the dense forest on the other side.

The third day of the trial finally passed. But the arrival of the fourth day was far less smooth for Han Li than the previous one.

Either he ran into other formidable demon beasts blocking his path, or the information was inaccurate, meaning the locations thought to have spiritual herbs didn’t actually possess the ones he needed. The guardian beasts had also suddenly increased in number. In just slightly more than half a day, Han Li had killed three mid-tier and two high-tier demon beasts, leaving him thoroughly exhausted in both stamina and magic power.

Now, standing under a massive cliff, Han Li was roughly estimating his haul. Although the quantity of the three main types of spiritual herbs hadn’t fully met his target, it was barely sufficient. Even leaving the forbidden land right now would be an acceptable outcome.

Moreover, not a single location clearly recorded in Yellow Maple Valley’s documents as having unripe spiritual herbs remained. The only leads he had left were from the information he had exchanged with the ugly man, Zhong Wu, and there were still several such places.

Earlier, he had feared the information was false and dared not actually go to those places, worried it would be a wasted trip. But now, as he scanned the external information again, he realized that quite close to his current position, there was indeed a secluded location said to contain numerous herbs.

That place supposedly had not only immature herbs but also many mature ones. This made Han Li’s heart stir. According to his calculations, even if Zhong Wu hadn’t already picked the mature herbs there, someone else would have gotten to them first. But the unripe ones should still be there.

Since he still had time and no other definite locations, he might as well make the trip to have a look. Even if the intelligence was false, he wouldn’t lose anything.

Once this thought took root in his mind, Han Li could no longer suppress it. After resting briefly, he launched himself away in a blur of motion.