Preparations

Chapter 213: Preparations

Although the trip into the forbidden land had only lasted about ten days, Han Li felt as if several years had passed. Therefore, lying on his bed in the Hundred Medicines Garden felt incredibly warm and nostalgic.

He had risked his life on this journey, managed to return alive, and had perfectly achieved his goals. Now, he could sleep peacefully. He slept soundly, purely, as if all the world's strife had drifted far away from the dreaming Han Li.

He did not wake until noon the following day.

After waking, Han Li was full of energy and immediately began planning for the days ahead.

The first thing he did, naturally, was to hasten the ripening of the three main ingredients in his possession as quickly as possible to preserve them. The arrangement of the other supplementary medicinal materials would naturally be left for last. However, getting everything ready was not a task of ten days or half a month. According to Han Li's estimates, it would take at least several years of careful work before everything was in order and he could officially begin alchemy.

Therefore, now that the medicinal herbs in his hands were complete, Han Li was in no hurry. Instead, he sorted through the other gains he had obtained from the forbidden land.

In the end, he had acquired over ten mid-grade spirit stones, several hundred low-grade spirit stones, a large pile of magical tools of various grades, several pieces of the centipede beast’s shell, various materials from the Ink Flood Dragon, and a useless silver sword, among other things.

But besides these, there were two items that attracted his attention the most.

One was a puppet holding a bow and arrow, and the other was a sheet of silvery, gleaming paper.

The puppet was primarily carved from wood, with ears, a nose, a mouth, and eyes all vividly detailed. Its entire body was clad in a perfectly realistic suit of iron armor and helmet, and even the longbow in its hands was made of bronze. This item was the high-grade magical tool, the "Archer Puppet," which Han Li had secretly taken from his sect back then.

After obtaining this magical tool, Han Li had never taken it out to try it. This was because this magical tool actually required a Soul Divide secret art; one needed to inject a strand of spiritual sense into the puppet before it could be driven and used.

But who in the Qi Condensation stage would cultivate such a Soul Dividing technique! It was common knowledge that only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage and above had sufficient spiritual sense to withstand the pain of dividing their spirit. Otherwise, given the paltry spiritual sense of the Qi Condensation stage, one would completely collapse and go mad long before succeeding.

The so-called "using spiritual sense to inspect the surroundings" or "scanning things with spiritual sense" that cultivators often spoke of was not actually Soul Division in the true sense. It was merely a minor technique of projecting one's existing spiritual sense outward. However, the Soul Division cultivated through secret arts was equivalent to having one or even several cloned divine senses, mainly used for controlling multiple magical tools simultaneously. The more one divided their soul, the more magical tools they could manipulate at once.

It was common knowledge that Qi Condensation stage disciples could, at most, simultaneously control two magical tools in battle. If they tried to use any more, they could not manipulate them with ease. Otherwise, who didn’t have five or six magical tools on them? If they could just throw them all out at once when facing an enemy, even if it was ineffective, it would still cause the opponent a great deal of trouble for a while.

Han Li played with the puppet in his hands for a good while before putting it down and picking up the silver page to examine it.

This silver page was a trophy Han Li had obtained from the barefoot man of the Giant Sword Sect. Its surface was bumpy and uneven, with many strange patterns that looked quite mysterious. Han Li pondered over it for a long time but still had no clue, so he had to temporarily give up.

And so, in the days that followed, Han Li divided his time between researching the silver page and waiting for news from the higher-ups to see if his reward had indeed been reduced, just as the old man had said.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, Wang-shishu and another unfamiliar steward came to see Han Li, bringing only a single Foundation Establishment Pill as his reward. The words they spoke were largely the same as what the old man had said. The only difference was that the explanation for Master Li taking his herbs was changed to “a disciple’s rightful filial offering.”

Han Li listened, sneering coldly to himself. On the surface, however, he showed no signs of disagreement, which allowed the two stewards, who had expected to spend a great deal of effort explaining things, to sigh with relief. They then took their leave with smiles.

Han Li watched them go, gave a self-deprecating smile, and carefully put away his newly acquired Foundation Establishment Pill. Now was not the time to take the pill and attempt a breakthrough. It was better to refine his own Foundation Establishment Pill first and take them together. After all, until he had successfully refined the pill, Han Li could not feel at ease entering seclusion.

Thus, the months passed one after another. Three years flew by in the blink of an eye, and Han Li’s preparations before alchemy were finally all in order. During this not-so-short period of time, a few things did happen.

During this time, Junior Sister Chen, after taking the Foundation Establishment Pill awarded to her, underwent an entire year of bitter cultivation and finally succeeded in establishing her foundation two years ago, entering the Foundation Establishment stage. Her elder brother, however, was unlucky. Even after taking the second Foundation Establishment Pill of his life, he still failed the breakthrough and remained outside the Foundation Establishment stage. It was said that this eldest son of the Chen Clan had completely lost confidence in the path of immortality and simply resigned from the sect, returning to his clan to manage its affairs.

Another thing was that Han Li’s reputation had gradually risen within the Yellow Maple Valley, and he had become somewhat well-known.

The story of how he had struck it lucky in the forbidden land, obtained numerous spiritual herbs, and was accepted as a disciple-on-probation by Patriarch Li was spread throughout the sect for the entire first year after his return. It nearly burned the other low-level disciples to ashes with jealousy. It wasn’t until the second year that the matter gradually died down.

However, during this time, there was a small interlude. That surnamed Ye, the old man who had once swindled most of his goods, suddenly sent someone to deliver all the items he had previously owed, with a little extra thrown in. This gave Han Li a profound taste of the comfort that came from standing under a big tree, and he couldn’t help but feel a secret smugness. It seemed that his status as a disciple-on-probation of Patriarch Li was indeed quite useful at times.

But as for this newly acknowledged master, Han Li truly had nothing to say. Apart from sending another disciple-on-probation to deliver a personally transcribed copy of the Green Origin Sword Art, he had no further news for the entire three years, as if he had completely forgotten Han Li’s existence.

Besides a few silent complaints, Han Li was actually quite happy with this situation. He was now wholeheartedly focused on refining the Foundation Establishment Pill, so he naturally didn't want anyone to disturb him.

But this almost semi-secluded life finally came to an end today. Three days ago, Han Li had hastened the ripening of the very last auxiliary herb he needed. Everything was ready, except for the final step.

After a few days of adjustment, Han Li gathered all his hastened-ripened herbs and headed for Yuelu Hall.

Yuelu Hall looked exactly the same as when Han Li had last visited it years ago. Of course, the guardians of the teleportation array had been replaced by two other Foundation Establishment cultivators. But the same procedures and the same impatient expressions amused Han Li privately. Regardless, he successfully entered the interior of Yuelu Hall.

Following the unmarked passage, he came upon the ugly man he disliked intensely, who was sound asleep in the stone room.

Han Li frowned slightly. After pondering for a moment, he reached out and took out the bell magical tool. He took a few steps to the ugly man’s side and gently shook the bell next to his ear.

The sound of the bell was nothing to Han Li’s ears. But it made the ugly man leap up as if his rear end had been set on fire, shouting out in a mumble:

“What’s going on! Who is it? Eh, who are you?”

The ugly man was clearly still half-asleep and did not immediately start swearing at Han Li. Seeing this, Han Li did not stand on ceremony and immediately invoked the name of his newly acknowledged master.

“I am a disciple under Patriarch Li Huayuan. I need to borrow an Earth Fire room. Please open the door.”

“Patriarch Li?”

The ugly man had clearly heard of this patriarch’s reputation. He was immediately startled and quickly agreed, turning around to walk towards the stone door. But after taking only two steps, he suddenly thought of something and turned back to look at Han Li with suspicion.

Seeing this, Han Li immediately understood his thoughts. After hesitating for a moment, he took out the Green Origin Sword Art that Li Huayuan had sent over and held it out for the ugly man to see. It bore Patriarch Li’s personal signature.

Unexpectedly, the ugly man not only knew Patriarch Li’s name but also seemed to recognize his handwriting. He took the book, glanced at it, and respectfully returned it to Han Li. His face immediately broke into a flattering smile as he said:

“I didn’t realize this junior brother was here. Are you planning on refining tools or alchemy? I will make sure to arrange a good room for you.”

Han Li had originally intended to rely on Patriarch Li’s reputation to see if he could get some special treatment regarding the Earth Fire. Seeing that the other party had taken the initiative, his expression softened.

“I intend to refine some pills, so I hope you can arrange a room with stable and gentle Earth Fire. Please take the trouble.”

Before coming, Han Li had asked the old man about the general situation of the Earth Fire area and knew that they were assigned by rooms. That was why he made this request.

“That’s easy. I’ll arrange it for you right away, Junior Brother! It’s just that… the handling fee…” The ugly man seemed a bit troubled.

Han Li smiled faintly, reached out, and took out a mid-grade spirit stone, handing it to the ugly man. He said slowly, “I’ll naturally pay the full standard fee. Since this alchemy session will take a long time, consider this mid-grade spirit stone a deposit. We’ll settle the difference when it’s done.”