Ancient Formulas

"Exchange for elixir formulas?"

The plump man’s smiling face instantly froze.

"Disciple knows that these elixir formulas are cherished as life itself by the senior uncles and fellow disciples. Therefore, I do not presume to be picky! As long as it can slightly speed up my cultivation speed at the Foundation Establishment stage, that will suffice." Han Li said with great sincerity.

Ever since a certain conversation with the old man, Han Li had learned the specifics of how elixir formulas were handled in the cultivation world. From then on, he had been scheming to collect a few formulas for his own use. After all, possessing the secret method for accelerating the growth of medicinal herbs, how could he not fully exploit this advantage?

However, any decent elixir formulas were all held tightly by Core Formation cultivators. Even if a Foundation Establishment disciple possessed one or two recipes, they could only refine insignificant pills. Therefore, his original plan had targeted his master, Li Huayuan. But now that he had met this Senior Uncle Lei, Han Li immediately changed the object of his plan.

No matter how he looked at it, this Senior Uncle Lei seemed much easier to deal with than his master.

This was not only because Han Li felt that Li Huayuan had been far too stingy with him, his nominal disciple. It was also because their master-disciple relationship made things doubly troublesome.

If he used the same method on Li Huayuan today, his master would probably just praise him lightly with a "Your filial piety is commendable!" and then legitimately accept both spirit herbs as tribute. Han Li would then have to wear a grateful, tearful expression and thank his master for the gracious acceptance.

Now that he had unexpectedly encountered another Core Formation cultivator, he naturally wanted to seize this rare opportunity.

"Wanting to exchange for elixir formulas... this is indeed a troublesome matter." Lei Wanhe seemed to think of something, and his expression finally relaxed. But then his brows furrowed deeply, his expression uncertain.

Seeing this, Han Li was not disappointed. Instead, he inwardly exclaimed, "This is definitely promising!" Otherwise, this Senior Uncle Lei would not have worn such an expression.

"As long as it is useful to this disciple, any formula will do. Your nephew will not make things too difficult for you, Senior Uncle!" Han Li quickly lowered his threshold another notch.

"Nephew Han! Your uncle here does indeed have some good formulas, but these things are all secret, one-line transmission recipes within the clan. I truly cannot bring them out for exchange." Lei Wanhe shook his head again, saying regretfully.

Han Li was utterly disappointed. The feeling was plainly written on his face. The plump man saw it all and chuckled, saying:

"Although I cannot exchange the clan’s formulas with you, I still have a few ancient formulas in my possession. Some were found myself in ruins, others were swapped with friends. There is no problem using them for exchange."

"Really! Then this disciple thanks you, Senior Uncle!" Han Li was overjoyed and hastily expressed his gratitude.

"Hold on. Wait until I finish speaking before thanking me." The plump man waved his hand dismissively.

"Since we are making an exchange, I, as your uncle, should clarify a few things first." Lei Wanhe said with a serious expression, which made Han Li pause slightly.

"Please speak frankly, Senior Uncle. Your nephew will certainly heed your instruction!" Han Li immediately replied respectfully.

"It’s not about instruction. I just want to lay the unpleasant facts out first, so you won’t regret it later." Lei Wanhe glanced at Han Li and said flatly.

"According to these ancient formulas, the pills refined would indeed be genuine, top-grade spirit pills. But the key point is that the ingredients for these formulas are far too difficult to find nowadays. I really don’t know if you can gather them all. Of course, these ingredients are merely hard to find; they definitely still exist in this world. They are not like some other ancient formulas whose ingredients have been extinct for who knows how long. In fact, most of the formulas newly researched nowadays are just attempts to find substitute ingredients based on these ancient formulas, re-testing new formulas. In this way, although the alchemy ingredients are available again, the efficacy is also greatly reduced. This is truly a helpless reality of the cultivation world!"

Han Li was dumbfounded by the plump man’s words. But he also understood the other party’s meaning.

"Senior Uncle means?"

"It’s very simple. After you obtain the formula, if you truly cannot find all the ingredients, you can try to find some substitutes and give it a try. There is a chance of success." Lei Wanhe said solemnly to Han Li.

Han Li was speechless. But he knew in his heart that this Senior Uncle probably felt that the formula he was about to swap was too hard to gather ingredients for, and he felt a little guilty, so he was giving him a heads-up.

It seemed that this Senior Uncle Lei’s heart wasn’t so bad after all! Han Li thought to himself. On the surface, however, he still wore an obedient expression, repeatedly agreeing and stating that he would never regret exchanging for the ancient formulas.

Seeing this, Lei Wanhe felt pleased, but still felt he was taking too much advantage of his nephew. He felt a little uneasy. So, after thinking for a moment, he said:

"Alright, since you have two spirit herbs here, let’s exchange one herb for one formula. Your uncle can’t let you suffer too great a loss!"

Han Li was momentarily stunned. Then a surge of ecstasy washed over him, and his goodwill towards this Senior Uncle Lei shot up significantly.

He repeatedly thanked Lei Wanhe. This time, Han Li’s gratitude was genuine, without any falsehood.

"Alright, this is a directory of the formulas. Pick two. Inside, all the pill properties and required ingredients are listed. Once you have chosen, I will copy the real formula for you." As he spoke, the plump man took out a jade slip and tossed it to Han Li.

Han Li took the object excitedly, but was also a little puzzled. When had this Senior Uncle prepared this directory?

But the question flashed through his mind and was gone. Han Li took the jade slip and carefully began searching for suitable formulas.

"I’ll take this Spirit Condensation Pill and the Qi Refining Powder!" Han Li said excitedly after withdrawing his mind from the jade slip.

"Spirit Condensation Pill and Qi Refining Powder?"

The plump man said nothing after hearing this, merely gave a faint nod. He immediately took out two other jade slips from his storage pouch and tossed them over.

"Alright, it’s getting late. I should be going!" The plump man happily put the spirit herbs on the table away and immediately prepared to take his leave. Now that he had the ingredients, he was eager to return and refine his own Essence Augmentation Pill.

Seeing this, Han Li quickly stood up to see him off.

But when they reached the entrance of his cave dwelling, Han Li suddenly remembered something. He asked the other party about the whereabouts of his current master, Li Huayuan, and the location of his cave dwelling.

When the plump man heard that Han Li was actually Li Huayuan’s nominal disciple, he was extremely surprised. But he still told Han Li the location before a flash of silver light streaked away, disappearing into the distance.

Han Li watched until Lei Wanhe had completely vanished from the sky. Only then did he pull out the jade slip containing the elixir formulas with a joyful expression and toyed with it for a while. After a long time, he turned around and intended to return to his cave dwelling.

But after taking only two steps, something near the cave entrance caught his attention. Looking over, it was the twisted corpse of Senior Brother Lin, lying there, still in the posture he had been in when the plump man had thrown him out.

Han Li was momentarily stunned, then without hesitation, he walked over. Approaching the corpse, he began to search it.

He remembered clearly that Senior Uncle Lei had not touched anything on the corpse. Whether it was because he felt embarrassed in front of a junior, or he simply looked down on the belongings of a Foundation Establishment disciple, he wasn’t sure.

Sure enough, Han Li found a storage pouch inside the corpse’s robes.

This made Han Li beam with joy. After all, he was very interested in those puppets. There should be a large pile of them in the other party’s storage pouch!

But when Han Li finished inspecting the storage pouch, the smile on his face gradually faded. There was not a single puppet inside. Apart from a paltry few spirit stones and two bottles of ordinary pills, there was only an unremarkable jade slip. Han Li’s enthusiasm was instantly extinguished.

"Clearly, that day, he manipulated so many puppets. How is it that there isn’t a single one now? Were they all destroyed?" Han Li muttered to himself, visibly displeased.

Han Li’s guess was actually close to the truth.

Back then, Senior Brother Lin had initially been able to hold his own against his opponent because he had many puppets to command. But later, the four brothers of the Thousand Bamboo School killed the two cultivators who had fled and came to reinforce him. Seeing the situation was turning dire, Senior Brother Lin detonated all his puppets on the spot. Taking advantage of the chaos in the enemy’s formation, he broke through the encirclement. Hence, there were no mechanical puppets left in the storage pouch.

Disappointed, Han Li casually pulled out the jade slip. Then, as if going through the motions, he probed his mind into it and took a few casual glances.

The result was that Han Li’s eyes suddenly flew wide open, and his lazy expression instantly froze.

Because the moment his spiritual sense entered the jade slip, three golden characters emerged: "Great Derivative Art"!