The Golden Page

Li Huayuan’s expression eased slightly, seeing that Han Li understood the situation. He reached out and made a casual grasping motion. A streak of red light flew from his hand, swept up a jade slip, and brought it back to him.

Li Huayuan handed it directly to Han Li without even glancing at it. Using the same technique, he grabbed seven or eight more items before finally stopping. By now, Han Li’s hands were full, and his eyes darted rapidly across the pile, unable to take everything in at once.

“These few techniques are all relatively easy to cultivate and offer decent progress in magical power. Pick one as your main cultivation art. The rest will be returned to their original places. Let me know when you have decided.” Li Huayuan said calmly. Then he sat down cross-legged on a meditation mat in the stone room.

Han Li found himself genuinely torn. Though there were not many techniques, each had its own unique merits.

For instance, the Return to Origin Art not boasted decent mana-progression speed, but also included a highly practical minor divine ability: the Return to Origin Spirit Armor. It granted an additional layer of defensive spell when facing an enemy, and could also coalesce magical power into a spirit armor for extra protection—an excellent life-saving measure. Moreover, the spirit armor’s defensive power grew stronger as the Return to Origin Art advanced.

Another jade slip recorded the Illusory Spirit Art, which was also quite impressive. Its attached divine ability, Phantom Projection, could at any time conjure a duplicate that looked exactly like the user in order to confuse enemies. The higher the cultivation level, the more phantoms one could create, and the better they were at misleading the enemy.

Aside from these two, the minor divine abilities attached to the other techniques were not particularly powerful, but were extremely effective for escape and survival. It seemed the creators of these arts clearly understood one thing: these techniques could never prevail in direct combat, so keeping one’s life was the highest priority.

However, after Han Li examined everything, one item in a jade box made him pause in surprise.

It was a golden page. Its style and size were far too familiar. Han Li was certain it was identical in every way to the silver page he already possessed. The only difference was that this page seemed slightly thinner. And instead of the strange patterns, it was covered in dense ancient script. After looking closely, he saw that it recorded a technique called Ning Yuan Art—a perfectly ordinary cultivation method. Its attached divine ability was also unremarkable: Spirit Gathering Art, which merely accelerated the speed at which spiritual qi gathered during cultivation.

Han Li turned the golden page over and over, examining it from every angle, as doubt rose in his heart. He knew this was not the time to dwell on riddles. Although he felt a strong urge to immediately take out the silver page from his storage pouch and compare them, he had to make a decision now, or he would arouse his new master’s suspicion.

Weighing the golden page in his hand, Han Li made a snap decision.

“Master, I have chosen. This one.”

Li Huayuan opened his eyes and saw the golden page in Han Li’s hand. He was momentarily startled, but said nothing. He simply nodded and led him out of the stone room.

Back in the main hall, the young woman was waiting for the master and disciple pair. She gave a gentle smile when she saw them.

“So, have you decided?”

“Yes, thank you for your concern, Master’s Wife. I have made my choice,” Han Li replied respectfully.

“Well, that’s a relief!” The young woman’s smile widened with genuine pleasure, as if she were even more invested in the matter than Han Li himself. This gave Han Li a moment of pause.

“Good. Since your debt of gratitude to your master’s wife for saving her life has been repaid, now we should discuss the matter of formally accepting you into my tutelage. Are you truly willing to enter my sect and become my disciple, Li Huayuan’s personal student?” Li Huayuan suddenly asked with a stern expression.

Han Li’s heart tightened. He quickly stepped forward and knelt.

“Disciple Han Li is completely sincere. I dare not harbor the slightest falsehood.”

Even as he said this, Han Li’s mind was churning:

If you treat me sincerely, then naturally I will be fully sincere and fulfill the duties of a disciple. But if you have ulterior motives, I am not foolish enough to let myself be manipulated.

Naturally, Li Huayuan had no idea what Han Li was thinking. If he had, he would have struck him dead on the spot.

“Good. We cultivators do away with excessive ceremony. From today onward, you are formally my disciple, Li Huayuan. I hope you will diligently cultivate the immortal path and not bring shame to my name.” Only then did Li Huayuan’s expression soften, and he offered a faint smile.

What followed was a scene of a kind master and a devoted disciple. After receiving some instruction, Han Li soon took his leave.

As he exited the cave dwelling, he happened to encounter Senior Brother Yu once again. The latter insisted on seeing his junior brother off. Having already experienced a full dose of the man’s endless chatter the day before, Han Li was in no mood for more self-inflicted suffering. He repeatedly declined, and only after witnessing the other’s expression of regret did he finally escape and fly away on his magic tool.

Standing on the small boat, Han Li could not help but reflect on everything that had happened over the past two days.

His impression of Li Huayuan had improved considerably. The man’s attitude toward him was now completely different from what it had been during the Forbidden Land trip. Whether this was due to Han Li’s indirect role in saving his master’s wife, or because Han Li had successfully established his foundation and finally earned the respect of a Core Formation cultivator, he could not be sure.

Regardless, Han Li felt the trip had not been in vain. Not only had he secured a genuine powerful backer in the cultivation world, but he had also obtained a golden page, which might finally help him unravel the mystery of the silver page.

Even if the mystery remained unsolved, Han Li did not mind much. At worst, he would simply cultivate the Ning Yuan Art recorded on it. While the technique offered no great divine abilities, Han Li had his own plans for self-preservation, so he was not overly concerned.

After returning to his cave dwelling, Han Li immediately went into the bedroom. He eagerly took out both the silver and golden pages from his storage pouch and carefully compared them.

The silver page was unchanged. When he held both pages together and overlapped them, their outlines matched perfectly. They were clearly connected.

Holding one page in each hand, Han Li weighed them. The silver one was a bit heavier. So his initial impression that the golden page was thinner was no mistake—they truly had different thicknesses.

Han Li tilted his head, deep in thought. Then he brought the silver page close to his eyes, studying the strange patterns on its surface. He ran his fingers over them repeatedly.

His eyes flickered with uncertainty, as if he were grappling with a difficult decision.

But soon, a resolute expression crossed his face.

Suddenly, he placed the page between his hands and rubbed them together. A ball of blazing crimson flame engulfed the silver page, casting a red glow across Han Li’s face. He paid it no mind, staring fixedly at the page in the fire. The intense heat was already beginning to melt its surface.

Then, Han Li’s expression shifted. A look of joy appeared. Beneath the melted surface, a golden light was showing through. There was indeed something hidden inside.

Carefully controlling the flame, Han Li made sure not to damage the hidden golden layer beneath. But his caution was unnecessary. The newly revealed golden page seemed completely impervious to the fire’s heat, showing no sign of deformation.

When a completely fresh golden page was fully exposed, Han Li waved his hand and the flame vanished. His heart pounding, he eagerly read through the newly obtained page.

He barely glanced at the first few lines before freezing. Then his expression turned extremely sour.

This page turned out to be a Sword Cultivator technique—instructions on how to control a flying sword and cultivate Sword Aura. While it seemed quite profound, it was absolutely not what Han Li had been hoping for.

So this was what that barefoot man from the Giant Sword Sect had been practicing. But these techniques might be a treasure for a Qi Condensation cultivator. To Han Li, who was now a Foundation Establishment master, they were utterly ordinary and held no interest whatsoever.

Han Li refused to give up.

He turned it over and examined it again. He even subjected it to another round of fire. But there was still nothing else to find.

After wasting most of the day, the more Han Li looked at the golden page, the more frustrated he became.

He had gone through so much trouble, and all he got was something completely useless. It was infuriating. Especially the term Sword Aura, which irritated him—he was already cultivating the Azure Origin Sword Aura. Did he really need to cultivate another one?

His face dark, Han Li suddenly grabbed the page and tossed it into the air. With a raise of his right hand, a shaft of green sword light as thick as a bowl shot out and struck the page directly. Han Li intended to destroy the thing entirely, so he would not have to look at it and feel frustrated.

There was a soft puff. The explosive sound Han Li expected never came. Instead, the green sword light seemed to vanish into the page like a mud cow sinking into the sea, disappearing without a trace—as if it had been devoured.

“This is…” Han Li was stunned. But then, a thought struck him, and his spirits suddenly lifted.