One Year

Chapter 275: One Year

The person Han Li had in mind was naturally Qi Yunxiao, the man he had made a pact with several years ago.

Qi Yunxiao’s friend, that formation master who was proficient in the “Reversed Five Elements Formation,” was surely also well-versed in other formations. This ancient teleportation array counted as a formation; perhaps that friend could repair it?

Thinking this way, Han Li’s heart stirred with great interest. He calculated the time and realized that the date they had agreed upon was not far off. However, there were always tasks being assigned by the sect at any moment, so he naturally couldn’t go find him right now. It seemed he would have to find another way later.

After pondering for a while, Han Li felt somewhat disheartened. Losing the desire to flip through any more formation manuals, he left the Lofty Knowledge Pavilion and returned to his cave residence.

Back inside his cave, Han Li noticed that the spider eggs seemed to have grown a bit larger. It appeared that the Spirit Eye Spring was indeed effective at accelerating their hatching.

Seeing this, Han Li immediately drew a simple Soul-Controlling Formation, a basic method cultivators used to control beast eggs. He then dripped a few drops of his essence blood into the formation and placed the spider eggs inside it. After the formation took effect, the two white eggs absorbed all the blood essence. He then put the eggs back into the Spirit Spring.

Just as he finished this task, he received a sound transmission talisman, instructing him to quickly assemble at the meeting hall.

His heart tightened. He knew the mission had finally arrived.

……

On the main battlefield of the Seven Sects and Six Clans, within a certain patch of jagged rocks at Jingu Plain, the border between the Yue Kingdom and the Cheji Kingdom, Han Li directed the two black rays of light transformed from the Black Flood Dragon Grips, along with several golden blades, to besiege a disciple of the Ghost Spirit Sect at the early Foundation Establishment stage, relentlessly attacking him.

Although the opponent was enveloped in a rolling cloud of black Qi, quite astonishing, and even had several faintly wailing skulls, under the storm-like assault of these two sets of magic tools, Han Li soon found a flaw and, in one move, cut him into several pieces.

With practiced skill, Han Li grabbed the storage pouch from the body and vanished into the boundless wilderness.

He had already obtained his harvest for the day. Moreover, it was getting late. According to the usual pattern, Core Formation cultivators from both the demonic path and the Seven Sects should be coming out to fight.

If he were caught up in that, dying would be unjust!

The memory of the battle between Core Formation cultivators he had once witnessed sent chills of fear down his spine.

Several li of land had been completely devastated by that one duel between a Carving Knife Dock cultivator and a Spirit Beast Mountain cultivator. They had nearly dragged him, hiding over seven or eight li away, into the chaos.

Ever since then, whenever the sky started to darken, he would return early, even if he had gained nothing.

A year ago, he had received orders to escort a shipment of spirit stones here alongside others, and then he was kept here, becoming a high-level cannon fodder for the Seven Sects. Not only had he participated in several large-scale battles involving over a thousand people, but incidents like venturing deep into Jingu Plain to hunt individual enemy cultivators had also become a frequent occurrence.

Strangely enough, since the second wave of major clashes between the demonic path and the Seven Sects had ended in another stalemate, the two sides had found themselves facing each other across Jingu Plain, slowly forming a strange rhythm of war: one big fight per month, and small skirmishes every day.

The so-called “big fights” involved each side fielding over a thousand men to battle. The “small skirmishes” meant each side sent out a certain number of cultivators to hunt the other’s forces in the center of Jingu Plain, either in small groups or alone.

Needless to say, the big fights were quite spectacular, but the actual number of casualties was minimal. Unless someone was truly desperate to die, as long as both sides raised their protective shields, it was hard to seriously harm the other party.

As for the small skirmishes, after some probing tests, the two sides tacitly agreed to leave the time from dawn to evening for Foundation Establishment cultivators to slaughter each other. At night, the Core Formation experts from both sides would come out for their own duels.

In a one-on-one fight between Core Formation cultivators, defeating the opponent was easy, even seriously injuring them was possible, but actually taking their life was a different matter. After all, if a Core Formation cultivator fled with all their might, their speed was simply astonishing.

Thus, after a year of this, both sides had lost several hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators, yet not a single Core Formation cultivator had died. This outcome pained the leaders on both sides greatly, as well as frustrated them.

As for Qi Condensation cultivators, due to their low magical power, they were only used as reserve forces and had thus been preserved relatively intact.

However, a year of major battles on the main front and unceasing harassment and sneak attacks had begun to wear down the cultivators of the Six Clans and the Seven Sects. While desperately trying to weaken the other side, both were also conserving their strength. They were all well aware that the moment of the final decisive battle was approaching fast.

Piloting the Divine Wind Boat, Han Li appeared in his own camp an hour later.

Wooden and stone houses of varying sizes were faintly visible within the great restrictive formation, arranged chaotically with no discernible pattern. These were the temporary dwellings built by the cultivators stationed here using a random Wood or Earth Daoist technique. Of course, the area was divided according to sect affiliation.

Han Li first went to his own dwelling, a small stone house.

After closing the door, he used a set of Small Restriction Array Flags to temporarily seal the stone house.

Then, he emptied the contents of the storage pouch he had acquired today and began sorting through them.

“More skull heads and little banners! Who besides those Ghost Spirit Sect people would use these ghostly things? I can only exchange them for material money. Eh, this sword is not bad! I’ll keep it as a spare. This one…” After muttering to himself over the pile for a while, Han Li quickly set aside useful magic tools and items. The worthless or unusable things were placed into another storage pouch.

Tucking this storage pouch away, he withdrew the array flags and left his dwelling.

After turning a few corners, he headed towards the most conspicuous house in this cluster of buildings.

This wooden house covered an area of fifty to sixty zhang. Its entire body was painted a golden yellow, glistening under the setting sun, as if it were made of pure gold.

Without ceremony, Han Li pushed open the door and entered. The inside was bustling with activity. Several dozen cultivators were setting up stalls, trading goods, while many others were haggling with the stall owners or picking through their wares.

Like an old hand on familiar ground, Han Li quickly visited several stalls. The contents of his storage pouch rapidly turned into spirit stones. By the time he had sold everything, he had gained nearly a hundred spirit stones.

Paying no further attention to anyone else, Han Li headed straight for the largest stall in the room.

This stall was seven or eight zhang long, nearly three to four times the size of the others. Its owner was a plump, mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Without any preamble, Han Li tossed the storage pouch containing the spirit stones to the fat man, then said bluntly:

“Brother Chen, I’ve come to exchange for the Dragon Sing Grass. I’ve finally scraped together five hundred spirit stones.”

“Oh, it’s Brother Han! Impressive, getting the spirit stones together so quickly. Let me count!” The fat man grinned as soon as he saw Han Li. He grabbed the storage pouch with his chubby hand and immersed his consciousness into it to sense the number of stones.

“Not bad, not bad! It really is five hundred spirit stones. This is the Dragon Sing Grass. Take good care of it!” Elder Chen, smiling from ear to ear, took out a jade box from his person and handed it to Han Li.

Han Li took the small box, opened the lid directly to glance inside, then nodded and put it away. He then asked with some anticipation:

“Any news on that pill formula I asked you to find last time? If you can get me the formula, I can give you another percent off on the price.”

“Brother Han, pill formulas are definitely rare treasures. Even though some of us Foundation Establishment cultivators might have a few, we all treasure them dearly. Who would take them out to sell? And on top of that, the formula you want is one useful for Foundation Establishment, which is even harder. I’ve done my best, but I really can’t get my hands on one!” Upon hearing this, the fat man’s face fell, and he began to grumble about his difficulties.

Han Li was a bit disappointed inside, but he forced a faint smile and said calmly:

“No matter. If you can’t find one, then forget it. But I must still thank Brother Chen for getting me those two formulas!”

Hearing this, Elder Chen chuckled:

“Those two were almost useless scraps of formulas. They’d been sitting in my inventory for years. I really couldn’t believe it when you said you wanted them! But for you, Brother, to take them back for experimental improvement… that’s not something ordinary people would dare to do. The time and energy wasted on it would be immense; it might take several generations to complete!”

Chen the Fatty said this with some emotion.

Han Li just smiled faintly and said nothing.

Ever since he had settled here and discovered this temporary exchange market within the camp, he had been astonished to find many rare items here that could not be found in any market town. From medicinal herbs and materials to magic tools and technique manuals, almost everything was available.

The rare herbs he needed for the Mana Condensing Pill were procured with ease in the exchange. All he needed to do was return and accelerate their growth, and his cultivation would once again advance by leaps and bounds.

In fact, from this very fatty, he had spent nearly a thousand spirit stones to buy two ancient formulas—something he had only dreamed of. This sent a wave of ecstatic joy through Han Li!

(Hehe! Little Wangyu wishes everyone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival!)

(End of chapter)