The Pill is Formed

Three months had passed since Han Li sealed himself in the stone chamber.

Within the pill refinery of the small stone mountain cave dwelling, a stream of finger-thick azure flame continuously licked and swirled around a silver-white cauldron half a foot in size. The cauldron floated above a spell formation at the center of the chamber, rotating without pause.

Han Li’s entire body shimmered with spiritual light, and his expression carried a rare, visible tension.

As time crept forward, a faint medicinal fragrance began to permeate the chamber. The moment Han Li caught a few breaths of this scent, his spirits lifted sharply, and a hint of joy appeared on his face.

When the fragrance finally thickened from subtle to potent, a gleam of sharp light flashed in Han Li’s eyes. He suddenly formed a hand seal with both hands. The azure flame vanished in an instant, and he softly uttered a single word: “Open.”

A stream of spell light shot out, striking precisely at one corner of the formation.

The formation emitted a low hum as several streaks of red and green light sprayed out simultaneously, converging on the silver cauldron.

The small cauldron trembled slightly. Its lid swung open on its own, and a milky-white pill floated up from within.

This pill was thumb-sized, its entire body crystalline and shimmering with spiritual radiance. Wisps of milky-white spiritual mist gathered faintly around it, appearing and disappearing—a clear sign of a spiritual medicine manifesting its celestial omen.

At the sight of the pill, Han Li could not suppress the ecstasy on his face.

The Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng pill—it had actually been successfully refined. He had already failed several times in a row. If this attempt had also failed, he would not have had enough agate horn and companion demon herb left to support another try.

As for the most crucial ingredient, the Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng, Han Li was actually not worried about its supply.

The reason was that when he used the Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng for alchemy, he had not been willing to throw the entire spirit ginseng into the furnace. Instead, he had only extracted a small amount of ginseng sap from its main body, sparing the life of this spiritual, intelligent creature. Naturally, doing so meant the ginseng would not die immediately, but it was also heavily injured. The white rabbit incarnation it manifested had become listless and weak.

Seeing this, Han Li had contemplated for several days. In the end, after setting up several additional layers of restrictions, he dripped the growth-accelerating green liquid onto the Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng. To be safe, he started with a diluted solution, increasing the concentration bit by bit, afraid that something might go wrong.

After all, this was a heavenly spiritual object capable of manifesting an incarnation—it was not quite the same as an ordinary spirit herb.

As a result, after dripping in the diluted green liquid, the spirit ginseng’s vitality actually recovered considerably, showing no signs of adverse effects.

Only then did Han Li feel reassured and begin to drip the undiluted green liquid onto it.

And so it went. Every time he extracted some ginseng sap, he used the green liquid to fully restore its vitality before extracting again. In this way, the supply of Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng sap became inexhaustible.

However, this method seemed to work only for the Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng. On a whim, Han Li tried it on other spiritual herbs, but the effect was not very good. It was still faster to simply accelerate their growth.

Now, Han Li held the milky-white pill between two fingers, bringing it before his eyes for a careful examination.

Its shape and fragrance seemed to be exactly as recorded in the pill formula. But as for its actual medicinal efficacy, he would only know when he swallowed it during his Nascent Soul formation attempt.

Letting out a light sigh, Han Li carefully placed this hard-won pill into a jade box he had prepared long ago, stored it away properly, and walked out of the pill refinery.

Han Li had already cultivated the Great Derivative Art to its fourth layer as far back as five or six years ago, giving his divine sense another solid boost.

As for the Azure Origin Sword Art, he had also reached the ninth-layer perfection several months ago, bringing his personal cultivation to the final False Core stage.

Now, whether in terms of pills or cultivation technique, everything was in place. Only the east wind was needed.

But Han Li did not immediately rush to begin condensing his Nascent Soul the moment his ginseng pill was finished.

Instead, he left the cave dwelling and, alone, found a secluded, scenic spot surrounded by clear waters in the eastern vein of the Cloud Dream Mountains. There, he sat cross-legged in stillness, unmoving.

During this time, he carefully savored his life experiences from beginning to end, one after another.

In his early childhood, he enjoyed the warmth of family under his parents’ care. As a boy, he played and roamed with his younger sister. Older still, he entered the Seven Mysteries Sect through his third uncle’s recommendation, met Li Feiyu and the others, and, by chance, encountered Doctor Mo, beginning his cultivation of the Eternal Spring Art. Later, starting with the South Moon Meeting, he truly set foot into the world of immortal cultivation…

As his memories gradually sharpened from their original vagueness, the expression on Han Li’s face shifted between joy and anger, constantly changing. Gone was his usual stoic composure.

Three days passed like this. Then, with both eyes shut tight, Han Li’s face settled back into calm. He began to contemplate nothing, quietly comprehending the way of heaven and earth.

Another month later, when Han Li emerged from the hidden area, his body, mind, and magical power were all at a full, peak state. His spiritual cultivation, in particular, had climbed another level.

With a mind utterly free of ripples, he returned to the cave dwelling, activated all of the grand formations and restrictions outside, and spoke only two short sentences to the Silvermoon, who had remained on guard:

“Hold the gate. No matter what happens, do not disturb me.”

With that, Han Li’s azure robes fluttering lightly, he entered the meditation chamber.

The stone door slid down silently. A layer of dense, white-glowing runes appeared on its surface. Inside, Han Li activated another layer of restrictions to prevent any unexpected interference during his Nascent Soul formation.

Although Han Li had not said what he was about to do, Silvermoon naturally knew exactly what would follow.

A complex expression flickered across her face—envy, longing, unwillingness, and various other emotions all mixed together.

Finally, after staring at the silent meditation chamber for a long time, Silvermoon sighed and walked away.

Now, her fate was tied to Han Li’s. Even if she harbored some private thoughts, she still hoped he would succeed in forming his Nascent Soul.

…

Three months later, in the air over a hundred li from the medicine garden, a woman surnamed Mu was flying slowly toward the garden. Her jade-like face was completely distracted, as though weighed down by a heart full of troubles.

Every time she thought of the ultimatum issued by her clan’s elders—that she must marry that man surnamed Yan—the woman felt a gray darkness spreading across her future.

If she were a Core Formation cultivator, those so-called “elders” of her clan would never dare to boss her around. Instead, they would treat her with respect and deference. After all, everyone knew perfectly well what a Core Formation cultivator meant to a clan.

The Mu clan head, just so his own grandson could marry the headstrong daughter of the Yan family, had not hesitated to use a swap-marriage scheme, forcibly saddling her with this absurd engagement. Although this woman was known for her coldness, even she could not help but grit her jade teeth in fury at the thought.

But she had always been strong-willed, so she had kept up a façade of not caring at all. In truth, how many people knew the confusion and helplessness in her heart?

Her original plan had been a good one.

Since she could not openly defy the clan elders, she would delay the marriage as long as possible. Ideally, before the wedding, she would manage to form a golden core by luck. That way, she could naturally treat this engagement as beneath her notice.

But although this woman was exceptionally gifted, forming a golden core in just twenty or thirty years was utterly impossible. Even with all her hard work, she had only just barely set one foot into the late Foundation Establishment stage. To reach the False Core stage and attempt core formation, she would need at least another twenty or thirty years of bitter cultivation and waiting.

She could wait, but the Mu clan elders could not. They had finally torn off any pretense and begun openly threatening her to set a wedding date. Otherwise, they would cut off all future supply of spirit stones for her cultivation and even implicate her closest family members within the clan.

The mere thought of this left the woman feeling utterly drained, with no strength left to resist.

And within the Falling Cloud Sect, although she was deeply favored by her peak master and fellow disciples, once personal clan interests became tangled up, these people could not easily intervene. This only deepened her frustration.

To make matters worse, that sly-eyed “Senior Brother Yan” seemed to have gotten wind of something. Recently, he had been running to Heavenly Spring Peak every single day, pestering her with shameless persistence.

If she were not far superior to him in magical power, that “Senior Brother Yan” would probably have already tried to use force.

This infuriated the proud woman so much that she nearly released a magic tool to reduce the sly-eyed pest to ashes.

Today happened to be the day several medicine gardens submitted their harvested herbs. Seizing this chance, the woman had taken the assignment early and fled Heavenly Spring Peak to avoid the Yan man’s entanglement.

Now, after visiting two gardens, she was finally on her way to the medicine garden under Han Li’s charge.

At the thought of Han Li, the woman felt a strange sensation in her heart.

Earlier, she had felt that although he was merely a Qi Condensation disciple, he always gave her an indistinct, mysterious impression.

The matter of the Sword Trial Assembly had led her to suspect for a time that he might be hiding his cultivation level, perhaps even possessing a different identity.

Thus, for a long period, she had paid close attention to his affairs.

But to her surprise, as several years passed, he remained completely proper, doing nothing out of line. Apart from staying in the medicine garden, he rarely went out and had very few friends.

This only made the woman even more curious about him.

On the surface, she relaxed her vigilance, but in truth, she became even more attentive to his actions.

Unfortunately, Han Li kept a very low profile, rarely involving himself in sect affairs. Over the years, she had seen him only a handful of times.

After more than twenty years like this, she had finally given up completely. She concluded that her earlier suspicions had been nothing more than wishful thinking on her part.

At most, he was just an introverted, withdrawn ordinary disciple with poor talent—someone unlikely to even succeed at Foundation Establishment.

After briefly considering Han Li’s matter, the woman finally increased her flying speed a little and shot off into the distance.