After departing the stone hall, Han Li thought to fly out of Yellow Maple Valley and look for a place to establish his Immortal’s cave.
On his way, however, he looked through the jade slip that Zhong Lingdao had given him and immediately changed his mind. He then turned his flying magic tool to a different area.
“Qilin Pavilion” A rather grand and resounding name. It was one of Yellow Maple Valley’s most important locations!
That was because it was the sect’s specialized area for raising and taming spirit beasts.
“Spirit beasts” were actually demonic beasts. After these demonic beasts were tamed by cultivators, they would naturally be called spirit beasts!
This Qilin Pavilion’s spirit beasts were mostly of grade one. Although there were a few individual grade two spirit beasts, they were left there by others and could not be ordered at will.
However, although there were only grade one spirit beasts, they provided numerous convenient services to the sect’s many disciples. For example, transporting people, guarding households, seeking spiritual medicines, aiding in attacking enemies and so on. Han Li had charged over there asking for a spirit beast by the name of “Twin Pupil Mouse”.
It resembled a common mouse, but it had the innate divine eyes of a spirit beast. This was what Zhong Lingdao’s jade slip had recommended he use as an assistant for finding the optimal place to establish his Immortal’s cave.
This intermediate grade one spirit beast’s twin pupils were able to easily see through dense fog, rivers, trees and other obstacles hindering a cultivator’s line of sight. Furthermore, it was innately fond of burrowing its nest in areas with dense Spiritual Qi.
With some slight training, this Twin Pupil Mouse was an optimal scout for finding spirit eye areas! They were a favorite among the sect’s disciples.
This was not the first time Han Li came to Qilin Pavilion. He had previously come several times to handle affairs. He hurried past the front gates, not finding this place to be all that unfamiliar.
He suddenly appeared from the sky, dropping at the base of a small jade-green mountain belonging to the Qilin Pavilion, the wondrous beast mountain’s guest welcoming station. A low-level female cultivator immediately walked out to greet Han Li, “Martial Uncle, are you here to rent a spirit beast?” These words were sharp and clear. This sixteen to seventeen year-old female disciple could not help but look at Han Li with an expectant expression.
Han Li saw this and faintly smiled, saying, “Right now, are there any Twin Pupil Mice available? I wish to rent one for two days!”
“Yes, of course we do! I will go bring one for Martial Uncle!” When the female disciple heard this, she smiled and happily replied.
Chapter 220: Spirit Well Spring
After the female disciple went to retrieve the spirit beast, Han Li quietly waited at the welcoming station, occasionally glancing at the spell restrictions surrounding him.
Apart from the mountaintop that Han Li was at, the other areas on this spirit beast mountain were all contained by individual multi-colored restrictive magic spells; these divided it up into differently sized resting places for spirit beasts.
Every area sealed by the restrictive spells had a domestication place for one kind of spirit beast. Apart from the disciples on duty at the Qilin Pavilion, other people were not allowed to enter. This was because they were afraid that others would startle the spirit beasts, or that the beasts that were not yet domesticated would harm outsiders.
Thus, although the entire Spirit Beast Mountain seemed to be very quiet and peaceful, in reality at least nearly a thousand different spirit beasts lived there; the scale was not so surprising.
That female disciple did not make Han Li wait for long; after the time it took to eat a meal, she walked out of some restricted area with a fist-sized small beast in her bosom, hurrying directly towards Han Li.
“This is the Twin Pupil Mouse; the price of renting it is one low-grade spirit stone every day!” said the female disciple to Han Li respectfully while using a hand to gently stroke the soft fur of the little beast.
“Okay, here are three spirit stones; I will use it for three days!” said Han Li indifferently to the female.
“After three days, Junior Martial Uncle only needs to release this Twin Pupil Mouse, and it will return to the Qilin Pavilion by itself. During this period of time, I hope that Junior Martial Uncle will treat this beast well. This pouch contains its favorite Earth Pear Fruit; should Junior Martial Uncle find the time, he can feed it a few.” The young woman received the spirit stones, then handed the spirit beast to Han Li and took out a small white pouch as she said to Han Li.
Han Li nodded his head, then freely received it.
Then, under the young woman’s respectful gaze, he flew away on his flying magic tool.
Han Li flew directly northwest.
As Han Li hurried there, he couldn’t help but size up the lovable Twin Pupil Mouse in his bosom.
At a glance, this yellow little beast really seems like a normal earth mouse. The two species both had similar body proportions, the same yellow fur, and a slim, long tail.
The only difference was that its face sported a pair of large eyes, very different from those of normal mice. Despite this being the only difference, however, it immediately caused this beast to become extremely cute!
The fact that a trace of five-colored light could be seen flashing across its eyes simply served to accentuate this beast’s mystique.
Even someone as indifferent as Han Li couldn’t help but stroke it a few times when he saw this beast’s cute appearance. The idea of whether or not he should also raise a Twin Pupil Mouse emerged in his mind!
However, Han Li was also clear that, despite this small beast’s docile nature, it was nonetheless a genuine intermediate grade one demonic beast.
Thinking to this point, Han Li fiddled with the beast’s little ear one more time; after gazing at it shaking about amusingly for a while, he couldn’t help but let out a laugh. It was as if the child that had been buried inside of his heart for so long had broken out once again.
Han Li flew in this manner for a day straight before finally stopping at the most northwestern part of the Tai Yue Mountain Range.
Another fifty kilometers north from this location, one would have entered the State of Yuan Wu; that place was the territory of the State of Yuan Wu’s great sect, the Heavenly Star Sect. In addition, they had established a market city which rivalled that of the Yellow Maple Valley.
One hundred kilometers west was the smallest administrative district in the Jian Province and State of Yuan Wu — the boundary of the Xi Province.
This province was also the only place where the Seven Great Sects had not stationed a single garrison. This was because apart from incredibly tall, sandy slopes, the Xi province consisted of a boundless desert that took up greater than three-fourths of its area. The entire combined population of the province was only a hundred thousand people or so; thus, it had no resources or people to use. Naturally, this place would not enter the eyes of the Seven Great Sects.
There were two reasons why Han Li chose to open up a cave near this place.
The first reason was that this desolate location of the Tai Yue Mountain Range bordered the State of Yuan Wu on one side and was near the Xi Province on another side; they were both locations where very few disciples from his sect would pass through. In this way, he wouldn’t have anyone to disturb his cultivation.
Second was that this was not far from the Heavenly Star Sect’s market city; if he wanted to sell some medicinal ingredients or buy something, he could easily make exchanges here without worrying about being recognized by others!
It was with this train of thought that Han Li picked a location where the Spiritual Qi was not the best, unlike the caves of other Foundation Establishment disciples, which were all densely packed into locations where the Spiritual Qi was the densest.
Upon descending, Han Li wrapped a slim rope
that he had prepared beforehand around the Twin Pupil Mouse’s neck to prevent it from running too fast and thus keep him from losing the small thing. Then, he pulled out a yellow, round fruit from the small storage pouch and tossed it to the small beast, allowing it to gnaw on it.
After a moment, the Twin Pupil beast became energized, having demolished the pear. After gently calling out “xu xu” twice, it shot into a nearby patch of grass with a “whizz”, disappearing without a trace.
Han Li leisurely followed the rope.
……
Han Li stood on one side of the arduously steep mountaintop, gazing at the three hundred or so feet tall mountain wall opposite him. He stared at the sight blankly!
This was because the rope on his hand, passing through a narrow hole in the rock, directly extended into the mountain wall facing him.
It was currently the afternoon of the second day. Having gone through two days of bitter searching, the Twin Pupil Mouse suddenly began to frantically rush forwards the moment it drew near the mountain wall. After rushing Han Li to this location, it slipped into the mountain through the small crack.
Han Li looked at the taut, thin rope in his hand, and his curiosity was greatly piqued. He thought for a moment, then instantly patted his storage pouch, and that huge silver sword appeared in Han Li’s hands.
Han Li grasped the rope tightly with one hand and swung the silver sword with the other; in an instant, as if he were cutting tofu, the narrow crack in front of him widened to a rough entrance that a person could crawl through.
After crawling in headfirst, he immediately activated a protective barrier around his body; then, he followed the string, cutting open the mountain rock with each step, slowly progressing. All of the falling pieces of rock and dust were blocked by his water-attribute barrier, keeping his entire body neat and tidy.
This kind of physical work continued for more than an hour, and a thirty-foot-long simple, crude stone tunnel slowly formed. When Han Li hacked again with his sword, a sudden “crash” sounded, and the stone wall was finally broken open.
Han Li was very happy when he saw this. He used enough effort to wildly stab a few times, causing the stone wall to be completely hacked open. Then, he took a big stride out.
A roughly thirty-foot-large naturally formed cave appeared before his eyes. Han Li had just entered this area when a gust of dense Spiritual Qi pounced forwards, causing him to feel greatly stunned!
However, his gaze still followed the rope in his hand, only to see that the thin rope stretched all the way to the center of the cave. There was actually a miniature spring mouth that gurgled with spring water; the Twin Pupil Mouse was actually lying in the middle of this water bed that was a few feet large, contentedly swimming around in it.
“This is?”
This time, Han Li was truly shocked; this was because almost all of the dense Spiritual Qi in this cave came from this spring.
He hurriedly walked over, scooped up a handful of spring water, and began to carefully examine it.
“This is a spirit well spring; there definitely can’t be a mistake!” Without expending too much effort, Han Li confirmed the guess in his heart.
“Even though the Spiritual Qi contained in the spring water is not as exaggerated as rumors suggest and this spring mouth is very small, it truly is a rarely-seen spirit well spring,” Han Li muttered to himself in disbelief, his two hands sticking into the water.
Then, he closed his eyes, feeling the strands of Spiritual Qi being emitted from the water. The grin on his face couldn’t help but grow wider.
Speaking of spirit springs, one also had to mention spirit veins and spirit wells in the cultivating world!
The Spiritual Qi in the world was not actually evenly distributed; some places were denser in Spiritual Qi, while others were more sparse. Thus, after a long period of time, spirit veins of varying sizes would usually form in areas with dense Spiritual Qi.
Large spirit veins could be tens of thousands of kilometers long, while small ones could be as small as a few kilometers, truly pitifully small. But regardless of size, when these spirit veins were formed, they would automatically release faint amounts of Spiritual Qi, causing the location’s Spiritual Qi to circulate unceasingly. Resources in such areas would never dry up.
But in locations with different spirit veins, the amounts of spiritual Qi produced were not necessarily even either. Those locations with the densest accumulation of Spiritual Qi were naturally the most suitable for cultivators to meditate and cultivate at; thus, they were called “spirit wells” by the cultivating world.
The so-called “spirit wells” were generally invisible, and their existences could only be realized by a cultivator’s spiritual sense. However, when a location was designated as a spirit well, it was the location in the spirit vein where Spiritual Qi was at its greatest; this was undoubtable!
Although spirit wells were formless under normal circumstances, only acting as a substitute name for any given location, if a spirit well’s Spiritual Qi was excessively dense and could be preserved for a long period of time, it would gradually produce a true physical form and become a spirit well object, such as a spirit well pearl, stone, fountain, or the like. There were even the legendary supreme spirit well trees.
The appearance of a spirit well’s physical manifestation was a very rarely seen occurrence. Not a single one hadn’t experienced numerous tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of years, as well as a stroke of luck, before forming.
Thus, the Spiritual Qi emitted by these true spirit well objects was much denser than that of common spirit wells. Meditating and cultivating near them would definitely have the profound effect of increasing one’s rate of cultivation.
The best spirit well objects could even increase one’s cultivating speed by twenty or thirty percent. In addition, when these true objects were formed, even spirit well trees or fountains could all be moved away by a person’s magic power without having its effectiveness diminished.
Chapter 221: The Heavenly Star Sect and Spell Formations
Spirit well objects were quite miraculous. They would naturally be pursued by all cultivators who pursued the Heavenly Dao to even the point of madness! Whenever a spirit well object appeared in the cultivation world, it would cause a storm of blood at that location.
In the present cultivation world of the State of Yue, the Seven Great Sects had already acquired a few spirit well objects, but if a small clan or sect were to acquire these treasures, they’d only be inviting a calamity upon themselves.
Yellow Maple Valley had a spirit well stone, three spirit springs, and several other spirit well objects, all of which were bluntly distributed among the Core Formation experts and higher. Even the great Sect Master Zhong was unable to possess one.
Naturally, the great Nascent Soul Martial Ancestor possessed a great number of them.
Han Li absolutely didn’t expect with just a common Twin Pupil Mouse, he would have been able to find a nearby spirit well object so easily within the span of a day!
Although this spirit spring was the lowest among spirit well objects, the spring’s mouth was pathetically small, and its efficacy was probably limited, a spirit well object was still a spirit well object. At the very least, he would cultivate faster than those at common spirit well locations. So long as it sped up his cultivation even the slightest, it was still good.
However, even though he was surprised and extremely happy, Han Li still felt a bit puzzled.
Weren’t spirit well objects only able to take shape within areas with the densest Spiritual Qi? The Spiritual Qi at this mountain peak wasn’t particularly thick, so how was it able to form?
Even so, since the Heaven had dropped him such a great meat pie, Han Li would not let it go.
Although a spirit well spring was able to be moved, only a Core Formation expert would have the means to do so. Anybody on a lower stage of cultivation would not yet have the ability to do so, let alone Han Li. Since he
couldn’t move it, he decided to establish his Immortal’s cave at this location. Thus he planned to make the spirit spring cave into his own secret training room and keep it well concealed.
Han Li immediately chopped open a passage and carried out an expansion.
With one hand waving the silver sword and the other controlling several gold blades, Han Li undertook the great task of establishing his Immortal’s cave. Meanwhile, the Twin Pupil Mouse had plunged itself into the spirit spring and was unwilling to come out. The sounds of its snores could be heard afterwards.
Relying on the silver sword’s sharpness and the quantity of golden blades, Han Li labored for half a day, creating a somewhat large premature layout for his Immortal’s cave. He carved out thirteen rooms of various sizes and three halls a sixth of an acre large.
Although the cave walls of his rooms were still very coarse, not having undergone any meticulous work, at the very least it could be considered a home! This caused Han Li to let out a breath and relax.
He now suddenly recalled the Twin Pupil Mouse and hastily took advantage of this moment to return to the spirit spring. He picked up the still sleeping small mouse by the nape and flew off a few hundred kilometers before dropping it off, letting it return to Qilin Pavilion by itself.
For the time being, Han Li’s Immortal’s cave had only one exit. That was why after he returned, he immediately took out several tens of low-grade spirit stones and the five small flags, setting up the small scale trace bewildering formation in accordance to the jade slip and completely concealing the exit with a formation spell. Thus, if someone were to look from the outside, they would see an intact mountain wall. They would essentially be unable to see the cave opening.
After finishing the most basic defenses, Han Li used the silver sword to carve out a simple stone bed. Then he hurriedly lied down, falling asleep. He was truly tired!
For the next several days, Han Li was busy without end.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 114