“Many thanks for Martial Uncle Yu’s guidance!” Although Han Li found it somewhat awkward, he wore a respectful expression as he uttered his thanks.
As for the fully bearded man, he merely grinned, appearing as if he weren’t one for words.
Already knowing that there was something amiss about his past, Han Li felt dumbfounded. The large man’s acting skills had already reached perfection. Could it be he truly didn’t know about the oddities of his own body?
While that Senior Martial Brother Miao also noticed something odd, Han Li was certain that a late Foundation Establishment cultivator wouldn’t be able to see through the person’s cold Qi. There was certain to be something amiss; it was quite thought provoking.
Cultivator Yu seemed pleased by the two’s reactions and spoke a few words more before bringing them to a pavilion located at the center of Dayspring Mountain.
They landed on a limestone platform where two young teenagers were chatting about something. When they saw Cultivator Yu appear, they immediately stopped talking and approached them.
The doll-faced girl chuckled and asked, “Well if it isn’t Martial Uncle Yu! Did you come to visit Martial Ancestor?” Knowing the strictness of seniority in the cultivation world, Han Li felt shocked at the girl’s casual attitude.
Cultivator Yu smiled and said, “That’s right. These two are external affair disciples that our mountain received from this selection. I am here to report to Martial Ancestor and see which Senior Martial Brothers to give them to.” It appeared he was quite familiar with the girl.
The girl then turned her gaze to Han Li and the large man. She sweetly smiled and said, “So they’re newly arrived Junior Martial Brothers. If you have an opportunity in the future, please don’t forget to pay me and Junior Martial Brother Xin a visit and tell me a bit about the mortal world. I’m looking forward to it.”
The dark-skinned teenager at her side meekly muttered, “If Senior Martial Sister wishes to hear them, don’t drag me in. I would prefer to cultivate.”
“You can cultivate anytime you want, but having new disciples enter Dayspring Mountain from the mortal world is something that is hard to come by. Naturally, we should listen to a few interesting tales from the outside!” Although the she was quite young and dainty, she chided the boy with a bold attitude, leaving him at a loss for words.
Cultivator Yu revealed a wry smile and shook his head before bringing Han Li and the large man into the courtyard.
As they walked, Cultivator Yu warned, “Keep note of those two. Junior Martial Sister Ma and Junior Martial Brother Xin may appear young and hold the same seniority as you, but they are the Martial Ancestor’s descendants from the mortal world. Although they haven’t yet been accepted as official disciples, it is a matter that will occur sooner or later. Do not offend them no matter what; nobody will protect you from the Martial Ancestor.”
When Han Li heard this, he nodded his head with a forced smile. As for the large man, he rubbed the back of his head and silently smiled.
When Cultivator Yu saw their reactions, he smiled and consoled them, “Junior Martial Brother Xin is a sincere person. He won’t do anything inappropriate. Although Junior Martial Sister Ma has always been somewhat mischievous, she doesn’t bear any malice. There is no need to be too worried about them; you just have to pay a bit more attention to them.”
Of course, Han Li and the large man repeatedly nodded their heads in response.
After that was said, the three had already passed through three courtyards before appearing in front of a secluded side wing.
As soon as the three appeared at the side wing, they faintly heard a man’s voice. “Is that you, Jun’er?”
When Yu Jun heard this, he immediately stopped in place and solemnly replied, “Disciple pays his respects to master!”
“Your Third Martial Brother and your Fifth Martial Sister also happen to be here. Go ahead and bring the two behind you inside.” From the liveliness of the voice, the owner seemed to be in a good mood.
“Yes!” Yu Jun didn’t dare to delay and called to Han Li and large man before hastily entering the half closed door of the side room.
Apart from several pots of various unknown plants, the elegant and refined hall only had a black wood table along with a set of chairs. A middle-aged man in scholar robes sat at the side. He had an incredibly old fashioned appearance with a long, thin mustache and a beard that reached to his chest, giving him a sagelike appearance with otherworldly poise.
To his side stood an old man and a young woman.
With a wrinkle-filled face and pure white hair, the old man was by all means someone that appeared to have nearly reached his end. He was silently smiling. As for the woman, she appeared to be in her late twenties and possessed a fair, elegant appearance. She was currently expressionless.
Yu Jun hastily stepped forward and saluted them in a kneel, “I pay my respects to Master! Greetings, Third Senior Martial Brother, Fifth Senior Martial Sister!”
“Please stand up. There are no outsiders here, no need to be so formal. So these two must be the newly accepted disciples of our Dayspring Mountain!” The middle-aged man waved his arm and had Yu Jun stand up. Afterwards, he examined Han Li and the large man with interest.
When Han Li saw that this person was a mid Core Formation cultivator, he felt somewhat gloomy, but he could only force a smile and call out to him as, “Martial Ancestor.” The large man had done the same.
This Martial Ancestor possessed neither the capability of spotting the peculiarity of the large man’s body nor seeing through Han Li’s true cultivation.
As such, he asked for their names and casually said, “Good, good, good...” He then turned to the old man and young woman at his side and mildly instructed them, “Since you two are here, I won’t have to bother any others. As an expert in talisman refinement and a pill concoction adept, you should be lacking people. Take in these two newly arrived disciples for the time being. Naturally, pick a cultivation art for them along the way. Even if they are external affair disciples, if their cultivation is too poor, they’ll be a target of ridicule by their fellow sect members from the other mountains.”
The white-faced old man replied with a wide smile, “Yes, Master! Junior Martial Sister and I will take a person each.”
The beautiful woman in her twenties hesitated for a moment before nodding her head.
After a moment of thought, the old man proposed, “Since Junior Martial Sister also agrees, how about I take Martial Nephew Du over to my talisman refinement division? I am in need of sturdy helpers, so that will leave Martial Nephew Han to you!”
The woman agreed with an unchanged expression, not bothering to glance at Han Li.
When the middle-aged man saw this, he nodded his head and spoke to Han Li and the large man, “You two are dismissed, wait outside for a moment. I still have matters to discuss with your seniors.”
Han Li and the large man glanced at each other before sincerely acknowledging him. They then headed out of the room and stood about ten meters away from the room as they obediently waited.
Soon after, the large man glanced to the cloudless far away sky and remained still. It was unknown what he was thinking about. As for Han Li, he wore a lazy expression as he eavesdropped on the conversation inside. With his immense spiritual sense, Han Li was able to listen without a problem. Although his expression was unchanged, several odd movements escaped from his eyes.
After the time it took to finish a meal, the door to the side room finally opened, and the three disciples left the room one after the other.
The old man wordlessly raised his hand and released a slender magic tool. After he said his farewells to the woman and Yu Jun, he took to the skies with the large man in tow.
At that moment, the woman walked over to Han Li and coldly swept her gaze over him. She emotionlessly said, “Let’s go. You’ll be coming back with me to my cave residence.”
A faint smirk momentarily appeared on
Han Li’s face before he nodded with a indifferent expression.
With a pulse of red light, an expanse of red mist enveloped the both of them.
Four hours later, Han Li had appeared at a strange medicine garden that was over three hundred meters wide.
The verdant medicine garden had many types of medicinal herbs and a thatched cottage with three rooms. When Han Li saw the nameless small mountain nearby, he stroked his chin and revealed a faint smile.
Previously, the cold and elegant mid Foundation Establishment woman had used a red ribbon to bring the two to her cave residence. This “Martial Aunt” Mu Peiling had asked him if he was willing to look after the medicinal garden or if he was willing learn the art of pill refinement.
This had stunned Han Li. After all, so long as a cultivator was right of mind, they would agree to learn without a doubt.
But before the woman waited for Han Li’s reply, she coldly explained that looking after the medicine garden was rather simple. So long as he handed over a fixed amount of medicinal ingredients, he could spent a majority of his time in cultivation. Although external affair disciples also had an opportunity to touch upon the profound path of medicinal pills, the cost of pursuing that path was to refine a certain amount of pills every month, greatly reducing their cultivation time. As a result, each of them had their own advantages.
Without even the slightest deliberation, Han Li instantly chose his old task of looking after the medicine garden. This was a task that may as well have been created for him; it would allow him to cultivate without fear or obstruction.
He had originally thought that he would have to escape from various menial jobs in order to cultivate. But as it turned out, this extremely suitable medicine garden task was brought before him by fortunate chance!
The cold, elegant woman didn’t reveal the slightest surprise at Han Li’s choice.
Since he was brought here, Mu Peiling brought away the original keeper of the medicinal garden and left behind a jade slip that recorded a water attribute cultivation art, the Profound Ice Arts.
This medicine garden had now become Han Li’s domain.
Chapter 604: Removing Potential Problems
Han Li waited for the elegant woman to disappear into the sky before flipping his palm. There was now a blue jade slip, a green jade slip, and a yellow command talisman in his hand.
The green jade slip included methods and tips on how to tend to the plants in the medicine garden that was left behind by the previous caretaker. Because the grade of the medicine herbs here was quite common and there was only a small variety of them, so long as he wasn’t a moron to the utmost degree, tending to the garden would be extremely easy.
As for the blue jade talisman, it recorded the cultivation art that Mu Peiling had left behind. The Profound Ice Arts wasn’t a top grade cultivation art by any means. It was so pathetically weak that it couldn’t even be considered a second rate cultivation art. Its only merit was that it was easy to cultivate and its bottlenecks were comparatively easy to break through.
However, this wasn’t a result of malice or bad intentions. As Han Li was an external affairs disciple, his cultivation must’ve been poor so she had opted to give an easier cultivation art to him.
As for the command medallion, it controlled the crude spell formation that enveloped the medicine garden. Of course, he didn’t hold it with much regard and placed all three of the items in his storage pouch. Afterwards, he entered the thatched cottage with unhurried steps and slowly walked through it before leaving.
As Han Li stood in front of the cottage, he swept his gaze towards the small mountain behind the medicine garden and revealed a faint smile.
He slowly closed his eyes and gradually released his spiritual sense to envelope a radius of about fifteen kilometers. After seeing that there were no other cultivators in the area, he waved his arms without regard.
A series of clear rings sounded out as a dozen twinkling azure flying swords left his sleeve and shot towards the small mountain. Under the control of his spiritual sense, the flying swords efficiently cut out a cave from the mountain as if its stone were soft tofu. In an instant, he had already carved out a deep cave residence.
Han Li’s consciousness then split into many strands as he had them control each of his flying swords. Each of them began to hurriedly carve out stone rooms, each unique in their size and style. As Han Li had already become incredibly proficient in splitting his consciousness, this took very little effort. About six hours later, a new small-scale cave residence had secretly appeared in the mountain.
Han Li revealed a trace of happiness at seeing that the first draft of his cave residence was completed and immediately took out several sets of formation flags and discs. The small mountain then became incredibly busy as several high grade concealment spell formations were placed around it.
Although this spell formation was incapable of escaping the keen notice of a Nascent Soul cultivator, it would escape the passing notice of a Core Formation cultivator.
For Han Li, this would be enough for the time being. After all, there would be no reason for a high grade cultivator to suddenly visit such a trifling medicine garden as this one. Also, these measures were only a temporary affair. Once he refined and placed down a Spirit Constraining Formation, even a Nascent Soul cultivator would be incapable of seeing anything amiss.
After Han Li finished placing down the spell formations, he placed the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng inside his cave residence’s small medicine garden. Only after carefully placing down several formidable restrictions around it did he release it from confinement. The Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng was crucial if he was to condense a Nascent Soul.
Following that, Han Li placed the gold-silver Gold Devouring Beetles into the insect room. As for the black-tainted Gold Devouring Beetles, Han Li kept them at his side since he couldn’t induce them to reproduce with the Rainbow Skirt Grass.
Neighboring the insect room was a spirit beast room he had specially prepared for the Weeping Soul Beast. Because the beast had consumed such a large quantity of umbra beast souls, it had remained in deep sleep ever since it returned to his storage pouch. Even Han Li was unable to wake it from its slumber.
However, Han Li faintly guessed that because the Weeping Soul Beast had consumed so many souls, it had begun to evolve a grade.
Han Li naturally desired such a outcome. Having acquired a safe haven, Han Li immediately made peaceful arrangements for the beast. At that moment, Han Li also decided to take advantage of the beast’s slumber to refine the Weeping Soul Pearl inside his stomach to completion.
Because of the Weeping Soul Beast’s soaring advancements, Han Li felt slightly worried that he would be unable to fully control the evolution of the Weeping Soul Beast. During his time in the Umbra Realm, he felt the Weeping Soul Pearl stir several times in his stomach when the Weeping Soul Beast had savagely absorbed the umbra beast souls in his enlarged state.
Although Han Li kept a calm face in front of Fairy Violet Spirit and Mei Ning, he had felt great trepidation. Now that he had the opportunity, there was no way he would dare to allow this situation to continue.
As for Yuan Yao’s explanation of the Weeping Soul Pearl’s symptoms, they should pose little problem to Han Li given his superior magic power and spiritual sense. Moreover, the Weeping Soul Beast had unexpectedly ascended two ranks since then, and the symptoms may have been corrected. But regardless, in light of the Weeping Soul Beast’s current abilities, it was worth braving the risk.
With his plans decided, he didn’t immediately refine the Weeping Soul Pearl, but instead chose to address another pressing matter, the Wind Spirit Energy inside his body that had yet to scatter.
Feng Xi, the grade nine Windbreaker Beast, naturally couldn’t pursue him to the Heavenly South Region, however, the fact that the Wind Spirit Energy still remained in his body was cause for much distress. Perhaps another incident would occur if too much time had passed, but directly refining this harmfu
l energy didn’t seem possible.
He had tried several times before to little effect. As of current, he only had the clumsy method of using magic power to forcefully expel it. While it was possible, it would take no small amount of time. It was for this reason that Han Li had put if off until now.
Now that he had settled down in a peaceful place, he planned on completely eliminating this danger inside his body. With several huge ape puppets acting as sentries in the medicine garden in order to respond to any sudden visits, he entered his refinement room.
Han Li sat cross-legged in the quiet room with a solemn expression and immersed his spiritual sense into his body.
He examined the lustrous golden light sphere that was contained inside his Dantian and noticed that there was no change.
After a moment of thought, he decided to control the Divine Devilbane Lightning that enveloped the harmful energy and had the net of lightning slowly relax to reveal a gap. The originally calm energy contained within the lightning immediately grew restless and wildly rushed out of the gap.
Just as the strand of harmful energy began to rush out, Han Li’s spiritual sense began to stir and had the golden lightning envelope it once more, closing the gap and restraining the remaining Wind Spirit Energy.
Not knowing what kind of chaotic harmful Qi that the Wind Spirit Energy contained, Han Li felt extremely worried that even this sliver could damage his meridians.
Resisting his feelings of great unease, he circulated all the magic power in his body and began to forcefully expel the sliver of harmful energy.
As he motionlessly sat inside the calm room, large beads of sweat began to flow down from his head and his face paled.
Four hours had unknowingly passed..
Han Li opened his eyes and spiritedly glanced around. He then waved his arms and flicked his fingers, shooting out two drops of grey liquid to the stone walls. Two small holes appeared where they struck.
Han Li let out a long breath of relief and wiped the cold sweat off his forehead.
Although the expulsion process had been incredibly painful and strenuous, it still worked. If he continued this sliver by sliver process of expulsion, he reckoned that it would take half a year before his body was completely free of the Wind Spirit Energy. This had greatly relieved much worry from his mind.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 325