Spirit Eye treasures are so miraculous, of course they drive cultivators who pursue the Heavenly Dao crazy! Every time a Spirit Eye treasure appears, it causes a bloodbath in the local cultivation world!
However, in the current cultivation world of the Kingdom of Yue, these Spirit Eye treasures have long fallen into the hands of the seven great sects.
For example, Yellow Maple Valley possesses over a dozen Spirit Eye treasures, including two Spirit Eye Stones, three Spirit Eye Trees, and seven Spirit Eye Springs. They were all unceremoniously divided up among the Core Formation stage cultivators, and even Sect Leader Zhong didn't have a chance to own one.
Of course, the Nascent Soul stage ancestor took the lion's share first.
Now, Han Li never expected that he would just take an ordinary Double-Pupil Mouse, spend a little over a day, and easily find a Spirit Eye treasure nearby.
Although it was only the lowest-grade Spirit Eye treasure, a Spirit Spring, and this spring eye was pitifully small, with limited effectiveness, a Spirit Eye treasure was still a Spirit Eye treasure. At the very least, cultivating near it was much faster than cultivating at an ordinary Spirit Eye location! Even if it only increased the cultivation speed by half a step, that was still a good thing!
However, while Han Li was overjoyed at this unexpected discovery, he was also a bit puzzled.
Weren't Spirit Eye treasures supposed to form only in places with the densest spiritual energy? But the spiritual energy around this mountain peak wasn't very dense! How could one form here? And it was such a miniature Spirit Spring. While Han Li was pleasantly surprised, he couldn't help but feel a bit regretful.
But since a great pie had fallen from the sky, Han Li certainly wouldn't let it slip away.
Because although a Spirit Eye Spring could be relocated, that was something only a Core Formation stage cultivator could do, and Han Li didn't have that kind of ability yet. So naturally, he decided to build his cave dwelling here and designated this Spirit Spring cave as his secret cultivation chamber, to be hidden away.
Han Li immediately used the tunnel he had cleared to expand it.
Wielding the silver sword in one hand and controlling several gold blades with the other, Han Li began the great task of carving out his cave dwelling. As for the Double-Pupil Mouse, it plunged straight into the Spirit Spring and refused to come out, falling fast asleep right in the spring water.
Relying on the sharpness of the silver sword and the number of gold blades, after half a day of hard work, a cave dwelling of considerable size took initial shape. In total, thirteen rooms of varying sizes and three large halls covering several mu of land were carved out.
Although the cave walls were still rough and hadn't undergone any fine processing, at least they could provide shelter! This allowed Han Li to breathe a sigh of relief and stop his work.
At this moment, he suddenly thought of the Double-Pupil Mouse and hurriedly took this opportunity to return to the Spirit Spring. He grabbed the sleeping little beast by the scruff of its neck and then flew several hundred li away on his artifact before releasing it, allowing it to return to Qilin Pavilion on its own.
The cave dwelling Han Li had built temporarily had only one exit. So after returning, he immediately arranged five small flags and over a dozen low-grade spirit stones according to the method described in the jade slip, setting up a small Phantom Disappearance Array to completely conceal the entrance with a formation. This way, from the outside, it still appeared as a solid cliff face, making it impossible to detect that a new cave had been created.
After completing the most basic protection, Han Li used the silver sword to carve a simple stone bed, and hurriedly lay down and fell into a deep sleep. He was truly exhausted!
Over the next few days, Han Li remained busy non-stop.
First, he found a flat, open area near his cave dwelling and scattered some spiritual herb seeds.
Among these were both the ordinary medicinal seeds he had originally brought from the secular world and the seeds of exotic flowers and rare herbs he had collected from the Hundred Herb Garden over the past few years. This place would become Han Li's own herb garden, where the spiritual herbs he matured with the emerald-green liquid would be grown from now on.
In the remaining time, Han Li also found some relatively hard bluestone from the mountain and used it to carve stone tables, chairs, and other furniture. He placed a set in each room. Finally, he carefully smoothed all the walls and inlaid some moonlight stones, making the cave dwelling as bright as day.
With this, Han Li's cave dwelling was considered preliminarily completed.
However, it was obvious that the defensive capabilities of this cave dwelling were far from enough to allow Han Li to cultivate in peace. In his opinion, at the very least, there needed to be a comprehensive restriction array like the one at the Hundred Herb Garden. Otherwise, if an enemy invaded while he was cultivating, it would be disastrous!
Han Li was a layman when it came to restriction arrays. He didn't even know how to set up the most basic formation, let alone more powerful restriction arrays.
However, he didn't intend to learn! One had to know that the path of restriction arrays was vast as the ocean. If he diverted his attention to learn it, it would take at least ten to twenty years to achieve even minor success! And his own cultivation would definitely be delayed, which was a loss Han Li could not afford!
Perhaps in this world, there were geniuses who could deeply study restriction arrays without neglecting their own cultivation, and even use arrays to aid their path of cultivation. But Han Li was very clear that he would never be one of them.
If he diverted even a little attention to this area, he would definitely extinguish his last hope of reaching the Core Formation stage.
Fortunately, in this world, there were also array flags and array plates, such convenient and easy-to-deploy magical artifacts for restriction arrays.
Although using these methods generally couldn't set up powerful large-scale restriction arrays, Han Li currently only needed standard-level array defenses for his cave dwelling to be mostly at ease. Moreover, if it really wasn't enough, he could just deploy multiple sets of restriction arrays. Quantity could also compensate for some defensive loopholes.
Coincidentally, the Celestial Star Sect of Yuanwu Kingdom was famous for its restriction arrays in the cultivation worlds of several nearby countries. Magical artifacts for restriction arrays, like array flags and array plates, were produced in large quantities every year and flowed into the cultivation world to be exchanged for needed spirit stones, materials, and other things.
Han Li set his sights on the Celestial Star Sect's market, which would definitely have the restriction-type artifacts he needed.
So in the following time, as soon as a few herb seeds sprouted, Han Li immediately began using the emerald-green liquid to mature them. He planned to use a thousand-year-old medicinal herb to exchange for the needed items at the Celestial Star Sect's market. This time, he would only reveal this one thousand-year-old herb, to avoid releasing too many and arousing suspicion or unnecessary trouble.
In just over two months, Han Li had matured the thousand-year-old medicinal herb.
Then, he set off northward with the herb and other exchangeable items. For example, the materials from the Ink Flood Dragon and the hard shell of the centipede. If the price was right, Han Li didn't mind making the exchange, since he wouldn't be diverting his attention to learn artifact refining anyway.
When Han Li flew on his artifact, he wore a cloak, just in case!
For Han Li, whose magical power had greatly increased, the journey of over a hundred li took only half a day.
Upon entering Yuanwu Kingdom, Han Li looked around in the air. First, to find the Celestial Star Sect's market, and second, out of curiosity about everything in Yuanwu Kingdom. But from the scenery, it seemed no different from the Kingdom of Yue!
Yuanwu Kingdom, like the Kingdom of Yue, was a medium-sized country in the nearby region.
Although these two countries were not even a third the size of the large countries Tianluo Kingdom and Fengdu Kingdom, they were still much stronger than the nearby smaller countries like Jiang Kingdom and Shayun Kingdom.
Although there were only two large countries in this region, there were over a dozen medium-sized countries. As for the smaller ones, they were densely distributed in the nearby areas, numbering in the dozens. And according to what people said, even further away, there were super-large countries, so vast they were unbelievable!
As for the cultivation world of Yuanwu Kingdom, both the orthodox and demonic factions had equal strength, locked in a stalemate. The Celestial Star Sect was one of the core orthodox sects, possessing strength no less than Yellow Maple Valley.
While Han Li was pondering about the Celestial Star Sect, the leaf-shaped flying artifact under his feet suddenly sank and slowly descended toward the ground, as if it had lost its flying ability in an instant.
Seeing this unfavorable situation, Han Li was not surprised at all, but instead revealed a hint of joy. It seemed he had arrived near the Celestial Star Sect's market, otherwise there wouldn't be a flight-prohibition restriction in place.
Sure enough, after landing on the ground, when Han Li walked seven or eight li northward, a cluster of buildings, a third larger than Yellow Maple Valley's market, appeared before his eyes.
The Celestial Star Sect's market was very unique, completely different from Yellow Maple Valley's! It was centered around a huge pavilion twenty or thirty zhang tall, with other buildings only a tenth of the pavilion's height surrounding it, arranged in a radial circular layout.
Because the signboard on the central pavilion was so large, Han Li could clearly see the three huge silver characters "Star Dust Pavilion" from a distance of one or two li. Without asking, this pavilion was definitely the Celestial Star Sect's own shop!
In the blink of an eye, Han Li had covered the one or two li distance.
As usual, Han Li didn't act rashly, but slowly strolled around the outer perimeter of the market, gaining a slight understanding of the situation.
Surprisingly, there were several shops that really opened Han Li's eyes and made him eager to try them out!
One shop for artifact refining could accept materials from cultivators at any time and refine various magical artifacts according to the owner's requirements. And its signboard boastfully claimed that it could refine everything from low-grade to top-grade artifacts. Moreover, if refining failed, it would double the material's value in spirit stones. Of course, if you didn't have materials and wanted to commission an artifact directly, that was also possible, though the price certainly wouldn't be cheap.
Another shop for talisman making had content surprisingly similar to the artifact refining shop, also accepting custom talisman orders!
Other slightly more unusual shops included a Spirit Beast Courtyard, which specialized in selling tamed various monster beasts, even having a few first-tier high-rank monster beasts inside. If you bought one to be a guardian spirit beast, it seemed like a good idea.