Ordinary pills in the world had long since lost their effect on cultivators at the Core Formation stage. Only spiritual pills refined from herbs that were several hundred years old and certain naturally occurring spiritual herbs could accelerate their cultivation speed. Therefore, most of the time during a Core Formation cultivator's travels was spent searching for extremely rare herbs.
This was precisely why Li Huayuan, upon seeing Han Li emerge from the forbidden ground with so many spiritual herbs, had tried every possible method to take him as a disciple. These natural spiritual herbs were truly too tempting!
Actually, even if the leader at the time had not been Li Huayuan, but Lei Wanhe or other Core Formation cultivators, they probably wouldn't have let go of Han Li's share of spiritual herbs. Nine times out of ten, they would have used the same methods. It was just that Li Huayuan was indeed a bit stingy, only willing to accept Han Li as a nominal disciple!
However, taking pills was merely an auxiliary means to enhance magical power, only shortening the time needed for meditation and absorbing spiritual energy! Diligent cultivation was the true path to transforming spiritual energy into one's own magical power!
Otherwise, even if one took more pills, without spending time to refine the spiritual energy within them bit by bit, it would still be useless and wouldn't increase any magical power. After all, external spiritual energy and one's own magical power were fundamentally two different things.
There had even been cases where someone took a heaven-defying pill found in ancient ruins, only to have too much spiritual energy accumulate in their body, causing them to explode and die! Therefore, casually taking pills far beyond one's own realm was an extremely dangerous thing.
Furthermore, when encountering a bottleneck, using the spiritual power of pills to break through was a common method used by many cultivators, and it had proven to be very effective.
Cultivators who could break through cultivation bottlenecks without relying on any medicinal power were still too rare in the entire cultivation world, and they were all prodigies seen only once in a hundred years!
Those with Heavenly Spiritual Roots were such universally acknowledged top-tier talents. Even those with variant spiritual roots, when encountering such cultivation bottlenecks, still had to take pills to break through, no different from ordinary spiritual root cultivators.
This cultivator Lei Wanhe had encountered such a bottleneck. Therefore, to refine auxiliary pills, he had just returned from searching for herbs in the outside world.
But his luck this time was truly not very good. Besides the herbs, he had found nothing else, leaving him stewing in frustration!
This was the main reason why he had immediately struck with killing intent upon seeing people from the Thousand Bamboo Sect. Because if he didn't vent at that time, his mood probably wouldn't improve for a long while. One could only say that Huang Long and the others were truly too unlucky, running into this ill-tempered fiend.
At this moment, Lei Wanhe's thoughts were fluctuating unpredictably.
Having experienced over three hundred years of cultivation, what kind of herbs hadn't he seen? The moment these two spiritual herbs entered his eyes, he immediately judged their exact age. This couldn't help but bring him great joy.
He knew that the Yuan Enhancement Pill he currently wanted to refine was lacking herbs over five hundred years old. That was why he had made this trip of over a year. But he had searched through all the marketplaces and secular large pharmacies in the entire State of Yue, yet hadn't found a single herb that satisfied him.
He could only reluctantly collect two four-hundred-year-old inferior specimens, preparing to make do with them!
But he also knew that using such under-aged herbs to refine the Yuan Enhancement Pill would likely result in greatly reduced efficacy even if the pill succeeded. It wouldn't provide much help to him. But he truly had no suitable main ingredients in his hands, so what could he do?
Continuing the search would just be a waste of time.
Because if any place truly had good herbs, they would have already been snapped up by local sects or cultivation families. By the time he arrived, he wouldn't even find a single herb hair. As for searching in the cultivation worlds of neighboring countries, where he was unfamiliar with everything, hope would be even more remote!
So when he heard this junior nephew outside the cave dwelling mention having some herbs of considerable age, his heart stirred, and he entered with the thought of just taking a look. Only then did he enter this extremely simple cave dwelling.
Actually, in Lei Wanhe's mind, what good herbs could a Foundation Establishment stage disciple have? At most, they would be herbs a few hundred years old!
After all, even after searching for so long, he had only obtained four-hundred-year-old herbs. This was only because people saw him as a Core Formation expert, and no one dared to compete with him for purchases.
Now, these two spiritual herbs that were fully six to seven hundred years old had suddenly appeared before his eyes. Beyond being almost unable to believe it, he was overjoyed!
Therefore, although he appeared to be staring intently at the two herbs in his hands, seemingly judging their age, he was actually already considering how to get the herbs from this junior nephew.
After all, having such rare items in the other party's hands felt too wasteful! It would be most effective if he, Grandmaster Lei, refined them into pills.
However, he was an old fox who had lived for so many years, and in the blink of an eye, he had already thought of an excuse.
So he coughed twice, somewhat reluctantly placing the herbs back in the box, then twisted his almost invisible neck and said to Han Li with a kind expression:
"Junior nephew, these two herbs are truly rare treasures, with a full six to seven hundred years of maturity! I'm afraid you went through considerable trouble to obtain them!"
"Yes, disciple spent great effort to acquire them from an auction at a secret shop! At the time, there was also a thousand-year-old spiritual herb for sale, but unfortunately disciple had no means to buy it, so I had to watch helplessly as someone else bought it. That was quite regrettable!" Han Li said with a mix of truth and falsehood.
"A secret shop? And a thousand-year-old spiritual herb!"
The fatty almost jumped up from the stone bench upon hearing this!
For him, this was more than just regrettable—it was like having the flesh cut from his heart.
As a Core Formation cultivator who had gone through so much trouble to find spiritual herbs, visiting seven or eight secret shops in various places, how had he never encountered such good fortune? If he had been present at the time, there was no way he would have let such a rare treasure slip through his fingers! He would have been absolutely willing to spend any amount of spirit stones!
Thinking that such a once-in-a-millennium opportunity had been missed by this kid in front of him, the fatty felt so angry he wanted to grab the other by the neck and demand an explanation! Although he also knew that, as a Foundation Establishment disciple, it was perfectly normal for the other party to be unable to afford such a sky-high priced item.
"Alright, what's missed is missed! Perhaps there will be such an opportunity next time!"
The fatty finally calmed himself down, and even had to offer some insincere words of comfort to Han Li. After all, he still had designs on the other's two spiritual herbs! These were things he absolutely couldn't let slip away now.
"Junior nephew Han, how do you plan to deal with these two spiritual herbs? Do you intend to hand them over to the sect's alchemists? However, as your grand-uncle, I must warn you that the skill level of our Yellow Maple Valley's alchemists is truly lacking! If you give such precious items to them to handle, it would absolutely be a waste of natural treasures. You would suffer a great loss!" The fatty advised with the demeanor of an earnest elder.
"I can't let them refine these! Disciple actually plans to use these spiritual herbs to exchange for something more useful! You know, disciple almost went bankrupt buying these spiritual herbs! How could I waste them easily?" Han Li shook his head continuously, suddenly saying something that greatly surprised Lei Wanhe. It immediately stuck in the throat of the lines he had originally prepared.
However, the fatty thought to himself: if this junior nephew wanted to exchange herbs for something, wasn't that even more to his advantage! With his status as a Core Formation cultivator, apart from those extremely rare alchemy and artifact-refining raw materials, was there anything he couldn't provide the other party? This was a perfect opportunity to exchange for the items openly and honestly!
Thinking of this, Lei Wanhe's eyes narrowed even more with his smile, appearing even more amiable.
"I wonder what junior nephew Han needs? Your grand-uncle has accumulated quite a collection over the centuries! Perhaps I have something you need." The fatty blinked his small eyes and suddenly said with a cheerful laugh.
"Ah! Does grand-uncle also need these spiritual herbs? If that's the case, disciple can give one to grand-uncle, as a showing of respect from the junior generation!" Han Li seemed to suddenly realize, hurriedly saying with respectful urgency.
Upon seeing Han Li being so perceptive—immediately offering to give him a spiritual herb for free without even mentioning an exchange—Lei Wanhe was greatly pleased, finding Han Li increasinglysmootheye.
But the fatty's goal was to obtain both! He couldn't bear to let go of the remaining one either.
Therefore, Lei Wanhe waved his hand and said with generous spirit:
"Junior nephew Han, what kind of talk is this? Do you think I, Lei Wanhe, am the type to covet things from the younger generation? Just say whatever you need. Your grand-uncle will immediately find something to exchange fairly with you, and absolutely won't let junior nephew suffer any loss! Do you want to exchange for a top-grade magical artifact? Or pills that would be useful at this time?"
Hearing the other's generous words, Han Li was secretly delighted. He had gone through such a great circle just to wait for this sentence from the other party. But on the surface, he still scratched his head, seeming very troubled as he said:
"To tell the truth, grand-uncle Lei, disciple has always been very interested in the art of alchemy. But in the storage room of the Yuelu Hall, there are hardly any practical pill formulas. Disciple later learned that the alchemy methods passed down from ancient times had mostly been lost. Now, the alchemy methods of senior brothers and grand-uncles are either painstakingly developed by dozens of generations within their families, or occasionally found in ancient ruins—each one is treated as extremely precious, and they rarely show them to others. Therefore, disciple wants to use these two spiritual herbs to exchange for a pill formula that suits my own use!"