A quarter of an hour later, Han Li walked out of Star Dust Pavilion in a leisurely manner.
He glanced back at the towering pavilion, a mysterious smile playing on his lips, then strode away.
Now, inside Han Li's storage pouch, the set of Red Thread Escape Needles and the jade slip inscribed with the pill formula lay quietly within.
Not long ago, he had casually asked the young girl about the price of thousand-year spiritual herbs, but he hadn't brought out any spiritual grass for her to see. Instead, he had taken out two Youth-Preserving Pills containing thousand-year spiritual herb ingredients and handed them to the girl.
Han Li remembered vividly that the originally extremely cold young girl, upon learning of the Youth-Preserving Pill's miraculous effect of preserving one's appearance, immediately showed a look of fanaticism. That dramatic change in expression quite surprised him.
The young girl immediately found an alchemist from Star Dust Pavilion and had him personally verify this widely rumored but never-refined pill.
As a result, after confirming that these two pills were indeed Youth-Preserving Pills and truly had the miraculous effect of preserving appearance, the young girl immediately and nervously called Lady Lan from the fifth floor.
After the two women whispered to each other for a while, Han Li exchanged the pill formula and the magical artifact for two Youth-Preserving Pills plus a thousand spirit stones.
Thinking about it now, Han Li still found it somewhat amusing.
Being able to preserve one's appearance forever was indeed an irresistible temptation for women, something they simply couldn't resist. Even a female cultivator like Lady Lan, who was quite scheming and possessed deep cultivation, showed the same eager look as the young girl upon hearing that Han Li had Youth-Preserving Pills. This gave Han Li a thorough understanding of how much women cared about their appearance.
However, this also made the selling price of the Youth-Preserving Pills far exceed his expectations.
He had originally thought it would be worth at most two thousand spirit stones, but the moment the two women spoke, Han Li was greatly satisfied. Naturally, he wouldn't be so ungrateful as to haggle further. Fortunately, the proprietors here were two women; if they had been male shopkeepers, they probably would have given Han Li only a few hundred spirit stones at most.
After the transaction, Lady Lan, who had somewhat recovered from her fanaticism, finally couldn't help asking about the origin of the pills. Han Li brushed it off with a casual "obtained by chance."
When Han Li left Star Dust Pavilion, he felt a bit reluctant.
He knew that with Star Dust Pavilion so easily producing rare items like the Red Thread Escape Needles and the pill formula, they surely had even more precious things. But unfortunately, he really couldn't bring out any more pills or spiritual herbs to trade. Otherwise, the consequences of revealing his wealth were something Han Li didn't need to think twice about to know how dangerous they would be.
With a sense of regret, Han Li found an inn in the market that catered to cultivators and settled in.
For the remaining time, he began to meditate and refine his qi, preparing to have Shopkeeper Xu craft him a magical artifact the next day.
The next morning, Han Li arrived at the artifact crafting shop as promised.
Shopkeeper Xu had been waiting for a long time. Upon seeing Han Li enter, he immediately and excitedly beckoned him to the backyard. Han Li smiled faintly and walked in...
...
More than half a month later, Han Li finally walked out of the shop.
But unlike when he had entered, his face was now full of gloom, and he seemed to be in a very bad mood.
Behind him, Shopkeeper Xu followed out with a face full of shame, mumbling something continuously behind Han Li.
Han Li let out a long breath, his mood seemingly improving a bit. Then he said a few words to Shopkeeper Xu in a pleasant manner before slowly walking out of the market, leaving the bewildered old man behind.
Not long after, Han Li exited the market's protective formation and flew straight toward Xin Ruyin's nameless hill on his magical artifact.
Standing on the Divine Wind Boat, Han Li's expression turned gloomy again, all due to the repeated failures in crafting artifacts over the past half month.
He had overestimated Shopkeeper Xu's crafting skills, allowing those precious materials to be mostly ruined before finally producing one set of magical artifacts. And most importantly, the mantis demon beast materials he valued most were completely destroyed in the crafting process.
This made Han Li extremely regretful afterward, almost having the impulse to unleash his magical artifact and strike Shopkeeper Xu hard.
However, seeing how ashamed the old man was, he eventually let it go. He even said a few comforting words in a pleasant tone before leaving.
Sighing at this thought, Han Li patted his storage pouch, and five pure white flying knives flew out, circling around him in mid-air.
Seeing this set of magical artifacts crafted from the white spider's legs, Han Li's mood improved slightly.
Although three more legs had been ruined in the crafting, and the armor made from the spider's shell also didn't materialize, at least not everything was destroyed like before. This could be considered a blessing in disguise! Han Li could only think with a bitter smile.
However, from this crafting experience, Han Li finally understood that the more advanced and rare the materials, the more superior the crafter's skills needed to be. It was the same person, yet last time most of the ink flood dragon materials had been successfully crafted!
As Han Li flew on his magical artifact, a contemplative expression appeared on his face.
Several days later, Han Li once again appeared above the nameless hill.
This time, before Han Li even used the transmission talisman, the white mist shrouding the formation automatically parted to create a passage for him.
Seeing this, Han Li smiled, knowing that Xin Ruyin had probably been waiting for his return these past two days. After all, the agreed-upon day was almost here.
After a while, Han Li sat in a chair inside the bamboo house, facing Xin Ruyin, who sat across from him with a smile, still dressed in plain clothes.
"Senior Han, you've arrived just in time. I only finished repairing that ancient teleportation array yesterday. As long as you follow the blueprint to make the repairs, you can restore the ancient teleportation array to normal function," Xin Ruyin said calmly, taking out a jade slip from her person and handing it to Han Li.
For her, repairing an ancient teleportation array was a worthwhile challenge, and she felt a certain sense of joy at having succeeded.
Han Li reached out and took the jade slip, feeling extremely happy inside, and a rare, undisguised smile appeared on his face.
Although he didn't have immediate plans to use the ancient teleportation array, this was certainly one of the backup options he was considering.
He then sank his spiritual sense into it and took a brief look. Indeed, there was a complete method for repairing the ancient teleportation array along with detailed repair steps.
"Miss Xin, thank you for your trouble!"
Han Li didn't give a lengthy speech of gratitude but offered a very sincere expression of thanks before carefully putting away the jade slip.
"It's nothing. I myself was quite interested in this ancient teleportation array," Xin Ruyin said with a faint smile.
But then, as if remembering something, she took out a small storage pouch and handed it over, slowly saying:
"I have at most one or two years of life left. These several sets of formation flags and formation disks that Brother Qi and I crafted together won't be of use to me anymore, so I'll give them all to Senior Han! I hope they can be of some help to your future cultivation!"
Seeing Xin Ruyin give him such a grand gift and speak of it so casually, Han Li was stunned. He then looked deeply at her for a few moments.
After remaining silent for a moment, he stood up and accepted the storage pouch with both hands, saying solemnly:
"I, Han Li, am no benevolent gentleman, nor am I one who roams the world seeking justice. But now I make this promise to Miss Xin once again: as long as my abilities advance greatly and I can destroy the Fu family, I will ensure the Fu family is forever erased from the cultivation world!" At this moment, Han Li spoke with extreme seriousness.
Upon hearing this, Xin Ruyin smiled. She knew that the purpose of giving this grand gift had been achieved.
The more someone like Han Li, who was reluctant to make promises easily, the more he would value the promises he truly made.
"If Senior Han has no pressing matters, you are welcome to stay at my humble abode for a few more days. I would very much like to discuss the way of formations with Senior Han," Xin Ruyin said in her usual manner.
...
Three days later, Han Li flew out from the nameless hill on his magical artifact. This time, he headed straight for the nearby gathering place for cultivators—White Pool Mountain.
There, loose cultivators and cultivators from various families often gathered to exchange tidbits of news from the cultivation world, and of course, there were also those who took the opportunity to trade items.
Han Li's purpose in this trip was to learn from here how bad the current situation in the Kingdom of Yue's cultivation world really was, whether the Seven Sects still had a chance to turn the tide, and so on.
Only after obtaining this information could Han Li truly decide his next course of action.
And the next gathering day was just around the corner.
White Pool Mountain wasn't very far from Xin Ruyin's nameless hill. Xin Ruyin and Qi Yunxiao had attended several gatherings before. Of course, such local small gatherings were mainly composed of Qi Refining stage cultivators, with very few Foundation Establishment stage cultivators attending.
A day later, Han Li arrived at this so-called White Pool Mountain.
The mountain was indeed quite large, with three peaks of varying sizes. The most precipitous and tallest one, the West Peak, was where the cultivators gathered. The white light that Han Li transformed into headed straight for the summit of this peak.