The only small town on the island was located at the eastern end of the small island, very close to the port. On the western side of the island, there was a small mountain range stretching for over twenty li, with two modest peaks atop it. One stood approximately two to three hundred zhang high, while the other was only about a hundred zhang tall.
Han Li spotted the mountain peaks from afar while flying through the air, but he suppressed the slight excitement in his heart and landed first in the middle of the town.
The arrival of Han Li and Qu Hun caused quite a stir, and immediately an elderly man claiming to be the town mayor hurried over to meet Han Li.
After Han Li handed the jade slip with golden symbols to the elder for inspection, the mayor immediately declared that the entire town was willing to follow all orders of the Immortal Master.
Han Li naturally had no need for mortals' help with anything. Instead, he briefly inquired about the island's situation and what portion of the formation array's spirit stone consumption the townspeople could bear. This was what he was most concerned about.
After hearing a number so small it was almost negligible, Han Li felt a bit depressed in his heart.
Didn't this mean that all spirit stone consumption would have to be borne by him?
That middle-aged cultivator had claimed that collecting some spirit stones from the residents could offset part of the losses, but that was clearly just empty talk—it made no difference at all.
Han Li secretly criticized the middle-aged cultivator in his mind, then offered a few words of comfort to the elder.
Afterward, he went to the formation array's core location at the town center to take a look.
Han Li estimated the spirit stone consumption of the formation array, compared it with what the elder had told him, and immediately gave the elder a year's worth of spirit stones for the formation.
He told the elder that henceforth, each year he could come to his newly established cave abode to collect the spirit stones needed for the following year.
Then, ignoring the elder's repeated thanks, Han Li flew with Qu Hun toward the western end of the small island.
The moment he entered the mountain range that the island residents called "Little Sphere Mountain," Han Li felt a faint aura of spiritual energy brushing against his face, which brought a slight smile to his heart.
A moment later, standing on his Divine Wind Boat, Han Li circled the two peaks—one tall, one short—several times.
Obviously, the concentration of spiritual energy was somewhat richer on the taller peak, but the shorter peak was stouter and seemed more suitable for a cave abode. Moreover, there was already an old cave abode left by a previous cultivator on it, intact and ready for almost immediate use.
Han Li pondered for a while on the Divine Wind Boat, his eyes flashing with determination as he made his decision.
He first flew into the old cave abode on the stout, shorter peak. At the deepest part of the cave, he found a very hidden location and unleashed his magical artifacts to strike hard at the ground.
Half a day later, an underground passage began to take shape. This tunnel, two to three zhang in diameter, headed straight toward the base of the peak.
But when this passage was more than a dozen zhang lower than the base of the peak, Han Li suddenly changed direction, and the tunnel turned toward the other peak, only two or three li away.
Although Han Li's magical artifacts were exceptionally sharp, and with Qu Hun's assistance, this massive undertaking still took two full days before the two peaks were successfully connected.
Subsequently, following the pattern of his old cave abode in Tian Nan, Han Li carved out a new cave abode inside the taller peak.
Everything in this cave abode was identical to the one in Tai Yue Mountain.
The only difference was that this time, he did not create an exit. Apart from the connecting tunnel, it was completely semi-enclosed.
This was where Han Li would truly cultivate and grow his spirit herbs.
Having both a real and a fake cave abode made things much safer.
After completing the cave abode, Han Li set up the "Inverted Five Elements Formation"—the first set he had obtained—near the exit of the stout, shorter peak.
But after flying between the two peaks and hovering in the air for a while, Han Li still felt uneasy.
He simply took out two more formidable formation arrays from the set of formation tools Xin Ruyin had gifted him: the "Gale Wind Formation" and the "Illusory Phantom Formation," along with their respective formation flags and disks.
Both of these formations had a wide coverage range. Once deployed, they completely enveloped both peaks within their boundaries.
While they were not as mystical as the "Inverted Five Elements Formation," even Foundation Establishment stage cultivators would find them troublesome to deal with.
This way, aside from a direct assault by a Core Formation stage cultivator, Han Li's cave abode was virtually foolproof.
High above the great formation, Han Li gazed at the hazy peaks veiled in milky-white mist, chuckled softly, then slowly flew into the mist and vanished.
Having entered the true cave abode.
Han Li did not relax and rest with a sigh of relief. Instead, he remained busy.
He first planted some spirit herb seeds in the newly excavated hidden herb garden. After all, even if he wanted to accelerate their growth, the seeds had to sprout into seedlings first!
Then Han Li buried the small bottle he treasured as his lifeblood in a corner of the herb garden, still covering it with the remnant of the magical treasure, allowing it to condense the green liquid through the small holes secretly opened in the cave walls.
Next, he carved out dozens of secret chambers of varying sizes and, following the insect-raising insights of the Spirit Taming Sect cultivators, modified the environment of each chamber one by one. He placed the pair of white spiders and the surviving exotic insects inside, and set up restrictions nearby to prevent them from escaping.
Of course, Han Li scattered some insect feed as well.
After completing these most important tasks, Han Li did not take pills to meditate and refine qi. Instead, he carefully took out the gray-white jade slip obtained from the Emperor of Yue from his storage pouch. It recorded many bizarre and eerie secret techniques.
The "External Body Clone" technique he had been eyeing for so long was among them.
Han Li extended his spiritual sense into the jade slip and studied the cultivation method of this technique repeatedly several times before withdrawing his sense and falling into deep thought.
Previously, although Han Li had already made up his mind, upon careful deliberation now, he still felt that cultivating this technique carried considerable danger!
Because the jade slip stated clearly: once the clone refinement failed, the spiritual sense implanted in the clone would self-destruct and could never be recovered.
And if the cultivator's spiritual sense was not powerful enough, they would suffer severe damage to their spiritual sense. In mild cases, they would fall into a state of madness for a long time; in severe cases, they would be killed by the backlash of inner demons.
Moreover, even if the refinement succeeded, this so-called "External Body Clone" was merely a high-level puppet that could cultivate independently and be manipulated freely.
It was vastly different from the legendary ability of one person splitting into two, completely transforming into multiple individuals—a true immortal technique!
However, Han Li had the "Blood-Condensed Five Elements Pill" in his possession, giving him an excellent chance to enable his clone to condense an "Evil Pill." This was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity to possess a Core Formation stage puppet guardian!
Even if it was only at the early Core Formation stage, this would grant him the ability to protect himself against Core Formation stage cultivators from now on.
Furthermore, the most critical and difficult prerequisite for cultivating a clone—having a suitable body that possessed spiritual roots but was completely undamaged physically—was something he had long obtained.
That was Qu Hun, this soulless refined corpse.
In principle, extracting a cultivator's primordial spirit, especially that of a low-level cultivator, due to the aggressive nature of the extraction technique, would mostly damage the body's meridians, making it basically impossible to cultivate techniques anymore. This was why so many cultivators were greatly surprised to find that Qu Hun, as a refined corpse, still had fluctuations of spiritual energy.
Because while it was possible for the body to remain unharmed after extracting a cultivator's primordial spirit, this was entirely a coincidence—one in a hundred at best.
And unfortunately, this secret technique for refining the "External Body Clone" required not only that the body remain unharmed after extraction, but also that the original cultivator had been at or below the sixth level of Qi Refining.
This made finding a suitable body even more difficult.
Han Li did not know why this peculiar requirement existed, but he speculated it probably had to do with making it easier to control the body after implanting the split consciousness.
Although he did not know how Qu Hun had been coincidentally created by Yu Zitong and Doctor Mo, Qu Hun indeed met all the conditions perfectly. He was the ideal body for refining a clone.
As for the Emperor of Yue, he had probably extracted the primordial spirits of countless low-level cultivators before stumbling upon a suitable body by chance.
Otherwise, he should have been able to refine more than one clone.
Han Li sat cross-legged on the ground, pondering for a long time, and finally decided to cultivate the Great Origin Art to the second level before attempting the clone refinement. Only then would failure in the refinement cause no significant harm. He now had firsthand experience of the Great Origin Art's miraculous effect in strengthening spiritual sense.
Of course, before cultivating the Great Origin Art, he first needed to restore his cultivation to the early Foundation Establishment stage. Because the secret technique of "External Body Clone" could only be practiced by cultivators who had reached Foundation Establishment.
And after the clone refinement was complete, regardless of whether the clone technique succeeded or not, Han Li would have to experiment with cultivating the "Three Revolutions Repeated Essence Art."
After all, only this technique and the "Green Origin Sword Art" were the key to whether he could achieve Core Formation and step onto the great path!
After Han Li had thought through his future cultivation plans, he entered the secret chamber of the cave abode and began taking pills to refine qi.
Currently, he was still only taking "Yellow Dragon Pill" and "Golden Marrow Pill," two low-grade pills.
The Foundation Establishment Pill was still too potent for him. It would be more appropriate to wait until he reached the seventh level before taking it.
According to his estimation, without the Foundation Establishment bottleneck, he should be able to enter the Foundation Establishment stage quite quickly.