Days passed one by one.
Han Li spent his days either maturing spirit herbs, preparing the "Yellow Dragon Pill" and "Golden Marrow Pill" he needed, or sitting in meditation cultivating qi, having thoroughly entered a period of bitter cultivation.
Of course, he would also follow the insect-raising insights of the Spirit Control Sect cultivators to regularly train his White Spider and other strange insects, which was his only amusement during cultivation.
But just as Han Li had estimated, it took him only a little over a year to reach the ninth level of Qi Refinement, an incredibly fast pace compared to before.
However, Han Li was still somewhat dissatisfied with this speed. After reaching the ninth layer, he steeled his heart and took three Foundation Establishment Pills in succession.
Relying on the powerful medicinal effects, Han Li spent another year or so before re-entering the Foundation Establishment stage.
At this point, he could finally use Innate True Fire.
Han Li immediately stopped preparing low-grade medicinal pills and began refining the several types of pills suitable for Foundation Establishment according to the formulas.
According to Han Li's calculations, except for "Qi Refinement Powder," which had become ineffective due to excessive consumption, the pills from the other three formulas should be able to advance his cultivation to late Foundation Establishment without issue.
However, according to the original plan, Han Li did not immediately deepen his cultivation through qi refinement. Instead, he only stockpiled medicinal pills and switched to cultivating the "Grand Evolution Art," preparing to refine his "clone."
Back when Han Li cultivated the first layer of the "Grand Evolution Art," it went surprisingly smoothly—he achieved it in only half a year.
This gave Han Li some confidence, knowing that while his aptitude for comprehending the Five Elements arts was poor, he had considerable talent in the "Grand Evolution Art." Therefore, he still held great confidence in cultivating the second layer of the "Grand Evolution Art."
According to the half-completed manual, after mastering the second layer of the "Grand Evolution Art," one's spiritual sense would become several times stronger, and one could split consciousness into over a hundred fragments. Only when this technique was combined with the puppet arts did the true terrifying power of the "Grand Evolution Art" reveal itself.
Although Han Li knew that cultivating the second layer would certainly be much more difficult than the first, the actual time required far exceeded his expectations.
What he originally thought would take two or three years actually required six years of dedicated day-and-night cultivation before Han Li barely managed to complete it.
That was nearly half the time longer than expected. This left Han Li utterly helpless!
During this period, the torment of forcibly training his spiritual sense—headaches and brain swelling—made Han Li's face pale whenever he recalled it, still filled with lingering fear.
Additionally, in the third year of cultivating the "Grand Evolution Art," the disciple of the middle-aged cultivator from Dengxian Pavilion, who had suffered greatly at Han Li's hands over the island trade qualification, actually arrived at Han Li's Small Planet Island to challenge him again, acting on that middle-aged cultivator's orders.
As a result, he was trapped in Han Li's formation array for three days and three nights before Han Li, who happened to be emerging from seclusion, discovered and released him.
It should be noted that due to the difficulty of cultivating the "Grand Evolution Art," Han Li had almost completely forgotten about this matter.
Facing Han Li, whose true cultivation was concealed by the nameless aura-concealing technique, this man—who had grown somewhat flustered and exasperated after being trapped in the formation for days—was naturally defeated by Han Li with just the right level of skill, leading him to believe that Han Li merely had sharper magical treasures. He had no choice but to leave in frustration.
Three more years passed after this incident. Having completed the second layer of the "Grand Evolution Art," Han Li prepared to cultivate the secret technique of "External Avatar."
He first rested for several days to bring his Nascent Soul to its strongest state, then called Qu Hun to the secret cultivation chamber and sat cross-legged facing him.
Han Li waved his hand to close the stone door of the chamber, then stared intently at Qu Hun across from him without speaking for a long while.
Looking at Qu Hun's ugly yet familiar face, Han Li couldn't help but feel a rush of complex emotions, recalling many long-forgotten memories—the "Seven Mysteries Sect," Colorful Cloud Mountain, and a group of familiar faces...
However, after meeting Qu Hun's vacant, lifeless gaze for a while, Han Li sighed and finally stopped hesitating. His hands moved like a windmill forming seals, and a faint azure light emanated from his body, bathing the chamber in a jade-green glow.
Soon, Han Li's face twisted slightly in the green light, tiny beads of sweat forming on his forehead, and his eyes emitted a blinding white radiance that no one dared to look at directly.
"Ha!"
Han Li suddenly let out a shout, his hands forming a strange seal. His body became motionless, but a green light orb the size of a thumb emerged from his nostrils and quickly flew to Qu Hun's nose, entering his body through the nostrils in the same manner.
At this point, Han Li's face had turned extremely pale, bean-sized beads of sweat rolling down, but the blinding white radiance in his eyes grew even more dazzling. Finally, two thin streams of white light shot directly from his eyes into Qu Hun's eyes. Both bodies trembled simultaneously...
The stone door of the secret cultivation chamber remained closed for over a month. It wasn't until mid-February of the following month that the door finally opened slowly, and Han Li emerged with an exhausted but extremely excited expression.
This clone refinement had finally succeeded after great effort. Although he didn't yet know how effective it would be, at least there was no backlash phenomenon, which greatly relieved Han Li.
However, upon leaving the secret chamber, Han Li immediately entered another stone chamber and began seclusion once again.
This refinement had significantly damaged his vitality. If he didn't immediately take pills and cultivate qi, he risked falling back into the Qi Refinement stage.
As for the avatar "Qu Hun" in the refinement, since the split consciousness had not yet fully mastered the body, it could only remain in the secret chamber to gradually adapt.
After just a few short months, Han Li had recovered his damaged vitality, but instead of leaving seclusion, he directly began studying the cultivation method of the "Triple Revolution True Essence Art."
The cultivation method of the "Triple Revolution True Essence Art" was very clear: when the cultivator's cultivation reached late Foundation Establishment, they should disperse most of their "Azure Essence Sword Art" cultivation, restart from early Foundation Establishment, and simultaneously compress and condense their True Essence, pushing the liquid True Essence of Foundation Establishment as close to solidification as possible. This would reduce the bottleneck resistance encountered during Core Formation.
According to the expert who created this technique, repeating this process three times should give about a fifty percent chance of successfully forming a Golden Core.
When Han Li dispersed his cultivation, he hadn't reached late Foundation Establishment but rather unexpectedly dispersed it at mid Foundation Establishment.
But he didn't care about this!
In Han Li's view, the difference between dispersing at late Foundation Establishment versus mid Foundation Establishment was merely a matter of having slightly more or less True Essence during compression and condensation.
As long as the general approach of compressing and solidifying True Essence remained unchanged, and he dispersed again at late Foundation Establishment the next two times, there should be no significant issues.
After studying the "Triple Revolution True Essence Art" for several months, Han Li felt he had thoroughly grasped the technique and entered the secret chamber carrying a large quantity of medicinal pills.
This time, he was determined not to leave the cave dwelling until he had completed the first revolution of this technique and advanced his "Azure Essence Sword Art" to the sixth layer.
As for Qu Hun, whose body had merged with him, Han Li had him continuously take pills and cultivate qi in preparation for Foundation Establishment.
Because Qu Hun possessed "Triple Spiritual Roots," which was much better aptitude than Han Li's, with the assistance of medicinal pills, his cultivation skyrocketed at a speed almost comparable to Han Li's own re-cultivation.
According to Han Li's estimation, in just two more years, Qu Hun could achieve Foundation Establishment.
Furthermore, Han Li had long since selected the demonic technique "Blood Refinement Divine Light" cultivated by Emperor Yue from the jade slips emitting gray-white qi, intending for Qu Hun to cultivate it after Foundation Establishment.
After all, he had witnessed firsthand how powerful this demonic technique was in Emperor Yue's hands.
As for the problem that this technique had no follow-up methods after Core Formation, preventing further advancement, Han Li didn't really care.
Because even if a Fiend Core was formed, this clone Qu Hun could only maintain early Core Formation cultivation. Whether there were follow-up methods made no difference.
When Han Li began cultivating, the time truly was not short!
As the saying goes, cultivation knows no time. In the blink of an eye, over twenty years had passed.
During this long period, Han Li truly never stepped out of his cave dwelling once, nor did he ever appear before the island residents again.
And Small Planet Island, ever since this immortal master Han Li arrived, had been virtually unaffected for the hundreds of residents in the town.
Those who fished continued fishing; those who farmed continued farming!
Of course, the two originally clearly visible mountain peaks had become obscured and blurred by dense white mist.
This initially made the mortal residents of Small Planet Island somewhat unaccustomed.
But as time passed, the townspeople grew used to this sight and eventually paid it no mind.
However, the adults in town would still warn the naughty children never to approach the white mist near the mountain peaks.
Because once a person walked in, they would become completely disoriented and unable to find their way out. Only after being trapped for several days, suffering greatly, and shouting "Master Han" several times would a path finally appear for them to escape.
After several such incidents occurred one after another, the townspeople naturally learned their lesson, understanding that this Master Han did not like to be disturbed.
But staying away from the peaks and only chopping wood or gathering fruit near Small Planet Mountain was perfectly fine.
And each year, when the town's protective formation array ran low on spirit stones, as long as the town head shouted toward the mountain peaks from outside the white mist, a year's supply of spirit stones would automatically fly out on a tray from within the mist, allowing the bearer to carry them back. This had never been delayed.
Of course, after twenty years, the original town head had long since passed away. The current town head was the dark-faced fisherman Hei Gui, whom Han Li had first met upon arriving at Small Planet Island, but his method of requesting spirit stones was equally effective.
In this way, while the residents of Small Planet Island could not be said to worship this Master Han Li devotedly, most of them held a rather favorable impression.
But on this day, Han Li still walked out of his cave dwelling.