The lives of mortals were indeed quite different from those of cultivators, filled with joys and sorrows, partings and reunions, birth, aging, sickness, and death.
In just a few short years of observation, Han Li had tasted many flavors he had long forgotten—both positive feelings and negative emotions alike.
But whichever kind it was, each one stirred his state of mind to a certain degree, letting him experience it anew and then, from a cultivator's perspective, reflect upon it and come to fresh understanding.
At the same time, his skill in artifact refining and his grasp of formations also gradually improved, bit by bit, as the days accumulated.
Most notably, after a year or two, Han Li's "Green Bamboo Cottage" had gradually gained a modest reputation in the surrounding area.
At Han Li's shop, cultivators could often pick up magic tools that were cheap yet performed quite well. Some lucky ones even happened to buy rare intermediate talismans in the store.
Once this news spread within a small circle, low-level cultivators immediately came flocking.
The magic tools and talismans were, of course, refined by Han Li's own hands. Since entering the Core Formation stage, he had finally been able to cast some of the intermediate spells he had long envied.
Although they were only the crudest few among intermediate spells, Han Li was extremely satisfied all the same.
However, talismans of intermediate spells could not be refined from ordinary talisman paper; the raw material had to be the hides of certain rare demon beasts. Moreover, each kind of intermediate talisman placed its own strict and particular demands on the beast hide—not all demon beast hides could be used interchangeably.
Fortunately, Han Li had thought of this in advance when selling off that batch of demon beast materials, and had held back a large quantity of the materials suitable for making talismans.
Otherwise, even after learning the spells, he still would have had no way to refine the talismans.
Han Li first practiced with the inferior beast hides, and only on a day when he felt his condition was good would he use the precious materials to refine a few special talismans.
Those practice talismans were basically all offensive-type spells. Every month or two, Han Li would put one or two of them out for sale, and whoever spotted one first could claim it.
Judged by the standards of Han Li's Core Formation cultivation, these talismans, set against the might of magic treasures, had truly become like chicken ribs—of little flavor, yet a pity to discard—and there was no use in keeping them.
But Han Li had clearly underestimated the allure intermediate talismans held for those Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment cultivators. Even after he raised the talismans' prices one after another, cultivators still unhesitatingly dug out spirit stones to buy them, earning Han Li quite a tidy little sum.
The pity was that intermediate talismans were extremely difficult to refine. Even with so many demon beast hides to practice on, Han Li's success rate was pitifully low—roughly one success for every twenty or thirty talismans he attempted.
Compared with his success rate for elementary talismans, Han Li could only smile bitterly.
If not for that, Han Li could have become a wealthy moneybags among immortal cultivators on intermediate talisman sales alone.
In addition, as Han Li's artifact-refining skills improved, mid-grade and upper-grade magic tools also began appearing in the shop in greater numbers, making the name of the "Green Bamboo Cottage" ring ever louder. Fortunately, this fame was only a small stir among low-level cultivators, so Han Li had no fear of inviting any trouble.
But in the ninth year since his arrival, Han Li, combining some simple formations he had comprehended on his own, began groping his way toward refining formation flags and formation plates.
Thanks to the relevant insights provided by Qi Yunxiao and Xin Ruyin, Han Li could avoid many detours and master some crucial little techniques.
But even so, refining a complete set of formation tools was still an exceedingly difficult matter for a newcomer to the craft like him, and not something that would show results in a short time.
But Han Li was in no hurry. After reaching Core Formation, he had all the time he needed to slowly accumulate experience and insight.
Besides, what mattered most now was to ponder, in the course of refining other things, the method for refining the "Azure Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords," so as to ensure success on the very first attempt...
After all, when it came time to refine this magic treasure, there would be no spare material to let him try a second time.
Thus, amid refining magic tools and studying formations, Han Li's days passed one by one.
Spring went, autumn came!
Before he knew it, Han Li's modestly famous "Green Bamboo Cottage" had been open for more than twenty years, and Han Li had taken on the appearance of an old man in his fifties.
This was of course not Han Li's true appearance. Only to conceal his ever-youthful countenance had he been forced, as time flowed by, to disguise his looks as those of an aging man.
Meanwhile, the present Han Li was standing in the backyard of the shop, gazing at everything around him, his heart filled with peculiar feelings.
Just the day before, he had handed the shop over to another person, finally bringing his life among the mortal world to an end.
For only a few days earlier, the long-awaited sixth stalk of "Golden Thunder Bamboo" had finally been ripened to ten thousand years of age, so he had to return to his cave abode to refine his magic treasure.
Having lived here for more than twenty years, even a man as unshaken as Han Li still felt a faint trace of attachment at the moment of parting.
This stretch of life in the market was bound to become a rare spell of ease and comfort in his journey of cultivation.
Just then, a burst of loud shouting came from the shop next door, and at the sound of it Han Li could not help but smile knowingly.
Without even probing with his spiritual sense, he knew the neighboring shopkeeper must once again be recommending to a customer that "prized treasure of the store," which had sat unsold for seven or eight years because no one was willing to buy it.
This neighbor had inherited the business from his father; the old shopkeeper from when Han Li had first moved in had gone home to enjoy his remaining years four years ago.
Although the old shopkeeper's son had a fiery temper, he was a fairly honest man. It was just that when doing business, he was forever bawling out boasts about the goods in his store at the top of his voice, which truly left quite a few cultivators from out of town gaping at him in a daze.
Han Li gave a soft sigh, shook his head lightly, and then, with Qu Hun, who was standing in attendance in the front hall, walked out of this "Green Bamboo Cottage."
Before long, the figures of the two men vanished completely from that corner of the market.
As soon as he returned to his cave abode, Han Li took a whole host of artifact-refining materials straight into the secret chamber and set up outside it one of the small formations he had comprehended over these years.
This formation served no other purpose, but it could effectively conceal fluctuations of spiritual energy—perfectly suited for Han Li to use while refining his magic treasure.
He had no intention of letting others spy on him halfway through the refining of his treasure.
Then, Han Li sat quietly in meditation inside the secret chamber for three days and three nights, until his spirit and magic power were in their best possible state, before he began the business of refining the treasure.
First, he took the paste jade box out of his storage pouch and set it flat on the ground before him.
Then he opened the lid, revealing the six verdant stalks of Heavenly Thunder Bamboo inside.
Han Li gazed at these bamboo stalks gravely, drew a deep breath, and then extended a finger to lightly tap one of the green stalks in the box.
In an instant, that foot-long stalk of Heavenly Thunder Bamboo flew out of the box and hung motionless in front of his chest.
With a solemn expression, Han Li formed a hand seal, and a flowing sheen appeared on his face as a layer of azure light gradually emerged.
As the azure light grew denser and denser, Han Li opened his mouth, and a wisp of azure pill fire as slender as a thread shot from his lips, landing squarely on the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo before him.
With a crackle, a strand of pale-gold electric arc appeared on the surface of the bamboo, unceremoniously walling off the pill fire and refusing to let it come half a step closer.
At this sight, a gleam flashed through Han Li's eyes. The azure pill fire immediately thickened by several notches, and in an instant it enveloped both the electric arc and the body of the bamboo together in the azure flames, beginning the long process of refinement.
The pill fire consumed quite a lot of magic power, but fortunately Han Li had long prepared for this. The moment he released the pill fire, both of his hands each gripped a deep-azure spirit stone and began drawing in the spiritual energy within; and when even the spirit stones could no longer keep up, he would casually take out a pill from his pouch and swallow it.
Even if these pills could not be converted into magic power at once, the ample spiritual energy they contained was more than enough to give Han Li, prepared as he was for a protracted battle, full confidence to proceed.
Three days passed, and the electric arc on the surface of the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo finally dissipated as the bamboo's own spiritual power ran dry. With nothing to block it now, the azure pill fire burned directly onto the body of the bamboo itself.
Several days later, signs of melting appeared on the bamboo's surface; in some places it began to glimmer faintly, seeping out dense swarms of tiny droplets of various colors.
After more than ten days of this in a row, all the impurities in the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo were finally purged, and Han Li refined it into a fist-sized lump of deep emerald-green liquid.
It looked incomparably thick and viscous!
Looking at this not-so-large lump of liquid, Han Li greatly relaxed. As long as the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo could be refined, everything that followed would be much easier.
With that thought, Han Li halted the pill fire in his mouth and put away the spirit stones in his two hands.
Then he spread the ten fingers of both hands, and ten filaments of spiritual light, slender as fiddle strings, shot out and plunged right into the green liquid.
Afterward, Han Li's fingers flicked without pause, and under the pull of the light filaments, the lump of liquid began to spin and change shape.
Drawn by the filaments of light, one small piece of green liquid separated from the main body and likewise floated in the air nearby.
Then a second piece, a third piece...
When the last piece had separated, twelve identically sized lumps of liquid were hanging in the air.