The door to Han Li’s hidden room wasn’t opened for several months. During this time, Silvermoon took note of what happened on the outside, preventing Han Li from missing his opportunity for entering Devilfall Valley.
With each pa.s.sing day, the miasma grew thinner and the number of cultivators near the Myriad Link Mountains grew. Additionally, a majority of them were gathering in a certain part of Birch Leaf City as it was the closest city to Devilfall Valley.
All of the various cultivators who acquired a Devilfall Medallion were all present and many of them had made a temporary cave residence nearby as they waited.
The spell formation Han Li arranged outside of the cave residence wasn’t a top grade restriction. As such, there were many cultivators that had discovered Han Li’s cave residence and there were a few that even wished to pay him a visit. But regardless of the sound transmission talismans that had arrived at the restrictions outside his residence, none of them were given a reply.
Although there were a few cultivators that weren’t very pleased at the fact that the cave residence’s master didn’t wish to see any visitors, they were unable to do anything about it as they didn’t know who the owner of the residence was. There was a risk of creating a formidable enemy.
However, Han Li’s behavior of refusing guests was the exception, not the norm. There were countless cultivators who arrived here, both proud and arrogant, but in the most dangerous area of the Heavenly South, they all felt the need to be careful. As a result, they either formed small groups of around five or joined together with their friends to enter Devilfall Valley.
Although there wasn’t much benefit in searching for treasures together with others, if anything dangerous occurred, they had better odds of survival than if they traveled alone. Under that mindset, even solitary and reclusive cultivators began to strive to make friends.
During that time, the miasma was near the point of scattering and Silvermoon was wondering whether or not it was time to call for Han Li to leave the hidden room. But before she could come to a decision, the door opened and Han Li calmly walked out.
In the several months he was secluded, Han Li had refined over thirty puppets in succession with the tortoise and tiger puppets equally divided in number. It was fortunate that Han Li had managed to acquire a large number of high-grade demon beast souls in his time in the Scattered Star Seas. Even if he had an abundance of all his other materials, he wouldn’t be able to craft anything without those powerful and rare souls.
When the Monarch of Soul Divergence saw Han Li readily taking out high-grade demon beast souls to refine personally researched puppet designs, he couldn’t help but call Han Li a young monster. But he said nothing else after that outburst.
When Han Li emerged, he still had enough materials to refine more puppets but reckoned that he didn’t have enough time for more, and there wouldn’t be a big difference with a few more puppets.
Since Silvermoon had been giving Han Li reports during the time he was refining puppets, he only nodded towards her and said nothing else.
He soon arrived at a dark room and watched the Sovereign Devil Corpse and saw that everything was in order, much to his satisfaction. Then he withdrew the corpse and had Silvermoon enter his sleeve before emerging from his cave residence.
Han Li immediately took off and arrived at the peak of the mountain of his cave residence. After sitting down cross-legged, he spread out his spiritual sense and slowly swept past the cave residences of the cultivators nearby. With his powerful spiritual sense, even early Nascent Soul cultivators wouldn’t be able to detect Han Li’s prying unless they were attentive. As a result, Han Li was able to sense everything within a radius of fifty kilometers with the exception of a few areas with particularly strong auras and restrictions.
But a short moment later, Han Li opened his eyes and shook his head with a frown. He didn’t find who he was looking for. With some thought, Han Li then glowed with light and flew towards the nearby market city. Given current circ.u.mstances, it should’ve gathered quite a profit by now.
The market city nearest to Han Li’s cave residence was opened by a large cultivator clan from the State of Dongyu. The clan had done this for ages and indifferently opened their market city despite the news of the treasure hunt in Devilfall Valley.
As a result, business thrived due to the appearance of a large number of high-grade cultivators. There were even a few common cultivators that took advantage of the thin miasma and harvested the resources that were exposed, managing to reap a profit without any intention of entering Devilfall Valley.
Inside a simple medicine shop in the market city, a white-clothed cultivator pair were pointing at a medicinal herb and talking about it with a shopkeeper. A short moment later, the three came to an agreement and the pair took out a pile of spirit stones, much to the delight of the shopkeeper.
The two cultivators were the only ones walking on the street at that moment. The scholarly youth smiled to his female companion and said, “Junior Martial Sister Yuan, our luck has turned out to be quite good. After spending only a short while in this market city, we managed to buy a Gold Spirit Branch. You’ve been looking for this herb for a good while. You can start refining the Breath Refinement Pill.”
“This was because of the spirit stones that Senior Martial Brother Bai lent me. Otherwise, I would’ve missed the chance.” The white-clothed woman had a common appearance, but her eyes were bright and spirited, adding a bit of seductiveness to her charm.
“Junior Martial Sister’s affairs are mine as well so this small number of spirit stones is nothing.” Although the white-clothed youth did feel a bit of heartache over the large purchase, he wore an expression of complete adoration towards the woman at his side.
The white-clothed woman pursed her lips in a smile but just as she thought to say something, a person suddenly appeared in their way. He immediately raised his hand and shot a yellow streak of light towards them. In his alarm, the white-clothed youth’s hand flashed with white light and he unconsciously caught the yellow streak of light in his hand before discovering that it was a s.h.i.+ning yellow command medallion.
The youth recognized the medallion and raised his head to look at Han Li in alarm. “The Heavenpeak Writ? You’re Senior Han?”
This youth was the Heavenpeak Disciple Bai Shujun, who had attempted to grab Han Li’s attention in the past through Mu Peiling. After Han Li arrived at the market city, he had immediately found him with his spiritual sense and rejoiced. Through him, Han Li should be able to find his master, the Heavenpeak Sect’s Lu Weiying. However, Han Li didn’t have a very good impression of this person and treated him without regard.
Without a trace of politeness, he spoke in an oppressive tone, “I need to see your master. Lead me to him, Fellow Daoist Bai.”
“Senior Han, you wish to see my master? I...” After closely inspecting the talisman in his hand, he respectfully replied, “Yes, I will bring you to him.”
Han Li was no longer a newly ascended early Nascent Soul cultivator. He was now an existence on par with the three Great Heavenly South cultivators. This had caused Bai Shujun to greatly regret his impudent actions from the past. Now that he had verified the command medallion, he promptly agreed in hopes of improving Senior Han’s impression of him.
As for the woman by his side, she examined Han Li with slight astonishment. With a flicker of her eyes, she remained silent.
Under the guidance of Bai Shujun, the three left the market city and flew off toward the east. After flying for over a quarter hour, Bai Shujun brought Han Li back to the Myriad Link Mountains. After heading in for a couple tens of kilometers, they arrived at a small mountain.
Han Li’s gaze swept past the mountain, observing that although the mountain was small, it was well hidden by the tall surrounding mountains. After activating the Brightsight Spirit Eyes, Han Li revealed a pensive expression after penetrating the mountain rock.
At that moment, Bai Shujun took out a sound transmission talisman from his robes and tossed it into the air. It flew into the mountain stone in a streak of fiery light and created a series of ripples throughout the wall before disappearing from sight.
Standing at Han Li’s side, the youth eagerly offered Han Li an explanation, “This is my master’s temporary residence. It is often concealed with the Minor Xumi Restriction. He gave his disciples orders that unless it was important, we were not to bother him. Even Junior Martial Sister Lu cannot rashly pay him a visit during this time. However, since Senior Han has sought him out, it must be important. My master definitely won’t scold me.”
When the woman heard the youth mention her, she snorted and wore an unhappy expression, but she remained silent in Han Li’s presence. She had already guessed who Han Li was. As Lu Weiyin’s descendant, she didn’t dare to be disrespectful in front of Han Li.
Han Li glanced at the woman at his side and casually asked, “Oh? Your surname is also Lu? Could you be Fellow Daoist Lu’s descendant?”
The woman sweetly smiled and said, “Elder Lu is my great uncle. However, I have heard of Senior’s famous reputation for quite some time.”
Han Li weakly smiled back but said nothing further. Azure light flashed from the wall in front of them, suddenly opening a six-meter-wide gate in the wall. A leisurely voice spoke from within, “Hehe! Fellow Daoist Han, you’ve finally come. If you hadn’t come, I would’ve had to personally go and find you. Please come in, I’m waiting for you in the main hall.”
Han Li smiled and wordlessly stepped inside. Bai Shujun and the woman surnamed Lu hesitated for a moment, but when they thought to enter, their master called out to them, “You two don’t need to enter. I have a few things to discuss with Fellow Daoist Han. You may head off and deal with your own matters.”
Although the two were somewhat shocked to hear his orders, they didn’t dare to disobey and respectfully acknowledge him before flying off.
Once Han Li entered the stone gates, the gates disappeared in a flash of azure light, restoring its original appearance as a stone wall.