Mei Peiling had continuously treated Han Li with a neutral indifference during her visits, as he prefered. It would be best for him to have this woman forget that this medicinal garden even existed. If she stopped paying him any visits, it would be very convenient for his cultivation.
After yet another month passed, Han Li had finally grasped a near complete understanding of the Spirit Constraining Formation and immediately placed one down around the mountain in accordance to his understanding.
As a result, the faint spiritual Qi fluctuations of the spell formations had completely vanished. From the outside, the small mountain appeared completely ordinary, much to Han Li’s satisfaction.
In the next three months, Han Li had both fully refined the Weeping Soul Pearl to completion and expelled the Wind Spirit Energy in its entirety, far quicker than he had originally expected. But what surprised Han Li the most was how he didn’t feel any illness or headaches upon connecting his spiritual sense to the Weeping Soul Pearl when he completely refined it. It seemed that the Weeping Soul Beast’s unexpected evolution had also caused the deathly Weeping Soul Pearl to also undergo a strange transformation. Han Li was overjoyed by the discovery.
As for the harmful Wind Spirit Energy, although it had been difficult and exhausting to expel it from his body, once he had expelled a majority of it, it had become far easier to deal with. Not only was the harmful energy less painful to handle, but he was able to expel it from his body in much less time. The last several strands of energy had been extremely easy to rid himself of.
After carefully examining his body several times to find no abnormalities, Han Li eventually felt relief.
With the most vital matters already taken care of, Han Li focused his attention to cultivation and the medicine pill refined from the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng.
He pondered for several days on the matter of cultivation before deciding to simultaneously cultivate the fourth layer of the Great Development Technique and the Azure Essence Sword Arts. According to his previous experiences with forming a golden core, a powerful spiritual sense seemed to greatly benefit in breaking through bottlenecks. Even if the fourth layer of the Great Development Technique was extremely difficult, Han Li planned on giving it a try.
Even if spiritual sense didn’t provide a particularly large benefit in condensing a Nascent Soul, it would at least prove greatly beneficial when confronting an enemy.
While this path may somewhat increase the time it would take to reach the false Nascent stage, Han Li didn’t believe the choice was incorrect as he would only lose a bit of time at the worst.
As for the matter of refining the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng, Han Li couldn’t afford to be negligent. While the other materials were easily replaced, the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng, the grade eight Demon Echo Grass and the Agate Horn were nowhere to be found in the Heavenly South. If he were to fail in the pill refinement process, Han Li would be left without any alternative.
As a result, Han Li began to study the formula for the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng in between his cultivation. He often refined a few various pills in accordance to the techniques described in the formula in order to improve his own pill concoction techniques.
Time began to slowly pass by as he repeatedly cultivated and refined pills.
During this period, Han Li had also taken the time to learn demon script in preparations to comprehend the old hide book and the copper plate in his possession so that he could finally learn what they contained. By making use of his eidetic memory, Han Li was able to easily grasp the ancient demon characters and began to look through the details of the hide book.
The old hide book contained a demon art known as the “Nine Gale Transformations”. After taking a look at it, Han Li discovered that the technique was specialized for bird-type demonic beasts. It contained a series of spell arts, body techniques, and two secret techniques.
The spell arts and body techniques were out of the question. Unless a powerful demon were to cultivate it, one would find their body bursting halfway as they cultivated it.
As for the two secret techniques, one of them was the nameless concealment technique that he had been using this entire time, the Hidden Wind Technique. However, the nameless concealment technique was slightly altered from the original in order to become more suitable for human cultivators. It currently held no value to Han Li apart for reference.
However, the other secret technique that was described was of much interest to Han Li, the Bloodshadow Evasion Technique.
As the name implies, Bloodshadow Evasion was a strange movement technique that draws support from one’s blood essence and allowed one to flee over fifty kilometers in an instant.
Secret techniques that drew support from one’s blood essence in order display great abilities were something that most Devil Dao cultivators were capable of. However, this Bloodshadow Evasion was quite different from the secret techniques of humans.
First of all, one is incapable of controlling the distance traveled with this technique. When this technique was activated, one would instantly turn into a crimson blur as they shot over fifty kilometers away.
Secondly, this secret technique required a large, fixed amount of blood essence. Once the technique was activated, the blood essence for this technique would immediately ignite. However, if one lacked enough blood essence to use the technique, the technique would cause one’s body to rupture halfway through and turn into a cloud of gore. It was a truly dangerous technique.
Lastly, activating this technique required a pair of wings. Because Bloodshadow Evasion was too fast, without any wings to maintain balance and a particular body lightening technique, the technique could cause one to crash into the earth after traveling only a short distance, or return back to where one started. In brief, a clean escape would be an impossibility without them.
Han Li carefully read through the secret technique several times. No matter how he saw it, he felt that it was very suitable for him to cultivate.
While other humans might not have wings, Han Li had the Thunderstorm Wings. The treasure’s spirit wings were no different from true wings.
If the Bloodshadow Evasion was truly as amazing as described, then it was an optimal technique for escaping. After all, the Thunderstorm Wings could only use lightning evasion to travel over a small area. It would only be able to flicker incessantly and would be incapable of making a clean escape.
After committing the cultivation method of Bloodshadow Evasion to his memory, he started to look through the copper plate.
The copper plate didn’t have a name for its techniques and its descriptions made little sense. Han Li also found the strange cultivation postures unfathomable. After glancing at the techniques it recorded, Han Li was left particularly confused.
After all of this, Han Li faintly recalled what the flood dragon had said. This Divine Provenance Plate seemed to be damaged beyond use. It was no wonder why he couldn’t make sense of the plate.
After realizing this, Han Li grew greatly dispirited and could only put the plate away.
From that day on, Han Li added the Bloodshadow Evasion to his cultivation routine in addition to the Great Development Technique and the Azure Essence Sword Arts.
Although he later felt that he had grasped the technique, he didn’t dare to rashly test it. A great decrease in blood essence wasn’t something that could be joked about.
This continued as half a year unknowingly passed.
One day, Han Li sat inside a quiet room as he cultivated the Great Development Technique when he suddenly opened his eyes. A strange expression flickered over his face as his body immediately glowed with azure light before he immediately shot out from his cave residence to the medicinal garden.
A short moment later, Han Li was standing in front of the medicine garden’s cottage with all of his puppets placed away.
He glanced to the southeast and pensively thought for a moment before taking a seat inside the cottage. He then steeped a cup of tea and assumed a relaxed position.
A short moment later, an extremely polite voice came from outside the medicine garden’s restrictions, “Excuse me, could you tell me if Senior Martial Sister Yuan is here? I am the Hidden Sword Mountain’s Kui Huan.” The young man’s voice seemed to contain a trace of urgency.
‘Senior Martial Sister Yuan? Was that the name of the original caretaker of the medicine garden?’
Han Li’s face remained calm as the new arrival shouted several more times. Han Li then downed his cup and slowly replied, “Senior Martial Brother, there is no need to shout. Senior Martial Yuan left this place half a year ago. This medicine garden is now being cared for by me. If you wish to find her, then you should pay a visit to Martial Aunt Mu’s cave residence.”
“What? The medicine garden changed caretakers?” The young man was astonished. From his tone, it seemed he wasn’t trying to find someone, but had come to the medicine garden for something else.
The man chuckled and amiably said, “Since Senior Martial Sister Yuan isn’t here, then Junior Martial Brother will do. Would Junior Martial Brother release the restrictions so that I may have a chat with you?”
Han Li rubbed his chin. From how elegantly spoken his words were, Han Li had no grounds to refuse him!
After some thought, Han Li walked out from the cottage and took out a yellow command talisman. With a flash of radiance, the mist surrounding the medicine garden began to slowly dissipate.
This revealed a yellow-robed young man that stood in the southeast of the restriction.
The man had thin eyes, thick eyebrows and a large, straight nose. His head was also slightly smaller than normal. Although his appearance couldn’t be said to be ugly, it was somewhat comical.
His cultivation was only at the ninth layer of Qi Condensation, somewhat inferior to Han Li’s displayed cultivation. It was unknown how this person was able to enter the Drifting Cloud Sect.