Spiritual Vein Objects were so miraculous that they naturally drove all those who sought the Heavenly Dao crazy! Every time a Spiritual Vein Object appeared, it would cause a bloody storm in the local cultivation world!
However, in the current Yue Kingdom’s cultivation world, these Spiritual Vein Objects had long fallen into the hands of the Seven Great Sects. After all, even if a small sect or clan obtained such treasures, it would only bring about their own destruction.
For example, the Yellow Maple Valley possessed one Spirit Stone and three Spirit Springs, among other Spiritual Vein Objects. All of them had been unceremoniously divided among several Core Formation stage or higher cultivators. Even Sect Leader Zhong did not have the chance to claim one.
Of course, the Nascent Soul stage Patriarch naturally took the lion’s share first.
Now, Han Li never expected that by simply bringing an ordinary Twin-Pupiled Mouse and spending just over a day, he would so easily find a Spiritual Vein Object nearby.
Although it was only the lowest-grade Spirit Spring among Spiritual Vein Objects, and the spring eye was pitifully small—likely with limited efficacy—a Spiritual Vein Object was still a Spiritual Vein Object. At the very least, it would allow for much faster cultivation than in an ordinary spiritual vein! Even if it only increased cultivation speed by half, it was still a good thing!
However, while overjoyed by the unexpected fortune, Han Li also felt somewhat puzzled.
Wasn’t it said that Spiritual Vein Objects should only form in places with the densest spiritual energy? Yet the spiritual energy around this mountain peak wasn’t particularly dense! How could one form here? And such a miniature Spirit Spring at that! While delighted, Han Li couldn’t help but feel a tinge of regret.
But since a pie had fallen from the sky, Han Li certainly wouldn’t let it go.
Although Spirit Springs could be moved, that was a technique only Core Formation stage cultivators possessed. Han Li was not yet capable of such a feat. So, naturally, he decided to build his cave dwelling right here and designated this Spirit Spring cave as his secret cultivation room, intending to conceal it carefully.
Han Li immediately began expanding the passage he had cleared out.
Wielding the silver sword in one hand and manipulating several golden blades with the other, Han Li embarked on the great task of carving out his cave dwelling. Meanwhile, the Twin-Pupiled Mouse plunged headfirst into the Spirit Spring and refused to come out, directly falling into a deep sleep within the spring water.
Relying on the sharpness of the silver sword and the number of golden blades, after half a day of hard work, a cave dwelling of considerable size began to take shape.
He carved out thirteen rooms of varying sizes and three large halls covering several acres.
Although the walls of the rooms were still rough and lacked refinement, they were at least habitable! This allowed Han Li to breathe a sigh of relief, and he stopped working.
At this moment, he suddenly remembered the Twin-Pupiled Mouse. Hurriedly taking this opportunity, he returned to the Spirit Spring, grabbed the little beast by the scruff of its neck while it was still sound asleep, and then flew several hundred miles away on his artifact before releasing it, allowing it to return to the Qilin Pavilion on its own.
The cave dwelling Han Li built had only one exit for the time being. So after returning, he immediately set up a small Illusory Maze Formation at the exit using five small flags and over a dozen low-grade spirit stones, following the method described in the jade slip. This completely concealed the exit with the formation. From the outside, it still appeared as an intact mountain wall, making it impossible to detect the presence of an additional cave.
After completing the most basic protection, Han Li used the silver sword to carve out a simple stone bed and hastily lay down to fall into a deep sleep. He was truly exhausted!
In the following days, Han Li remained constantly busy.
First, he found a flat piece of land in a hidden spot near his cave dwelling and scattered some spiritual medicine seeds.
Among these were both ordinary medicinal herb seeds he had brought from the mortal world and seeds of exotic flowers and plants he had collected from the Hundred Medicines Garden over the years. This place would become Han Li’s own medicine garden, from which all future accelerated spiritual medicine seedlings would emerge.
For the remaining time, Han Li also found some relatively hard bluestones on the mountain. Using them, he carved out stone tables, stone chairs, and other utensils, placing a set in each room. Finally, he carefully smoothed all the walls and embedded some Moonlight Stones, illuminating the cave dwelling as bright as day.
Thus, Han Li’s cave dwelling was preliminarily completed.
However, it was clear that the cave’s defensive capabilities were utterly fragile, making it impossible for Han Li to feel at ease cultivating here. In his opinion, it should at least have an all-encompassing restriction like the Hundred Medicines Garden. Otherwise, if external enemies invaded during cultivation, it would be disastrous!
Han Li was an outsider to formation arrays and didn’t even know how to set up the most basic ones, let alone more powerful restrictions.
However, he had no intention of learning! After all, the path of formation arrays was as vast as the sea. If he divided his attention to study it, it would take at least ten or twenty years to achieve minor success! And it would absolutely delay his own cultivation—a loss Han Li could not afford.
Perhaps there were geniuses in this world who could deeply study formation arrays without delaying their own cultivation, or even freaks who could use formation arrays to advance their cultivation. But Han Li knew very well that he was not one of them.
If he were to divert his attention even slightly in this regard, it would undoubtedly extinguish the last glimmer of hope he held for achieving Core Formation.
Fortunately, however, there were formation flags and formation plates in this world—portable and easy-to-set-up formation artifacts.
Although using such methods generally made it impossible to set up powerful restriction-type great formations, Han Li only needed an average-level formation to defend his cave dwelling to feel mostly at ease for now. Besides, if it really came to it, he could simply set up multiple restrictions. Quantity could also compensate for some defensive flaws.
Coincidentally, the Tianxing Sect of the Yuanwu Kingdom was renowned throughout the cultivation worlds of several nearby countries for its formation arrays. Formation flags, formation plates, and other restriction-type artifacts were refined in large numbers each year and flowed into the cultivation world to exchange for needed spirit stones, materials, and other items.
Han Li set his sights on the Tianxing Sect’s market, believing it would surely have the restriction-type artifacts he needed.
Thus, in the following time, as soon as a few medicinal herb seeds sprouted, Han Li immediately began using the green liquid to accelerate their growth. He planned to use a thousand-year medicine herb to exchange for the items he needed at the Tianxing Sect’s market. This time, he would only release this one thousand-year herb to avoid raising suspicion and attracting unnecessary trouble by releasing too many.
In just over two months, Han Li had accelerated the growth of the thousand-year herb.
Then, he took the herb and other exchangeable items and flew north. For example, the complete materials of the Ink Flood Dragon and the centipede’s hard shell, etc. If the price was right, Han Li wouldn’t mind exchanging them, as he similarly had no intention of diverting his attention to study artifact refining.
While flying on his artifact, Han Li wore a cloak as a precaution.
A distance of over a hundred miles was nothing to Han Li, whose magic power had greatly increased, and he arrived in less than half a day.
Upon entering the Yuanwu Kingdom, Han Li began looking around in the air. On one hand, he was searching for the Tianxing Sect’s market, and on the other, he was quite curious about everything in the Yuanwu Kingdom. However, from the scenery, it didn’t seem much different from the Yue Kingdom!
The Yuanwu Kingdom, like the Yue Kingdom, was a medium-sized country in the nearby region.
Although these two countries were not even one-third the size of the large countries Tianluo Country and Fengdu Country, they were much stronger than nearby small countries like Jiang Country and Shayun Country.
In this region, there were only two large countries, but over ten medium-sized countries. As for the smaller ones, several dozen were densely distributed throughout the nearby areas. Moreover, he had heard that even further away, there were super-large countries, unimaginably vast.
In the Yuanwu Kingdom’s cultivation world, the righteous and demonic factions were equally matched, resulting in a stalemate. The Tianxing Sect was one of the core factions of the righteous path, possessing strength no less than that of the Yellow Maple Valley.
Just as Han Li was pondering matters related to the Tianxing Sect, the leaf-shaped artifact under his feet suddenly sank, slowly descending to the ground as if it had instantly lost its flying function.
Faced with this unfavorable situation, Han Li was not alarmed but instead showed hints of joy. It seemed he had arrived near the Tianxing Sect’s market; otherwise, there wouldn’t be a no-fly restriction in place.
Sure enough, after landing on the ground, Han Li walked north for seven or eight miles when a complex of buildings, three times larger than the Yellow Maple Valley’s market, appeared before his eyes.
The Tianxing Sect’s market was very unique, completely different from the Yellow Maple Valley’s! It was centered around a massive pavilion twenty to thirty zhang high, surrounded by other buildings only one-tenth its height. The entire market was arranged in a radial circular pattern.
Because the plaque on the central pavilion was extremely large, Han Li could clearly see the three huge silver characters “Stardust Pavilion” from one or two miles away. It seemed there was no need to ask; this pavilion was undoubtedly the Tianxing Sect’s own shop!
The distance of one or two miles was covered by Han Li in the blink of an eye.
Following habit, Han Li did not act rashly. Instead, he took a slow stroll around the market’s periphery to get a slight understanding of the situation here.
To say the least, there were indeed a few shops here that broadened Han Li’s horizons and made him eager to try them out!
One artifact refining shop accepted materials from cultivators at any time to refine various artifacts according to the material owner’s requirements. Moreover, the shop’s proclaimed capabilities were quite boastful, claiming it could refine everything from low-grade to top-grade artifacts. If refining failed, it would return twice the spirit stones based on the material’s value. Of course, if you didn’t have materials and directly wanted to custom-order an artifact, that was also possible, but the price certainly wouldn’t be cheap.
Another talisman-making shop had content surprisingly similar to the artifact refining shop, also accepting custom orders for talismans!
Other slightly unusual shops included a Spirit Beast Garden, which specialized in selling various tamed demon beasts and even housed a few top-tier first-grade demon beasts. It seemed like a good idea to buy one back as a guardian spirit beast.
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