“Exchange pill formulas?” The fat man’s originally smiling face immediately stiffened.
“Disciple knows that these pill formulas are treasures as precious as life to all senior brothers and uncles, so I’m not being picky! I only ask for something that can slightly increase my cultivation speed during the Foundation Establishment stage. I won’t be choosy at all!” Han Li said very sincerely.
Ever since a certain conversation with the little old man where Han Li learned about the specific situation of pill formulas in the cultivation world, he had been scheming to collect some formulas for his own use. After all, he possessed the secret technique of accelerating herb growth—how could he not fully utilize this advantage?
However, all the slightly better pill formulas were held tightly by Core Formation cultivators. Even if Foundation Establishment disciples had one or two formulas, they could only refine insignificant pills. Therefore, his original plan was to target his master, Li Huayuan. But now, having met this Uncle Lei, Han Li immediately changed his target.
No matter how you looked at it, this Uncle Lei seemed much easier to deal with than his master.
This wasn’t just because Han Li felt that Li Huayuan was too stingy with his nominal disciple, but also because their master-disciple relationship made things more complicated and difficult.
If he used the same method on Li Huayuan today, his master might just casually praise him with “Your filial piety is commendable!” and rightfully take the two spiritual herbs, while Han Li would have to put on a grateful expression, thanking his master for accepting them.
Now that he had finally encountered another Core Formation cultivator, he naturally had to seize this rare opportunity!
“Want to exchange pill formulas? That is indeed a troublesome matter.” Lei Wanhe, as if thinking of something, finally relaxed his expression but then furrowed his brows deeply, looking uncertain.
Seeing this, Han Li wasn’t disappointed at all. Instead, he inwardly cheered, “There’s definitely a chance!” Otherwise, Uncle Lei wouldn’t have such an expression.
“As long as it’s useful to this disciple, any pill formula will do. This nephew won’t make things too difficult for Uncle!” Han Li quickly lowered his standards another notch.
“Nephew Han, Uncle does have some good pill formulas here, but these are all secret formulas passed down within the family. I really can’t bring them out for exchange!” Lei Wanhe still shook his head, speaking regretfully.
Han Li was extremely disappointed, and he didn’t hide it at all, showing it clearly on his face. The fat man saw it all but then chuckled and said, “Although I can’t exchange the family’s pill formulas with you, I do have a few ancient formulas! Some I found myself in ruins, others I obtained by exchanging with friends. There’s no problem exchanging these with you.”
“Really? Then this disciple thanks Uncle greatly!” Han Li was overjoyed and hurriedly expressed his gratitude.
“Wait, let me finish speaking first. You can thank me later!” The fat man waved his hand dismissively.
“Since we’re exchanging, I, as your uncle, must clarify some things first.” The fat man said seriously, which made Han Li slightly stunned.
“Please speak directly, Uncle. This disciple will listen carefully to your teachings!” Han Li immediately replied respectfully.
“What teachings? I just want to be blunt first, so you don’t regret it later!” Lei Wanhe glanced at Han Li and said lightly.
“If you refine pills according to these ancient formulas, they are indeed genuine top-grade spiritual pills. But the key is, the ingredients for these formulas are too hard to find now! I really don’t know if you can gather all these materials. Of course, these ingredients are just difficult to find—they definitely still exist in this world. They’re not like some other ancient formulas whose ingredients have been extinct for who knows how many years! In fact, most of the newly developed pill formulas nowadays are just constantly finding substitute ingredients based on original ancient formulas through repeated experimentation. This way, although the ingredients for pill refining are available again, the efficacy has also decreased significantly. This is truly a helpless matter in the cultivation world!”
Han Li listened to the fat man’s words in a daze, but he understood the other’s meaning.
“Uncle means…?”
“Very simple. After you get the formula, if you really can’t gather all the ingredients, you can try finding some substitutes to experiment with. There might be some possibility of success!” The fat man said solemnly to Han Li.
Han Li was speechless upon hearing this! But he understood clearly in his heart: this uncle probably felt that the formula he was going to exchange with him was too difficult to gather ingredients for, and felt somewhat guilty, hence giving him this heads-up in advance.
It seemed this Uncle Lei wasn’t too bad at heart! Han Li thought to himself, but on the surface he still maintained an obedient appearance, repeatedly agreeing and stating that he would never regret exchanging for the formula.
Seeing this, Lei Wanhe felt happy but still thought he was taking too much advantage of this nephew and felt somewhat guilty! So after thinking for a moment, he said:
“Alright then, you have two spiritual herbs here, so one herb for one formula. Uncle can’t let you suffer too much loss.”
Hearing this, Han Li was slightly stunned but then ecstatic. His favorable impression of Uncle Lei immediately shot up several notches!
He repeatedly thanked Lei Wanhe, this time wholeheartedly and without any falsehood.
“Alright, this is the formula catalog. Pick two! It contains all the pill effects and required ingredients. After you choose, I’ll copy the real formulas for you!” As he spoke, the fat man took out a jade slip and threw it to Han Li.
While excitedly receiving it, Han Li also felt somewhat strange—when had this uncle prepared this catalog?
But this question only flashed through his mind momentarily before Han Li took the jade slip and carefully searched for suitable formulas.
“Just this Convergence Spirit Pill and Qi Refining Powder!” Han Li said excitedly after withdrawing his consciousness from the jade slip.
“Convergence Spirit Pill, Qi Refining Powder?” The fat man nodded lightly upon hearing this, said nothing, and immediately took out two other jade slips from his storage bag, tossing them over.
“Alright, it’s getting late. I should be going back now!” The fat man happily put away the spiritual herbs on the table and immediately prepared to take his leave. Now that he had all the ingredients, he was eager to go back and refine his own Yuan-Increasing Pill!
Hearing this, Han Li quickly stood up to see him off.
But when they reached the cave entrance, Han Li suddenly remembered something and asked about his current master Li Huayuan’s whereabouts and the location of his cave dwelling.
The fat man was quite surprised to hear that Han Li was actually Li Huayuan’s nominal disciple, but still told him the location before mounting a silver light and flying away.
Han Li watched as Lei Wanhe completely disappeared from the sky before happily taking out the jade slip containing the formulas and playing with it for a while. After a long time, he finally turned to go back into the cave.
But Han Li had only taken two steps when something near the cave entrance caught his attention. Looking over, it was actually Senior Brother Lin’s corpse curled up there, still in the same position as when the fat man had thrown it.
Han Li paused for a moment, then walked over without hesitation. Arriving before the corpse, he began searching it.
He remembered clearly that Uncle Lei hadn’t touched anything on the corpse. Whether it was because he felt embarrassed in front of a junior or simply looked down on a Foundation Establishment disciple’s possessions, he didn’t know.
Sure enough, Han Li found a storage bag inside the corpse’s clothes.
This made Han Li beam with joy! After all, he was very interested in those puppets—surely there should be a whole bunch of them in the other’s storage bag!
But when Han Li checked the storage bag, the smile gradually disappeared from his face. Because there wasn’t a single puppet in the storage bag—aside from a few spirit stones and two bottles of ordinary pills, there was only an inconspicuous jade slip. This immediately extinguished Han Li’s enthusiastic expectations.
“He clearly controlled so many puppets that day. How come there’s not a single one now? Were they all destroyed?” Han Li murmured to himself, looking very unhappy.
Han Li’s guess was actually quite close to the truth.
That day, Senior Brother Lin had been able to fight evenly with his opponent because he could control many puppets. But later, when the Quadruplets of the Thousand Bamboo Sect killed the two fleeing cultivators, they came to support. Seeing the situation turning bad, Senior Brother Lin immediately detonated all his puppets and took advantage of the enemy’s disarray to break through the encirclement. Hence, there weren’t any mechanical puppets left in the storage bag!
Disappointed, Han Li casually took out the jade slip. Then, as if going through the motions, he sent his spiritual sense into it and casually glanced at the contents.
As a result, Han Li’s eyes suddenly widened, and his previously lazy expression froze solid.
Because as soon as his spiritual sense entered the jade slip, three large golden characters appeared: “Great Development Technique”!
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