Han Li thought to himself, “He finally asked about it!”
But on the surface, he feigned surprise and said, “Primordial Spirit? I didn’t see any Primordial Spirit. Did Senior Martial Brother Lin’s Primordial Spirit escape his body before he died?”
Han Li had already made up his mind: if the other party asked about the Primordial Spirit, he would firmly insist he knew nothing. After all, how could he possibly admit that the other had attempted a body seizure with his Primordial Spirit, only to end up having it destroyed by Han Li himself?
“You didn’t see it?” The chubby man looked at Han Li with a half-smile, his gaze making Han Li’s heart race nervously.
“Well, since you didn’t see it, it’s possible that this Junior Lin’s Primordial Spirit lost its way in the great formation and dissipated on its own,” the chubby man said indifferently after a moment, turning his face away.
Hearing this, Han Li breathed a sigh of relief.
However, he knew full well that the other party didn’t believe his story at all. But judging by Venerable Lei’s earlier attitude toward Lin’s life and death, he seemed completely indifferent and unlikely to investigate further.
After all, everyone knew that the first thing a cultivator’s Primordial Spirit would do after leaving the body was to attempt a body seizure to be reborn. In the formation, aside from Han Li, there was no other cultivator present, meaning Han Li was the only possible target. Since Han Li was perfectly fine, it was clear that Senior Martial Brother Lin had failed in his body seizure attempt and his Primordial Spirit had been destroyed.
As for whether Han Li’s body had been taken over by Lin’s Primordial Spirit, making it Lin who was now acting under Han Li’s guise—that would be obvious at a glance!
Body seizure was extremely damaging to the Primordial Spirit. Even if successful, it would take at least a month of seclusion to fully adapt to the new body. Any irregularities would be easily spotted by Venerable Lei.
So, both Han Li and Lei Wanhe knew exactly what had happened to Lin’s Primordial Spirit.
But the chubby man, having a fairly good first impression of Han Li and not bothering with such trivial matters, let it slide. Han Li, in turn, played dumb. No matter the reason, if word got out, he would be accused of harming a fellow disciple, which would be highly disadvantageous for him.
This incident, however, made Han Li feel that Venerable Lei was much more agreeable than his own master.
“Junior, your cave dwelling is rather crude! How can you receive guests like this? Although we cultivators aren’t too particular about such things, it should at least be passable,” Venerable Lei remarked leisurely, standing at the entrance of Han Li’s cave after settling the matter, seemingly in no hurry to leave.
Han Li smiled wryly. The cave had been hastily built in just a few days—how could it be refined? But Venerable Lei’s comment reminded him of something.
With a smile, Han Li said respectfully, “There are some matters I’d like to seek your guidance on, Venerable Lei. Would you be willing to step inside and rest for a moment while I explain? Also, I have some well-aged medicinal herbs I’d like you to authenticate, so I can use them for pill refining with peace of mind.”
“Medicinal herbs!” At first, the chubby man showed no reaction when Han Li mentioned seeking advice and inviting him inside. But when Han Li brought up the well-aged herbs, a faint smile appeared on his face, and he nodded in agreement.
Thus, Han Li led Lei Wanhe into the spacious main hall and seated him. Claiming he needed to retrieve the herbs, Han Li hurried to his storage room, fetched two reserve herbs aged six to seven hundred years, and returned to the hall.
The reason Han Li didn’t carry these herbs in his storage pouch was to preserve their potency over time. While jade boxes and other artifacts could temporarily store spiritual medicines, their efficacy would gradually diminish over time. Thus, almost every cultivator’s cave had a storage room with special barriers to ensure the herbs’ spiritual nature remained intact.
However, fearing that Venerable Lei’s spiritual sense might be powerful enough to detect everything in his storage room, including the Spirit Spring, Han Li had already activated the spiritual sense-blocking variation of the Reverse Five Elements Formation.
Now, if Venerable Lei tried to snoop around, he would likely be quite frustrated!
As the jade slip clearly stated, this spiritual sense-blocking variation, being simple and easy to implement, retained the full power of the original formation without any reduction—the only function that matched the authentic version.
After setting up the formation, Han Li had tested this variation himself. Indeed, his spiritual sense could only extend a few feet around him, unable to reach further.
Even though Venerable Lei was a Core Formation cultivator with spiritual sense far surpassing his own, Han Li guessed it wouldn’t extend beyond the several dozen feet of the main hall. This was why he dared to invite him in. Otherwise, if Venerable Lei’s spiritual sense swept through his storage room and the sealed Spirit Spring, there was a seventy to eighty percent chance he would entertain ill intentions.
Not inviting Venerable Lei into the cave would have been even worse, as it would only arouse more suspicion. After all, it would be highly unusual for a senior to visit a junior’s cave without being invited inside.
Even if Venerable Lei overlooked it initially, he might later reflect on it and find it suspicious.
Moreover, Han Li genuinely had matters to discuss with the chubby senior and wanted to build a relationship with him. After all, as a Core Formation cultivator, befriending him would bring significant benefits in the future.
While silently pondering this, Han Li walked into the hall holding two herb boxes. He opened them in front of Lei Wanhe and asked him to authenticate the herbs.
At that moment, Lei Wanhe was feeling quite displeased. When Han Li went to retrieve the herbs, he had indeed released his spiritual sense to probe the cave’s size and layout—not out of ill intent, but as a subconscious habit of a Core Formation cultivator. However, when his spiritual sense reached about ten feet away, it felt as heavy as a thousand pounds and could extend no further.
This shocked Lei Wanhe, and his expression turned grave.
He had encountered situations where spiritual sense was restricted before—in the caves of several close cultivator friends. It was clearly the effect of some kind of spiritual sense-blocking barrier.
But those friends were all Core Formation cultivators, so it was no surprise their caves had such barriers. This junior, however, was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, and his cave had just been built. How could it already have such a barrier? This was strange!
Lei Wanhe didn’t connect this barrier to the formation outside the cave.
In his view, the formation outside already had impressive defensive capabilities. If it also included additional variations like spiritual sense blocking, wouldn’t it be on par with the protective formations of some minor sects?
How could such a powerful formation appear outside the cave of a Foundation Establishment disciple?
Little did Lei Wanhe know that Han Li’s formation was a simplified version of the renowned “Reverse Five Elements Formation.” Even with only one-tenth of the original formation’s power, it was not far inferior to so-called sect-protecting formations.
Thus, when Han Li opened the herb boxes for him, Lei Wanhe was still absentmindedly pondering the matter. His eyes didn’t immediately focus on the boxes, as if he couldn’t care less.
But when his gaze finally fell on the two six to seven hundred-year-old herbs, his lazy demeanor vanished instantly! All thoughts of barriers and spiritual sense were thrown to the wind.
At that moment, Lei Wanhe’s eyes were fixed solely on the two spiritually vibrant herbs!
“These two spiritual herbs were acquired from outside at great cost. But my experience is too shallow, and I couldn’t determine their exact age, so I’ve never used them. Now that you’re here, Venerable Lei, it’s the perfect time to authenticate them for me!”
“Hmm…”
Lei Wanhe wasn’t listening to Han Li at all! After casually grunting in response, he carefully picked up one of the herbs to examine it closely.
Han Li observed his reaction inwardly and smiled. It seemed he had chosen the right herbs!
He had long heard that Core Formation cultivators craved spiritual herbs even more than Foundation Establishment cultivators. At the Core Formation stage, whether attempting to form a Spirit Infant or simply advancing their cultivation by a single level, the challenges were immense.
Thus, consuming large quantities of medicinal pills became the common method for Core Formation cultivators to enhance their power.
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