Chapter 14: Mysterious Liquid

“Roar!” Han Li raised one hand, clenching his fist, and let out an excited shout.

At that moment, his childish nature was fully revealed.

It seemed his hypothesis was correct: closed doors and windows obstructed the bottle’s ability to attract the white threads of light. Only in open, unobstructed spaces could the bottle fully exert its power to draw in the light threads, forming a larger glowing orb.

Though he didn’t know where these light threads came from or what use the bottle had for absorbing these tiny specks, this was a significant step toward unraveling the mystery.

Han Li felt he was close to uncovering the bottle’s secret, which filled him with intense excitement.

As dawn approached, the glow around the bottle gradually faded, returning to its calm state.

During this time, Han Li kept watch over the bottle’s changes while staying vigilant to ensure no one else discovered what was happening.

He bent down to pick up the bottle and inspected it. Compared to before, nothing had changed—the cap remained tightly sealed, impossible to open.

Disappointed, but seeing that it was getting late, Han Li reluctantly put the bottle away.

He had to hurry back to the stone chamber to meditate and practice his technique.

For the next several days, at a specific hour each night, the bottle repeated the same phenomenon. Countless light threads, like moths to a flame, were drawn to the bottle and transformed into numerous tiny specks, greedily absorbed by it.

Just as Han Li thought this would continue nightly, on the eighth day, something different happened.

When he took the bottle to its usual spot and set it down, the light-absorption phenomenon lasted only half a quarter of an hour before stopping. Then, the dark green patterns on the bottle suddenly emitted a dazzling green light, and several golden-yellow characters and symbols appeared on its surface. These strange characters, with their flowing structure and peculiar strokes, carried an ancient charm and flickered and moved across the bottle’s surface.

This unusual phenomenon lasted only a moment before vanishing, leaving only a few protruding golden characters on the bottle, as if everything had returned to normal.

After the strange occurrences over the past few days, Han Li was no longer as shocked by such phenomena. Even stranger events on the bottle wouldn’t surprise him much anymore.

He casually picked up the bottle and instinctively tried to open the cap. To his surprise, with a gentle twist, the cap came off effortlessly.

Unbelievable! Han Li stared at the cap in his hand, stunned.

It had been so easy, without any effort or technique, to solve the problem that had troubled him for days.

Once he confirmed that what had happened was real and that the bottle’s secret was now before him, Han Li could no longer contain his excitement. He brought his eyes close to the bottle’s opening and peered inside.

Within the bottle, a soybean-sized drop of emerald-green liquid slowly rolled, casting the entire inner surface in a shimmering green glow.

What was this? Han Li felt a twinge of disappointment. After all his efforts, he had only obtained this unremarkable thing.

Dejected, he sealed the bottle, tucked it into his leather pouch, and headed back to his residence, the earlier excitement completely forgotten.

Though he had opened the bottle’s cap, the result left him deeply dissatisfied.

Han Li decided to investigate the green liquid’s secret later, when he had nothing better to do. Perhaps it might bring him a small surprise.

For now, his priority was to get some sleep and catch up on rest. The past few nights of poor sleep had reduced his training efficiency during the day, and his lack of energy had already prompted questions from Doctor Mo.

Since becoming Doctor Mo’s personal disciple and breaking through the first layer of the technique, Han Li had felt a lack of motivation to continue practicing. The technique’s effects were so underwhelming that he couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to train.

Doctor Mo had scolded him harshly for this, but during training sessions, Han Li remained drowsy and listless, unable to focus.

This situation drove Doctor Mo to frustration, wondering if he had chosen the wrong disciple.

Thinking of this, Han Li felt a bit wronged. He didn’t want to be this way, but he simply wasn’t in the right state.

To his surprise, after waking up the next day, Han Li threw himself into training with full commitment and fervor.

The reason for this change was a single, casual remark from Doctor Mo: “For every layer you advance in this technique, I’ll double your monthly allowance.”

Doctor Mo had finally recognized Han Li’s desire for money and found the root solution. A simple sentence had bound Han Li to the chariot of relentless cultivation.

In the days that followed, Han Li trained tirelessly to reach the next layer of the technique.

From morning to noon, and noon to night, he entered the stone chamber twice daily to meditate, living a monotonous, repetitive life, casting everything else aside.

To ensure Han Li could focus on cultivation without distractions, Doctor Mo temporarily sealed off the God Hand Valley, conducting medical treatments outside and taking care of Han Li’s daily needs so he wouldn’t have to worry.

The bottle’s matter gradually faded from Han Li’s mind.

Autumn passed, winter came, spring gave way to summer. In the blink of an eye, four years went by, and Han Li was now fourteen.

He had grown into a dark-skinned, quiet, and determined rural youth. From his appearance, he was no different from any ordinary farm boy—unremarkable, neither handsome nor dashing.

His days were spent shuttling between the stone chamber and his residence, occasionally studying medicine under Doctor Mo or reading various books in his room. The valley became his entire world, and his technique naturally progressed to the third layer.