Chapter 161: Marketplace

After several nights of torment without sleep, Han Li, caught between the choice of wisely protecting his life but losing the chance for the immortal path forever, and taking extreme risks just to succeed in Foundation Establishment, gradually leaned towards the latter. After all, he was absolutely unwilling to live his life in such mediocrity!

However, being a naturally cautious person, he still ran to the Yuelu Hall before making up his mind. After confirming once again from the money-grubbing old man that there were no heavenly spiritual medicines outside the Forbidden Land and verifying the brutal reality of the Blood Trial, he completely abandoned any lingering hopes.

Since he understood there was no path of retreat, Han Li finally hardened his heart and decided to participate in the Blood Forbidden Trial and give it his all. Either he would succeed in finding the spiritual herbs and achieve Foundation Establishment, or he would fall and die in this forbidden ground struggle!

With a clear goal involving life and death, Han Li began to prepare for the forbidden ground trip in half a year. He wanted to elevate his strength to a higher level in this short time, so that his chances of survival would be a bit higher.

The eleventh layer of the Evergreen Technique could not be broken through without the aid of medicinal pills. If he wanted to increase his strength, the only ideas he could have were to learn a few more new spells and purchase some powerful talismans and magic tools.

New spells were fine; he assumed that if he mentioned it to Senior Martial Brother Wu, the other party wouldn't refuse to teach him. However, with his aptitude, in these six months, he could at most learn two more low-tier beginner spells or barely master one mid-tier beginner spell. As for high-tier spells, that was something he shouldn't even think about. Therefore, the fastest way to increase his strength was still through talismans and magic tools.

Speaking of magic tools, Han Li actually had quite a few now. But among those that could be of great use, besides the circular ring and small flag given by that Senior Martial Brother Ye, there were only two that could be used from the harvest of the two yellow-clothed men who had tried to rob him: the long blade that could turn into a rope, and the gourd that could spit out round balls to attack automatically.

As for the items like the Blazing Sun Sword and Cold Moon Blade that he received when he first entered the sect, those were just the lowest-tier magic tools with some fire and cold energy attacks attached to the blades, which couldn't be brought to the table at all.

As for talismans, Han Li was originally extremely lacking. But fortunately, that Senior Martial Brother Ye who had embezzled many of his things, besides deducting from the quantity of talismans, had not faked the tiers, and had actually given him more than ten mid-tier beginner talismans and two rare high-tier talismans, which gave him much more confidence.

In addition, there was that talisman with a small sword drawn on it that Han Li still hadn't figured out. This item, which the yellow-clothed man he had killed had exclaimed was a "Talisman Treasure," should be an item with a great background. It was just that as stolen goods that couldn't see the light of day, he had never dared to let others know about this talisman, only secretly keeping the term "Talisman Treasure" in mind, preparing to find a suitable opportunity to ask others about the meaning of the term.

Naturally, facing the terrifying "Blood Forbidden Trial," these things were definitely not enough, so Han Li planned to leave the sect once and go to the sect's marketplace near the mountain range to purchase some top-tier magic tools and talismans.

However, without a large amount of spirit stones as backing, this purchasing trip would definitely not be satisfactory.

Although Han Li could barely scrape together these spirit stones with his current wealth, these spirit stones were also important tools for saving his life and fighting a war of attrition in the future forbidden ground trip, which made him extremely reluctant to part with them.

After thinking it over three times, Han Li decided to cultivate a few rare herbs of over a thousand years in the short term to exchange for spirit stones or simply barter.

Actually, concocting the Beauty-Preserving Pill would be a better choice, and its value might be even greater, but the herbs required for the Beauty-Preserving Pill were just too many, and he couldn't gather the raw materials in time, so he could only exchange the herbs directly.

But to avoid attracting the covetous eyes of others in the sect, when Han Li made this plan, he secretly decided to only sell the cultivated herbs to outside cultivators and never trade herbs directly with people from his own sect, to avoid attracting the attention of those with ulterior motives.

Thus, with a plan in mind, Han Li began to get busy.

He first selected the most practical "Qi-Restraining Technique" from the many beginner spells from Wu Feng. This was an auxiliary mid-tier spell that could completely counter the Heaven-Eye Technique. As long as one was not seen by the naked eye after casting this spell, one could completely achieve the goal of restraining one's own spiritual energy and hiding.

Naturally, this spell would certainly have no effect on cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage; it was completely a means of confrontation between high-level cultivators at the Qi Refining stage, which was much more practical than the Invisibility Technique.

However, the reason Han Li didn't choose other attack or defense spells was entirely a decision made based on his own actual combat experience.

Because the only time he had fought with other cultivators, he discovered that the opportunities for cultivators to formally chant and cast mid-tier spells in battle were truly too few, and most of them relied on low-tier spells with the shortest casting time, as well as magic tools and talismans, to quickly launch attacks or defenses. So, if one wanted to use mid-tier or higher spells in a fight, using talismans was more practical. Naturally, if a companion helped you buy time to cast the spell, that was another matter.

After Han Li obtained the cultivation mantra for this technique and asked Wu Feng in detail about the tips for cultivating it, he began to practice it wholeheartedly. However, as a mid-tier spell, this Qi-Restraining Technique was absolutely completely different from the auxiliary spells like the "Wind-Riding Technique" and "Invisibility Technique" he had learned before. It was extremely difficult and awkward to practice; it seemed that mastering it completely within half a year was truly a significant challenge.

Just like this, Han Li practiced the "Qi-Restraining Technique" bitterly during the day, and at night, he collected green liquid and focused on cultivating a few common spiritual herbs. Moreover, to prevent that Senior Martial Brother Ma from discovering these herbs, he specifically staggered the time the other party came to collect herbs to cultivate them, and transplanted them to a very remote corner of the herb garden. After all, herbs over a thousand years old always had a slightly different medicinal fragrance.

But fortunately, this Senior Martial Brother Ma was always so punctual in coming to get things, neither early nor late, and every time he came in a hurry and left in a hurry, seemingly always busy, and who knew what he was actually busy with?

Han Li had no interest in knowing what the other party was doing. For him, it was best if Senior Martial Brother Ma could keep being this busy, so that he wouldn't interfere with his small actions and let him complete his herb-cultivation plan.

When Han Li had initially mastered the "Qi-Restraining Technique," more than four months had passed.

And he had finally cultivated two thousand-year spiritual herbs. He believed that in today's cultivation world, where herbs of over a hundred years were hard to find, they would definitely bring a small surprise to the Profound Heaven Sect's marketplace.

Han Li obtained the token for leaving the sect from Deacon Yu, whom he was familiar with at the Hundred Machines Hall, and left the mountain gate.

Profound Heaven Sect disciples could actually have one chance to go out every year, but as cultivators, no one would waste time going out, so very few disciples actually applied for it.

Furthermore, after Han Li flew away from the sect's forbidden array, he set his direction and flew towards the northeast, heading straight for the marketplace.

Speaking of which, the Profound Heaven Sect's marketplace was truly quite famous and much more prosperous than the marketplaces of other sects.

This was because Jianzhou, where the Taiyue Mountain Range was located, was tightly adjacent to the Yuanwu Kingdom to the north, and the cultivation world of Yuanwu Kingdom was not in a hostile state with the Yue Kingdom cultivation world. Therefore, Yuanwu Kingdom cultivators often appeared in the Profound Heaven Sect's marketplace to trade items, bringing many special items not found in Yue Kingdom. This had to be said to be an unexpected surprise, attracting many loose cultivators and people from cultivation families to come by reputation.

This marketplace was built on the northeastern edge of the Taiyue Mountain Range, so after flying for more than half a day, Han Li arrived at his destination.

After landing nearby, Han Li didn't rush over immediately, but changed into a gray cloth shirt and put away all the items on his body that could show he was a Profound Heaven Sect disciple. Only after he looked like an ordinary cultivator did he walk towards the marketplace.

According to the conventions of the cultivation world, cultivators were not allowed to fly in the sky within five miles of the marketplace, so Han Li encountered many hurried passersby along the way, some of whom were dressed very strangely, making Han Li suspect they were cultivators from Yuanwu Kingdom. Looking at it this way, the popularity of this marketplace was truly not bad.

While Han Li was blindly pondering in his heart, he had already arrived at the entrance of the marketplace street.

Net ===== CHAPTER 162 =====