Chapter 231: Inviting Trouble

Flying at full speed, Han Li returned to his cave dwelling in no time.

Without a word, he first found the jade slip for the formation that Qi Qi Yunxiao had given him. Then, he immersed his mind into it, carefully reading the usage of that set of formation magic tools.

Han Li intended to put everything else aside and set up the cave dwelling's protective formation first. After all, the place where those people were fighting was too close to here, which made him feel very insecure!

The layout of this Upside-Down Five Elements Formation was very simple and clear.

One had to insert the formation flags and formation disks into the correct positions and bury them underground, then arrange a few spirit stones into a small formation as required, embedding them at the formation eye to provide sufficient spiritual power for the entire formation.

In this way, the formation could immediately begin to operate. The owner of the formation only needed to understand some simple manipulation techniques to use the main formation flag in their hand to drive the formation to shift through different patterns, trapping and confusing enemies.

Han Li inserted the magic tools as required and buried the ones that needed to be buried. Then, gritting his teeth, he embedded several mid-tier spirit stones. This was half of all his spirit stones! It made his heart ache for a long time. But to ensure the formation's power wasn't compromised, he had no choice but to endure the pain and part with them!

Although if he took out some aged spiritual herbs, Han Li could easily exchange them for a large number of spirit stones at the marketplace. But doing so would increase the chance of his secrets being discovered and him being captured for interrogation exponentially. If he wasn't cautious, like the scene he saw today, who knew if he would be the one surrounded one day! Han Li thought helplessly.

He tested the formation's operation, and it looked quite good. But the specific power of trapping enemies and defending would have to wait until an external enemy invaded to be verified. However, just the fact that it could shroud the dozens of acres around the cave dwelling without revealing the slightest anomaly from the outside made Han Li feel it was well worth the price!

Only then did Han Li feel at ease. He returned to his bedroom and began to consider his cultivation problems.

To have a chance of luckily entering the Core Formation stage, one needed a top-tier cultivation technique, one-in-a-million aptitude, great opportunities, and many other conditions to be met before there was even a tiny glimmer of hope.

Compared to that, the difficulty of Foundation Establishment was nothing at all! After all, as long as one had good enough aptitude and one or two Foundation Establishment Pills, the chance of successfully establishing a foundation was still quite high.

But for Core Formation, even if one possessed all the aforementioned conditions, the number of cultivators who could truly succeed was still very few. Therefore, the appearance of every Core Formation stage cultivator was almost always a time for a sect to hold a grand celebration, and it would quickly spread throughout the local cultivation world.

The reason the Yanyue Sect could become the number one immortal sect in the Yue Kingdom, besides having over a thousand Foundation Establishment disciples—far exceeding other sects—was that their number of Core Formation stage cultivators also far suppressed other sects, with over a dozen of them, enough to look down upon the other six sects!

Han Li knew his aptitude was a complete mess, definitely far inferior to other Foundation Establishment disciples. As for cultivation techniques, he had only obtained a "Qingyuan Sword Art" which was very lackluster, and he absolutely couldn't practice it yet! Opportunities were ethereal things, depending entirely on one's personal luck.

Looking at it this way, for now, everything seemed very unfavorable to Han Li!

But after some analysis, Han Li believed that although his aptitude was poor to the extreme, he possessed the mysterious little bottle that could ripen spiritual herbs and could open a furnace to refine pills. This was not something that couldn't be compensated for. As for opportunities, they were not something human power could grasp, so he didn't need to consider them. The only path he could strive for now to increase his own chance of Core Formation was to find a top-tier cultivation technique suitable for himself.

Once the thought of finding a cultivation technique arose, the first person Han Li thought of was his "cheap" master, Li Li Huayuan.

Since the other party had accepted him as a named disciple, shouldn't it be time to teach him some cultivation techniques? After all, the other party had already successfully formed a core; perhaps he could even offer some guidance on choosing a technique!

Thinking of this, Han Li decided to return to the Yellow Maple Valley early tomorrow morning to inquire about his master's cave dwelling so he could go and seek advice! The other party probably didn't even know the news of his successful Foundation Establishment yet.

Come to think of it, it was truly ridiculous! Ever since Li Li Huayuan accepted him, he had never summoned him once. For these past few years, he had almost treated him, this named disciple, as if he didn't exist, which made Han Li feel very uncomfortable!

Of course, in his depression, Han Li wouldn't take the initiative to go to his door, making people feel he was too tactless!

But now that he had successfully established his foundation, he really had to find this master! As a disciple, he was actually completely in the dark and had to ask outsiders about it, which was truly extremely embarrassing!

Han Li thought to himself with self-mockery for a while, then smiled bitterly and slowly fell asleep on the stone bed.

He didn't know how long he had slept when a sudden, violent tremor jolted Han Li awake from his dream. Still in a state between waking and sleeping, he hadn't figured out the situation yet and almost thought the shaking was just his own illusion.

But another violent tremor followed, causing Han Li's last shred of sleepiness to vanish. Because besides the shaking of the ground, there were also rumbling explosion sounds coming from outside the cave dwelling. It was clearly someone touching his restrictions and forcibly attacking his formation!

Han Li was both shocked and angry! He immediately took a few strides, ran out of the bedroom, and rushed toward the outside of the cave dwelling.

When the dense light arrows and light beam attacks outside the cave dwelling, along with the mechanical puppets covering the entire sky, fell into his eyes, Han Li was so startled he nearly bit his tongue.

What was going on? To avoid inviting trouble, he had deliberately not intervened in yesterday's events. But now that he had returned to his residence, why were they coming to his door instead? And looking at their aggressive appearance, it didn't look like there was any misunderstanding. Could it be that he had been tampered with or followed when he flew away yesterday?

In the moment of crisis, Han Li's mind became much clearer, and various countermeasures surged into his heart in the blink of an eye.

"Listen up, people inside! You'd better hand over the person who fled here. As long as you hand the person over to us, we will never harass the owner of this place again! My friend, why must you offend our Thousand Bamboo Sect and block disaster for others!"

Perhaps seeing that their fierce offensive had been completely neutralized by the restrictions of the Upside-Down Five Elements Formation without showing any effect, a man's persuasive voice rose from the air. It was precisely Huang Long's voice.

Hearing this, Han Li couldn't help but look over.

He saw a giant emerald bamboo raft suspended in the air where the puppets were most numerous. Standing on it were six or seven people in different attire, the one in front being the Huang Long who had just spoken. Behind him, besides the man and woman Han Li had seen before, there were four more lean men who looked exactly the same—they were actually rare quadruplet brothers! It seemed reinforcements from the Thousand Bamboo Sect had arrived.

When Han Li heard the demand to hand over the person, he was stunned. With full suspicion, he looked into the formation, only to see a person lying face down near the cave entrance, motionless and unknown whether dead or alive!

Seeing this person, Han Li's suspicion was resolved, but his heart felt even more bitter!

Where couldn't this Senior Brother Lin have run? He had to stumble into his cave dwelling's range, bringing him such big trouble. How was he supposed to deal with this? However, seeing the great power of this incomplete formation, which could block such a violent offensive, Han Li felt much more at ease and was no longer as panicked as he had been at the beginning.

So, after frowning, Han Li held a formation flag, parted the formation, and walked toward this Senior Brother Lin.

When Han Li used both hands to forcefully flip Senior Brother Lin's body over and looked carefully at his face, his expression immediately became extremely ugly, and he couldn't say a word!

Because there was nothing to say to a dead person! At this moment, Senior Brother Lin's face was pitch black, blood was flowing from his seven orifices, and he had long since stopped breathing!

Han Li sighed, hesitated for a moment, then reached out to search the other party's chest. He wanted to see if he could find the storage bag containing the puppets. Han Li was now very interested in this method of fighting with numbers.

But just as Han Li's hand lifted a corner of the clothing, a green, eerie ball of light suddenly flew out from the other party's chest, shooting straight toward Han Li's face like a meteor. This made Han Li exclaim "Aiya!" in shock, and his body fell backward!

But just as the light ball was about to touch Han Li's face, a white light suddenly flashed on Han Li's right hand. Like lightning, he grabbed back and actually caught the green light ball firmly in his hand. The light ball squeaked and groaned in pain!

"Spare me, Junior Brother! Senior Brother was also harmed by enemies and was forced into this! As long as Junior Brother is willing to let me go, Lin guarantees I will definitely give Junior Brother a huge benefit!" A voice suddenly transmitted into Han Li's mind—it was Senior Brother Lin begging for mercy and promising great profit.

"You were just trying to possess me, weren't you?" Han Li didn't ask about the profit, but instead said with a gloomy face.

"This... indeed! But Lin was just confused for a moment. I will definitely compensate Junior Brother for the shock! I hope Junior Brother is magnanimous and won't hold it against me!" Senior Brother Lin's voice came through, sounding somewhat awkward as he apologized repeatedly.

【End of Chapter】 ***