Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 218

It was actually Han Li’s first time attempting to cultivate something for over ten thousand years. Even when he was concocting pills, he only needed spiritual herbs that were at most one or two thousand years old.

Afterward, Han Li frequently visited the Heavenly Star City market while nurturing the bamboo with the green liquid.

The main material for the Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords, the magical treasure he was planning to make, was a tree with flowing spiritual energy. However, he also needed other rare auxiliary materials to refine it using the fire in his dantian [energy center].

Moreover, since it was a set of magical treasures, the quantity of auxiliary materials far exceeded the usual range. Han Li had collected some, but he was still far short, so he had no choice but to visit the market frequently.

Even so, the Chaotic Star Sea was much richer in resources than the Tiannan region.

Under the pressure of enormous prices, Han Li spent almost all of his fortune buying auxiliary materials. It was only after two years that he was able to obtain the required quantity. He barely managed to meet the quantity by selling even the demon cores of the demon beasts he had risked his life to keep.

Every time he saw the empty storage pouches, Han Li couldn’t help but sigh.

Refining a magical treasure, especially an outstanding one, was truly a difficult task for ordinary cultivators.

* * *

One day, Han Li headed to the herb garden with anticipation.

The green liquid he had dropped before starting his cultivation a few days ago was exactly the amount needed for ten thousand years. Now, the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo should definitely be a ten-thousand-year-old bamboo.

Recalling the immense power of the Golden Thunder Bamboo he had only heard about in legends, Han Li couldn’t calm his excitement.

The bamboo piece, which was only about two inches long at first, had completely changed. It had grown to almost a foot in length, and its entire body emitted a faint jade-green light.

Han Li stared at it for a while, then took out a dagger-type magical tool and shot it forward. The moment the magical tool touched the bamboo, golden lightning flashed.

*Crack!*

The dagger turned into green smoke and disappeared. He was startled by the unprecedented power, but he laughed loudly, expressing his joy.

He was very curious about what kind of face Zi Ling would make if she found out that the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo had turned into a Golden Thunder Bamboo. No matter how he thought about it, the deal he had made with the Myriad Sound Sect was too good for him.

After stroking the bamboo for a long time, Han Li became very curious about what changes would occur if he continued to nurture the bamboo. So, he continuously dropped the green liquid for several months, but there was no change in the bamboo’s color, shape, or power.

However, a new bamboo shoot sprouted next to the original bamboo. With the help of the green liquid, the young bamboo gradually grew, and after several months, it became a new Heavenly Thunder Bamboo. Han Li was overjoyed at this sight.

In fact, it was a bit of a shame to make the twelve Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords with only one Heavenly Thunder Bamboo, but if he could continuously grow new branches, all the problems would be solved.

With this, Han Li became even more ambitious.

Now that he had plenty of the main material, he wanted to challenge not just twelve, but the maximum number of seventy-two Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords.

Although it was impossible for him to refine and operate all those magical treasures with his current cultivation level, he could gradually refine them as he improved his achievements.

Since it was a set of magical treasures, it was recognized as one when stored in the body, and it didn’t matter how many he took out to use when operating them.

As these thoughts came to mind, his enthusiasm soared. Han Li fell into thought to make a meticulous plan.

The most difficult thing about refining a set of magical treasures was that the main materials were different, which lowered the success rate.

However, Han Li was going to make them with Heavenly Thunder Bamboo grown from the same root, so it didn’t matter.

The next important thing was the refiner’s skill and the auxiliary materials.

He had already collected almost all of the auxiliary materials. Since he would use the same kind whether he divided it into twelve or seventy-two, he didn’t think he would need to waste much time.

The biggest concern was that Han Li himself had no experience in refining magical treasures.

If it were a normal magical treasure, he wouldn’t have worried much and would have started refining it using the dantian fire. However, the Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords were different. Refining even one of the set was more complicated than other ordinary magical treasures.

Moreover, since they had to be operated as a set, they had to be engraved with special restrictions, which required knowledge of formations [magical arrays].

Han Li had a firm character, so after organizing his thoughts, he decided to refine the magical treasure as he wanted, despite the many difficulties. If he was going to make it, he wanted to make the best flying swords.

He spent a whole day pondering in his residence and then set a plan for his cultivation for the next twenty years.

* * *

A few days later, a small shop was newly opened in the Heavenly Star City market. The shop owner was an ordinary young man in his thirties, and a burly man with thick eyebrows was his servant.

The young man changed the shop name from the original Lee’s General Store to Azure Bamboo Abode, and at first, he sold talismans and miscellaneous materials. After half a year, he added low-grade magical tools to his sales items.

What was unusual was that the young man rarely came out of the shop. He would read old books all day, sometimes looking overjoyed, and often go into the house in the back of the shop and not show his face for half a day.

In those times, the servant was mostly in charge of greeting customers and doing business.

Most of the people who ran shops in the neighborhood were ordinary people who had grown up in Heavenly Star City and lived day by day. Only an old man named Ha had a very low-grade spiritual root and had reached the third level of Qi Refining [a stage of cultivation].

Although he was only at the third level of Qi Refining, Old Man Ha received great treatment from other ordinary people and was called Senior Immortal Ha.

When a young stranger started a business, the merchants immediately went to Senior Immortal Ha to ask about him. The old man told them that the young man was an ordinary person who did not feel any magic power.

With this, the others were relieved, and they sometimes went to visit the owner of the Azure Bamboo Abode to chat.

Anyway, it was a small shopping area in a rather secluded place, so there were not many customers even if they waited all day. In the midst of this, a strange young man appeared, so it was not bad to have a new topic of conversation.

However, the young man was not used to interacting with others, so he spoke little and rarely stepped out of the shop. Even when others visited him, he would just listen.

Moreover, he was reluctant to talk about himself, so even when others asked, he would only answer with a smile.

As time passed, people gradually lost interest, and they bothered the young man of the Azure Bamboo Abode less. The young man secretly breathed a sigh of relief at this result.

The young man and the servant were Han Li and Qu Hun, who had changed their appearances with a spell. Although it was a simple spell that wandered the world, it was enough to deceive the eyes of ordinary people and low-level cultivators.

Han Li opened a shop here to gain experience in the secular world and to gain knowledge of magical tool refinement and formations.

When he was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he was in a hurry to make a decision, so he didn’t pay attention to it, but now that he had become a Core Formation cultivator, he needed to improve his skills in magical tool refinement and formations while nurturing the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo.

That was why he couldn’t put down the books on magical tool refinement left by Xie Yunxiao and the books on formations given by Shen Yuyin.

He didn’t expect to reach the same level as the two in just twenty years, but he thought he would be greatly satisfied just by learning some of it.

How great would it be if he could create simple formation magical tools himself!

These skills could not be learned just by reading books and memorizing them. It was a field where progress could only be made by making and making with one’s own hands.

As a result, there was no suitable place to dispose of the low-grade magical tools that came out of practice. It was a waste to throw them away, but they were useless to keep.

Moreover, every time a new idea came to mind and he made various magical tools, it was not easy to go to the market to buy what he needed and return.

Another reason he came out into the world was that the cultivation of the Great Evolution Technique required a process of cultivating the mind by going out into the secular world.

If he did not go through the process of fully understanding the emotions of ordinary people, there was a risk of falling into a demonic state while cultivating.

Considering these various things, Han Li decided to buy and run a shop.

There were few customers walking around in this area, so he was not disturbed while refining magical tools or studying formations, and he could actually live among secular people.

It was also convenient to buy materials and sell the things he made, so it was the perfect place.

He was very happy when low-level cultivators occasionally visited the shop and bought the magical tools he had made.

Of course, he returned to his residence every few days to take care of the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo and the Gold Devouring Beetles, and he left two Blood Jade Spiders to guard the cave.

But soon, something surprising happened.

When the first Heavenly Thunder Bamboo finished growing and the second Heavenly Thunder Bamboo, which grew from the same root, was five or six thousand years old, the first bamboo suddenly fell off from the root and dropped all of its few leaves, leaving only the bamboo stalk. The leaves it dropped were a bright, pure gold color.

He was not sure what the leaves could be used for, but Han Li did not throw them away carelessly and stored them well in a storage pouch. Of course, he also put the jade-green Golden Thunder Bamboo back into a box made of jade.

He was planning to start refining the Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords when he had collected about six or seven Heavenly Thunder Bamboos in this way.

Thus began Han Li’s secular life, hiding his magic power.

Every day, he did his best to learn skills and silently observed the people around him. And he kept their complex feelings and lives in his memory.

The life of the secular world was different from the world of cultivators, and it was colorful with joys, sorrows, and the cycle of life and death.

For several years, Han Li was able to savor the meaning of life, various emotions, and sentiments that he had forgotten.

Whatever kind of emotion it was, Han Li took the time to reconsider and reflect on it from the perspective of a cultivator. As he did so, his refining skills improved, and his understanding of formations deepened.

The Azure Bamboo Abode, which Han Li ran, was also gradually gaining word-of-mouth as the years went by. It was known for selling cheap but decent magical tools, and people were happy that they could sometimes get rare mid-grade talismans on lucky days.

As the rumors spread, visits from low-level cultivators also increased. The magical tools and talismans were, of course, refined by Han Li himself.

Talismans containing mid-level magic could be attempted as long as there was talisman paper made from old spiritual herbs, but it was even better to use the skin or parts of rare demon beasts. Then the power would increase, and the success rate of talisman refinement would also be much higher. However, the skin of the demon beast needed for each talisman was different, so not just anything could be used.

Fortunately, Han Li had kept the related materials in preparation for such times. Otherwise, he would not have been able to make talismans even after learning mid-level magic, or he would have had to buy materials again.

Han Li, who used to use ordinary demon beast skin, began to produce various special talismans as he got the hang of it.

These talismans mainly contained offensive magic, and since he produced and sold one or two every one or two months, the first person to buy them was the winner.

Han Li, being a Core Formation cultivator, did not need these talismans, but they sold very well to Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment cultivators who needed mid-grade talismans, leaving him with a good profit.

However, mid-grade talismans had many limitations, and even when using demon beast skin, the success rate was very low. He would only succeed once in every 20 or 30 attempts. If it were not for this limitation, he would have made a fortune by selling mid-grade talismans.

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