The cultivation world of the Yue Kingdom, located in the heart of the Tianlan region, had seen countless conflicts over the past several centuries, with long periods of peace few and far between.
First, the six great sects of the Yue Kingdom had been crushed by the Devilish Dao. Afterward, several Devilish Dao sects had fought amongst themselves for control of the kingdom, and the Ghost Spirit Sect had emerged victorious. But a century ago, the Spirit Command Sect had seized the opportunity when the Ghost Spirit Sect was severely weakened from the Battle of the Fallen Devil Valley, suddenly rallying several other sects to attack, and had once again driven the Ghost Spirit Sect out of the Yue Kingdom.
Today, the Yue Kingdom had been jointly partitioned among several sects led by the Spirit Command Sect. And given the Spirit Command Sect's strength, it naturally claimed nearly half of the spirit veins and spirit mines in the Yue Kingdom for itself.
A certain spirit stone mine located deep beneath a great canyon was one such vein that had fallen under the Spirit Command Sect's control.
The spirit stone reserves here had once been fairly abundant, but after centuries of relentless mining by the six Yue Kingdom sects, the Ghost Spirit Sect, the Spirit Command Sect, and others, the spirit stones had finally been nearly depleted. The mine now sat in a state of semi-abandonment.
Nowadays, the Spirit Command Sect had left only two low-stage Qi Condensation disciples to stand watch here, with no other cultivators present.
On this day, the two Spirit Command Sect disciples were idly chatting at the mine entrance about various events within the sect, when above them on the surface, a figure cloaked in green had used an Earth Escape Technique to silently burrow underground, appearing directly inside an inconspicuous cave at the very deepest reaches of the mine.
From beginning to end, neither disciple had noticed a thing.
A flash of yellow light, and the figure revealed himself to be an unremarkable-looking young man. He glanced toward an empty corner of the cave, and a faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
This man was none other than Han Li, who had journeyed all the way from the State of Xi.
A month ago, after emerging from seclusion in the State of Xi, he had not found Nangong Wan, whom he had been somewhat worried about.
Unlike Han Li, during the more than hundred years of seclusion, she had emerged several times to travel extensively throughout the Tianlan region, seeking to temper her state of mind.
And by the time Han Li emerged, Nangong Wan had already re-entered her cultivation chamber several years prior to continue the next stage of her seclusion.
Han Li felt somewhat disappointed, but he would not disturb her. He simply sent her a voice-transmission talisman to inform her of his upcoming long journey, then went to meet Lu Luo and Liu Yu in the Falling Cloud Sect.
Upon seeing Han Li, the two were naturally overjoyed.
Over the years, thanks to their vigorous development, the Falling Cloud Sect's influence had grown by leaps and bounds, long since becoming one of the most prominent sects throughout the entire Tianlan region. And the woman surnamed Song from White Wind Peak had successfully condensed her Nascent Soul within these hundred-plus years, becoming the Falling Cloud Sect's fourth Nascent Soul cultivator.
Han Li was quite pleased to hear this. But what surprised him even more was that after years of searching, Woman Song had finally found a disciple with an innately powerful spiritual sense over a decade ago. However, due to Han Li's seclusion, this person had been training independently within the sect. It was said that his spiritual root aptitude was quite good as well—he was a cultivator with dual-attribute spirit roots.
Han Li's interest was immediately piqued, and he summoned the disciple at once. The disciple turned out to be a somewhat thin but fine-featured youth of sixteen or seventeen.
Han Li personally tested the youth.
The young man's spiritual sense was indeed extraordinarily powerful by nature—nearly double that of his peers. More importantly, his temperament was honest and steady. Han Li was very satisfied.
Without beating around the bush, he directly asked the youth whether he was willing to take him as his master.
The youth, named Shi Jian, already knew of Han Li's identity. Hearing that Han Li—renowned as the Tianlan region's foremost cultivator—wished to take him as a disciple, he was beside himself with joy. Without a moment's hesitation, he knelt and kowtowed to Han Li, immediately becoming his disciple.
Han Li let out a hearty laugh, then brought the youth back to the Parent-Child Peaks, where he carved out a cave dwelling on one of the subsidiary peaks for Shi Jian and gave him a copy of the Myriad Provisions Scripture.
Besides instructing the youth to be sure to cultivate the Myriad Provisions Technique, he left the rest of the techniques recorded in the book for him to choose from and cultivate as he saw fit, without imposing further restrictions. And given the Myriad Provisions Sovereign's legendary genius, the techniques and secret arts recorded in the Scripture were truly numerous.
Of course, Han Li also left this still-Qi-Condensation-stage disciple a sufficient supply of pills, and summoned Tian Qin'er—the young girl who was also his disciple—to oversee Shi Jian's training for a period of time.
Speaking of which, although Tian Qin'er possessed the Dragon's Cry Physique and her cultivation had been intermittent, with the support of a massive supply of pills delivered by her humanoid puppet, she had finally reached the mid Foundation Establishment stage after more than a hundred years. It seemed that just as Han Li had predicted, the possibility of this girl achieving Core Formation was not out of reach.
After taking in the youth, one matter that had been weighing on Han Li's mind was finally settled.
Back when the Myriad Provisions Sovereign passed away, he had asked Han Li to find a disciple to carry on the lineage of the Myriad Provisions Scripture. Han Li planned that once the youth's cultivation reached Core Formation or above, he would immediately bestow upon him several powerful treasures and send him to the Extreme West to seize the position of Thousand Bamboo Sect Leader, thus inheriting the Myriad Provisions Sovereign's legacy.
As for Mu Peiling, who also resided on one of the subsidiary peaks, after cultivating the secret technique of the Veiled Moon Sect taught to her by Nangong Wan, her cultivation had increased significantly, advancing to the late Core Formation stage. She was now secluded day and night, bitterly cultivating her magical power in hopes of achieving full mastery of the late stage soon, so she could attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.
Han Li did not hold high hopes for the woman's future development. It was not that Mu Peiling's aptitude was particularly poor, but rather that every cultivator who managed to condense a Nascent Soul had their own unique fortune and destiny. Even if Mu Peiling was extraordinarily diligent in her cultivation, without some other extraordinary encounter, her chances of advancing to the Nascent Soul stage would likely be just as slim as those of any other cultivator.
After Han Li had finished arranging all the sect's affairs and everything at his own cave dwelling, he departed the Yunmeng Mountain Range without further delay and headed straight for the Yue Kingdom.
After all, from the news Ling Yuxing had sent, the Star Palace's current situation did not look good at all—it seemed they had been thoroughly suppressed by the Starfall Coalition. Otherwise, they would not have gone so far as to use a Ten Thousand Miles Talisman specifically to seek his help.
Han Li certainly did not want to arrive in the Chaos Star Sea only to find that the person he was supposed to rescue had already perished.
Now he had once again arrived at the underground cavern beneath the great canyon where the ancient teleportation array was located.
Although he had deliberately destroyed the teleportation array the last time he returned through it, he had long since memorized the array's configuration down to the finest detail. As long as he reconstructed it in its original position, he would naturally be able to teleport back to the Chaos Star Sea.
What reassured Han Li even more was that only two junior Qi Condensation disciples were left standing guard here. A simple deployment of a concealment technique would easily deceive their senses—they would never discover anything amiss.