Since the battle with the ancient devil, the restrictions on the outer valley of Devilfall Valley had gradually weakened. After so many years, the outer valley had opened up to ordinary cultivators.
As more and more cultivators entered the outer valley to search for treasure, the rare minerals, spirit herbs, and spirit trees within were quickly plundered. Only in extremely hidden corners that had yet to be discovered might one occasionally find something worthwhile. But this depended entirely on one's personal luck and fortune.
As a result, cultivators searching for treasure naturally grew fewer and fewer, and by now the outer valley was no different from any ordinary spirit mountain or spirit land. Only a handful of low-level cultivators came at dawn and dusk to try their luck.
By contrast, the inner valley of Devilfall Valley had grown ever more fearsome in its reputation.
After all these years, the inner valley's restrictions had not weakened in the slightest. The spatial rifts inside remained as dense as ever. Moreover, in the last two to three hundred years, the valley had inexplicably become shrouded year-round in a peculiar milky-white mist.
Although this mist did not actively harm cultivators, anyone who entered it would immediately feel dizzy and disoriented, their spiritual sense severely restricted. If they ventured even slightly deeper, they would become completely lost.
The appearance of this anomaly had once caused a sensation throughout the Heavenly South.
Many cultivators theorized that it was a heavenly omen triggered by the emergence of a treasure within the valley. However, treasures were nice, but one's life was more important. Most high-level cultivators hesitated, unwilling to recklessly venture into the inner valley.
Before long, however, several Nascent Soul wandering cultivators, driven by greed and relying on the fact that they possessed several treasures capable of dispelling the mist, banded together and charged into the inner valley.
As a result, these cultivators became trapped in the mist for several years. Their treasures proved completely useless, and in the end, after stumbling about blindly, they somehow managed to escape—battered and humbled.
Later, several more cultivators who fancied themselves powerful entered the inner valley, but they met with even worse fates. Some perished in the spatial rifts hidden within the mist, while others were trapped for even longer.
The longest-trapped individual spent a full fifty to sixty years within the mist. Had the inner valley not been rich in spiritual energy—allowing one to absorb and replenish magical power at any time and place—it was likely that none of these people would have ever left the valley alive.
As these incidents spread one by one, they naturally horrified the other Nascent Soul cultivators, and no one dared speak lightly of entering the valley again.
Thus, the inner valley of Devilfall Valley once again became a forbidden zone in the Heavenly South's cultivation world, with hardly anyone lingering near its entrance.
As the years passed and time wore on, the cultivators of the Heavenly South gradually grew accustomed to the inner valley's mist. Some newly arrived cultivators even assumed that the white fog pervading the valley had always been a natural feature of Devilfall Valley, and no one bothered to investigate its true origin.
Unknown to anyone, deep within an extremely secluded valley inside the inner valley, there sat a small cave dwelling built against the mountainside, crafted entirely from fine jade and exposed openly within the valley.
Beside the cave dwelling lay what appeared to be an ordinary medicinal garden, spanning roughly a hundred zhang. Within it grew countless rare spirit herbs that would drive cultivators in the outside world mad with envy. These herbs ranged in age from several hundred to over a thousand years, wafting an intoxicating medicinal fragrance.
Around the small valley, layer upon layer of profound restrictions had been erected. Even a Nascent Soul cultivator who stumbled in would find it extremely difficult to extricate himself.
In the very center of the medicinal garden stood a small house of blue stone, its interior completely bare save for a single meditation cushion.
Upon the cushion, a slender figure sat motionless in the lotus position, as still as a wooden carving.
After an unknowable stretch of time, the figure stirred, rose to its feet, and slowly walked out of the stone house.
Stepping beyond the stone doorway into the faint sunlight, the person's face was clearly visible. It was unmistakably "Han Li," yet his expression was utterly vacant, devoid of any emotion whatsoever.
"Han Li" walked step by step to a corner of the medicinal garden, reached down, and plucked a small green bottle from the soil. He then moved to another part of the garden, stopped before an unusually verdant vine, and dripped a single drop of green liquid onto its roots.
Watching as the vine rapidly absorbed the green liquid, he turned without hesitation, buried the small bottle back where it had been, and shuffled back to the stone house as if intending to sit down again.
But at that moment, "Han Li" suddenly halted. His sleeve flickered, and a glowing white formation plate shot out on its own.
He caught it in his hand and lowered his gaze to look.
Blue-green characters appeared on its surface one after another, as though someone were relaying a message.
"Han Li" immediately soared into the air, transforming into a streak of azure light that shot out of the medicinal garden, heading straight for a secluded corner of the valley.
When the light faded and he alighted, a small teleportation array roughly a zhang wide had appeared beneath his feet.
"Han Li" stood there quietly, saying nothing.
After a short moment, the teleportation array activated on its own. Amidst flashing spiritual light, a faint azure figure was transported out.
When the figure took a large stride out of the array, another "Han Li" appeared before him.
"I've kept you busy all these years. Had you not delivered the spirit herbs to me on time every day, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to cultivate the early stage of Deity Transformation to its peak in such a short time." The Han Li who had just appeared spoke with a sudden smile to the person before him, who bore his exact likeness.
"I am you, and you are me. Why distinguish between the two?" The first "Han Li" replied evenly, his expression unchanged.