Chapter 173: Gathering

Han Li played dumb about everything, firmly insisting that his current cultivation level had been achieved through nothing but hard work alone. As for why his cultivation speed was so astonishing, Han Li served up a pre-prepared story about having once accidentally consumed an extraordinary fruit in his childhood, attributing everything to that encounter. This excuse had been crafted specifically for precisely this kind of situation.

Han Li knew that a lie needed to be seventy percent truth and only thirty percent fiction to be convincing, so the "extraordinary fruit" he described wasn't something he'd made up out of thin air. It was a legendary immortal fruit called the "Dragon Scale Fruit" that had circulated in worldly tales for centuries. According to legend, consuming it could allow a person to shed their mortal body and ascend to immortality during the day. Whether such a fruit truly existed, Han Li had no idea—in any case, no one had ever actually eaten one.

This well-read Uncle Wang, upon hearing Han Li's description of the fruit, had his eyes light up. He actually managed to dig up an ancient book called "Records of Strange and Wondrous Things" from somewhere, found the entry on the "Dragon Scale Fruit" Han Li had described, and asked him to verify it.

At this point, Han Li naturally went along with the flow and confirmed it, leaving Uncle Wang clicking his tongue in amazement over and over again.

Han Li also told him that once the fruit was picked, the parent plant's roots and leaves would immediately wither and die, so even returning to the spot would never yield a second fruit. This way, he completely severed any thought of the other party inquiring about the source to go search for more, thoroughly shutting down any further questioning.

As for whether this man might actually get greedy enough to take the story at face value and go searching for a second immortal fruit elsewhere—well, that was no longer Han Li's concern. Let the man keep himself busy with that.

Moreover, Han Li was well aware that no matter how Uncle Wang might appear before him—nodding in sudden realization, acting as though he believed every word—the truth was that Han Li had no real confidence in how much of this story the other man actually bought. He estimated the man was stuck somewhere between half-believing and half-doubting. So with this Uncle Wang, Han Li decided he would avoid him whenever possible, stay out of his way, and keep a closer watch, lest the man spot something out of place.

But Han Li believed that once he successfully established his Foundation and entered the Foundation Establishment stage, his status would be entirely different. Surely even if Uncle Wang still harbored doubts, he wouldn't easily provoke him—after all, the world of immortal cultivators was one where power spoke loudest!

And so, Han Li had finally managed to muddle his way through the matter of his cultivation technique, while Uncle Wang—whether out of some guilt for having put Han Li through the wringer—made no trouble whatsoever during the registration process. He quickly completed all the paperwork for Han Li and even offered some advice on precautions to take for the Restricted Area expedition, telling him to start preparing early.

Han Li thanked him profusely and took his leave.

Upon returning, he gave the old man a heads-up and temporarily stepped down from his duties at the herb garden so he could devote himself fully to preparing for the Blood Color Trial.

When the old man heard about this, he fell silent for a long while, then fixed Han Li with an odd look that said "you're dead meat," keeping his gaze locked on him until Han Li's skin crawled for a good while.

But to Han Li's surprise, this Senior Uncle Ma, before departing, wordlessly tossed him two bottles of pills and said coldly, "One bottle for internal use, one for external application." Then, with the same icy expression, he flew off on his magical tool.

This gesture stirred a small measure of warmth in Han Li's heart.

Over the past two years of working together, he had come to understand this old man—though his temperament was a bit eccentric, he was a person who ran hot beneath a cold exterior, merely a bit obsessed with the art of alchemy. The fact that he could treat Han Li this way now showed that Senior Uncle Ma had already begun to regard him as something akin to a nephew. Han Li rather felt that was the case.

Three days before the Restricted Area expedition, Uncle Wang finally sent Han Li a message talisman, urging him to report to the Assembly Hall for gathering, as they were about to depart.

When Han Li arrived, the disciples who had signed up for the Blood Color Trial had all assembled there and were sizing each other up.

The Yellow Maple Valley had over ten thousand disciples at the Qi Refining stage, and Han Li naturally couldn't know them all. But among them, there appeared a woman so familiar to him that he could never forget her face. Not only did Han Li recognize her—it was that "Junior Sister Chen" who had nearly been raped by "Senior Brother Lu."

Come to think of it, after "Senior Brother Lu" had been eliminated by Han Li, it had indeed caused a small stir in the Yellow Maple Valley. Though the man had not yet reached Foundation Establishment, he was still an owner of an unusual spiritual root, and in the Yellow Maple Valley he counted as a low-level disciple who received considerable attention from the higher-ups.

As for "Junior Sister Chen," after she returned, for whatever reason, she had not mentioned that night's events to anyone and kept her lips sealed about the whole matter.