Seeing how carefully the other party was apologizing, Han Li felt rather embarrassed to keep finding fault with him. He had no choice but to scrap his original idea of teaching the man a lesson! After all, apart from having been somewhat rude to him in the past, the ugly man hadn't actually committed any serious offense!
With this thought, Han Li's expression softened and he said coolly:
"If there's nothing else, I'll be going now!"
With that, Han Li departed the area with a light, leisurely stride.
The ugly man watched Han Li's retreating figure for a long while before finally letting out a long sigh and mumtering under his breath:
"It's just not fair! Other people go into the Earthfire Chambers and casually achieve Foundation Establishment in seclusion. Meanwhile, I went out of my way to find a private meditation room, gathered a whole pile of supplementary pills, and still failed my breakthrough! No wonder this person was taken in by Granduncle Li as a disciple — his aptitude must be utterly extraordinary!"
The ugly man had actually written Han Li off as some kind of preternaturally gifted prodigy! If Han Li himself had overheard this, he would hardly have known whether to laugh or cry!
By now, Han Li had already left Yuelu Hall. The two guards at the teleportation formation had been replaced by different people; otherwise, upon seeing Han Li suddenly advance from the Qi Condensation stage to Foundation Establishment, they would have been quite astonished.
Han Li rode his flying artifact through the sky at a gentle pace, his mood thoroughly buoyant, while reflecting on the entire experience of entering the Foundation Establishment stage!
Five months ago, after Han Li had finished refining the Foundation Establishment Pills, he had weighed his options and concluded that attempting Foundation Establishment inside the Earthfire Chamber was actually a rather good idea. At the very least, he wouldn't have to worry about someone barging in and interrupting his seclusion, causing everything to be wasted halfway through!
And so, with his mind made up, Han Li first swallowed one of the three Foundation Establishment Pills he already possessed, then circulated his cultivation technique to begin dissolving the medicinal power!
The Foundation Establishment Pill's medicinal power kicked in remarkably fast. Within just a few short hours, Han Li felt a ball of blazing fire igniting in his Dantian, growing hotter and more intense by the moment, while his limbs and everywhere else turned icy cold — creating an extremely stark contrast between burning heat and biting chill!
But this sensation lasted only a brief while before the raging fire in his Dantian suddenly vanished without a trace, and his limbs returned to their normal temperature. This caught Han Li somewhat off guard!
The look of confusion on his face flashed by in an instant, replaced by a dramatic change in expression as both hands shot to his Dantian, pressing down and refusing to release even a fraction of an inch.
Because from that spot, a sudden, agonizing pain had erupted — as though seven or eight sharp blades were simultaneously churning inside him. Completely unprepared, Han Li's face turned deathly pale in an instant. Sweat beads as large as soybeans rolled ceaselessly off his chin. His entire body curled up into the shape of a bow!
Gritting his teeth through the pain, Han Li writhed on the ground in a tight ball while cursing silently — why had no one ever told him that taking a Foundation Establishment Pill would be this excruciating?!
But before he had even finished two rounds of cursing, the searing pain in his Dantian suddenly exploded outward.
The explosion transformed into countless streams of heat that surged through his Meridians in an instant, spreading throughout his entire body and penetrating deep into his very bone marrow. But then, the heat streams immediately gave way to an unbearable, maddening itch — as if countless ants were crawling ceaselessly over every part of his body. He wanted nothing more than to slam his head against the nearest wall just to get some small measure of relief from this torment!
This torture, which nearly drove Han Li to the brink of insanity, persisted for about the time it takes to eat a meal before gradually subsiding. Only then was Han Li able to brace himself against a wall corner and barely manage to stand. At this point, he was drenched in sweat, his entire body coated in a layer of strange, grayish substance that was sticky and gave off an indescribable foul odor.
But none of this mattered to Han Li! What mattered was that his cultivation had instantly advanced to the twelfth layer, and his entire body was suffused with a warm, pleasant glow — not a single part felt uncomfortable!
Clearly, that single Foundation Establishment Pill had already improved his constitution, cleansing his marrow and reshaping his tendons. As for the warmth pervading his body, it should have been the residual medicinal power from the pill that hadn't yet been fully absorbed — once absorbed, it could be used to increase his Magical Power. This was also the reason one had to enter closed-door cultivation for three full months after taking a Foundation Establishment Pill; otherwise, this medicinal power would gradually dissipate over time.
At first, Han Li had indeed followed the Foundation Establishment process exactly as others had described it, dutifully sitting in meditation to absorb every last trace of the residual medicinal power!
But he quickly discovered that this power lodged within his body could only deepen his Magical Power by a modest amount — it served no further purpose in improving his constitution.
If one possessed only a single Foundation Establishment Pill, then naturally, after having one's marrow cleansed and tendons reshaped, nobody would pass up this rare opportunity to boost their Magical Power. Without a proper three-month seclusion to absorb every last drop of the medicinal power, they certainly wouldn't rest easy!
But Han Li was different. He still had a large batch of Foundation Establishment Pills in his possession, and he couldn't care less about these residual traces of medicinal power! What he cared about was how many more rounds of this constitution improvement he would need before he could actually step into the Foundation Establishment stage! After all, it was the cleansing of marrow and reshaping of tendons that held the key to a successful breakthrough!