"Hmph! You snuck into this house—either a thief or a spy! How dare you play ghost and spirit, just you wait—" The old Daoist had spent the past several days being fawned over by everyone in the Prince's residence, and the flattery had gone straight to his head. Without a moment's thought, he barked out this harsh rebuke.
But when he instinctively cast a Heavenly Eye Technique toward Han Li, his furious expression froze in an instant, and his face drained of all color.
"Y-you... you're a Foundation Establishment cultivator?"
The old Daoist stammered, disbelief plain in his eyes.
"You just checked with your technique, didn't you?" The smile on Han Li's face vanished, and he spoke in a flat, indifferent tone.
"Please don't hold it against me, Senior! This junior has never met a Foundation Establishment cultivator before. The strongest cultivators I've encountered were at the eleventh or twelfth level of Qi Condensation. I truly had no way to gauge your cultivation! All I know is that your power is unfathomable!" The old Daoist, now fully awakened from his stupor, quickly snuffed out the fireball in his hand and stepped forward to bow, rattling off his explanation with an apologetic, ingratiating smile plastered across his face.
Han Li noticed that the old Daoist didn't show the kind of fear that the surnamed Xiao elder had. Instead, there was a faint trace of excitement in his expression. Han Li was momentarily taken aback.
But after a moment of thought, he understood the man's intentions.
A white-haired Daoist this old, still stuck wandering at the sixth level of Qi Conduration—nine times out of ten he was a rogue cultivator with poor aptitude. That was why he'd never had the chance to interact with powerful cultivators. Even among rogue cultivators, people only associated with and called each other brothers if their cultivation levels were roughly similar.
Now that he'd come face to face with a high-level Foundation Establishment cultivator like Han Li, the old man naturally treated this as a rare stroke of fortune. He probably wanted to squeeze some benefit out of him!
Having figured this out, Han Li allowed himself a small smile. If the man could satisfy him, he wouldn't mind giving the old Daoist a little reward.
He looked at the Daoist and spoke slowly.
"You guessed correctly. I am indeed a Foundation Establishment cultivator!"
The white-haired Daoist's expression grew even more reverent upon hearing these words, though the joy in his eyes deepened as well.
"I wonder what brings a senior like yourself to this place? Is there perhaps some task you'd like this junior to handle?" the Daoist asked respectfully.
The man was quite shrewd—he understood that to get something out of Han Li, he'd need to offer his services first.
Han Li looked satisfied and chuckled lightly.
"Tell me about yourself first. I saw your fire manipulation technique during your performance at the Prince's residence today—very impressive, I must say!" Han Li offered a small compliment, and he genuinely meant it.
A flash of surprise crossed the old Daoist's face. He hadn't expected that this senior had been watching his performance. But he hurriedly replied in a humble tone: "I wouldn't dare! I've embarrassed myself before you, Senior. Fire manipulation is the only thing this junior can halfway show off. As for my other techniques—they're a complete mess. As for my background, there's really not much to tell. When I was young, I happened to come across a copy of the 'Blazing Sun Scripture' from a dying cultivator, and that's how I entered the world of cultivation. Unfortunately, my aptitude was too poor, and I had no one to guide me. I barely managed to cultivate it to the sixth level."
"Is your fire manipulation technique from that same book?" Han Li felt a flicker of interest and asked casually.
"No, it's not. This fire manipulation technique was something this junior developed on his own out of desperation, when my cultivation hit a bottleneck and I couldn't advance any further. But after decades of refinement and revision, it's become the thing I'm most proud of."
"You developed it yourself?" Han Li was genuinely surprised. He looked the white-haired Daoist over several times with a newly impressed expression.
"Yes, Senior! This junior even compiled my humble insights into a book called the 'Flame Manipulation Technique.' If Senior wouldn't deign to find it lacking, please take it and offer this junior your guidance!" The old Daoist noticed Han Li's apparent interest in his fire manipulation skills and, seized by inspiration, hurriedly pulled a thin book from within his robes and offered it to Han Li with both hands.
Han Li blinked, slightly startled.
Truthfully, while he found the old man's fire-shaping technique quite novel, he hadn't intended to take the man's methods by force.
He didn't believe this little fire trick would be of any real use to him at his current level!
But since the Daoist had voluntarily offered it, he accepted it more out of surprise than anything else and flipped through a few pages.
At first, Han Li only leafed through the book with a casual, indifferent attitude.
But as he read on, his expression remained calm on the surface while a growing sense of shock built within him.
The initial sections of the book—covering small tricks for changing the shape of flames—were indeed of little practical significance to Han Li in his current state, little more than flashy but hollow techniques. However, in the final few pages, the old Daoist put forward a vague but intriguing concept of applying spells flexibly, along with several genuinely viable training methods. These gave Han Li an epiphany, and he felt he stood to gain a great deal from them.