Seeing the disappointment on the young woman's face, Han Li suddenly laughed, then said softly:
"Though I can't take you as my disciple, don't lose heart! I can recommend another senior brother who is also at the Foundation Establishment stage to be your master. However, whether or not you'll succeed in becoming his disciple depends on whether he takes a liking to you."
"Really?" The young woman's dejected expression brightened at once upon hearing this.
Without another word, Han Li produced a voice transmission talisman from his person. He whispered a few quiet words into it, then handed the talisman along with a jade token to the girl.
"Take this talisman and jade token to Hundred Medicine Garden in Yellow Maple Valley and look for a senior surnamed Ma. Whether you'll be accepted as his disciple — that will depend on your fortune," Han Li said, his expression indifferent.
The young woman hadn't expected that even though Han Li refused to take her as his disciple, she would still have another opportunity. Hope rekindled in her heart, and she hurriedly bowed to Han Li in gratitude. The old man was equally uplifted.
"Since the recommendation isn't guaranteed to work, I'll give you two upper-grade magic treasures as well — consider it repayment for the book on the Dao that your grandfather and granddaughter shared with me."
As he spoke, Han Li pulled a piece of emerald-green brocade silk and a small blue sword from his storage pouch, handing them casually to the old man.
The old man's face lit up with surprise and delight.
He had already considered it a great favor that Han Li was recommending a master for the girl, and he never expected Han Li to give them additional gifts on top of that. He was deeply moved.
The old man hurriedly thanked him again and again before reverently accepting the magic treasures, his face showing how much he treasured them.
Upper-grade magic treasures — in all his years of cultivation, he had owned only one such item. Now he suddenly had two more! How could he possibly be dissatisfied!
After that, Han Li did not linger. He casually withdrew the two clusters of spiritual energy he had planted in the other's body, then drifted away under the respectful gazes of the grandfather and granddaughter.
Only once Han Li had truly departed did the old man happily hand the brocade silk to the girl, keeping the small sword for himself. He planned to set out soon for Yellow Maple Valley to seek out that Senior Ma and see whether his granddaughter had the fate to be accepted as a disciple under one of the Seven Sects.
Still, Grandfather Xiao couldn't help feeling somewhat puzzled — why had Han Li been involved with the people of the Qin family? They were all thoroughly ordinary mortals!
…
Leaving the old man's speculations aside, Han Li finally returned to the Qin residence in high spirits.
Because he used his magic treasure to land directly at his own quarters, his arrival went entirely unnoticed. He appeared in his bedroom as silently as a ghost.
This newly obtained set of nameless qi-concealment incantations struck Han Li as extremely practical, so he immediately opened the ancient book and set about studying them through the night.
The incantations were merely small tricks for manipulating spiritual energy. With Han Li's deep reserves of magical power to support him, mastering them posed no real difficulty.
In just a single night, he had grasped the bulk of it.
Come the next morning, Han Li had just finished sitting in meditation and circulating his qi when he felt that his luck had been rather good lately — and then, suddenly, a muffled thump came from the storage pouch at his side. It sounded as though something had cracked.
Han Li's expression immediately turned ugly, his face darkening. After a moment, he reached into the storage pouch and drew out a purple bead — identical to the magic treasure he had given to that white-haired Daoist priest. Except that on this bead's smooth, crystalline surface, several cracks of varying depth now ran across it.
Han Li was silent for a while, then rose without a word and walked out of the room. After scanning the courtyard and confirming that no one was around, the Divine Wind Boat shot from his hand and hovered before him. In a flash he stepped aboard and vanished from the Qin residence without a sound.
A quarter of an hour later, Han Li appeared above a small village outside the capital of the Yue Kingdom. His expression unchanged, he gazed around from above the village, seemingly searching for something.
Finally, on a secluded hill several miles from the village, Han Li descended on his magic treasure, his flickering gaze fixed on a massive willow tree.
After a long pause, he formed a series of hand seals and softly uttered the word "Retrieve."
Instantly, from deep among the roots buried in the earth, a ball of green light flew upward. Encased within the light was a round bead, gleaming in shades of purple, its surface similarly cracked with several fissures. The shape and size of the cracks were an exact match for those on the bead in Han Li's hand.
Han Li sighed, waved his hand toward the ball of light, and the cracked bead immediately flew out of its embrace into his palm.
The moment it touched his hand, the layer of green light dissolved into Han Li's body, leaving only the bare bead for him to turn over and over in his fingers.
After pondering for a moment, Han Li suddenly flicked his finger, sending a fist-sized fireball streaking toward the base of the great tree. It blasted a large crater into the ground, and the entire willow tree was instantly reduced to ashes.
Han Li stepped forward and examined the site carefully for a while, but found nothing.