Han Li, ever cautious and careful, finally set off on the flight back to Ningcui Island.
He knew full well that without formations and puppets to back him up, venturing recklessly through the Outer Starry Seas with only himself, Qu Hun, and the two Blood Jade Spiders was far too dangerous.
Even if they could handle fifth-rank demon beasts with ease, if something sixth-rank or above set its sights on them, death would still be inescapable.
Moreover, by his estimation, the demon cores he had collected should be more than enough to sustain him through his second and even third pill refinement, with plenty to spare.
Several hundred fifth-rank demon cores were worth at least several hundred thousand spirit stones at a minimum — and that wasn't even accounting for the numerous extraordinarily rare species among them, which could easily double that value.
Han Li was not greedy!
Everything he had done was in service of walking a little further down the path of immortal cultivation. So the moment he sensed that continuing to lure and slay demon beasts had become fraught with danger, he immediately decided to call it quits and head back.
By now, they had ventured deep enough into the Outer Starry Seas.
Had he not meticulously charted his position on a sea map every time he passed an unfamiliar island, he might not even have been able to find the way home.
The return journey took Han Li a full several months of flying.
Carrying such heavy treasures, he feared encountering formidable demon beasts or the legendary sea bandits along the way.
Demon beasts were one thing — he could generally fly a wider circle around them, and they typically wouldn't give chase.
But if he ran into cultivators with malicious intentions, they certainly wouldn't let a lone straggler go.
In that case, not only would he lose his demon cores, but more likely than not, his life would be snuffed out as well!
So along the entire route, he and Qu Hun remained on high alert, immediately concealing themselves or fleeing at a distance the moment they detected any trace of other cultivators.
In this way, they finally made it back to Ningcui Island with all their demon cores intact, which brought him tremendous relief!
Han Li walked into that run-down little market street. Aside from two shopkeepers having been replaced by new faces, everything else remained exactly as he had left it.
He paid no attention to the slightly surprised looks from the people around him and walked straight into the stone house used for teleportation.
The Heavenly Star Palace cultivator inside had been replaced by a kindly-faced middle-aged man.
The moment he saw Han Li and Qu Hun enter, he smiled and asked: "Would you two fellow Daoists like to teleport?"
…
Han Li flopped onto the large bed before him and immediately fell into a deep, snoring sleep.
He was now back in his cave dwelling on the thirty-ninth floor of Heavenly Star City. Exhausted in both body and mind, he couldn't be bothered with anything else and simply slept soundly for several days before finally waking up refreshed and spirited.
This trip to the Outer Starry Seas had really worn him out!
After waking, Han Li strolled around his cave dwelling and found that after years of absence, everything inside evoked a warm sense of familiarity.
But when he checked the insect chamber, he discovered that the Gold Devouring Beetles had once again coalesced into an enormous silver sphere, hanging upside down from the ceiling in deep hibernation.
At the sight of this, he couldn't help but shake his head with a slight smile.
After that, Han Li made a trip to the market and visited several shops, purchasing copies of every pill recipe available there.
He then immediately returned to his dwelling and threw himself into the busy work of pill refining.
For a full two years, Han Li used the collected pill recipes inside his cave dwelling to refine those demon cores along with the matured spirit herbs into large batches of numerous different types of pills.
The problem of drug resistance that had previously given him such a headache was finally no longer an issue.
During this time, he also slowly offloaded the various demon beast materials he no longer needed to small merchants who weren't permanent residents of Heavenly Star City, which brought in a substantial amount of spirit stones.
He wouldn't have to worry about spirit stones for the time being!
After finishing all of this, Han Li thoroughly sealed off his cave dwelling and began preparing for the scattering of his cultivation.
However, while reorganizing the pills and remaining demon beast materials in his storage pouch, he inadvertently came across certain unusual items that gave him a headache.
These were the large quantities of Nishang Grass, roughly several hundred years old, that he had artificially matured while luring demon beasts in the Broken Starry Seas.
Selling them wouldn't bring many spirit stones, and destroying them felt like a waste — after all, they had been matured using a considerable amount of Green Liquid.
What's more, he had always been quite intrigued by the fact that Nishang Grass, when its leaves unfurled, exerted such a powerful attraction on demon beasts, and he had been wanting to study it in detail for some time.
Staring at the mass of Nishang Grass before him, Han Li felt a strange notion inexplicably rise in his mind, growing stronger and stronger until he couldn't suppress it. This startled him a little!
After tilting his head in thought for a moment, he suddenly packed the Nishang Grass back up and carried it to the insect chamber where the "Gold Devouring Beetles" were kept.
He casually tossed a single several-hundred-year-old stalk of Nishang Grass into the chamber.