Gazing at the jade box in his hands for a long while, Han Li let out a sigh and slowly stowed it away into his storage pouch.
Then, with a flicker of azure light, the pale cyan jade slip reappeared in his palm.
Should he take the risk of cultivating this second Nascent Soul? Or should he wait until he had thoroughly comprehended the secret formula of the Mysterious Matriarch Nascent Soul Transformation Art before making a decision?
After all, the risks and difficulties involved were far from trivial. It would be better to proceed with caution.
Having made this prudent resolution, Han Li immersed his spiritual sense into the technique once more and entered a state of self-forgetting concentration.
The gates of his seclusion chamber remained tightly shut, while Silver Moon was meditating quietly in another hidden chamber not far away.
All other miscellaneous affairs within the cave dwelling were handled by several giant ape puppets.
Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, spring gave way to winter, and over a year passed.
On this day, near the Mother Peaks where Han Li's cave dwelling was located, two streaks of light—one azure and one white—shot through the sky from the distance.
As the radiance faded, two figures appeared before the thick, hazy fog. They were none other than the two elders of the Falling Cloud Sect: the silver-haired old man and the sallow-faced middle-aged man surnamed Lu.
Seeing the grand protective formation locked tight, the two exchanged knowing smiles.
Elder Lu flicked his finger, and a prepared message talisman shot from his hand, transforming into a streak of fire that plunged into the formation and vanished. At the same time, he turned to the silver-haired old man beside him with a grin and said:
"It seems Junior Brother Han hasn't left his cave dwelling since returning last time. He really is devoted to his cultivation."
"That's perfectly natural. Otherwise, Junior Brother Han wouldn't have been able to condense his Nascent Soul at the mere age of two hundred. It's a pity that my lifespan is nearly spent — there's no chance for me to advance further on the path of immortal cultivation. And I suspect your chances aren't much better." Elder Cheng's expression turned complicated as he spoke.
"Senior Brother jests. At your age, you have at least another hundred or two years, no question about it." The middle-aged man hurried to console him upon hearing this.
"Heh heh, Junior Brother Lu! Do I not know my own situation? Perhaps before my injury last time, I could have managed another hundred or two years without issue. But even though the wounds have largely healed — seventy or eighty percent at least — the vital essence that was lost cannot be restored simply through meditation." The silver-haired old man shook his head and spoke calmly.
"Senior Brother!" Elder Lu's face changed at these words, and he was about to say something more.
But the old man waved a hand to cut him off and continued:
"Even if I never engage in another battle for the rest of my life, I can hold on for fifty or sixty years at most. There's no need to console me — that much is beyond doubt. Otherwise, why would I have been so desperate to recruit Junior Brother Han into the Falling Cloud Sect? And to cultivate his good will so deliberately? You should know that under normal circumstances, no matter how eager one might be to recruit someone, one would first thoroughly investigate their background. But now it's been proven that my judgment was correct — though this person's origins are somewhat roundabout, he truly harbors no hidden agenda toward our Falling Cloud Sect." The silver-haired old man spoke in a measured tone.
"The disciples Senior Brother dispatched last time actually uncovered Junior Brother Han's background?" Elder Lu couldn't help but be startled.
"Indeed. Though Junior Brother Han has been rather vague about his origins, we had several disciples infiltrate the Yue Kingdom using just his name, appearance, and the fact that he originated from there. They conducted a quiet investigation and finally pieced together the rough outline of our Junior Brother Han's past. What I'm about to say may be hard to believe — over a hundred years ago, our Junior Brother Han was actually a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the former Yellow Maple Valley of the Yue Kingdom. And he was somewhat renowned among the Foundation Establishment disciples of his time. It's said that during the battle against the demonic path, he single-handedly slew quite a few cultivators of the same level. But when the Yellow Maple Valley later crumbled, that old fox Linghu — cunning as a ghost as always — somehow misjudged the situation and treated our Junior Brother Han as a disposable pawn. After that, our Junior Brother Han vanished without a trace. No one knows where he cultivated in hiding all those years, until he recently resurfaced with late-stage Core Formation cultivation and has now successfully condensed a Nascent Soul here in our Falling Cloud Sect. It seems that the unaccounted years must have brought him some extraordinary opportunities." The old man spoke calmly.
"Treated him as a disposable pawn. How laughable. A disciple they threw away turned out to be a once-in-a-thousand-years cultivation prodigy, advancing from Foundation Establishment to Nascent Soul in a mere handful of years. I wonder if old Linghu, upon learning of this, would be so furious he'd jump up and stomp his feet! After all, the Yellow Maple Valley hasn't been faring too well in the Nine Nations Alliance lately — it's far too burdensome for that old ghost to prop up the sect single-handedly. And if my memory serves, he seems to be from the same generation as Senior Brother, so his remaining lifespan can't be much either." A cold smile appeared at the corner of Elder Lu's lips as he spoke with mockery.
"That's right. Old Linghu is actually a little older than I am. But that old ghost is well-versed in the arts of longevity, so his lifespan is somewhat longer by comparison. And with his reputation as a Nascent Soul cultivator, the Yellow Maple Valley shouldn't face any major problems before his eventual passing. I originally had the same concern about the Falling Cloud Sect. Once I'm gone, I truly feared you would be left struggling alone!"
"If not for the fact that we occupy the sacred spirit vein of Cloud Dream Mountain, you alone would actually be more than enough to keep the Falling Cloud Sect thriving. But now, if the sect's strength drops even slightly, there would be no shortage of jealous sects eager to pounce. My original intention was to advise you that, once I pass, the entire sect should voluntarily withdraw from Cloud Dream Mountain to avoid any catastrophic disaster. But now that Junior Brother Han has joined us, everything changes once again."