The other party's generous attitude made Han Li realize that as long as his conditions weren't too outrageous, there was a very good chance they would be agreed to. It seemed his original goals could be achieved with ease.
Such generous treatment, however, was rare even throughout the entire Seven Mysteries Sect. It was clear that the higher-ups understood all too well what a highly skilled divine physician meant to those in the jianghu.
Han Li didn't stand on ceremony. On the spot, he requested that Divine Hand Valley be given to him as his sole residence, and that no outsiders be allowed to disturb his medical research within the valley.
Such a condition — barely a condition at all, really — was naturally agreed to without hesitation by Sect Master Ma. Perhaps in an effort to win Han Li over, he even offered to send over a young and beautiful maidservant to attend to Han Li's daily needs.
Han Li's heart fluttered at this unexpected bonus, and he very nearly accepted on the spot. But once he calmed down and remembered all the secrets he carried, he pained himself to refuse.
This reaction, however, earned him the admiration of Sect Master Ma, who looked at him in an entirely new light. He couldn't stop praising Han Li for his precocious talent and his resistance to the temptations of women, saying that if he had a daughter he would certainly marry her off to him.
These words left Han Li caught between laughter and tears. It wasn't that he had no interest in women — he simply couldn't afford to right now.
And so, the entirety of Divine Hand Valley became Han Li's private territory, with outsiders generally forbidden from entering at will.
To enforce this, Han Li had a large bell installed at the valley entrance. Anyone who wished to see Han Li need only strike the bell, and Han Li would immediately come out to meet them. This bizarre rule was posted in large, conspicuous characters right beside the bell, and not even mid-level or senior personnel were exempt.
The reason Han Li had established such an eccentric rule was entirely to eliminate the last possible risk of the bottle's secret being leaked. As long as no one wandered into the valley carelessly, Han Li could be certain that the bottle's earth-shattering uses would remain unknown to anyone else.
At first, this rule didn't bother the lower-level disciples, but it infuriated quite a few high-ranking figures, who felt Han Li was being far too full of himself — that he didn't know his place. Even Doctor Mo hadn't carried such an air of superiority, so how dared this mere apprentice, fresh out of his training, be so audacious?
But after Han Li pulled a gravely injured Protector back from the very brink of death and cured him completely, all the grumbling vanished without a trace. Not a soul brought it up again.
No one was going to offend a divine physician who might one day save their life — multiple times over — over some petty grievance. The bell-ringing requirement was naturally accepted as just one of the eccentric quirks a brilliant doctor was entitled to have.
As the days passed, even the Sect Masters gradually came to accept the rule. When they needed medical attention, they too would send someone to politely ring the great bell and then respectfully invite Han Li over.
In this way, Han Li gradually became something of a legend — and an oddity — within the Seven Mysteries Sect.
Call him a senior figure? He held no senior position and wielded no authority. Call him a low-level disciple? But when had anyone ever seen a disciple with such stature? Even the Sect Masters addressed him as "Doctor Han" when they saw him. Few dared to call him by his given name anymore.
Of course, that didn't include our very own Li Feiyu, Senior Brother Li.
Li Feiyu maintained his cool, aloof demeanor around everyone else, but the moment he saw Han Li he would immediately switch to his usual devil-may-care manner, calling him by name without the slightest hesitation. He hadn't grown distant or overly respectful like Wang Dapang and the other disciples, no matter how Han Li's status had changed.
This, at least, brought Han Li some comfort. Being all alone without a single true companion was not a pleasant feeling.
Whenever he thought of Li Feiyu's carefree grin, Han Li couldn't help but be reminded of another face — one perpetually sour as a pumpkin.
Not long ago, he had unexpectedly run into another familiar face from the day they had traveled by carriage into the mountains together: none other than Wu Yan, now a Core Disciple of the Seven Absolute Hall. Wu Yan had contracted a peculiar illness — not life-threatening, but stubborn enough to resist treatment from several incompetent doctors — and had been tormented by it considerably. He had been forced to pull strings through Sect Master Ma to seek out the legendary Doctor Han for treatment.
One had to admit that Wu Yan's memory was quite good. The moment he laid eyes on the famously renowned Doctor Han, he recognized his fellow carriage passenger from that day — Han Li. The look of shock and bewilderment on his face was something Han Li remembered vividly, especially since Wu Yan's attitude toward him back then had been far from kind, bordering on outright hostile.
Seeing Wu Yan's uncomfortable expression, Han Li found it genuinely amusing deep down, but naturally he didn't let that stop him from providing treatment. Still, to protect his own reputation, Han Li deliberately increased the dosage of the prescribed medicine, ensuring Wu Yan's illness was cured within a mere two days. The catch was that the potent medicine caused the patient considerably more pain during recovery — a small punishment for his past unpleasantness.
It seemed Han Li was not quite as magnanimous as he believed himself to be. He could, in fact, hold a grudge.
And so, Han Li gradually and completely replaced Doctor Mo's standing on the mountain — and even surpassed it.
Every day, he now took out the small bottle and placed it in an open area within the valley, allowing it to distill its miraculous Green Liquid every seven or eight days. The liquid was used to cultivate rare herbs of great age, which he then carefully compounded into various medicines.
A small portion of these were used on patients who came seeking treatment; the vast majority, however, Han Li consumed himself, using them to nourish his vitality and qi, and to advance his cultivation of the Eternal Spring Technique.
Han Li shifted slightly in the grand armchair, making himself more comfortable.
Though the chair was Doctor Mo's, this was not Doctor Mo's room. It was Han Li's own quarters — though he had unceremoniously helped himself to everything he considered useful from Doctor Mo's quarters and moved it all into his own room. With his current standing, even if someone witnessed such a disrespectful treatment of Doctor Mo's belongings, they wouldn't dare say a thing. After all, in everyone's eyes, Han Li's importance now far exceeded that of the late Doctor Mo. People were nothing if not practical.
Truth be told, Doctor Mo's residence was far larger than Han Li's, and simply moving in there would have been the more sensible choice.
Unfortunately, Han Li couldn't shake the feeling that living there would be… odd. After all, Doctor Mo's death was intimately connected to him, and openly residing in the home of someone he had killed left him with a chill in his heart. It just didn't feel right. His own little doghole of a room was far more reassuring, far more comfortable.
But whenever he thought of Doctor Mo, Han Li naturally couldn't forget the frustrating fact that he was still bound by a dead man.
During this period, he had thoroughly examined his body inside and out several times, and there was indeed a faint trace of some enigmatic yin-cold substance lurking within his Dantian. Han Li had tried taking Clear Spirit Powder and various other detoxification methods, but none had worked. It seemed that the journey a year from now was unavoidable.
(End of Chapter)