Chapter 233: Planting a Bean Warrior

"I see. Aside from being useful in battle, what else can Dao Warriors be used for?" Han Li asked.

"Depending on where a Dao Warrior came from, it could possess certain special talents, and it'll be absolutely obedient to its owner. If you have a sufficient number of Dao Warriors, you can even use them to assemble various types of arrays, thereby making them powerful allies," Elder Hu Yan replied.

"If there are so many benefits to owning Dao Warriors, then wouldn't everyone try to procure them? Why is it that they seem to be extremely rare?" Han Li asked.

"What do you take Dao Warriors for, kid? How can they be considered to be precious if any ordinary immortal is able to use them? A huge amount of time, energy, and resources are required to develop Dao Warriors, and even then, there's still some luck involved, so not all immortals have the required resources and ability to obtain them.

“Even Bean Warriors, which are considered to be among the lower third grade of Daw Warriors, are extremely rare," Elder Hu Yan explained.

"Thank you for explaining all of this to me, Elder Hu Yan. Would you be able to tell me exactly how these Dao Warriors are refined?" Han Li asked as he cupped his fist toward Elder Hu Yan in a grateful salute.

"Seeing as you were able to bring me such a fantastic wine recipe, I'll pass my knowledge in nurturing Bean Warriors to you. However, make sure you don't give this information to anyone else! Also, I quite like this pair of Golden Thread Jade Cups, so I'll accept them as a gift from you," Elder Hu Yan said as a sly grin appeared on his face.

Before Han Li had a chance to reply, Elder Hu Yan gently swept a sleeve over the table to stow the pair of cups away.

At the same time, a thin yellow paper book appeared on the table.

Han Li was feeling a little exasperated, but he was already familiar with Elder Hu Yan's personality, and he naturally wasn't going to say anything. He picked up the thin book before flipping through a few of its pages, then carefully stowed it away.

The book was completely unremarkable in appearance, but it really did contain information on the method required to plant Bean Warriors, so this was something that he would have to study in further detail once he returned to his cave abode.

"Thank you, Senior," he said as he extended another salute of gratitude.

"Don't worry about it, both of us got what we wanted, so neither of us owe each other anything. I'm really busy right now, so I have no time to entertain you," Elder Hu Yan said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

That was clearly Han Li's cue to depart, and he willingly obliged.

After leaving the High Profound Palace, he returned straight to the Crimson Dawn Peak, where he entered his cave abode and immediately went to the small spirit medicine field.

At this point, quite a few spirit medicines had already been planted here, and the giant ape puppet that was responsible for tending to them was situated nearby.

Han Li made his way to a vacant plot of land in the southwestern corner of the field, then crouched down before using his hands to dig a small hole into the soft and loamy soil. After that, he flipped a hand over to produce a walnut-sized yellow bean, which he tossed into the hole before covering it with soil.

This yellow bean was none other than the primary bean that he had obtained from the golden giant in the Origin Realm Temple of the Spirit Domain Realm.

According to the book that Elder Hu Yan had given to him, after a Bean Warrior was planted, it would require a long time to germinate, but it was impossible to predict exactly how much time it would take.

There were disparities in the time required for Bean Warriors of different varieties and even different specimens from the same variety of Bean Warrior to germinate, and the quality of the Bean Warriors, the soil that they were planted in, and the spirit liquid used to nurture them all played huge roles.

On the subject of spirit liquids, there was most likely no better option than the spirit liquid produced by the Heaven Controlling Vial.

All of the spirit liquid in the vial had already been used up on maturing the spirit medicines planted in this field, so he would have to wait until the next time the vial produced spirit liquid to administer the first dose to the bean.

After doing all of that, Han Li took a glance at the spirit medicines in the field, of which several were already approaching 50,000 years in age.

These spirit medicines were at an age where they could be used, but he had no suitable pill recipe for them.

There were avenues in the sect through which pill recipes could be obtained, but pill refinement was a skill that required practice, and pills that could enhance the cultivation base of True Immortal cultivators had to have been quite difficult to refine. With his skills in pill refinement, he could give it a try, but in all likelihood, he would have to fail numerous times before finding success.

With his current stash of spirit stones and Immortal Origin Stones, he could be considered to have been quite wealthy among early-True Immortal cultivators, but it most likely wasn't going to be enough once he began dabbling in pill refinement.

Having said that, he did have quite a large stash of low and mid-tier treasures, materials, and other things laying around. He would have to plan out how to sell them in batches to fund his future pill refinement endeavors.

However, prior to that, there were a few other things that he had to take care of.

With that in mind, he returned to his secret chamber, and after taking a seat with his legs crossed, he flipped a hand over to produce an intricate storage bracelet, out of which emerged a large collection of different items.

This storage bracelet was the one that he had taken from that elderly man that had appeared in the Profound Ice Mountain Range.

Somehow, the man seemed to have gathered some information on what had happened to Elder Bai Fengyi, and it was unclear what his objectives were for trying to abduct Bai Suyuan.

It was a pity that he was unable to capture the man's nascent soul. Otherwise, he would've been able to perform a soul search technique.

It didn't take long before Han Li had split up the contents of the storage bracelet into different categories in an expert fashion, following which he stowed them away to leave only three items behind, namely a dark golden chunk of metal with some type of pattern all over its surface and a pair of jade boxes.

Both of the jade boxes had white talismans that were glowing with spiritual light adhered to them, clearly indicating that they held very important items inside.

The first thing that he did was pick up the chunk of metal for inspection. It was around the size of a watermelon and was the exact same as those few pieces of metal that he had obtained from the Origin Mirage Beast.

Han Li was rather intrigued at the sight of the chunk of metal.

The Origin Mirage Beast had been collecting this material, and it was also present in the elderly man's storage bracelet, so it had to have some type of special uses.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he stowed the chunk of metal away. Prior to this, he hadn't paid much heed to this material, but it seemed that he would have to find some time to have the material appraised so he could find out exactly what it was.

After that, Han Li picked up one of the jade boxes, and bright azure light began to emanate from his hand as he pointed at the talismans adhered to the box.

The talismans immediately began to glow with dazzling white light in an effort to resist him, but Han Li merely flicked a finger through the air with a cold smile on his face, and several streaks of azure sword qi were released before shredding through the white talismans.

After being severed into pieces, the white talismans were rendered completely useless, and Han Li was able to open the jade box.

Inside, he discovered a palm-sized white badge that had a rather peculiar appearance. It was thin and long, and its edges weren't very even, as if it were something that had been casually crafted out of jade by a child.

Han Li picked up the badge to give it a closer inspection, and he discovered that the material was glittering and translucent, and it was giving off a gentle glow.

It was definitely no ordinary material, but he couldn't identify it. However, it was clear from how carefully it had been stored that this was something that the elderly man had held in high regard.

Han Li then employed several secret techniques to thoroughly inspect both the inside and the outside of the badge, but still wasn't able to discover anything.

With a shake of his head, he placed the badge back into the jade box before stowing it away.

Seeing as he couldn't figure out what it was, he would just have to leave it for another time.

Finally, Han Li picked up the other jade badge before removing the talismans on the outside using the same method as before.

Inside this jade box was a book that was yellow with age, and its pages seemed to have been made from some type of beasthide.

Han Li picked up the book, but after briefly flipping through its pages, he shook his head before placing it back in the jade box.

The book had no cover or name, but judging from the content that it contained, it appeared to have been a book about tool refinement. There were many techniques in the book for refining and enhancing treasures, but it was a little niche.

There were still many other things that he had to take care of for now, so he decided to spend time studying the book for now.

After stowing the second jade box away, Han Li made a hand seal, and the Heavy Water True Axis appeared before him.

Blue light flashed within his eyes as he made a beckoning motion with one hand, and a small ball of heavy water flew out of his True Water Pouch before slowly approaching the Heavy Water True Axis.

At the moment, the axis was revolving on the spot while giving off a faint black glow.

As the ball of heavy water approached the axis, the Water Dao Rune on the latter instantly began to release a watery blue glow, as well as bursts of faint law powers.

The suction force that had emerged during Han Li's battle against the elderly man also appeared once again, and the ball of heavy water was drawn straight into the Heavy Water True Axis, which became slightly heavier as a result.

Han Li was very pleased to see this. Just as he had anticipated, the Heavy Water True Axis really was capable of absorbing more heavy water.

With a flick of his wrist, a volume of heavy water that was enough to fill an entire bucket surged forth before flowing toward the Heavy Water True Axis.

The Water Dao Rune on the Heavy Water True Axis radiated dazzling blue light as it quickly devoured most of the heavy water, but right at this moment, an unexpected turn of events unfolded.

The Water Dao Rune flashed a few more times before suddenly turning dark, and the axis also stopped devouring heavy water.

At the same time, most of Han Li's spiritual connection with the Heavy Water True Axis abruptly faded, and the axis came plummeting down toward the ground.

Thankfully, Han Li was able to react quickly enough to catch the axis before it hit the ground, but his arm sank down involuntarily from its enormous weight.

Having absorbed so much heavy water, the axis had become significantly heavier than before.

What just happened?

Initially, he had only refined the Heavy Water True Axis as a smokescreen to keep his Mantra True Axis hidden, but he had since discovered that it was extremely useful in battle, and he certainly didn't want to lose his spiritual connection to it.