Chapter 814: Rural Small Town

The spirit liquid formed a bead that was as translucent as jade before slowly flowing down the stem of the sapling, then ultimately seeped into the roots.

Han Li stood up straight again as he stowed the Heaven Controlling Vial away, and the leaves that were curling toward him returned to their normal positions.

The sapling didn't display any changes at all, and it was as if nothing had happened.

Han Li wasn't fazed by this, and he stared absentmindedly at the sapling with a contemplative look in his eyes, seemingly pondering something.

Time slowly passed by, and Han Li remained standing on the spot, lost in his thoughts.

Some time later, his expression suddenly changed slightly as a series of strange patterns lit up on the leaves of the sapling, and those patterns spread over the entire surface of the leaves in the blink of an eye.

In contrast with the veins of the leaves, these patterns appeared rather familiar to Han Li.

After staring at them for a while, Han Li suddenly clapped his hands together and exclaimed, "Why are they so similar to time dao patterns?"

The patterns only lingered for a few seconds before fading away, but Han Li's brows had become tightly furrowed in deep thought.

This Twin Birth Tree had been planted by Mu Yan, the eldest disciple of Patriarch Miro, so could it be that he had somehow managed to instill time law powers within it during the nurturing process, or was it the case that the Twin Birth Tree harbored time law powers to begin with?

Also, was it really true that the tree could assist one in overcoming their baleful decay, or was that merely an old wives' tale?

In the end, Han Li wasn't able to arrive at any concrete conclusions, so he could only shake his head to rid himself of the train of thought.

In any case, it was definitely a good thing that the roots of the Twin Birth Tree had sprouted again.

After that, he stayed in the garden for close to another half-day, only leaving after examining the state of many of the other spirit medicines planted in the garden.

He then returned straight to the bamboo building beside the pond, where Weeping Soul was still laying in an unconscious state, and he sat down with his legs crossed on the first floor.

After taking some time to meditate, he flipped a hand over to produce a piece of high-grade Purple Sun Warm Jade, which he held in his hand.

He slowly injected his immortal spiritual power into the piece of jade, and a burst of purple light immediately appeared within it, basking the entire room in a warm, purple glow.

A surge of warmth also spread through Han Li's entire body, and a sense of extreme comfort arose from deep within his consciousness. It was such a blissful sensation that he found himself somewhat lost within it.

Only after a long while did he open his eyes before withdrawing his immortal spiritual power, and the light in the Purple Sun Warm Jade faded.

It's no wonder those people in Black Weasel City were willing to take such a huge risk to acquire this material. If I use it to assist me in my cultivation of the Spirit Refinement Technique, I'll be sure to make rapid progress!

With that in mind, he gently tossed the piece of Purple Sun Warm Jade up into the air, where it hovered above his head.

He then made a hand seal and channeled the fifth level of the Spirit Refinement Technique.

A burst of translucent light slowly extended out of his glabella, then twisted around a few times like a spirit snake before abruptly pouncing headfirst into the piece of Purple Sun Warm Jade.

The piece of jade trembled slightly as it lit up with purple light once again, but not as brightly as before. Instead, the light that it released only encompassed an area with a radius of around a dozen inches, only just barely enough to encompass the space above Han Li's head.

There seemed to be some murky purple smoke within the purple light, giving it the appearance of a glowing purple cloud.

As soon as the purple cloud appeared above Han Li's head, a blissful expression instantly surfaced on his face, and bursts of spiritual sense fluctuations began to spread in all directions from his head.

Five years flew by in the blink of an eye.

Inside a winding mountain range in the Yellow Grain Region was a rural small town that was completely isolated from the rest of the world.

It was nearing dusk, and plumes of smoke were beginning to rise up from the chimneys of the houses in the town. A farmer was returning to the town with a horned ox in two, and he was passing through the wooden archway that marked the entrance of the town.

On a street at the center of the town, there were many devilish children with two heads and four arms chasing each other in a game of tag, while some well-built devilish women were standing nearby, chatting with one another while taking occasional glances at their children.

If any child fell over, their mother would immediately rush over and chastise them while helping them to their feet.

Among the group of children was a clever-looking little boy, and he was just about to sneakily jump onto one of his playmates when he suddenly spotted a pair of figures entering the town with the light of the dying sun behind them.

The town wasn't very large, so the boy was immediately able to see that this was a pair of strangers. However, instead of feeling fearful, he began to examine the duo with a hint of intrigue in his eyes.

Both of them only had one head and two arms each, so they didn't resemble the people of the town at all. On top of that, they were dressed in beautiful clothes with embroidered patterns that the boy had never seen before.

One of the two figures was an ordinary-looking young man, and upon noticing the boy's inquisitive gaze, he flashed the boy a smile, while the white-haired man walking along beside him remained silent and expressionless.

These two were none other than Han Li and Shi Chuankong.

In response to Han Li's smile, the boy immediately looked away in an embarrassed fashion, but he couldn't help but look back again shortly thereafter.

Han Li's smile became even more pronounced upon seeing this, and it occurred to him that these devilish children weren't so different from human children.

"I had thought that all devilish beings possessed innate aptitude for cultivation, so I wasn't expecting to see a mortal settlement in the Devil Realm. This place is almost like a completely isolated mortal paradise," Han Li remarked.

"All of the beings of our Holy Realm possess strong physical constitutions, so even for mortal beings, the average lifespan is around three hundred to four hundred years. However, only a small portion of them actually possess cultivation aptitude. Of course, bodily refinement is a path available to everyone, but not everyone wants to pursue such an arduous endeavor," Shi Chuankong explained.

"Indeed. By the way, what are these beings residing in this town? Their bloodline auras are quite strong, so it doesn't feel like they're ordinary devilish beings," Han Li said.

"Among the lower grade beings of our Holy Realm, the matter of bloodline isn't actually one that's held in very high regard. Hence, with all of the beings of different tribes reproducing with one another, it can be quite difficult to identify the ethnicities for certain devilish beings.

“These people seem to possess a relatively pure bloodline, but I've never seen such beings anywhere else in the Holy Realm, so I'm afraid I can't identify them," Shi Chuankong replied.

As they were speaking, they had already passed through the group of playing children, and they made their way to a small tea stall at the center of the town before taking a seat, while the women and the farmer looked on with curious expressions.

The owner of the stall was a hunch-backed elderly man with a head of disheveled hair, and he brought out some tea for Han Li and Shi Chuankong before returning to his room, not uttering even a single word in the process.

"I've reached the final stage of the refinement of my Dao Warriors, so we'll have to stay here for some time," Han Li said after taking a sip of tea.

"It's fine. We still have a long journey ahead of us anyway, so some minor delays here and there won't really matter much. This mountain range isn't particularly abundant in the world's origin qi, but the devilish qi here is also far sparser than elsewhere, so it's a suitable location for you to refine your Dao Warriors," Shi Chuankong said.

Han Li was just about to respond when he suddenly felt the earth tremble beneath his feet, and he hurriedly rose to his feet while picking up the teapot and teacup on the table, while Shi Chuankongs teacup fell onto the ground, spilling tea everywhere.

Before the two of them had a chance to figure out what was happening, the children on the street began to yell excitedly, "The mountain god is snoring again!"

Meanwhile, the women were all standing still on the spot with composed expressions, seemingly already accustomed to this phenomenon, and the tremors lasted close to twenty seconds before finally subsiding.

Han Li returned to his seat, then set the teapot and teacup back down onto the table.

Tea had spilled onto Shi Chuankong's bench, so he stood up and sat down to Han Li's left.

"Was that an earthquake just now?" Han Li asked.

"I didn't detect any abnormal energy fluctuations, so it most likely was an earthquake," Shi Chuankong replied with a nod.

All of a sudden, the ground began to tremble once again, and this time, Han Li pressed his hands down onto the corners of the table to stabilize it.

The tremors came and went around a dozen times before finally subsiding for good, and at this point, it was already nighttime.

The hunch-backed elderly man made his way out of his room while carrying a dim yellow lantern, then hung it up outside before bending down to pick up the smashed teacup.

By the time he stood up straight again, Han Li and Shi Chuankong had already disappeared, and all that remained was a small devil stone sitting on the table.

The elderly man looked around for a moment, but failed to spot Han Li's duo, and he casually picked up the devil's stone from the table before tucking it into his pocket.

On the mountain path outside the small town, Han Li and Shi Chuankong were walking briskly with tense expressions.

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Are you sure, Brother Li?" Shi Chuankong asked through voice transmission.