The four demon beasts departed after extending more words of gratitude, and Han Li sat within the hall as he summoned the wooden box holding the Blood Apricot again. He extricated the fruit from within the box before holding it between two of his fingers and carefully inspecting it.

"I’ve been looking for this for a long time; who would’ve thought it’d turn up on my doorstep without any effort? With this, I’ve secured yet another ingredient required to manifest the Provenance True Devil Projection. With the spirit medicines I found in the holy city of the Tian Peng Race, I’m only missing the legendary Flame Metal Essence now. After I find that, I’ll be able to manifest the projection with the Golden Marrow Crystal Insects!" Han Li murmured to himself as a hint of excitement appeared on his face.

He then placed the fruit back into the wooden box, and it disappeared amid a flash of azure light.

After that, Han Li rose to his feet and made his way out of the hall.

Moments later, he’d arrived in a corner of the medicine garden in his cave abode.

There were 72 exuberant azure bamboo plants standing before him, each of which was around 10 feet tall and shimmering with a layer of faint golden light.

Han Li inspected these bamboo plants for a while before suddenly extending a hand toward the one that was closest to him.

In the instant that his finger came into the contact with one of the bamboo leaves, a loud thunderclap erupted, and an arc of golden lightning erupted from the trunk of the bamboo plant before striking the back of his hand in a merciless manner.

However, Han Li’s hand instantly turned an inky-black color, and the arc of golden lightning was completely absorbed.

Han Li paid no heed to all of this as he closed his eyes, seemingly trying to sense something through the bamboo leaf held between his fingers.

After a long while, Han Li finally opened his eyes and released the bamboo leaf, but his brows were still tightly furrowed.

"This method is definitely working, but the conversion process seems to be slower than I expected. I should go and take care of some other matters for now," Han Li murmured to himself as he stroked his chin.

Golden light flashed from his body, and he sped out of the medicine garden as a streak of golden light, quickly disappearing out of sight.

Not long after that, Han Li appeared in another rectangular stone chamber.

There were seven or eight cauldrons of different sizes placed in a circle within the room, and a tall stone platform stood at the center. There was a large round how on the surface of the platform that was tightly covered by a white jade lid, and the lid was emanating a layer of faint white glacial Qi.

The lid had been constructed from a large chunk of Profound Ice.

On the wooden shelves positioned all around the stone chamber were various jars and vials of different sizes, from which a rich medicinal aroma was wafting through the air.

This was none other than Han Li’s designated pill refinement chamber.

All of the jars and vials contained various medicines, most of which were quite ordinary, but were used quite frequently and were indispensable.

Han Li couldn’t be bothered to stow them away in his storage bracelet, so he stored them all in here.

After sweeping his gaze across all of the cauldrons, his eyes settled on a medium-sized azure cauldron.

Han Li lifted a hand and made a grabbing motion toward the lid on the stone platform, and the lid immediately rose into the air before falling heavily onto the ground beside the platform with a loud thump, indicating that it was quite heavy.

As soon as the lid was removed, a burst of crimson flames erupted out of the hole on the stone platform, and the entire stone chamber was plunged into an unbearably sweltering environment.

Han Li immediately pointed a finger toward the azure cauldron without any hesitation, and it swayed before vanishing on the spot.

In the next instant, the cauldron appeared in the air above the crimson flames, rotating in mid-air as it was illuminated by the scorching fire.

Han Li chanted something and made a hand seal before casting an incantation seal toward the azure cauldron.

The cauldron then shrank and swelled erratically before plummeting straight downward, descending onto the hole in a tight fit and concealing all of the crimson flames beneath it.

Han Li exhaled upon seeing this before sweeping a hand over the storage bracelet on his wrist, and azure light flashed as a jade box appeared.

He carefully removed the lid of the box to reveal several purple fruits, each of which was around the size of a fist. The fruits were all very round and supple, seemingly filled with translucent fruit juices, and emanating a peculiar alluring aroma.

Each fruit possessed a core in the form of an extremely life-like miniature dragon, creating quite a mesmerizing sight to behold.

These were none other than the Zoysia Dragon Fruits that Han Li had obtained during his trip to the Wood Tribe territory.

The Rising Dragon Pills refined using this precious fruit was extremely effective for cultivation progression for early-Spatial Tempering and mid-Spatial Tempering cultivators.

Han Li had now reached the mid-Spatial Tempering Stage, so he was naturally going to begin refining this pill.

However, this was the first time he’d ever seen a spirit pill with such a difficult refinement process. Just the ingredients required to refine this pill had to be refined on their own, and that would take the better part of a month.

Thankfully, Zoysia Dragon Fruits also took an extremely long time to mature, requiring roughly 30,000 to reach maturity. He was too busy accelerating the growth of his Golden Lightning Bamboo and Azure Shifting Fruit earlier, thereby neglecting the Zoysia Dragon Fruits, so he’d have to wait a few years for them to mature.

With that in mind, Han Li stowed the Zoysia Dragon Fruits away before making a grabbing motion toward one of the nearby wooden shelves.

A dozen or so vials and jars immediately came flying toward him...

Han Li stayed in the pill refinement chamber for half a month. When he emerged again, he entered his secret chamber to consolidate his new cultivation base.

Of course, at the same time, he began studying the Spring Dawn Sword Formation.

During this time, the four demon beasts returned to offer up a bunch of valuable materials and ingredients, all of which were quite valuable, but most of them were not very useful to Han Li at the moment. The gifts were naturally accepted by the Weeping Soul Beast in Han Li’s stead, and the four demon beasts were unable to verify the authenticity of this Han Li, but they were still extremely respectful and expressed their gratitude once again.

Following the instructions from the second Nascent Soul, the Weeping Soul Beast accepted all of the items before seeing off the four demon beasts.

As for what they did from here onward, that was not something for Han Li to be concerned about.

Thus, days passed by one after another, and after several years, the first batch of Zoysia Dragon Fruits had finally reached maturity. Han Li emerged from seclusion and began to refine a large number of Rising Dragon Pills.

During the process, he discovered that not only was the pill refinement process extremely difficult, the success rate was also shockingly low. Even with his current level of mastery in pill refinement, he still only had a 20% to 30% success rate.

Han Li had expected that refining these pills would be quite difficult, but he was still greatly taken aback by such a pitiful success rate.

Only then did he realize that Spatial Tempering Stage pills were even more difficult to refine that the rumors suggested. It was no wonder that he’d never seen pills of that caliber being sold during the auctions held in Deep Heaven City. It was most likely the case that pill refinement masters could barely refine enough for their own breakthroughs, so they certainly weren’t going to sell them.

As for directly consuming the pill for general cultivation purposes, that wasn’t a practice that was completely unheard of, but it was most definitely exceedingly rare.

Even though Han Li was feeling a little depressed, he had the small vial to help him nurture more fruits, and the other ingredients used weren’t all that precious or rare, so this was only a test of patience.

Thus, time flew by through a repetitive cycle of pill refinement and seclusion.

40 years later, Han Li was sitting in a cross-legged manner on the ground within the secret chamber of his cave abode while making a hand seal. Golden light was swirling all over his body, and he was concentrating fully on his cultivation.

All of sudden, he was struck by a bone-chilling sensation, and he hurriedly opened his eyes as he rose to his feet.

"It seems like an immensely powerful cultivator is sweeping their spiritual sense through this place! Could it be..." A bewildered look appeared on Han Li’s face.

For him to be struck by such an overwhelming sense of spiritual pressure even through the layers of restrictions he’d set up outside his cave abode clearly indicated that this was a cultivator far beyond his cultivation base. However, why would a Body Integration cultivator come to a bleak and barren island like this one? Could it be the elders from the Tian Peng Race or perhaps other old monsters from the Flying Spirit Race?

Countless thoughts raced through Han Li’s mind, but he only hesitated momentarily before opening the stone doors and departing from the secret chamber.

Moments later, Han Li appeared in a hall where a massive formation had been carved onto the ground. At the center of the formation was a stone platform, upon which was placed a hexagonal bronze mirror that was emanating faint silver light.

This was none other than the Myriad Dragon Bead restriction that Han Li had modified several times after mastering the Nine Palaces Heavenly Talismans. Not only could this restriction now cover an area of thousands of kilometers, it was also far more profound than it had been in the past.

Han Li strode forward and stood at the center of the formation before making a hand seal to cast a streak of azure light into the formation.

The entire formation instantly began to ring incessantly as lights of different colors appeared, then surged toward the bronze mirror in unison.

As soon as the lights disappeared into the mirror, the silver light on its surface flashed, and it projected a silver light screen that was around 10 feet in size.

There were specks of light of different sizes flashing on the light screen, and Han Li’s gaze was immediately drawn to the two most piercing specks of light in the corner of the silver screen.

"What? There are two of them?" Han Li was given a massive shock before staring at the two specks of light with an intense unblinking gaze.

10 full minutes passed, but the two specks of light remained completely stationary on the light screen, showing no intention of approaching Han Li’s cave abode, but seemingly not in a hurry to leave, either.

Han Li was becoming more bewildered by the minute.

It was quite clear that these two fearsome beings weren’t targeting him. Otherwise, they would’ve flown here as soon as their spiritual sense had swept over his cave abode. However, they weren’t departing, either, which suggested that they weren’t just passing through. As such, Han Li was truly perplexed. With their cultivation bases, they clearly wouldn’t just appear here for no reason to have a chat. Who knew if these two were friend or foe? At present, the two of them were only several thousand kilometers away from his cave abode, and they could even attack him from this distance. With that in mind, Han Li was growing quite concerned. Furthermore, the bone-chilling sensation that he’d been struck with when their spiritual sense had swept through this place was extremely unsettling, particularly when he didn’t know their objective.

He pondered the situation with a grave expression, then looked down at the formation beneath his feet, and he finally made up his mind as he gritted his teeth.

He pointed a finger toward the bronze mirror atop the stone platform, and the mirror tremored slightly before slowly rising up into the air and radiating piercing silver light.

At the same time, Han Li began to chant something before opening his mouth to expel a ball of blood essence.

The ball of blood essence exploded around a foot away from the mirror, transforming into a cloud of crimson mist that enshrouded the mirror within.