Published: August 16, 2025
Chapter 161: The Market
After several sleepless nights of tossing and turning, Han Li gradually leaned toward the latter option between cautiously preserving his life but losing the chance to become an immortal, or taking a daring risk to successfully establish his foundation. After all, he was never willing to live an ordinary and mediocre life!
However, being naturally cautious, before making his decision, Han Li went to Yuelu Hall once more. After confirming with the greedy old man that outside the Forbidden Zone there were no heaven and earth spirit medicines, and that the Blood Restriction Trial was indeed ruthless, Han Li completely abandoned any thoughts of luck.
Since he realized there was no way to retreat, Han Li finally steeled himself and resolved to participate in the Blood Restriction Trial and give it his all. Either he would successfully find the spirit medicine and establish his foundation, or he would fall in this deadly contest over the Forbidden Zone!
With a clear life-or-death goal, Han Li began preparing for the journey to the Forbidden Zone six months later. In this short time, he aimed to raise his strength to a higher level, increasing his chances of survival.
It was impossible to break through the eleventh level of the everlasting spring technique without the aid of pills. To enhance his strength, the only options he could think of were to learn a few new spells and purchase some powerful talismans and magical artifacts.
Learning new spells wasn’t a big problem; he could probably ask Senior Brother Wu for instruction, and the latter would not refuse. But given his aptitude, in six months he could at most learn two or three lower-level initial spells, or barely master one mid-level initial spell. As for higher-level spells, that was out of the question. Therefore, the fastest way to improve was through talismans and magical artifacts.
Speaking of magical artifacts, Han Li actually had a few now. Besides the ring and small flag given by Uncle Ye, the only useful ones he had were two items retrieved from the two Men in Yellow Robes who had tried to kill him: a long sword that could transform into a rope, and a gourd that could spit out spheres to attack automatically.
As for the Blazing Sun Sword and Cold Moon Blade he received when he first joined, those were just low-level artifacts with minor flame and cold attacks, utterly incapable of being useful in serious combat.
Regarding talismans, Han Li had originally had very few. Fortunately, despite Uncle Ye having taken many things from him, he did not falsify the levels of the talismans given, though he did shortchange the quantity. Han Li actually received over a dozen mid-level initial talismans and two rare high-level talismans, which greatly boosted his confidence.
Additionally, there was one talisman he still did not fully understand—it was the one bearing the image of a small sword. The Men in Yellow Robes, whom he had slain, had called it a Talisman Treasure, implying it was a very special item. But since it was stolen property he dared not reveal it, he kept it secret and intended to inquire about the meaning of "Talisman Treasure" when the opportunity arose.
Of course, merely having these items was insufficient to face the terrifying Blood Restriction Trial. Thus, Han Li planned to leave the sect briefly and travel to the market town near the mountains of his sect to purchase some top-tier magical artifacts and talismans.
However, such a shopping trip would be unsatisfactory without a large amount of spirit stones as backing.
Although Han Li could barely afford the spirit stones with his current wealth, these stones were crucial for his survival and endurance during the upcoming Forbidden Zone expedition, so he was reluctant to spend them.
After much thought, Han Li decided to cultivate several rare medicinal herbs over a thousand years old to exchange for spirit stones or trade goods directly.
Actually, producing Beauty-Setting Pills might have been a better choice, as they could be more valuable, but the number of ingredients required was too great to gather in time. Therefore, he settled on trading the herbs themselves.