Chapter 279: The Mother Bean Sprouts

One day, several years later.

To the north of the Ancient Cloud Continent, over a vast expanse of white, frozen sea, a howling阴风 raged, and snowflakes filled the sky.

The violent wind roared, piercing the eardrums, and the swirling snow engulfed the entire world.

Amid the low-hanging leaden gray clouds, a figure stood suspended in the air. He was tall, clad in a green robe, and wore a green ox-head mask on his face. It was Han Li.

"This should be the place..." Han Li murmured to himself, but his voice was drowned out by the wind and snow.

With a wave of his hand, a streak of green light shot out, transforming into a green longsword that plunged straight down toward the ice on the sea surface.

As soon as the flying sword shot out, Han Li's figure followed closely behind, descending as well.

A sharp clang rang out.

The green longsword pierced the ice, easily breaking a hole, and then dove into the water.

Han Li's figure flickered and leaped into the sea as well.

Above the entire sea, a cracking sound, undrowned by the wind and snow, echoed continuously. On the frozen surface, which had been sealed for who knows how many years, a massive fissure spanning a thousand miles appeared and spread.

Once underwater, Han Li cast a simple water-repelling spell and, together with the sword ahead, rushed toward the seabed under the protection of a pale blue light shield.

After about a quarter of an hour, he stopped and landed beside a volcanic crater deep at the bottom of the sea. His green flying sword was stuck in the seabed rock ahead, flashing with blue light.

The volcanic crater before him was dark and gray, emitting no trace of heat. It might be an extinct volcano, or one that had lain dormant for countless years without erupting.

Han Li walked over and pulled the green longsword from the ground with a clang.

The blade brought up a streak of green light, shattering some of the rocks around the crater and revealing a faint golden radiance beneath.

Han Li glanced down, shook the longsword in his hand, and a ripple of green light spread out. Countless tiny green sword shadows flew out, hacking away all the rocks around the volcanic crater.

As a layer of stone-like crust peeling off the rocks around the crater fell away, a dazzling golden light illuminated the pitch-black seabed, making it bright and clear.

Around the volcanic crater, densely packed, fist-sized golden oval balls resembling beast eggs were distributed.

This object was called Golden Dragon Gall, a very special medicinal herb for alchemy. It belonged neither to the plant category, nor to the bone-beast category, nor to the mineral category, but was a combination of all three.

It originally came from a seabed creature called Sea Dragon Gall. After death, a layer of moss would gradually form on the outer layer of its remains, which would then be accidentally buried by volcanic lava. After at least ten thousand years of transformation, it would become Golden Dragon Gall.

Because this herb possessed the properties of all three categories, it was often used to harmonize various medicines and could be found in many alchemical recipes.

Han Li would not normally accept such a mundane collection task, but since he needed Golden Dragon Gall for the Earth-grade pill he was about to refine, he simply took this task from the Wuchang Alliance. It allowed him to earn a commission while also obtaining what he needed, killing two birds with one stone.

Now, he not only had to accumulate spiritual materials for refining pills but also prepare for refining the Dao Pill. The amount of spirit stones and immortal essence stones he needed could no longer be described as astronomical. Thus, he had no choice but to transform into a task maniac again, frantically accepting tasks from the Wuchang Alliance.

The current task was already the fourth one he had completed in just a few months.

After completing the collection, he immediately flew up and rushed toward the sea surface.

...

Ten years later.

In an unknown narrow valley, three or four figures wearing beast-head masks jumped down from the cliffs on both sides of the valley. They looked at the dying ferocious beast lying in the valley and the tall figure standing nearby, exchanging bewildered glances.

None of them had expected that this task of killing a True Immortal initial-stage demon beast would be completed so easily.

On the way here, they had somewhat looked down on this tall man who had remained silent and unwilling to participate in their encirclement plan. But they had never anticipated that once he arrived, he would unleash astonishing combat power.

Almost single-handedly, he took down the demon beast, rendering all their plans and arrangements on the way useless and somewhat laughable.

But laughable as it was, after witnessing the strength of this member codenamed Jiao Fifteen, especially his decisive and ruthless attacks, these people could only feel awe.

Han Li didn't really enjoy showing off and being the standout; rather, he simply didn't want to waste too much time. After delivering this task, he had to rush to the East Flow Sea Region within a month to carry out the next one.

...

Time flew, and it was already thirty years later.

On this day, the morning sun rose over Red Cloud Peak, casting a warm glow over the mountain, but Han Li's residence seemed somewhat desolate.

After successfully breaking through their cultivation realms, Sun Buzheng and Meng Yungui were soon sent out by Han Li to search for spiritual medicine seeds.

Later, Meng Qianqian also used this as an excuse to travel and left Red Cloud Peak.

When she left, she took Nian Yu with her, causing the mountain-guarding Twin-Headed Lion-Eagle Beast to be dejected for a long time.

Inside the secret chamber of the cave dwelling, a green light gradually dimmed, revealing Han Li's figure. He slowly took off the mask covering his face and put it away.

He had just delivered a task and received a decent reward of immortal essence stones, over a hundred in total.

But for his current needs, it was merely a drop in the bucket.

After leaving the chamber, he turned and went to the spiritual medicine field within the cave dwelling.

In the medicine field, all kinds of colorful spiritual herbs had almost filled it. On the left side, several spiritual trees with winding vines climbed on erected wooden frames, waiting for enough years to bear spiritual fruits. On the right side, purple mist filled the air, and the fragrance of flowers permeated everywhere, with dense clusters of tiny blossoms in full bloom.

The entire medicine field was full of vitality and vigor, except for the southwest corner.

That patch of field was empty, showing only gray-black soil, with no spiritual herbs in sight, as if it had always been vacant and never planted.

Every time Han Li's gaze swept over that spot, he only paused briefly before quickly looking away.

But today, when he cast his gaze there, his heart stirred, and he noticed that something was different.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, walked along the ridges, and hurried to the edge of that field. After a glance, he jumped into the field, stepped on the somewhat soft soil, came to the center, and crouched down.

Right in front of his feet, beneath a fist-sized gray clod of earth, a tender green sprout thinner than a bean sprout had emerged from the soil, lifting one corner of the clod and tilting it to the side.

Though it seemed frail, it was actually full of vigorous life force. It was none other than the mother bean.

"This... has sprouted," Han Li said in surprise.

In the first hundred years after planting the mother bean, he had often watered it with green liquid. But later, due to the need to refine crystal grains and water other spiritual herbs, the green liquid was always in short supply, and the mother bean showed no signs of sprouting, so he stopped watering it. He never expected that when he came to check today, it had already sprouted silently.

After examining it carefully for a moment, Han Li noticed that on the two tender cotyledons of the green sprout, there were faint dark golden patterns forming circles, looking very peculiar.

He frowned slightly, turned his hand over, and a thin yellow paper booklet appeared in his palm.

After flipping through it carefully for a while, the confusion on Han Li's face grew heavier, and he couldn't help muttering, "That's not right... Why is this different from what's described in Elder Huyan's notes?"

After examining for a long time, he still couldn't reach a definite conclusion. He had to move the clod away from the sprout, sketch the full appearance of the dark golden patterns on the cotyledons, and then turned to leave the cave dwelling.

About an hour later.

A streak of green light flew down from the high sky and landed on a mountain peak below.

Where the green light landed, Han Li's figure emerged. Not far in front of him lay a large, continuous courtyard. Above the vermilion gate hung a plaque with the four characters "Hundred Wines Mountain Villa" written in a flowing, flamboyant style.

Han Li glanced at the four drunken-looking, crooked characters and was about to step forward when he saw the mansion's gate suddenly move and open inward.

A plump, fair-skinned woman in a snow-white gauze dress walked out. She was lightly made up, with her black hair piled high, exuding an enchanting charm that captivated the heart.

This woman was none other than Bai Suyuan's master, Yun Ni, one of the Thirteen Golden Immortal Dao Lords.

However, her face now bore a clear expression of anger as she hurriedly walked out.

The old man in gray-white Daoist robes with two gourds hanging from his waist followed behind her. He seemed to want to say something but couldn't, looking somewhat embarrassed.

When he caught sight of Han Li standing on the stone steps below, his expression became even more awkward. He stopped in his tracks and didn't chase after her.

Yun Ni, with a displeased look, passed by Han Li without even glancing at him, then flew straight up, transforming into a rainbow light and vanishing into the distance.

Han Li saw Daoist Huyan standing on the steps, staring blankly into the sky, and coughed lightly twice.

The latter came to his senses, turned around, and walked into the mansion while pretending to be calm, explaining somewhat guiltily, "Ah, the sect has been really busy with official affairs lately..."

"Hehe, Elder Huyan is indeed overwhelmed with official business," Han Li nodded with a smile.

"Hmm. What wind blew you here again? Let me tell you in advance, I don't have any wine for you to freeload this time," the old man said, nodding with satisfaction, glancing at Han Li, and then asked.

"A few days ago, when I was on a mission, I happened to obtain a jar of fine wine, said to be brewed with sixty-seven rare spiritual herbs. I immediately thought of you, Senior Huyan," Han Li said with a slight smile. With a flip of his hand, a red wine jar appeared, and he handed it over.

"Oh, so you still have some conscience! Let me... ahem, there are too many people and ears here. Let's talk inside," the old man's eyes lit up at first, but then he looked around and said with some feigned restraint.