The only town on the island lies at its eastern end, while in the western part there stretches a small mountain range over twenty miles long, featuring two modest peaks—one about two or three hundred paces high, the other only around a hundred paces. From above, Han Li spotted the peaks, yet he still held back a touch of excitement, landing first at the center of the town. Han Li and Qu Hun's arrival stirred considerable commotion. Soon, an elder who claimed to be the town's magistrate came rushing to meet Han Li. After Han Li presented the jade scroll bearing golden symbols for the magistrate to examine, the latter immediately declared that every resident of the town would be willing to follow the仙 master's every instruction. Han Li, of course, had no need to rely on the ordinary folk for assistance; instead, he simply inquired about the island's general situation and the town's capacity to contribute to the costs of the protective array in terms of spiritual stones—this was the matter that truly concerned him. After hearing a small, almost negligible amount, Han Li felt somewhat dissatisfied. Wasn't it the case that all the spiritual stones consumed would now have to be paid by him? How could the middle-aged cultivator have claimed that collecting a little from the residents would help offset some losses? It seemed merely well-intentioned rhetoric—there was no real difference in outcome. Han Li quietly criticized the middle-aged cultivator in his mind, then comforted the elder a few times. Next, he took a quick look at the array's core in the town's center. After estimating the amount of spiritual stones the array consumed and comparing it with what the elder had mentioned, he immediately offered the elder a full year's supply of array spiritual stones. He informed the elder that each year, they could come to his newly constructed dwelling to collect the stones needed for the following year. Then, without acknowledging the elder's continuous expressions of gratitude, Han Li proceeded to fly westward toward the island's western end, accompanied by Qu Hun. As soon as韩立 entered the mountain range known to the island's residents as "Little Huanshan," he immediately felt a gentle aura brushing against him, which brought a subtle sense of joy to his heart. After a while, standing on the Shenfeng Boat, he circled the taller and shorter mountain peaks several times. Clearly, the taller peaks had a more abundant concentration of spiritual energy. However, the shorter peak appeared more robust and seemed better suited for a dwelling. Moreover, there already stood an old, well-preserved dwelling left behind by a previous cultivator, nearly intact and ready for immediate use. After a moment of thoughtful contemplation on the Shenfeng Boat, a spark of insight flashed in his eyes, and he made up his mind. First, he entered the existing dwelling site within the shorter, sturdier peak and, deep within the cave, selected a particularly secluded spot. There, he activated his magical instruments and struck the ground with precise force. Half a day later, a subterranean passage had taken shape—wide enough to accommodate a diameter of two or three zhang—and it extended straight down to the base of the mountain peak. However, when the tunnel had descended several dozen zhang below the base of the mountain peak, it suddenly changed direction and extended toward another mountain peak just a few miles away. Although Han Li's magical instruments were sharp and effective, and with Qu Hun's assistance, the massive engineering project still took two full days to successfully connect the two mountain peaks. Subsequently, Han Li followed the original design of the Tiannan ancient dwelling and established a new dwelling deep within the taller mountain peak, identical in every aspect to the one on Tai Yue Mountain. This time, however, no exit was created—except for the connecting passage—making the dwelling completely semi-closed. Here, Han Li truly cultivated and nurtured his spiritual herbs. With one authentic and one simulated dwelling, safety was greatly enhanced. After completing the dwellings, Han Li laid out the earliest acquired "Reversed Five Elements Array" near the entrance of the shorter, sturdier mountain peak. Yet, even after flying between the two mountain peaks and circling in the air for a while, Han Li still felt somewhat uneasy. He simply selected two more powerful array setups from the sets of array tools gifted to him by Xin Ruoyin—the "Heavenly Wind and Furious Storm Array" and the "Illusory Form and Celestial Lattice Array"—taking their banner and platform. Both arrays are expansive in scope, and once properly laid out, completely enveloped the two mountain peaks. While not as miraculous as the "Reversal of the Five Elements Array," they still posed a significant challenge even for cultivators at the Foundation Stage. With this, aside from direct assaults by cultivators at the Condensation Stage,韩立's abode was essentially secure. Above the outer array, Han Li gazed upward at the mountain peaks veiled in a hazy, milky mist, smiled lightly, and then slowly drifted into the mist, vanishing. Upon entering his true abode, Han Li did not take a moment to rest—he remained busy. First, he planted several medicinal seedlings in the newly established secret medicinal garden. After all, even if he wished to stimulate their growth, he would have to wait until the seeds had sprouted. Then Han Li buried the small vial, which he regarded as life itself, in a corner of the herb garden, placing the remaining fragments of the divine artifact atop it so that the green liquid could coalesce through the fine openings in the wall. He subsequently cleared out dozens of rooms of varying sizes, and, following the insect-rearing techniques of the Yuling Sect's cultivators, transformed each room's environment accordingly, placing the pair of white spiders and the other living rare insects within. He also established seals around the area to prevent them from escaping. Of course, he first scattered sufficient food for the insects. After completing these most crucial tasks, Han Li did not take the herbs to meditate and refine his qi. Instead, he carefully withdrew from his storage sack the gray-white jade scroll he had received from Yue Huang, which contained many exceedingly mysterious and arcane techniques—among them, the one he had long coveted, the "Body-Outside Avatar" technique. He immersed his consciousness deeply into the scroll, reviewing the method of cultivation repeatedly before withdrawing, then fell into deep contemplation. Previously, although Han Li had long planned carefully in his heart, upon closer reflection, he still felt the risks of mastering this technique to be quite substantial. The jade scroll clearly stated that if the transference of the spirit into the duplicate body failed, the transferred consciousness would automatically be destroyed and could never be recovered. Should the cultivator's consciousness not be strong enough, it would suffer severe damage—resulting in prolonged madness in the mildest cases, or even being overwhelmed by inner demons and dying in the worst. Even if the transference succeeded, the so-called "body-out manifestation" would merely be an advanced automaton capable of independent cultivation and agile manipulation. It was fundamentally different from the legendary divine technique of transforming into two beings or even multiple beings, as commonly believed. Nevertheless, with the "Blood-Condensed Five Elements Pill" at his disposal, Han Li had a remarkable chance to enable his duplicate to form a "Shade Pill"—a rare and precious opportunity to secure a cultivator of Jaden Stage as a steadfast guardian. Even at just the initial stage of Condensation, this now gives him the ability to protect himself against other Condensation-stage cultivators. Moreover, the most crucial and difficult prerequisite for cultivating a dual-body form is the need for a physical body with a spiritual root—yet he already possesses such a body, intact and perfectly suited. Take Qu Hun, the corpse cultivator whose spirit essence is entirely absent. According to expectation, when a cultivator's spirit essence—especially that of a lower-level cultivator—is extracted, the process is so forceful that it invariably damages the body's meridians and vessels, rendering the body incapable of further cultivating spells. This is precisely why many cultivators are surprised to see Qu Hun, a corpse cultivator, still exhibiting subtle spiritual fluctuations. While it is indeed possible for a body to remain undamaged after spirit essence extraction, such cases are rare—occurring only once in a hundred—and thus entirely coincidental. Unfortunately, the secret technique of cultivating a "body beyond the physical" specifically requires that the body not only remain undamaged after the spirit essence is extracted, but also that the original cultivator be at the level of six or below in the cultivation hierarchy. Now, it's harder than ever to find a suitable physical body. Although韩立 doesn't know exactly why this unusual requirement has arisen, he suspects it may be related to the ease with which the body can be mastered after the Divided Spirit is planted within it. While he doesn't know precisely how the original body of Qu Hu was accidentally obtained by Yu Zi Tong and Mo Doctor, he is certain that it meets all the necessary conditions and is indeed an ideal body for refining a spiritual duplicate. As for the Yue Emperor, he likely drew upon the immortal spirits of countless lower-tier cultivators to finally secure a suitable physical form. Otherwise, he would have had more than one refined duplicate. Sitting cross-legged on the ground,韩立 pondered for a long time and ultimately decided to first perfect the Daxian Decision to the second level before beginning the refinement of his spiritual duplicates. Only then would he be safe in case the refinement process failed. At present, he has personally experienced the remarkable effect of the Daxian Decision in expanding his spiritual awareness. Of course, before beginning to practice the Daxian Decision, he must first restore his cultivation level back to the initial stage of Foundation. This is because the secret technique of "Body Beyond the Self" can only And once the ritual for creating his body duplicates was complete—regardless of whether the technique succeeded or not—Han Li would have to begin exploring the cultivation of the "Three Transformations and Restoration of Primordial Energy" technique. After all, only this technique and the "Green Primordial Sword Technique" were the keys to his achieving a Dan stage and entering the great path of cultivation! After mentally reviewing his future cultivation plan, Han Li entered the inner chamber of the pavilion and began taking pills to refine his qi. At present, he was still only consuming two lower-level pills—the "Yellow Dragon Pills" and the "Golden Essence Pills." The "Foundation-Building Pills" were still too potent for him; he would wait until he reached the seventh stage before taking them. Based on his estimation, without the foundation-building bottleneck, he should soon enter the foundation stage. ------------ Hmm, I made a mistake in the title of the previous chapter!