Along the way, he encountered several villagers who found his face somewhat unfamiliar and glanced at him with curiosity. Han Li reached his destination with ease. Surveying the ancient, dark stone house before him, he hesitated slightly before gently pushing the stone door. To his surprise, the door remained motionless. Could there be some hidden mechanism? Yet, he took a deep breath and suddenly exerted his full strength. Though he had never practiced any external martial arts, the refining processes of his foundation and condensation stages had granted him over a hundred pounds of strength. A slow, creaking sound gradually emerged. Eventually, the door opened inch by inch. This gave Han Li a sense of relief. At that moment, he realized that the door was actually twice as thick as a typical stone door—so heavy that he had almost assumed it possessed a mechanism. Han Li stepped inside, immediately greeted by a damp, decaying odor. His face tightened, and Han Li quickly held his breath. After a while, fresh air seeped in from outside, and the atmosphere inside the room gradually stabilized. Then he exhaled gently, using the faint light from outside to survey the room. It was remarkably simple—besides a row of stone tablets of roughly similar size, there was only a crude stone table placed in the center. Each tablet was about ten feet wide and two feet high, quite substantial. Han Li was momentarily taken aback. On the table, there were no scrolls or bamboo tablets, only a few seemingly dim and lifeless magical artifacts. Han Li's initial surprise quickly faded, and he found himself silently chuckling. This was not the outside world—where would he find paper or bamboo? As for jade scrolls, without spiritual energy, they would be entirely useless. Clearly, these stone tablets themselves served as the records of knowledge here, likely containing the insights and experiences left behind by the cultivators. As for the artifacts on the stone table, it seems they, like their own flying swords, have not yet been collected by their owners—both the owners and the items have been drawn into this place together. Naturally, they can no longer be returned to their storage bags. The storage bags themselves, however,韩立 did not see any within the room. It appears the owners have handled them differently and have not displayed them here. After taking a general look around the room,韩立 casually walked over to a stone stele and glanced at it briefly. The surface was covered in thick dust, appearing hazy and indistinct, making it impossible to read what was inscribed. After frowning,韩立 didn't mind the dust and approached closely, then tore off a piece of his robe to gently wipe it clean. In a short while, clear characters emerged clearly before him. The script was not the current standard used in the cultivation world, but rather a rarer ancient form. Fortunately, given韩立's broad exposure to various texts, he easily recognized it. Yet, after only a few moments of inspection,韩立 lost interest in the stele. This was merely a miscellaneous record written by a cultivator at the Foundation Stage, detailing his life experiences. Han Li naturally had no interest in reading it further and immediately turned to other steles. Although the stele did not inscribe any specific cultivation techniques, the nameless Yuan婴 stage cultivator had meticulously recorded his personal experiences—from establishing the Foundation to achieving the Dan stage, and finally forming his Yuan婴—offering detailed insights. Upon reading this, Han Li was deeply impressed and excited. With the guidance of this Yuan婴 cultivator's firsthand experiences, Han Li found himself avoiding many detours and eliminating several mistaken notions he had previously held about forming a Yuan婴. After a meal, Han Li finally spotted the last one. He mindlessly brushed away the dust, glanced at the stele, and then suddenly looked utterly surprised. The stele before him was entirely different from the ones that came before—its surface was densely inscribed with countless fine characters, each no larger than a grain of rice, far smaller than those on the earlier steles. Moreover, upon a quick scan, Han Li noticed that the inscriptions were composed of two distinct styles: one familiar to him—standard classical Chinese—and the other being the very same mythical beast script he had seen numerous times before. Intrigued, he stepped forward and began to examine it closely. Even after just a brief inspection, Han Li felt a growing sense of excitement. This stele appeared to be a dedicated teaching text on the mythical beast script, elaborately detailed with explanations for each character—clearly inscribed by a master who was deeply conversant with the script. Though Han Li would not immediately grasp it all upon reading. Yet, once he memorized it thoroughly and gradually grasped its essence over time, he would truly master the elven script. Thus, he would then understand clearly what great elven techniques were inscribed on the elven copper slab and the leather scroll he originally received. As for whether humans could genuinely practice elven techniques, Han Li would not ponder it deeply. Even if those techniques proved entirely useless to him, mastering the elven script would only bring benefits—never drawbacks—so who knew what uses might arise in the future? After all, such an opportunity was truly rare. With considerable time and effort, Han Li, relying on his exceptional ability to remember things instantly, diligently memorized every character on both sides of the stone stele without missing a single one. Only then did he take a deep breath and leave the room. As for the various artifacts on the table, he barely glanced at them. After leaving the stone cottage, Han Li walked around the village several times, stopping to take a closer look at some particularly unusual buildings and chatting with the villagers nearby. Fortunately, the native inhabitants seemed rather simple and sincere, though not overly enthusiastic toward this stranger, they were always willing to answer any questions he had. Through these conversations, Han Li quickly gathered a solid understanding of some basic facts about the Yinming realm. For instance, due to the lack of iron ore and similar materials, the villagers had to use the bones of particularly hard Yin beasts to craft weapons. However, these bones could not be used directly as weapon materials—they first needed to be soaked in a liquid known as "Shen Shui." As a result, the bones became not only three times harder than before, but also gained an inherent power of Yin fire, which enhanced their effectiveness against Yin beasts when forged into weapons. However, since the yin fire cannot last long, these weapons must be periodically re-immersed in "shen shui" to maintain their destructive power, which has piqued Han Li's curiosity about this so-called "shen shui." Additionally, the Yin Ming realm experiences several days each month with yin wind days. On these days, most areas are enveloped in cold, piercing black yin winds that make human beings unable to leave their homes. Exposed to these winds, humans would inevitably turn into black ice sculptures. Only within the villages, protected by various magical barriers, do the villagers remain unharmed. In contrast, during these yin wind days, the Yin Ming beasts are most active—frequently causing incidents such as individual or groups of beasts charging directly at the villages, which keeps the villagers constantly on edge. Han Li has gathered numerous such reports. Even with a sudden thought, he asked about the identity of the man with sharp eyes and a pale face, who seemed unfriendly to him. It turned out that the man's surname was Feng, another outsider who had been drawn into the village a few years ago. Though he didn't know his original profession, he possessed an astonishing martial skill, having defeated several powerful yin beasts multiple times—contributions that were invaluable to the village. For this, he was recommended as a village elder at such a young age, specifically entrusted with teaching the younger generation martial arts. Among the youth, he enjoyed considerable prestige. Hearing this, Han Li didn't feel particularly intimidated, though he did furrow his brows slightly, finding the situation somewhat challenging. After strolling around the village a bit longer, Han Li slowly made his way toward his own dwelling. Just as he reached the doorway, he heard a man's voice coming from inside the house. "How about that? All the things I just said were truly sincere." As long as Madame Mei is willing to marry Feng, not only will her food needs be absolutely secure in the future, but she will also no longer have to frequently leave the village at great risk to her life. Feng has remained single for many years—not merely sentimental, but genuinely devoted to the young lady. It was a man of the Feng surname who had arrived at the room without anyone knowing when.