After the female disciple went to retrieve the spirit beast, Han Li quietly waited at the welcoming station, occasionally glancing at the spell restrictions surrounding him.
Apart from the mountaintop that Han Li was at, the other areas on this spirit beast mountain were all contained by individual multi-colored restrictive magic spells; these divided it up into differently sized resting places for spirit beasts.
Every area sealed by the restrictive spells had a domestication place for one kind of spirit beast. Apart from the disciples on duty at the Qilin Pavilion, other people were not allowed to enter. This was because they were afraid that others would startle the spirit beasts, or that the beasts that were not yet domesticated would harm outsiders.
Thus, although the entire Spirit Beast Mountain seemed to be very quiet and peaceful, in reality at least nearly a thousand different spirit beasts lived there; the scale was not so surprising.That female disciple did not make Han Li wait for long; after the time it took to eat a meal, she walked out of some restricted area with a fist-sized small beast in her bosom, hurrying directly towards Han Li.
“This is the Twin Pupil Mouse; the price of renting it is one low-grade spirit stone every day!” said the female disciple to Han Li respectfully while using a hand to gently stroke the soft fur of the little beast.
“Okay, here are three spirit stones; I will use it for three days!” said Han Li indifferently to the female.
“After three days, Junior Martial Uncle only needs to release this Twin Pupil Mouse, and it will return to the Qilin Pavilion by itself. During this period of time, I hope that Junior Martial Uncle will treat this beast well. This pouch contains its favorite Earth Pear Fruit; should Junior Martial Uncle find the time, he can feed it a few.” The young woman received the spirit stones, then handed the spirit beast to Han Li and took out a small white pouch as she said to Han Li.
Han Li nodded his head, then freely received it.
Then, under the young woman’s respectful gaze, he flew away on his flying magic tool.
Han Li flew directly northwest.As Han Li hurried there, he couldn’t help but size up the lovable Twin Pupil Mouse in his bosom.
At a glance, this yellow little beast really seems like a normal earth mouse. The two species both had similar body proportions, the same yellow fur, and a slim, long tail.
The only difference was that its face sported a pair of large eyes, very different from those of normal mice. Despite this being the only difference, however, it immediately caused this beast to become extremely cute!
The fact that a trace of five-colored light could be seen flashing across its eyes simply served to accentuate this beast’s mystique.
Even someone as indifferent as Han Li couldn’t help but stroke it a few times when he saw this beast’s cute appearance. The idea of whether or not he should also raise a Twin Pupil Mouse emerged in his mind!
However, Han Li was also clear that, despite this small beast’s docile nature, it was nonetheless a genuine intermediate grade one demonic beast.
Thinking to this point, Han Li fiddled with the beast’s little ear one more time; after gazing at it shaking about amusingly for a while, he couldn’t help but let out a laugh. It was as if the child that had been buried inside of his heart for so long had broken out once again.
Han Li flew in this manner for a day straight before finally stopping at the most northwestern part of the Tai Yue Mountain Range.
Another fifty kilometers north from this location, one would have entered the State of Yuan Wu; that place was the territory of the State of Yuan Wu’s great sect, the Heavenly Star Sect. In addition, they had established a market city which rivalled that of the Yellow Maple Valley.
One hundred kilometers west was the smallest administrative district in the Jian Province and State of Yuan Wu — the boundary of the Xi Province.
This province was also the only place where the Seven Great Sects had not stationed a single garrison. This was because apart from incredibly tall, sandy slopes, the Xi province consisted of a boundless desert that took up greater than three-fourths of its area. The entire combined population of the province was only a hundred thousand people or so; thus, it had no resources or people to use. Naturally, this place would not enter the eyes of the Seven Great Sects.
There were two reasons why Han Li chose to open up a cave near this place.
The first reason was that this desolate location of the Tai Yue Mountain Range bordered the State of Yuan Wu on one side and was near the Xi Province on another side; they were both locations where very few disciples from his sect would pass through. In this way, he wouldn’t have anyone to disturb his cultivation.
Second was that this was not far from the Heavenly Star Sect’s market city; if he wanted to sell some medicinal ingredients or buy something, he could easily make exchanges here without worrying about being recognized by others!
It was with this train of thought that Han Li picked a location where the Spiritual Qi was not the best, unlike the caves of other Foundation Establishment disciples, which were all densely packed into locations where the Spiritual Qi was the densest.
Upon descending, Han Li wrapped a slim rope that he had prepared beforehand around the Twin Pupil Mouse’s neck to prevent it from running too fast and thus keep him from losing the small thing. Then, he pulled out a yellow, round fruit from the small storage pouch and tossed it to the small beast, allowing it to gnaw on it.
After a moment, the Twin Pupil beast became energized, having demolished the pear. After gently calling out “xu xu” twice, it shot into a nearby patch of grass with a “whizz”, disappearing without a trace.
Han Li leisurely followed the rope.
……
Han Li stood on one side of the arduously steep mountaintop, gazing at the three hundred or so feet tall mountain wall opposite him. He stared at the sight blankly!
This was because the rope on his hand, passing through a narrow hole in the rock, directly extended into the mountain wall facing him.
It was currently the afternoon of the second day. Having gone through two days of bitter searching, the Twin Pupil Mouse suddenly began to frantically rush forwards the moment it drew near the mountain wall. After rushing Han Li to this location, it slipped into the mountain through the small crack.
Han Li looked at the taut, thin rope in his hand, and his curiosity was greatly piqued. He thought for a moment, then instantly patted his storage pouch, and that huge silver sword appeared in Han Li’s hands.
Han Li grasped the rope tightly with one hand and swung the silver sword with the other; in an instant, as if he were cutting tofu, the narrow crack in front of him widened to a rough entrance that a person could crawl through.
After crawling in headfirst, he immediately activated a protective barrier around his body; then, he followed the string, cutting open the mountain rock with each step, slowly progressing. All of the falling pieces of rock and dust were blocked by his water-attribute barrier, keeping his entire body neat and tidy.
This kind of physical work continued for more than an hour, and a thirty-foot-long simple, crude stone tunnel slowly formed. When Han Li hacked again with his sword, a sudden “crash” sounded, and the stone wall was finally broken open.
Han Li was very happy when he saw this. He used enough effort to wildly stab a few times, causing the stone wall to be completely hacked open. Then, he took a big stride out.
A roughly thirty-foot-large naturally formed cave appeared before his eyes. Han Li had just entered this area when a gust of dense Spiritual Qi pounced forwards, causing him to feel greatly stunned!
However, his gaze still followed the rope in his hand, only to see that the thin rope stretched all the way to the center of the cave. There was actually a miniature spring mouth that gurgled with spring water; the Twin Pupil Mouse was actually lying in the middle of this water bed that was a few feet large, contentedly swimming around in it.
“This is?”
This time, Han Li was truly shocked; this was because almost all of the dense Spiritual Qi in this cave came from this spring.
He hurriedly walked over, scooped up a handful of spring water, and began to carefully examine it.
“This is a spirit well spring; there definitely can’t be a mistake!” Without expending too much effort, Han Li confirmed the guess in his heart.
“Even though the Spiritual Qi contained in the spring water is not as exaggerated as rumors suggest and this spring mouth is very small, it truly is a rarely-seen spirit well spring,” Han Li muttered to himself in disbelief, his two hands sticking into the water.
Then, he closed his eyes, feeling the strands of Spiritual Qi being emitted from the water. The grin on his face couldn’t help but grow wider.
Speaking of spirit springs, one also had to mention spirit veins and spirit wells in the cultivating world!
The Spiritual Qi in the world was not actually evenly distributed; some places were denser in Spiritual Qi, while others were more sparse. Thus, after a long period of time, spirit veins of varying sizes would usually form in areas with dense Spiritual Qi.
Large spirit veins could be tens of thousands of kilometers long, while small ones could be as small as a few kilometers, truly pitifully small. But regardless of size, when these spirit veins were formed, they would automatically release faint amounts of Spiritual Qi, causing the location’s Spiritual Qi to circulate unceasingly. Resources in such areas would never dry up.
But in locations with different spirit veins, the amounts of spiritual Qi produced were not necessarily even either. Those locations with the densest accumulation of Spiritual Qi were naturally the most suitable for cultivators to meditate and cultivate at; thus, they were called “spirit wells” by the cultivating world.
The so-called “spirit wells” were generally invisible, and their existences could only be realized by a cultivator’s spiritual sense. However, when a location was designated as a spirit well, it was the location in the spirit vein where Spiritual Qi was at its greatest; this was undoubtable!
Although spirit wells were formless under normal circumstances, only acting as a substitute name for any given location, if a spirit well’s Spiritual Qi was excessively dense and could be preserved for a long period of time, it would gradually produce a true physical form and become a spirit well object, such as a spirit well pearl, stone, fountain, or the like. There were even the legendary supreme spirit well trees.
The appearance of a spirit well’s physical manifestation was a very rarely seen occurrence. Not a single one hadn’t experienced numerous tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of years, as well as a stroke of luck, before forming.
Thus, the Spiritual Qi emitted by these true spirit well objects was much denser than that of common spirit wells. Meditating and cultivating near them would definitely have the profound effect of increasing one’s rate of cultivation.
The best spirit well objects could even increase one’s cultivating speed by twenty or thirty percent. In addition, when these true objects were formed, even spirit well trees or fountains could all be moved away by a person’s magic power without having its effectiveness diminished.
