The next day, just as dawn was breaking.
For the first time in a month, Han Feng voluntarily left his courtyard.
He did not alert anyone. Even the two maids responsible for his daily needs failed to notice.
Relying on the entry-level Smoke-Mist Steps, he moved like a drifting shadow, silently passing through the pavilions and towers of the Inner Sect toward the woods where he had arranged to meet Han Li.
For the past month, he had practically made himself invisible, all so he could wait for this day.
His resources had been exhausted. If he wanted to continue improving at high speed, his only hope now lay with that cheap older cousin of his.
A clearing in the woods.
Han Li had been waiting there for some time, anxiously pacing back and forth.
Only when he saw that familiar figure emerge from the woods did his worried heart finally relax.
"A Niu, you're finally here!"
"Brother Er Leng."
Han Feng wore a perfectly measured expression of childish admiration and hurried forward several steps.
Han Li looked him up and down. After a month apart, his younger cousin seemed to have grown a little taller. His originally frail body had also become much sturdier, and his entire person radiated an indescribable vitality.
"How is it? Are you used to the Inner Sect? Um... How has the Sect Master treated you?" Han Li asked cautiously.
The identity of a direct disciple of the Sect Master was simply too astonishing. Even now, he still found it somewhat unreal.
"Master treats me extremely well."
Han Feng did not keep him in suspense and directly revealed the results of his cultivation.
"Thanks to you, Brother Er Leng, and the pills you gave me, I've now... reached the Sixth Layer of the Positive Yang Force."
"What?"
Han Li froze completely, wondering if he had misheard.
The Sixth Layer?
A month ago, he had still been an ordinary child who had not even developed Qi Sensation.
A month later, he had reached the Sixth Layer of the Positive Yang Force?
This was a realm that many Outer Disciples could not reach in their entire lives!
"You... You're telling the truth?" Han Li's voice trembled slightly.
Han Feng merely smiled without answering. Instead, he slowly extended his right hand and circulated a stream of refined Internal Force to his fingertips.
Whoosh!
A nearly imperceptible sound of air being split rang out.
Feeling the gust stirred up by that Internal Force, Han Li was utterly dumbfounded.
The sheer thickness of that Internal Force could not possibly be faked!
"Good! Good! Good!"
Han Li's face flushed with excitement. He grabbed Han Feng by the shoulders and shook him vigorously.
"My Han Family... My Han Family is going to produce a qilin prodigy!"
His earlier investment had only been based on a faint hope that perhaps he could one day obtain some assistance from Li Feiyu.
Who could have imagined that this obscure younger cousin of his would actually be such an astonishing, heaven-defying prodigy?
That rate of progress was simply unheard-of!
Han Li's wild joy was entirely within Han Feng's expectations.
That was precisely the effect he wanted.
Only by letting Han Li see the enormous investment value he possessed would Han Li willingly take out more resources.
"A Niu, just wait!"
As if he had thought of something, Han Li hurriedly pulled two porcelain bottles from his robes and unceremoniously stuffed them into Han Feng's hands.
"Take these pills! If you run out, come find me here anytime. I'll get you more!"
Han Feng accepted the porcelain bottles and pulled out the stoppers. A medicinal fragrance more than ten times richer than that of the Qi Solidifying Pill rushed into his nose.
The Yellow Dragon Pill! The Golden Marrow Pill!
They really were good things!
All these pills had been refined from precious medicinal materials that were at least a hundred years old, after being nurtured with the green liquid from the Little Green Bottle. Their medicinal effects were far beyond those ordinary pills Wang Juechu had given him.
"Thank you, Brother Er Leng!" Han Feng was ecstatic inside, but his face wore an expression of tearful gratitude.
Watching him, Han Li's heart surged with lofty ambition.
As long as A Niu continued advancing at this miraculous speed, becoming a First-rate Master—or even a Xiantian Master—would be just a matter of time!
When that time came, what threat could a mere Doctor Mo possibly pose?
At that moment, however, Han Feng put away his smile and assumed an expression of wanting to speak but hesitating.
"Brother Er Leng, there's something I don't know whether I should say."
"We're brothers. What is there that you can't say?" Han Li waved his hand boldly.
Han Feng pondered for a moment before lowering his voice.
"How much do you know about Doctor Mo of Divine Hand Valley?"
Han Li's movements stopped. He did not understand why Han Feng had suddenly brought him up.
"After becoming the Sect Master's disciple, I once borrowed some of the sect's records. I discovered something very strange."
Han Feng began the carefully fabricated lie he had prepared.
"Before you were taken into the valley by Doctor Mo, he accepted dozens of disciples over the course of several decades. Yet those people were either recorded as having disappeared midway or as having betrayed the sect and fled down the mountain."
"In short, not one of them met a good end, and none of them ever sent back another word."
Boom!
Those words were like a bolt of thunder exploding in Han Li's mind.
He instantly thought of Zhang Tie from several years ago, who had cultivated the third layer of the Elephant Armor Skill, only for Doctor Mo to announce that he had "betrayed the sect and fled."
Han Li had never believed that the honest and simple Zhang Tie would betray the sect.
Now that he thought about it, there really was a huge problem here!
"Actually... I've long felt that something was wrong with Doctor Mo taking me as his disciple." Han Li let out a long sigh. The joy had completely vanished from his face, replaced by a heavy cloud of worry.
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