Alchemy and Talismans

Early the next morning, Li Han began searching for medicinal herbs in the Soul Hunting Forest.

Besides the four main ingredients—Polygonatum, Golden Marrow Ganoderma, Energy Recovery Grass, and Essence Nourishing Grass—he also needed quite a few supplementary herbs. Today's workload would be substantial.

When he had traveled with Mo Hen yesterday, he had already taken note of many medicinal herbs. Now that he was retracing his route, finding them went smoothly.

Before long, he had gathered quite a few useful herbs.

The people of Douluo Continent knew nothing of alchemy and recognized very few medicinal herbs, so many century-old and millennium-old herbs simply grew quietly by the roadside.

Occasionally, a soul beast would come by and take a bite or two, but there was little other loss.

Soul Masters in this world relied far too heavily on Martial Souls. Whenever they were injured or poisoned, they sought out support-type Soul Masters for treatment instead of researching herbs to heal themselves.

As a result, medicine in this world remained at an extremely primitive level.

Unless an herb possessed some obvious effect of its own, Soul Masters would neither recognize nor pick it.

Even Dugu Bo, a Title Douluo guarding an Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, had no idea how to use it. That alone showed how poor this world's knowledge of medicinal herbs was.

"These people enter a treasure mountain and leave empty-handed."

Li Han silently sighed as he picked herbs.

It was worth mentioning that after Li Han absorbed his first Soul Ring, the maximum range of his Divine Sense had broken through to one hundred meters.

Thus, throughout the entire herb-gathering process, he kept his Divine Sense spread out, avoiding all Soul Masters and soul beasts.

He did not want anyone to see him and cause unnecessary trouble.

On the night of the third day.

Li Han left the Soul Hunting Forest alone just before the final deadline. After buying some tools needed for alchemy, he checked into a nearby inn.

Inside the room, Li Han took out a portion of the herbs he had gathered.

"First, I'll refine the simplest Energy Recovery Pills."

Strictly speaking, the four kinds of pills Li Han planned to make today could not be considered orthodox cultivation pills.

Those pills required cultivators to refine them with Pill Fire or Earth Fire, neither of which Li Han possessed right now.

So, he chose the simplest method: combining the various herbs in the proper proportions and refining them into pills.

It was also Han Li's earliest method of pill refinement.

Li Han took out a stone mortar and separately placed the ingredients required by the Energy Recovery Pill Manual inside, slowly pounding them into pulp and juice.

He poured the juice and pulp into two separate pots.

Fireball Technique!

The juice boiled, evaporating the excess moisture.

The pulp dried out, bringing out its medicinal properties to the fullest.

After lighting the flames, Li Han took out a dagger and used the opportunity to cut off a short section of century-old Lone Bamboo, shaving it into a pill-rolling board.

He then placed all the ingredients onto it in their proper proportions and rolled them into pills.

Before long, eight round, brown Energy Recovery Pills appeared on the pill-rolling board.

"It worked."

Li Han's eyes lit up. He picked up an Energy Recovery Pill and gently sniffed it, catching a fresh medicinal fragrance.

He took one and tossed it into his mouth. It melted as soon as it entered.

In an instant, he felt the Soul Power he had just consumed using the Fireball Technique recover completely.

"With my current level-sixteen Soul Power, one Energy Recovery Pill can restore roughly half my Soul Power. Not bad."

Li Han nodded in satisfaction and immediately continued working while he had the time.

After a whole night, four bottles of pills had appeared on the table.

Twenty Energy Recovery Pills, ten Essence Nourishing Pills, twenty-nine Yellow Dragon Pills, and twenty-eight Golden Marrow Pills.

Meanwhile, one-fifth of the herbs Li Han had brought out of the Soul Hunting Forest had been used up.

Since it was his first time refining pills, some extra loss had been unavoidable.

However, as Li Han continued, he became increasingly proficient.

With these four kinds of pills, he could basically achieve zero waste and a one-hundred-percent success rate.

Li Han yawned and stretched.

"I've been busy all night. I'm exhausted."

Having just learned alchemy, Li Han was like a child who had received a beloved new toy—once he started, he simply could not stop.

By the time he came to his senses, dawn had already arrived.

Fatigue washed over him, and he immediately went to bed. When he woke again, the sun was already setting.

"That was a really comfortable sleep."

Li Han stretched and went downstairs to eat.

The nights beside the Soul Hunting Forest were not quiet. On the contrary, they were rather noisy.

Soul Masters shouted all around him. Some were forming teams to enter the Soul Hunting Forest and hunt soul beasts, while others sold goods such as weapons and beast meat.

Everyone was busy.

Li Han looked around curiously while also searching for things that interested him.

As for selling things, he had no such plans for now.

The only things he had worth selling were pills and century-old Lone Bamboo. He could not casually sell the former—on one hand, it could easily bring trouble upon him, and on the other, he did not even have enough for himself.

He could sell the latter, but it was inconvenient to take out, so he gave up on the idea.

"Ding! Congratulations to the host for checking in at the Tainan Small Gathering. Reward: Basic Talisman Compendium."

The nighttime market was the Tainan Small Gathering?

Fine. He was used to it by now.

Countless methods for creating talismans instantly flashed through Li Han's mind, including Fireball Talismans, Sound Transmission Talismans, Sound Isolation Talismans, and more.

"The way of talismans... this is good stuff.

If I made several hundred Fireball Talismans in advance and threw them all out at once, even a Title Douluo would probably freeze for three seconds.

But these materials won't be easy to find."

Making talismans required a talisman brush, talisman paper, and cinnabar ink.

The shaft of the talisman brush was not particularly demanding; century-old Lone Bamboo would do. But the brush tip seemed to require soul beast fur.

Wolf fur, rabbit fur, and goat fur were all excellent choices.

Talisman paper was made by drying various herbs, grinding them into powder, turning them into pulp, and making paper from it.

That was simple. The herbs Li Han had gathered in the Soul Hunting Forest could serve as substitutes.

Cinnabar ink was the most complicated, as it could not be used interchangeably like talisman brushes and talisman paper.

Different talismans required different kinds of cinnabar ink.

For example, the cinnabar ink used to draw a Fireball Talisman needed to be mixed from the blood essence of a fire-attributed soul beast and cinnabar.

"This talisman inheritance came at the wrong time. If I'd received it before entering the Soul Beast Forest, I could have collected some soul beast blood essence inside.

But I just came out, so it won't be easy to go back in.

Unless I join one of those teams hunting soul beasts and accompany them inside.

But at my age, I'd attract too much attention.

And with my cultivation, no one would want me anyway."

Li Han grumbled inwardly, then his thoughts shifted.

"This is a market. Why not see if I can buy a batch of materials here?"

With that thought, Li Han immediately bought a black robe and wrapped himself completely within it.

Though he was only seven years old now, he had developed quickly due to cultivating the Elephant Armor Skill. He was already one and a half meters tall, far taller than children his age.

Under the cover of the black robe, no one would be able to tell that he was a child.

A proper disguise could avoid unnecessary trouble.

Li Han immediately found an empty spot and set up a small stall.

However, he was not selling anything. He was buying.

He wrote on a wooden board: "Buying fire-attributed soul beast blood essence, and soul beast fur from rabbits, wolves, goats, and similar types. Price negotiable."

Such strange requirements naturally drew many curious looks.

However, no one took anything out for him right away.

Beast meat could still be eaten to replenish Bloodline Power, but soul beast blood essence was basically useless in this world.

After all, it was not duck blood or pig blood that could be made into food. Most soul beast blood was thick, pungent, and unpleasant-tasting.

"Hey! What do you want rabbit fur for?!"

At that moment, a six-year-old girl in a pink dress, wearing a rabbit-ear headband, stood with her hands on her hips and asked indignantly.

Li Han looked up at her and froze.

Wasn't this Xiao Wu?