Han Li's Choice

The morning mist lingered like gauze, veiling the mountains in a thin, cool haze.

Han Li had long since seated himself on a jagged slab of blue-gray stone at the cliff's edge, his back straight as a pine, his robes stirring gently in the chilly mountain breeze.

The first pale gleam of dawn appeared on the horizon. Clear, gentle light crept over the ridgeline and pierced the thinning mist, draping the trees, rocks, and blades of grass in a hazy silver glow.

Silence lay over the wilderness. Only an occasional distant birdcall rang through the empty valley, making the world seem all the more deep and still.

His fingers flew, forming seals as swiftly as lightning, while he murmured the incantation for the Fireball Technique. Every word was clear, yet he had already repeated it thirteen times.

Sweat seeped from his forehead, fine and dense as drizzle, sliding down his temples and gathering into droplets at his chin before falling soundlessly into his collar.

"Fire arises in the south, gathering at the Li Position..."

The incantation still burned on his lips, but his fingertips remained empty, without so much as a flickering spark.

Han Li bit his lower lip so hard it nearly bled.

Just then, a line from the book-"Qi follows intent"-flashed across the lake of his mind like a faint ray of light.

He abruptly stopped reciting and slowly closed his eyes.

He no longer tried to force the technique. Instead, he turned his awareness inward, banishing stray thoughts and focusing his mind until it was like an ancient, unruffled well, reflecting every thread of spiritual energy circulating within him.

Deep in his dantian, a warmth quietly rose, gentle and enduring as a spring stream thawing.

He held his breath and concentrated, guiding that warm current slowly upward through his meridians, neither rushing nor lingering, like channeling a stream into a watercourse.

Suddenly-

"Pfft!"

A soft sound rang out, like a candlewick popping or a spark first catching.

Han Li's eyes snapped open.

At the tip of a finger on his right hand, a soybean-sized flame swayed gently. Its orange-red light spread a warm halo through the morning mist, illuminating his eyes until they looked as clear as amber.

The flame lasted only three breaths before quietly going out.

But the heat lingering at his fingertip was real enough to make his heart tremble.

"It... it worked?"

His voice shook with disbelieving delight, as though he feared disturbing the miracle that had just descended upon him.

Again!

This time, he no longer relied on mechanically repeating the incantation. He guided his Qi with intent and used that Qi to drive the technique.

His spiritual energy surged through his meridians like streams joining a river, gradually aligning with the circulation route of the Fireball Technique and weaving an invisible yet intricate spiritual net.

On his fifth attempt-

"Whoosh!"

A fist-sized fireball suddenly sprang up in his palm!

Flames roiled, and heat washed over his face, illuminating the sudden brilliance in his eyes.

In his excitement, his hand trembled. The fireball flew from his grasp and struck the rock face with a boom, bursting into countless golden-red sparks. Like fireworks in the night sky, they blazed for an instant before vanishing into the morning light.

"It's real... the Immortal Arts Senior Jing gave me are real!"

Han Li leaped down from the stone. The moss underfoot was damp and slippery, and he nearly fell, but he paid it no heed.

Nor did he care that his trouser legs were soaked with dew. He simply kept forming seals, guiding Qi, and condensing flames-

Fireballs danced in his palm again and again, burning, flaring, and fading.

Each time one lit up, it was as though a lamp had been kindled in his heart;

Every blaze burned the doubts, setbacks, and self-distrust of the past several days to ashes and scattered them on the wind.

When the seventh fireball hovered steadily above his palm like a pulsing crimson star, Han Li suddenly closed his fingers-

"Hiss!"

The flame went out at once, leaving only a wisp of smoke curling upward to dissolve into the morning mist.

Han Li stared blankly at his hand, his palm still warm. A tangle of thoughts suddenly surged through him-he remembered that the warm current in his dantian when he summoned the flames had unmistakably been the energy refined through the Nameless Formula Mo Juren had taught him.

Could what I cultivated through that Nameless Formula Mo Juren gave me... really be spiritual energy?

If it really is spiritual energy, then... haven't I already stepped through the gates of immortal cultivation?

These thoughts had not arisen just now. They had quietly taken root in his heart when he first tried drawing Qi into his body.

He frowned in thought for a moment, rubbing his fingertips together unconsciously, but still could not untangle the matter.

I should ask Senior Jing in person the next time I see him.

With that thought, he stopped dwelling on it. The wild joy of mastering an Immortal Art soon swept away his doubts.

He suddenly crouched down and plunged his burning face into the clear, cold water of the mountain stream.

The icy current enveloped him at once, trying to quench the excitement that threatened to burst from his chest.

Yet even with his eyes closed, the corners of his mouth rose beyond his control-

It was a smile from the depths of his soul, one even he had not noticed.

Ripples stirred the stream's surface, breaking his reflection apart before drawing it together again.

The youth reflected in the water had damp clothes and tousled hair, but his eyes shone with astonishing brightness.

He was no longer the timid, excessively cautious medicine boy of the Seven Mysteries Sect,

But a Cultivator who had just kindled the fire of his own destiny with his own hands.

From this moment onward, the mortal world lay far behind, and the path to immortality had begun.

As the last glow of sunset sank beyond the horizon, Han Li returned silently to his quarters.

He stood before the door, surveying his surroundings with a hawk's sharp gaze. Only after confirming that no one had followed him did he push the door open and enter.

Han Li took the Little Green Bottle from inside his robe and carefully set it upright where the moonlight could fall directly upon it.

"It's time for the Moonlight Essence to reach its peak again," he murmured.

His chance discovery in Divine Hand Valley three years ago had made this seemingly ordinary little bottle his greatest secret and utterly changed the course of his life.

The night breeze rustled through the treetops. Han Li held his breath and focused, his ears twitching slightly as he listened for the slightest unusual sound around him.

The strange phenomena the bottle produced while absorbing moonlight had always left him feeling as though he were sitting on a bed of needles.

He had tried covering it with black cloth and hiding it in a hole in the ground, but once the moonlight was blocked, no green liquid would form.

If someone discovers it... The mere thought brought a sheen of cold sweat to his back.

He understood all too well that possessing a precious jade could itself become a crime.

Moonlight passed through the cellar's narrow ventilation opening, falling squarely upon the bottle.

As though awakened, the bottle began to glow with a lustrous green light.

The glow grew brighter and brighter, spreading outward in successive ripples like those on a lake.

With a faint humming sound, a translucent drop of liquid, exquisite as fine jade, slowly condensed inside the bottle.

His gaze intent, Han Li carefully poured the green liquid into a wooden bucket filled with clean water.

The green liquid dissolved on contact, instantly tinting the water pale green and releasing a distinctive, delicate fragrance.

He scooped water from the bucket and poured it evenly over the Yellow Essence Grass seedlings.

A miracle occurred in an instant-the tiny seedlings swiftly unfurled their leaves, their stems shooting upward at a visible rate. Their pale yellow roots turned golden in the blink of an eye, giving off an enticing sheen.

"It seems unbelievable every time I see it." Excitement flashed in Han Li's eyes, but worry soon took its place.

He gently stroked the plump spirit medicine, his thoughts drifting.

Should I try growing millennium spirit medicine? A thought he had once never dared entertain was now taking root and sprouting in his heart.

In the past, cautious as he was, he would never have taken such a risk.

But his experience practicing the Fireball Technique had shown him a wider range of possibilities.

The past few days of cultivation had made him realize that the Nameless Formula Mo Juren had taught him was far from ordinary.

He had only reached the Fourth Layer so far, and there were still two stages left for him to break through.

Trading millennium spirit medicine with Jing Wen would undoubtedly be a better deal, he calculated.

If he repaid his debt of those 159 bottles of pills with pills, it would take nearly two years;

But with millennium spirit medicine, he could clear it in a year.

"As for the risk..." As he pondered, Jing Wen's words echoed in his ears: "There are plenty of opportunities hidden in the mountains. You might even find millennium spirit medicine."

Those words were like a lamp kindled in the darkness.

Han Li's gaze gradually steadied, and he finally made his decision. "I'll try growing one first and say I happened to find it in the mountains."

Beneath the moonlight, his figure looked especially resolute, as though he could already see the road leading into a far wider world.