On an unnamed deserted island, deep within the crater of an extinct volcano, Han Li stood in the center of his newly excavated cave abode and surveyed his surroundings. The abode measured barely a dozen zhang across, but he had used his formidable magic power to polish its rock walls smooth as mirrors and laid down three layers of arrays. The outermost was the "Little Mount Sumeru Illusory Form Array," set up with seventy-two formation flags. Drawing on the chaotic spiritual energy and spatial fluctuations here, it concealed and distorted the entire crater, making it difficult for even Core Formation cultivators flying nearby to notice anything unusual. Within it lay the "Spirit-Gathering Essence-Transforming Array," founded on eighty-one mid-grade spirit stones to gather the sparse spiritual energy within a hundred li. He had also buried hundreds of spirit stones of various attributes obtained from the Mystic Water Palace and the Black Skeleton Cult in its array nexus, forcibly raising the spiritual energy here to the level of an inner disciple's cave abode in a major sect. At the very center, around his meditation cushion, he had laid out a small yet intricate "Soul-Fixing Spirit-Settling Array" to guard against heart demon attacks during seclusion or instability in his divine soul when his Golden Core first formed.
Han Li had taken his preparations for seclusion to the utmost. He took out several jade bottles and arranged them in a row. Three held "Greenwater Pills," refined using secret methods from the Azure Water True Art and several five-hundred-year-old water-attribute spirit herbs, which could advance Golden Core Stage cultivation; two held "Essence Condensation Pills" to stabilize a newly formed Golden Core; and one held "Vein-Protecting Pills," obtained from Ling Yuling, which could protect his heart meridians at a critical moment. There was also a small