Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze

Lin Yun remembered that the Ancient Teleportation Formation leading to the Chaotic Star Sea lay beneath a spirit stone mine, but he did not know its exact location.

Spirit stones served as both currency and an essential cultivation resource in the cultivation world. The locations of even moderately large spirit stone mines were sect secrets, and only trustworthy disciples were assigned to mine them.

Besides the spirit stone mines controlled individually by the Seven Sects, some were managed jointly.

A cultivator like Lin Yun, who had only recently entered the Foundation-Building Stage and held no position within his sect, was not even qualified to know the mines' exact locations.

The only reason Foundation-Building cultivators like Han Li would later be sent to guard spirit stone mines was that wartime manpower shortages left the sects no other choice.

After parting with Xin Ruoyin, Lin Yun had spent more than two years roaming the Yue Kingdom. He had managed to locate several spirit stone mines, but after slipping inside with Formless Sword Escape, he had found nothing beyond a few mid-grade spirit stones.

Still, his travels over those two years had not been entirely fruitless.

While searching for spirit stone mines, he had stumbled upon several places wreathed in clouds and mist with a strong spiritual resonance. Though he found no medicinal herbs or spiritual treasures there, the clouds and mist themselves made excellent artifact-refining materials.

These clouds and mists were just right for refining a protective treasure called the Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze.

The Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze had originally been the protective treasure of Grandmaster Taiyi Hun Yuan of the Wutai School in the Zu Mountain World. Shaped like five streams of colorful cloud and mist, this magical treasure regenerated as soon as it was destroyed and transformed in endless ways. Not only could it resist sinister arts and exotic treasures, it could also block even the fiercest wind, lightning, water, and fire. Moreover, it protected its owner automatically, without needing to be deployed.

The materials needed to refine this magical treasure were various kinds of cloud and mist essence. Before Foundation Establishment, Lin Yun had been unable to refine it. Only after his sensitivity to the primordial qi of heaven and earth deepened upon reaching Foundation Establishment could he gather cloud and mist essence for treasure refinement.

After gathering the clouds and mist from these spiritually rich locations, Lin Yun spent another six months painstakingly collecting the essence of clouds and rosy vapor from the sky. In all, it took him a year and a half of hard work to refine a preliminary version of the Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze.

Although Lin Yun's Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze could not yet be considered a magical treasure, it was still a respectable mid-grade magical artifact in the cultivation world, capable of withstanding a late Qi Refining cultivator's full-force attack.

Its potential was limitless, too. In the future, he only needed to keep refining clouds, mist, and rosy vapor into it to temper its form and substance and improve its quality.

By the time he finished refining the Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze, nearly four years had passed since he set out on his travels.

After weighing the matter carefully, Lin Yun decided to end his travels for now and return to the Yellow Maple Valley. He would find a way to learn the exact locations of several spirit stone mines before resuming his search with clear targets, rather than continuing to buzz around aimlessly like a headless fly.

Racing along like wind and lightning, Lin Yun returned to the Taiyue Mountain Range.

Upon returning to his cave abode, Lin Yun unexpectedly found several Sound Transmission Talismans outside.

Apart from registering it with the sect, Lin Yun had only told Han Li and Senior Brother Ma where his cave abode was. It went without saying who had sent these talismans.

Sure enough, aside from a greeting Senior Brother Ma had sent six months earlier, virtually all the others were from Han Li over the past half year. He had sent one every two weeks on average-quite frequently indeed.

Besides including his own address, almost every Sound Transmission Talisman suggested that he had something to discuss.

Does Han Li have something urgent to deal with? After a moment's thought, Lin Yun decided to go and see him first.

With a thought from Lin Yun, a cloud of five-colored mist appeared beneath his feet, lifting him into the air and carrying him toward Han Li's cave abode. The sight was striking, making him look like a youthful immortal.

This cloud of five-colored mist was none other than the Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze. Besides being a protective treasure, it was also a flying magical artifact.

An hour later, the Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze carried Lin Yun to the entrance of Han Li's cave abode.

Standing in midair, Lin Yun was greatly surprised by the formation outside Han Li's cave abode.

It's actually the Five Elements Reversal Formation! Although it only has forty percent of the complete formation's power, the finer details clearly bear Xin Ruoyin's handiwork. How did Han Li get in touch with Xin Ruoyin? Does the course of events really have that much inertia? Lin Yun stared at the formation, pondering silently.

During his years of travel, Lin Yun had gone back to visit Xin Ruoyin several times, wanting to see whether her Dragon-Yin Body had suffered any adverse effects after Foundation Establishment. She had mentioned selling a few formations during those visits, but he had never imagined that Han Li had bought one.

No wonder Xin Ruoyin had once given him a thousand-year-old spiritual herb. Looking back, she must have obtained it from Han Li.

Raising a hand, Lin Yun sent out a strand of sword qi. He murmured a few words to it, and it swiftly slipped into the great formation outside Han Li's cave abode.

A moment later, a passage opened in the formation, and Han Li stepped out with delighted surprise on his face. "Senior Brother Lin, you're finally back!"

"Long time no see, Junior Brother Han," Lin Yun said with a smile.

Han Li then gave a wry smile and rubbed his nose. "But Senior Brother Lin, couldn't you have used a Sound Transmission Talisman to call me? Ah... having a strand of sword qi suddenly fly right up to my face really gave me a fright."

Lin Yun laughed heartily and immediately flew into the formation, landing beside Han Li. "Next time, definitely. Next time."

After following Han Li into his cave abode, Lin Yun looked around briefly before asking why Han Li had sought him out.

Han Li took out a huge, jet-black horn. "Senior Brother Lin, of everyone I know, you're the only one who can refine artifacts-and you can even refine magical treasures. So I'd like to ask you to help me turn this into a magical artifact."

Lin Yun picked up the somewhat familiar-looking horn and examined it for a moment before suddenly exclaiming in surprise, "A Silver-Armored Horned Python's horn! Junior Brother Han, did you slaughter Martial Uncle Li Huayuan's Silver-Armored Horned Python?"

Han Li did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Don't joke, Senior Brother Lin. How would I dare? My master gave this to me."

His master? Han Li never went to the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land, so how did he still become Li Huayuan's disciple?

Surprise stirred in Lin Yun's heart, and he promptly voiced his question. "Junior Brother Han, how did you end up taking Martial Uncle Li as your master?"

With another wry smile, Han Li recounted how he had become Li Huayuan's disciple. After reaching Foundation Establishment, he had wanted a formation for his cave abode, so he had gone to the Heavenly Star Sect's Market in the Yuanwu Kingdom, intending to sell two thousand-year-old spiritual herbs.

There, he had unexpectedly encountered Li Huayuan, who had also come to buy spiritual herbs to treat his wife.

Somehow, Li Huayuan had recognized Han Li as a Yellow Maple Valley disciple and traded a horn shed by his Silver-Armored Horned Python for Han Li's spiritual herbs. However, the horn was clearly not worth two thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, so he offered to take Han Li

as his disciple to make up the difference.

What could Han Li do in the face of a Core Formation cultivator? And so he had become Li Huayuan's disciple.

After hearing Han Li's account, Lin Yun sighed ruefully. He had never expected that, after all those twists and turns, Han Li would still end up under Li Huayuan's tutelage.

Lin Yun asked, "What kind of magical artifact would you like, Junior Brother Han?"

Han Li said, "I'll leave that to your judgment, Senior Brother Lin."

He had personally watched Lin Yun refine the Clearvoid Invisible Sword into a magical treasure, so he had complete confidence in this senior brother who had been capable of refining magical treasures even at the Qi Refining Stage.

Picking up the enormous horn and considering it for a moment, Lin Yun said, "Although the Silver-Armored Horned Python is a fire-attribute demonic beast, it's also skilled at flying."

"How about this? I'll refine it into a flying boat using the power of wind and fire. Not only will it be a reasonably fast flying magical artifact, it will also serve both offense and defense, releasing spiritual fire to protect you and repel enemies."

Delight immediately appeared on Han Li's face when he heard the plan. "I'll leave everything to you, Senior Brother Lin."

Then he took out a jade box and a jade bottle and handed them to Lin Yun. "Oh, right. These are the spiritual herbs you gave me earlier, Senior Brother Lin."

"And this is a Youth-Preserving Pill I refined. I hope you'll appraise it for me, Senior Brother."

Lin Yun first opened the jade box and took a look. Inside were the spiritual herb seedlings he had given Han Li, except they now possessed a thousand years of maturity.

The spiritual herbs in the jade box amounted to roughly seventy percent of the original seedlings. Han Li really did know how to conduct himself.

After putting away the jade box, Lin Yun tipped out the Youth-Preserving Pill and examined it carefully. He nodded in satisfaction and smiled. "The pill's color is correct, and its aura is light. You've brought out forty percent of the medicinal potency. Not bad, Junior Brother Han. You can be considered to have grasped the basics of alchemy. I'll accept this gift."

After accepting the items, Lin Yun added, "Junior Brother Han, come back in seven days to collect your magical artifact."