The game starts with the player being bound to Han Li, gaining access to all of the enemy's ass

Upon hearing the reminder, Han Chao, who dared not be careless in his first magical duel, quickly cast a water shield and a wood shield on top of his earth armor technique. With three layers of earth armor, Han Chao's body was immediately illuminated by a brilliant yellow, blue, and cyan light.

This desperate attempt to expend magical power in a defensive standoff startled Senior Brother Wu.

As he manipulated the fireball spell to hit Han Chao, causing the surrounding blue light to sway, he explained with a smile, "Junior Brother Han, this is not how you fight. How can you use shield spells like this?"

At this rate, before the time it takes to drink a cup of tea has passed, your mana will be completely depleted. My fireball spell only consumed less than ten percent of my mana, while your three-layered shield spell must have used at least twenty percent. Besides, you're using your shield incorrectly; who uses a wooden shield to catch a fireball?

"Ahem, Senior Brother Wu is right, I'll correct it immediately!"

Han Chao was a little embarrassed. He was nervous about his first battle and unconsciously started stacking armor. This was a habit he had picked up from Earth; before fighting monsters, he would apply all the necessary buffs, forgetting about quickly regenerating mana. In the cultivation world, only rare and precious items like Ten Thousand Year Spirit Milk could be found.

"Senior Brother Wu, let's try again!"

After withdrawing the outermost wooden shield, Han Chao nodded to Senior Brother Wu.

"Junior Brother Han, watch out! Behold my Earth Spike Technique!"

As Brother Wu shouted, a yellow light began to emanate from his hand, which then slammed into the ground.

With a slight thud, Han Chao's feet suddenly cracked open, and several stone spikes as thick as an arm stabbed fiercely into his protective water shield.

Han Chao wasn't stupid. If he couldn't dodge even after being reminded by Senior Brother Wu, he might as well find a block of tofu and pretend to be dead.

With the Wind Control Technique applied, his body moved as lightly as a feather, shifting to the side. At the same time, he swung several ice spikes at Senior Brother Wu.

"Good timing!"

Seeing how quickly Han Chao was learning, Senior Brother Wu was also delighted.

The two fought back and forth for nearly a hundred rounds before having to stop as night fell.

Senior Brother Wu was very competent. With his three spiritual roots (fire, wood, and earth) and his cultivation at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining, he used all the combat spells he knew in half a day. This greatly enhanced Han Chao's practical combat ability, which had previously only been theoretical.

This training session has at least doubled Han Chao's skills.

Therefore, for the next year, Han Chao would go to Senior Brother Wu in the morning to practice fighting techniques, draw talismans in his room in the afternoon, and go to the Huangfeng Valley Market in his spare time to learn array formations from Xin Ruyin and refine array plates under Xin Ruyin's guidance. He made the most of the thirty days of the month.

Under such intense pressure on his spiritual energy, the bottleneck of the twelfth level of Qi Refining was suddenly broken. Feeling his spiritual energy double again, Han Chao was somewhat smug: "Hehe, who said that someone with a pseudo-spiritual root can't reach the twelfth level of Qi Refining without taking pills?"

Han Chao was overjoyed at his breakthrough in cultivation level, as the surge in spiritual power would allow him to draw even more talismans.

Over the course of the year, with his cultivation level of the eleventh level of Qi Refining, he drew no less than five hundred Fireball Talismans, three hundred Golden Light Talismans, and one hundred each of Earth Prison Talismans and Swift Travel Talismans.

Now that he has reached the twelfth level of Qi Refining, Han Chao has decided to spend the remaining six months drawing fireball talismans while waiting for the Blood Forbidden Land to open, and try to store more than three thousand fireball talismans.

For Qi Refining cultivators, having more talismans is worse than possessing top-tier magic weapons. When encountering an enemy, throwing out dozens of fireball talismans at once can make even a Foundation Establishment cultivator panic.

Looking at the sky, it was already evening. Han Chao got up, stretched, waved his hand to gather the ashes of the discarded talisman paper into a ball and threw it outside. He then put the talismans on the table into his pocket and pushed open the door to go out.

Before long, a maple leaf-shaped magical artifact landed in the market of Yellow Maple Valley. After making a hand seal to put away the artifact, Han Chao glanced at Wanbaolou again, put his hands behind his head, and walked towards the Array Artifact Pavilion, which was nearby.

His body passed through the formation, creating slight ripples.

Inside the courtyard, Xin Ruyin, dressed in a light gauze robe, leaned against a lone bamboo, perusing the array diagram in her hand. The moonlight shone on her, giving her skin a serene glow and a sense of holiness.

If it weren't for Xiaomei, that money-grubber, sitting at the stone table not far from her, happily counting the spirit stones she got from selling the array plates, the feeling of holiness would be even stronger!

"What a pity!" Han Chao sighed inwardly, walked up to Xiao Mei with a disgruntled expression, and pinched her chubby little face with his hand while she looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Hey, young master, what are you doing!" Xiao Mei's face turned bright red. She struggled to break free from Han Chao's clutches, ran to Xin Ruyin's side, made a face at Han Chao, and said coquettishly, "Miss, please do something about the young master. He pinched my face again."

Xin Ruyin was helpless because every time Han Chao came, he would tease Xiao Mei. When she asked him to take Xiao Mei in, he would shake his head and say that she was too young to be fun. When she asked him not to tease Xiao Mei, he would say that girls of this age are just right to be teased.

After a while, Xin Ruyin stopped caring and just wanted to keep quiet as long as it didn't disturb her reading.

"Didn't I tell you to rest more? Why are you engrossed in studying array diagrams again?" Han Chao said helplessly, picking up the book from Xin Ruyin's hand.

It's all thanks to him bringing Xin Ruyin to Huangfeng Valley. Otherwise, given this woman's obsession with formations, if Han Chao had told her not to cultivate yet, she would have completely ignored him.

"Since I'm free anyway, I might as well write this down," Xin Ruyin chuckled.

She had a fulfilling year. Since she couldn't cultivate for the time being, teaching Han Chao to practice formations was her greatest pleasure.

The only difficulty was that Han Chao might not have much talent for learning formations. It took her more than half a year to teach Han Chao how to make a basic, small-scale illusion formation, and even then, the success rate was not high.

"There's no end to learning formations. Only by taking good care of your body can you see a bigger world. Otherwise, it would be a huge loss if your body collapsed." Han Chao pushed Xiao Mei aside and sat down next to Xin Ruyin, taking her hand and stroking it as he said this in a bad mood.

Xin Ruyin smiled and rested her head on Han Chao's shoulder. A hint of hesitation flashed in her eyes, which were not particularly pretty, but it quickly became firm. She said softly, "How about we don't go to the Crimson Forbidden Land?"

Han Chao was taken aback, looking at Xin Ruyin with a bewildered expression. "How did you know about the Crimson Forbidden Land?"

"It would be strange if I didn't know." Xin Ruyin looked at Han Chaojun's handsome face so close to hers and said with a smile, "Recently, there have been significantly more people coming to buy small-scale maze arrays. They keep talking about the Crimson Forbidden Land. I had Xiaomei ask around and she found out."

Han Chao turned to look at Xiao Mei.

"I'm going to mind the shop up front!"

Xiao Mei quickly covered her head and ran away, afraid that if she was too late, Han Chao would catch her and ravage her.

"Xiao Mei managed to find out this? The disciples of Huangfeng Valley are really loose-lipped." Han Chao said speechlessly.

"Brother Han, you're very tight-lipped, but the Crimson Forbidden Land is too dangerous." Xin Ruyin sat up straight: "If I don't cultivate now, I'll be very satisfied if I can live another seven or eight years."

Han Chao shook his head: "Seven or eight years won't do. You have to become an immortal with me."

"But..."

"Shh!"

Xin Ruyin wanted to say something more, but Han Chao reached out and sealed her lips with his finger, breathing into her ear and saying, "I have already made a vow against my inner demons. Ruyin, you don't want me to die early because of you when I break through to the Nascent Soul stage, and to have my inner demons erupt and cause my demise, do you?"

"You haven't even reached the Foundation Establishment stage yet, and you're already thinking about condensing your Nascent Soul. Who can compare to your confidence?" Xin Ruyin said helplessly.

Han Chao raised an eyebrow smugly: "How can a man become an immortal without confidence?"