Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 4

5. Breaking the Bottle

The large water containers used daily in the Divine Hand Valley were also filled by Jang Seok-Cheol. Han Li waited for him to arrive.

Just as he was thinking that time was passing too slowly, he heard Jang Seok-Cheol enter.

Han Li immediately ran to open the door and saw Jang Seok-Cheol, wearing a thin blue cotton shirt, his body drenched in sweat and radiating a faint heat.

He looked puzzled at Han Li, who had suddenly appeared in his room.

“Brother Jang, can you help me with this? Can you open this bottle?”

“Where did you get this?”

Jang Seok-Cheol took the bottle and examined it carefully.

“Just open it. Hurry.”

At Han Li’s urging, Jang Seok-Cheol stopped talking and tried to twist it open. However, the cap wouldn’t budge. He tried again with more force several times, but it still wouldn’t move.

“This is really tough. What is it made of? It’s beyond my strength. Why don’t you ask the other senior brothers to open it for you?”

Jang Seok-Cheol shook his head apologetically and handed the bottle back to him.

“Even someone as strong as you can’t open it?”

Han Li, looking disappointed, paced back and forth in Jang Seok-Cheol’s room.

“What happened to your feet?”

Only then did Jang Seok-Cheol notice that Han Li’s gait was different from usual and asked.

“It’s nothing. I just tripped on a rock while walking.”

* * *

If he asked the other senior brothers for help, they might be able to open it. But Han Li didn’t want to talk about this bottle.

If he told others, someone who knew about the bottle might appear and try to take it back.

Han Li absolutely did not want to return such a beautiful and interesting object. He was already captivated by this bottle.

He also thought that the bottle might just be empty, but he wanted to bet that what was inside would be much more interesting.

The more he thought about it, the more restless Han Li became. He felt like he was going crazy.

If he couldn’t solve the mystery of this bottle, he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.

So, he decided to use brute force to open it.

Although he was heartbroken at the thought of not being able to preserve the unique and beautiful bottle intact, this was the only way for now.

With that decision made, Han Li secretly went into the room where he kept miscellaneous items and chose a relatively heavy stone hammer before returning to his room.

Once inside, Han Li found a flat spot and placed the bottle on a brick that had been discarded in a corner of the room.

Then, he lifted the stone hammer. The head of the hammer paused for a moment in the air before striking the bottle’s midsection.

The bottle was fine. Han Li, who had been worried that it might shatter, was slightly relieved. It seemed he would need to hit it harder to break the bottle.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The speed at which the stone hammer fell increased. In the end, half of the bottle was embedded in the brick. However, there was no sign of it breaking.

Han Li was stunned and couldn’t believe what was happening. He stroked the surface of the bottle. It was the same as before.

Only then did Han Li realize that this bottle was definitely not an ordinary object and was most likely dropped carelessly by its owner. The owner of this bottle might be searching the entire mountain for it right now.

Perhaps it was dropped by a wealthy disciple or someone in a high position. If it was dropped by either of these types of people, Han Li was even less inclined to return it.

Instead, he wanted to hide it to make them suffer. This was because Han Li had often seen wealthy disciples look down on and exclude those from poor families.

They would always mock and insult them, causing several conflicts. Han Li had also been involved in those fights and had been injured. Unfortunately, he had fought against those with stronger martial arts skills, and his face was bruised, and his body was swollen, leaving him unable to go outside for several days.

Han Li reassured himself that he had only picked up something that had fallen on the ground. And to keep it, he shouldn’t tell anyone about it now.

With his thoughts organized, Han Li took out the small leather pouch hanging around his neck. This leather pouch was specially made by his mother using animal hide when he left home. Inside was a peace charm made from the tusk of a wild boar.

This charm contained his mother’s wish for him to avoid illness and disaster. Han Li placed the bottle along with the peace charm in the leather pouch, closed the opening tightly, and put it back around his neck.

After everything was done, he looked around to make sure no one was there. He stroked the pouch that was slightly protruding near his sternum, and he felt much more at ease.

Now, no one would be able to take this bottle. Han Li cleaned up the area and quietly returned the stone hammer to its original place, then went back to his room as if nothing had happened.

* * *

After finishing dinner, Han Li securely locked the windows and doors and took the bottle out of the pouch to examine it.

However, he couldn’t find any clues. Han Li fiddled with the bottle and unknowingly fell asleep while holding it in his hand.

How much time had passed?

While asleep, Han Li suddenly felt a cold sensation in his hand.

He struggled to lift his heavy eyelids and barely managed to sit up.

The sight that unfolded before his eyes as soon as he opened them was truly astonishing. He was wide awake.

White rays of light were pouring through the roof, and all the light beams were gathering towards the small bottle, transforming into rice grain-sized round shapes that surrounded the bottle.

This light was very soft and not at all blinding. And the cold sensation that Han Li had felt was coming from this white light.

Han Li hesitated and touched the bottle a few times. When there was no reaction, Han Li focused his mind and stared at the bottle again.

He discovered that the bottle was absorbing the white orbs of light floating in the air.

Or rather, it was more like they were desperately trying to gather inside the bottle. They were rushing to gather as if they were alive.

The light beams falling from the roof showed no sign of stopping. Han Li peeked out of the small window in the roof to look around.

There was no sound except for the chirping of insects outside. He turned his head to look at the bottle, then grabbed it and quickly left the room.

He walked and walked until he stopped quietly in a place where no one would find him. After looking around for a moment, he carefully placed the bottle down.

The white light beams that had disappeared gathered much more than they had in the room as time passed. They gathered in countless numbers, surrounding the bottle and creating a huge mass of light.

“Wow!”

Han Li raised one hand high and shouted excitedly. His hunch was right. The small window in the room was only hindering the gathering of light beams.

In a place where all sides were open and unobstructed, he could attract more light beams and create a larger mass of light.

Although he didn’t know where this light came from or what it was used for, he had taken a step closer to uncovering the secret of this bottle. Han Li was thrilled, feeling like he could solve this mystery right away.

As the night passed and the sun began to rise, the light around the bottle gradually disappeared, and it returned to its ordinary appearance. He tried to twist the cap, but it still wouldn’t open.

For the next few nights, the same phenomenon occurred at a certain time. Countless light beams rushed towards the bottle as if they were moths drawn to a flame, and the bottle greedily swallowed them. On the eighth day of this recurring phenomenon, another change began to occur.

He went to a secluded place again and took out the bottle. However, the light absorption phenomenon stopped in less than a quarter of an hour.

Then, the blackish-green flower pattern on the bottle’s surface suddenly emitted a dazzling green light, and along with this, golden characters and symbols appeared on the bottle’s surface.

These characters and symbols were well-aligned, but the shapes of the letters were strange. They were strokes that seemed to be from ancient times. They floated on the surface of the bottle, emitting light without stopping.

And after a while, the bottle returned to its previous state as if nothing had happened.

Han Li, having witnessed these strange phenomena, thought that he wouldn’t be too surprised even if something strange happened again.

He picked up the bottle again and tried to twist the cap. Without much effort, the bottle cap opened very easily.

It was unbelievable. He looked at the cap in his hand, again and again, in surprise. The problem that had been bothering him for several days and nights was finally solved.

He felt an unbearable thrill at the fact that the secret hidden in the bottle was about to be revealed. His gaze followed the opening of the bottle and went inside.

Inside the bottle was a jade-green liquid the size of a soybean. The liquid slowly rolled around inside the bottle, tinting it with a green light.

‘What is this?’

Han Li couldn’t hide his disappointment. After all that effort, it was just a single drop of liquid. He was dejected and closed the bottle cap and put it in his pouch.

The thrilling excitement that had enveloped him vanished like snow melting. The bottle cap was open, but the result was unsatisfactory.

However, Han Li decided to examine this green liquid again. Who knew? It might bring him another joy.

What he wanted now was to go back and get a good night’s sleep. He hadn’t slept properly for the past few days, which had reduced his training efficiency, and his head was foggy, leading to a slight scolding from Master Moon.

Han Li was not satisfied with his cultivation of the incantation and wandered around, having lost the reason to do it. This had led to Master Moon severely reprimanding him.

However, when it was time for training, Han Li still lacked motivation and showed no interest, feeling dejected.

Seeing this, Master Moon read Han Li’s desire and found a way to solve the problem.

This simple sentence he uttered was what made Han Li train his best.

“Every time you advance a stage in this incantation, the silver you receive each month will double.”

Han Li, thinking about how he could gather more money, devoted himself to training to advance to the next stage.

Every day, from early morning until noon, he would enter the stone chamber twice a day to meditate and train. Everything else was pushed out of his mind.

Master Moon also temporarily closed the entire Divine Hand Valley so that he could focus all his attention on training, and he didn’t even treat patients. The matter of the bottle gradually faded from Han Li’s mind.

* * *

Autumn passed, winter came, and then spring came again, followed by summer. Four years had passed, and Han Li had grown into a fine young man.

Han Li was not the type to look refined, nor was he a free-spirited and dashing figure.

On the outside, he was no different from the boys who grew up in the countryside. He simply sat in the stone chamber every day, going back and forth between his residence and the stone chamber, learning medicine from Master Moon, and reading various books.

Thus, life in this mountain valley became his entire world, and his incantation practice progressed smoothly, reaching the third stage.
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