Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 85

There was no expectation that the madman would be kind and let the two of them go. The only option was to fight him with all their might.

As Han Li thought this, Bongak seemed to have finished examining all the items. When he lifted his head, his face was full of joy, indicating that he had found quite a few treasures.

He was about to say something to Han Li with a sinister smile when his eyes fell upon the mirror and crystal ball on the ground. Immediately, his eyes gleamed with greed as he reached out to grab the two magical artifacts.

Unfortunately, just as the magical artifacts were about to float up, a small fireball flew in and blocked their movement.

In the end, Bongak, forced to create similar fireballs to eliminate them, had his face contorted in anger.

The fireball was created by Han Li. He had just experienced the power of the mirror and crystal ball and couldn’t hand them over to an enemy. The woman in yellow, watching this, was so shocked that she was about to scream.

Bongak slowly looked at Han Li, and the scars on his face began to writhe. They looked like wriggling earthworms, making him appear terrifying.

“Do you want to die! Should I cut you in half or roast you with fireballs?”

The woman in yellow trembled, her face pale, unable to hide her fear.

“I just wish you would die?”

Han Li replied with a smile, which was very natural and bright.

Bongak’s ugly face twisted even more. He had never imagined that someone would mock him and was completely enraged.

Although he had not yet succeeded in Foundation Establishment [a stage in cultivation], he was already infamous among the low-level disciples of each sect for his useful magical artifacts and cruel methods.

He also had a brutal record of imprisoning and torturing another cultivator for three days and nights before killing them to settle a grudge. Therefore, other disciples would turn pale and fear him just by hearing his name, let alone meeting him.

Some cultivators had long been displeased with this notoriety. However, the cunning Bongak was tyrannical to the low-level disciples, but as soon as someone of a higher level appeared, he would run away or hide.

However, Bongak knew his limits and did not touch those with backgrounds or their acquaintances. This made Bongak even more infamous among the seven major sects.

This made him more arrogant, turning him into a self-centered and conceited person. He didn’t even treat low-level disciples as people, except for a few well-known disciples.

But today, a mere ten-year-old brat dared to say he would kill him, how could he not be furious!

“Do you want to die!”

Without saying anything more, his short sword turned into a yellow rainbow and flew towards Han Li’s head, intending to split it open.

However, Han Li was not one to just stand there. He raised his hand, and a small black shield extended out, blocking the yellow light.

The yellow light of the short sword and the black light on the shield’s surface collided, creating a grating friction sound.

Although the yellow light had the upper hand and slightly pushed back the black light, the shield’s power did not diminish at all and still stood firm.

Thus, the yellow light had no way to penetrate the shield. Bongak raised his eyebrows in surprise at this sight, while Han Li breathed a sigh of relief.

It was quite risky for him to use the Black Sky Shield against the opponent’s magical artifact.

If the power of the magical artifact had been greater than Han Li had judged, he would have already been a corpse rolling on the ground.

On the day he fought with Yukga, the top-grade magical artifact, the Azure Silk Flag, had barely managed to contend with his flying sword artifact for half a day. So, he judged that even if Bongak’s short sword was powerful, the Black Sky Shield would be able to block it for some time. Based on this analysis, Han Li had taken the risk and tried it.

With his worries temporarily gone, he immediately prepared to activate the Golden Light Brick artifact. He had to kill the opponent with one blow. Before he could infuse spiritual energy and cast a spell, Bongak’s shout was heard.

“Where do you think you’re going, you wench!”

Then, his body flashed, and he blocked someone on the other side of the dense bushes.

The one who was trying to sneak away was, unexpectedly, the woman in yellow. Seeing no chance of winning and terrified by Bongak’s menacing demeanor, she had tried to disappear while Han Li and Bongak were fighting.

Han Li had already noticed her intentions and was seething inside, but since she was trembling with fear and would be of no help anyway, it was her decision whether to leave or not.

However, since she had betrayed him first, he would not interfere with where she ran and would never help her again.

Now, she could fend for herself. While Han Li ignored her, Bongak, who was already furious, was not so lenient.

He had already decided not to spare them both due to Han Li’s provocation, and now that she was running away, he couldn’t let her go. In a hurry, he flew to block her.

The woman was so surprised that she forgot to cast spells like a mortal and ran with all her might.

Bongak, watching this pitifully, contorted his face again and appeared in front of her with a strange movement.

Then, without any hesitation, he raised his hand, which was emitting a yellow light, and pierced through her chest, extending out her back. Now, the huge yellow hand was soaked in her blood.

The woman in yellow’s corpse fell to the ground, her eyes wide open. Perhaps, before her death, she regretted leaving Han Li’s side and running away recklessly.

Bongak, knowing that she had no decent magical artifacts or talismans, killed the woman and licked his bloodied fingers. Then, he grinned menacingly at Han Li.

Although he was inside the protective barrier, Han Li’s face looked slightly pale. Bongak thought that although he hadn’t screamed, he must be restless now because of his appearance. Most of his previous opponents had either been easily defeated or had bowed down to his notoriety. Those who had faced him had suffered fates worse than death, so everyone feared him. Therefore, defeat was impossible for him.

Bongak chuckled and stood facing Han Li again with a flashing movement. Han Li’s expression was not good. However, it was not because of the opponent’s bloody methods but because his lightning-like movement technique was troublesome.

He had felt it last time when using the Golden Light Brick artifact. Although its power surpassed the flying sword artifact, it had a fatal weakness in actual combat.

The power of the Golden Light Brick was so great that no low-level disciple could survive an attack from it.

No matter how many magical treasures and protective spells they used to protect their bodies, the result would not change much.

However, its weakness was also clear. First, it required a large amount of spiritual energy from the user to activate, and its speed and agility were truly lacking.

If the enemy was bound or trapped, this artifact would be the perfect weapon to kill them instantly. However, killing an enemy who was standing freely was only possible in dreams.

If the opponent had not exhausted all their spiritual energy, they could easily avoid the Golden Light Brick with a few auxiliary spells to increase speed.

The Golden Light Brick was not something that sealed the power of an attack-type magical artifact like the flying sword artifact or Bongak’s short sword artifact. It was simply a tool that exerted immense power. Perhaps the magical artifact used by the ancient of the Heavenly Vault Sect to break through the restrictions was of a similar type.

Since he had no magical artifacts or talismans to trap Bongak, Han Li planned to use several golden seals to hold the enemy temporarily and then use the Golden Light Brick for a surprise attack. He thought that this might have a chance of success.

However, seeing Bongak’s movement technique, it became clear that all of this was just wishful thinking.

His movement technique was comparable to the Swift Step Technique, so if he wanted to, he could not be bound by those golden seals even for a moment. Han Li’s mind became complicated.

‘Could he also be from the martial world like me?’

* * *

Although he didn’t understand Bongak’s lightning-fast movement technique, now was not the time to dwell on it.

Reluctantly, he put away the Golden Light Brick artifact for now and sent out the mother seal of the Jade Seal Artifact again.

Then, the other child seals followed like a swarm of bees, each emitting a light that formed a rainbow.

It was uncertain whether these imposing blades would overwhelm Bongak with their numbers.

It would be great if the opponent used his yellow light to block them. Even so, it would not affect the outcome. However, the probability of that happening was low. The opponent’s great notoriety was usually backed by some skill.

This attack was, in fact, to test the opponent’s abilities. As Han Li had expected, Bongak was not at all flustered even as the golden seals flew towards him.

He chuckled and infused spiritual energy into a magical artifact he had just taken out. It was an umbrella-shaped artifact.

‘Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!’

Bongak did not throw the umbrella but leisurely unfolded it in front of the eight golden lights, forming a round yellow sphere that immediately covered his entire body.

Soon, the golden seals collided with this sphere but were bounced away by the impact. Surprisingly, the umbrella-shaped artifact was also top-grade, and judging by its power, it was definitely superior to Han Li’s Black Sky Shield.

Han Li’s expression changed, and Bongak let out that sinister laugh again, feeling triumphant. He had never been injured by a low-level cultivator’s spells after obtaining the Yellow Silk Umbrella.

Moreover, seeing Han Li’s surprised face made him feel extremely pleased. The Yellow Silk Umbrella was more important to Bongak than the short sword artifact.

After all, magical artifacts became useless after being used a few times, but the Yellow Silk Umbrella would protect his life at any time.

Han Li sighed and formed a hand seal, chanting an incantation. The golden seals were all retrieved and returned to their original forms.

Bongak had expected that while the Black Sky Shield’s defense and range could not match the Yellow Silk Umbrella, its agility and spiritual nature were superior to any defensive magical artifact. Therefore, when the yellow light circled around Han Li with strange movements but was repeatedly blocked by the shield, Bongak realized that he could not attack Han Li without breaking the shield.

Bongak, panting, chose to gradually damage the shield using the yellow light of the short sword.

In any case, the black light of the shield was also greatly damaged, and it seemed that there wasn’t much time left. At the same time, Han Li also judged that he could not gain the upper hand this way, so he gritted his teeth and made a painful decision. He put the golden seals back into his storage pouch and took out a blue gourd, holding it high. Then, eight black spheres were ejected from its center and flew towards Bongak.

Bongak, watching this, was puzzled by his actions. The gourd was a very ordinary magical artifact, and low-level cultivators all knew that it was a good artifact for its price and used it often.

The container could be a gourd or a jar, but the spheres ejected from it were all called ‘Chaos Origin Beads.’ However, the power of the Chaos Origin Beads was too insignificant compared to top-grade magical artifacts, and they were only considered mid-grade artifacts at best.

However, precisely for that reason, Bongak became suspicious. Before the spheres got close, he waved his hand horizontally and grabbed an Ice Spear Technique talisman. The talisman immediately transformed into an ice spear, like crystal, to meet them.

‘Bang!’

With a crisp sound, the ice spear shattered three or four spheres in a row. At the same time, snowflake-like ice particles scattered in the air, creating a beautiful scene like flowers scattered by a fairy.

Having confirmed that, Bongak was relieved and turned his attention back to Han Li. He was now holding a huge blue flag, and the blue dragon’s teeth and claws embroidered on it looked so vivid that they seemed about to come alive.

# 87