Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 267

Sweat beaded on Hyun-gul’s forehead as the flames shifted rapidly through a hundred colors before exploding above him.

Grayish-white sparks shot out in all directions, and Hyun-gul’s face paled.

Without a second thought, Hyun-gul twisted his body, summoning a massive surge of ghostly energy.

He moved like a flash, cutting through the air like an arrow. He had to escape the blast radius to survive, moving with desperate, life-or-death urgency.

The dark green ghostly energy was formidable, but it melted away like salt in water when it touched the falling grayish-white sparks.

The sparks weren’t falling too quickly, so it seemed that if he could just escape the blast radius, he might live.

At that moment, a dozen blue swords hurtled toward Hyun-gul.

Han Li, realizing the situation had changed, immediately flicked his fingers, blocking Hyun-gul’s retreat. Hyun-gul was shocked and furious.

Now, he had no choice but to gather his energy and break through Han Li’s attack. The dark green energy surrounding Hyun-gul became even denser.

As the first sword arrived, a green treasure emerged from his mouth. It was an arrow made from Golden Thunder Bamboo. Hyun-gul’s treasure shattered four or five swords before being deflected.

Then, the remaining swords flew relentlessly toward Hyun-gul.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

Explosions echoed in succession, and Hyun-gul’s dark green energy blocked the fourth Azure Bamboo Cloud Sword, creating an opening. Hyun-gul involuntarily stepped back.

He was now utterly terrified. He frantically looked around, and at that moment, a grayish-white spark silently landed on his shoulder.

Then, the grayish-white flame flared up. Hyun-gul couldn’t even scream as he turned to ash within the flames.

Han Li gasped, astonished by the immense power of the Asura Sacred Flame [a powerful, destructive flame].

Even after Hyun-gul had turned to ash and disappeared within the flames, the grayish-white sparks continued to fall.

Then, an inexplicable change occurred due to Hyun-gul’s death. The falling grayish-white sparks simultaneously emitted dark green energy, and as black currents escaped, only a dark blue color remained.

Han Li tensed up and looked around. Dark blue coldness was spreading everywhere, and the entire barrier might turn into ice pillars.

He hurriedly channeled magical power into the White Jade Plate, and the heat, carried by the white light, drove away the cold energy around him.

The Azure Glacial Flame [a powerful, ice-based flame], now free from Hyun-gul’s control, unleashed its true power, freezing the entire Hanryeo Platform except for the area around him.

Han Li grimaced as his magical power rapidly decreased. He now realized that Hyun-gul hadn’t fully merged with the Azure Glacial Flame not because of his lack of magical power, but because he hadn’t refined it himself. The power from before was only a small fraction of its true potential.

If he had been able to use the full power of the Azure Glacial Flame from the beginning, there would have been no reason for him to forcibly create the Asura Sacred Flame and self-destruct.

Having barely dealt with Hyun-gul, he couldn’t possibly die so unjustly by the Azure Glacial Flame. Han Li gritted his teeth and took out a spirit beast pouch from his waist. It was the spirit beast pouch containing the Gold Devouring Beetles.

Now, he had no choice but to rely on the beetles’ abilities. Whether he succeeded in escaping or not, the Gold Devouring Beetles, which hadn’t fully evolved, would likely struggle to withstand such extreme cold. If his plan went slightly wrong, he and the beetles would be annihilated.

But with his life hanging by a thread, he didn’t have time to think for long. As Han Li’s hand moved, the spirit beast pouch was about to open. At that moment, another strange phenomenon occurred.

The Azure Glacial Flame, which had been floating around, flickered and then, as if receiving an order, soared into the air and began to merge.

A massive dark blue energy condensed into a fist-sized dark blue ice bead, and the cold and ice pillars that had been tormenting Han Li vanished as if nothing had happened.

“… !”

Han Li, who had half-opened the spirit beast pouch, was momentarily stunned before expressing undisguised joy.

He didn’t know why the Azure Glacial Flame had changed like this, but it was clear that he had overcome the crisis.

The dark blue ice bead slowly fell and reached Han Li’s eyes. Han Li looked at it with a cautious expression.

Then, suddenly, the faint lightning remaining in his body was released from his hand, enveloping the bead and preventing it from falling further. The ice bead followed the lightning’s control without any resistance.

Han Li hesitated for a moment, but then carefully wrapped his hand in a blue glow and reached out toward the bead. The bead was slightly cool, but not cold. It seemed that the immense energy of the Azure Glacial Flame was no longer leaking out after being condensed into the bead.

He was finally relieved.

He withdrew the energy from his hand and held the bead, examining it closely.

The dark blue bead was solid on the outside, but the flames flickering inside seemed unstable.

He hesitated a little, but the Azure Glacial Flame was an immense energy rarely found in the mortal world, and it might be a treasure greater than the Void Sky Cauldron [a powerful artifact].

Although he didn’t know how to use it, it would be foolish to abandon it. After learning the power of demonic flames like the Azure Yang Demonic Flame and the Heavenly Capital Demonic Flame, he had always coveted such demonic flames.

And the power of the Azure Glacial Flame was greater than any flame he had seen before. Since such a good opportunity had presented itself, it was worth taking the risk.

Having made up his mind, he released golden thunder from his hand, wrapping the bead layer upon layer as if with thread. Then, a bead that looked golden from the start appeared, and the fact that a faint current was flowing through it could not be hidden.

He was relieved. He could control the Azure Glacial Flame to some extent with the Evil-Slaying Divine Lightning.

Even if the bead were to collapse again, the golden net would buy him time to come up with a solution.

But now, he had used all the Evil-Slaying Divine Lightning in his body. He couldn’t draw out even a single bolt of lightning anymore. Nevertheless, Han Li was in a good mood. He immediately took out a square jade box and carefully stored the bead inside.

After looking around the altar, he retrieved the Blood Jade Spider, whose vitality was greatly depleted. Then, he approached the spot where Hyun-gul had died and waved his hand. Something emitting a faint light rose from the ground.

It was clearly a human rib bone, and it was surprising that the bone hadn’t disappeared even in the flames of the Asura Sacred Flame.

Han Li recalled how Hyun-gul had taken out the Void Sky Cauldron map from a rib bone in the underground cave.

‘Could there be something inside this too?’

With this suspicion, he unhesitatingly put the rib bone into his storage pouch. Now was not the time to think deeply about such things; he needed to take what he could and flee.

Then, a jade-colored arrow caught his eye, lying only a few feet away. Raising an eyebrow, he lifted his hand and sent out a blue light, and it also came into his hand.

Swoosh.

As he was about to put the arrow away, a strange sound came from the spirit beast pouch at his waist.

His hand brushed against the spirit beast pouch that had made the sound, and a yellow light escaped, spinning around a few times before transforming into a small monkey. It was the Soul Devouring Spirit Beast, Jaehon, which was said to devour souls.

He took out the gray bead, the Soul Binding Pearl, which was used to control Jaehon. He hadn’t started refining it yet because of the expression Won-hyo had when he handed Jaehon over, but temporarily controlling Jaehon with a masterless bead wasn’t too difficult.

Holding the Soul Binding Pearl, he looked at the jade-colored arrow and opened his mouth, spitting out the blue dantian fire [a type of internal fire].

However, the arrow showed no reaction, as if it had already lost its spirituality. A cold glint flashed in Han Li’s eyes as he used his consciousness to command Jaehon.

Hmph!

At the same time, a yellow energy escaped from the monkey’s nose, trying to grab the arrow floating in the air.

Then, the arrow, which had been still as if dead, began to emit a fierce green light and tried to escape. It looked as if it was terrified.

Just as the arrow flew about a foot away, Han Li, who had been watching for an opportunity, attacked by shooting out a blue sword.

As it staggered from being hit by the blue sword, the yellow energy emitted by Jaehon enveloped the arrow. Then, the treasure continuously flickered and struggled to escape.

However, no matter how much it struggled, it couldn’t escape the yellow energy, which had an immense suction power. There was a reason why Jaehon was renowned as the natural enemy of evil spirits and souls.

As the arrow’s movements slowed, hundreds of threads were released from the yellow energy, tightly wrapping the arrow.

Then, the yellow threads extracted the green light from the arrow.

The green light changed its form into various insects, fish, and wild animals to resist the yellow threads.

However, as the yellow threads pierced through the green light’s body, it slowly began to be pulled toward Jaehon’s nose. At this moment, the green light transformed into the face of a withered old man, begging in terror.

“Immortal Han! Please spare this old one! If you spare me, I will become your slave and serve you as my master forever. I will give you all the numerous secret arts and cultivation methods I know! Also, wouldn’t you want to know the advanced cultivation method of the Profound Yin Great Art, which I haven’t even passed on to that Reverse Yin bastard? You can even create zombies using the Soul Refining Demonic Art, and there are still many treasures in my secret hideout that haven’t been discovered by Reverse Yin…”

The old man spewed out words like a machine gun. He even readily promised to become a slave, but he was already on the verge of being sucked into Jaehon’s nose.

If he were to be sucked in like this, even a demon soul that had been refined so thoroughly would never see the light of day again. No matter how strong one’s heart was, the temptation of the green soul could not be ignored.

He sensed Han Li’s hesitation and cried out as if grasping at straws.

“Even if all of this is unnecessary, if you don’t want to be chased by Reverse Yin for the rest of your life, you need to know that bastard’s weakness!”

At those words, Han Li sighed and gently shook the Soul Binding Pearl in his hand. The yellow energy, which had been frantically sucking in the green light, slowed down.

The old man’s face relaxed for a moment.

“That’s a wise choice! You will never regret…”

At that moment, Jaehon’s nose once again sucked it in with an immense suction power, much faster than before. The green light, which had relaxed and stopped resisting, disappeared just like that.

Only then did a sneer appear on Han Li’s face.

The small monkey seemed to have exerted quite a bit of effort, as it burped and then leisurely rubbed its belly. The satisfied expression on its face indicated that it had had a feast.

Han Li smiled, and the Soul Binding Pearl in his hand emitted light, and the monkey turned back into a yellow light and returned to the spirit beast pouch. Han Li took a few steps forward and retrieved the green arrow, muttering to himself.

“I’d rather stick my head in a tiger’s mouth than accept you as a slave. To deal with an old ghost who has lived for over a thousand years, even if I had two bodies, it wouldn’t be enough. It’s a hundred times better to eliminate you when the opportunity arises.”

In fact, he didn’t know if the old man’s face he had just seen was really Hyun-gul’s soul or just a fragment of his soul that had been separated using a secret art.

Hyun-gul was a specialist in the art of controlling ghosts, so it wouldn’t be strange if he had done something like that.

Even after retrieving the Five Elements Rings that were far away, he didn’t leave the place. The old man’s words had reminded him of Reverse Yin’s trickery that remained in his body.

If he couldn’t remove this mark, he would be discovered by Reverse Yin as soon as he left the barrier. He had already searched his body several times, but he hadn’t found anything strange.

Buzz, buzz…

Han Li released one of his spirit beast pouches, summoning thousands of beetles.

The Gold Devouring Beetles immediately clung to his body and made a strange cry from one of his calves. Han Li was overjoyed and gave an order, and the Gold Devouring Beetles on his calf briefly stirred before flying up like a swarm of bees and returning to the spirit beast pouch.

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