Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 334

The eyes of a clever demonic beast with high spiritual intelligence.

Han Li quickly spread his consciousness to scan his opponent, and his heart turned cold.

“I didn’t know this was Senior’s residence, and Han Mou has been rude.”

The opponent’s presence was like the wind; his consciousness simply passed through her. There was no sign of any spiritual energy fluctuations, which meant that either she was using a magical artifact to conceal her cultivation, or her own cultivation was unfathomably high.

At his words, the woman raised a snow-white hand and gently stroked the Snowcloud Fox.

“To already be at the late stage of Core Formation [a high level of cultivation] at such a young age, that’s truly rare.”

“It’s just luck. May I know Senior’s esteemed name?”

The woman in black sighed softly.

“What’s the point of telling you a name you wouldn’t know? Even if you were a Nascent Soul cultivator [a very high level of cultivation], few would know me.”

It was a statement that made him involuntarily smile wryly.

Could it be that he had encountered an old monster who had been in seclusion for a long time? Even though he thought this, his face remained unchanged.

The deeper his understanding of cultivation became, the more secret techniques he mastered, and the less fear he had of Nascent Soul old monsters. Especially the Blood Shadow Escape technique, which he had recently learned, had further emboldened him.

If he had to fight, he wouldn’t be a match, but he could try to escape using the Blood Shadow Escape. If he did that, he would have to spend several years in arduous cultivation.

But as he thought about it, something felt strange. What was such a mysterious figure doing hiding near Mount Yunmeng, which was being encroached upon by the three sects?

Was she like him, choosing this place simply to cultivate using the dense spiritual energy?

Han Li scanned every corner of the stone chamber with his consciousness, leaving no trace, and became even more puzzled. This stone chamber was the only one carved out in the middle of the rocky mountain range, and there was no door or other connected space to be seen.

Moreover, other than the stone platform where the woman in black was sitting, there was nothing else. It was an environment where no one could stay for long, and the bizarre incongruity made him feel eerie.

The stone chamber was surrounded by thick rock on all sides, which was clearly different from the cave dwellings of other cultivators. Rather than being carefully cut with a flying sword or other magical artifact, it was as if it had been cleaved out at once with a giant axe, and the walls were uneven.

As if noticing his doubts, the woman smiled lightly.

“If you find it strange, touch the stone wall. Then your questions will be answered.”

After checking with his consciousness, he found that it was no different from an ordinary stone wall, so Han Li was also curious.

“Since you say so, I won’t refuse.”

He slowly watched the woman and walked towards the left wall. Han Li placed his palm directly on the stone wall but found nothing unusual.

However, after a moment of thought, he extended his finger, and a blue light flashed from his fingertip. A blue sword light several inches long rose up.

*Kukung.*

But as soon as the blue sword light touched the wall, it collided with something and could not advance, and no trace was left on the stone wall that looked like ordinary stone.

Han Li’s expression changed, and without thinking further, he pointed to one of the flying swords circling above his head. However, the flying sword, which had turned into a blue light, hit the stone wall, made a clear sound, and bounced back.

“……!”

As a result, the faint trace of the sword’s edge that remained slowly filled in again, and it was restored to its original state. Han Li quickly turned his head and asked.

“The wall is restoring itself! Is it the power of a restriction that Senior has set up?”

“A restriction I set up? You flatter me too much! It’s a kind of rare refining material called Azure Goldstone or Spirit Absorbing Stone. It’s a rock that cannot be destroyed by the spiritual power of spells or magical treasures unless with great brute force.”

Han Li frowned and stepped back from the stone wall, returning to his original position.

“Azure Goldstone, I’ve never heard of such a material.”

“Haha, it’s no wonder you don’t know! Such rocks existed in ancient times, and they were rare even then, so few people know about them now.”

Listening to the woman’s words as if it were nothing, Han Li was about to ask something when she continued.

“You’ve reached the stage of looking towards Nascent Soul, but in my eyes, your aptitude is not good. No, there’s no need to discuss whether it’s good or not; it’s terrible.

No matter how hard you train, it’s an aptitude that makes it difficult to even reach the Qi Refining stage [the initial stage of cultivation]. But you’ve come this far, so there must have been a strange encounter. And meeting me also means that you have a connection. If you don’t refuse, this old woman will give you a treasure.”

“You’re giving me a treasure?”

Looking at his suspicious face, the woman said in a slightly cold tone.

“Of course, there’s a condition. First, the item is only being lent to you, so you must return it later. And in exchange for taking the treasure, you must do one thing for this old woman. You can say it’s the price for borrowing the treasure.”

She took out a square jade box from her bosom. The fist-sized jade box was dark and must have been very old.

Han Li looked back and forth between the woman’s face and the black jade box, and although he had not yet refused, his face darkened.

“First, if you could tell me about the treasure, I could consider it.”

Seeing his hesitant response, a hint of impatience flashed across the woman’s face, but it quickly disappeared.

“You know about Spirit Eye Stones, right? Inside this is the highest level of treasure among them. It’s the Spirit Eye Jade! The spiritual energy it emits can at least solidify a cultivator’s late Core Formation stage before reaching Nascent Soul. It will also greatly reduce the burden when reaching Nascent Soul.”

As she spoke, she gripped the black jade box tightly, and her reluctance to give it away was clearly conveyed.

“Spirit Eye Jade!”

Not just a Spirit Eye Stone, but a Spirit Eye Jade would reduce the time he needed to reach Nascent Soul by 30%.

He swallowed the refusal he was about to make and asked with a sigh.

“What do you want me to do? I’m worried that my cultivation might not be enough to do what Senior cannot.”

“It’s not something that will harm others, so don’t worry. No matter how high my cultivation is, I can’t take a single step outside this stone chamber, so you just need to deliver a letter to someone for me.”

“Deliver a letter?”

“So, were you worried that I would ask you to do something truly heinous?”

The woman in black’s red lips curled up slightly in a sneer.

Han Li’s face flushed slightly. The reward was too precious to refuse such a simple request.

“If that’s all, then I will do it.”

The woman’s face brightened, and without another word, she sent the black jade box wrapped in green energy towards Han Li. As soon as the jade box was in his hand, he examined it with his consciousness, and the abundant spiritual energy seemed to indicate that it truly contained a Spirit Eye Jade.

Han Li, who was cautious by nature, would not fail to check the contents with his own eyes. As the jade box opened, a clear energy and white light filled the stone chamber.

‘Huh?’

In the soft white light, there was indeed a pure white jade stone several inches in size, sparkling. Surprisingly, inside the translucent jade stone, a thumb-sized blue ox was shaking its head and wandering around.

The woman smiled lightly at his surprised expression.

“That’s the Spirit Eye Jade. It’s a treasure among treasures that has been cultivated to the point where it’s almost ready to take form. It will have an effect that cannot be compared to ordinary Spirit Eye Stones, so your cultivation will also be twice as fast.”

Han Li, who had been looking at the Spirit Eye Jade for a while, closed the jade box again and calmly raised his head. Come to think of it, the Snowcloud Fox, which he had been chasing after feeling a strange energy, also seemed to have evolved into a demonic beast by receiving the spiritual energy of the Spirit Eye Jade.

The woman in black paused for a moment at Han Li’s calm demeanor but soon touched the cloth covering her face and said calmly.

“I’ve already given you what I had to give, so take good care of it. If you look behind the stone platform where I’m sitting, there will be another jade box. Take out the talisman that seals the jade box and give it to me. Inside, there is a letter and a token that you must take with you.”

“Do I have to bring that to you?”

“Hmph! Are you still worried that I might harm you? If this old woman could do it herself, why would I ask for help!”

As Han Li immediately showed a suspicious look, the woman lifted the skirt of her cross-legged posture. Below her knees, where plump calves should have been, were withered calves like firewood.

The dried-up skin, devoid of blood and flesh, was terrifying. Even more gruesome was the fact that silver-white chains, wrapped tightly around her useless legs, were connected to the rock where the woman was sitting.

Han Li, licking his lips in tension, looked at her but didn’t ask anything in particular. However, after a while, she lowered her skirt and said calmly.

“I prepared a stone chamber of Azure Goldstone in the rock and bound my two legs with these chains to seal myself in.”

‘Sealed herself!’

“The Ghostly Slaughter Art I cultivated had an unusually fast cultivation speed and power, unlike ordinary cultivation methods. But this method had a fatal flaw. Once a certain level of achievement was reached, one would lose their reason and become a bloodthirsty beast that only engaged in slaughter.

At the time, I had an unexpected encounter and gained a powerful consciousness that surpassed that of other cultivators of the same level, and I became arrogant. Despite the dissuasion of other cultivators, I cultivated this method to great success, and as soon as I reached the Nascent Soul stage, I was consumed by an uncontrollable bloodlust and caused a storm of blood in the cultivation world.

As a result, I incurred a lot of resentment and was severely injured in an attack by several Nascent Soul cultivators, losing one arm.”

Her gaze flickered towards her one arm.

“After much deliberation, I made a decision that day. If I couldn’t control myself like this, it was inevitable that I would be killed. So, I steeled my heart and asked a close friend to make a chain called the Heavenly Fire Divine Chain and this Azure Goldstone stone chamber, and I buried myself alive here.

In case I couldn’t bear the solitude and broke the chains to escape, I entrusted the key to the Heavenly Fire Divine Chain to my closest friend, who would come to check on my condition every so often and release me if my condition improved.

But after visiting a few times, that friend suddenly disappeared. I don’t know what happened to him, but that’s how I’ve been trapped here alive ever since!

The stone chamber was refined with Azure Goldstone, so even I, who had reached the mid-Nascent Soul stage, couldn’t spread my consciousness far enough to ask for help. And this Heavenly Fire Divine Chain was also refined with a strange mental method, and it became inseparable from my nascent soul.

While cultivating here, I have made progress in my cultivation, and now I can cut the chains using True Fire, but if I do, my breath will also be cut off at the same time.

It can be said that it is fate that a cultivator came all the way here to find me, so I can’t help but be overwhelmed by this opportunity given by heaven.”

The woman in black revealed her story in one breath, and Han Li was dumbfounded. After considering the situation, he still asked hesitantly.

“I understand your intentions, but so much time has passed, it’s very likely that your friend has passed away.”

“The reason for delivering the letter is to ask about the whereabouts of the key to the Heavenly Fire Divine Chain, so even if the other party has already passed away, there’s no need to worry. We agreed in advance that if something happened, he would leave the key to his descendants, so we just need to find his descendants.”

After listening to the story and thinking about it carefully, there were no inconsistencies.

Having made up his mind, he didn’t waste any more time and immediately went behind the stone platform and took out the jade box. On the ancient yellow jade box, there was an image of a person roaring towards the sky in flames in a bizarre manner.

The energy of the golden talisman attached to it made Han Li’s heart feel uneasy for some reason. He frowned without realizing it.

# 336