Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 435

On the cultivator army’s side, seven old men, each wielding a treasured artifact, were in the midst of battling mages when they noticed the enormous bird engulfed in blue flames. They were taken aback.

“This is serious. Judging by that demonic beast’s aura, ordinary cultivators can’t handle it. We must stop it ourselves,” a gray-robed elder said, his face paling.

“Then what are we waiting for? Use the Taijin Seven Treasures to kill that demonic beast immediately. It clearly doesn’t belong in this world, so we must eliminate it before more cultivators get hurt,” another elder shouted fiercely, turning into a yellow streak of light and flying forward.

The other cultivators followed, but the gray-robed elder, who seemed to be their leader, hesitated, sighed, and then transformed into a golden ray of light and soared into the sky.

As the seven cultivators approached, the Peacock Clan’s Holy Bird, having finished absorbing the fire-attribute spiritual energy, had already grown to nearly twenty feet in size and was glaring at them.

A sinister light flashed, and as the bird flapped its wings, fist-sized blue fireballs densely filled the sky, flying towards them.

Faced with the barrage of blue fireballs, an elder with long eyebrows swept his whisk and cast an ice net. The net miraculously emitted a white light, enveloping the fireballs.

The long-eyebrowed elder was initially satisfied, but his face immediately turned pale.

The fireballs within the ice net exploded, and the ice net melted away in the blue flames. As the ice net vanished, the flames, now merged into a pillar of fire, shot towards the cultivators with menacing force.

“Go!”

The elder who seemed to be the leader quickly activated the treasured artifact he was holding, and a mirror emitting a white light appeared in the sky.

White light flowed from the mirror, creating a white light barrier that blocked the blue flames.

However, everyone had seen the long-eyebrowed elder’s treasured artifact become useless in an instant, so they dared not rely on ordinary treasured artifacts to deal with the flames.

“Let’s deploy the Kunma Grand Formation to trap the demonic beast!”

The leading elder shouted, and the other elders hurriedly activated their own treasured artifacts.

A red ruler, a yellow spear, a spirit tablet, a small cauldron, a jade fan, and a ruyi scepter floated into the sky, surrounding the enormous bird. With a long cry, the mirror transformed into light, not only blocking the blue flames but also forming a seven-colored light barrier around the enormous bird.

The peacock, seeing this, became enraged and fiercely pecked at the space below.

The blue light disappeared, and the large-bodied elder below sensed something and moved his spirit tablet.

Bang!

A huge sound was heard, and the spirit tablet was sent flying. The elder was terrified and continued to cast hand seals to regain control of the spirit tablet, but the spirit tablet only vibrated slightly and continued to fly towards him with fierce momentum.

Just as the spirit tablet was about to crush the elder, two hands suddenly supported his shoulders, injecting a tremendous amount of spiritual power.

“I’ll lend you my strength, quickly cast your spell.”

The cold voice belonged to the gray-robed elder.

The large-bodied elder regained his senses and, with renewed determination, cast hand seals, causing the spirit tablet to stop five feet away, finally regaining control.

The two cultivators let out long breaths.

Seeing this, the other cultivators also heightened their vigilance and maximized the power of their treasured artifacts. Various lights intertwined, surprisingly blocking the sharp attacks that the Holy Bird created with its pecking several times.

Not far away, the evil woman saw this and looked back at the lamp behind her. After some hesitation, she decided against going up to help.

Before the lamp’s flame went out, protecting it was her top priority.

The gaunt elder was surprised to see the Holy Bird being blocked by several elders.

However, he was not impatient. Although the treasures wielded by the seven elders were very powerful, they were still no match for the Holy Bird that the Peacock Clan had revered for tens of thousands of years.

‘Those seven elders are Tiannan’s trump card.’

As Priest Zhu looked at the cultivator camp from afar, Long Han’s face was dark as he stood before thousands of mages.

“The Peacock Clan actually summoned such a demonic beast. Things are getting difficult. Quickly release the spirit beasts to help the seven cultivators of the Taijin Sect in their battle.”

Long Han suddenly raised his voice and commanded.

Following his orders, dozens of black spirit beast fragments were pushed to the front of the camp, and the cultivators behind them took out talismans and attached them to the fragments.

A green light flashed as the talismans disappeared into the fragments, and the cultivators who had attached the talismans sat down in a cross-legged position, remaining motionless.

After a while, the fragments began to move, gleaming with a black light.

The black spirit beasts flapped their wings and flew into the sky, while the cultivators who had attached the talismans remained sitting still in a cross-legged position.

The gaunt elder sneered and said to the black-robed woman beside him,

“It’s time to cut off their breath. Madam Lu, please release the Copper Armor Corpses.”

“Brother Zhu, don’t be so impatient. Let’s wait a little longer. Most of my clan’s Copper Armor Corpses are only at the Qi Refining stage [the first stage of cultivation]. They will be most effective after the Tiannan cultivators are completely exhausted.”

“I see… Very well. As long as your clan keeps its promise, I can wait a little longer.”

The gaunt elder frowned but immediately nodded.

Han Li was frustrated by the two Heavenly Fox Beasts, which were moving cunningly and staying close together. They were not engaging in a full-frontal battle but were teleporting and persistently attacking.

Soon, he deliberately showed a weakness to lure the demonic beasts, but the Heavenly Fox Beasts were not fooled and remained ten feet away.

Every time Han Li tried to chase them using the Wind Thunder Wings, they would teleport, making it difficult. Moreover, the blue shadow was also contributing to his frustration.

The blue shadow’s body seemed to be made of pure wood-attribute spiritual energy. The Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords were useless, and no matter how many times it was split apart, it would immediately condense back into one, not fearing Han Li’s attacks.

It was a situation he had never encountered since entering the cultivation world.

Furthermore, when the blue shadow took out a navy blue bowl from its mouth and trapped the Glacial Flame, Han Li broke out in a cold sweat and was greatly shocked! Fortunately, he had refined it beforehand, and by using his consciousness to summon it, he barely managed to return it to his body.

He had not refined many Glacial Flames, so losing some would have been a great loss. This made it difficult to use the Violet Aurora Flame as well.

He summoned the Silver Bell and the Thousand Heavy Peaks treasured artifacts one after another, but he could not do anything to his opponents.

The blue shadow was not immortal either. It was injured by attacks, its light dimmed, and its size decreased, but there was no way to eliminate it in a short time.

It was fortunate that the opponent did not possess powerful treasured artifacts.

On the other side, the red-clothed Madam Mi and Feng Bing were fighting with difficulty. Although she had reached the peak of the mid-Nascent Soul stage [a high level of cultivation], she was still lacking compared to a late-stage cultivator.

Moreover, when Han Li discovered that the mages had summoned an unknown Holy Bird that was fighting against seven Tiannan cultivators, his heart grew even heavier.

The only way to turn the tide was to rescue the trapped cultivators. After some thought, Han Li made up his mind.

As the Heavenly Fox Beast teleported backward, he swept his other hand across the whisk and took out a wooden box covered in talismans.

The blue shadow, seeing Han Li’s actions, emitted countless wood-attribute threads.

Han Li did not move from his spot and used his consciousness to turn the sword qi in his body into a mist, shattering the blue threads. At the same time, a blue light flashed from the wooden box, and the talismans fell off.

Crimson light escaped from the wooden box, circled in the air, and returned to his hand. It was the Soul Binding Talisman.

Han Li struck his body with the hand holding the talisman, and the crimson light flashed as the talisman disappeared. He let out a long breath, emitting a blue light.

The shadow of a giant flood dragon appeared on his body, forming the shape of a blood-red, eighth-grade venomous dragon.

The dragon’s shadow raised its head to the sky and roared, startling not only the surrounding cultivators but also Feng Bing and Quan Zhong, who looked over in surprise.

Quan Zhong frowned at the sight of the dragon, while Feng Bing’s eyes lit up. The dragon, after a long roar, seeped into Han Li’s abdomen and disappeared.

Han Li felt as if his flesh was being seared, and he realized that a crimson light had spread across his back, forming a dragon tattoo.

At this moment, his entire body was glowing with a crimson light, and crimson scales had grown on both of his hands, shimmering. A severe pain shot through his head, and small horns grew, while his fingernails became incredibly sharp and long.

He had become a half-human, half-demon.

“This can’t be…”

Han Li was shocked by the overflowing spiritual energy in his body. The Soul Binding Talisman, refined with the soul of a demonic beast, was said to increase the caster’s magical power by accumulating some of the beast’s cultivation within the caster’s body. However, he had not expected to become a half-human, half-demon.

Of course, he did not transform into a hideous form with fangs and a tail like a true spirit possession technique, but it was similar to the Demonic Arts of the Myriad Phantoms.

Han Li touched the horns on his forehead, speechless.

He did not know that the Soul Binding Talisman was created by a cultivator who founded the Heavenly Talisman Sect, who had improved upon the shortcomings of the spirit possession technique. One of the major drawbacks of the spirit possession technique was that it caused the user to lose consciousness and become an unconscious monster.

The only drawback was that the creation of the Soul Binding Talisman was too difficult.

Ordinary cultivators would rarely encounter an eighth-grade demonic beast in their entire lives, and they had to use a demonic beast that had reached the Transformation stage to create a Soul Binding Talisman that could maintain the caster’s consciousness.

Although he was surprised, he confirmed the effectiveness of the Soul Binding Talisman as he felt his cultivation rise to the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage [a high level of cultivation].

As Han Li summoned the venomous dragon’s soul, the Heavenly Fox Beast sensed the aura and became uneasy again. However, the blue shadow muttered something, reassuring the two demonic beasts.

Han Li sneered and flapped the Wind Thunder Wings on his back, disappearing from his spot and reappearing ten feet away.

The Heavenly Fox Beast also hurriedly flashed a blue light and moved near Han Li, firing light bullets from its mouth in succession.

Han Li’s eyes flashed coldly, and he once again turned into a silver light and disappeared, reappearing directly behind the demonic beast.

The other one aimed at him and fired a light bullet. Normally, Han Li would have used his sword qi to block the attack, giving them time to teleport away.

However, Han Li, whose cultivation had greatly increased, amplified the blue light protecting his body to block the light bullet and then charged forward with tremendous speed.

The Heavenly Fox Beast was shocked and could not teleport, so it spat out blue and yellow demonic cores to block him.

The blue shadow also realized the situation and rushed forward, sending a massive amount of blue threads towards Han Li.

Boom!

The light bullets hit Han Li and exploded, but his figure only swayed, and he was not injured at all. His flying swords flew at full speed, splitting the demonic cores in two and also cutting the demonic beast’s body in half.

If they were not given time to teleport, the Heavenly Fox Beasts were fundamentally no match for Han Li.

The threads that the blue shadow had fired tried to bind Han Li’s body, but when a crimson light flashed from his entire body, they melted into the protective barrier and disappeared as black smoke.

“What a powerful poison!”

Han Li was also surprised himself.

He had only intended to use a barrier made of spiritual power to block the blue threads, but he had not imagined that it would be so powerful.

The demonic beast’s miserable roar was heard. And the remaining Heavenly Fox Beast, having lost its partner, rolled its eyes and teleported towards Han Li, swinging its sharp claws.

Faced with this attack, which had lost all reason, Han Li expressionlessly waved his hand. A crimson light flared from his scaled hand, and a sharp, claw-shaped light extended towards the opponent.

Bang!

Han Li’s sharp crimson claws overcame the demonic beast’s claws and even cut through its body. The claws snatched a yellow demonic core the size of a broad bean, and the Heavenly Fox Beast’s corpse fell to the ground.

The blue shadow, seeing this, hesitated and did not rush forward. Han Li looked at the blue shadow with cold eyes.

Quan Zhong, who had been watching everything, launched a fierce attack on Madam Mi, and then, with a flash of his figure, transformed into a streak of light and collided with Han Li.

Kukwang!

At that moment, the crimson barrier beside them exploded, and a white light leaked out through the broken gap, stopping near Han Li.