Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 479

As Han Li’s hand brushed against the storage pouch, a dozen jade boxes appeared in a row. He bent down, carefully collected the spiritual herbs, and transferred them into one of the boxes. Whether the herbs were familiar or not, he had no intention of leaving anything behind.

After a while, he stood with a stiff expression. Three of the ancient spiritual herbs were impossible to transplant.

One of them burst into flames and disappeared as soon as it was placed in a jade box. Another withered like a spiritual candle, losing its medicinal properties. The last herb was even stranger; it vanished like melting snow the moment the soil it was planted in was touched.

Han Li was frustrated that so many spiritual herbs couldn’t be transplanted. The biggest problem was that one of those three was a key ingredient for the Strong Gale Pill.

He stared at the crimson, flame-like herb, and then, as if struck by an idea, he took out a small green bottle from his chest. It was the mysterious bottle, Han Li’s treasure.

He usually hid it on his body using a secret technique, so it was impossible for anyone to discover or steal it unless he died.

“What is that?” The Great Yan Divine Lord expressed curiosity as he looked at the green bottle, which was neither wood nor metal.

“It’s just a magic tool,” Han Li replied vaguely and opened the bottle’s lid. After waiting for a moment without anything happening, Han Li slowly sealed the bottle and put it back in his chest.

Since there was no sun, moon, or starlight in this space, it wasn’t strange that the small bottle had lost its power, but he couldn’t help feeling dejected.

Han Li sighed and looked up at the sky covered in gray mist.

Besides the pills, there was another problem to solve: how to return to the human realm. At that moment, a silver light flashed on the ground, and Silvermoon appeared.

“Master, I’ve searched thoroughly, but there’s only a broken restriction on the ground. There’s nothing else.”

“It’s alright. It wasn’t very likely that there would be an exit underground anyway,” Han Li calmly nodded and looked up at the sky again.

“Then do you think it’s in the void?”

“Yes, since it’s not anywhere else, we have to look above. The silver flames killed the demon souls, but they shouldn’t cause much harm to human cultivators.”

He boldly floated into the air.

The space wasn’t large, so Han Li quickly reached the top. He activated his Brightsight Spirit Eyes [a technique to enhance vision] to examine the sky covered in gray clouds.

Behind the clouds, there was something like a silver curtain. It was indeed a restriction set up by the spirit realm cultivators.

Han Li extended one hand and shot a blue bead into the clouds.

After a moment, the bead passed through the silver restriction without any problems and flew about ten more feet before exploding on its own after hitting something. Han Li felt more at ease and turned into a blue streak of light, entering the mist.

He had been nervous when passing through the silver restriction, but it hadn’t activated. The remnants of the restrictions left in the Spirit Medicine Garden were clearly specifically designed for the Goma [a type of demon].

He used his Brightsight Spirit Eyes to thoroughly search the walls of the space, but he couldn’t find anything. For a moment, he wondered if it would be difficult to escape.

Han Li landed on the ground, looking disappointed.

“Master…”

“I didn’t find anything. This place is completely sealed off.”

“Then could we be trapped here forever? To open a space like this, you’d need at least a cultivator at the Spirit Transformation stage [a high cultivation level].”

Silvermoon’s worry made Han Li frown. Then, as if struck by an idea, Han Li walked towards one of the space walls. He flicked his sleeve, releasing golden flying swords that transformed into giant swords.

Thundering sounds echoed, and the Evil-Slaying Divine Lightning enveloped the swords. Then, he opened his mouth, and purple flames burst out, engulfing the sword surfaces.

He took a deep breath and swung the giant swords down at the wall.

Bang!

When the blinding light disappeared, he observed the wall. It hadn’t cracked; it had only distorted for a moment before returning to its original shape. Silvermoon, behind him, also looked disappointed.

Han Li continued to ponder, but then a voice echoed in his mind.

“Hehe, kid. Do you think you can break through space like that? Stop wasting your time.”

“Senior, do you have another method?” Han Li was more pleased than angry at his scolding.

“Think about how you entered this place. Do you really think that the collision of your attack and the demon soul’s attack created a spatial rift?”

“Senior, you mean…”

“This place is a remnant of the Spirit Medicine Garden. It’s a space that’s barely being maintained after being shattered by a powerful force. The light that burst out when you attacked just now is a sign that the spatial rift is unstable. Perhaps you were able to enter from the human realm because you accidentally touched a thin boundary connecting this place and the human realm.”

“Silvermoon and I have searched all the walls, but there’s nothing strange.”

“You’re foolish. Do you think the weakest part of a spatial rift would be the solid space wall? It could be anywhere inside the space. Since the space is unstable, the weakest part will also move around inside. If you search carefully, you should be able to find it easily.”

“Anywhere inside?” Han Li’s mind cleared at the Great Yan Divine Lord’s mocking explanation.

His cultivation wasn’t shallow, but his understanding of space was far inferior to the Great Yan Divine Lord, who had lived for over ten thousand years.

Han Li sat cross-legged again and closed his eyes. This time, he found what he was looking for in just half an hour.

He turned into a blue streak of light and flew to a stone pavilion. His eyes flickered with a dark blue light as he looked at a spot about five or six feet above the center of the pavilion.

An empty space became subtly blurry, and he could sense a very weak fluctuation of spiritual energy through his consciousness.

It was here. He revealed a look of joy, and after some thought, he summoned a small, blood-red sword from his sleeve.

“Why are you using that sword again?”

“Even if the boundary is weak, I won’t be able to open it by attacking with my natal magic treasure [a magic item bound to one’s soul]. I need a stronger force, so I’ve taken out the Bloodfiend Sword.”

“Hmph, don’t waste your vital energy unnecessarily. You were able to create a spatial rift earlier because you used a strange secret technique to greatly increase your cultivation, which combined with the demon soul’s attack. Can you do the same thing now? The only way is to raise your cultivation to the mid-Nascent Soul stage [a high cultivation level] and use that strange talisman and the Bloodfiend Sword to open a gap in the boundary.”

The Great Yan Divine Lord stated his thoughts bluntly.

“Reaching the mid-Nascent Soul stage isn’t something that can be done in an instant. Even if the spiritual energy here is unusually dense and I have the aid of spirit pills, it would take at least 20 to 30 years of dedicated cultivation to barely achieve that.”

“Are you afraid that this space will disappear within 20 to 30 years? With your talent, it would take 100 years in the outside world.”

Han Li’s face darkened.

In fact, even with the Strong Gale Pill, it would take at least 30 years in the outside world to reach the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage. Spending a few decades cultivating here wasn’t a difficult task. After all, he had been in closed-door cultivation in small, confined spaces before.

The only thing that bothered him now was the safety of Nangong Wan, who was trapped in ice due to the Soul-Sealing Curse. She needed to use the inner core of the Fire Salamander to break the curse.

However, according to the letter Nangong Wan had left behind, her secret technique could suppress the curse’s attacks for over a hundred years, so a delay of 20 to 30 years wouldn’t be a big problem.

After much deliberation, he gave a helpless bitter smile.

“Silvermoon, go collect the spiritual herbs. I’ll start refining spirit pills right away.”

Silvermoon, who had been listening to Han Li and the Great Yan Divine Lord’s conversation, was relieved to know that there was a way to escape this place.

She was tired of being trapped somewhere. With a bright smile, Silvermoon replied and took out medicine bottles from her chest, heading towards the spiritual herb field.

Han Li took a seat in the middle of the stone pavilion and took out a jade slip with ancient medicinal recipes written on it, beginning his research. Since the quantity of spiritual herbs was limited, he couldn’t afford to waste any.

The Lord of Cheonnam’s Eastern Territory was a small region close to Changzhou, where the Chuma Bone was located.

In contrast to Changzhou’s lush mountain ranges and jungles, it was a barren land with no trees or rivers, so there were hardly any cultivators living there. Only a few small cultivation families maintained their existence by finding land with sparse spiritual veins.

Mount Yeongrin, located in the southwest of the territory, was one such place.

It wasn’t very large, with the mountain range itself being only about a hundred miles in size, and the spiritual vein running through the mountain range was only about ten miles long.

There were two lower peaks next to the main peak, and three cultivation sects barely managed to share the land.

The Hwang, Lee, and Wang families were truly insignificant small cultivation families. Even the most powerful Hwang family had only two Foundation Establishment cultivators [a mid-level cultivation stage], not to mention Core Formation cultivators [a high-level cultivation stage]. Most of their Qi Refining disciples were only at the 3rd or 4th level.

The three families were located close to each other and had no major conflicts, so they maintained friendly relations. This was partly because the disciples of the three families had frequently married each other in the past hundred years.

However, Mount Yeongrin had a strange, unknown spring on its highest peak, despite its poor spiritual vein. It wasn’t a precious treasure like the Spirit Eye Spring, but it was definitely a spiritual object.

If some medicinal herbs were soaked in this spring water to make spiritual tea, it would help disciples below the 5th or 6th level of Qi Refining to develop bodies suitable for cultivation. This was the reason why the three families were able to survive here.

However, the spring water didn’t appear constantly; it only flowed for a few days each year, and the amount was very small, not enough for the three families to share.

Thus, the elders of the three families made a big decision. They decided to jointly send disciples to seal this place and open it only once every ten years.

Ten years was the amount of time needed to collect enough spring water for the three families to use. And on this day, dozens of disciples from the three families had gathered on the highest peak of Mount Yeongrin.

They were all young boys and girls, no older than sixteen, and most of them were at the 3rd or 4th level of Qi Refining, with some at the 1st or 2nd level.

In front of them, only about a dozen adult cultivators were at the 10th level of Qi Refining or higher, and three had reached the Foundation Establishment stage. One was at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, and the other two were at the early Foundation Establishment stage.

The dozen or so family elders with relatively deep cultivation were performing a ritual to release the restriction they had set up here.

It was a restriction with various talismans attached to it.

While the cultivators chanted incantations, the three elders waved the flags they were holding. After a moment, the magic seals that came from the three elders’ hands turned into mist and flew towards the rock.

The talismans attached to the rock fell off one by one, and the other disciples, who were waiting with jade boxes, immediately collected the talismans and carefully stored them.

For them, the talismans that could create such a restriction were great treasures.

Thump.

As the talismans disappeared, the rock vibrated, and the center split open, revealing a wide entrance. The young disciples who were watching couldn’t take their eyes off the scene and were excited by the strange sight.

The spring here was a treasure of the three families, and ordinary disciples would not have another chance to see it in their lives.

A small spring, as if carved from pure white jade, held clear water, and the clear fragrance emanating from the spring water refreshed the cultivators’ spirits.

The young disciples showed signs of agitation and began to murmur, so an old man with a white beard turned around and glared at them. The disciples instantly became as quiet as mice.

He was Hwang Won-myeong, the elder of the Hwang family, and the number one cultivator of Mount Yeongrin, who had already reached the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. Not only the Hwang family but also the Wang and Lee family disciples respected the old man very much.

“Haha! With Elder Hwang here, the young disciples listen well,” an old man in a gray robe said with a smile.

“Elder Hwang has already reached the peak of the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, so his aura is extraordinary,” another old man in a blue robe said respectfully.

“No, I’m just an old man who has no chance to improve at this age. Let’s quickly fill the spiritual tea and have the disciples drink it. It seems like there’s more spring water this time than last time, so I’m in a good mood,” Hwang Won-myeong replied with a smile and polite manner. The other two old men were the Foundation Establishment elders of the other families. The two families were inferior to the Hwang family, each having only one Foundation Establishment cultivator.

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