Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 481

Han Li suddenly flicked his sleeve, and a pair of short, blue-glowing, golden spears appeared on the table.

“Thank you for telling me the story. It’s not much, but I’ll give you a pair of Golden Core Pills and a magic artifact.”

“Thank you for bestowing such treasures. This, this isn’t a high-grade magic artifact, is it?”

Hwang Won-myeong looked at the shining golden spears and bowed deeply, expressing his joy. Although the three families weren’t entirely without high-grade magic artifacts, they didn’t have many.

“Although the Golden Core Pills are only upper-grade, if you use them together, they will be comparable to top-grade magic artifacts. Well then, I’ll be on my way. If fate allows, we’ll meet again.”

Han Li briefly spoke about the Golden Core Pills, then turned into a streak of blue light and disappeared through the main hall door. The three old men were bewildered and tried to express their gratitude, but swallowed their words back.

Afterward, their gazes turned to the golden pills on the table.

“To think he would give us a pair of high-grade magic artifacts and leave.”

“Do you even know who he is? High-grade magic artifacts are precious treasures to us. To someone like that senior, they’re probably worthless items.”

The white-robed old man, who was the least talkative of the three, had a strange expression.

“Brother Wang, what do you mean? Could it be that you know who that senior is?”

Hwang Won-myeong asked, and the round-faced old man also looked at the white-robed old man in surprise.

“Brother Hwang, how can you be so clever and yet so oblivious? As soon as he appeared, he asked about Chuma Gul and the ancient demons, and he has such high cultivation at a young age. Don’t you understand? I’m talking about the person who went missing in the battle at Chuma Gul.”

The white-robed old man smiled wryly.

“Could it be… Senior Han?”

Hwang Won-myeong realized what the other was saying and raised his voice. The round-faced old man also seemed greatly surprised.

“Now you understand what I’m saying. He is a senior who is mentioned alongside the three great cultivators, so wouldn’t he readily give away such precious magic artifacts?”

“Listening to Brother Wang, it does seem plausible. But whether that person is Senior Han or not, what does it matter to us? Let’s discuss how to handle this first.”

Hwang Won-myeong, who had been thinking for a while, said with a sigh. At Hwang Won-myeong’s words, the other two old men also put aside the matter of Han Li.

* * *

Han Li knew that they had already realized his identity. He had already flown over a hundred miles from that place.

It was fortunate that he had landed in the Dongyu Kingdom after coming out of the spatial rift this time. The weakest point of the spatial rift moved erratically, so he could have fallen in a remote place a thousand miles away.

“Boy, where are you going now? Or are you going straight back to the Falling Cloud Sect? Don’t forget that the puppet materials I asked for are still lacking.”

The voice of the Great Yan Divine Monarch echoed in his mind.

“I know. But those materials are all difficult to find, so it will be hard to get them in a short time.”

“Hmph! Then does that mean I have to wait another 70 or 80 years? If it’s hard to find in Tiannan, then go to Dajin. If you have enough spirit stones, what rare materials can’t you get? I’m warning you, if you don’t help me refine my puppet, I’ll erase the refining method and scatter your soul. I won’t let you have it.”

“Don’t worry. I have to go to Dajin anyway. You said that my killing intent was already strong, and using the Blood Demon Sword has caused the evil energy to penetrate deeply. If I don’t remove it soon, my body will be affected, and I won’t be able to advance from the mid-Nascent Soul stage.”

Han Li sighed gloomily.

“Good that you know! I was very surprised at first that you had accumulated such deep killing intent at such a young age. I’m not a merciful person either, but when I was your age, I didn’t have even a tenth of that killing intent.

Tsk tsk, how about learning a demonic cultivation method? Then that killing intent would actually help your cultivation. But then you’d have to enter the Transformation stage and go to the Ancient Demon Realm instead of the Spirit Realm.”

The Great Yan Divine Monarch laughed strangely and teased Han Li.

“I have no interest in becoming a monster like an ancient demon just by cultivating.”

“Boy, do you really think all ancient demons look so grotesque?”

The Great Yan Divine Monarch was silent for a moment, then his tone changed.

“What do you mean? When you become an ancient demon, doesn’t demonic transformation occur?”

“Wrong. According to what I saw in the scriptures, the demons who went from the human realm to the Ancient Demon Realm do not change their appearance even if they become members of the ancient demons. They can also intentionally change their bodies using demonic techniques.

When the war between the ancient cultivators and the ancient demons was coming to an end, some cultivators were seduced by the ancient demons and became members of the ancient demons by injecting demonic energy. That’s why the final battle was so fierce.

Even after becoming ancient demons, they maintained their human forms and intelligence and fought for the high-ranking ancient demons. I don’t know what the inside story was, but after that, rumors spread that if human cultivators mastered the ancient demonic techniques to the extreme, they would reach the Ancient Demon Realm.

The strangely shaped ancient demons are divided into two types. The first are the primordial demons of the Ancient Demon Realm, who are at the top of the Ancient Demon Realm. Perhaps the beings called the Saint Ancestors are like that. These demons are few in number, but each one has terrifying abilities. It is even said that the ancient demonic techniques that the current demons cultivate require them to constantly call out the names of these demons to borrow demonic energy to use their techniques.

The second type is when some of the demon races in our human realm cultivate demonic techniques and reach the Ancient Demon Realm. The demon races’ bodies are originally different from humans, so when they transform into ancient demons, they can’t help but have a hideous appearance.”

“Demon races, how could they…”

“You want to ask how they cultivated the ancient demonic techniques, right? I don’t know either. It wasn’t written in detail in the scriptures, but it seems that the demon races met the ancient demons much earlier than our human cultivators.

But the high-ranking demon races I encountered before didn’t seem to have mastered demonic techniques or have demonic energy in their bodies. The reason for that might be found in Dajin. Dajin is the place that preserves the oldest scriptures in our human realm, isn’t it?”

The Great Yan Divine Monarch’s voice became languid.

Han Li recalled the Demon Race treasure, the Fanxing Zhenpian [a demon race treasure], that was in his storage pouch. The three-headed, six-armed technique engraved on it now seemed to be related to the two-headed, four-armed demonic technique used by the ancient demons.

However, the Fanxing Zhenpian he possessed was only a fragment, and even if he had the entire demon race technique, he had no intention of cultivating it. He didn’t even have enough time to cultivate the Azure Origin Sword Art.

Han Li shook his head and changed the subject.

“Don’t worry about the puppet. Whether I go to Dajin or not, I will definitely gather the materials for you. More importantly, you said that the research on the Seven Flame Fan refining method was almost complete two years ago, so have you finished the research now?

If it’s okay, please let me refine that first. Since I’ve lost two flying swords and can’t use the Great Geng Sword Formation, I need a treasure to make up for my power.”

Han Li didn’t beat around the bush.

After living together for over 20 years, he and the Great Yan Divine Monarch had come to understand each other quite well, and their relationship had become much closer. It was even like a half-master-disciple, half-friend relationship.

“I’ve improved the Seven Flame Fan refining method by removing the materials that couldn’t be found and replacing them with others. However, I can’t be sure if the refining will succeed. Also, even if I refine a treasure, it should be called the Three Flame Fan, not the Seven Flame Fan. It originally required 81 fire-attribute materials, but I’ve reduced it to 31, so the power will inevitably be much weaker.”

“It’s okay if the power is a bit weaker. If the Heaven Piercing Treasure is as powerful as it’s said to be, then even a replica like the Three Flame Fan will be something that ordinary cultivators can’t handle.”

“Here’s the jade slip with the copied refining method. But even if it’s a replica, some of the materials are not easy to find, so you’ll have to work hard to refine it.”

A white light shot out from the bamboo tube on Han Li’s back. As if he had eyes on the back of his head, he grabbed the white jade slip with one hand and poured his consciousness into it.

“Putting aside the other things, the feathers of the Haoyang Bird and the scales of the Red Fire Dragon don’t seem like things that will appear even if I wait. At least, I’ve never heard of such things appearing in Tiannan.”

“Those two materials are the easiest to find among the replaceable materials. Among them, I saw a young female cultivator from the Eoyang Palace raising a Haoyang Bird when I was traveling in Dajin.

Even if that Haoyang Bird is no longer alive after so many years, it must have been passed down to her descendants. However, you’ll need luck to find the Red Fire Dragon. But if you go to Dajin, you might be able to find it without much difficulty.”

“Hmph! After explaining for so long, you’re just telling me to go to Dajin after all.”

“Hehe, the reason I’m sending you to Dajin is also for your own good. You’ll only know what a true cultivation sanctuary is like if you go to Dajin.”

“I hope so. But before leaving the Dongyu Kingdom, I have to go back to Chuma Gul for something.”

“You’re going back to Chuma Gul? What do you mean?”

The Great Yan Divine Monarch asked in surprise.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going inside. Do you remember the Heavenly Fiend? When I entered the spatial rift, I used a secret technique to check, and it wasn’t completely dead. I need to see if it’s still inside Chuma Gul or if I can summon it.”

Having said that, Han Li increased his speed and soared through the sky.

Reaching Changzhou, Han Li immediately entered the Myriad Spirit Mountain Range and headed towards the entrance of Chuma Gul.

After wandering there for two days, he found out that the Heavenly Fiend was still alive inside, but it was trapped somewhere, and no matter how much he tried to summon it, he couldn’t call it out.

Hesitating, he had to leave with a gloomy heart. If Chuma Gul opened again and it was still alive then, he might be able to meet it then.

* * *

Two months later, Han Li finally arrived near Yunmeng Mountain.

As he approached the mountain near the Falling Cloud Sect, he encountered disciples of the sect on patrol, and the disciples were overjoyed to see Han Li. They immediately greeted him and sent a sound transmission talisman to the two elders in the sect.

Soon, all the disciples of the Falling Cloud Sect came out of the sect to greet Han Li. Of course, Elder Zheng and Lyu Luo were at the forefront.

The two were also very happy to see Han Li.

“I knew that Fellow Disciple Han would definitely be alive. But if you were safe, why didn’t you come back a little sooner! Do you know how worried we were?”

After dismissing the disciples and entering the main hall of the Falling Cloud Sect with Han Li, Senior Brother Zheng said with an excited face.

“That’s right. We were very worried because you didn’t come back, Fellow Disciple.”

“You misunderstand. I was trapped in the spatial rift the whole time and just managed to get out.”

Han Li pouted and explained that it was unavoidable.

“Anyway, you’re back! As a senior brother, I received help from you, but I haven’t properly thanked you. If you hadn’t helped me, I would have already turned into bones.”

The old man got up from his chair and bowed deeply to Han Li.

“Senior Brother Zheng also took good care of me when I joined the Falling Cloud Sect. How could I ignore Senior Brother Zheng being in danger?”

“Such trivial matters can’t compare to the grace of saving my life. Ah, you must be worried about Fellow Disciple Nangong. Don’t worry, she’s still in the ice, but she’s safe.”

The old man read Han Li’s mind and told him the news in advance.

Han Li was greatly relieved by those words, but Lyu Luo looked at him closely and had an incredulous expression.

“Fellow Disciple! Amazingly, you’ve reached the mid-Nascent Soul stage in the meantime! This can’t be, did you perhaps encounter some fortuitous encounter in Chuma Gul?”