Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 757

“Whether there are giants in the valley or not, with Senior Huang Liang here, what is there to fear!”

A traveling monk flattered Huang Liang Young Lord with a sly tone.

“That’s not something we can know for sure. It’s said that the ancient giant race possessed immense power, enough to pluck mountains and throw them at the sun. How could a mere Nascent Soul cultivator like me possibly contend with them? However, the possibility of such giants existing within the Chaos Valley is low. If such beings were present, they would have long since slaughtered all the humans and demon races who entered the Sunset Land. Even ancient beasts wouldn’t think of settling here. If they had, would the Sunset Land have remained so peaceful until today?”

Huang Liang Divine Lord spoke with a calm smile, and the Nascent Soul cultivators, including Lord Nam, nodded in agreement. After that, they didn’t talk any further and flew directly into the Chaos Valley.

Soon, they turned into black dots and disappeared into the horizon. However, a moment later, a white light flashed on the surface of the prairie, and a figure slowly rose.

It was the young demon race boy.

He sneered as he looked in the direction where Huang Liang Young Lord and the others had disappeared. Beside him, Huan Yan’er sat quietly on his shoulder, lightly flapping her wings.

The boy stared ahead for a while before his body blurred again, and his figure sank below the ground.

* * *

Han Li let out a shout and pierced the heart of a winged wolf with his long spear.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

At that moment, the sound of air being torn apart echoed in the sky, and dozens of dense wind blades filled the air. Above them floated seven or eight winged wolf demon beasts.

However, Han Li ignored the wind blades and threw the long spear, which was glowing with spirit stones.

The long spear, enhanced by Han Li’s superhuman strength and the power of the spirit artifact [a magical item], turned black and flew unhindered.

Like a flash of lightning, it pierced through the body of a winged wolf.

At the same time, as he pointed at the spear below, the spirit artifact changed direction and rushed towards another wolf.

The wolf then spat out blades one after another, but they couldn’t stop the spear’s movement at all, and it fell with a miserable scream.

At that moment, numerous falling blades were about to reach Han Li. However, he didn’t even blink and clashed with the wind blades, his body glowing gold.

His blue robe was once again tattered, but Han Li’s body was unharmed. Han Li then manipulated the long spear again and cleanly eliminated the remaining wolves.

Wooong-

Finally, as he gestured, the long spear resonated and returned to Han Li’s hand. Looking at the bottom of the spear, the blue spirit stones were already dull.

Han Li sighed and struck the end of the spear with one hand.

Thud!

The spirit stones fell out and rolled on the ground. Han Li immediately took out new blue spirit stones from his storage pouch, inserted them, and retrieved the spear.

He headed towards the fallen wolves but suddenly changed direction and walked towards a huge tree next to them.

Underneath it, a strange spirit herb was shining, enveloped in a milky aura, emitting a faint fragrance.

“As expected, the Spirit World is different. To think that the Taiyi Silver Essence Mushroom, which was only a legend in the Mortal World, exists here. It’s said that consuming this can cause silver scales to grow on the body, making it impervious to swords and blades. No wonder these demon beasts were so desperate to get it. However, it’s far inferior to the Vajra Art [a powerful body refinement technique], so it’s not necessary for me, but if I sell it to the Body Refinement cultivators in the Middle Realm, they’d go crazy for it.”

Han Li flipped his palm and took out a jade shovel made of cyan jade, dug deep into the ground, and carefully placed it in a jade box.

After entering the Sunset Land, Han Li had obtained quite a few spirit herbs and materials that had long been extinct in the Mortal World. However, unfortunately, most of them were not of great help to his cultivation level.

Come to think of it, if there were really items that could help Nascent Soul cultivators, they wouldn’t have remained until now.

Moreover, some of the spirit herbs in the Sunset Land were extremely rare and grew in very hidden places, making them harder to find than a needle in a haystack.

That’s why Nascent Soul cultivators rarely appeared in the Sunset Land, and at most, only level 8 Transformation Stage demon beasts or Nascent Soul cultivators of the human race came and went.

If one were to leave the Three Territories and Seven Demon Lands and enter the endless Great Wilderness World, that is where true heavenly spirit herbs and treasures would be abundant.

There were so many kinds that it was difficult to recognize even one in ten thousand, and there were even spirit herbs that could give mortals spirit roots or allow cultivators of the lower realms to reach the heavens in a single day.

However, no matter how tempting it was, he couldn’t even think of going there unless he was at least a Nascent Soul cultivator.

In the Great Wilderness World, there were beings close to the Transformation Stage or Void Refinement Stage, as well as mysterious natural disasters waiting.

Becoming a Nascent Soul cultivator was the most basic qualification to enter the Great Wilderness World.

Also, whether one could find a satisfactory spirit herb there depended on their luck and ability.

The problem was that once one reached the Nascent Soul stage, the speed of cultivation slowed down tremendously with normal cultivation methods.

If one couldn’t go out and find useful spirit herbs or treasures, they would either remain at that level until they died of old age or be miserably killed by the periodic heavenly tribulations [trials of cultivation].

For this reason, countless high-level beings of the human and demon races left the Three Territories and Seven Demon Lands every year and entered the Great Wilderness World.

Whether they found what they needed was unknown, but less than a third of them returned alive.

However, there was no other way for both the human and demon races to increase their top-tier beings.

He was very interested in the Great Wilderness World, and if his cultivation had been complete, he would have already gone there once.

Han Li stretched and was about to leave the place. But then, he heard a rustling sound from a nearby bush, and a yellow shadow flashed.

About a dozen feet away, something small and cute appeared.

“That is!”

Han Li, who was momentarily surprised, recognized the yellow shadow and was filled with a mix of surprise and joy. Unexpectedly, the small beast that had given him enlightenment had appeared.

He didn’t know why it had suddenly appeared here, but seeing its urgent demeanor and disheveled fur, it seemed to be in a difficult situation.

The small beast also saw Han Li and stopped moving as if it recognized him. But soon, it shot out like an arrow and disappeared elsewhere.

However, there was no way Han Li would let the beast he had struggled to meet again go so easily. Without hesitation, he immediately flicked his sleeve and sent out a silver rope, which moved like a snake, trying to ensnare the small beast.

The beast was furious at the sight of it, but it had no choice but to shake its body in the air and turn into an illusion.

Thus, it avoided the silver rope, but while the small beast was hesitating, a white light suddenly flashed in the nearby air, and a small sword flew in.

The flying sword soon turned into a white beam of light, blocking the small beast’s path, and emitted a bright light. Then, surprisingly, it transformed into a small person, a few inches tall, wearing a white robe.

What was even stranger was that when the small beast saw the small person, it jumped and twisted its body, landing on the ground and bristling all over.

“A Spirit Race!”

Han Li also shouted in surprise when he saw the small person. And then, as if he had an idea, he immediately turned and retreated.

Han Li, who had already spent decades in the Spirit World, knew that there was a race hostile to them near the human race.

The Spirit Race that could take human form were already beings called Spirit Generals within the Spirit Race, and they were beings with a status comparable to that of a human Nascent Soul cultivator.

If he had magic power, he would have calmly made a decision based on the situation, but now, the priority was to retreat as far as possible.

The white small person’s gaze flew towards Han Li’s actions, and a consciousness swept over him. Knowing that the opponent was a human Body Refinement cultivator, the small person sneered and flicked his finger at Han Li.

Puff! Puff, puff!

Five thin strands of white silk shot out, flashing and disappearing.

‘Sword Silk!’

Han Li realized the identity of the thin silk and took out the pitch-black long spear from behind, swinging it with all his might.

Whoosh.

A black light exploded, blocking his path, and the five strands of sword silk appeared strangely, colliding with the black light.

The black light collided fiercely with the sword silk, and as a white light flashed, the black light was torn to shreds. The long spear was cut off powerlessly, as if it were made of mud.

However, without stopping there, the five strands of sword silk continued their momentum and flew towards Han Li.

‘This is bad!’

Han Li shook one hand, and the spear, which was only half left, extended out in a black light. And as he shouted, a gray armor flashed, scattering into a gray mist to meet the sword silk.

He clenched his two fists, which were emitting golden light, and unleashed the Seven Star Vajra Art to its extreme.

Swish! Swish!

Han Li’s fists became blurry, and he sent out golden fist winds at an unfathomable speed. However, the half-spear, as soon as it touched the thin silk, flashed a white light and scattered into a dozen pieces.

Immediately, the thin silk cut through the mist, and two streams of golden fist wind also disappeared into the mist at the same time.

Clang! Clang!

Metallic friction sounds erupted from within the gray mist. The gray mist seemed to scatter, but then it swelled again, holding the five strands of sword silk in place.

Taking the opportunity, Han Li moved quietly and retreated about twenty feet away, then kicked off into the air and disappeared into the bushes.

It was only then that the gray mist exploded. And it turned into unknown shell fragments the size of fingernails, flying in all directions.

The small person floating in the air was momentarily flustered, but soon his face turned ferocious.

The small beast, who had been watching this, rolled its eyes, and its figure became blurry, turning into dozens of illusions and jumping out in all directions.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

The small person, not having time to pay attention to Han Li, turned around in a rage. Then, countless white sword energies shot out, chasing after the beast’s illusions that had scattered in various directions.

A chillingly cold aura spread out low.

As a result, only one of the small beast’s illusions twisted its body strangely to avoid the sword energies, and the rest were all cut off.

The small person seemed to want to capture the small beast alive, so he gestured, scattering the remaining sword energies, and then transformed directly into a silver beam of light and shot out.

The small beast, having been severely injured by this Spirit Race, didn’t even look back and turned into a yellow shadow, running like crazy.

Its speed was twice as fast as Han Li’s when he was running away.

However, the white small person was not to be trifled with either, and he transformed into a small sword, scattering beams of light and chasing after it at a similar speed.

The chase between the beast and the sword unfolded and disappeared from Han Li’s sight. And not long after, a figure faintly appeared behind a nearby giant tree.

It was Han Li.

He thought that no matter how great his Swift Shadow Step was, it would be difficult to escape the pursuit of the Spirit Race at his speed, so he had quietly hidden nearby using a trick he had learned in the Mortal World. He had judged that if the small beast ran away, the Spirit Race would chase after it.

As he had predicted, the Spirit Race did not dwell on the human Body Refinement cultivator and chased after the small beast.

Han Li looked in the direction where the small sword had flown, his face darkening.

‘Suddenly, a Spirit Race appeared… What is going on?’

An uneasy feeling crept in.

Han Li moved his figure and returned to the place where he had fought with the opponent. Seeing the spirit artifact fragments scattered on the ground, he felt a pang of pain. Both spirit artifacts were made with great effort.

‘If I hadn’t met a Spirit General-level Spirit Race, they wouldn’t have been so easily broken.’

But it was also fortunate that he had managed to survive with just two spirit artifacts. Han Li was about to disappear in the opposite direction from where the small beast and the sword had disappeared before he appeared again.

But then, a strange man’s voice was heard from above his head.

“Oh, to survive right under Hwaggwang’s nose. You’re no ordinary Body Refinement cultivator, are you?”

“……!”

As soon as he heard the voice, Han Li’s face turned pale, and he stopped moving. Then, a light of spiritual energy flashed in the air, and three small people appeared.

Among them, the eyes of the small person wearing a dark blue robe were the sharpest.

He was smiling on the surface, but his face and gaze were cold.

He was standing on a blood-colored mist beneath his feet, and beside him stood a sturdy young man with a bright red light and a girl wrapped in a milky white mist.