Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 1004

Han Li’s group was taken aback by the sheer number of Dark Beasts they encountered, but they didn’t make any rash moves.

Once a fight started, even if they won, they would have to endure injuries or the depletion of their vital energy, which would greatly disrupt their future plans. If they had no energy left, how would they find the ruins and break through the powerful restrictions there?

The Dark Beast horde in front of them had also encountered Han Li’s group by chance, but they seemed to have heard about the other groups being defeated. They glared menacingly but didn’t rush in first.

It seemed they were stalling for time, waiting for other Dark Beast groups to arrive. At that moment, Liu Shui’er’s telepathic message reached Han Li and Shi Kun’s ears.

“We can get out of the Dark Beast Forest if we go a little further. Instead of recklessly fighting so many Dark Beasts, how about we scatter and escape, then meet up outside?”

“I’m fine with that. I’ll follow your lead, Senior.”

Shi Kun, who seemed to have been thinking the same thing, immediately agreed, and Han Li also nodded silently, his eyes gleaming.

Krrreung!

The Dark Beast horde seemed to have noticed their intentions, as the three-eyed Dark Beast, seemingly the leader, let out a loud roar first. At the same time, the other Dark Beasts opened their mouths and shot out dozens of black light pillars, and they swung their front paws, sending out sharp claw lights.

The Dark Beasts’ coordinated attacks were fierce, but having fought many Dark Beasts before, they were familiar with their attack patterns. They simultaneously unleashed their spiritual energy and scattered, creating a blinding light.

Han Li summoned his crystal wings, transforming into a cyan-white streak, and dodged the incoming light pillars and claw lights, disappearing silently.

Whoosh!

Liu Shui’er spat out a navy-blue bead from her mouth, summoning a jade mouse. The bead and the jade mouse emitted light, enveloping her in navy-blue and white, and she shot out in a different direction from Han Li.

A black light pillar touched the light mass around her, but it became blurry as if melting into water, disappearing into the distance.

On the other hand, Shi Kun’s divine power was violent.

Bang!

He snorted and released spiritual energy from his armor, clapping his hands in front of his chest to unleash a yellow light. The yellow light coalesced into a strange light barrier that enveloped his body, and the magic characters that appeared on the surface deflected all the incoming attacks.

In that gap, Shi Kun burrowed deep into the ground and moved away at an incredible speed.

Of course, the Dark Beast horde wouldn’t just stand by and watch them escape. Divided into three groups, with the three-eyed Dark Beasts at the center, they chased after the energy trails left by Han Li’s group.

However, Han Li’s speed was so great that he shook off the Dark Beast horde in less than an hour.

As he openly fled at full speed, other Dark Beasts jumped out of the Dark Beast Forest and attacked him, but dozens of blue flying swords poured out of his sleeves like a rainstorm, slaughtering the Dark Beasts.

The powerful force of the Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords [a set of powerful flying swords] only left the Dark Beasts in pieces. A couple of them managed to swing their claws, but the blue flying swords pierced through their claws as if they were formless, dealing with the Dark Beasts in one blow.

Han Li, not sparing his magic power, managed to escape the Dark Beast Forest in half a day. Now, instead of a dense jungle, a blue meadow stretched out before him, and the thick scent of grass filled the air.

Han Li didn’t slow down, flashing his cyan-white streak, and flew for a while longer before stopping on a small hill. He activated his Bright Sight Spirit Eyes [a technique to enhance vision], carefully checking for any dangers, and then sighed and released his consciousness again to scan the surroundings.

Han Li retracted his wings and narrowed his eyes, watching the Dark Beast Forest. It was unlikely that the Dark Beasts would chase him this far, but if they dared to do so, he wouldn’t let them off easily.

He stood with his hands behind his back, floating in the air above the hill, and then turned his gaze away from the Dark Beast Forest, taking out a blood-red formation disc. His expression darkened as he examined the disc.

“They’re not that far away, yet they haven’t come to find me… Has something happened?”

Han Li put away the blood-red formation disc and gazed meaningfully in one direction. He shot out in the direction the disc was pointing, emitting a blue light. It wasn’t as fast as when he transformed into a cyan-white streak, but it was still considerable speed.

Not long after, his eyes flickered with a navy-blue light as he crossed the meadow.

‘Those are!’

In front of him, a group of people were facing off against each other. On one side were Shi Kun and Liu Shui’er, and on the other side were a man with a thick beard and a huge trident on his back, and a woman wearing green leather clothes.

Liu Shui’er looked strangely tense as she watched them, and Shi Kun was grinning coldly, clenching his fists as if he couldn’t wait to fight.

However, the strangest thing was that both the man and woman’s lower bodies were covered in white energy, and the sound of clear water flowing could be heard from within.

‘Sea King Clan!’

Han Li recognized their identities at a glance. The Sea King Clan was far from the Heavenly Cloud, but everyone knew that they were allied with the Horned Tooth Clan.

That was why there was such tension between the Sea King Clan man and woman and them. When they saw Han Li flying in, the expressions of both sides changed noticeably.

Liu Shui’er’s eyes sparkled, and her expression improved, while Shi Kun grinned and greeted him. However, the Sea King Clan man and woman scanned him up and down with cold gazes.

“Are you also a Heavenly Cloud cultivator?”

“For now, you can say that. Surely you weren’t planning to attack my companions?” Han Li asked indifferently as the Sea King Clan man shouted loudly.

“If I had intended to do anything to them, would they still be standing here unharmed?”

“I wonder what makes you so arrogant! I’ve always been curious about the divine powers of the Sea King Clan, known as one of the three great water clans, so this is perfect.”

At those words, Shi Kun grinned and stepped forward.

At Shi Kun’s words, the Sea King Clan man revealed his killing intent and grabbed his trident.

“Brother!”

“Wait a moment, Brother Shi!” The Sea King Clan woman and Liu Shui’er said in unison. Then, the woman’s telepathic message reached the Sea King Clan man’s ears.

“Brother, we must not forget our purpose. It’s time to focus on our mission, not fight with other cultivators!”

“If I release the Nine-Eyed Sacred Whale, these three are nothing!” The Sea King Clan man stopped moving for now and replied telepathically, moving his lips. He didn’t care about the other cultivators like Shi Kun.

“Even though the Nine-Eyed Sacred Whale has started to follow me, it’s best not to release it frequently unless absolutely necessary. If you summon it carelessly and offend its mood, how can I, with my weak royal bloodline, handle it? Besides, our clan is only allied with the Horned Tooth Clan, and we have no direct grudge against the Heavenly Cloud. Don’t ruin our mission over such a matter.”

While the Sea King Clan woman was calmly persuading the man, Liu Shui’er’s telepathic message reached Shi Kun’s ears.

“Brother Shi, you’ve already used a lot of your magic power escaping the Dark Beast Forest, haven’t you? Those Sea King Clan man and woman seem to have extraordinary cultivation. Even if Brother Han helps, we won’t be able to avoid damage if we fight them now. We haven’t even found the ruins or broken the restrictions yet, so how about we restrain ourselves?”

“If we back down, do you think they’ll let us go easily?” Shi Kun’s expression was displeased.

“Leave that to me. I’ll talk to them. If they don’t cooperate, we can just cooperate with Brother Han and deal with them.” Liu Shui’er’s voice turned cold. She said a few words to Han Li, and seeing him nod slowly, her expression improved.

“I believe there has been no conflict between our Heavenly Cloud Thirteen Clans and the Sea King Clan. There’s no reason for us to fight each other to the death. How about we just go our separate ways?”

“You’re right. We’re not from the Horned Tooth Clan either. Then, as the cultivator suggests, we’ll be on our way.” As soon as Liu Shui’er finished speaking, the Sea King Clan woman smiled brightly and expressed her agreement.

She fiercely raised her white energy, enveloping the man as well. The Sea King Clan man hesitated but didn’t refuse, combining his light with hers and transforming into a white light mass before flying away.

‘…!’

Han Li watched them disappear and unconsciously twitched his eyebrows. The two different energies he felt from the Sea King Clan woman made him uneasy.

He guessed that the woman had either mastered a special divine power or possessed a great treasure. Once they disappeared, Han Li’s group also set their direction and flew off.

* * *

The Sea King Clan siblings, having flown for a while, were talking inside the white light mass.

“What? You said that the seventh-level cultivator from the Upper Clan was much more dangerous than the other cultivators?”

“Yes, that’s why I insisted on stopping the fight.” The Sea King Clan woman swept back her black hair, certain of her words.

“There must be a reason if you say so.”

“You know about the Heavenly Treasure [a powerful artifact] I made using the Heavenly Treasure, right? It reacted earlier.”

“The Heavenly Treasure reacted! Does that mean that guy also has a Heavenly Treasure?” The man’s body shook as if he was about to jump out of the white light mass.

“It could be, or it could not be. The Heavenly Treasure reacted unusually violently.”

“Then does that mean he has a Heavenly Treasure? That’s absurd. How could a seventh-level cultivator from the Upper Clan have a Heavenly Treasure! Haha, it seems your intuition is wrong this time.”

The man laughed as if he had heard a funny story. The two, being from the royal lineage of the Sea King Clan, knew a little about the power of Heavenly Treasures.

“I might have misread it because I’m not yet used to controlling it. After all, the elders gave me a special Heavenly Treasure for exploration for this mission. However, if there’s even a small chance that the opponent really has a Heavenly Treasure, have you thought about what would have happened to us if we had started a fight?”

“I know that the power of a Heavenly Treasure and a top-grade Heavenly Treasure are worlds apart. Even with the help of the Nine-Eyed Sacred Whale, we would have been dead.” The man smiled bitterly at the woman’s sigh.

“No, that’s not certain. Just because someone has a Heavenly Treasure doesn’t mean they can control it. How could a mere seventh-level cultivator from the Upper Clan properly activate a Heavenly Treasure? Even if they have mastered special techniques and secret arts to overcome the limits of their cultivation, they would only be able to use a small fraction of its power.

Also, I think it’s more likely that the opponent has a top-grade Heavenly Treasure rather than a Heavenly Treasure. Even so, fighting them would not have been a wise decision.”

“Yes, it’s more likely that he has a top-grade Heavenly Treasure!”

“Either way, if they’re not after the same thing as us, we probably won’t meet again. Now, let’s not think about anything else and focus on successfully completing our mission and earning great merit. We’ll be greatly rewarded when we return! We’re about to reap the benefits of the cultivators who have worked hard to enter the Gwanghan Realm [a specific realm] so far.”

“Haha, you’re right. By the way, I’m still concerned about the movements of the Horned Tooth Clan I saw by chance a few days ago. They were suspiciously gathering somewhere, and it was similar to the direction those Heavenly Cloud people were originally heading, wasn’t it? Could they all be gathering in one place?” The Sea King Clan man’s expression became strange.

“Who knows? The probability of two groups meeting in this vast Gwanghan Realm is really low, but… if we do encounter them, I don’t think we’ll be able to resolve it as peacefully as we did today. If we can see such a good show, we might be able to see what treasure that guy is hiding.”

The woman’s lips curled up.

“We have our own things to do, so we can’t go watch. Let’s go! We should be able to arrive in about a month.” The man didn’t wait for the woman’s reply and increased his speed. The white light mass surrounding them quickly disappeared into the distance.