Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 1003

The four-headed beast unleashed silver rays from its third eyes, forcing Liu Shui’er into a desperate dance of evasion, deploying her treasured divine abilities and artifacts without reservation.

Besides the silver shuttle, she also brandished a white flag and a golden drum.

The white flag morphed into an unpredictable white aura, while the small golden drum pulsed with golden sound waves. Liu Shui’er, having conjured a thousand-handed Dharma Image [a manifestation of a deity with many arms] behind her, also spat out lotus flowers from her mouth. These beautiful lotus flowers seemed to possess immense power.

The silver rays from the Dark Beasts detonated against the spinning ice lotuses. However, each lotus release visibly drained her magical power, her face paling with each bloom. After unleashing a hundred lotus flowers in rapid succession, her exhaustion was palpable.

Had Han Li not arrived, she would have fled the moment the four silver-eyed Dark Beasts merged. Seeing Han Li and Shi Kun flying towards her, she was overjoyed and shouted,

“The beast’s power is immense; we must quickly use the Combined Arts!”

At her words, Han Li paused but didn’t object, forming a hand seal to summon a gray aura. Shi Kun also hesitated briefly before letting out a low shout. His body was enveloped in gray, and gray threads burst from his fingertips.

Liu Shui’er formed a hand seal with both hands, dispersing the Dharma Image behind her, and then levitated a gray wheel.

The slowly rising gray wheel was somewhat indistinct, but it spun rapidly, emitting spell characters. Numerous spell characters shattered and scattered, then reformed into a single giant spell character.

A profound incantation echoed clearly from the woman’s mouth. The four-headed beast, sensing the shift in the situation, fired silver rays from all four of its third eyes.

As the rays converged into a single pillar of light aimed at Liu Shui’er, a dozen black shadow incarnations also targeted Han Li and Shi Kun. However, Han Li ignored the Dark Beast’s incarnations.

He chuckled, and silver flames erupted from his body, exploding into small silver sparks that fiercely burned the black net. The incarnations vanished into blue smoke without resistance.

The black pillar of light hurtling towards him was strangely deflected by the power of his crystal shield. Though not as swift as Han Li, Shi Kun also produced a red bronze mirror from his mouth and cleanly dealt with the black shadow incarnations.

Only Liu Shui’er’s expression hardened as she watched the silver pillar of light approach. She formed a unique hand seal and extended her hand towards the silver beam.

Woong!

The gray wheel behind her vibrated and stretched towards the silver pillar of light. The silver pillar collided head-on with the wheel.

Strangely, the silver pillar of light was absorbed into the wheel as if salt dissolving in water. Soon, a gray aura spread in front of the four-headed beast, and a giant spell character appeared, reflecting the absorbed silver pillar of light.

She had used a mysterious divine ability to redirect the opponent’s attack. However, this also consumed a great deal of magical power, turning her already pale face white.

The four-headed beast, stunned by the unexpected counterattack, immediately changed tactics and fired four more silver rays from its third eyes.

Kwaang!

The collision of the silver rays sent silver shockwaves rippling outwards, causing the space to vibrate and distort slightly. Liu Shui’er finally breathed a sigh of relief and flicked her ten fingers, throwing various magic seals into the wheel.

“Go!”

At her command, a gray pillar of light shot out from the spell character on the wheel. At that moment, Han Li and Shi Kun were also forming the same hand seals and activating their spells.

The gray pillar of light, gray aura, and gray threads converged as if teleporting. The three attacks flashed and merged into a giant ball of light. It was a dazzling sphere with spell characters writhing within the gray radiance.

Kukung.

The light ball, having reached its maximum size, eventually split into layers, releasing spell characters. Han Li, Shi Kun, and Liu Shui’er shifted their hand seals with practiced ease and chanted spells in unison.

A bizarre scene unfolded in the void.

The spell characters flowing from the light ball rained down on the four-headed beast. The deadly power of the densely falling spell characters was palpable.

Kuaaang!

As if sensing the danger, the four-headed beast roared and merged into an enormous head within the black light. Two horns sprouted on its head, and its fangs extended from its jaw, gleaming sharply. Even more astonishing, four silver demonic eyes appeared side by side on its forehead.

The beast scanned the spell characters in the void and released a silver aura from the demonic eyes on its forehead. The silver aura transformed into countless silver light orbs and soared high into the sky.

The beast took a deep breath and opened its mouth wide, spitting out a pitch-black light orb. The light orb, already huge, grew even larger and transformed into a pitch-black light barrier, protecting the beast. The clear light barrier, like a tangible shield, felt surreal.

Watching this from above, Han Li narrowed his eyes.

Kwarururung!

Just then, the silver light orbs and spell characters collided in mid-air, causing a massive explosion. The surrounding energy fluctuated, and a whirlwind arose, swallowing everything in its path.

Liu Shui’er and Shi Kun retreated, deploying defensive treasures to shield themselves. However, Han Li flapped his wings and vanished into cyan and white lightning, then reappeared next to the black barrier, surrounded by the same lightning.

The giant beast inside the black barrier was covered in black scales and had black whiskers below, resembling a True Spirit Qilin [a mythical creature]. It was a chilling sight.

‘What is this?’

He flinched inwardly but didn’t show it, summoning a three-headed, six-armed Dharma Image behind him, scattering golden light. The Dharma Image held golden blade fragments and swung them relentlessly towards the black barrier.

* * *

Far from Han Li’s group, in the Dark Beast Forest.

A golden shadow led a dozen three-eyed Dark Beasts, sprinting through the forest before stopping abruptly. The golden Dark Beast, turning its head to gaze in a certain direction, had a question in its pitch-black eyes.

Krrreung!

The Dark Beast King growled angrily at one of the three-eyed Dark Beasts following behind. At the sound, the three-eyed Dark Beast respectfully retreated as if answering, and disappeared into the darkness.

The Dark Beast King then turned its head and ran forward again. The goal it was pursuing was more important than its hostility towards the outsiders who had invaded the Dark Beast Forest.

Only the sound of rapid movement through the undergrowth echoed eerily now.

* * *

The four-headed beast lay cut in half before Han Li, and as the black light masses on its surface dissipated, even its corpse crumbled.

Fear was evident in the eyes of Liu Shui’er and Shi Kun, who stared at him with blank expressions.

Just moments ago, the four-headed beast’s silver aura and the Atomic Divine Light Combined Arts had collided, causing an unimaginable explosion. Han Li’s movements at that moment were so swift that they hadn’t even had time to grasp the situation properly.

The moment they saw a flash of gold, the four-headed beast was already defeated, and the light barrier surrounding it had been unable to stop the gold light at all. The four-headed beast had possessed an aura almost equivalent to the early Saint Realm, yet it had died in the blink of an eye.

Moreover, in the instant the gold light flashed brightly, Liu Shui’er and Shi Kun felt the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy being drawn towards the gold light.

With their cultivation, they had to form hand seals and chant spells for a long time to barely draw in the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, and sometimes they could even fail. It was not a phenomenon that could be easily triggered like this.

‘Could it be that this person’s divine abilities are already close to our masters’ level! Even so, isn’t this too bizarre!’

Liu Shui’er and Shi Kun’s gazes towards him wavered with complicated feelings, but Han Li pretended not to notice. He had used the Saintly Devil Dharma Image and wielded the blade fragments, a treasure of the Heavenly Dao [a concept referring to the natural order of the universe], then immediately retracted the Dharma Image, so there was no way Liu Shui’er and Shi Kun could have seen it.

The reason he had used the blade fragments this time, even at the cost of consuming the Dharma Image’s power, was to test the power of the newly refined Saintly Devil Dharma Image. The speed at which the Dharma Image activated the blade fragments was several times faster than before, and the power consumed was also reduced to one-third.

Of course, it was also because he had deliberately reduced the power of the blade fragments to avoid attracting attention, but it was a very satisfactory result.

It was possible because he had greatly recovered the Dharma Image, which had been greatly weakened by activating the Heavenly Dao Fruit in the Demonfall Mountain Range, through arduous training in Yun City.

Han Li swept the corpse, which was scattering into black light spots, with a gray aura from his pitch-black palm. Only four silver, shining orbs remained there.

They were the inner cores of the three-eyed Dark Beasts. Just as he was about to collect the inner cores, something in his sleeve showed a hot reaction.

‘Hmm…’

After thinking for a moment, Han Li shook his sleeve, emitting golden afterimages. The afterimages merged, and a Scaled Kirin with golden patterns appeared.

The Scaled Kirin had been cultivating in the Spirit Beast Ring since its evolution, and it had already reached the mid-Nascent Soul stage [a stage of cultivation]. It would soon be able to aim for the late-Nascent Soul stage.

Even so, it was not a significant force that was of great help to Han Li right now, so he had not had a reason to summon the Scaled Kirin all along.

The Scaled Kirin, having revealed itself, jumped up and swallowed all the Dark Beast inner cores, then returned to Han Li’s shoulder. It was very cute as it rubbed its fluffy head against Han Li’s neck.

Seeing this, Han Li took out three more identical orbs. Then, the Scaled Kirin’s eyes sparkled, and it rushed to swallow the inner cores, purring happily on Han Li’s palm.

Han Li smiled at the sight.

He didn’t know why the creature, which had no interest in the inner cores of ordinary Dark Beasts, wanted the inner cores of the silver-eyed Dark Beasts, but there was no harm in feeding it the inner cores of high-level demonic beasts. He silently sent a blue aura and returned the small beast to the Spirit Beast Ring.

He would gradually find out what effects the inner cores of the silver-eyed Dark Beasts would have over time. At that moment, Liu Shui’er and Shi Kun flew towards Han Li and stopped at a distance.

The woman smiled under her bamboo hat.

“We survived thanks to Brother Han. I never dreamed that the three-eyed Dark Beasts could even combine.”

“That’s right. Brother Han’s divine abilities were so amazing that I was sweating just watching. If I didn’t know that beings above the Saint Realm couldn’t enter this place, I would have suspected that a cultivator was hiding their cultivation!”

Shi Kun also shook his head and added.

“You flatter me. It was because the two of you distracted the Dark Beasts that I was able to deal with them easily. More importantly, there are still hordes of Dark Beasts left, so let’s move quickly.”

“You are right, Brother Han!”

At Han Li’s words, Liu Shui’er’s expression changed, and she agreed, and Shi Kun also nodded. They decided on a direction and immediately transformed into streaks of light, cutting through the void.

* * *

Five days later, Han Li was floating in the air in the middle of the jungle, forming a hand seal with one hand. Beside him, dozens of blue flying swords transformed into blue lotus flowers, engulfing a three-eyed Dark Beast.

As the blue lotus flowers flashed, the Dark Beast transformed into countless fragments and scattered. And behind him, Wawa was fanning a navy blue jade fan towards another three-eyed Dark Beast.

Whoosh.

The navy blue aura emitted from the jade fan wrapped around the Dark Beast and its shadow clones, turning them into a giant navy blue ice block.

And a little further away, Liu Shui’er and Shi Kun were also engaged in combat with the Dark Beasts, unleashing bursts of spiritual energy and explosions. It had already been the seventh attack since they had left the center of the Dark Beast Forest.

Each time, there were no more than ten Dark Beasts, and they were led by three-eyed Dark Beasts, not the previous silver-eyed Dark Beasts, so they were fortunate that they could not combine. Han Li’s group cleanly killed the attacking Dark Beast groups, but they inevitably wasted time.

However, suddenly, a dozen Dark Beasts swarmed in, and they were caught and could no longer escape.

At Han Li’s gesture, the blue lotus flowers transformed into dozens of blue threads, turning the Dark Beast that had turned into an ice block into a riddled mess.

Swish swish swish!

* * *

Ten days later, Han Li’s group was floating on the outskirts of the Dark Beast Forest, not moving. This was because a group of thirty Dark Beasts made up of three-eyed Dark Beasts was blocking their path.

Liu Shui’er and Shi Kun’s expressions darkened, and Han Li also slightly narrowed his brows.