Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 1024

At that moment, Han Li was recalling the moment he had transformed into a giant ape and thrown a punch. When he had transformed into the giant ape, his strength had increased so much that he felt like he could even fight a Combined Body cultivator. Fortunately, he had succeeded in strengthening his resolve after training his mind in the illusion. Because of that, his mind hadn’t been greatly shaken despite the sudden increase in his cultivation.

‘But why did the bell break?’

Han Li felt a sense of regret as the white bell disappeared before his eyes. If he had obtained it, it would have been a great help in the future. However, it was already water under the bridge.

Han Li collected the treasures left behind by the golden-horned youth and transformed into a streak of blue light, flying away.

* * *

Some time later, he was pondering his next steps within the escape light. He had helped Liu Shui’er and Shi Kun find the items that Cai Liuying and Dan Tianren wanted, but he had not yet obtained the materials promised to the Stone Cocoon Tribe.

Dan Tianren had said that he didn’t need to worry too much as long as he handled his own affairs properly, but Han Li didn’t want to cause any unnecessary trouble. The Stone Cocoon Tribe could use this as an excuse to oppose his use of the super-large teleportation array.

He estimated the distance to the location where the ore was buried and the remaining time, and decided to give it a try. Of course, recovering his magic power was the first priority. In this vast and dangerous Guanghan Realm, he shouldn’t be careless, no matter how much his cultivation had increased.

Han Li changed direction and appeared above a small forest after half a day.

He activated his Brightsight Spirit Eyes, scanned the forest once, and found a thick, towering tree that seemed to pierce the sky. He went to the root of the tree, entering a large cave formed at the base.

Han Li released several formation flags to cover the entrance of the cave and deployed a simple concealment barrier. Then, he summoned the Scaled Beast from his sleeve. It had just woken up after swallowing several cores of the Three-Eyed Rock Beast and sleeping in the spirit beast ring.

After refining the cores, black patterns had appeared on the Scaled Beast’s body, and it was emitting a unique aura, one that even made Han Li feel threatened.

Although its appearance hadn’t changed much, if it was emitting an aura that made him feel threatened, then something was definitely up. Han Li ordered the Scaled Beast to stand guard with his consciousness and sat cross-legged, closing his eyes.

He had used up all of his magic power fighting with Kakchii, so it took him a week inside the cave to recover about 90% of it. Initially, he had planned to set off after recovering his magic power to the maximum, but on the eighth day, he heard the Scaled Beast’s low cry in his ear.

At that sound, Han Li opened his eyes and sensed faint explosions and chaotic spiritual energy fluctuations coming from afar. It sounded like someone was fighting above.

Han Li carefully spread his consciousness, scanned the area around the giant tree, and his expression turned strange. Two beasts of different sizes were chasing each other and fighting in the sky above the forest where he was staying.

The one being chased was the Golden-Fur Black-Eyed Ape King. It was the same Ape King that had been chased away by its own kind in the Ape Forest. The Ape King’s fur was now burnt in several places, and even its long tail was cut in half.

Even so, its fierce beastly nature remained, and as it fled, it unleashed golden wind blades behind it.

The beast behind it effortlessly deflected the golden wind blades, displaying incredible defensive divine abilities. The monster, ten times the size of the Ape King, had a pig’s head and a snake’s body.

The aura emitted by the monster surpassed that of the golden Ape King. There was a reason why the Ape King didn’t even think about fighting back and just ran away. Han Li collected the Scaled Beast and waited, holding his breath. After a while, the two-headed beasts left the forest, disappearing from sight.

It was strange, but there was no reason for him to fear the two monsters with his cultivation. He had only concealed his aura and avoided them to prevent any unnecessary trouble.

The sudden appearance of the two monsters made him no longer want to stay here. The strong aura left behind by the monsters could attract other ferocious beasts from the vicinity.

Fortunately, the direction the monsters had gone was different from the direction he was heading, so there was no need to worry about encountering them.

Han Li removed the restriction covering the cave entrance and transformed into a streak of blue light, flying up and hurrying on his way. As he went, he held top-grade spirit stones in both hands, focusing on replenishing his remaining magic power.

If time passed like this, his magic power would be fully restored without him having to sit down and rest.

After flying day and night, a month quickly passed. Apart from a few monsters he encountered along the way, nothing blocked his path. He didn’t even encounter any other groups of different races.

Han Li discovered a vast lake stretching endlessly in the distance and smiled. The calm lake, as wide as a blue sea, and the clear sky created a beautiful scene.

Looking at the map, he realized that his destination was not far away. He entered the airspace above the lake and increased his speed. However, after a few hours, Han Li’s expression changed.

The lake stretched endlessly, and no matter how fast he flew, he couldn’t escape it. If he didn’t have the map, he would have been wandering aimlessly in this nameless lake. And what was strange was that it was difficult to encounter any beasts in the lake, no matter how far he went.

The few low-level monsters that he did see were using stealth techniques and hiding at the bottom of the lake. This made Han Li’s mind complicated.

Clearly, there was a powerful ferocious beast living in the lake, which was why other monsters couldn’t withstand it and had left. The Stone Cocoon Tribe had assured him that this place was safe and that no ancient ferocious beasts lived here, but that was during the last opening [referring to the opening of the Guanghan Realm].

After a long time, a powerful ferocious beast might have taken over the area. If that was the case, it wasn’t right to take a big risk for the materials requested by the Stone Cocoon Tribe.

In any case, they had said that they would take care of the super-large teleportation array even if he didn’t bring the materials, so they wouldn’t lie about such a trivial matter.

However, he didn’t want to just turn back after coming all this way, and he also wanted to obtain the materials in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

After flying a little further, he saw an island in the distance. Han Li stopped his escape light upon discovering a large island in the lake and quietly observed it.

The island, with two large and small mountain peaks, had a slightly peculiar environment. The high mountain was gray, with not a single blade of grass growing on it, while the low mountain was lush with grass and trees.

“That’s the place!”

Han Li’s gaze didn’t leave the gray mountain peak. The appearance of the island was exactly as described on the map. The rare materials requested by the Stone Cocoon Tribe were a type of special ore that could be obtained from the high mountain peak. It was extremely rare as it was only produced in the Guanghan Realm.

Han Li stared ahead and suddenly released a blue flying sword. Then, with a ‘pop!’ the lake exploded, and a pillar of water shot up.

As the blue light split the water pillar in two, a strange ‘squawk!’ was heard. A bizarre fish that had been hiding in the water pillar was cut in half by the sword energy, spilling green blood.

The turquoise fish with a snake’s head had wings on its back and very small feet under its belly.

‘What was that again?’

He remembered seeing that appearance somewhere, but he couldn’t recall it at the moment. But then, a surprising thing happened. As soon as the dead strange fish’s corpse fell into the lake, the sound of squawking filled the surroundings.

And countless pillars of water began to rise on the surface of the lake. As the water pillars scattered, strange fish of various sizes floated up, staring at Han Li.

The fish looked exactly like the dead strange fish, but their scales had colorful patterns that emitted a beautiful light.

“Rainbow Flying Fish.”

Only then did the name of the strange fish come to mind. He had seen this fish in a very old scripture when he was in the Heavenly Peng Clan’s city.

The Rainbow Flying Fish had a beautiful name and appearance, but it was said to be a love-hate existence for the ancient alien races that lived in the ocean.

The inner core of the strange fish was the main ingredient for the rare ancient elixir, the Seven-Colored Pill. The Seven-Colored Pill was especially effective for raising ancient spirit insects. Regular consumption promoted growth, and after reaching adulthood, it had a certain probability of causing mutations or increasing cultivation.

Nevertheless, the reason why people shuddered at it was because the strange fish contained extreme poison, and once encountered, their numbers ranged from a few thousand to as many as tens of thousands.

The Rainbow Flying Fish had become extinct in ancient times, so its existence was only recorded in a very few scriptures.

Han Li never dreamed that he would encounter a swarm of Rainbow Flying Fish in the Guanghan Realm. Now he knew for sure why there were no high-level monsters with spirituality in this vast lake.

They had all been eaten by the swarms of extremely poisonous Rainbow Flying Fish or had fled before that.

The rarity of the Rainbow Flying Fish definitely surpassed its terror. Otherwise, the experts of the Spirit Realm would have found and killed all of them.

Han Li was also skeptical about the toxicity of the Rainbow Flying Fish described in the scriptures.

He created a light barrier with gray energy to block the front and released Five-Colored Glacial Flames. And without hesitation, he flicked his sleeve, releasing dozens of blue flying swords. The flying swords trembled and multiplied into hundreds of sword lights. The sword lights, tinged with blue, spread everywhere.

A Rainbow Flying Fish saw this and cried out sharply. Then, all the Rainbow Flying Fish rushed towards Han Li.

“Cut them down.”

Han Li formed a hand seal and shouted grimly. At his command, hundreds of sword lights appeared from all directions, hacking the swarm of fish to pieces. Wherever the sword light passed, the Rainbow Flying Fish were cut in half, and their corpses and green blood fell down.

In the blink of an eye, over a thousand Rainbow Flying Fish were killed, and the stench of blood filled the air!

However, despite the fierce attacks of the Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords, the Rainbow Flying Fish still rushed in madly. Even a hundred sword lights couldn’t stop them all.

Some of the Rainbow Flying Fish approached Han Li, screaming and spitting green liquid. Han Li’s expression changed, and he changed the shape of his hand seal.

The hundreds of sword lights gathered together, forming a giant blue lotus and slowly rotating. The Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords completely covered Han Li, entering a defensive stance.

If he could withstand the Rainbow Flying Fish’s poison attacks, it wouldn’t be difficult to annihilate the strange fish. He was a little uneasy about whether he could really block the poison attacks that were described as extremely toxic in the scriptures, but he couldn’t back down without trying.

If the Seven-Colored Pill was as miraculous as it was said to be, he could give it to the Silver Devouring Insects to help them reach a higher realm. That alone was worth taking a risk.

At that moment, the giant blue lotus slowly bloomed, and the petals formed layers of light barriers.

Puff puff puff!

Whenever the green liquids touched the lotus petals, surprisingly, blue smoke rose, and large and small holes were pierced. The Rainbow Flying Fish’s poison was even melting the light barrier formed by the Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords.

Han Li was surprised, but he wasn’t afraid. The Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords could quickly return to their original state even if they were damaged to some extent.

However, his eyes changed when he saw the green liquid melting the Five-Colored Glacial Flames behind it. He changed the shape of his hand seal again, and the Five-Colored Glacial Flames quickly rotated, turning into a five-colored whirlwind.

A significant number of green liquids were deflected by the whirlwind. However, the number of Rainbow Flying Fish was too large, and the poison liquid kept flying in. Even the Five-Colored Glacial Flames, which had been pushed to their limit, didn’t last long, and the green liquid even reached the last protective barrier, the gray light barrier.

Tsutsutsut!

A strange sound echoed the moment the green liquid touched it. Han Li raised his eyebrows and spat out a fist-sized silver flame from his mouth. The silver flame blazed up, transforming into a giant firebird.

“Go.”

The silver firebird spread its wings and surged in the direction he pointed. Then, the green liquid turned into steam and scattered as if it had met its natural enemy. Han Li felt good about this and tried to use the silver firebird to wipe out the Rainbow Flying Fish.

However, when some of the Rainbow Flying Fish made a strange cry, they began to spew green liquid in one place. The green liquids condensed in the air, turning into a giant green serpent that writhed.