Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 151

Although surprised that something not human had attacked her like a person, she knew that she couldn’t escape alive without destroying them. Clenching her teeth, she took out a dark blue dagger that shone brilliantly from her interspatial pouch [a magical storage space].

This was an upper-grade magical artifact that she had barely managed to exchange for her entire fortune, and it was something she usually didn’t use because it was too precious. But now, the situation was urgent, and she couldn’t afford to be picky.

“Go!”

The dagger in her hand turned dark blue and flew towards the puppet that was approaching. The dark blue light aimed for the puppet’s head in an instant.

The woman expected a collision, but the puppet pulled out its long blade with lightning speed and deflected the dagger.

Then, as if nothing had happened, it charged towards her. Greatly shocked, she hurriedly flicked her fingers, and the deflected dagger changed direction and flew towards the puppet’s back.

Then, something even more surprising happened. As if it had eyes on the back of its head, the puppet deflected this attack as well. The woman couldn’t help but be flustered.

She hadn’t even figured out how to stop it yet when a sharp sound of air being torn echoed, and an arrow shot by the archer puppet came flying. Now out of options, the masked woman tried to dodge the arrow to one side.

However, the red light changed direction as if it had eyes and chased after her, and without realizing it, the woman kept retreating. At this time, the puppet with the long blade completely closed the distance and attacked her barrier without hesitation. As these close-range and long-range attacks repeated, the woman, who already had low magical power, had no choice but to retreat repeatedly, unable to find a chance to escape.

As she barely managed to block their attacks with her dagger and was sweating, the soldier puppets suddenly retreated and stopped attacking. Confused by the incomprehensible scene, she heard a sigh behind her.

“Even you, the fifth, have been captured!”

The masked woman turned around and saw the other three gathered there, looking dejected. They were also surrounded by three or four similar puppets each, and among them, in addition to those in the form of soldiers, there were also quite a few that took the form of beasts such as tigers or leopards.

She looked around at the terrain with a hopeless gaze and realized that she had returned to her original position without realizing it. Moreover, the other three already had no life in their eyes, as if they had been hit by some kind of restriction. Seeing this scene, she looked up at Han Li, threw her dagger on the ground, and gave up resisting.

Han Li saw her throw away the dagger and reached out, injecting a green light into her body. Having finished the process, Han Li didn’t seem to have any intention of interrogating them right away and put them all on the Wind-Soaring Shuttle [a flying magical artifact]. This was not a place to stay for long. If he delayed and a master from the other side appeared, it would be a big problem. Han Li set a direction and disappeared with the four people.

Not long after he left, two masked people appeared on the hill. However, their clothes were a blood-red color that made people uncomfortable just by looking at them. The two looked around, including the pit Han Li had made, and sighed.

“It seems the Five Friends of Mount Meng have failed.”

A voice of an older person was heard.

“Useless things! Not only did they fail to accomplish the task, but they were even captured by that person. Judging by the fact that they didn’t even leave a trace of blood, they must have been captured very easily.”

“It’s become troublesome. If they were so useless, I would have immediately offered them as sacrifices with their blood. How could they have been left alive? Perhaps a large number of Qi Refining cultivators or Foundation Establishment cultivators were involved in this.”

The older man expressed his concern, as if disagreeing with the young man’s words.

“Are you afraid they might reveal secrets? They were brought in from the outside and don’t know any of the sect’s secrets. Besides, we took care of them before assigning them this task, so they’ll probably be dead within half a day.”

“That’s a relief! Since the blood curse is on their bodies, they won’t easily open their mouths if it’s only half a day. By the time they sense something strange and try to reveal secrets, they won’t be in this world anymore.”

The old man was relieved by the young man’s confident words. However, his face darkened again.

“But what on earth happened? We clearly decided to slowly reveal ourselves to the cultivation world by making that old man Wu a fake master! To secretly carry out the sect’s plan, all the core disciples are living under different identities, but suddenly breaking into old man Wu’s room and sucking his blood… that level of cultivation wouldn’t be of much help to you!”

The young man also smiled bitterly at the old man’s words.

“Do you think I wanted to do that? I had no choice.”

“Don’t tell me?”

“That’s right. Due to the backlash of magical power, I needed the blood of a cultivator who could suppress the true energy in my body right away. Except for you, there were only Taoists nearby, and I couldn’t go to you, could I? The magical power backlash happened two days earlier than expected, so it was an emergency. I almost lost control.”

The young man spoke as if he was still afraid of that moment.

“I see. In that situation, I can’t blame you. Still, report it to the higher-ups. In my opinion, it seems that you were too impatient in your recent training of the Black Fiend Asura Art, which seems to have accelerated the magical power backlash. Stop the Blood Prison training for a while and take some time to calmly build your foundation.”

“Don’t worry. After sucking that Taoist’s blood, I’ve completely escaped the influence of the magical power backlash. I’ll be more careful in the future to prevent this from happening again. Besides, my recent training progress has been very fast, so I don’t want to rest even for a moment.”

“It’s good that you know what to do, but the problem is the person who left a spiritual mark on old man Wu. We must find that person and not leave any future troubles.”

“You’re right. Originally, the cultivators who frequented old man Wu were just low-level mountain cultivators, so we only sent the Five Friends of Mount Meng, but we didn’t expect to catch such a big fish. Do they seem like a group of low-level cultivators or the work of a Foundation Establishment cultivator?”

“Hehe, if my prediction is correct, it’s highly likely to be a Foundation Establishment cultivator. No matter how many Qi Refining cultivators there are, they wouldn’t be able to escape from them.”

“Then shouldn’t we hide for a while until the sect leader comes out of seclusion? After all, a Foundation Establishment cultivator is not an easy opponent to deal with.”

“Hide? Why should we do that? According to the news that the sect leader sent recently, it’s necessary to offer Foundation Establishment cultivators for training. In this situation, we can’t let go of the Foundation Establishment cultivator who has fallen into our hands. We can catch as many Qi Refining cultivators as we want, but Foundation Establishment cultivators are hard to find.”

The young man looked a bit troubled at those words.

“But there are no Foundation Establishment experts in the capital except for the sect leader and the Four Blood Guardians who protect the sect leader’s safety. We can’t call back those who are working in the branch offices in each region.”

“Why worry about that? Since the sect leader needs Foundation Establishment cultivators right now, even if we just report it, one or two Blood Guardians will be dispatched. If we help them capture the Foundation Establishment cultivator, it’s a chance to make a great contribution! If that happens, we might even have a chance to reach the Foundation Establishment stage like the Blood Guardians.”

“You’re right. Let’s go back and prepare to capture that person alive.”

They stopped their murmuring and silently left the hill. The strange thing was that they didn’t seem worried about how they would find Han Li in this vast Yue Capital. It was as if it wasn’t a problem for them.

* * *

Around that time, the Wind-Soaring Shuttle landed in a wilderness about a hundred miles away from the hill, and the four people were able to get off the magical artifact.

They all knew that the situation was not good, but they couldn’t resist. Han Li stood with his hands behind his back, looking at them one by one.

“Now, take off your masks. What’s the point of hiding them now?”

“Let’s take them off.”

The one who seemed to be the eldest brother said as if he had no choice. The other three also took off their masks, revealing their disheartened faces. Han Li checked their faces and sighed inwardly, though he didn’t show it. They were indeed the Five Friends of Mount Meng.

He had secretly overheard their conversation at the tavern, so their voices were familiar, and he had also grasped their individual magical powers, so he immediately remembered the people he had encountered two months ago. Except for one older woman, they were all here. Han Li was troubled to recognize them.

In the end, it meant that the Wang family’s Chief Manager Wang and the young master were members of the behind-the-scenes forces involved in the missing cultivators case. Since they had noticed that he was investigating them, they would persistently pursue him. He had tried to avoid troublesome matters, but the troublesome matters were rushing towards him.

Now that he knew they were not related to the demonic cultivators, it was his excessive caution that had led him to get involved in this mess.

But no matter how he thought about it, that old man Wu was too much. How incompetent could he be to be discovered and killed in just one night?

Han Li, who had entrusted the task to him, was truly depressed. Han Li was lost in thought. Looking at the recent missing cases, they included even Foundation Establishment cultivators. He had clearly touched some very vicious people, so if he made a mistake, he could disappear without a trace.

Normally, it was best to avoid such dangerous situations. If he ran far away, all the problems could be postponed for now.

However, he had the duty to protect Jin Jia and had been dispatched here for that purpose.

If Jin Jia was destroyed while he was gone, what could he say to his master at the Ewha Garden? He couldn’t just say that his intuition was bad and he had run away! The more he thought about it, the more Han Li’s expression changed, and the four people watching him became increasingly anxious.

They had been dragged to a secluded place, so they thought they would be threatened and tortured. But the Foundation Establishment cultivator was just checking their faces and then lost in thought, so they were afraid of how cruel he was planning to be. These thoughts made their hearts even more disturbed, and their anxiety was reaching its peak.

“So, what are you going to do with us?”

A young woman of about twenty years old couldn’t hold back her anger and shouted. Han Li, who had been pulled out of his thoughts by the sound, glanced at her.

“Do I even need to deal with you? If I just contact the families of the missing cultivators, they won’t leave you alone, will they?”

“We didn’t do that! We just did it a few times…”

“Quiet! That person is testing us.”

The black-faced old man stopped the woman’s words. Then, the woman just glared at Han Li with wide eyes and didn’t say anything more.

“I’m testing you? You think too highly of yourselves.”

“Instead of teasing us juniors as a senior, just kill us if you’re going to kill us!”

The skinny man was the second of the Five Friends of Mount Meng, and he suddenly showed hostility towards Han Li. However, the other three were even more surprised because the second was always someone who planned things out and would never be so impulsive. The young man, whom Han Li thought was familiar, seemed to have realized something and shouted at the skinny man.

“Second brother, what are you doing? Are you perhaps trying to anger him on purpose and get us all killed?”

When the young man said this, not only the black-faced old man and the woman, but even Han Li was dumbfounded. What on earth was that supposed to mean? However, the second seemed to have understood, and his face turned pale.

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