Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 201

Elder Go immediately tried to eliminate the evil magical artifacts to avoid an unforeseen demise.

However, the approaching giant sword struck him from behind, weakening the light surrounding Elder Go. Taking advantage of this opening, the thirteen needles relentlessly pierced through.

A chill ran down Elder Go’s face as he reached for his storage pouch.

However, he knew clearly that with his vital energy greatly damaged by the strange formation’s assault, he had no chance of winning by relying on a single magical treasure.

Before he could even take anything out, a finger-thick streak of crimson flashed and pierced through the yellow energy right in front of him.

With Han Li’s giant sword behind him and over a dozen needles attacking from all directions, the already faint yellow light was easily penetrated.

However, the moment Elder Go sensed something was wrong, one of his ears was sliced off, spraying blood. He barely avoided having his head split open, but he had to give up one of his shoulders.

“Ugh!”

With a painful scream, his legs gave way, and he knelt on the ground.

Han Li was not one to waste time. The Crooked Soul’s body emerged through the waves, and crimson pillars of light shot out from both of its hands.

At the same time, Han Li also swung his silver sword, piercing Elder Go’s yellow protective barrier. A grating friction sound was constantly heard. Then, Han Li threw a bundle of talismans in his hand, and countless fireballs and ice spikes spread out.

Barely regaining his senses from the extreme pain, Elder Go was already helpless. The immense pressure of the formation, combined with the indiscriminate attacks of his opponent, made it impossible for him to withstand the enormous spiritual power needed to block them.

Just as he was about to use a secret technique to draw out the magical power within his body, filled with terror, Han Li’s spell was already complete.

The waves began to spin wildly in all directions, and the pressure of the formation pressing down on his body increased several times over. The last protective barrier that had been protecting him was also fading with a faint tremor.

Ignoring Elder Go’s disbelieving gaze, the protective barrier finally disappeared, and the thirteen needles that had been pouring towards him immediately flashed red and lunged forward.

The red light pierced through the vital points of the Core Formation cultivator one after another, and as Han Li silently swung his silver sword, Elder Go’s head flew off into the distance.

A tremendous amount of blood gushed out, filling the formation with a thick smell of blood. Only now could Han Li relax a little.

He immediately strode over and used his silver sword to snatch the storage pouch from the corpse’s waist. At the same time, the Crooked Soul also picked up the yellow soul-binding magical artifact.

Han Li took the Crooked Soul and escaped the barrier, quickly injecting spiritual power into the Wind Rider Boat and soaring across the sky.

After flying only about thirty li [approximately 15 kilometers], Han Li turned the Wind Rider Boat and plunged into the sea. Then, he retracted the magical artifact and took out a red cloth that concealed his presence and spiritual power, hiding with the Crooked Soul inside the magical artifact’s protective barrier. Both of them then used the Nameless Technique to completely conceal their spiritual power once more.

After he had completed all preparations, a strong aura was detected nearby. Someone enraged searched the sky above and around the seabed where he was hiding several times.

He searched every nook and cranny but could not find Han Li and the Crooked Soul. He hovered over the sea for a long time before finally flying away in a hurry in another direction.

Only then was Han Li relieved.

However, he could not come out right away, so Han Li settled deep in the seabed, created a water-type barrier to block the seawater, and then sat cross-legged with the Crooked Soul to recover his vital energy.

More than ten days had passed since they had plunged into the water.

For several days, the powerful aura had relentlessly searched the area around Han Li’s location several times, but each time Han Li concealed his spiritual power and traces, so he returned without success.

Now, it seemed that the person had given up hope, as he had not appeared for several days.

Now was the time to move. Han Li carefully spread his consciousness to confirm that no one was within a hundred li radius [approximately 50 kilometers], and then chose a direction and flew up.

He could not return to the Ghastly Sound Island, so he had to find another place to stay.

Although he did not know what unspeakable relationship the six pavilions’ Elder Go and Elder Myo had with the young man Oh Chuk that made them try to commit murder and silence witnesses, it was clear that it was not a problem for a Foundation Establishment cultivator like himself to get involved in. When caught up in such useless matters, it was best to leave far away.

However, he was only regretful about the three sets of precious formation magical artifacts left on the Summoning Island and the numerous top-grade magical artifacts lost in this battle.

Han Li could not help but smile bitterly as he thought about these things while riding the Wind Rider Boat.

Still, considering the misfortune that had befallen the middle-aged scholar and other cultivators, it was fortunate that he had survived. Reassuring himself, Han Li suddenly took out Elder Go’s storage pouch.

In the meantime, he had been too wary of being discovered by the enemy to examine the storage pouch.

The items in a Core Formation cultivator’s storage pouch could not be simple. Perhaps he could recover some of his losses.

As soon as he injected his consciousness, he discovered nearly 80 medium-grade spirit stones. Elder Go’s wealth was considerable.

After finally turning his gaze away from the spirit stones, he looked to see if there were any other items.

He saw a yellow jade bottle, a sparkling navy blue talisman, a book, and a navy blue bead. There were also quite a few other miscellaneous items that were not worth much.

The book was a good item as it contained the upper-level cultivation technique, but he had no intention of learning it.

One of the talismans was a talisman with a golden sword drawn on it, and the other was an unknown talisman with a navy blue flood dragon drawn on it, which pleased him. Also, the navy blue bead seemed to be the inner core of a fifth-level demonic beast.

Finally, only the yellow jade bottle remained.

When Han Li took it out and examined it, five thumb-sized yellow pills rolled out. The pills were all the same size and had a clear, transparent color, emitting a strange medicinal fragrance.

“Strengthening Core Pills!”

Han Li placed them on his palm and stared blankly for a while.

Although he had never actually seen them before, they matched the description in the “Compendium of Pills”, so what else could they be but Strengthening Core Pills?

He picked up one of the pills with his finger and examined it, a smile naturally forming on his face.

It was a moment where he felt the reward for risking his life in this transaction. With these Strengthening Core Pills, the probability of him and the Crooked Soul succeeding in Core Formation would increase, even if only slightly.

Han Li carefully put the pills back into the storage pouch. Now, all that was left was to find a safe area with a spiritual vein and attempt Core Formation.

Even if only one of them, either he or the Crooked Soul, succeeded in Core Formation, they would have a chance to survive the pursuit of a Core Formation cultivator. However, Core Formation was not something that could be achieved in one go.

Unless one possessed the Heavenly Spirit Root or was a genius blessed by the heavens, others needed sufficient spiritual medicine and time to transcend their cultivation realm.

The Spirit Convergence Dew and Heavenly Transformation Fluid he had purchased in advance were also essential spiritual medicines for Core Formation.

In addition to these two, there were various other spiritual medicines that helped with Core Formation, all of which increased the possibility of reaching the Core Formation stage. However, the effects of Spirit Convergence Dew and Heavenly Transformation Fluid were more pronounced than others.

Most cultivators did not have the ability to obtain other spiritual medicines. It was already a great feat to obtain Spirit Convergence Dew and Heavenly Transformation Fluid and one or two other spiritual medicines.

However, Han Li was naturally an exception. Except for those that he did not have the seeds for or rare spiritual herbs, he had already cultivated the others while training on the Summoning Island and refined dozens of types of Core Formation assistance spiritual medicines.

Unexpectedly, these spiritual medicines did not require special refining conditions such as innate transformation. They could be made simply by combining the appropriate amount of ingredients, just like ordinary people making pills. Moreover, the recipes related to this were recorded in various scriptures.

Han Li was surprised that he could so easily make spiritual medicines related to Core Formation. Moreover, the Strengthening Core Pills he had obtained were unique Core Formation assistance spiritual medicines of the Chaotic Star Sea cultivators, which were rare and difficult to obtain.

It was not good to just eat a lot of all spiritual medicines. In any case, the most important thing was for the cultivator to circulate their energy and raise their own cultivation realm with the help of various spiritual medicines.

Also, the Core Formation process was not something that could be done in ten days or a few months.

According to various scriptures and what Yi Hwa-won had told him before, it took three to five years. The specific period varied depending on the individual’s aptitude.

During this period, one should control their emotions and not have any joyful or sad events, nor should one engage in duels with others. One must also absorb a certain amount of spiritual energy from heaven and earth.

Therefore, he had to find one of the islands with a spiritual vein and enter secluded training. After organizing his thoughts, Han Li took out a map of the sea area centered around the three large islands, including the Ghastly Sound Island.

He spent a lot of time carefully examining the map and was barely able to figure out his location.

After a while, Han Li withdrew his consciousness from the map.

Han Li looked at the position of the sun and all around, then transformed into a streak of light with the Crooked Soul and disappeared.

While moving, Han Li rested for a while on an uninhabited island to recover his magical power, and if he sensed the presence of a cultivator, he immediately detoured, trying not to leave any traces.

After changing direction two or three times, Han Li finally sped off in the direction he truly wanted to go.

* * *

Two months later, Han Li and the Crooked Soul appeared on an island in a remote sea area.

This island was far smaller than the Ghastly Sound Island, but it was quite large compared to the Summoning Island. It was probably just barely considered a medium-sized island.

This was the Sea Ape Island (海猿島), where Han Li had flown to with great effort. The island was inhabited by a small number of ordinary people and a large number of cultivators who had not yet succeeded in Foundation Establishment. It was one of the free areas with no lords.

The name Sea Ape Island came from the demonic beast Sea Ape (海猿) around the island.

This demonic beast, called the sea monkey, looked exactly like a land monkey, but it could use the water-type low-level magic technique, Water Arrow Technique (水箭術), and was quite intelligent.

When fully grown, they had the intelligence of a seven-year-old child and mainly ate deep-sea fish, making them a good target for cultivators who enjoyed taming demonic beasts.

Moreover, the Sea Apes were weaker than they were known to be, and in reality, even Qi Refining cultivators of the fifth or sixth level could capture them, so many people tried to catch sea monkeys to make some pocket money. For this reason, small merchants gathered funds to install formations on the island and open shops to trade Sea Apes.

After the formation was installed, more low-level cultivators began to visit this island for long-term residence because spiritual veins were widely distributed on Sea Ape Island.

It was a spiritual vein that emitted very faint spiritual energy, but its range was so wide that spiritual energy could be sensed anywhere on Sea Ape Island.

And because the density of spiritual energy was so much lower than other places, there was no chance of high-level cultivators coming to fight for territory.

Cultivators who had reached the Foundation Establishment or Core Formation stage only visited for a short time, so it was the perfect training place for Han Li!

Two days later, Han Li created a new temporary cave in a certain barren mountain on Sea Ape Island. The new cave had nothing but a simple herb garden and two secret rooms.

Han Li installed a common concealment formation at the entrance of the cave and released two Blood Jade Spiders.

These transparent spiders had grown to the size of a human head after several years of training and nurturing, and their level had also increased by two stages to the level of a first-level upper-grade demonic beast, so they were more than enough to deal with ordinary Qi Refining cultivators. The Blood Jade Spiders were the only insect demonic beasts he had brought out from the Summoning Island.

This meant that all the other strange insect demonic beasts were still at his residence on the Summoning Island.

Since the person chasing him had failed to avenge Elder Go and silence the witnesses, there was a high probability that they had already found his residence.