Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 209

Han Li ultimately decided to return to Yinghui Island.

Without the support of formations and puppets, relying solely on Qu Hun and the Blood Jade Spiders could lead to great danger in the outer sea. While he could handle Rank 5 demon beasts, encountering a Rank 6 or higher would be a death sentence.

According to his calculations, the demon cores he had collected so far were enough to fund the second and third stages of the Three Revolutions of the Primal Origin Technique [a cultivation technique].

Hundreds of Rank 5 cores were worth at least hundreds of thousands of spirit stones, and some rare fish cores could fetch even higher prices.

Han Li was not a greedy person.

For many years, he had strived only to walk the path of a cultivator, not for wealth itself. Therefore, there was no reason to stay in a place with such great danger without safety measures.

He had already ventured too deep into the outer sea. If he hadn’t recorded each unfamiliar island he discovered on his map, he might not have found his way back.

The journey back to Yinghui Island would take several months.

He moved cautiously, not because of high-level demon beasts, but because of the rumored bandits. He could sense and avoid demon beasts, but dealing with malicious cultivators would be much more difficult. He could lose not only the demon cores he had painstakingly collected but also his life.

Throughout the journey, Han Li and Qu Hun remained vigilant, quickly hiding or avoiding any signs of other cultivators. Only after finally returning to Yinghui Island could Han Li relax a little.

As he entered the old market street, everything was the same except for two of the shop owners who had been replaced by unfamiliar faces.

Han Li ignored their gazes and went straight to the stone chamber with the teleportation array. The Celestial Palace cultivator managing it had also been replaced by a middle-aged man.

He smiled at Han Li and Qu Hun and asked,

“Do you two cultivators wish to use the teleportation array?”

* * *

Han Li returned to his cave dwelling on the 39th floor of Celestial City and, overcome with exhaustion, fell into a deep sleep for several days.

The life in the outer sea was extremely tiring. After waking up from his deep sleep, Han Li thoroughly examined his dwelling. Everything felt new after not seeing it for several years.

When he arrived at the insect demon beast chamber, he found that the Silver Centipedes had transformed into a giant silver sphere and had entered hibernation again. Han Li simply shook his head.

He immediately went to the market, visiting numerous shops to collect various prescriptions before returning. Then, he immersed himself in refining pills again.

After two long years of arduous refining, he used the spirit herbs he had cultivated and the purchased prescriptions to produce a large quantity of pills. Now, he no longer had to worry about the resistance to the medicinal effects that had been troubling him.

In the meantime, he slowly sold the demon beast materials he had on hand to small merchants in the Celestial Sect market, converting them into a large number of spirit stones.

Once everything was done, Han Li thoroughly sealed his dwelling and prepared to disperse his cultivation. The only thing that bothered him was the large amount of spirit herbs he had found while rummaging through his storage pouch.

These spirit herbs were the hundreds-of-years-old Attraction Grass that had been very useful in attracting demon beasts in the Chaotic Star Sea. They were too cheap to sell on the market, and it was a waste to throw them away considering the green liquid he had used to mature them.

As he looked at the pile of Attraction Grass, a strange idea came to Han Li’s mind. He quickly gathered them and headed to the chamber where the Silver Centipedes were.

Han Li threw a stalk of the hundreds-of-years-old Attraction Grass into the chamber. However, the Silver Centipedes, already in deep hibernation, showed no reaction.

After a moment of thought, Han Li instructed Qu Hun to move the Attraction Grass onto the giant corals in the herb garden.

Afterward, Han Li entered another chamber and began to slowly lower his cultivation by reciting the incantation for dispersing his power from the Three Revolutions of the Primal Origin Technique.

To ensure stable cultivation, the process of dispersing his magic power was very slow.

It took more than ten days to disperse the planned magic power, and he only stopped reciting the incantation when he reached the early stage of the Foundation Establishment realm again.

Now, all that remained was to spend some time stabilizing his remaining cultivation before taking spirit medicines again and resuming the Three Revolutions of the Primal Origin Technique.

During this time, he had Qu Hun mature a stalk of Attraction Grass with the green liquid and placed it in the chamber with the Silver Centipedes when a strange fragrance was emitted from the spirit herb.

He then observed the Silver Centipedes’ reaction, but the silver sphere they had formed remained unresponsive.

In fact, there were limitations to the types of demon beasts that the Attraction Grass attracted. The Silver Centipedes were high-level demon beasts, so it was quite normal for them not to be lured by the fragrance of the Attraction Grass.

Sighing, Han Li decided to stop worrying about the Attraction Grass and focus on making Soul-Refining Pills to grow the Blood Jade Spiders.

The moment he had this thought, the silver sphere of the Silver Centipedes suddenly broke apart.

*Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz*

Hundreds of beetles, shimmering in silver, clung to the Attraction Grass emitting a strange fragrance, devoured the spirit herb in an instant, and then began to rampage wildly around the chamber, making strange noises!

Han Li was delighted by this sudden phenomenon. He happily left the chamber and ordered Qu Hun to provide the Attraction Grass at regular intervals. Now, he only had to wait and see how the Silver Centipedes would change after consistently consuming the Attraction Grass.

Soon after, Han Li took all the pills and entered the chamber to begin his closed-door cultivation.

Naturally, he also stopped eating and resolved not to leave the chamber until he regained his original cultivation. However, he ordered Qu Hun to take care of the affairs of the dwelling.

He took out a pill from his storage pouch, swallowed it, and closed his eyes.

Except for connecting his consciousness with Qu Hun outside the chamber once a day, Han Li devoted all his time to cultivation.

He repeated the process of swallowing spirit medicines whenever he felt his spiritual energy was insufficient during his practice.

Thus, time flowed like water.

Each year was filled with the extremely monotonous routine of cultivation, cultivation, and more cultivation, but he was able to endure these times because he was filled with a desire for breakthrough.

Ten years passed in the blink of an eye, and the door to the chamber remained firmly closed.

Twenty years passed, and it was still the same. Thirty years…

Day and night changed countless times.

One day, 60 years later, dark clouds suddenly gathered above Han Li’s cave dwelling, and lightning struck down like a silver dragon, causing a strange weather phenomenon.

At the same time, the spiritual energy within hundreds of miles frantically converged towards Han Li’s dwelling, creating a massive vortex of spiritual energy that was visible to the naked eye.

Other nearby cultivators rushed out in surprise. Whether they had experienced it themselves or heard about it, they all knew what this strange phenomenon meant.

“A breakthrough! Someone is trying to break through again!”

Numerous cultivators muttered as they looked up at the spectacle, their varied expressions worth admiring.

Some were jealous, while others looked on with surprise and envy. At the same time, cultivators above the Core Formation stage all sensed the anomaly in the spiritual energy but did not rush out of their dwellings.

They merely glanced in the direction of Han Li and frowned slightly.

……

The door to the chamber finally opened.

A figure covered in hair and beard slowly walked out of the chamber. At that moment, a yellow light flashed, and Qu Hun appeared, still looking dazed.

The figure that emerged from the chamber looked at Qu Hun, then suddenly raised his head and began to laugh loudly.

“Hahahaha! Breakthrough! I have finally formed my Golden Core!”

Although hidden by his thick beard and disheveled hair, it was clearly Han Li, who had entered the chamber 60 years ago.

However, his eyes now shone with a strange light, and an immense aura emanated from him, making him seem like a completely different person. Everything in the dwelling, which he had not seen for 60 years, felt unfamiliar.

Having devoted himself to cultivation without concerning himself with worldly affairs for so long, everything that had happened before felt very distant. Han Li did not linger and, recalling his memories, headed to his bedroom.

After cutting his hair and shaving his beard, he reappeared as a young man in his twenties, no different from how he looked decades ago.

He calmly walked to the chamber where the Silver Centipedes were.

Contrary to expectations, the Silver Centipedes, which had been baby beetles, had multiplied to a terrifying number of tens of thousands. Moreover, golden spots had appeared on the shells of the beetles, which were originally silver, and their appearance and behavior were extremely ferocious.

Han Li was not surprised even after seeing the Silver Centipedes with his own eyes.

He had already learned the news through the consciousness he had implanted in Qu Hun and was only confirming it with his own eyes today.

Han Li had only tried it because he thought the Attraction Grass was a waste, but he had never imagined that it would completely solve the problem of raising the Silver Centipedes.

After he entered closed-door cultivation, Qu Hun had been throwing Attraction Grass to the Silver Centipedes every month, and the silver beetles, which always devoured the spirit herbs without leaving any behind, had gradually become more violent.

After three years of this, a change finally occurred in the Silver Centipedes. Unexpectedly, they began to devour and attack each other after devouring the Attraction Grass.

Within a few days, the hundreds of Silver Centipedes had dwindled to only about a dozen, and the aura of the beetles that had survived by eating their own kind was extraordinary.

However, not long after, the dozen or so Silver Centipedes each hatched about a hundred eggs and then slowly died.

All the beetles had died, but more than a thousand eggs remained. The eggs hatched automatically after a year.

And Qu Hun continued to feed them Attraction Grass, raising them and entering a cycle of eating each other and laying eggs again. After several cycles, the number of Silver Centipedes had increased.

There was a limit to how much Attraction Grass could be matured, and if the increased number of beetles had not shared the small amount, the period would have been much shorter.

The surprising thing was that each time the Silver Centipedes ate each other and produced the next generation, they became more ferocious, and the golden spots that appeared on their silver shells grew larger.

Han Li thought that they would truly evolve when their beetle shells were completely covered in gold.

Han Li, who had been watching the Silver Centipedes with shining eyes from outside the chamber, remained silent for a long time.

Han Li smiled and headed to another chamber where the two Blood Jade Spiders were. While he was away, Qu Hun had refined them with Soul-Refining Pills, and the Blood Jade Spiders had already grown to the peak of Rank 4 demon beasts after several stages.

The Blood Jade Spiders were identical to the spider he had encountered in the underground cave, with their entire bodies as transparent as jade, making them truly beautiful.

When Han Li arrived, the two spiders seemed surprised and immediately rushed to the stone door. They seemed eager to play with him as soon as possible. He happily opened the chamber, and the two Blood Jade Spiders jumped out and circled around him incessantly.

“Amazing!”

As he stroked the backs of the two spiders, their hard and smooth texture elicited a gasp. He immediately used the spirit beast pouch to collect only the spiders and left the chamber.

Then, after looking around the cave, Han Li returned to his bedroom with a joyful heart. Lying on the bed after such a long time, he recalled the process of his breakthrough during his closed-door cultivation.

He had not expected to break through so quickly.

He had not succeeded in the third stage of the Three Revolutions of the Primal Origin Technique, and in fact, he had barely succeeded in the second stage after 30 years.

He had managed to pass the second stage earlier than expected thanks to relying on various pills.

It had taken Qu Hun four years to form his Core, so Han Li, with his inferior talent, could not have been faster than him.

Yet, one day, after more than five years had passed, he had suddenly succeeded in forming his Golden Core!

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth had frantically poured into his body, and when a bead-like object with four mixed colors formed in his dantian [an energy center in the body], Han Li was stunned.

It was like a dream! He couldn’t believe it.

‘Did I just break through like this?’

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