Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 281

The old man saw Han Li off at the gate and then returned to his room.

As soon as he sat down, a calm voice suddenly echoed.

“What do you think? Did he seem useful?”

A shadow emerged from the landscape painting hanging in the room. Dressed in white robes, with his face obscured by a blue light, he created an unsettling atmosphere.

“We didn’t talk for long, and his face is unfamiliar, but there’s no doubt he’s a lone cultivator. After venturing out alone and facing some hardships, he’ll naturally come back.”

The white-clad man dampened his certainty.

“Humph! I think differently.”

“What do you mean? Do you think a mere Core Formation cultivator can hunt alone in the Mystic Glade Sea?”

Li Shim shook his head, his expression conveying disbelief. After a moment of silence, the white-clad man replied seriously.

“The opponent is probably not an ordinary Core Formation cultivator. While we were talking, he never once looked at me, yet I constantly felt like I was being watched. It’s as if he noticed my presence but pretended not to know.”

“That must be a misunderstanding. Your concealment technique is so good that even a cultivator one stage higher wouldn’t notice it. Are you suggesting that the other cultivator has reached the late stage of Core Formation?”

“I don’t know. It’s possible that his cultivation technique is special, or he might possess a unique treasure.”

Li Shim, who had been pacing around the room, narrowed his brow and said,

“Enough. No matter what the other person is like, we did our best to show our sincerity, didn’t we? That’s all that matters.”

The white-clad man nodded in agreement with the old man’s words.

* * *

Han Li had already left a miscellaneous goods store near Chon Geum Gak [a shop or building], having purchased a map of the sea around the island and information about the appearance of demon beasts.

Finding a secluded spot, he began to examine the information in detail.

“…….”

Even just skimming through it, his eyebrows rose. There were far too many areas marked as dangerous around the Mystic Glade Sea.

‘Is it possible that high-level demon beasts appear in all these places?’

The famous Sea of Mist was not that far away. If Han Li flew at full speed in the southern direction, it would only take him half a month. However, its area was exceptionally vast.

It seemed to span tens of thousands of miles in length and width, and its depth was immeasurable, with no one having ever reached its bottom.

Han Li, having reviewed the information from beginning to end, withdrew his consciousness from the book and fell into thought. When he looked up again, his expression was no different from usual.

He no longer stayed in Black Stone City and left the city without hesitation. As soon as he was outside the city walls, he soared into the sky, piercing it with a streak of blue light.

The Mystic Glade Island itself was not very large, belonging to the medium-sized islands.

Also, as Heo Woon had said, there were no other cities besides Black Stone City, so the other areas were desolate. For some unknown reason, it was forbidden for ordinary people or cultivators to reside in other areas of the Mystic Glade Island. After leaving the Mystic Glade Island, he raised his head to gauge his direction and then flew north.

First, he needed to choose a sea area that others did not frequent and set up a new residence.

Naturally, many cultivators had settled near the Mystic Glade Island, so Han Li was deliberately heading in the opposite direction of the Sea of Mist. As Han Li had expected, there were few cultivators in the northern sea area.

In about ten days, the number of cultivators he encountered noticeably decreased. The low-level cultivators who saw him were quick to hide, and the high-level cultivators showed vigilance.

It seemed that killing others and robbing their belongings was also common here.

After another two days, all traces of people had completely disappeared. He then turned his direction west.

According to the map, if he went west from around here, there were small and large islands with minor spiritual veins [sources of spiritual energy], but few cultivators resided there because the spiritual veins were insignificant or too far from the Mystic Glade Island to be safe.

Han Li, who was less affected by these adverse conditions, planned to go there first and see if it was suitable to make his residence.

* * *

Half a month later, Han Li was floating above a small island, looking down.

This was the fourth island he had found so far that had spiritual veins but no residents. Although small, the terrain was complex, with wastelands, forests full of thickets, and green meadows. There was also a low mountain range connecting the peaks.

When he spread his consciousness to examine it, he found no traces of any cultivators. The reason why there were no other cultivators was not because there were no spiritual veins, but because of the surrounding environment of the island. And the surrounding environment was also a big reason why Han Li chose this island.

Surprisingly, this island was shrouded in a large amount of sea fog, and the white mists were not naturally occurring but were created by the surrounding turbulent currents. What was unusual was that the fog only spread around the island and did not affect the inside of the island at all.

Han Li was quite surprised when he first saw this phenomenon. Only after investigating the sea level and going down to the bottom of the island did he understand the reason.

Unexpectedly, there were countless holes under the island, and thousands of slender silver fish were coming in and out.

At first glance, the silver fish looked no different from ordinary fish.

However, if one tried to grab the fish with spiritual power in their hand, they would realize that the silver fish were nothing more than sharp silver bones without any scales. If one tried to grab them with bare hands, they would probably draw blood.

‘Devouring Sea Fish!’

The identity of the fish immediately came to mind. The small fish were a first-class lower realm demon beast that lived in groups.

They were a species with nothing special except for their iron-hard bodies and the ability to roam the sea surface and spew out the seawater they swallowed as fog.

However, even a common group of Devouring Sea Fish rarely spewed out enough fog to cover an entire island.

Even Han Li, if he hadn’t been chasing a fourth-level demon beast, the Silver Winged Bird, and entered the fog, he wouldn’t have discovered the island hidden within. He would have definitely avoided the fog without a second thought.

From a distance, it was considered a small-scale sea fog that could be seen anywhere, so there was nothing unusual about it. After examining the island several times, Han Li decided to set up his new residence here.

The spiritual vein flowing through the island was located in a small mountain range about ten miles long and three or four yards high, and there were only a few peaks in the mountain range.

It was not suitable to dig a cave on such a small island. He chose a narrow mountain valley and began to dig a cave below it. Creating a cave with the same structure as his previous residence was a piece of cake.

In less than half a day, the general outline was revealed. Han Li first activated the formation artifact he had made to protect the cave and the entire mountain range. When the restriction was activated, an illusion appeared, making it look like a lush forest rather than a mountain range.

Still, Han Li was not relieved.

If a cultivator with high cultivation happened to enter the sea fog, it would be difficult to deceive their eyes. As he was pondering if there was a better way, an idea flashed through his mind.

Han Li immediately entered his new residence, organized the materials he had, and then went into the secret room to start refining something.

Seven days later, when he flew out of his residence again, he was holding a dozen identical formation artifacts in his hands. They did not seem to be for deploying a great formation.

However, every time he deployed a formation in various places on the small island, a large amount of fog surged up, covering the entire island.

Before long, the fog generated by the formation and the sea fog outside the island merged, completely concealing the island’s appearance.

Now, even if someone passed by this place, they would not even know that there was an island below unless they were flying at low altitude.

Han Li floated in the air and looked around, finally feeling a little relieved. Although deploying so many formations required a considerable amount of spirit stones [currency used by cultivators], he didn’t care much.

He couldn’t invite disaster by being attached to small amounts of wealth, could he?

Han Li turned back into a streak of blue light and descended to the ground. Now, all that was left was to create an insect demon beast breeding room and a spirit herb cultivation area.

* * *

Two days later, Han Li was in a stone chamber, looking at a pale yellow book he had received from Ko Ok of Chon Geum Gak.

His expression suddenly changed, and he withdrew his consciousness and fell into thought. After a long time, he took out a white jade box from his storage pouch.

After looking down at it for a while, Han Li took out small, five-colored beads from the jade box.

Han Li picked up one of them, looked at it for a moment, then put the bead back and closed his eyes.

He was recalling a certain picture he had seen in the book. In the picture, there was a fist-sized bead emitting five-colored light in all directions, and about a dozen small beads were floating around it.

The small beads looked exactly like the ones Han Li was holding. They were the Heaven Mending Pills that had popped out of the Illusionary Sky Hall [a mysterious location].

It was strange that such a bizarre picture was one of the random pictures in the book without any explanation.

How surprised he was when he found this picture while casually flipping through the book at Chon Geum Gak? This was the reason why he had obtained the book from Ko Ok, even with an additional treasure. Otherwise, he would have just given her a few pills and been done with it.

There were several other pictures in the book besides this one, all of which were extremely strange. They were objects in the shape of magical artifacts or treasures, and beings like demon beasts or monsters, all of which Han Li had never encountered before.

Considering that the Heaven Mending Pill was depicted, it seemed that the other pictures were not ordinary objects either. Since there was a possibility that he would encounter them in the future, Han Li did his best to memorize the pictures.

However, Han Li couldn’t hide his troubled feelings as he looked at the beads in his hand. It was undoubtedly something related to the Heaven Mending Pill.

The beads were extracted from the skeleton of Geuk Hyun, who was a disciple of the Old Devil Hyun Bone, and Geuk Hyun possessed the Blood Jade Spider. In conclusion, it was highly likely that Geuk Hyun had also entered the Illusionary Sky Hall before, obtained the Heaven Mending Pill, and then consumed it.

That was why his skeleton had emitted five-colored light after he died, and these beads had come out when the skeleton was burned!

Based on his experience of consuming countless pills, it was highly likely that the medicinal properties of the Heaven Mending Pill had not been fully absorbed, or that the medicinal properties were too potent and needed to be re-condensed inside the body.

If so, the small beads he possessed could be considered the true Heaven Mending Pills. There must be a reason why they were even depicted in a picture, right?

Although the act of refining pills using a cultivator’s body as a furnace was extremely rare even in the cultivation world, Han Li had already witnessed a successful case.

The Blood Fiend Five Elements Pill, which the Black Fiend Sect Leader had refined by implanting it in the bodies of others, was exactly that. However, since everything was just Han Li’s speculation, he couldn’t risk taking them right away.

After thinking it over, he eventually left the secret room and headed to the breeding room.

The breeding room was made up of five stone chambers of different sizes, two of which were breeding two different groups of Gold Devouring Beetles.

One group was the tens of thousands of beetles that had displayed mysterious power in the Illusionary Sky Hall and had devoured many Iron Flowers, and the other group was the Gold Devouring Beetles that had been left at his residence in the Heavenly Star City.

It was because tens of thousands of Gold Devouring Beetles were showing signs of evolving to the next stage. Some of them had already started eating each other, which was good news for Han Li. It was probably because the Illusionary Sky Hall group had devoured a large number of ant demon beasts.

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