Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 288

Watching the Extreme Yin Patriarch use even a sound transmission in the secret room, Daoist Je was puzzled before shouting in surprise,

“Is that really true? Has that item finally appeared?”

“If it weren’t for that, would so many Nascent Soul Stage cultivators gather?”

Daoist Je was delighted but also showed a hint of resentment.

“That’s true, but Brother Oh, you’re too much. This treasure has been wandering around for so long, and you haven’t mentioned it once. If you had told me earlier, we could have mobilized more people and resources to find it already.”

“You should speak properly. If I hadn’t kept the secret for so long, others would have leaked this information, and this place would already be in chaos. But since others have already started to notice, it’s only a matter of time before the news of the treasure’s appearance spreads.”

“Hehe! Where is there an eternal secret in this world? Then I’ll go first and deploy more of my disciples. We must be the first to catch that thing.”

Daoist Je immediately stood up, seemingly excited by the unexpectedly great news. The Extreme Yin Patriarch did not stop him and personally escorted him to the door.

Returning to his chair, a sneer formed on his face. At the mention of treasure, the other party became even more impatient than he was. It seemed that leaking information about the Heavenly Cauldron was not necessarily a bad thing.

‘But where on earth is that Han Li hiding!’

Even though many forces had been moving for a long time, they had not found any clues at all. If the Bi Yun Sect cultivators had not been killed, he would have suspected that Han Li had pretended to come to the Chance Encounter Island and fled to another demon beast island.

Now it was truly a race against time, so he had no choice but to borrow the power of the Bi Yun Sect. The Extreme Yin Patriarch fell into thought, weighing the pros and cons.

* * *

In a certain sea area, a young man in green robes was looking down at the low-level cultivators with a cold gaze. Above his head, a large swarm of gold and silver insects writhed.

A middle-aged man among the low-level cultivators shouted in surprise,

“Insect Demon!”

At those words, the young man burst into laughter and flicked his finger, and the swarm of insects surged like a cloud, engulfing the low-level cultivators. They desperately tried to block them with their magical artifacts, but they were instantly enveloped by the flying insects and disappeared without a trace.

The young man muttered as he collected the remaining storage pouches one by one,

“Is that all you can do with that level of cultivation? You fools.”

Then, he turned his gaze in a certain direction, turned into a blue light, and left the place.

After a while, a white light flashed in the air, and a Core Formation Stage cultivator with a pale face appeared.

“…….”

With a dark face, he stared in the direction where the young man had disappeared, gritted his teeth, and flew in the opposite direction.

* * *

Half a month later, Han Li was finally able to return to his residence.

Although it had been empty for several years, everything was as it was, which pleased him. Han Li took a good rest for a few days and began preparing to refine pills, sorting through the various rare materials and demon cores he had collected.

In recent years, he had been refining a large number of pills and was feeling a certain limit in his pill refinement technique. In other words, if he could overcome this hurdle, he could reach a new level.

For this reason, Han Li did not immediately use the sixth and seventh-grade demon cores but first took out the fifth-grade demon cores and piled them up on one side. His aptitude was ordinary, but his level was not far from becoming a master of pill refinement.

Who else could cultivate so lavishly, consuming materials like he did? The most important thing in refining pills was experience and skill.

So, he planned to first refine fifth-grade demon cores to accumulate skills and study how to reach a higher level.

Han Li waved his hand as he looked at the pill refinement furnace, and the fifth-grade demon cores flew up, and the lid was placed on top.

The door to the pill refinement room remained closed for three years.

When Han Li walked out of the room calmly three years later, countless demon cores had already been transformed into precious pills.

For the first two years, he focused solely on refining pills using the demon cores of fifth-grade demon beasts. They would not have any particular effect on him, but they were pills that Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators would desperately desire.

Through this, his application ability had improved to a higher level. In any case, even if one was a true master of pill refinement, they would not be able to freely practice using so many demon cores. After refining numerous pills with precious demon cores, his skills had become even higher than a master’s.

As a result, when he later refined pills using sixth and seventh-grade demon cores, his success rate had greatly increased. It was truly fortunate.

Otherwise, he would have wasted precious materials. After finishing the pill refinement, Han Li rested for a month.

During that time, he focused on taking care of the Gold Devouring Beetles. He was raising the three-colored evolved Gold Devouring Beetles separately from the original Gold Devouring Beetles. However, as a result of his observation, he discovered something bad.

The three-colored Gold Devouring Beetles, which were consuming the Anticipation Grass, did not show any signs of becoming violent or agitated.

At first, he thought that it was because the number of Gold Devouring Beetles was too large, and a small amount of Anticipation Grass was not enough. So, he gathered a few hundred of them separately to observe the changes, but no matter how much time passed, there was no reaction.

It was a difficult situation. For some reason, he could not evolve the three-colored Gold Devouring Beetles. If this was the case, he would not be able to make up for the losses that occurred every time he used the beetles.

So, he now had the puppets start feeding the Anticipation Grass only to the gold and silver Gold Devouring Beetles that had not yet evolved. The gold and silver Gold Devouring Beetles, which had already become violent, showed that the time for their next breeding was not far off.

After dealing with the Gold Devouring Beetles, Han Li calmed his mind again and entered the closed cultivation room. He was going to use the prepared pills to master the eighth level of the Azure Essence Sword Art and reach the mid-Core Formation Stage.

Han Li sat cross-legged in the secret room, took out a red pill from a medicine bottle, swallowed it, and closed his eyes. Then, the medicinal effects began to manifest subtly in his body, and the incantations of the eighth level of the Azure Essence Sword Art flowed endlessly through his mind.

The process of taking the pill and absorbing the medicinal properties with spiritual power was monotonous, but Han Li, who had to master the cultivation technique as soon as possible to increase his strength, was not bored.

While he was cultivating, time flowed mercilessly, and 16 years had passed. Han Li had finally reached the mid-Core Formation Stage and had also succeeded in mastering the eighth level of the Azure Essence Sword Art.

It was a long-awaited moment, but he did not have the urge to immediately leave his seclusion. Since most of the pills were still left, he did not intend to stop cultivating without using them all.

Having reached the mid-Core Formation Stage, he calmed his excited heart and immediately began to learn the formation of the cultivation technique.

Spring and summer passed, and autumn came again, and winter came again, repeating several times. Year after year flowed like water.

The door to the closed cultivation room remained closed, and dust piled up in the cave. It was becoming like an old tomb or ancient ruins.

* * *

On a certain foggy beach, a flock of seabirds flew low. The chirping of the birds added to the peaceful atmosphere of the blue sea, not long after the morning sun had risen.

However, a moment later, several streaks of light flew in like a gale from the far side of the sky.

As time passed, three women and two men appeared. They were doing their best to speed up, with the middle-aged man being at the early Foundation Establishment Stage and the rest being Qi Refining Stage cultivators.

They were running away urgently, and they kept looking back, as if they were being chased by something. In an instant, they reached the vicinity of the sea fog.

A girl in yellow robes, panting heavily, shouted to the middle-aged man,

“Uncle-Master Son! Let’s rest for a moment in the sea fog ahead. Before we even get caught by those things, everyone is too exhausted to hold on.”

The girl had a chubby face and black eyes, making her quite cute. But now, her face was pale, and she was sweating profusely, complaining of the depletion of her magical power [spiritual energy].

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, looked back at the other three, and then smiled and replied,

“Let’s do that. But we must leave immediately once our magical power has recovered a little. We’ve managed to put some distance between us and those things, but they’re chasing us like they’re going to die, so we need to be careful. If we get caught, it will be difficult for all of us to survive.”

At the same time, the young boys and girls showed signs of relief.

With their shallow cultivation, it was already too much for them to fly here without rest. They knew that resting was not appropriate in this dangerous situation, but they were about to die, so they couldn’t think of anything else.

They changed direction and flew into the sea fog. A sturdy young man, who looked to be about twenty years old, expressed hope.

“The fog is quite thick, so we might be able to hide here.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. We don’t know how the enemy is tracking us, but they will never be fooled by fog. Everyone, fly low and look for rocks or places to rest. Everyone needs to sit in meditation and rest to recover their magical power quickly.”

The sturdy young man blushed at the middle-aged man’s scolding. Everyone lowered their heads and began to look for a place to rest. Then, the girl in yellow suddenly shouted in surprise,

“Oh! There’s an island here!”

Before she could speak, the others also discovered the island. Among them, an ordinary woman wearing a navy blue skirt showed fear.

“I hope there aren’t any demon beasts living here too?”

“This is not the time to worry about that. Let’s land on the island and rest.”

As soon as the middle-aged man finished speaking, everyone landed on the small island. After the middle-aged man spread his consciousness to examine the island, he pointed to a spot.

“The spiritual energy is denser over there, let’s go.”

The direction he pointed was near the only small mountain range on the island. The four men and women hurriedly approached the place, led by the middle-aged man.

To survive now, it was urgent to recover their magical power, and they were lucky to have found an island with spiritual roots. Soon, they all arrived at the mountain range full of jade-colored trees.

Then, they chose a low hill, sat cross-legged, and began to absorb spiritual energy, holding a spirit stone in each hand.

As they took a break in the quiet, feeling the sea breeze, everyone felt much more at ease. After an hour, everyone had recovered most of their magical power, and their complexions had improved a lot.

The middle-aged man opened his eyes wide, checked everyone’s condition, and then ordered without hesitation,

“We can’t delay even for a moment, let’s go! We don’t know when those things will catch up.”

After speaking, he shook himself and stood up first. The Qi Refining Stage men and women were reluctant, but they did not dare to disobey and took out their respective magical artifacts.

Just as everyone was about to take off, a sound like a seagull’s cry echoed from the sky above the small island, and the fog began to stir.

“Oh no!”

The middle-aged man’s expression changed drastically, and the others also lost the color in their faces. A dozen or so gray birds revealed their huge bodies as they broke through the fog.

The grotesque birds with red horns were covering their ugly appearances with a blue light. The grotesque birds did not immediately attack them but circled around the island, blocking the cultivators’ escape routes.

The sight of the grotesque birds cooperating so cleverly made their hearts even heavier.

“Let’s go into that forest first and look for an opportunity to escape.”

Based on his experience so far, the middle-aged man made a decision, and the young men and women, who had been restless, immediately flew into the forest on their magical artifacts.

Kee-rik, kee-rik, kee-rik.

The grotesque birds in the sky also let out sharp, strange cries, narrowing their encirclement.

The cultivators’ faces became even paler at the grotesque birds’ actions, and they fell into the forest even faster.

Then, something unexpected happened.

Just as the five cultivators were descending to about three zhang [approximately 10 meters] above the bushes, a jade-colored light flashed, and their heads became dizzy, their vision blurred, and the surrounding environment changed.

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