Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 302

After several hours, a furious roar echoed from the fiery pond, followed by a brilliant white beam of light that shot up, piercing through the ceiling of the secret chamber and disappearing. Soon, the white light appeared above the small island, darting around at an incredible speed before returning to its original position. As the white light faded, the figure of the injured demonic beast, Yeol Pungsu, was revealed. He appeared unharmed, indicating that the fiery pond had not affected him at all. However, in one of his hands, he held the massive body of the Turtle Demonic Beast, which was still unable to move. The Turtle Demonic Beast, having no protective treasures, was scorched and cooked all over, with its hair and beard completely gone. Yeol Pungsu’s eyes gleamed ominously as he surveyed the area. He then performed a certain technique, emitting a white light from his fingertips. With a ferocious expression, he determined a direction and once again transformed into a white beam of light, tearing through the air. At that moment, Han Li, who was ten thousand miles away and wearing a blood-red cloak, was sweating profusely. The wind energy he had just enveloped with the Evil-Slaying Divine Lightning had erupted. Fortunately, he was able to quickly react, withdrawing the spiritual power he had poured into the cloak and suppressing the anomaly in his body. Having reached the late Core Formation stage [a cultivation stage], he now had the ability to block the spiritual power that was being absorbed into the ancient treasure at any time. However, what made Han Li’s expression harden was the fact that he could sense Yeol Pungsu was now on the move. He once again injected a massive amount of spiritual power into the blood-red cloak, increasing his escape speed. Having provoked his opponent like this, he knew that if he were caught, he would either be skinned alive and burned to death or have his soul extracted and dried out. Neither prospect was appealing. What made him even more depressed was the fact that even from such a great distance, his opponent was able to activate a restriction and manipulate the wind energy. It was so unexpected that he felt a little regretful. After that, the wind energy within his body erupted every two or three hours. Although he always managed to control it in time, he was constantly forced to change direction, fearing that his opponent would pinpoint his location and come after him. However, Yeol Pungsu, sensing the wind energy, relentlessly pursued him. Thus, Han Li and Yeol Pungsu spent over a month flying across the vast sea, chasing and being chased. Han Li was both fearful and frustrated. To escape Yeol Pungsu’s pursuit, he needed to remove the wind energy from his body, but no matter what method he tried, it showed no sign of disappearing. Perhaps realizing that it was something a Core Formation cultivator could not handle, Han Li gave up on trying to remove the wind energy and focused all his efforts on escaping. Fortunately, Yeol Pungsu was unable to pinpoint his exact location at any given moment. If he had been able to do so, it would have been a miracle that he hadn’t been caught yet. Yeol Pungsu, who was chasing him from thousands of miles away, was also having a headache. He was in a similar situation to Han Li. He had managed to find the foreign substance mixed in the Myriad Year Spiritual Liquid [a rare and potent spiritual liquid] and had enveloped it with spiritual power, but the substance would erupt periodically. Each time, he had to stop his pursuit and suppress the eruption before continuing his journey. Of course, if he were to sit quietly and recuperate, he could remove the foreign substance, but to avoid losing Han Li, he had to find a way to deal with it while on the move. The Turtle Demonic Beast had already recovered, but it was too slow, so he decided to move alone. … As the days passed, the frequency of Han Li’s eruptions decreased. What had initially occurred every hour now happened only once every few days, and the intensity had also significantly diminished. Eventually, after the last eruption, the wind energy stabilized. Whether it was because the distance from Yeol Pungsu was too great for his technique to work, or if something else had happened to his opponent, Han Li couldn’t be sure. But now was the perfect opportunity to disappear far away. Han Li unhesitatingly drank a drop of the Myriad Year Spiritual Liquid and flew off in a chosen direction. Tens of thousands of miles away, on a deserted island, Yeol Pungsu was sitting in a cave with a pale face. After chasing for so long, he had exhausted most of his remaining magical power, making it impossible to control the foreign substance within his body. The demonic beast, unlike Han Li, could not recover his magical power by consuming the Myriad Year Spiritual Liquid. He had no choice but to stop on a remote island, thoroughly eliminate any potential problems, and then resume his pursuit. The Wind Thunder Wings, which he had refined through countless hardships, had to be recovered at all costs. The injured Yeol Pungsu vowed to avenge his deep-seated grudge, closed his eyes, and entered a state of trance. * * * One month later, Han Li also arrived at an unfamiliar island. Sensing no human cultivators or high-level demonic beasts nearby, he immediately landed on the island and quickly created a cave. After setting up a few formations at the cave entrance to conceal his presence, he hurried inside and took out the Wind Thunder Wings. Looking at the pair of small wings, now reduced to the size of his palm, a smile naturally formed on his face. Even Punghee himself only possessed the wind attribute, so the claim that one needed both wind and thunder attributes to operate the Wind Thunder Wings must be false. It was not difficult for Han Li, who could freely summon the Evil-Slaying Divine Lightning, to control the magical treasure. As Yeol Pungsu had repeatedly explained, if it was such an outstanding magical treasure, it was better to master it as soon as possible to help him survive. However, on the surface of the silver-white wings, there was a faint, unstable light. It seemed that they had been refined too early and had not yet stabilized. As his opponent had warned, while their power wouldn’t completely dissipate, it would definitely weaken significantly over time. With a calm expression, Han Li pricked his finger and dropped a drop of blood onto the wings, intending to make them recognize him as their master. As the red blood seeped into the wings, Han Li’s eyes lit up, and he tossed them into the air. The Wind Thunder Wings floated in the air and stopped. Han Li’s ten fingers moved busily, emitting a faint lightning that flew towards the wings. The sound of thunder grew louder, and the lightning emanating from his hands became denser. Soon, a faint golden lightning barrier formed, enclosing the pair of wings. The sound of thunder gradually subsided. Seeing the Wind Thunder Wings slowly absorbing the Evil-Slaying Divine Lightning, he felt much more at ease. Over the next ten days, Han Li used the Evil-Slaying Divine Lightning to stabilize the Wind Thunder Wings, and a faint golden hue began to permeate the silver wings. Once the magical treasure was completely stable, he withdrew the lightning and released a blue aura, enveloping the Wind Thunder Wings and absorbing them into his body. After leaving the cave and flying back into the sky above the island, it was time to test the magical treasure’s performance. Han Li, standing in the air, took a long breath and poured spiritual power into the Wind Thunder Wings within his body. As a result, spiritual energy flowed to his back, and a pair of wings, about a meter long, materialized. The silver-white wings had a faint golden glow. Han Li lightly moved the Wind Thunder Wings. They felt weightless, as if they didn’t exist at all. Curious, he reached out, feeling only a cool sensation, with no tactile feedback. Frowning, he exerted force on his hand, and surprisingly, his hand passed right through the wings. “Huh?” Confused, he immediately examined his body. As expected, the palm-sized Wind Thunder Wings were still in his dantian [an energy center in the body], emitting a white light. The magical treasure floating behind his back was merely an illusion created by spiritual power. Calming his surprised heart, he injected spiritual power, and silver light emanated from the wings as he lightly took flight. After circling in the air a few times, Han Li stopped, stroking his chin as he pondered. The speed was ordinary; it seemed he needed to use lightning. Han Li immediately activated the Evil-Slaying Divine Lightning, sending two streams of faint golden lightning to both wings. Turning his head, he saw that the wings, now flowing with electricity, had turned silver, and Han Li appeared about ten meters away, as if he had teleported. “Thunder Escape Technique.” He lightly flapped the wings once more, and again, the sound of thunder echoed as Han Li appeared twenty or thirty meters away. He repeatedly appeared and disappeared hundreds of meters away, transformed into silver lightning, like a ghost. “It’s said to be the best among flying techniques, and its speed is incomparable to other Five Elements Escape Techniques. I wonder how amazing its speed will be after further refinement… No wonder Yeol Pungsu coveted it so much. He already possesses unparalleled speed, and if he were to obtain the Wind Thunder Wings, there would be no one among humans and demonic beasts who could kill him.” A white light flashed from his body, and the pair of wings disappeared. Han Li had no intention of staying here for long. He planned to leave the abyss, go to the outer sea, and then find a way to return to the inner sea. Although he had shaken off Yeol Pungsu for now, considering his opponent’s strange speed, staying here was akin to waiting for death. The inner sea was the domain of human cultivators, so no matter how powerful he was, he wouldn’t dare to invade. If Han Li succeeded in reaching the inner sea and achieving the Nascent Soul stage [a higher cultivation stage], he would have no reason to fear Yeol Pungsu. However, the Nascent Soul stage old monsters who were chasing after Heocheonjeong might still be going all out, even after thirty or forty years. But having reached the late Core Formation stage, Han Li was confident that he could escape from old monsters like Geukeum, who were in the early Nascent Soul stage, unless he encountered Manhoja or others. Having made up his mind, he returned to the cave and began to examine the storage pouches of the Turtle Demonic Beast and the Poisonous Dragon. Inside, he unexpectedly found a considerable number of demonic beast cores and rare materials. Among them were a black turtle shell and over a hundred pieces of red scales, which must have been shed by the two demonic beast cultivators as they shed their bodies during the Fire Transformation stage [a high demonic beast cultivation stage]. Han Li was surprised but also delighted. If he were to refine armor using these two materials, he could achieve results surpassing Manhoja’s Yellow Scale Armor. However, he couldn’t do that right now. Han Li retrieved the magical artifacts outside the cave and then flew towards the sea area where the Myoeum Gate market had been. Since the Myoeum Gate was preparing a teleportation array, it should be almost ready by now. Whether by force or by pleading, he had to use that teleportation array to return to the inner sea. The location and date of the Myoeum Gate market were unknown, but he could find out by meeting a human cultivator who was well-informed. Unknown to Han Li, the Turtle Demonic Beast, who had barely survived, was reporting the circumstances of the Poisonous Dragon’s death to the leader of the Sea Dragon Clan in the depths of the sea. The clan leader’s cultivation was in the mid-Fire Transformation stage, and he was a demonic beast of the same level as Punghee, the Injured Fire Dragon. * * * In just half a month, Han Li arrived at the island where the Myoeum Gate market had previously been held. However, even after spreading his senses, he found no one. He surveyed the area and flew off as a streak of blue light. Since the Myoeum Gate market had been held on this island, even if they had moved the location, it would surely be in the surrounding sea area, and there would be a relatively large number of human cultivators gathered. It wouldn’t be difficult to find them with his powerful senses. As expected, in less than half a day, he discovered traces of human cultivators on a certain island. Moreover, it wasn’t just one person, but a group. Looking down from a great height, he saw several male and female cultivators surrounding and attacking two Fourth-Level demonic beasts near the sea surface. Han Li recognized two familiar faces among them, and after a moment of confusion, he smiled. Using the Illusion Transformation Technique, he casually altered his appearance, becoming a middle-aged man with a dark face. With a casual flick of his fingers, he sent out two streaks of blue sword energy, piercing the heads of the two demonic beasts, killing them. At the same time, the cultivators were startled and looked up at Han Li. The sudden appearance of a Core Formation stage cultivator caused a small commotion. After consulting with each other, Jang Han, who was wearing silk clothes, flew towards Han Li. The silk-clad Jang Han was extremely polite, but his eyes were filled with unease. “This junior, Wanbae, greets Senior! Thank you for your help. Is there anything we can do for you?” Han Li’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the cultivators who had been teleported here together, and he turned his gaze to Heo Woon, whose face was covered in scars. Liu Buin and the others were nowhere to be seen. # 304