Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 350

Fierce explosions and the clash of magical treasures erupted, scattering dazzling light. Han Li, who had been waiting on the sidelines, sensed that the moment had arrived.

He channeled spiritual power into the wolf-head jade pendant, and a yellow light instantly enveloped his body. Using the Earth Evasion Technique, he burrowed into the ground.

Everyone was so focused on their powerful opponents that they didn’t notice his approach as he moved underground towards the roots of the Spirit Eye Tree.

Reaching the base of the Spirit Eye Tree, Han Li found a faint golden barrier blocking his way. His eyes flashed, and he extended his hands, releasing blue light from his fingertips that silently touched the barrier.

The golden and blue lights flickered briefly, and the barrier trembled almost imperceptibly. Normally, a cultivator guarding the barrier would have noticed this change, but the situation was far from normal.

After a moment, Han Li increased his spiritual power and forcefully spread his hands apart, causing a crack to appear in the barrier, creating a small opening.

Swoosh!

Han Li’s body seemed to elongate as he slipped through the opening into the barrier, which then silently closed behind him.

Finally, the roots of the Spirit Eye Tree were before him. A rare look of joy crossed Han Li’s face as he saw them.

The trunk of the Spirit Eye Tree was withered and unlike a normal tree, but the roots appeared quite ordinary, except for their jade-green color.

A huge explosion echoed from above. Judging by the sound of shattering rocks and the shaking ground, someone had unleashed a powerful attack.

Elder Bu shouted, his voice filled with agitation.

“We must pursue them! We can’t let them escape!”

The sound of someone cutting through the air was heard, followed by the Heavenly Slaughter True Lord’s laughter.

“Nam cultivator, what do you think of this old man’s Turtle Shell Technique? Although I didn’t unleash it directly, I used the essence of this body without holding back, so even a Nascent Soul cultivator would be helpless for a while.”

“Heavenly Slaughter Demonic Head, you came out like this without considering the lives of your disciples. Even if that fellow survives, he will lose most of his cultivation!”

The voice was clear, but Han Li could sense a hint of anger.

“My disciples? From what I heard earlier, he didn’t even consider himself a disciple of the Heavenly Slaughter Sect. Why should I care about him? Oh, where do you think you’re going, you old ghost?”

The Heavenly Slaughter True Lord, who had been speaking calmly, suddenly changed his expression and shouted.

“Hmph! This old man has no intention of being tied down to this possessed body. Do you think I’ll let those bug-like demonic cultivators leave Yunmeng Mountain with the pure essence?”

“We can’t let them get away so easily!”

The Heavenly Slaughter True Lord seemed to follow the voice that echoed from outside the cave with a low roar. Suddenly, only Han Li was left in the cave, and he completely relaxed.

Without wasting any more time, he flicked his finger, and a few inches of blue light shot out from his fingertip. As the blue light flashed, a piece of the root was easily severed, and a milky white liquid flowed from the cut.

At the same time, a clear fragrance began to spread intensely in the air!

Han Li immediately amplified the yellow light surrounding his body, grabbed the root of the Spirit Eye Tree, and shot out of the ground. He looked around and saw that a new cave, several yards in size, had been created inside the cave, and the surrounding area was filled with shattered rock fragments.

It seemed that the Heavenly Slaughter True Lord’s attack had caused this. It was amazing how such a powerful force could turn a stalactite cave, which was as hard as steel due to the barrier, into such a state.

‘So that’s how Doo Dong and the others were able to escape.’

Han Li didn’t hesitate and quickly took out a jade box from his storage pouch and placed the root of the Spirit Eye Tree inside.

He was very satisfied with achieving his goal.

Then, he considered whether he could chase after the disheveled old man and the others. Although he had obtained the root of the Spirit Eye Tree, he had not obtained the secret recipe for refining the Brightspirit Essence or the Spirit Pills, so he had to see if there was an opportunity.

In any case, the Heavenly Slaughter True Lord was possessing the disheveled old man’s body, so he wouldn’t be able to maintain the great technique for long. He wouldn’t have been able to escape far from the boy’s grasp.

Han Li was about to break through the barrier and leave when he suddenly twitched his eyebrows. He frowned and immediately turned back towards the rear of the Spirit Eye Tree.

“This is…”

A yellow cushion and a square stone table came into view, and on top of it was a book emitting a faint green light.

Han Li scanned the jade book, first checking for any hidden restrictions. Then, he released blue light from his palm and pulled the green jade slip towards him.

With a cautious expression, Han Li looked at the jade slip and stood motionless, infusing his consciousness into it. After a long time, Han Li withdrew his consciousness with a bewildered look.

The book contained records left by Elder Wei, and surprisingly, it included his insights on the cultivation techniques he had learned, his understanding of pills, and even the methods for making Spirit Pills and Brightspirit Essence.

It seemed that Elder Wei knew what was going to happen to him and had tried to leave these things for someone. Leaving them behind the Spirit Eye Tree without any barrier or restriction likely meant he intended to leave them for a cultivator from the Falling Cloud Sect.

‘Why would he do this?’

Han Li pondered for a moment while holding the book, then took out an empty jade slip from his storage pouch and copied the contents.

Han Li placed the book back in its place and approached the barrier. Someone could return at any time, so he had to leave this place as soon as possible.

Han Li gathered all his spiritual power, and a blue light flashed as the Azure Essence Sword Qi widened the barrier. He quickly transformed into a streak of blue light and escaped through the gap.

* * *

When Han Li returned to the stone chamber, the low-level disciples were still lying scattered around. It was not surprising. In such chaos, who would have the time to take care of them?

The fox, who had transformed into Han Li and pretended to be unconscious, saw him and returned to its fox form, jumping into his sleeve. Yin Yue chuckled softly from inside his sleeve.

“Did you get it? No one has been here. I guess it was a needless worry!”

“I got it. It’s better to be careful than to expose our identities.”

“But how are you going to explain why you’re alive?”

Han Li answered calmly, as if he had no worries at all.

“Why explain? I’ll just tell the truth.”

“The truth?”

“I’ll say that I barely survived thanks to a high-grade illusion talisman that I bought for a fortune. After all, illusions are so mysterious that even a cultivator with high cultivation can be fooled for a moment if they are careless.”

“That’s a good excuse. It’s simple and believable.”

The situation afterward was smooth. Almost half a day later, the yellow-robed cultivator entered the stone chamber with a gloomy face.

He sighed as he looked at the unconscious disciples, then formed a hand seal with both hands and lightly flicked his ten fingers, releasing white lights that entered the cultivators’ bodies.

The technique that Doo Dong had used was not a great secret technique, so the disciples began to regain consciousness one by one.

They saw that Doo Dong and the others were gone and that only the yellow-robed cultivator was there, and they were relieved to realize that they had escaped the crisis.

Of course, some of them gasped when they saw Han Li among them, but soon, he took out the illusion talisman he had made himself and gave the prepared explanation, and everyone seemed to accept it.

The yellow-robed cultivator also looked at Han Li differently but did not ask him in detail. However, a look of doubt lingered on the faces of Sun Hua and the woman surnamed Mo.

After all, they had heard Doo Dong say strange things to Han Li from the beginning, and they had been the closest to witness him ruthlessly deal with Doo Dong as soon as he regained his senses.

Han Li was aware of what the two were thinking, but he was not too worried.

Without any evidence, they couldn’t spread baseless rumors, and since Doo Dong had suddenly attacked him, they would at least think that he was not on their side.

The pure essence had also disappeared, and the disheveled old man in charge of making the Brightspirit Essence was also missing, so the rewards for the top ten contestants this time were also gone.

Elder Bu and the high-ranking members of the three sects quickly prepared good magical treasures, distributed them one by one, and smoothed things over. The disciples returned to their respective sects.

The low-level disciples were resentful that they had missed the opportunity to cleanse their eyes with the Brightspirit Essence, but they had no choice but to obediently return to their sects.

As soon as Han Li and the others returned to the Falling Cloud Sect, they were summoned by the high-ranking members of the sect to report on what had happened in the forbidden area. The elders’ expressions completely crumpled as they listened to the story, and they issued a gag order to them.

Later, it was revealed that the Yunmeng Mountain Three Sects’ plan to thoroughly search out and eliminate the spies within their sects had completely failed this time.

Not only did Doo Dong and the others safely return to the righteous and demonic paths with the protection of the Heavenly Slaughter Sect’s Sect Master, but all the spies except for Bai Munsa had escaped out of the Jie Kingdom. Bai Munsa was killed on the spot by Elder Bu and the others due to a momentary mistake.

The body of the disheveled old man, whose body had been possessed by the Heavenly Slaughter Sect’s Sect Master, was brought back to the Falling Cloud Sect by the Fire Dragon Child after the great technique had lost its effect. However, it was unknown whether he was dead or imprisoned somewhere.

Two Nascent Soul stage elders from the Falling Cloud Sect and Core Formation stage cultivators from the three sects were ambushed by a large-scale ambush by the Demonic Heavenly Illusion Sect and the Heavenly Slaughter Sect that day. Not only were there casualties among the Core Formation stage cultivators, but Elder Jeong of the Nascent Soul stage was severely injured and retreated after being attacked by several cultivators of the same level. Although his life was not in danger, his vitality was greatly damaged.

This incident shook the three sects.

They tried to put pressure on both the righteous and demonic paths through the Heavenly Dao Alliance, but both sides denied any involvement, causing them great humiliation, and they still had no countermeasures.

The only fortunate thing was that, according to the spies that the Heavenly Dao Alliance had planted in the righteous and demonic paths, the amount of pure essence that had been taken was so small that the other side had also failed to revive the Mystic Heavenly Immortal Vine. The vine was still withered and had not changed at all.

This news gave the high-ranking members of the Yunmeng Mountain Three Sects and the Heavenly Dao Alliance a sigh of relief.

However, after that, each sect became more vigilant and began to strengthen their defenses, and it became impossible to predict when a conflict would occur.

* * *

Han Li returned to his residence immediately after reporting the situation to the high-ranking members.

Arriving at his residence inside the small stone mountain, he planted the root of the Spirit Eye Tree not far from the Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng. He judged that since both were spiritual objects, keeping them close could help each other’s growth.

And because of the insights he had gained from the incident at the sword competition, the Great Development Technique, which had been stagnant, suddenly showed progress, and unexpectedly, his skills improved day by day.

In this situation, Han Li cultivated the Great Development Technique and the Azure Essence Sword Technique at the same time.

Han Li thought that the reason why the Great Development Technique was progressing so smoothly was mostly due to the effect of the wooden beads made from Soul-Nourishing Wood that he wore around his neck.

The immediate effect after wearing it was minimal, but over time, his consciousness had gradually been trained. The Soul-Nourishing Wood was further accelerating the speed of his Great Development Technique training, which had overcome a hurdle.

Moreover, whenever he cultivated the Great Development Technique, a subtle energy from the Soul-Nourishing Wood beads would seep into his nascent soul. At the same time, Han Li began to use the green liquid to nurture the root of the Spirit Eye Tree every few days.

As a result, a sprout of the Spirit Eye Tree emerged from the root in just a few months. It seemed that it was only a matter of time before it grew completely and became like the Spirit Eye Tree he had seen in the forbidden area of Yunmeng Mountain.

Of course, it would still take about twenty years of dedicated care, but there was no need to rush. After all, it would take about that much time to succeed in the Nascent Soul stage. He already had a Spirit Pill, so there was no reason to be impatient.

He still laughed when he thought about how easily he had obtained the precious spirit pill by searching the black-clothed youth’s storage pouch.

Now, the most important thing was the creation of the Brightspirit Essence.

If his eyes were imbued with the energy of the Brightspirit Essence, becoming Brightspirit Eyes, he would have a powerful consciousness and gain an advantage when fighting against cultivators of the same level, and it would also be advantageous when fighting using techniques.