Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 585

586. Backlash

“Fellow cultivator Han, what do you plan to do with these?”

Kyu-ryeong walked up behind him, dragging five shrunken skeletons that emanated black and white energy.

The demonic incarnations, having lost control the moment Geon Noma was imprisoned, had fallen to the ground, making them easy to subdue.

“Those are…”

Keehahahak!

Just as Han Li was about to speak, the black skull heads that had been biting at Geon Noma’s Nascent Soul suddenly opened their mouths and let out sharp cries.

The noise was so loud that just hearing it made one’s blood and energy twist, and one’s mind became disturbed.

The five skeletons trapped within the black and white energy writhed as if reacting to the sound. Their eyes flashed with a bloodthirsty light, emitting a violent aura.

The skeletons simultaneously opened their mouths and attacked the black and white energy.

Bang!

The ugly woman had not anticipated the attack from the limp skeletons, and the black and white energy quickly dissipated.

Five white shadows broke free of their restraints and flew towards the black skull heads. However, Han Li had no intention of letting this happen.

He sneered, and a blue aura spread from the small cauldron in his hand, forming a barrier and blocking the five shadows. The five skeletons were also trapped by the energy of the Void Sky Cauldron.

At that moment, the skull heads biting the Nascent Soul began to go berserk. While unable to move, trapped by the blue light, they struggled to break free, flashing cyan flames from their entire bodies.

“No! Re, release them now!”

Geon Noma’s Nascent Soul suddenly screamed in terror.

Han Li found it strange and looked at him, but there was no way he would release them just because he asked. However, his expression soon changed. The five skull heads, after screaming horribly and rampaging, suddenly bit into Geon Noma’s Nascent Soul.

This time, they weren’t just sucking blood; they were chewing and swallowing the Nascent Soul with a ‘crunch, crunch’ sound.

“Backlash…!”

Han Li immediately realized what the skull heads were doing. The tables had turned, and the skull heads he had been controlling were now harming him.

Geon Noma, already severely weakened, could not suppress the ferocious nature of the Five-Autonomy Heart Demon [a type of inner demon] and was being devoured.

In response, Han Li summoned a blue beam of light from the cauldron, wrapped it around the skull heads, and forcibly separated them from the Nascent Soul. However, Geon Noma’s Nascent Soul, having already been significantly devoured, was in tatters.

Fortunately, the Nascent Soul was still alive. Although it had shrunk to about half its size in an instant, as long as its consciousness remained, it would be possible to extract information.

He sighed, retrieved the Ghost Banner next to the Nascent Soul, placed it in his storage pouch, and then gestured towards a certain direction. The humanoid puppet then brought the black leather pouch that had been dropped far away.

It was Geon Noma’s storage pouch, dropped when the Blood Demon Orb exploded. Han Li did not immediately examine the storage pouch but turned his head towards Kyu-ryeong.

“I need to deal with the Nascent Soul for a moment, so during that time, Fellow cultivator Kyu, please watch over the skeletons.”

“Leave it to me.”

Kyu-ryeong replied and emitted black and white energy from her mouth, wrapping it around the skeletons.

Han Li nodded and clenched his hand in the air. A giant blue hand suddenly appeared, grabbing the blood-red Nascent Soul and the five skull heads. Han Li then transformed into a beam of light and disappeared into the Arctic Origin Light [a type of powerful light barrier].

The humanoid puppet stood still in its place.

Only after Han Li disappeared did Kyu-ryeong turn her gaze to the puppet. If she hadn’t seen it being taken out of the storage pouch, it would have been difficult to realize it was a puppet.

After about an hour, Han Li appeared, cutting through the Arctic Origin Light. His face was expressionless, and he was no longer carrying Geon Noma’s Nascent Soul.

“How should we deal with the main body of the Five-Autonomy Heart Demon? It can only be eliminated by slowly refining it with flames of extremely strong Yang energy.”

“There’s no need to refine it. The Five-Autonomy Heart Demon has another use, so let’s seal it for now.”

“Understood.”

Kyu-ryeong immediately replied to Han Li’s words.

He flicked his sleeve, and talismans flew out, wrapping around the skeletons and skull heads. Then, he spread his hands and flicked his ten fingers, causing golden lightning to burst forth, and fine golden threads bound the light masses layer upon layer.

Kyu-ryeong’s expression changed at the unusual sealing method.

Han Li formed a hand seal, and the magic seal flew out, transforming into golden beads, shrinking the light masses to the size of fists. Even while looking at the beads, Han Li frowned.

After some deliberation, he opened his mouth, and a seven-colored Buddhist light spread out as the Vajra Shield [a Buddhist defensive artifact] he had been cultivating within his body emerged.

Following his gesture, the seven-colored light spread out and absorbed the golden beads.

Having subdued them with the Evil-Slaying Divine Lightning and then confined them with a Buddhist treasure, no matter how ferocious the demonic incarnations were, they would not be able to cause trouble.

Only then did Han Li feel relieved. He took out a jade box from his storage pouch, placed the Vajra Shield inside, and retrieved it.

“Do you know of any place to hide in Mount Kunwu? Let’s take refuge for a few days and leave when the gaps in the sealing restrictions recover.”

Han Li asked Kyu-ryeong, looking towards the entrance of Kunwu Hall.

“There is a place. I discovered it by chance, so it’s a place that no one knows about.”

Kyu-ryeong immediately answered his question.

“That would be best. Let’s go! If we encounter enemies, let’s try to pass by without engaging them if possible.”

Han Li nodded and retrieved the puppet. The two cultivators transformed into beams of light and began to fly towards the entrance of Kunwu Hall.

Using his spiritual sense, Han Li sensed that no one was guarding the outside of the Arctic Origin Light. Rather than being pleased, he was puzzled.

He held the Yuan Magnetic Shifting Shield and the Three-Flame Fan in both hands and silently exited the Arctic Origin Light.

He cautiously walked out of Kunwu Hall, wary of ambushes, but the outside was quiet. The golden sandalwood trees that had lined the huge plaza in two rows had already been cut down, and there were several places where the ground was dented.

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure exactly, but it seems like they clashed with the first group that entered this place. It must have been a large group to be able to break the sealing barrier of Mount Kunwu.”

Han Li replied in a cautious tone to her question.

“I watched from afar when they broke the Kunwu Mountain restrictions. There were about six or seven cultivators, and two of them had cultivation similar to mine.”

“Do you remember what the two cultivators looked like?”

“I only observed them with my spiritual sense from afar, so I didn’t see what they looked like.”

Kyu-ryeong shook her head at his curious voice. The reason Han Li asked this question was to confirm whether Goma was definitely among the first group.

Now that he had Kyu-ryeong and the humanoid puppet, he had nothing to fear even if he fought against them.

However, it seemed like something significant was happening. Otherwise, it was hard to understand why the Yin Fiend Sect cultivators and even the Tianlan Grassland cultivators had disappeared.

They had been persistently chasing him since the grasslands, so there was no way they would retreat like this.

‘Could they have run away after encountering a powerful enemy?’

But that was also strange. If another group had subdued the cultivators guarding this place, they should have immediately entered Kunwu Hall to seize the treasures.

In any case, he had achieved everything he wanted, so it was best to leave quietly. He would soon have another chance to retrieve the flying sword that Goma possessed.

“Fellow cultivator Kyu, let’s go to the place you mentioned earlier! As time passes, we don’t know how many more cultivators will enter.”

Han Li sneered and took flight, and Kyu-ryeong followed behind him with a wry smile. However, the traces of fighting continued throughout their journey. It seemed like someone had been chasing and being chased, engaging in fierce battles.

“This is…”

Han Li frowned as he looked at a suddenly appearing ravine.

Due to a treasure of the flying sword type, the stone steps had been split, leaving a trace nearly a hundred yards long. Han Li knew that he could not create such a ravine in one go with his giant sword technique.

“To unleash such powerful divine abilities, the battle between the cultivators must have been more intense than I thought.”

Eun-wol’s voice echoed in his mind.

“That’s right! But it has nothing to do with me!”

Han Li replied indifferently with a telepathic message and kicked off the ground, leaping over the pit. Kyu-ryeong closely followed behind him, but Han Li looked at a rock on one side with a cold gaze.

“I know you’re there, so you can come out now.”

As he spoke, a black aura wrapped around a Nascent Soul shot out from the rock. Han Li, who had disappeared in a flash of silver light, appeared in front of the black aura.

As he clenched his hand in the air, a giant blue hand appeared, trying to grab the black aura, and the startled Nascent Soul tried to teleport away.

However, Han Li, who had a lot of combat experience with cultivators of the same level, was skilled at capturing Nascent Souls.

Thump!

A thunderous sound rang out, and golden lightning flashed from the blue hand, colliding with the Nascent Soul that was trying to teleport away.

As a result, most of the black aura dissipated, and the Nascent Soul staggered, unable to maintain its form. The blue hand quickly snatched the Nascent Soul and flew towards Han Li.

“This person is…”

Kyu-ryeong recognized who the Nascent Soul was. Although it had no physical body, its features were identical to one of the black-robed elders of the Yin Fiend Sect.

“Fellow cultivator Han, what do you intend to do with me! I have no direct grudge against you!”

“Then why are you trembling so much? I haven’t said anything. What’s going on? Where did the Yin Fiend Sect cultivators and the Tianlan Grassland cultivators who were guarding the outside go? And the women who escaped from Kunwu Hall, the Silver Yaksha, and the Golden Sand Beast are also nowhere to be seen.”

Han Li asked what he was curious about without any change in his expression.

Seeing that his gaze was not menacing, the Nascent Soul felt a little relieved and tried not to offend him.

“After the cultivators entered, the Ye family cultivators suddenly attacked. They attacked us as soon as they saw us! We were barely holding them off with the help of Fellow cultivator Seo when suddenly a loud noise came from the True Devil Pagoda, and the mountain peak itself collapsed. The pagoda disappeared into the mountain…”

The Nascent Soul hesitated after saying this, and Han Li sent him a cold glare.

“And then, a light burst out from that place, and the sound of chanting Buddhist scriptures echoed. The sound was so loud that it felt like it was right next to my ear, and someone shouted that it was the Heaven-Reaching Treasure. Then, the cultivators gathered here began to rush towards the True Devil Pagoda.

At that time, the women who escaped from Kunwu Hall and the Silver Yaksha also witnessed the strange phenomenon and disappeared. I deliberately stayed here to report this news to the Great Elder.”

“The Heaven-Reaching Treasure appeared? Then how did you lose your physical body?”

“I don’t know if it was really the Heaven-Reaching Treasure. Judging by how even the late-Nascent Soul cultivators rushed there, there must be a great treasure. However, I was ambushed by the Sasan True Man after that and ended up like this. That damned bastard was hiding and attacked me with a blood-red dagger, and all the blood in my body was sucked out in an instant. If I hadn’t abandoned my physical body and teleported away, I wouldn’t have been able to save my Nascent Soul.”

“You mean he had such a powerful dagger?”

“I’ve never seen such a treasure before. Except for the color, its appearance was similar to the legendary Demonic Dragon Blade! But if it was the real Demonic Dragon Blade, would I have had a chance to escape?”

The Nascent Soul shared his thoughts as if he wasn’t sure either.

‘Demonic Dragon Blade!’

At those words, Han Li’s expression changed.

# 587