Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 630

Han Li’s navy blue eyes scanned his surroundings.

The surrounding restrictions were similar to before, but the spiritual energy fluctuations were different. With his skill approaching that of a formation master, he immediately grasped the profound principles.

“Let us begin. If this old one succeeds, I will not forget everyone’s efforts,” Han Ryeo Sang-in’s low laughter echoed from within the milky white light orb. Then, as he formed hand seals, the surrounding navy blue flames began to emit an even deeper color, making it hard to look away, like staring into a deep blue ocean.

“I didn’t expect Fellow Cultivator Han Ryeo to have refined the Cold Flame Ice Flame to this extent. It would be difficult to find such pure cold flames in the Human Realm,” the old woman murmured, seemingly envious.

‘Is that what a fully refined Cold Flame Ice Flame looks like?’ Han Li thought, immediately showing interest as he looked at Han Ryeo Sang-in. As everyone sat in a meditative posture, light lotuses were about to bloom from below.

Han Li raised the corners of his mouth and formed hand seals, causing purple flames to ignite all over his body. The cultivators with five cold flames did not move immediately but began to chant spells.

The lotuses grew larger with the chanting, becoming twice as large as before, and accordingly, the cultivators’ cold flames blazed dazzlingly.

In the extreme flames, Han Li felt as if he had entered the sun for a moment, his whole body burning hot. The Extreme Yang Flame within his body was fully activated.

Han Ryeo Sang-in struck the back of his head within the flames, and his Nascent Soul [a nascent soul is a newly formed soul], enveloped in navy blue light, slowly rose from his body.

“Hah!”

The Nascent Soul was sitting in a meditative posture, forming hand seals, and wearing a silver jade pendant around its neck, though it was unclear what kind of treasure it was.

The Nascent Soul rose about a foot, then opened its mouth and spewed out navy blue flames. It was the true essence of the Cold Flame Ice Flame that Han Ryeo Sang-in had refined for hundreds of years.

As the flames spun and transformed into a shining navy blue wheel, something strange happened to the Nascent Soul. Along with the navy blue wheel, the Nascent Soul escaped from the milky white mass of cold energy.

Seeing Han Ryeo Sang-in’s Nascent Soul leave, the other cultivators immediately poured more cold flames into the light orb.

However, a bizarre thing occurred. Before the cultivators’ cold flames could reach the Nascent Soul, the navy blue wheel began to spin faster and started to absorb them with great force.

All the cold flames trembled and were sucked in. The navy blue wheel, which had been shining, turned iridescent and emitted dazzling colors.

The Nascent Soul cried out lowly and released a magic seal, throwing it into the wheel below its body, causing the various flames to tremble and explode. Then, the Nascent Soul’s hands became even busier, and it continuously threw out magic seals as if it would exhaust all its magical power.

The magic seals encouraged the flames to explode and then fuse again. Suddenly, a lotus flower formed from the combined lights of the flames.

The lotus flower contained black, white, red, yellow, green, and navy blue lights, and although the boundaries were clear, they were fused into one, making it incredibly mysterious.

As the lotus grew larger, the Nascent Soul inside looked smaller. The Nascent Soul muttered incomprehensible incantations, and the lotus began to contract, and each time its size decreased, the light became more intense.

After a while, when the lotus had shrunk to about a foot in length, the lotus petals became clearer, and various colored cold flames blazed on them.

The moment Han Li saw it, he felt something was strange, but like the other cultivators, he released even more cold flames. The cold flames were soon absorbed into the lotus made of light and disappeared without a sound.

At this moment, the Nascent Soul suddenly opened its eyes, and a strange golden light flashed in them. As the Nascent Soul reached out towards the lotus, numerous thin navy blue threads flew out and melted into the lotus petals.

The Nascent Soul continued to chant spells, its expression very cautious. When it finally withdrew its hand, the navy blue threads connecting its fingertips and the lotus petals flickered.

The lotus petals slowly gathered together by the navy blue threads, and as if time were flowing backward, the fully bloomed flower returned to a bud, with the Nascent Soul nestled inside. Six kinds of cold flames flowed continuously over it.

The other cultivators, including Han Li, used magic seals to control the extreme flames.

The six-colored lotus bud slowly descended. For a long time, light flashed, and the bud, as if it had never existed, passed through the milky white light orb and disappeared into Han Ryeo Sang-in’s head.

Now, the five cultivators once again shot cold flames into the light orb, and the milky white light orb pierced through Han Ryeo Sang-in’s body, and he began to prepare to break through his realm.

Tsutsutsut.

Now, except for the strange sounds of the formation operating, no other sound could be heard.

* * *

Outside the Mysterious Jade Cave, two men in white robes from the Sojeok Palace were walking side by side in an alley of the Ice City. Their expressions were blank as they looked around, appearing very cautious.

The giant ice peak was no longer visible in the sky above the Ice City. It was unknown whether it had been temporarily repelled by Baek Yo-i and the old man or had gone elsewhere.

This place was the most secluded part of the Ice City, but it was still firmly surrounded by ice walls. The two disciples had come here after hearing that the lower realm disciples who had been staying here had withdrawn a few days ago.

“This is the place.”

One of the men looked ahead, his eyes gleaming, and the other man turned the corner of the alley and appeared behind an ice building. The area in front of them brightened, revealing a thirty-foot-wide open space where a male and female cultivator were waiting for them.

“You’re finally here. If you had been any later, we would have had to move on our own,” the woman said, looking at the two men with dissatisfaction. The man standing next to her was a giant with dark skin and thick eyebrows, dressed as a Sojeok Palace disciple like them.

The identities of the waiting man and woman seemed lower than those of the disciples who came later, but it was strange that they were talking so bluntly.

“The outer formation is already being broken, with only a few layers left, so the human cultivators are very tense. We had a hard time finding a suitable excuse to get out. If we arouse suspicion, everything will be in vain,” one of the men who came later replied with a snort.

The woman raised her eyebrows and was about to say something, but the dark-skinned giant beside her impatiently stepped forward.

“Enough with the useless talk, let’s move quickly. Even if it’s just a split soul, I don’t want to lose it carelessly.”

At those words, the woman swallowed what she was about to say and closed her mouth. She seemed to be wary of the dark-skinned giant. They quickly took out formation disks and spirit stones from their storage bags and began to set up a formation in the open space.

After a while, a small formation took shape, surprisingly a one-way temporary teleportation formation. About an hour later, as the teleportation formation was nearing completion, a nearby ice building collapsed with a crash.

They were startled and released protective magic tools.

“A few demon beast split souls are causing such a ruckus in the Sojeok Palace. Does that mean they don’t care about old folks like us?”

The old man’s voice was heard, and two shadows appeared.

One was an old man with a long beard and mustache, and the other was a middle-aged man with a red face and a long sword on his back.

“They are the Sojeok Palace law enforcement elders. We have to run!” the woman shouted in terror after seeing the figures’ faces, and she transformed into a red streak of light and shot away first. The giant and the other two men also immediately turned into streaks of light and tried to escape.

“To think you could escape from us, how amusing!” the middle-aged man with the long sword sneered and nodded, and four dazzling sword energies shot out.

Then, screams were heard from various places, and the woman and the other two men were pierced by the sword energies and fell, but only the dark-skinned giant avoided the attack and flew away as a blue streak of light.

“How interesting.”

The middle-aged man with the red face immediately opened his mouth and released a white streak of light. The white streak of light quickly caught up with the giant’s blue light and cut it in two.

At that moment, the bearded old man beside him flicked his sleeve and sent out four jade-colored magic tools shaped like willow leaves.

After a while, something that had hastily escaped from the corpse shrieked and disappeared into smoke from the attack of the jade-colored leaves. The middle-aged man with the red face frowned as he looked at the nearly completed teleportation formation and waved his hand, releasing a thick sword energy.

Bang!

A loud explosion was heard, and the teleportation formation disappeared, leaving only a huge pit.

“Let’s go. Destroying the split soul won’t cause much damage, but it will be quite unpleasant,” the old man said, stroking his beard, and then transformed into a streak of light and flew away, followed by the middle-aged man with the red face.

These events occurred simultaneously in two other places, and the disciples possessed by the split souls of high-level demon beasts were all wiped out. And in the Han Ryeo Secret Realm, which could be considered the true Sojeok Palace, about six Nascent Soul stage cultivators, including the Sojeok Palace Lord, were seriously discussing something.

Among them, the faces of Lady Mi and two other cultivators were particularly pale, as if they had greatly depleted their vital energy.

“I didn’t expect the Myriad Demon Valley to bring even the Myriad Demon Banner… If Elder Bang and Elder Hwang hadn’t helped, I wouldn’t have been able to defeat Old Monster Cha’s clone alone. Fortunately, we were able to barely manage it with the help of the powerful formation, but the old monster’s injuries were not severe, and he will attack again in two days. We must retreat before then,” Lady Mi, with the surname Ryu, said, frowning.

“Isn’t it too early to retreat now? It won’t be too late to retreat after the demons reach the city gates,” a burly man with a thick beard objected.

“Perhaps it will be too late then.”

“Senior Brother Wang, did you get scared after just one fight with the demon race!”

“Junior Brother Hwang, what do you know? I have personally witnessed the power of the Myriad Demon Banner. Although it is a replica of a Heaven-Reaching Treasure [a very powerful and rare treasure], it seemed to have already reached a level similar to the ancient Heavenly Demon Banner. Fortunately, it was just Old Monster Cha’s incarnation, so we were able to barely force him back with the Palace Lord’s cooperation!” the old man with the pale face said calmly, without showing any anger.

“Is it that strong? Even so, there are still several powerful restrictions left, so I don’t think it’s right to retreat without trying anything,” the burly man said, shaking his head reluctantly. Lady Mi narrowed her eyes and looked around at the cultivators before opening her mouth.

“Have you all forgotten that the enemies have already reached the city gates? If Junior Sister Baek and Junior Sister Yeop hadn’t lured the ice peak into the Illusory Light Mystic Heaven Formation and temporarily trapped it, we wouldn’t even have this time! Moreover, the ice peak is a direct descendant of a heaven and earth spirit beast, so although it is a level 10 demon beast, it exerts power almost equivalent to a Transformation stage cultivator [a very high level of cultivation].

Although the two elders are directly controlling the formation now, they won’t be able to hold out for long. In this situation, it would be wise to prepare for retreat. However, Elder Dong’s opinion also has merit, so let’s do this.

We will first evacuate the lower-level disciples to the Void Realm, and then we, the higher-level disciples, will remain and inflict damage on the enemy before retreating. However, everyone must remember that our goal is to maintain the power of our palace, not to annihilate the enemy.”

Everyone nodded in agreement at Lady Mi’s words. Following her instructions, they summoned the disciples and divided them into those who would retreat first and those who would prepare for the final strike.