Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 691

Five days later, Dong Hwon-ah and Ham Woon-ji left the Falling Cloud Sect one after the other. With Han Li’s help, Dong Hwon-ah overcame her inner demon and reached the late stage of Core Formation. Ham Woon-ji returned with a letter for the Great Elder of the Spirit Beast Sect, along with several treasures and a vial of pills that Han Li had gifted her.

Nangong Wan watched him descend with a smile and spoke gently, “Has Woon-ji already left? She could have stayed a few more days.”

“No. It seems her emotional knot regarding me has loosened quite a bit now,” Han Li replied, shaking his head with a smile.

“I just heard news about another one of your beautiful acquaintances. It seems that a woman named Ja Ryung succeeded in forming her Nascent Soul a few years ago and left for the Great Jin. It might be difficult to meet her anytime soon.”

“It’s not surprising that Ja Ryung achieved Nascent Soul with her talent. Whether she’s in Tiannan or not doesn’t matter. If fate allows, we’ll meet again. More importantly, once the materials for refining arrive in a few days, I need to immediately enter closed-door cultivation! I need to reach the peak of the late Nascent Soul stage as soon as possible, fully master the Great Convergence [a cultivation technique], and combine the five types of extreme cold energy and the Five-Automa Heart Demon into one.”

“Alright! I’ll also work hard to reach the late Nascent Soul stage. I hope that when we emerge from seclusion, both of us will have achieved our goals,” Nangong Wan said, her smiling face both gentle and captivating.

“I also hope that things will go as you say, Wan’er. But before that, don’t forget to spend a night alone with me!” Han Li suddenly looked at Nangong Wan with a teasing expression.

“Tch, when did you become so frivolous!” Nangong Wan exclaimed, her face flushing red, but even while scolding him, she was filled with joy.

“Did you say frivolous? I’ve never heard such a word in my life. It seems I’ll only be frivolous with you in this lifetime,” Han Li said, bursting into loud laughter, causing the mountain peak to echo.

Inside a cave on Zimu Peak, a girl who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old was diligently reading a jade slip in one hand. She tilted her head in confusion upon hearing Han Li’s laughter.

* * *

Inside a secret chamber on Zimu Peak in Yunmeng Mountain, the entire chamber seemed to be enveloped in a restriction, with white, hazy energy everywhere.

Han Li sat cross-legged, his entire body emitting a blue glow. Around him, five skeletons sat in a circle, also in a cross-legged position. The skeletons were enveloped in a gray-white demonic aura, each holding five different colored flames—black, white, blue, yellow, and green—in their mouths. In the center, Han Li’s hands flickered with a faint, dazzling purple flame.

On one side of the chamber wall, a silver light flashed, and a blue figure appeared strangely, remaining motionless.

……

Half a day later, Han Li opened his mouth, and a dazzling purple flame turned into a thread and was absorbed into his mouth. Then, Han Li slowly opened his eyes. His initially dazed gaze gradually cleared over time. He turned his head and looked at the blue figure beside him, his brow slightly furrowing.

The blue figure was a humanoid puppet that he had allowed to move outside the residence. He usually left it to manage the residence, except when he needed to assimilate the second Nascent Soul inside the puppet at regular intervals. The fact that the puppet had appeared here meant that something had happened that it couldn’t handle on its own, requiring his intervention. Han Li was inwardly puzzled.

‘Something that even the second Nascent Soul, which is comparable to a Great Cultivator’s divine abilities, couldn’t handle.’ He infused his consciousness into the humanoid puppet and began to assimilate the second Nascent Soul. A moment later, Han Li’s expression turned strange, and the motionless puppet took out something from its waist pouch and held it out. It was a palm-sized, half-broken jade talisman.

Han Li infused a bit of spiritual power into it, and thin, blood-red characters appeared. “So, Fellow Daoist Tian Lan has also awakened! This closed-door cultivation was quite long,” Han Li’s voice was slightly hoarse, as he hadn’t spoken for a long time.

“It’s only been a hundred and thirty years, not that long! Are you about to emerge from seclusion? But the refining of the Cold Flame Heart Demon is nearing its end. It’s a shame to stop now, when another ten years or so would be enough to completely refine it,” a small cauldron flew out of Han Li’s sleeve with a flash of spiritual light, and a young boy appeared from within. He looked two or three years older than before.

“I can continue refining it after I return, so there’s no need to feel regret. However, I received news from the Chaotic Star Sea through the Myriad Mile Talisman [a communication talisman]. I have a promise with the Twin Saints of the Heavens, so I can’t ignore the difficulties of Lingyu Island this time.”

“The Twin Saints of the Heavens? Aren’t they the late-stage cultivators from the Chaotic Star Sea? I glanced at them in the cauldron before; their cultivation was high, but they didn’t have much lifespan left. Even if nothing had happened to them, they would have died of old age by now,” the young boy said, rolling his eyes, thinking of the Twin Saints of the Heavens.

“The message from Lingyu Island didn’t mention the Twin Saints of the Heavens, but they must have already passed away. So, this might be an opportunity. I’ve become interested in the Origin Divine Light of the Star Palace. I carefully examined the methods for entering the Transformation Stage that the Twin Saints of the Heavens gave me, and the only useful thing was the Origin Divine Light. I plan to obtain its cultivation method this time.”

“I’ve never heard of the Origin Divine Light even in the Spirit World. It must be something that a human cultivator developed independently. But be careful not to get distracted by cultivating just any technique, as it will hinder your progress on the Great Dao [the path to enlightenment],” the young boy warned sternly.

“Before cultivating the Origin Divine Light, I plan to first raise my magic power to the peak of the late Nascent Soul stage and then use the extreme cold flame to overcome the Transformation Stage bottleneck. If I succeed, that’s great, but if I fail, I’ll have no choice but to learn the Origin Divine Light.”

“If that’s your plan, then I have nothing more to say. I know many secret techniques for reaching the Transformation Stage, but they’re all useless here due to the thin spiritual energy. But did you make any progress during your hundred years of cultivation? Your magic power seems to have increased significantly,” the young boy asked calmly, scanning Han Li’s body.

“My magic power has increased quite a bit, but it’s still far from enough. I’ll need at least another 50 or 60 years of cultivation, and that’s if I continuously consume various spiritual medicines. Just cultivating alone would take over a hundred years,” Han Li sighed softly, thinking of the Crimson Cloud Pill he had refined in the mysterious space.

‘If I had enough Crimson Cloud Pills, I could shorten my cultivation time several times over.’ Unfortunately, the spiritual herbs needed for the Crimson Cloud Pill were already extinct in the human world, and they couldn’t be transplanted in the Spirit Medicine Garden. At his current level, other pills were woefully inadequate. In the meantime, he had been using the green liquid from the mysterious bottle to cultivate spiritual herbs and to train his Brightspirit Eyes and spirit insects.

However, he had stopped washing his eyes with the Brightspirit Water twenty years ago because no matter how much he washed them, they wouldn’t become any clearer. Of course, the power of Han Li’s Brightspirit Eyes was vastly different from before. By infusing a large amount of spiritual power, he could see through clouds and fog, and even when fully extended, he could see objects a thousand feet away as clearly as if they were right in front of him without using his consciousness.

The Six-Winged Frost Centipede had finally grown two pairs of wings, and its divine abilities had also increased from level 5 to level 7. Now, by manipulating wind and snow, the twelve centipedes could simultaneously unleash their divine abilities, instantly covering an area of over ten miles with ice. However, some of the Gold Devouring Beetles still showed no signs of evolving. He could accelerate their growth with the power of the five elements of spiritual energy that the Saintess Tian Lan had told him about, but the time was not yet right, and he didn’t know how much longer it would take.

Also, in the case of the Earth Dragon Armor he had obtained from the Great Jin, he had been diligently feeding it a large number of spiritual pills, and judging by its cultivation, it seemed that it would soon reach the level 8 Fire Transformation stage. Han Li was now simultaneously practicing the Azure Essence Sword Technique and the Great Convergence. Whether it was because his spiritual root aptitude had improved or because he had a natural talent for consciousness, he had mastered all but the last stage of the Great Convergence in one go. As a result, his consciousness was now twice as strong as before, and once he had cultivated the last stage, he would have a powerful consciousness comparable to that of a Transformation Stage cultivator.

Not only his consciousness but also his body had reached an unimaginable level of strength. He had mastered the first three stages of the Nether King Incantation to cultivate the Swiftwind Transformation, and although he hadn’t wasted much time, the process was so difficult and painful that even Han Li had almost given up halfway. This was probably why it was difficult to find anyone in the Spirit World who had cultivated beyond the third stage. After mastering the third stage of the Nether King Incantation, its power was beyond imagination. He could now block ordinary magic weapon attacks with his bare body, even without a spiritual energy shield. On the other hand, the Swiftwind Transformation was simpler than he had expected, and he had mastered it completely in just one year, now able to unleash its divine abilities at will.

And during his closed-door cultivation, Han Li had also refined several treasures. The most urgent was the refining of the Wood Life Orb, which would allow him to use the Immortal Body divine ability. Unexpectedly, its auxiliary materials were the Yang Soul Wood and Spirit Eye Water, two of the three great spirit woods. These were rare wood-attribute treasures that others would not be able to obtain, but they were no problem for him. He was in the process of refining and refining the Wood Life Orb. In addition, he had also created two useful magic treasures using the twin poisonous stingers of the Twin-Tailed Human-Faced Scorpion and the pillars engraved with fire dragons that he had brought from Kunwu Mountain.

“Hmm.” Thinking about his achievements over the past years, Han Li flicked his sleeve and released a jet-black jade bottle. The five skeletons trembled, scattering their gray-white demonic aura, transforming into demon heads and spewing demonic flames. “Go,” Han Li extended his hand and cast a magic seal. The demon heads spun around and quickly shrank, soon being enveloped by the energy flowing out of the jet-black jade bottle and sucked into it. After retrieving the jade bottle, he stood up. He flicked his sleeve, releasing a white light, and the restrictions within the stone chamber disappeared, revealing the door. As he walked towards the door, the humanoid puppet disappeared again in a flash of silver light.

*

In the central region of Tiannan, the capital of Yue State had been in a state of constant warfare for the past few hundred years, rarely experiencing peace. Initially, the six sects of Yue State were scattered by the invasion of the Demonic Path, and later, those Demonic Path sects fought among themselves for power, eventually leading to the victory of the Ghost Spirit Sect. However, a hundred years ago, the Spirit Beast Sect, in alliance with other sects, drove the Ghost Spirit Sect, which had suffered significant losses in Chuma Valley, out of Yue State. Now, Yue State was divided among several sects, with the Spirit Beast Sect at the helm. The Spirit Beast Sect, being the most powerful, monopolized nearly half of the spiritual vein mines.

One of the spiritual vein mines located below a large valley was also owned by the Spirit Beast Sect. This place had been rich in spirit stone production, but after hundreds of years of reckless mining by the six sects of Yue State, the Ghost Spirit Sect, and the Spirit Beast Sect, almost no spirit stones remained, and naturally, it was no longer a place of great concern. The Spirit Beast Sect had left only two low-level Qi Refining disciples to guard this place. On this day, the Spirit Beast Sect disciples were standing at the entrance of the mine, chatting about the events within the sect, completely unaware that a blue figure had slipped into the cave. The blue figure went straight to the deepest part of the mine.

With a flash of yellow light, a young man with ordinary features, Han Li, appeared, looking around the empty cave with a faint smile. A month ago, after emerging from seclusion, he had left a message saying that he would have to travel far away, as he had not been able to meet Nangong Wan. Over the past hundred years, she had emerged from seclusion several times, traveling throughout Tiannan to temper her mind, and a few years before Han Li emerged from seclusion, she had returned to her secret chamber for closed-door cultivation. Although he couldn’t help but feel disappointed, he couldn’t interfere with her cultivation. And before leaving, he had visited the Falling Cloud Sect and met Lyo Rak and Ryu Ok. During his closed-door cultivation, the Falling Cloud Sect had developed rapidly, and long ago, it had become one of the top sects in Tiannan. Moreover, Song Yeo-in of Baekbong Peak had succeeded in forming her Nascent Soul, becoming the fourth Nascent Soul cultivator of the Falling Cloud Sect.

*