Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 729

730. Plundering the World

Han Li transformed into a streak of blue light, soaring high above, millions of miles away from the sea of mist.

“Fellow Cultivator Han, are you truly planning to enter the spatial node in alliance with the Ice Phoenix?”

A blue light emerged from his sleeve and halted before him. Han Li looked at the boy, slightly puzzled.

The boy, who had rarely shown himself in the past few years except when he needed materials or pills, had suddenly brought up the topic of a demon cultivator.

“It seems I must. Given her natural talent for spatial abilities, she will be a great help when entering the spatial node.”

“That may be so. Although the Ice Phoenix doesn’t possess the true bloodline of a Heavenly Phoenix, she seems to have inherited some spatial abilities. However, you haven’t forgotten your promise to release me from my restraints before you leave the mortal realm, have you?”

“Of course not. But, Fellow Cultivator Tian Lan, you’ve been researching the remnants of the Golden Jade Tome [a powerful cultivation manual] for so long, isn’t it time to share something?”

Han Li, with a calm demeanor, brought up the remnants of the Golden Jade Tome instead.

“I have deciphered some of the talismans written in the Golden Jade Tome. However, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of my interpretations! Furthermore, it’s impossible to use immortal talismans in the mortal realm where the heaven and earth spiritual energy is so thin. Any cultivator who tries to forcefully use such techniques will have their energy depleted and wither away. Do you still want to know what little I have understood?”

The boy narrowed his brows.

“Of course, I do. I also need the Golden Jade Tome back. If I can reach the Spirit World, I will study it myself slowly.”

“Then, take it!”

The boy didn’t hesitate at all. He stepped on the small cauldron with one foot, and the lid of the cauldron slid open, creating a small gap.

*Thud!*

Yellow and green lights each shot out of the cauldron and were caught by Han Li. They were a yellow wooden box and a jade slip.

Inside the wooden box was an incomplete jade pendant.

When he scanned the jade slip with his consciousness, he found an interpretation of the jade pendant. Each word was profound, and although he couldn’t immediately understand anything, it didn’t seem to be fake.

Han Li put the two items into his storage pouch and smiled.

“I will not break my promise either. I will immediately use a secret technique to slowly sever the connection between your primordial spirit [the core of one’s soul] and the Void Sky Cauldron. However, it will still take decades, so you must not be impatient.”

“Why would I be impatient? I just need to regain my freedom before you ascend to the Spirit World!”

The boy seemed satisfied with Han Li’s words, and his form blurred and disappeared.

Han Li pondered for a moment, then spat out a blue aura that enveloped the small cauldron. The small cauldron rapidly shrunk within the blue aura and entered his body.

At the same time, the nascent soul [a cultivator’s spiritual form] sitting cross-legged within his body suddenly opened its eyes. With a flick of its small hand, a one-inch-sized blue cauldron strangely appeared in front of it.

The nascent soul formed a hand seal, and a blue spiritual light spread out, enveloping its body and the cauldron. However, Han Li, with an indifferent expression, increased his speed and disappeared into the distance.

Not long after, mysterious cultivators began to appear in various cultivation realms of the mortal world, collecting rare treasures and secret techniques that were not well-known.

These were either related to spatial abilities or possessed powerful defensive capabilities.

The mysterious cultivators had high standards and didn’t covet multiple treasures or secret techniques in one place. Each time they appeared, their faces, builds, and clothing were different, making it impossible to track them.

Moreover, they moved so swiftly and cleanly that they could enter and leave even the most heavily guarded places without a sound, leaving no trace.

The only thing the cultivators who knew the situation could ascertain was that their cultivation was at an unfathomable level, treating even Nascent Soul cultivators [a high level of cultivation] like children.

Fortunately, the mysterious cultivators only sought treasures and didn’t kill other cultivators, only injuring them.

Thus, one year, then another, passed.

* * *

Seventy years later, on the summit of a high mountain on the Heavenly Sand Continent.

The mysterious cultivator stood on a rock, calmly looking at two old men glaring at him.

At this time, he was in the guise of a middle-aged scholar with a long beard and mustache, wearing a jet-black robe.

The old men possessed early and mid-Nascent Soul cultivation, making them among the top cultivators on the Heavenly Sand Continent.

“I don’t know who you are, but hand over the Golden Shackle Ring you stole immediately! Sneaking into our sect to steal treasures, is that something a Nascent Soul cultivator should do?”

The old man with thick eyebrows shouted fiercely.

They had chased him here after a long pursuit, but they couldn’t fathom his cultivation. Therefore, they didn’t attack immediately but tried to probe him with words.

The mysterious cultivator’s eyes flashed, and he raised his hand, throwing something at the old man. The surprised old man reached out and pulled it in, only to find that it was a storage pouch.

“I needed the Golden Shackle Ring. The spirit stones [currency used by cultivators] inside should be enough to cover its value, so let’s consider it a trade.”

The mysterious cultivator said in a hoarse voice, expressionless.

“Trade? Nonsense! The Golden Shackle Ring is our sect’s treasure, and we would not sell it no matter how many spirit stones you offer.”

The old man was shocked by the number of spirit stones in the storage pouch, but he became angry upon hearing the cultivator’s words.

“In that case, I have no choice. I cannot return the treasure.”

“Then leave your life behind!”

The other old man with a hooked nose muttered ominously and opened his mouth, emitting a red light.

The red light flashed and flew towards the mysterious cultivator’s neck in an instant.

Seeing that the other party had no intention of returning the treasure, the mid-Nascent Soul cultivator launched an attack first. However, an unbelievable thing happened.

The mysterious cultivator didn’t activate any treasures but simply slashed the air with one hand, and a gray aura suddenly appeared and spread out.

The red light lost its spiritual glow the moment it touched the gray aura and returned to its original form, a dark red flying sword. The small sword spun in the gray aura, seemingly out of control.

The old man with the hooked nose, who had released the flying sword, was furious when he saw this, but by then, the connection between his consciousness and the flying sword had already been severed.

The old man with thick eyebrows, seeing that the situation was not good, let out a shout and shook his sleeve, activating a golden, square object.

The angular object expanded and transformed into a giant golden brick, falling down as if a small mountain was moving.

Seeing this, the mysterious cultivator slightly twitched his eyebrows and raised his other hand, drawing a semicircle above his head.

*Thud!*

A thick gray aura shot upwards and collided with the giant golden brick. However, the brick, enveloped in the gray aura, also lost its spiritual glow and shrunk, soon falling to the ground out of control.

With a wave of the mysterious cultivator’s hand, the golden brick and the dark red flying sword fell down and were about to enter his grasp.

The old man with the hooked nose, in a moment of desperation, grabbed at the air, and a giant white hand appeared, trying to strike down on the mysterious cultivator. However, the cultivator below also flicked his hand in the air.

A golden light flashed, and a golden sword qi [a powerful energy attack] slashed through the air, splitting the giant white hand in half. Only then did the old man with the hooked nose turn pale.

The mysterious cultivator, having seized the two treasures, coldly said to the two old men in the air,

“With these added, would you be willing to trade?”

The two old men felt heavy-hearted. The other party had instantly seized two of their treasures and dispersed their secret techniques.

They didn’t know what the gray aura was, but it was clear that it possessed heaven-defying abilities. Now, they could no longer act rashly.

The mysterious cultivator, seeing this, grinned, tossed the treasures he was holding into the air, and transformed into a streak of blue light, disappearing.

The old men, startled, formed hand seals and retrieved their treasures. They then looked at each other, watching the receding light.

“Senior Brother, should we chase him?”

After a long while, the old man with thick eyebrows asked hesitantly.

“…Chase who? We should be grateful that he let us go! If we provoke him and arouse his killing intent, it will be a disaster.”

“But the Golden Shackle Ring is the most precious treasure of our sect. How can we explain it to the others in the sect if we lose it like this?”

“What is there to explain? It’s all because our cultivation is not as good as his! The cultivation world is a world of the strong preying on the weak. The Golden Shackle Ring was not originally our sect’s treasure either, but something one of our ancestors stole from another sect! Now that another strong person has appeared and taken it, we should just consider it bad luck. Let’s go back. We have a duty to protect the sect in the future.”

The old man with the hooked nose gave a wry smile and turned into a streak of red light, returning to where they had come from. The old man with thick eyebrows was stunned for a moment before following him.

The mysterious cultivator, having traveled far away, suddenly stopped in mid-air after flying tens of thousands of miles.

*Crack! Thud!*

The sound of flesh and bones breaking could be heard from within the blue light. The figure grew about an inch taller and transformed into an ordinary-looking young man. It was Han Li.

With a flick of his sleeve, a golden ring appeared on his palm. He held it and shook it, and countless illusions flickered, making it incredibly magical.

“Yes, this is definitely among the top three treasures I’ve obtained recently!”

Han Li smiled and muttered contentedly.

“Time is running out. Shouldn’t you be returning now, Fellow Cultivator Han? The spatial node could collapse at any moment.”

The boy’s voice came from his sleeve.

“I was planning to return even without Fellow Cultivator Tian Lan’s reminder. However, the treasures and secret techniques I’ve obtained so far, except for four or five, are not satisfactory. Many are just famous in name but not very useful in reality, so they won’t be of much use inside the spatial node.”

“Do you expect the ancient treasures of the mortal realm to have the power of a spirit treasure like the Eight Spirit Ruler? In any case, it’s better than nothing. Also, while traveling around the mortal realm, you must have learned some of the contents of the Golden Jade Tome. Who knows, these things might save your life.”

“I hope so.”

Han Li replied to his words, unconsciously clenching and unclenching one hand in his sleeve.

The boy, Tian Lan, didn’t know that the greatest gains Han Li had made in the past few years were not these treasures, techniques, or the contents of the Golden Jade Tome.

For decades, Han Li had been consuming Dragon Scale Fruit from his storage pouch at regular intervals, gaining immense strength. He had now reached the limit of power that mortal realm cultivators could achieve.

At that time, he had transplanted the Dragon Scale Fruit tree to the Chuma Bone Mountain and had his human-shaped puppet supply the fruit, along with other spiritual medicines, into the mustard seed space [a pocket dimension].

However, Han Li didn’t consume the Dragon Scale Fruit every day.

Although the medicinal properties were said to be mild, if he didn’t thoroughly refine them each time he consumed them, it would undoubtedly harm his body. The Golden Flood Dragon King, with his constitution that surpassed humans, might be able to consume them every day.

During his closed-door cultivation, he didn’t have enough time to refine the spiritual fruit because he was focused on breaking through to the Transformation Stage, so he stopped consuming them after about ten years and focused all his efforts on mastering the Azure Origin Sword Technique.

Therefore, before going to the Five Dragon Seas, he had specially filled his storage pouch with well-ripened Dragon Scale Fruits.

While traveling around the mortal realm, he consumed the spiritual fruit and simultaneously practiced the Bone Tempering Technique he had obtained from the Golden Flood Dragon King’s storage pouch, enhancing the medicinal effects.

Surprisingly, the Bone Tempering Technique worked well with the Dragon Scale Fruit, and the progress of the technique, which was said to be difficult to master, was rapid.

Thus, in just a few decades, he had mastered several levels of the Bone Tempering Technique.

Now, his bones were twice as thick and faintly golden, similar to the color of his skin when he used the Nether King Incantation.

*