Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 797

798. Undercurrents

***

Inside another secret chamber.

The white-robed girl, Ye Young, sat cross-legged on the bed, her hands forming a hand seal. Behind her head, an astonishing blue halo, several feet in diameter, slowly rotated, with white flames blazing fiercely. In the middle of the halo, a human figure was sitting cross-legged.

The figure within the halo resembled Ye Young in appearance but was much smaller. Suddenly, the girl’s lips twitched into a sneer, and the figure in the halo also moved its lips as if mocking something.

***

Han Li paced inside his secret chamber. His face was expressionless, but the flickering in his eyes suggested he was deep in thought.

On a table in one corner of the chamber, two things were placed: a small leopard lying languidly with its limbs stretched out, and a tiny monkey with glossy black fur.

Suddenly stopping, Han Li flipped his palm and took out a small bottle and a milky-white jade slip. The pattern engraved on the bottle was very antique, and the three characters ‘Dust Extinguishing Pill’ were inscribed on it.

Han Li stroked the medicine bottle and sighed. A flash of spiritual energy, and the medicine bottle disappeared. The jade slip was left behind by the unidentified cultivators who had visited him before he left Heavenly Origin City.

He fiddled with the jade slip and placed it against his forehead, injecting his consciousness into it. The jade slip was originally a huge map, but almost half of it was invisible. And in the invisible part, a round dot emitted a faint golden light.

Although he had examined it many times, Han Li couldn’t help but inject his consciousness again. It was as if he was searching for something within it.

***

Heavenly Origin City, inside a hidden underground chamber.

A Taoist and a monk sat facing each other at a plain-looking blue stone table, staring at each other.

The Taoist had thick eyebrows, large eyes, and a golden face, while the old monk with a white beard had a face full of wrinkles. He looked like an old monk who was too frail to even open his eyes properly.

“Judging by the time, the human and demon cultivators should be gathering and moving,” the old monk said weakly.

“Hmm, it’s about that time. But I still don’t understand. After Senior Brother Jin Wol went into seclusion, why did he change the plan and send them to the alien territory? They are the most outstanding talents among the newly ascended cultivators. You, at least, should know, Cultivator, that the mission to gather information on the alien race is extremely dangerous, even if it seems simple. Moreover, the demons sent will appear cooperative on the surface, but they will have other intentions,” the Taoist raised his doubts.

“Do you know why the alien race is restless this time?” the old monk asked slowly, not directly answering the Taoist’s question.

“How could I not know? It’s all because a treasure of the Heavens appeared on the Chaos Myriad Spirit Board! And it even made it to the third row. I heard it’s called the Heaven Severing Spirit Sword,” the Taoist’s expression became more cautious as his heart grew cold at the old monk’s question.

“That’s right. The alien invasion was expected to happen tens of thousands of years later. But the reason why the Hundred Clan War might suddenly break out is because of that.”

“You don’t need to beat around the bush, Senior Brother Jin Wol. Other races are also worried about getting caught up in this and suffering the consequences.”

“Worried about getting caught up? Heh, how can they not get caught up when something like this happens! The treasures of the Heavens always truly reveal themselves to the world after a storm of bloodshed. In the end, the race that obtains the treasure offers it to a True Spirit-level cultivator to become their guardian, and then they rise as a powerful force in the Spirit World. A True Spirit-level cultivator can even compete with the Immortals of the Immortal Realm. Before a powerful True Spirit appears, any race that obtains the treasure must have the ability to protect it. Otherwise, they will only be doing a favor for others.

There have been many cases where a weak force, after obtaining a treasure, either sought the protection of another powerful force or fled deep into the desolate wilderness to avoid annihilation,” the old monk spoke slowly. However, the Taoist still couldn’t grasp what he meant by telling this story.

The old monk paused for a moment and continued, “Originally, it was difficult for anyone to predict where the treasure of the Heavens was or which force had it. But coincidentally, a Fusion Stage [a cultivation stage] demon cultivator with a natural talent for prophecy, seeing that he had no hope of surviving the next Great Heavenly Tribulation [a powerful trial], poured all his remaining magical power into divination. And it turned out that the Heaven Severing Spirit Sword was located in the northwest of the Wind Origin Continent where our human race resides. Although the Wind Origin Continent is the smallest of the three continents, the number of races residing there surpasses the other continents. In the northwest alone, there are about six or seven races, large and small, including our human race, the demon race, the spirit race, the wood race, the yaksha race, and the ghost race. So, it is possible that the newly appeared treasure of the Heavens is in the hands of our human race.

For now, only our human and demon races know this news, but how long can we hide it? There must be spies from other races among us, so the information will leak sooner or later.”

“What? Such a thing happened? This could lead to the annihilation of our entire human race,” the Taoist’s face turned pale as he listened to the story.

“According to ancient legends, if a mysterious blood sacrifice is performed by killing a large number of powerful living beings in a limited area within a certain period, the treasure of the Heavens can be summoned from that place. If a force like ours is targeted, other powerful races will likely annihilate us all and perform the blood sacrifice to summon the treasure of the Heavens. The last Hundred Clan War also happened because someone with the Heaven Transformation Shield fled across the three continents for ten thousand years, and many races got caught up in it. Moreover, the weak races that were annihilated at that time all became sacrifices for the blood sacrifice. And if the races in the northwest find out about this, they will immediately start a war to avoid becoming sacrifices for the blood sacrifice. They will try to make other races the sacrifices instead.”

“I see. I understand now… So, sending the newly ascended cultivators to the alien race’s territory far from Heavenly Origin City was, could it be, because they were suspected…” the Taoist suddenly realized something and exclaimed.

“That’s right. What is the treasure of the Heavens? It is a treasure that can defy the laws of a world. There is no guarantee that such a thing is from the Spirit World. It is possible that someone from the Lower Realm brought a treasure of the Heavens and suddenly rose to the Chaos Myriad Spirit Board. Although it is a very slim possibility, we have selected those among the ascended cultivators of the past hundred years who are suspicious and sent them all out of Heavenly Origin City on dangerous missions. Whether the mission succeeds or fails, they will drift in the desolate wilderness and will not be able to return in a short time. In addition to them, we have also sent those with outstanding talents and special identities, so we can avoid suspicion from the cultivators of the Spirit World.

If any of them possesses the Heaven Severing Spirit Sword, we have sent the source of the disaster far away from Heavenly Origin City. If not, we have saved the hope that will be responsible for the revival of both races in preparation for the war that will break out later, which will greatly damage the vitality of both races,” the old monk solemnly explained the hidden meaning of this operation.

“Why bother doing all that? Just confirm whether they possess the treasure of the Heavens…”

“Are you saying we should have used a secret technique to control their minds and interrogate them one by one? And what would happen if the Heaven Severing Spirit Sword was really in the hands of our human race? Coveting it now is like holding a hot potato and jumping into a crowd of hungry murderers. Moreover, how can you be sure that there are no spies from other races among the interrogating cultivators or even the elders? Once the news leaks, our human race will become the target of all races and be used as cannon fodder.

Even the demon race might betray us, disregarding the alliance for their own safety. If that happens, our human race will be destroyed,” the old monk continued calmly.

“Our human race is not a powerful race, so we don’t have the luxury of waiting until a True Spirit-level cultivator appears. Even if we try to offer the treasure to a more powerful race and seek protection, the surrounding spirit races and others will not give us that chance. In that case, it is better to pretend not to know anything and prepare for the war that will soon break out. In a situation where we don’t know which race has the treasure of the Heavens, at most, the wood race and the spirit race will come. With the combined strength of our human and demon races and Heavenly Origin City, we can defend against them.

It is said that the spirit race and the yaksha race are fighting even more fiercely after the news of the Chaos Myriad Spirit Board spread. If the conditions for summoning the treasure of the Heavens are met while these races are at war, it will not matter which race originally possessed the treasure. Once the summoned treasure of the Heavens disappears from this area, we will have overcome one hurdle.

After that, it will be a matter of the super-large forces fighting each other. Unlike the wars that lasted for over a hundred years in the past, this kind of war will be decided within a few years. Perhaps the high-ranking officials of other surrounding races are thinking similarly.

Have you ever heard of anyone looking for the Heaven Severing Spirit Sword? Everyone is focusing on preparing for war rather than looking for the treasure, that is the current situation,” the old monk calmly laid out a series of shocking stories.

“When did you find out about this news? Why haven’t I heard any of this? Did the Elder Council deliberately hide it from me?” the Taoist, who had been stunned for a while, expressed his displeasure.

“Yes, we knew there was a problem with your identity, so we took that measure. How should we continue to call you, Venerable Lei Luo? Or should we call you Lord Zi Ying?” the old monk’s eyes suddenly sharpened.

“Zi Ying? Great Master Jin Wol, what are you suddenly talking about?”

“Now that quite some time has passed, it should be time for it to act up,” the old monk turned his gaze to a small incense burner in the corner. An incense stick had been burning there for a long time.

“What do you mean by ‘time’? No, this incense is…” A purple light flashed in the Taoist’s eyes, and his expression changed drastically. A purple shadow sprang out of his body and lunged at the old monk. However, the old monk calmly sat in his seat and flicked his sleeve.

Bang!

A golden light flashed, and Buddhist chants floated in the air. The purple shadow was repelled as if it had been attacked by a huge object, crashing into the wall of the secret chamber, trembling all over and unable to move.

At that moment, a blue light flashed on the wall, and a bowl made of blue jade appeared, shooting a blue aura at the purple shadow.

“Good. Although the Four Gods Incense is effective in suppressing the spirit race, I didn’t expect it to work so well on Zi Ying,” a white light flashed on the wall, and a middle-aged scholar with an elegant face appeared.

“Brother Tian Yuan, thank you for lending me the Four Gods Incense. Thanks to it, I was able to capture that traitor,” the old monk immediately stood up and clasped his hands in respect to the scholar.

“There’s no need to be so polite, Great Master Jin Wol! I recently learned a divine ability and happened to notice that Venerable Lei Luo was actually Zi Ying. It’s a pity that a genius of Taoist arts who once dominated an era has come to this,” the scholar sighed as he looked at the Taoist, who was still sitting upright. The Taoist’s body seemed to have lost its vitality and withered the moment Zi Ying left it.

***