Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 811

Han Li was filled with questions, but after a moment of silence, he revealed himself, his silver talisman characters gleaming.

“Miss Ye, would you mind introducing this person?” Han Li asked calmly as he descended.

“I’ll introduce her. This is Miss Ye Cho from the Ye family, a spy dispatched by our Yang Clan. Judging by your appearance, it seems you’ve easily shaken off the Wood Clan’s pursuit, Master Han,” Ye Ying said, smiling slightly and looking at Han Li with interest. She seemed a little surprised that he appeared completely unharmed.

“Miss Ye Cho, are you from the Human Race? Or the Demon Race?” Han Li inquired.

“You have a good eye. I am from the Human Race, but I possess the blood of the Wood Phoenix, so you could say I’m half-demon,” the woman answered, glancing at Han Li coldly, her voice slightly strange.

“Wood Phoenix? Ah, so you are a Void Refinement cultivator,” Han Li said, scanning her with his consciousness, his expression subtly changing.

“My sister was already at the early stage of Void Refinement when she infiltrated the Wood Clan. Over the years, she has reached the Great Accomplishment of Void Refinement, and reaching the Fusion stage is only a matter of time,” the girl explained with sparkling eyes.

“My gains while staying in the Wood Clan have been considerable. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to reach this level so quickly. However, I never imagined that the Young Master would come here personally,” Ye Cho said, showing a humble attitude at Ye Ying’s words.

“I see. If it weren’t for your help, Senior, we would have all been in great danger,” Han Li said, knowing that she was a Void Refinement cultivator, and expressed his gratitude politely.

“Now that I think about it, the situation was so urgent earlier that I didn’t have a chance to ask in detail. But what exactly happened? Why were the Wood Clan ambushing us? And what about the others?” Ye Ying asked, her smile fading, her face serious.

“Everyone else except me has perished. In the past hundred years, the Wood Clan somehow learned that there was a spy from the Yang Clan within their ranks. If it weren’t for my Wood Phoenix blood, I wouldn’t have been able to evade their search. The others were exposed one by one and eliminated,” Ye Cho said, unexpectedly delivering grim news.

“The reason for this ambush is that the Wood Clan has already adjusted the surveillance range of the Dream-Luo Tree [a magical tree used for surveillance] around the Black Leaf Forest. It’s likely that the Young Master’s movements were exposed to them the moment you entered the forest.

Fortunately, the high-ranking cultivators of the Wood Clan did not consider the Black Leaf Forest area important, so they sent lower-level Wood Spirits to manage it. If we had been ambushed in another forest, it would have been difficult to escape.”

“I see. Sister, you’ve really suffered a lot these past thousand years,” Ye Ying said, her expression softening, and she praised Ye Cho’s hard work.

“It’s nothing. I was able to uncover quite a few secrets while in the Wood Clan, so it wasn’t a wasted effort. It’s just that now that my identity has been exposed, I can no longer stay in the Wood Clan,” Ye Cho said, shaking her head nonchalantly. Han Li listened to their conversation quietly.

“A major battle is about to break out in the Celestial City, so even if this hadn’t happened, the Clan Head would have called you back. With your current cultivation, it would be a waste to keep you only in the Wood Clan,” Ye Ying said, laughing lightly, but then coughed severely, indicating a serious internal injury.

“Young Master, are you alright? How about taking another Phoenix Spirit Pill?”

“No! We can’t waste the remaining Phoenix Spirit Pills. We’ll need them for something important later.”

“Miss Ye, is your condition serious?” Han Li, who had been watching, interjected.

“Do you think it’s serious or not after being struck by a Wood Spirit of the Hidden Realm?” the girl pouted and complained.

“If it’s a common internal injury, I have a few elixirs that might help your condition,” Han Li said calmly, flicking his sleeve and tossing out a few medicine bottles. The girl pulled the bottles towards her in the air, opened each one, and sniffed the aroma.

“Mystic Herb Pill, Hundred Saint Pill, Spirit Recovery Water… You’re quite generous. To give out such excellent medicines that are perfect for healing. Well, I won’t refuse then,” she said, seeming to be knowledgeable about elixirs, rattling off their names with a surprised expression. It was quite remarkable for a Nascent Soul cultivator to offer such elixirs.

The girl immediately tilted the bottles and consumed the spiritual medicines that were good for healing. She seemed to trust Han Li quite a bit. Han Li was inwardly impressed by her boldness. Of course, she probably had mastered a special technique that made her unafraid even if someone had tampered with the elixirs.

“Oh, right, Brother Han, how did you find this place? Also, that talisman from earlier must have been a Silver Tadpole Talisman. May I know its name? I’ve never seen such a renowned Silver Tadpole Talisman before, so I’m curious,” Ye Ying asked, her complexion having improved after taking the elixirs, about the Taiyi Azure Talisman.

“I have some achievements in tracking techniques. I obtained it by chance, and it has an excellent effect on concealment. Its name is the Taiyi Azure Talisman. But I was even more surprised that Miss Ye saw through it at a glance. How did you find me, Miss? It shouldn’t be easy even for a Void Refinement cultivator,” Han Li said.

“The cultivation method I practice is the opposite of concealment techniques. It’s not strange that I recognized the Silver Tadpole Talisman’s concealment, so you don’t have to worry about it too much,” Ye Ying said. Han Li took this opportunity to ask what he was curious about, but Ye Ying tried to gloss over it with a strange expression. It was a situation that made him smile wryly. They both knew it was a white lie, but they couldn’t ask about it in detail.

“Sister, you have the information you gathered from the Wood Clan, right? It would be best to pass the jade slip to the Celestial City quickly before any other problems arise,” Ye Ying said.

“Yes, Young Master,” Ye Cho answered as if she had been waiting for it.

‘Finally!’ Han Li thought, outwardly calm, but inwardly overjoyed. At that moment, Ye Ying brushed her storage pouch and took out a silver, shining triangular formation artifact, and the green-skinned woman opened her mouth and spat out a cyan jade slip.

The formation artifact was something Han Li also possessed. It could send small objects to the Celestial City, but it could only be used once. Once the transmission was complete, its effect would automatically disappear.

This artifact had only recently been developed by the formation masters of the Celestial City. If Ye Cho, who possessed the blood of the Wood Phoenix, had such an item when she infiltrated the Wood Clan, they wouldn’t have needed to come all the way here to receive the information.

Ye Ying infused a white hand seal into the formation artifact, and the transmission artifact began to glow. Then, when she released the artifact, it transformed into a white transmission array in the air and began to spin.

Woong!

“Hurry. Although it’s a small transmission array, it could attract the attention of the Wood Clan,” the girl said urgently. Ye Cho was well aware of this fact, so she immediately threw the jade slip into the transmission array.

Ye Ying shot another hand seal with a serious expression.

Woong!

Then, silver talisman characters appeared on the formation, and the jade slip disappeared with a clear sound. The transmission array then collapsed and returned to its silver formation artifact form, but the formation engraved on it was completely damaged and cracked.

Han Li, with a joyful heart, flipped his palm and took out a blue jade talisman, watching it intently. It was half of the Myriad Mile Talisman [a communication talisman] that the high-ranking officials of the Celestial City had given him before his departure.

The girl saw it, retrieved the formation artifact, and took out her half of the Myriad Mile Talisman, watching it as well.

Paat.

About a quarter of an hour later, the Myriad Mile Talismans of Han Li and Ye Ying flashed with spiritual light, and characters appeared. Han Li’s heart pounded. The densely packed characters filled the jade talisman and then disappeared with a white light.

Then, a smile filled Han Li’s face. The Celestial City had, as promised, revealed the method to unlock the restriction on the Extinction Pill bottle. It seemed that the story about them turning a blind eye to their free movement if they completed the mission was true.

Han Li, with an excited heart, raised his head and looked at Ye Ying, who was sitting on a rock. She was still looking at the Myriad Mile Talisman, and the corners of her mouth were curved upwards, as if the content written on it was very satisfying.

‘What could it be?’ Han Li wondered. The native cultivators didn’t need the Extinction Pill. Then what did the high-ranking officials of the Celestial City promise that made them take such a risk?

“How is it? Did Brother Han get what you wanted?” the girl finally took her eyes off the jade talisman and smiled at Han Li.

“Yes, I got what I needed,” Han Li returned the smile.

“Then let’s leave this place quickly. I don’t know what you plan to do in the future, Master, but I don’t think you want to stay in the Wood Clan’s territory,” the girl muttered meaningfully, and Han Li glanced at Ye Ying for a moment before slowly nodding. The girl was pleased with his answer and said something to the woman, Ye Cho. Upon hearing those words, Ye Cho released a treasure.

It was a yellow wooden bird puppet about the size of a boat. When the woman activated a hand seal, the wooden bird flew into the air and instantly grew to the size of a dozen or so meters. It was a meticulously crafted and beautiful treasure, looking like a living bird.

Ye Ying and Ye Cho boarded without hesitation, and Han Li hesitated for a moment before finally leaping onto it.

“Let’s go!” At Ye Cho’s sharp command, the wooden bird flapped its huge wings. The puppet bird, transformed into a yellow mass of light, moved forward rapidly.

Until Han Li met the two women, completed his mission, and left the place, no one mentioned Nong Dong or Xiao Hong.

Half a day after the wooden bird left the clearing, a streak of silver light flew in, circled the spot, and then flew in the direction the wooden bird had gone.

A month later, a yellow mass of light slowly passed over the wasteland. After they departed, Ye Cho had been using the wooden bird at full power, moving like a gale, without stopping for even a moment. Thanks to this, they were able to arrive here in a very short time. A little further, and the entrance to the First Line Heaven would be visible.

At that moment, a gale suddenly blew from the front, dark clouds rushed in, thunder rumbled, and the sky turned pitch black. A bizarre cry echoed loudly from the high sky, obscured by the thick dark clouds.

Kuaaaang!

The oppressive force felt from the cry was so clear that Ye Ying and Ye Cho’s expressions changed drastically.

“This is…” Han Li narrowed his eyes and looked up at the sky.

Kuururung Kwakwang!

At that moment, silver lightning split the dark sky, followed by the sound of thunder. In the flash of lightning, two large golden eyes were staring intently at them.

Han Li felt goosebumps from the eerie gaze, and his whole body stiffened, unable to move.

‘A dragon, the head of a True Dragon. It’s definitely not the head of a Jiaolong [a type of dragon]!’ Han Li was horrified to see the enormous object floating in the sky far away.

The enormous head was identical to the appearance of a True Dragon seen in the scriptures. The golden, shining head of the True Dragon looked as if it were made of gold, and a pair of horns sparkled as they protruded, making one feel intimidated just by looking at it.

“…It’s not a True Dragon? Although it resembles the aura of a True Dragon, the spiritual power within its body is at most similar to a mid-Fusion stage demon beast. A True Dragon-level being cannot be like this,” suddenly, Ye Cho regained her senses and shouted.

“A being that is not a True Dragon possesses the body of a True Dragon… That means it’s the soul of a True Dragon created by someone with the blood of a True Dragon forcibly drawing on the power of the blood,” Ye Ying’s face turned cold upon hearing her words.

“True Dragon Blood! Then that means someone from the Nong family is behind this!” Ye Cho frowned, revealing a murderous expression.

“Yes, that’s how it should be seen. I thought it was strange. Not long after I joined the mission, the Young Master of the Nong family was also assigned. It seems they deliberately joined this journey to target me.”

“Targeting the Young Master? Then, as the rumors say…” Ye Cho’s eyes wavered as she recalled something.