Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 828

Han Li followed the outer edge of the island, avoiding the black mist, trying to see what lay at the end. However, even after flying for a month, there was no end in sight, and the island remained shrouded in black mist.

It seemed he was on a giant peninsula. But whether it was a peninsula or not was of little concern to him. Aside from the bizarre black mist, the land boasted dense spiritual energy in the mountains, making it an ideal place for cultivation.

However, it was strange that such a large island was devoid of any powerful demonic beasts. It was also peculiar that an eighth-grade cuttlefish demon had fled in terror as soon as it saw him.

Han Li pondered for a while but couldn’t find a clear answer. Just in case, he decided to search the vicinity of the island and other nearby islands for any beings that might pose a threat to him.

For a month, Han Li meticulously searched the areas not covered by the mist. However, apart from a few insignificant islands, there was nothing of note.

He did find some sea creatures in the surrounding waters, but they were all similar to the cuttlefish demons he had seen before, and their spiritual development was not advanced enough to be a concern.

With that, Han Li was relieved and decided to return to the island to cultivate and pass the time. He chose a mountain with dense spiritual energy, created a cave dwelling, and set up protective restrictions.

The cave dwelling was located on the edge of the mountain range, far from the black mist, giving him ample time to react to any unforeseen events. Han Li busily moved the spiritual herbs he possessed to the herb garden.

As he brushed past his storage pouch, a blue aura flowed out, and nine corpses of the Azure-Eyed True Scorpion, two large and seven small, were placed on the floor. The secret chamber was filled to the brim with just the corpses of the Azure-Eyed True Scorpions.

Each corpse had various colored talismans attached to prevent decay or the loss of the True Scorpion’s blood efficacy.

Han Li took a deep breath and touched the storage pouch again, taking out a pure white jade bottle. As he pointed at one of the Azure-Eyed True Scorpion corpses, it floated into the air.

Ping!

Han Li flicked his finger, creating a finger-sized hole in the body of the young Azure-Eyed True Scorpion. After a moment, a viscous liquid flowed out, shimmering with light. Surprisingly, the blood of the Azure-Eyed True Scorpion was a silvery-white color that emitted spiritual light.

The jade bottle flashed and appeared strangely beneath the Azure-Eyed True Scorpion. Then, the silvery-white blood turned into a silver thread and was sucked into it.

After that, a strange thing happened.

The more silvery-white liquid flowed out, the more the young Azure-Eyed True Scorpion’s body withered and shrank, becoming only half its original size. Han Li twitched his eyebrows and opened his mouth, spitting out a silver fireball.

Whoosh!

A young Azure-Eyed True Scorpion turned to ashes and disappeared. However, before the silver flames completely vanished, tiny, rice-grain-sized droplets of silver liquid appeared in the air.

Surprisingly, Han Li had used the extreme yang and extreme yin energy of the Heavenly Phoenix Trueflame to separate the residual blood left in the Azure-Eyed True Scorpion’s body. He flicked his sleeve, and a blue aura flew out.

The silver droplets, enveloped in the blue aura, clumped together into a fist-sized mass and entered the jade bottle. The blood of the Azure-Eyed True Scorpion could not be multiplied, so even a single drop had to be conserved.

In this way, he processed all the Azure-Eyed True Scorpion corpses and managed to collect several bottles of the renowned Azure-Eyed True Scorpion blood.

Now that he had the necessary materials, refining the True Scorpion Essence was only a matter of time. But before that, he had to raise his cultivation to the peak of the mid-Nascent Soul stage and break through the bottleneck.

Looking back, choosing the path of dual cultivation of body and magic was a good decision.

With a powerful body and the aid of a large number of pills, he could reduce the cultivation time that would take other cultivators hundreds of years to just a few decades.

Han Li released several giant ape puppets and sent out his second nascent soul to manage the herb cultivation and residence, then returned to the secret chamber to begin his cultivation.

With the aid of mystical techniques like the Bone-Changing Art he obtained from the Golden Flood Dragon King’s storage pouch, along with sufficient pills and spiritual fruits like the Dragon Scale Fruit, his magic power increased day by day, and his body became incredibly strong.

During his cultivation, in addition to the Great梵聖眞魔功 [Great Brahma Saint Demon Art], he refined the Yuan Magnetic Divine Mountain and the Five-Colored Heart Devil with both hands, and following the Hundred Meridian Treasure Refining Art, he fused the 72 Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords into the vital bones throughout his body.

If he succeeded in refining them, along with the power of the Great梵聖眞魔功, his basic defense would reach an unfathomable level, capable of withstanding an attack from a Void Refinement cultivator with his bare body.

Of course, refining all the vital points of his body would be much more complex and time-consuming.

The secret chamber where Han Li was cultivating remained closed after the stone door was shut, and only once every few years did the second nascent soul pass through the wall like a phantom to deliver spiritual herbs and fruits.

Thus, time flowed like water, and sixty years passed.

One day, in a place about ten *li* [approximately 5 kilometers] away from the mountain where Han Li was located, beings with black and yellow demonic auras appeared and were talking.

They seemed to be aware of the concealment illusion array that Han Li had set up outside his residence, constantly glancing in that direction. However, they also seemed to be afraid of it, not daring to approach, only talking and then dispersing.

Three days later, several demonic beasts flew near Han Li’s residence. This time, they did not hide their auras and openly stirred up demonic winds, and thousands of beasts and insects gathered on the ground.

Surprisingly, it seemed they were openly trying to attack Han Li’s cave dwelling. The appearances of the demonic beasts in the air were varied.

The blue-patterned serpent had three heads and looked very cunning. The giant boar, six or seven *zhang* [approximately 20 meters] in size, had a pair of tusks that gleamed with silver, as if they were made of silver.

And the last two demonic beasts resembled the leaders Han Li had seen in the beast fights before. The golden-haired monkey held a pitch-black giant harpoon, and the bull-headed beast was small in size but had a jade-green aura flowing all over its body.

Among them, the bull-headed monster had the highest cultivation, similar to a seventh-grade demon beast that had reached its peak. But it was completely unknown why they were trying to attack Han Li’s residence.

As the beasts and insects rushed towards the outer illusion array under the orders of the demonic beasts in the air, the defensive formation that Han Li had set up was immediately triggered. However, there was no way that mere mid-level demon beasts could break through the restrictions set up by a Nascent Soul cultivator.

In the blue mist, a gale arose, and stones and rocks flew wildly, causing some of the beasts to be covered in blood and thrown back. The beasts panicked and immediately tried to flee.

At that moment, the bull-headed demonic beast in the air let out a long roar, and the beasts that heard it trembled and could not move. The other monsters also gnashed their teeth or made strange noises to threaten the beasts.

Reluctantly, the beasts continued to rush into the blue mist. Then, instead of stones, countless blue wind blades flew out.

Thousands of beasts wailed and were torn to pieces, and when the gale subsided, there were not even a few hundred beasts left alive. The beasts scattered in terror, and the demonic beasts floating in the air glared at each other.

Then, the bull-headed demonic beast opened its mouth, and surprisingly, it was a woman’s voice. However, it was not the language of the human or demon races. Then, the other three demonic beasts began to converse.

They no longer cared about the fleeing beasts and each unleashed demonic winds, shooting towards Han Li’s residence. After a while, with a huge gust of wind, the demonic beasts fell into Han Li’s cave dwelling.

They intended to break the formation that Han Li had set up with their physical strength.

Crack!

However, the black storm shattered into dust the moment it came into contact with the five-colored light. As the black storm split apart, the four demonic beasts were thrown in different directions.

Gathering again in the high sky, they could not calm their surprised hearts. They had not even directly touched the five-colored light, but the approaching aura had sent chills down their spines.

They whispered to each other and then left as a group of four demonic auras. After that, no demonic beasts approached Han Li’s cave dwelling, and not even a single beast lived within a hundred *li* radius.

Throughout, there was no sign of activity from Han Li’s cave dwelling. Time passed, and another 30 years went by.

Boom!

Suddenly, a long cry was heard from the secret chamber, and the door was split open. Then, a dazzling golden light poured out from the secret chamber.

Inside, Han Li was sitting quietly in a lotus position, and behind him, a golden phantom with three heads and six arms was floating. The phantom was blurry with golden light, but it looked much clearer than before, and like him, it was sitting in a lotus position, making hand seals with its six hands.

Han Li and the golden Buddha phantom trembled simultaneously.

Boom!

Golden ripples spread out in the surrounding light, and the walls of the secret chamber shook violently. As Han Li sweated with a painful expression, the golden Buddha phantom behind him also shook more faintly.

Clang.

The golden light cracked like a mirror breaking, and the golden Buddha phantom instantly shattered and scattered. Now, the painful expression on Han Li’s face had disappeared, and the secret chamber was quiet again.

“That’s the third failure already! If I keep cultivating like this, it will be difficult to overcome the bottleneck in a short time.”

Han Li muttered, turning his palm over and taking out a bottle with a black phoenix engraved on it. It was the Black Flame Pill. The Black Flame Pill was known as the best spiritual medicine for overcoming the bottleneck in the late Nascent Soul stage.

However, its medicinal effects were so strong that if a cultivator with insufficient cultivation or a weak body took it, they could be burned to death by the flame energy contained in the pill. But Han Li possessed the Heavenly Phoenix Trueflame and had cultivated both body and magic, so he had no worries.

However, if he did that, he would lack one Black Flame Pill when he broke through from the late Nascent Soul stage to the Void Refinement stage.

Spiritual medicines like the Black Flame Pill were not easy to obtain even if one wanted to. Although it was only a matter of time before he overcame the bottleneck of the mid-Nascent Soul stage, it was clear that the bottleneck of the late stage was much more difficult to overcome, as many cultivators remained in the Nascent Soul stage for their entire lives.

Han Li pondered for a while and decided to save the auxiliary spiritual medicines for that time. He put the medicine bottle back into the storage pouch and got up.

Then, a giant ape puppet was waiting outside the secret chamber. As soon as Han Li came out of the secret chamber, the puppet strode forward and offered a pale yellow, club-like object.

The club, with dark green patterns, was the Profound Heaven Fruit. Han Li’s expression became serious upon seeing it. He immediately activated his Brightsight Spirit Eyes to examine it.

The bean-sized light mass inside the club had now grown to the size of a thumbnail. However, Han Li’s heart was only frustrated.

When he was in the Heavenly Star City, he had searched through all the ancient scripture shops, looking for information about the Profound Heaven Fruit, but he had not obtained any information. If he had not heard about the Profound Heaven Immortal Vine in the human realm, he would not have known anything about the Profound Heaven Fruit.

Even so, the power of the laws of the realm contained in the Profound Heaven Fruit was still there, and it was undoubtedly a treasure against the heavens.

Despite periodically giving it the mysterious green liquid, there had been no change except that the white light mass had grown slightly. For now, this was the only way.

Carefully taking the Profound Heaven Fruit, he then looked around the herb garden. The Earth Dragons and other herbs in the herb garden had already been harvested by the puppets and stored in another storage pouch.

Han Li was pleased and moved them to his own storage pouch. Then, as he gestured to the puppet, the second nascent soul came out of it and returned to his body.