Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 84

Putting aside whether to help or not, Han Li first needed to assess the other person’s magical power. He didn’t want to risk his life for a woman he didn’t even know.

If her magical power was ordinary, he would step forward without hesitation, play the hero, and save the beauty. But if her magical power was superior, he would have to choose between joining forces with his fellow disciple to defeat her or running away himself.

Just in case, he took out the Golden Cicada Mother-Child Blades and a defensive talisman from his storage pouch, and wrapped his hands with an unnamed thread.

“Hehe. You’re not even good at running away! Are all Yellow Maple Valley female disciples like this? You ran away for so long, and now you’re begging such an ugly fellow to save you. Could that man possibly be your lover?”

The white figure finally revealed her face, and unexpectedly, it was a young woman dressed in white.

Her face was pretty, but her raised eyebrows made her look strong-willed. She spoke to the yellow-robed female disciple, but her murderous gaze was directed towards the giant tree. She was wary of Han Li, who had not yet revealed himself.

‘Twelfth Level Cultivation.’

Han Li confirmed the opponent’s magical power and let out a sigh of relief. But another question arose. The female disciple below the tree was also at the Eleventh Level, so how could she be chased like this?

The opponent might have a special technique or a powerful magic tool. As he hesitated, the white-robed woman scoffed and immediately flicked her sleeve, unleashing a white light towards the yellow-robed woman.

“Senior Brother, save me! My magic tools are all broken, so I have no way to block it!”

The terrified female disciple urgently called for help. As soon as she finished speaking, two golden lights shot out from the giant tree, cutting through the white light and dissipating it.

Han Li had used two of the Golden Cicada Mother-Child Blades, the ‘child’ blades, that he was holding in his hand. The female disciple’s face brightened, and she finally seemed to calm down.

He had stepped forward for two reasons. First, he judged that the white-robed woman was not a formidable opponent and was worth fighting. Second, he wanted to find an ally who could help him on his journey. If he could fight alongside a fellow disciple with Twelfth Level Cultivation, it would be a great help in future battles.

“So, you’ve finally decided to show yourself? I thought you were going to pretend to be deaf the whole time.”

The white-robed woman mocked Han Li, showing no sign of surprise. She stretched out her hand, and a huge fiery light shot towards the giant tree.

‘Boom!’

The fiery light collided with the top of the giant tree, instantly turning it to ashes. But there was no sign of the person who had been on top of it, and the white-robed woman was momentarily taken aback.

“You’re not stingy with those powerful fire talismans, young lady.”

Han Li’s figure suddenly appeared from behind the half-destroyed tree.

“Eleventh Level?”

The white-robed woman confirmed his cultivation level and revealed a hint of disdain. Moreover, the Yellow Maple Valley female disciple, who had relaxed, became anxious again and was inwardly lamenting.

‘I was hoping he was a master from our sect, but he’s just a rookie junior brother with lower magical power than me.’

“If you had just stayed hidden, I might have spared you out of the kindness of my heart. But now that you’ve shown yourself, I’ll kill both of you!”

The white-robed woman raised her eyebrows even higher and muttered ominously, her pretty face turning ugly. Han Li simply smiled. He held the golden seal in his hand and walked towards her.

“Stop! What are you trying to do!”

She cleverly struck her body with a talisman, activating a defensive magic technique, and a barrier appeared. Han Li had only just approached, so it was truly a pity.

He had originally planned to use the invisible thread he had used to kill the Heavenly Fortress disciples. From the tree, he had seen that the white-robed woman hadn’t used any defensive techniques.

Unfortunately, the wary opponent immediately reinforced her weakness when she sensed something was wrong. At this, Han Li wanted to sigh to the heavens. Women were truly more cautious than men. If this clever method wouldn’t work, it would be an all-out battle. After activating the defensive technique, he took out the mother blades he was holding and six more identical golden seals, sending them fiercely towards his opponent.

The female disciple also regained her courage when she saw that Han Li’s magic tools were extraordinary. She immediately took out a talisman and unleashed it as a stream of fire.

The white-robed woman sneered and raised her jade-like hand, holding a small mirror. She shone the mirror, and a blue light shot out, rushing towards the golden seals and the flames. Soon, the golden seals and flames were stuck in mid-air, unable to move forward or fall to the ground. It was as if they had been caught in a restriction.

“Junior Brother, don’t worry. That magic tool can only stop things in a certain area at a time, and its effect will naturally disappear after half a quarter of an hour [about 3.75 minutes].”

The female disciple comforted Han Li after reading his expression. He was about to relax when her next words made him snap back to attention.

“But that vicious woman is a descendant of an elder from the Eomwol Sect, so she probably has many bizarre magic tools she inherited. So, be careful, Junior Brother!”

Han Li was speechless.

‘So that’s why the Eleventh Level female disciple was so badly defeated. Turns out she’s a woman full of magic tools. If I had known earlier, I definitely wouldn’t have come down!’

Han Li greatly regretted it. He would probably have to risk his life again.

The white-robed woman had an expression that said she knew it all along when her magic tool blocked Han Li’s golden seals.

“I wondered why you didn’t run away. Turns out you had top-grade magic tools.”

She mocked Han Li, but her hands didn’t stop. She flipped her hand again and took out a pink crystal ball, activating it and placing it above her head.

“No! Junior Brother, that crystal ball corrodes other people’s magic tools, so you have to stop it quickly. My magic tools were all broken because of that thing.”

The female disciple’s face changed, and she urgently warned Han Li. Han Li’s heart sank, and without even thinking, he threw the silver hook he was holding towards the woman’s crystal ball.

As the hook flew, emitting a silver light, the white-robed woman pursed her lips and made a strange hand seal using all ten fingers, bringing it to the crystal ball above her head.

The crystal ball, having absorbed the hand seal, emitted a brilliant red light and began to spin on its own.

At the same time, it released pink liquids, each forming a huge sphere, creating a pink cloud of liquid.

Although they weren’t very large, they were enough to cover the woman’s head.

Instead of recklessly letting the silver hook approach the pink liquid, Han Li controlled it to target the white-robed woman below. At the same time, he took out another magic tool, a blue rope, and quietly infused it with magical power. The rope slithered along the ground like a living snake.

“Hurry!”

The white-robed woman brought her hand to the crystal ball, and a small lump immediately fell from the liquid cloud, devouring the silver light flying towards her, and the silver hook began to shrink. Seeing this, Han Li became anxious and abandoned the hook, focusing on the rope attack that followed. The rope secretly wrapped around the opponent, covering her even with her protective barrier. Even with her many magic tools, she was momentarily flustered and didn’t know what to do.

At that moment, Han Li quickly took out the talisman-infused Golden Light Brick. Although he wasn’t sure how long the blue rope would hold, he still planned to take a risk and kill the woman with the brick before she could escape.

The female disciple was ordinary-looking, but her mind was quite sharp. Even without powerful magic tools or talismans, she continuously used fire and ice techniques to attack the liquid cloud and the mirror that had devoured the silver hook.

She hoped to free Han Li’s magic tools and increase their chances of winning. However, unfortunately, such attacks were only as effective as a mosquito bite.

“Hmph, do you think you can trap me with mere top-grade magic tools? I’ll make you realize your foolishness right now!”

Even while still bound by the rope, the white-robed woman arrogantly shouted. Tired of hearing such arrogant words, Han Li prepared to have his magical power drained by the Golden Light Brick. But then, a huge explosion of spiritual energy occurred in the forest behind the white-robed woman.

Han Li was dumbfounded and didn’t even have time to figure out what was happening before a blinding yellow light rushed through the bushes. It pierced through Han Li’s rope, the woman’s protective barrier, and even the white-robed woman herself. The woman fell to the ground as a corpse without even being able to scream.

Startled, Han Li immediately tried to jump away, but he was a step too late. A man in black had already appeared like a shooting star and stood next to the woman’s corpse.

He snatched the storage pouch from the corpse’s waist and burst into loud laughter. It seemed too late to escape, so Han Li felt gloomy, but he steeled himself to survive and watched the newcomer’s every move.

He was a middle-aged man with many scars on his face, thin eyes, and a hooked nose. His aura was so menacing that it made people’s hearts tremble. Moreover, his cultivation had reached the peak of the Thirteenth Level, making Han Li’s expression even more cautious.

“Bongak, it’s Bongak, the madman of the Heavenly Fortress!”

Unexpectedly, before the man in black could even speak, the yellow-robed woman cried out in terror. Her expression showed that she had encountered the most terrifying demon, and her fear seemed even greater than when she was about to be killed by the white-robed woman.

“Hehe, I didn’t expect a young girl to recognize this old man. If you wait quietly, this old man will check the items and then deal with you!”

The man in black glanced at the woman, then ignored the two of them and began to rummage through the storage pouch.

Han Li simply scratched his nose and looked at him, his gaze not friendly. He didn’t know who the man was, but he didn’t like how his fellow disciple was so easily terrified by everything.

In Han Li’s opinion, the stronger the enemy, the more one needed to remain calm. Seeing that the magic tools had escaped their predicament, he recalled the golden seals and the silver hook.

The golden seals were fortunately fine and maintained their original form, but the state of the silver hook shocked Han Li.

The once-gleaming object was now rusty and dull, clearly having lost its spiritual energy and was no longer usable.

Only then did he understand what the yellow-robed woman meant by ‘breaking magic tools.’ The liquid released by the crystal ball was so vicious that any magic tool would want to avoid it.

He turned his attention to the dazzling yellow light in front of the yellow-robed woman. It was a small sword with a unique hilt. The hilt was an inch long, and the blade was three or four inches long. It was transparent and sparkling, emitting that dazzling yellow light. It was the very thing that had killed the white-robed woman in an instant.

Han Li gradually fell into thought as he looked at the small sword, and a dark cloud settled over his face. Still, the two words ‘talisman-infused treasure’ kept circling in his mind.

The power of the small sword, its transformed appearance, and the astonishing explosion of spiritual energy. No matter how he looked at it, it was a talisman-infused treasure that had sealed the power of a magic treasure, just like the Golden Light Brick. This fact truly made his heart ache.

He looked up at the sky, but he couldn’t tell what time it was. He was only certain that it was the morning of the second day of the expedition.

He was now suspecting that he had used up all his luck, and that was why he was encountering such misfortune one after another from the morning of the second day.

First, a fellow disciple from his sect appeared and forcibly used him as a shield. Then, a woman from the Eomwol Sect, armed with numerous magic tools, appeared and almost defeated him.

And now, a man named Bongak, a madman, had appeared, whose magical power surpassed his own and who also possessed a talisman-infused treasure. He was a much more difficult opponent than the woman with all the magic tools, so how was he supposed to escape?

# 86