Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 853

The three of them, once again shimmering with a dull light, entered the silver-gray desert. They increased their speed, hoping to leave this strange place as quickly as possible.

However, even after flying tens of thousands of li [a Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 meters], they still only saw silver-gray sand, not a single blade of grass in sight.

“What is that?”

Han Li’s expression suddenly changed, his eyes flashing with a blue light as he looked towards a spot not far away.

“Brother Han, what’s wrong?”

“It seems there’s some greenery over there. But it’s giving off a bloody stench.”

Baekbyeok asked in surprise, and Han Li replied in a low voice.

“A bloody stench? I think I smell it too. It’s definitely in that direction!”

Noeran sniffed the air and said.

“Could it be the work of a Jiyuan demon [demons from the Jiyuan realm]?”

“I’m not sure. The celestial energy is chaotic; it seems like someone used a divine power. We’ll know once we go check it out.”

Baekbyeok hesitated, showing a worried expression, but Noeran shook his head and suggested,

“It’s okay to go check it out. Something might have happened.”

Han Li calmly agreed. As he readily accepted Noeran’s suggestion, they changed direction and headed towards the source of the bloody smell. After a short while, a lake and some greenery appeared. The greenery was a dark yellow color, with a few short shrubs and some unknown grasses growing there.

In the center of the greenery, a lake was filled with bright red blood, and next to it, a dozen or so abyssal beasts lay collapsed, pierced by stone spikes. The blood flowing from their corpses was still seeping into the lake.

“Beasts that should be in the forest are dying in the middle of the desert.”

Noeran looked at it from the air, puzzled.

“Judging by the coagulation of the blood, they haven’t been dead for long.”

Baekbyeok also examined it closely and added his opinion. Han Li, who had been looking around, turned into a blue light and circled the greenery once. After a short while, he returned to his original position and quietly stared at the pool of blood.

“What’s wrong? Did you find something?”

“Hmm, there’s definitely something here.”

As Noeran showed his curiosity, he answered as if talking to himself and flicked his sleeve towards the ground. Then, a streak of golden light flew out, turning into seven or eight sword energies that cut through the ground next to the blood-red lake.

Suddenly, screams echoed from the ground pierced by the sword energies, and black blood gushed out. Then, monkey-like demons burst through the ground.

They were several feet tall, with four ears, and each held a stone spear in one hand.

“Grievance Apes! This is bad, the greenery was actually transformed from a Giant Spirit Flower.”

Seeing the monkey demons, Baekbyeok shouted as if he had remembered something.

“Giant Spirit Flower!”

Han Li’s eyes flashed, and Noeran murmured in a low voice.

Krrrrrr!

At that moment, the ground the three were standing on shook, and red water surged from the lake, and a red shadow rose up. The red shadow rushed towards Han Li without hesitation. Noeran and Baekbyeok were startled and tried to help, but it was too fast, and it was already too late. However, Han Li coldly sneered, vaguely waving one arm.

Whack!

A jade-like palm appeared strangely and grabbed the red shadow like lightning.

Only then could the Saints next to him see the true nature of the red shadow. The thick, long tongue-like object was a round mass of flesh with black thorns protruding from its surface, wriggling.

However, Han Li’s palm was unharmed even after grabbing the black thorns, as if it were not flesh.

Then, five white skull heads suddenly appeared from his five fingers, simultaneously opening their mouths and spewing out five-colored flames. In an instant, the red tongue was trapped in a five-colored ice block, and Han Li did not hesitate to flip his palm and strike down on the ice block.

Clang!

A blue light flashed, and with a clear sound like porcelain breaking, the ice block shattered into pieces.

Kuaaaaaak!

A monster’s cry of agony echoed from underground. Soon, the blood-red lake water swirled and disappeared, and a demon with a vast body appeared. It was surprisingly a giant demon flower that had been living in the greenery.

The petals were a faint silver like the desert, but the middle of the flower was blood-red, indicating that the lake they had seen earlier was there. The tongue that had attacked Han Li was one of the flower’s giant pistils.

Moreover, dozens of Grievance Apes were standing on the flower’s giant petals. The Grievance Apes screamed into the air and threw stone spears. The stone spears turned into dozens of thick stone spikes and flew towards the three of them.

“Is this the Giant Spirit Flower? There shouldn’t be many demons above the intermediate stage in the first level of Jiyuan…”

Han Li’s face, upon seeing this, instead showed a smile.

This time, without him needing to step in, Noeran and Baekbyeok on his sides reached out and sent out silver lightning and golden threads to block the stone spike attacks.

“Brother Han! They are rare, but it’s not like they don’t appear at all. Besides, this trial is at a bad time, right before the Jiyuan demons start to riot. So, it’s not strange for intermediate-stage demons to appear on the first level.”

Noeran also showed a happy expression. Although they were intermediate-stage demons, they were much easier to deal with than the massive swarm of Shadow Spider Bees.

“I heard that the honey from this flower is a really good ingredient for refining pills, so since we’ve encountered it, we might as well collect it.”

Han Li smiled and flicked his ten fingers.

Poof poof poof!

Ten golden swords shot out from his fingertips, turning into long golden streaks of light as they fell. The giant flower made a strange sound from its center and repelled countless red shadows.

If an ordinary Flying Spirit Clan Saint had faced such an attack, it would have been troublesome, but Han Li simply raised one hand and pointed at the flying swords. Then, at the same time, the ten flying swords emitted golden light, and the red shadows were submerged and disappeared in the golden light.

After a short while, small swords that had replicated the same sword light, now numbering in the dozens, covered the sky. The Grievance Apes, seeing this, let out sharp screams and threw stone spears, turning into white light as they flew.

However, there was no way the demons’ crude stone spears could block the sword energies of the sharp Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords.

Thud thud thud!

Emitting a dark aura, the stone spears exploded into stone dust, and the Grievance Apes, entangled in golden light streaks, were cut in half and fell. The remaining sword energies mercilessly tore apart the giant flower, causing petals to scatter wildly.

A large amount of green liquid stained the area. Neither the Giant Spirit Flower nor the Grievance Apes that coexisted with the flower could withstand Han Li’s Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords. Seeing this, Noeran and Baekbyeok could only smile wryly and exchange glances.

“That’s enough, let’s collect the honey and leave.”

Han Li said, gesturing to retract the swords into his sleeves.

He flickered down, took out a small jade bottle from his palm, and tilted the opening. Then, a blue aura came out, wrapped around the pink liquid, and returned into the bottle.

Han Li brought the small bottle to his nose, and a fragrant honey scent wafted out. Noeran and Baekbyeok also went down and took out similar containers to collect the honey.

“Let’s go now!”

Han Li said calmly, flapping his wings and moving first. Baekbyeok followed, turning into a golden light, and Noeran smiled and flew up, then, seeing the Giant Spirit Flower debris scattered on the ground, flicked his hand.

Kwagwang!

Silver lightning shot out, turning the Giant Spirit Flower, as well as the connected yellow stems and leaves, all into ashes. Noeran, having dusted off his hand, flapped his wings and chased after Han Li and Baekbyeok. They soon disappeared into the far end of the sky, and the place where the greenery had been became silent.

About an hour later.

Suddenly, the surrounding ground shook and cracked, and huge black tentacles rose up. And in that place, a black flower several times larger than the Giant Spirit Flower bloomed. The black flower was not a flower bud but a huge mountain, and the black tentacles stopped after striking the ground.

“Who dares to touch the flower I was offering sacrifices to! Could it be those Six-Legged ones!”

In the center of the black flower, there was a silver wooden chair, and a slender woman’s figure was sitting there, holding a dark blue leather whip in her hand.

“Master, please calm your anger. It hasn’t been long since the blood offerings stopped, so they can’t have gone far. I will chase after them.”

A yellow light flashed, and a small shadow prostrated itself in front of the silver chair, speaking respectfully.

“Alright, I need to continue the sacrifices, so I’ll leave this matter to you. Since they ruined my work, I will not let anyone live.”

The woman said coldly and struck the air with her whip. Then, a white trace appeared in the air, and black mist poured out madly from the torn gap in space.

“Understood!”

The small shadow trembled in fear and bowed its head even lower.

“Go! I will go to the third level first.”

The woman, having given her order, stepped on the black giant flower with her toes. At the same time, black light surged, and a silver formation appeared on the flower’s surface, emitting black mist.

Krrrrr Kwagwang!

Thunder rumbled from within the black mist that completely covered the giant flower, and silver lightning flashed before everything disappeared in a sudden gust of wind.

As if nothing had happened!

The giant black flower and the woman had disappeared, and only the furry monkey was left kneeling in that place.

Only after a while did the small figure rise; it had the face of a monkey and was a demon with four ears. Its dark green pupils were thin like a snake, giving off an eerie feeling.

Unexpectedly, the Grievance Ape with yellow fur had intelligence and was acting like a human. The monkey demon opened its mouth and spewed out yellow mist, sweeping over the place where the Giant Spirit Flower debris had been.

Paat.

The green liquid that had flowed from the flower was drawn up by the yellow aura and entered the monkey demon’s stomach. The monkey demon’s nose and the edges of its four ears flickered with green light, and its entire body was also dyed green.

The Grievance Ape suddenly twitched two of its four ears but did not move elsewhere.

After a while, a sound of air being torn apart was heard from the end of the desert, and a red light flew over. A man with horns on his head and green wings was flying, and the way he rolled his small eyes made him look very cunning.

For some reason, a Saint from another branch of the Flying Spirit Clan had chosen the same route as Han Li and was flying alone. After a while, he encountered the chaotic scene spread around the Grievance Ape.

“Huh.”

The fat man stopped several tens of zhang [a Chinese unit of length, approximately 3.3 meters] away from the Grievance Ape and assessed the situation. The demon seemed to have been severely injured after a fierce battle with a powerful enemy and was meditating here without any defenses, as if the situation was not good.

The fat Flying Spirit Clan Saint thought so too, and his eyes lit up. Although the trial objective was not to kill demons, killing Jiyuan demons would yield a good amount of demon cores or byproducts. If he could obtain them without much effort, it would be beneficial.

However, this Flying Spirit Clan Saint was very cautious and observed the demon from afar for a long time. Only after at least an hour did he feel relieved, and he clapped his hands together, summoning flames between his palms.

Whoosh!

The flames instantly turned into a long spear about two zhang in size, and the man, flapping his wings, turned into a red light and flew towards the monkey demon. He moved quickly despite his fat body, using some kind of secret technique, and no sound or aura could be felt.

The monkey demon did not move even when it was about ten zhang away. The man, showing a happy expression, threw the spear.

Shwek!

However, the fat man’s expression suddenly changed. The monkey demon, pierced by the fire spear, had crumbled like an illusion.

“Could it be!”

The Flying Spirit Clan man felt an ominous premonition and immediately tried to escape, but it was already too late. A vague green shadow flickered nearby, and a green light exploded, rushing towards the Flying Spirit Clan Saint.

Bang!

After a short while, a miserable scream echoed, and the red light from the man’s body went out, melting away like snow. The protective barrier made of spiritual energy could not withstand the green light and turned into green liquid, falling down.

Then, the green aura gathered, and a monkey figure appeared. The demon coldly looked at the liquid on the sand and opened its mouth to absorb the green liquid. The monkey, smacking its lips, muttered.

“Flying Spirit Clan? Now that I think about it, it’s about time for the surface dwellers to have their trials. Then, does that mean these guys ruined the sacrifices?”

After pondering for a while, it sniffed the air and turned its head towards the direction where Han Li’s group had disappeared. The monkey demon, letting out an eerie laugh, turned back into green mist and tore through the air.

*