Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 91

“It doesn’t look like anything special.”

Han Li didn’t rush in. Instead, he carefully observed the cave’s surroundings. Time was short, but he couldn’t ignore potential dangers that could cost him his life.

As the records stated, this so-called secret cave was unremarkable. It looked no different from any other mountain scenery he had passed, making him admire the disciples who had discovered this place before.

After about an hour, having confirmed there were no unusual demonic beasts or ambushes, he cautiously approached the cave entrance.

The cave was in its natural state. The entire structure was made of light blue rock, with no signs of human intervention.

He entered the cave entrance, examined both walls, and immediately came to this conclusion.

Han Li, who was about to slip into the cave, had barely taken twenty steps when he stopped. If he went a little further and turned the corner, it would become dark. Frowning, he rummaged through his storage pouch and took out an egg-sized moonstone, holding it in his hand. The moonstone emitted a soft white light, illuminating the surroundings.

Han Li shook his head. Originally, he had planned to sneak into the cave silently, find out where the demonic beast guarding the place was, and, if possible, launch a surprise attack to save his strength. But now that he had taken out the moonstone, it was as good as announcing his presence, and a surprise attack was out of the question.

He hesitated for a moment, looking at the calm light of the moonstone, but then he still formed an earth-elemental defensive barrier with his free hand. Then, he cautiously took one step at a time, observing the situation.

The inside of the cave was different from the vast outside, and even his swift movement techniques would have limitations. He was somewhat relieved that he had at least deployed a defensive technique.

Although this would greatly reduce his agility, he couldn’t have everything, so there was no point in being disappointed.

The cave was very narrow, and even after walking for a long time, he couldn’t see the end. Han Li’s heart began to pound slightly, and he wondered if he had entered the wrong cave and stumbled into the habitat of some top-tier demonic beast.

Fortunately, his worries were quickly resolved. From near the corner ahead, a faint white light was emanating, making it clear that his goal was just around the corner.

Han Li, looking pleased, put away the moonstone and carefully felt his way along the wall. The light ahead was bright, and since Han Li was still behind the corner, it seemed unlikely that they would know he was approaching, so he decided to stick to his original plan. He cautiously peeked his head out first to see the scene before him, and then his face fell.

The place was indeed the end of the cave, forming a rather large stone chamber. Inside, stalactites reflected light, glittering, and near a small purple rock wall, a few delicate light blue flowers with only one leaf each were blooming.

These small flowers all had their petals bent in one direction, creating a unique shape that, from a distance, looked like a funny monkey hanging upside down.

‘Without a doubt, that’s the Purple Monkey Flower. The stem and leaf color are blue, but that’s probably because it’s not fully grown yet.’

However, the moment he looked down at the base of the purple rock wall, his face instantly fell. There was a giant centipede, several feet long.

With its glossy black shell and long antennae, it was a horrifying sight that made his skin crawl even before the battle had begun. He had never faced a demonic beast of the poisonous insect type before, but he had heard of their notorious reputation.

According to others, poisonous insect-type demonic beasts were much more difficult to deal with than raptor-type demonic beasts.

Moreover, most of them used deadly poison techniques, immobilizing and poisoning people to death. It was best to avoid these types of demonic beasts unless absolutely necessary.

Seeing how large the centipede was, it was at least at the mid-stage, and possibly even at the high-stage [Demonic beast stages are a measure of power].

Unless he dealt with this giant poisonous insect, harvesting the spirit herb behind it was impossible.

Han Li first held his breath and slowly pulled his head back. He did his best to move as slowly as possible so as not to be detected by the centipede. Leaning against the wall, he stood quietly, pondering how to deal with this demonic beast.

Using his best magic tool to recklessly attack was not an option. Even if he used only the Golden Light Bricks, he could crush the centipede, but the loss of his magical power would be too great, and he wouldn’t be able to return to his optimal state. As he racked his brain, a good idea suddenly flashed into his mind.

Before moving, he carefully observed the centipede, which was lying motionless on the ground. Reassured by its appearance, he smiled and hid himself in the dark path he had come from.

Not long after, Han Li returned, looking satisfied. And then, without his defensive barrier, he confidently turned the corner and entered the room where the centipede was waiting.

If the centipede demon didn’t notice this noisy entrance, it would truly be a stupid beast. The giant insect immediately raised its head and shook its thick body.

The sound of its numerous legs scraping against the ground was unpleasant to hear. Han Li silently extended his hand and shot out several small fireballs extremely quickly, which flew straight towards the demonic beast’s head and exploded in succession.

After the light passed, the demonic beast’s body still maintained its glossy black sheen despite the fireball attacks. As others had said, poisonous insect demons were indeed very difficult to deal with.

The giant centipede hadn’t been injured, but it was certainly hurt in its pride. The centipede’s mouth twitched, revealing sharp fangs, and a red poisonous mist spewed out of its mouth, covering Han Li with a sinister aura, as if intending to soak him in poison.

But Han Li wasn’t one to just stand there and be poisoned. The moment he saw the poisonous mist, Han Li, unhindered by a defensive barrier, was able to leap out of the room faster than the mist with just a light push of his toes. Then, he sprinted back the way he had come, as if fleeing in fear of the demonic beast’s poisonous mist.

The giant centipede, not willing to let Han Li escape easily, moved its countless legs and crawled out. Its speed was not slow compared to Han Li, and when Han Li turned back to confirm this, he was startled and had to accelerate to widen the distance between them.

The giant centipede caught up with Han Li, its face filled with glee, and it put all its strength into its legs to increase its speed. Then, with a ferocious momentum, it charged towards him.

At this moment, Han Li stopped and looked at the centipede, laughing gleefully, as if he had given up on escaping.

The giant centipede, which had approached in an instant, was about to bite its opponent with its sharp teeth when it felt an extreme pain in its abdomen and rolled on the floor. Then, a large amount of dark poisonous blood flowed rapidly from its body, soaking the floor.

It turned out that the giant poisonous insect, without realizing it, had been cut open on its softest and thinnest lower abdomen by a sharp blade. Having suffered such a fatal wound, it was only natural that it felt such extreme pain.

Han Li, who was standing in front of it, would not miss such a good opportunity. He immediately raised his hand, and a circular golden light and a blue jade dagger flew from his hand towards the giant centipede’s thick antennae.

‘Clang!’

The two high-grade magic tools collided with the antennae, creating small dents before being bounced off.

‘They’re incredibly tough! They’re comparable to mid-grade magic tools.’

It was truly fortunate. If he hadn’t taken precautions beforehand, he would have struggled greatly fighting this giant centipede. Seeing that the dagger and golden bell were not very effective, he immediately retrieved them.

However, even though it had already suffered a fatal injury, the demonic beast’s vitality was so strong that it was still rolling around on the floor. Han Li, twitching his eyebrows, used his movement technique to quickly disappear behind the demonic beast’s head. He didn’t care whether it died or not and returned to the stone chamber along the tunnel.

Inside the stone chamber, the light blue Purple Monkey Flower was waiting quietly. Han Li took out several jade boxes of similar size from his storage pouch and placed them on the ground. Then, he activated his dagger and carefully cut away the roots of the Purple Monkey Flower and the purple rock it was embedded in. He then placed it in the jade box and sealed it well.

Only after removing all the spirit herbs did he let out a long breath. He stretched his body and checked the stone chamber once more to see if there was anything else worth taking. Then, he walked out of the chamber with calm steps.

The giant centipede was lying on the floor. It was finally dead. The poisonous blood that had flowed from its body had formed a puddle, and the nauseating stench made Han Li feel dizzy and lightheaded.

Startled, he realized that the poison in the blood was spreading through the air and immediately took a Qingling Pill [A pill to counteract poison].

Han Li, who had been moving away from the giant centipede without worry, suddenly stopped and threw a dagger to confirm that it was indeed not moving. He was about to take a few steps when Han Li’s body stopped again.

Then, he bent down and picked up a dagger from the floor. When he brushed off the dirt, he was surprised to see that it was a golden light, one of the ‘child’ swords of the Golden Mother-Child Swords [A set of swords that can be used together].

It turned out that the reason Han Li was able to cut open the giant centipede’s belly so easily was because he had placed the eight Golden Mother-Child Swords in a row in the passage.

They were inserted so deeply that the hilts were not visible at all, but the blades completely filled the passage.

As the giant centipede chased Han Li in a rage, it was cut by the Golden Swords embedded in the floor at an incredible speed, and its abdomen was unknowingly sliced open.

That a high-stage poisonous insect demonic beast couldn’t even use its poison techniques and ended up in this state was only due to Han Li’s cunning.

Han Li didn’t know that the centipede he had defeated was a high-stage demonic beast, but he was very satisfied with how easily he had dealt with it.

He bent down every seven or eight steps and was eventually able to collect all the Golden Mother-Child Swords.

Then, he was about to leave the cave when he unconsciously looked at the poisonous insect and hesitated, eventually approaching the corpse again.

Without hesitation, he used the golden swords to cut open the centipede’s head, abdomen, and tail.

He found that the back was the hardest part, and even when he tried to cut it with the golden swords, they only went in a little, so he had to apply a lot of force and cut slowly.

Then, without hesitation, he used all eight golden swords to cut the back shell into pieces. Soon after, he obtained the hard shell fragments, which he carefully organized and placed in his storage pouch.

This shell was a rare material that could block even a top-grade magic tool once. If he were to make armor out of this centipede’s shell, it would be very useful in the future.

In fact, it was a shame that he couldn’t take the entire centipede’s shell. However, doing so would waste too much time, and time was what Han Li lacked the most right now.

With this regret, he left the cave and immediately ran towards the next collection point he had planned. If things went as expected, he would be able to harvest the immature Heavenly Spirit Fruit there as well.

While he was busy collecting immature spirit herbs according to his plan, large-scale clashes were taking place between elite disciples in other well-known spirit herb habitats.

In any case, there were only a few areas where usable spirit herbs grew, so it was inevitable that all the experts would gather there.

# 93