Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 910

“How do you feel? Do you still sense the curse mark within your body?”

At Han Li’s question, the beast examined its own body with its consciousness. After a moment, a smile bloomed on the beast’s face.

“The curse mark has disappeared. It’s really gone! Thank you, Senior!”

The small beast quickly bowed deeply to Han Li. The curse mark embedded in its body had tormented it for a long time, like a maggot burrowing into its bones and flesh. How could it not be overjoyed that it was so easily removed?

The other demon beasts watched this, their eyes gleaming as they looked at Han Li.

“There’s no need to rush. Come one by one.”

Han Li smiled calmly and pointed at the golden monkey. The golden monkey, filled with joy, rushed forward.

In just about an hour, all four demon beasts had the curse marks removed from their bodies.

They expressed their gratitude endlessly, their faces filled with emotion.

“That’s enough, now go. I was merely fulfilling a transaction with you! By the way, when is the next time you have to offer tribute to the Sky-Devouring Clan?”

“Please rest assured, Senior. It hasn’t been long since we offered tribute, so the Sky-Devouring Clan won’t be visiting the island for several hundred years.”

The bull-headed beast, understanding Han Li’s intentions, answered respectfully.

“Oh, then that’s good.”

Upon hearing that, Han Li waved his hand towards the four demon beasts. In a few hundred years, he would already be somewhere else.

* * *

As the four demon beasts retreated, filled with emotion, Han Li sat in the main hall and took out the wooden box containing the Blood Essence again.

“When I desperately needed it, I couldn’t find it even if I searched high and low. And now, I’m obtaining the materials for the Law Manifestation of the True Devil [a powerful technique] like this. I also have the spiritual medicines collected from the Sky-Devouring Clan’s sacred grounds, so if I can find the Flame Gold Essence, I can combine it with the Golden Essence Insects to condense the true form of the Law.”

Han Li’s face showed excitement. He put the Blood Essence back into the wooden box and stood up, heading towards the herb garden in the east.

In a corner of the herb garden, 72 jade-colored bamboo plants, each about the size of a hand, grew, scattering golden energy. As Han Li’s fingertip touched a bamboo leaf, a thunderous sound echoed, and golden lightning shot out from the bamboo stalk, striking the back of his hand.

*Tss.*

In an instant, his hand, which had turned black, absorbed the golden lightning. Han Li closed his eyes and quietly touched the leaf with his fingertip.

After a long while, Han Li opened his eyes, his brow furrowed.

“It’s effective, but the progress is slower than I thought. I should seal the flying swords a bit more and take care of other matters first!”

He seemed to ponder for a moment, then immediately transformed into a golden streak of light, circling the herb garden once before disappearing.

Han Li soon appeared inside a square stone chamber. There, seven or eight large and small braziers and cauldrons were arranged in a circle, with a high platform in the middle.

There was a round hole on the surface of the platform, which was tightly sealed with a lid made of white jade. The jade lid, emitting a powerful, cold, white aura, was surprisingly refined from a giant piece of mystic ice.

Bottles of various sizes were piled up on the walls of the secret chamber, emitting a very strong medicinal fragrance. This was the alchemy room that Han Li had prepared.

Most of the stacked medicine bottles were ordinary, but they were essential for alchemy. After scanning the cauldrons, he looked at the blue cauldron.

*Thud!*

He stretched out a hand and pointed at the lid of the platform, and the jade lid flew off on its own, falling to the floor. The heavy thud conveyed the weight of the jade lid. As the lid flew off, a bright red light shot up from the hole below, and the temperature of the secret chamber rose rapidly.

Following Han Li’s movements, the blue cauldron blurred and disappeared from its spot, then began to rotate above the bright red flames.

Han Li chanted an incantation and threw a magic seal into the blue cauldron.

*Koo-roong!*

Then, the blue cauldron expanded and contracted, falling straight down and completely blocking the fiery pit. Seeing this, Han Li took a small breath and took out a jade box from his storage pouch, picking up a few purple fruits.

The fruits were about the size of a fist, with a glossy sheen and a rich, sweet fragrance from the abundant juice. The flesh of the fruit encased a seed that looked like a small dragon, full of vitality.

These were the Dragon Earth Fruits that Han Li had obtained on his way to the Wood Spirit Clan’s territory. These fruits could be used to refine the Ascending Dragon Pill, which greatly aided cultivators in the early and mid-stages of the Void Refinement realm in their cultivation.

Han Li had now reached the Void Refinement stage, so he needed to refine new pills. However, the Ascending Dragon Pill was very difficult to refine, and it took half a month just to refine each of the auxiliary ingredients.

Fortunately, the Dragon Earth Fruits also took time to mature, and he was focusing all his efforts on cultivating the Golden Thunder Bamboo and Azure Vine Fruits with the mysterious bottle, so it would take several more years to gather a large quantity.

Han Li stayed in the alchemy room for over half a month. After leaving the alchemy room, he entered another secret chamber to cultivate and stabilize his Void Refinement cultivation.

While he was cultivating, the four demon beasts came and offered a large quantity of rare materials. However, they were useless to Han Li, so the Han Li transformed by the Soul Puppet [a magical construct] accepted them. The four demon beasts did not know whether the Han Li before them was real or fake.

Not long after, the demon beasts left the place and flew towards the endless sea. After that, time passed quietly without any incidents.

Several years later, the first Dragon Earth Fruits were harvested, and he came out of seclusion to begin refining the Ascending Dragon Pill.

However, refining the Ascending Dragon Pill was not easy. Even with his skill as an alchemy master, he failed seven or eight times out of ten attempts. He had expected it to be difficult, but the success rate was so low that he was surprised.

‘No wonder there are no pills needed for the Void Refinement stage at the Heavenly Auction House…’

Even if an alchemist succeeded in refining a pill, it would probably be insufficient to use for their own cultivation breakthroughs. Thinking this way, his frustrated heart from the low success rate felt a bit better.

Since he could continue to grow rare materials with the mysterious bottle, refining pills in large quantities was only a matter of time.

Thus, Han Li spent his days going back and forth between the alchemy room and the cultivation room, and 40 years had passed in the blink of an eye.

On that day, Han Li was also sitting cross-legged in the secret chamber, focusing on his cultivation.

Suddenly, he felt a chilling sensation, so he stopped his cultivation and stood up.

“It feels like a high-level cultivator’s consciousness just swept through this place. Could it be…”

Han Li was startled. The place was surrounded by layers of restrictions, so even a cultivator of the same level could not give him such pressure. Therefore, it was definitely not a cultivator of the same level. But why would a cultivator above the Combination stage [a high cultivation realm] come to this desolate land for no reason?

‘Could it be the elders of the Sky-Devouring Clan, or perhaps the old monsters of the Bi Ling Clan?’

With trembling eyes, he left the secret chamber and moved to the main hall where a giant formation was engraved. He went up to the stone platform and looked into the hexagonal mirror.

This was the Myriad Dragon Pearl restriction that Han Li had created after mastering the Nine Palaces Heavenly Calculation [a powerful technique]. After several modifications, the Myriad Dragon Pearl could now monitor thousands of miles and possessed a much more profound power than before.

He formed hand seals and threw a blue magic seal into the formation.

*Woo-oong!*

The formation vibrated, and streams of light rose, rushing into the mirror on the stone platform.

*Paat.*

The mirror absorbed the streams of light and emitted a silver light barrier about the size of a hand. On the light barrier, small and large dots of light flickered. Han Li’s gaze turned to two points of light that were emitting a strong light on the silver light barrier.

“And there are two of them?”

Han Li stared at the two points of light without blinking. The light did not move on the light barrier for a long time, neither approaching nor leaving the vicinity of the eastern region.

Han Li’s expression darkened. Fortunately, they had not come looking for him, but they were not just passing by either. This made Han Li’s worries even deeper.

He did not know who they were, but if they were doing something just a few thousand miles away, it would affect him as well. Moreover, the chilling sensation he felt when their powerful consciousness swept over him made him even more uneasy.

He pondered for a while, then gritted his teeth and made a decision. Han Li chanted an incantation towards the mirror on the stone platform and spat out a mouthful of essence blood.

Then, a lump of blood exploded in front of the mirror, turning into a blood-colored mist that enveloped the mirror.

The silver mirror absorbed the blood-colored mist completely. As the silver mirror instantly turned crimson, the silver barrier scattered, and a five-colored barrier appeared.

Milky white mist flowed out from the five-colored barrier. The mist fluctuated and surprisingly showed a clear image of the outside of the eastern region. Han Li watched the scene with a surprised expression.

The familiar scenery was a small mountain near the Black Underworld, and on the top of the mountain, two cultivators of different races, wearing different clothes, were floating side by side.

At first glance, they looked similar to humans, but one was a tall, handsome young man with a silver horn on his head, and the other was wearing green leather clothes, with long hair down to his waist and scales on his cheeks.

They were looking at the Black Underworld and talking to each other. However, it was impossible to know what they were saying.

Han Li’s heart grew heavier when he realized that they were not from the Bi Ling Clan. If they were from the Bi Ling Clan, he would not be in immediate danger because of his identity as a Sky-Devouring Clan’s Saint, but if they were from another race, the situation would be different.

Many old monsters were originally eccentric and cruel. However, if he fled immediately, he might attract their attention or provoke their anger.

As he hesitated, an anomaly occurred. The horned young man, who had been talking, suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of the eastern region, giving a meaningful look.

Surprisingly, Han Li saw silver light erupting from his eyes, and the moment he met those eyes, he felt a pain as if his eyes were about to burst. Startled, Han Li stepped back and closed his eyes.

Then, the clear image of the mist became blurry, and a silver light flashed and exploded.

*Bang!*

The white mist disappeared with a loud bang. Han Li could only stand there blankly. He had forcibly activated one of the powerful divine abilities of the Myriad Transformation Pearl, even at the cost of damaging his vital energy.

It was a very secret divine ability that allowed him to secretly see their appearance by using several hidden beads nearby. However, the horned young man’s gaze had shattered his restriction. Han Li had never imagined that he would possess such a powerful consciousness.

‘Those two are definitely Combination-stage cultivators, and they are definitely at the mid-stage or higher. Since I’ve already been discovered, should I run away immediately?’

Han Li pondered over and over, but he could not make a decision easily. He was worried that fleeing hastily might provoke their killing intent.

While Han Li was restless, the horned young man’s eyes, which were thousands of miles away, slowly returned to normal.

“Cultivator Min, what’s wrong?”

The fish-eyed race, with scales on his cheeks, looked puzzled.

“Someone was using a restriction to observe us. I’ve already dealt with it, but the restriction was quite interesting.”

The horned young man smiled and stretched out his hand towards a certain direction.

*Pshoo.*

Then, a white bead buried deep in the mountain was sucked into his hand. The horned young man held the bead and examined it closely, clicking his tongue in amazement.

“I didn’t expect there to be such a high-level surveillance magic tool here. Although the cultivation level is a bit low, it’s very useful. There aren’t many magic tools as sophisticated as this even in our two clans.”

“You flatter me. You wouldn’t have buried just one bead here, would you?”

The fish-eyed race looked around with his consciousness, then emitted a dark blue light from his body and disappeared from the spot. The next moment, he found a Myriad Dragon Pearl in the distant ground, forcefully sucked it in, and returned to his original position.”