Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 93

Shame and resentment warred within Jin Shimei as she tried to bury the incident deep in her heart, doing her best to forget it.

However, when her Big Brother mentioned it, she couldn’t help but recall that day. Her face flushed, then paled as she became lost in thought, her emotions a tangled mess.

Coming back to herself in a daze, she noticed her Big Brother watching her.

His gaze held a knowing depth, making her feel as if her secret had been exposed, and her face turned an even deeper shade of red.

Overwhelmed with embarrassment, Jin Shimei stomped her foot and exclaimed,

“I’m going to get the spirit herbs!”

Then, she hurried into the inner part of the stone chamber, trying to hide her inner shyness.

The middle-aged man smiled as he watched his cherished little sister’s retreating back. Then, having made a decision, he followed her.

In a dense forest, a girl dressed in green bit her lip, directing a small white hawk in a difficult fight against a two-headed monster snake.

Judging by the current situation, they were evenly matched, and it seemed unlikely that a conclusion would be reached quickly.

Behind the monster snake, a large tree with flames licking its bark stood, and several fist-sized red fruits hung from the ends of its branches.

Meanwhile, in a deep underground cave in the mountains, men and women in white walked silently, their footsteps muffled. There were about a dozen of them, and surprisingly, all the disciples of the Emei Sect who had survived the forbidden expedition were gathered there.

Leading them was the ethereal woman who had seen Han Li from afar.

The white-clad girl had a young and innocent face, but her expression was serious. Moreover, she was enveloped in a silver glow, creating an aura of mystery.

Most surprisingly, the group of white-clad men and women following the girl were anxious and did not dare to speak carelessly. They stole glances at the girl’s back, showing reverence.

The violent woman and her cultivation partner, whom they had seen in the desert terrain, were also among them. The arrogance that had filled their faces had vanished without a trace, and they were behaving obediently, not even breathing loudly, like the others.

The fairy-like girl, who was leading the group, stopped walking, and the group following her naturally stopped as well.

Not far from where they stopped, a wide-open space appeared, revealing a deep green pond. In the center of the pond, dark gray reefs rose above the surface, and more than a dozen jade-like spirit mushrooms grew on them, catching the eye.

“Is this it?”

The girl asked, looking at the pond with interest, without turning her head, her soft voice echoing in the cave.

“Yes, Senior Aunt! This is the pond where the top-grade demonic beast, the Azure Water Crocodile, lives. During the last forbidden expedition, one of our disciples was eaten by that beast while collecting spirit herbs, and another barely escaped with his life.”

Among the female disciples of the Emei Sect, the one who appeared to be the oldest stepped forward, bowing respectfully as she answered. ‘Senior Aunt’ [a term of respect for a senior female member of a sect or family]. If the disciples of the other six major sects heard this, they would be so surprised that their jaws would drop.

According to the distribution of seniority based on cultivation level in the cultivation world, this cute girl would have to be a Core Formation cultivator [a high level of cultivation] of the Emei Sect to be called Senior Aunt.

However, it was known that only cultivators below the Foundation Establishment stage [a lower level of cultivation] could enter the forbidden expedition, so it was impossible to know what was going on.

However, judging from the expressions of the other Emei Sect disciples, who did not show any surprise, it seemed that they were already aware of the secret.

“Okay, I understand. Step back.”

At this time, the girl gave an order naturally, displaying a seasoned air that did not match her youthful face.

“Everyone, prepare! After I lure the Azure Water Crocodile to the surface, everyone will use the newly learned cooperative technique, the Yin-Yang Attraction Technique, to attack in pairs continuously. If the combined power is equivalent to a Foundation Establishment cultivator going all out, there should be no problem dealing with even the most ferocious beast. After that, follow me again to enter the habitat of the top-grade demonic beast and collect the spirit herbs that no one has touched so far.”

Although her voice was not loud, the girl’s tone was full of confidence. The disciples who heard the order believed and followed her words without any hesitation.

Seeing this, the girl turned her head back to the pond and opened her mouth, and a pink sphere the size of a finger slowly emerged.

Then, it swelled up in an instant and became the size of a human head, emitting a buzzing sound, and the light it emitted was so brilliant that it was clear that it contained a great deal of spiritual energy.

Judging by the way the sphere appeared, the light it emitted, and the large amount of spiritual power it contained, it was clearly a priceless magic treasure. Could this girl really be a Core Formation cultivator?

Shortly after, a tremendous roar echoed in the secret cave below the ground. Then, along with a whooshing sound, the anger of the demonic beast was felt.

However, with the continuous explosions like thunder and lightning, the demonic beast’s roar weakened, and as the explosions continued, eventually no sound could be heard.

Several hours later, the girl led the Emei Sect men and women out of the entrance of a secluded cave. The disciples following her were all excited and thrilled.

Their excitement was understandable. The opportunity to attack and kill a top-grade demonic beast was not something that mere Qi Refining stage [the initial stage of cultivation] novices could easily experience.

Today, they had defeated the hideous and terrifying Azure Water Crocodile without much effort, so they were all very moved.

Of course, if the cute girl’s circular magic treasure had not blocked most of the demonic beast’s attacks, it would have been impossible to achieve such a perfect victory without harming a single person.

Therefore, the gazes of the disciples looking at the girl contained even stronger respect and fear. The girl, completely unconcerned about the intense gazes of the male and female disciples, walked with a calm expression.

It was as if hunting a top-grade demonic beast was not a big deal.

Shortly after, the Emei Sect disciples disappeared into the nearby bushes, vanishing without a trace.

* * *

In other areas, the disciples of each sect were still endlessly battling demonic beasts and taking the spirit herbs they guarded.

However, although disputes often occurred over spirit herbs, strangely, there were few casualties in the process. Usually, the weaker side would retreat, or even if they were superior in a fight, they would not press their advantage further and would quickly retrieve the spirit herbs and leave for another place.

The reason for this situation was that everyone had the same thought. Since there was not much time left, it was more important to travel around other places and collect spirit herbs than to fight and shed blood.

Moreover, there would be plenty of opportunities to fight to the death over spirit herbs on the final day, before everyone returned with their bags full of spirit herbs. That day, the center of the forbidden area would surely be stained with blood, so the act of letting the opponent go easily, as had happened in the previous two days, would hardly occur.

Having roughly grasped this situation, Han Li had been moving around from place to place for the past two days, while the other disciples were competing with each other to collect spirit herbs.

If he encountered a demonic beast above the mid-stage, he would immediately use his movement technique to escape, not delaying even for a moment for such trivial matters.

Whether it was luck or not, after encountering a rare poisonous insect monster, a giant centipede, while collecting spirit herbs on the first day, Han Li had gone to four more places in a row, and he had not encountered any demonic beasts guarding those places.

Thanks to this, he was able to easily collect spirit herbs without expending any energy, which was truly a pleasant surprise.

If things continued like this, it was not impossible to harvest much more than the required amount.

At this time, the third day of the forbidden expedition was almost over. Han Li was constantly leaping from branch to branch when he encountered two lower-grade demonic beasts, the Iron-Armed Apes, and he scattered them with a few hand gestures.

Now, Han Li was heading towards his last destination for the day, a small stone field near the mountain’s ramparts. He had heard that it contained not just one type of spirit herb but a mixture of several, and that the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, which he desperately needed, was also among them.

However, although the Heavenly Spirit Fruit was immature, the other spirit herbs had already matured, so there would definitely be a demonic beast guarding the place, and there was a possibility that disciples from other sects had already been there.

Han Li was hoping that the disciples from other sects had already been there and cleared the place for him. That way, he wouldn’t have to waste his energy trying to catch the demonic beast, and they wouldn’t have taken the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, which was not yet ripe, so it would be very beneficial for him.

As he made this optimistic assumption and looked at the stone field from afar, it was indeed not very large.

Before he even got close, he could hear the sounds of fierce fighting. He smiled, satisfied that someone was indeed doing the work for him. He immediately flew and quietly infiltrated the vicinity of the stone field.

In the open space in front of the stone field, the fierce battle between a brave man and a demonic beast that Han Li had imagined was not taking place. Instead, a square-jawed man in black, barefoot, was controlling a silver greatsword, pressuring a slender woman in green, giving her almost no room to breathe.

Her defensive measure was a yellow-shining handkerchief, but even that was now losing its light and was barely holding on against the greatsword.

Next to them, a huge red wolf with its body torn apart and a white hawk with its head and body separated were lying dead, staining the ground with blood. Judging by the strong smell of blood, it seemed that they had all died recently.

Han Li’s mouth dropped open as he grasped the situation, not because it was strange that the two were fighting here.

What surprised him was that the girl in green was surprisingly the girl who had sold him the Golden Bamboo Pen and had been embarrassed.

Han Li had already noticed that the girl’s magic power was very shallow during the gathering before the forbidden expedition. She was only at the tenth level of cultivation, so in his mind, he had predicted that the girl had already been eliminated or was hiding somewhere.

But now, in the middle of this Huanxing Mountain, she was fighting for her life with a greatsword sect disciple, who seemed to be no match for her, with a top-grade magic weapon, which was a surprising turn of events.

“It’s not too late to give up and leave now. As you know, I’ve been holding back. I’m just reluctant to kill women, but it’s not like I can’t. If you keep being so persistent, you’ll end up like your white bird!”

The barefoot man shouted, full of murderous intent, as if he could no longer bear it. The girl from the Spirit Beast Mountain, who he didn’t know where she had come from, had been wasting his time for an hour.

Now that his patience had run out, if she really wanted to go all the way, he would have no choice but to be ruthless. The girl’s face turned pale, but she gritted her teeth and stubbornly refused.

“I can’t leave without getting a few of the Blazing Sun Flowers inside!”

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# 95