Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 936

The old man calmly channeled his inner magical power, emitting a dazzling red light. The surrounding temperature soared instantly. Han Li, who had been closely observing his opponent’s actions, suddenly curled his lips into a sneer.

“You don’t actually think that the wound from the primal qi sword would heal so easily, do you?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

At Han Li’s words, the usually composed old man was startled. He examined his wound, and his face hardened. Blood was gushing from his forearm, which he had thought was securely reattached.

“Hehe, if you channel your magical power, the wound won’t heal. This is the true terror of the primal qi sword! Will you fight me with most of your magical power suppressed, or will you just let your vital essence flow out?”

Han Li chuckled and flicked his sleeve.

*Whoosh!*

From his sleeve, dozens of golden petals floated up. The petals instantly grew to half a foot in length and, astonishingly, transformed into dozens of ferocious-looking beetles.

The old man, who had remained expressionless even after hearing Han Li’s threat, could no longer maintain his composure upon seeing the beetles.

“Gold Devouring Beetles! You possess mature Gold Devouring Beetles?”

The old man’s expression changed rapidly, and he couldn’t hide the fear in his eyes. Han Li silently formed hand seals, sending the Gold Devouring Beetles swarming like a hive of bees.

Then, his body was covered in golden, glittering scales, and a jet-black demonic eye appeared between his brows. Simultaneously, a golden halo rose above his head, and from within it, the three-headed, six-armed Asura Dharma Idol [a powerful Buddhist guardian deity] emerged.

Not stopping there, countless golden lightning bolts crackled from Han Li’s body. He spread his hands, summoning the Yuan Magnetic Divine Mountain in one hand and the Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords that were scattered around him in the other.

All the flying swords flew swiftly, merging into a large, blue greatsword the size of a mat, which he held in his hand. Only then did Han Li take a step towards the old man with a chilling gaze. Surprisingly, he covered more than a dozen feet in a single stride, rushing towards the old man.

The old man, who had been watching all of this, turned pale. His gaze shifted from his forearm to the dozens of Gold Devouring Beetles buzzing towards him. He gritted his teeth and spat out a purple talisman from his mouth.

*Bang!*

The talisman exploded, creating a purple mist that completely enveloped him. Seeing this familiar sight, Han Li stopped in mid-air and narrowed his brows. However, the dozens of Gold Devouring Beetles didn’t care and charged into the purple mist.

“…”

Then, Han Li sent a white gust of wind, sweeping away the purple mist. As expected, the mist was empty. He immediately activated his Spirit Eye Technique [a technique to see through illusions and hidden things], scanned the ground, and let out a clear sound.

A moment later, a golden light flickered on the ground.

The dozens of Gold Devouring Beetles flew up from the ground, circled around him, and then disappeared into his sleeve. Even though he had only used the mature Gold Devouring Beetles for a short time, Han Li had to expend nearly half of his consciousness.

It was fortunate that his consciousness had greatly increased after reaching the Nascent Soul stage [a high level of cultivation]; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to release so many Gold Devouring Beetles so easily.

Using his Spirit Eye Technique, Han Li saw that the Horned-Tooth Clan elder had turned into a purple shadow and was fleeing underground, having already traveled more than ten miles. He didn’t even look back, running away with all his might.

Han Li didn’t even think about chasing the receding purple shadow.

Although he had managed to drive away a Fusion stage cultivator [a very powerful cultivator] with the power of his sword formation, he didn’t believe that his divine abilities were far superior to his opponent’s. Moreover, even if he chased after him, it would be difficult to catch up in a short time.

Han Li knew very well that the opponent had fled not only because of the wound from the primal qi sword but also because of the Gold Devouring Beetles and the various divine abilities he had revealed at the end.

Frankly, if the old man had forced himself to fight, it was uncertain whether the wound from the primal qi sword would have caused problems first, or whether Han Li would have exhausted his consciousness first while controlling the Gold Devouring Beetles.

Who would have lost was up to fate. However, Han Li had no intention of suffering mutual damage. Moreover, although he was quite far from Green Radiance City, the Horned-Tooth Clan soldiers could still catch up at any time.

The reason why he had poured all the magical power of the sword formation into the primal qi sword at the end, inflicting a serious injury on his opponent in a short time, was to be wary of the Horned-Tooth Clan pursuers. Under the gaze of his Spirit Eye Technique, the old man’s purple shadow disappeared from his sight.

Han Li quickly retracted his techniques and treasures, turning into a blue thread that cut through the sky. A moment later, he was no longer visible at the edge of the sky. The forest, which had been ravaged by the battle, soon regained its stability.

However, an hour later, a flash of spiritual energy appeared at the edge of the sky, and two streams of light flew imposingly from Green Radiance City.

Reaching the forest, they retracted their light. One was the old man who had left earlier, and the other was another Fusion stage cultivator, a middle-aged man in a silver robe.

“Indeed, he has already left. Given his speed, he might have already fled more than a hundred thousand miles.”

The old man scanned the surroundings, expressing his regret.

“That’s right. He wouldn’t stay here unless he was crazy. If he has fled that far, even using the Heavenly Mystery Compass [a magical compass used for tracking] would be useless. Besides, we used the Heavenly Mystery Compass today, so we have to wait three days before we can use it again. What I’m curious about is how a mere Nascent Soul stage being managed to injure Brother Dao.”

The middle-aged man looked at the huge crater, lost in thought. At those words, the old man looked embarrassed, but then his expression turned fierce as he looked at his severed shoulder.

“It was because I was too careless. I was caught in his sword formation, and the power of that sword formation was extraordinary. Moreover, he possessed several powerful divine abilities and treasures. Oh, and he also had dozens of mature Gold Devouring Beetles.”

“Gold Devouring Beetles?”

“If that weren’t the case, why would I have left the battlefield?”

The old man gritted his teeth, feeling frustrated.

“If there were dozens of them, even a true Saint Clan existence would be reluctant to face them. However, I heard that if there are not more than a hundred, they can be temporarily contained with top-grade wood-type treasures.”

The middle-aged man, who had a complicated expression, soon regained his composure.

“Hehe, if there were more than a hundred mature Gold Devouring Beetles, would I have returned here? I would have already fled far away.”

The old man gave a wry smile.

“If there are several thousand mature Gold Devouring Beetles, even a Saint Clan would be doomed. I heard that a long time ago, a swarm of mature Gold Devouring Beetles appeared on Thunderclap Continent, and their numbers reached tens of thousands. Several small nearby races were annihilated by the swarm of spirit insects.

In the end, one of the then-super-large races used the Heaven-Shattering Hammer, a treasure of the Heavenly Dao [the natural order of the universe], to forcibly create a spatial rift and send all the spirit insects out of the Spirit Realm. If they hadn’t done that, many more races would have suffered.”

The middle-aged man spoke slowly, recalling the memory.

“Speaking of which, raising Gold Devouring Beetles is not an easy task, is it? It requires time, effort, and luck to succeed. Seeing that he can control dozens of Gold Devouring Beetles at once, I suspect he belongs to some kind of power. Could he possibly be one of the Thirteen Heavenly Fortune Clans?”

The middle-aged man suddenly asked, as if he had thought of something.

“That wasn’t the case. The magical artifact I carry didn’t react. He also looked very ordinary, and I don’t know which clan he belongs to.”

“Then things will be difficult. If he has the jade box, there’s no way to retrieve it.”

The middle-aged man frowned.

“How many jade boxes did you obtain, Elder?”

“I found two. That Wan Gu person was quite cunning. He threatened to destroy the jade box if we chased him, and then he ran away. Of course, my Fiery Soul-Separating Technique is strong against ambushes, so I quickly subdued him and found the jade box.”

The middle-aged man flipped his palm and took out two identical jade boxes. Both had golden talismans attached to them. The Great Head had given one jade box each to Han Li and the other cultivators, yet he still had two jade boxes left.

The old man nodded and took out a jade box from his sleeve. It was the jade box that the green-skinned alien had possessed.

“Then we have secured a total of three. How many jade boxes did Hong Mie say the Wan Gu person had in his possession?”

The old man looked at the middle-aged man with a serious expression.

“He said five or six. But he said he couldn’t be sure.”

“Five or six… This has become really troublesome. It means that the one who escaped has at least one or more.”

The old man sighed.

“That’s probably the case. Judging by his formidable divine abilities, it’s highly likely that Hong Mie was killed by him. He’s someone we can’t let live.”

The middle-aged man’s eyes turned sinister.

“How can we chase someone we’ve already lost?”

“It’s impossible with our strength alone. But Brother Dao, the nearby cities have fallen into our clan’s hands. We must immediately send a message to the Wanli Department and ask for their help in capturing him. We need to release a large number of people to search. Since we only need to confirm his location, there’s no need to dispatch high-level cultivators. Once we get the news that he’s been found, we can just use the teleportation array.”

“That’s the only way.”

The old man thought the probability of success was low, but he couldn’t think of a better way. The old man took out a green stone fragment from his sleeve and wrote something on it, causing golden characters to appear on the surface. After a moment, the old man finished writing and struck the stone fragment with his other hand.

*Crack!*

A flash of spiritual energy appeared, and the characters disappeared.

“Let’s return to the warship for now. The self-destruct formation that the Wan Gu person hid under the city has already been found and removed with our exploration artifacts. There are many other things to deal with, so we’ll be busy for a while.”

“Let’s do that.”

With that, the two created streams of light and returned the way they had come.

* * *

Han Li flew a million miles without stopping. Only when he thought he had reached a distance that the Horned-Tooth Clan could not possibly pursue did he finally slow down the speed of his light.

Flying at full speed for a long time had definitely exhausted him. Inside the light, Han Li took out two jade-colored crystal stones from his storage pouch. They were top-grade wood-attribute spirit stones. Although they were precious spirit stones, Han Li didn’t hesitate to absorb their spiritual power.

Then, he landed on a small mountain, hid under a large tree, and sat cross-legged. The power of the Spring Dawn Sword Formation was strong, and the magical power it consumed was enormous. In particular, the final blow he had unleashed with the primal qi sword had almost damaged his vital energy.

While he was sitting cross-legged and resting, fortunately, nothing passed over his head. After half a day, Han Li had recovered most of his magical power.

He opened his eyes with a happy expression and then transformed back into a blue streak of light and flew up. The blue streak of light flew a hundred feet before becoming blurry and disappearing.

Inside the light, Han Li took out a jade slip. It was the nearby map he had obtained from Qing Su in the Fire Fox Archipelago. Although a long time had passed since the connection between the Fire Fox Archipelago and Thunderclap Continent had been severed, the locations on the map probably hadn’t changed much.

He poured his consciousness into it and began to search for a suitable route.

Knowing that the Horned-Tooth Clan had taken control, he couldn’t go to the nearby cities. Instead, he planned to go to Golden Armor City, which was said to be the largest in the area controlled by the Thirteen Heavenly Fortune Clans.

Golden Armor City was located at a very important crossroads, making it the largest city and fortress. Therefore, a large number of elite troops were always stationed there, and there were also a considerable number of high-level cultivators.

If the information on the map was correct, the Horned-Tooth Clan would not be able to attack Golden Armor City directly without clearing the surrounding area.

Han Li looked at the several suns in the sky, determined his direction, and then increased his speed.