Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 970

At the same time, a streak of blood-colored light descended in front of the cliff entrance, which was thick with demonic energy. A man from the Gyu clan, clad in silver armor, appeared with a grim expression.

“The boundary restriction I set earlier has been activated. They really came for the True Spirit’s blood! Very well, this venerable one will claim the True Spirit’s blood.”

The Gyu clan man muttered, his killing intent palpable. He transformed into a streak of blood-colored light and entered the passage. It was unclear what technique he had mastered, but the pitch-black demonic energy dared not oppose his blood-colored aura and cleared a path for him.

Not long after the Gyu clan man entered, Guya appeared in the void. The small, slender woman seemed quite surprised to see the passage filled with demonic energy.

“There’s a place with such dense demonic energy? Is this the secret hideout of the Iron Demons or the Blood Fiends?”

After pondering for a moment, she also transformed into a streak of silver light and entered. As a high-level demonic beast, she had no reason to fear demonic energy.

* * *

In a corner of the great hall, four golden heads and arms appeared on Han Li’s shoulders. Each hand held a weapon resembling a staff, a pestle, a wheel, and a ruler, blocking the large fist.

Woong-

The four weapons trembled, seemingly struggling to hold on.

The fist, emanating a dark aura, released shockwaves from time to time. However, the shockwaves only grazed past, deflected by the crystal shield in front of Han Li.

Whirring.

In the distance, a fist-sized golden beetle was frantically flying around a purple blade fragment, attacking it.

The purple trace split the void, sending one of the beetles flying far away, but the remaining beetle clung tightly, gnawing at it, forcing the blade fragment to retreat.

No matter how powerful it was, it couldn’t continuously attack. Moreover, the Gold Devouring Beetles were a bit weakened to fully withstand the attacks.

Whirr!

The Gold Devouring Beetle that had been flung away flapped its wings and returned. Thus, the blade fragment, despite wanting to cut Han Li, was helpless due to the pesky Gold Devouring Beetles.

As Ma Yuan attacked aggressively, Han Li’s nascent soul light and five-colored cold flames briefly held on before dissipating, and the crystal shield barely managed to block the front.

Ma Yuan’s own monstrous strength was one thing, but the power of the purple blade fragments attacking from a distance was too strong.

Having rich combat experience, Han Li immediately thought of using the Gold Devouring Beetles. He instantly merged the Saintly Demonic Dharma Idol [a powerful, divine form] with his body and summoned four treasures to block the opponent’s two fists.

Taking advantage of that gap, the mutated Gold Devouring Beetles were able to escape from Ma Yuan’s grasp. And from then on, the Gold Devouring Beetles began to exclusively block the blade fragments.

Ma Yuan wanted to smash Han Li’s head with his fist right away, but Han Li’s strength was not to be underestimated, so they had been in a stalemate until now.

The problem was that Ma Yuan’s strength was more immense than he had thought. Even after merging with the Dharma Idol and pushing the Saintly Demonic Art to its extreme, he still felt slightly inferior to the opponent’s strength.

Fortunately, Ma Yuan didn’t use any other methods, perhaps because he was also severely injured.

‘This won’t do. I need to use another method…’

He took a deep breath and released five skull heads. The skull heads spewed five-colored cold flames towards Ma Yuan. And from Han Li’s mouth, a small blue cauldron appeared, spinning and releasing countless blue threads before disappearing.

Clang!

Summoning wings, Han Li transformed into a cyan-white lightning bolt and rushed towards the exit of the great hall. His intention was to temporarily restrain Ma Yuan with the five-colored cold flames and the blue threads of the Void Sky Cauldron, creating distance between them.

‘Then, I’ll lure him into the Spring Dawn Sword Formation!’

It was much more advantageous to fight by trapping Ma Yuan in the sword formation. However, something unimaginable happened.

The moment the cyan-white lightning flashed at the entrance of the great hall, a streak of blood-colored light flashed from the side, and a long object struck him. Surprisingly, it was the blood-colored bed that Ma Yuan had been lying on.

‘Why is this here…’

The speed of the blood-colored bed was too fast, and large and small spell characters flickered strangely.

Han Li quickly swung the weapons held by the golden hands and simultaneously released fist phantoms from his black and white hands. It was a pity that he couldn’t use a more powerful divine ability due to the sudden appearance of the blood-colored bed, but he thought he could block it with his body merged with the Dharma Idol.

Golden light flashed, and the four weapons struck the blood-colored bed.

Clang!

Golden and blood-colored lights clashed, but the wooden bed did not stop and slowly pressed down. Han Li hardened his face and frantically struck the bed with black and white fist phantoms.

But then, suddenly, his hair stood on end, and he felt goosebumps. He didn’t know why, but having always trusted his intuition, he withdrew his fists and poured spiritual power into the crystal shield.

He tried to form a hand seal to unleash another technique, but it was already too late. A giggling laughter was heard in the void.

And right behind Han Li, a white thread appeared, and a crimson arm emerged, swinging its hooked claws.

Thud!

Han Li’s body, as hard as a top-grade magic treasure, was pierced like paper, and the crimson arm protruded from his chest. Han Li couldn’t believe what he was seeing, even though he saw it directly.

Kikikik!

A strange laughter echoed through the great hall. It wasn’t the Ma Yuan in purple armor, but the owner of the crimson arm in the white spatial rift who was giggling.

“Dare to touch this body? You’re courting death. Your magic power is quite pure, so I’ll have to nourish myself with it.”

A crimson shadow emerged from the spatial rift and laughed wildly. The crimson shadow pulled the hand that had pierced Han Li’s chest, trying to bite off his head.

But then, something astonishing happened.

Poof!

Han Li was enveloped in jade-colored light and disappeared like a bubble, leaving only a talisman pierced by the crimson arm fluttering in his place. The crimson shadow paused at this and immediately turned its head towards the entrance.

Then, a green light flashed at the entrance of the great hall, and Han Li appeared with a pale face. The crimson shadow flinched when it saw his chest.

His chest was not pierced, and there were no bloodstains. If the chest area of his blue robe wasn’t torn, he would have thought he was under an illusion.

The crimson shadow quickly looked at the jade-colored talisman and tried to tear it apart.

“Come back.”

Han Li snorted and gave an order from outside the entrance. Then, the jade-colored talisman blurred and entered Han Li’s chest. It was the Fire Spirit Talisman that he had cultivated diligently day and night since coming to the Spirit Realm.

Having cultivated it in his body for hundreds of years, the talisman’s divine power was incomparable to when he was in the Mortal Realm. He didn’t have time to activate other treasures, but the moment the crimson arm tried to pierce his body, he activated the Fire Spirit Talisman to block the blow to his chest.

Otherwise, no matter how great Han Li’s vitality and how tough his body were, he would have been severely injured. To use the Fire Spirit Talisman again, he would have to cultivate it for over a hundred years.

But what about the sleeping monkey, and what is this crimson shadow that has appeared now?

‘Ma Yuan’s incarnation?’

Han Li, with a dark face, activated the Brightspirit Eyes to examine the crimson shadow.

Three horns on its head, a mouth full of fangs, and long arms reaching down to its knees. It wasn’t a physical entity, but its appearance was identical to Ma Yuan before he wore the purple armor.

The crimson shadow stood in place, watching Han Li, who was deep in thought, and gestured to the Ma Yuan in purple armor. Ma Yuan strode towards the crimson shadow.

Swish!

The crimson shadow transformed into a streak of light and disappeared into the purple armor. Black and red demonic energy surged, releasing immense spiritual pressure. It was on a different level from the Ma Yuan who had been groaning from his injuries.

Han Li’s expression changed drastically, and he retreated, suddenly recalling one of the demonic secret techniques written in the 탁천마공 (Takcheon Demonic Art) [a demonic cultivation manual].

“Soul-Body Separation Technique!”

“Hmm? How do you know the name of this technique? Yes, I was healing my injuries with the Soul-Body Separation Technique. Separating the soul and body is a bit dangerous, but it doubles the recovery speed. Now that I think about it, you are really suspicious! You’re clearly a Spirit Realm cultivator, yet you’ve mastered our Upper Demon Realm’s top-tier demonic art. You’ve modified the technique a lot, but its power is not bad.”

“Then you must have almost fully recovered.”

Han Li’s expression darkened.

“Haha! Yes, it will take some time for my body to heal, but my nascent soul has almost recovered. If you know your place, obediently offer me your essence blood. Then I will spare your soul.”

Ma Yuan laughed grotesquely.

“Do you think I would believe that? If your nascent soul has almost recovered, there would be no reason to fight using your physical body. At most, you’ve recovered about 40%. Now that your nascent soul has returned to your body, you alone are no match for me, but if I have allies, killing you won’t be difficult.”

Han Li sneered.

“…”

Ma Yuan’s laughter stopped abruptly at those words. Two streaks of blood-colored light flashed from Ma Yuan’s armor, and as he stretched out a hand, the purple blade fragments that had been chasing and being chased by the Gold Devouring Beetles disappeared from afar.

Woong!

The blade fragments moved to Ma Yuan’s hand and transformed into a purple greatsword.

Swish! Swish!

As the greatsword was swung, seven or eight purple afterimages appeared in front of Han Li. However, Han Li, who had been prepared, poured a spell into the crystal shield, and the crystal shield became a protective barrier, completely covering him.

Kukwakwang!

The purple afterimages exploded in front of the crystal barrier. However, the power of the purple afterimages was not to be underestimated, shaking the crystal barrier and pushing Han Li back into the dark aura of the passage as if being helplessly flung away.

“You talk big, but where do you think you’re going!”

Ma Yuan sneered and flashed a blood-colored light from his armor, leaping into the passage.

“…!”

However, the moment he entered the passage, he felt a strange pressure, and a small mountain fell down. Ma Yuan nonchalantly extended his fist, detonating an invisible force, and stared at the dark passage. If it were an ordinary cultivator, they wouldn’t be able to see anything in the passage filled with demonic energy, but as a Star Realm demonic beast, he could see everything clearly.

In the distance, Han Li was forming hand seals with both hands. The surrounding demonic energy was fluctuating and retreating, as if he was preparing a powerful divine ability.

“This bastard!”

Ma Yuan roared as Han Li tried to use a technique right in front of him, but he didn’t immediately fly over. He was just carefully observing Han Li, preparing for his attack.

At that moment, something unexpected happened above his head. The mountain he had sent flying with his monstrous strength suddenly grew several times larger and fell down at an even faster speed. Ma Yuan quickly swung the purple greatsword.

Swish!

The purple afterimages appeared in the void and merged into one, as if intending to completely shatter the black mountain. However, before the purple afterimages could reach it, the imposing small mountain flashed with a gray light and then scattered like a bubble.

The purple afterimages cut through the void. Ma Yuan couldn’t understand for a moment what trick Han Li was playing.

Krrr Kwakwang! Kwarng!

A loud noise echoed, and Ma Yuan, sensing something, turned his head. Then, Han Li was already surrounded by countless thin golden lightning bolts, and at the same time, golden spell characters flew from Han Li’s hands and disappeared into the lightning.

The lightning absorbed the spell characters and silently scattered, transforming into a large amount of golden energy. And as Han Li chanted a golden spell, the thunder in the golden energy grew louder.

Kwarurung Kwakwakwang!

A tremendous thunderclap echoed through the passage, and the golden energy disappeared from sight in an instant. Then, a golden bead quietly floated above Han Li’s palm. The bead, with raised spell characters and patterns, did not emit any spiritual pressure at all.