Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 973

The moment the Heavenly Fruit disappeared, the spatial storm that had raged through the passage also vanished, leaving behind a space filled with demonic energy. Han Li narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist. From within the demonic energy, fist-sized blue lights flickered, and then the 72 small flying swords returned. These were the Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords, which had been caught between the Heavenly Treasures and broken. Han Li carefully checked the condition of the flying swords with his spiritual sense and sighed in relief. Thanks to the Sword Spirit Transformation’s power, they had fortunately returned to their original forms without significant damage. Han Li retrieved the flying swords and then pointed elsewhere. Swish! Large and small dark objects pierced through the demonic energy and flew over. It was Ma Yuan’s body, clad in purple armor, and fragments of his blade. Ma Yuan’s body was shriveled, and the armor he wore seemed to have lost much of its power with his death. Han Li reached out towards the chest area of the armor. A gray light flickered from his fingertips, and the armor separated into several pieces, falling away from Ma Yuan’s body. It then circled once in the air and emitted a purple light, indicating some remaining spirituality. Han Li had long been aware of the armor’s unusual power. He took out the Void Sky Cauldron, spewed out a bundle of blue threads, and wrapped them around the purple armor fragments before collecting them. Then, he turned to Ma Yuan’s corpse, which had become like a dried-up mummy. Ma Yuan’s skin, where the hair had regrown, was dyed a dark purple, making it look like he had been dead for quite some time. Han Li released a blue sword energy, intending to cut Ma Yuan’s body in half. However, contrary to his intention, a metallic friction sound was heard, and the sword energy was deflected. Han Li was surprised by this. After a moment, he took out a blue sword and sent it flying towards the corpse. The sword emitted a cold aura that seemed to freeze everything around it, aiming for the corpse’s dantian [energy center]. Thud! A dull sound was heard, and the tip of the sword only managed to penetrate about a finger’s length. Han Li was startled. The hardness of a Saint Realm demon’s body was extraordinary. If he hadn’t trapped him in the Sword Formation, he wouldn’t have been able to deal with him so easily. Being in the mid-stage of the Fusion Realm [a cultivation stage], he was far stronger than the early-stage Fusion Realm cultivator of the Horned Chi tribe he had fought before. If the opponent hadn’t been injured, he didn’t know what the outcome would have been. Han Li once again activated the golden light on his forearm, directly gripping the blue sword and exerting his immense strength. The long sword then howled powerfully and pierced deep into the corpse. When the tip of the sword reached the dantian, Han Li twisted it with all his might, creating a small hole. As he reached out and pulled out the sword, something shot out from the dantian area of the corpse with a whoosh! The black crystal bead was emitting a faint black aura. What the bead was emitting was pure demonic energy, the very demonic core of the Saint Realm demon that was the goal of this journey. ‘With this, repairing the Outer Heaven Demonic Armor shouldn’t be a problem.’ He didn’t know the power of the Outer Heaven Demonic Armor yet, but it would be superior to Ma Yuan’s damaged purple armor. Ma Yuan’s purple armor was clearly something that its previous owner had completely refined, so even if it was refined again, its power would be greatly reduced. Han Li took out a black jade box and placed the demonic core inside. He attached a talisman to the jade box, and golden and silver lights spread, completely sealing the demonic energy that had been flowing out. He put the jade box into his storage pouch and looked at the purple blade fragment. “Is this a Heavenly Treasure? Its power is too weak, and it looks strange… Is it because it’s just a part of the treasure?” Han Li decided to leave the blade fragment alone for now and meticulously examined his body with his spiritual sense. He then formed hand seals, activating the golden light all over his body and summoning the Three-Headed Six-Armed Dharma Form [a manifestation of spiritual power]. He examined the condition of his body and the dharma form, and his expression darkened. He had consumed half of his magic power, so it seemed that it would take decades for the Dharma Form of the Great Firmament Demon to regain its original power. Even so, this time he hadn’t damaged his vitality because he hadn’t used his own essence blood to transform the Heavenly Fruit into a divine sword. The reasons were, first, he hadn’t directly activated the Heavenly Treasure, but the dharma form had done it instead, and second, the Heavenly Sword had appeared on its own because it was stimulated by the blade fragment. Therefore, although its power was greatly reduced compared to before, it was enough to kill Ma Yuan. It was true that the blade fragment in front of him controlled the power of the laws of heaven and earth, but Han Li was doubtful because the difference in power between it and the Heavenly Sword was too great. However, the fact that it had cut through the Spring Dawn Sword Formation alone made it a treasure that could not be compared to ordinary Heaven Piercing Spirit Treasures. The blade fragment itself might have been a low-powered one among the Heavenly Treasures, or it might have been suppressed by the power of the Heavenly Sword. Han Li looked at the purple blade fragment with a burning gaze. The Heavenly Sword sealed in his forearm could not be controlled at will, but the situation was different with the Heavenly Treasure fragment, which had greatly reduced power. Even Ma Yuan, who had lost his cultivation and his physical body, had handled the blade fragment well. Han Li took a deep breath and emitted a gray aura from his hand, trying to pull the purple blade fragment towards him. Bang! Unexpectedly, the gray aura was blocked by the purple aura of the blade fragment and pushed back. Following this, he released the Five-Colored Glacial Flames, but the Five-Colored Glacial Flames also failed to do anything to the blade fragment and were split apart. Surprised, Han Li pondered for a moment and then emitted a golden aura from his hand. This time, the purple blade fragment obediently floated towards him, carried by the golden aura. Looking at it up close, the treasure was transparent and sparkling, absorbing the surrounding golden aura. The exhausted blade fragment regained its energy and trembled. The purple blade fragment was absorbing the golden light and was being assimilated into Han Li’s Great Firmament Demon Art. Seeing this, Han Li was startled but also very pleased. He felt that if he injected the demonic energy of the Great Firmament Demon Art, he would be able to control the blade fragment immediately. Seeing that it welcomed the pure demonic energy, he was convinced that the blade fragment was an item of demonic origin. Hesitating for a moment, Han Li amplified the golden light in his body, revealing golden, shining scales on his skin. He operated the Great Firmament Demon Art to its extreme, pouring the golden aura into the blade fragment. The blade fragment absorbed the golden light without hesitation, changing from purple to gold. As the speed of absorbing the golden light increased, the blade fragment also shone brighter. In the end, a third of his remaining magic power was depleted. Han Li immediately dispersed the golden aura and put away the golden blade fragment. It wasn’t completely assimilated, but it was manageable. It wasn’t a waste of magic power after all. He organized his thoughts and took out various pills from his storage pouch, swallowing them. They were all pills that helped to rapidly recover magic power. This wouldn’t restore him to his best condition, but it was much better than not taking them. A jade-colored light flickered from his hand, and top-grade spiritual energy appeared. It was to absorb pure spiritual power. He couldn’t afford to be stingy with spirit stones when he didn’t know what might happen. Han Li absorbed the spiritual power and turned his gaze to Ma Yuan’s corpse, which had a hole in its dantian. No matter how he looked, there was no sign of anything that looked like a storage pouch. Han Li narrowed his brows and summoned the black bracelet, sending it out. The black bracelet shone a white light on the withered corpse, stored it, and then returned. Then, Han Li transformed into a beam of light and flew back to the empty main hall. Except for the broken formation, nothing remained. Only the blood-colored bed was glowing in the corner. Han Li examined every corner of the main hall with his spiritual sense and reached out to bring the blood-colored bed closer. He couldn’t find anything unusual with his eyes, so when he tried to scan it with his spiritual sense, the surface of the bed repelled his consciousness. However, Han Li smiled instead and activated the Brightsight Spirit Eyes [a technique to see through illusions]. ‘Hmm…’ He cast a spell with a cautious expression. Fwoosh! Mysteriously, a blood-colored light burst from the bed, and fist-sized silver ancient characters floated up, forming sentences. “Silver Ancient Script!” ‘Why is the Silver Ancient Script appearing here?’ Although puzzled, he quickly scanned the ancient characters and began to examine their contents. “Heavenly Refining Technique.” After a while, Han Li muttered with an incredulous expression. He didn’t know the exact details, but from what he could roughly see, the Silver Ancient Script was dealing with a mysterious refining technique that he had never seen before. Even just looking at some of the content was bewildering. The materials and refining methods described were something he had never imagined, and at the end of the Silver Ancient Script scripture, it said that the treasures made in this way were comparable to Heavenly Treasures and called this the ‘Heavenly Refining Technique.’ Melting the sea and refining the sun was the simplest refining method, so it was something he wouldn’t even be able to attempt until he became a True Immortal in the True Immortal Realm. The more he examined the contents, the greater his disappointment became. If the scripture hadn’t been written in the Silver Ancient Script, he would have suspected that Ma Yuan had made it up to trick him. Han Li scanned the blood-colored bed again with the Brightsight Spirit Eyes, with an unpleasant look. But after a while, he was able to discover something else. His figure blurred, and he appeared on the blood-colored bed, emitting golden lightning from his five fingers. Crack! Numerous lightning bolts fell on the blood-colored bed like a net. The silver spell characters contracted as if they had met their natural enemy and then scattered, and the blood-colored bed also split apart, scattering a strong bloody smell. Han Li narrowed his brows and curled his five fingers, gathering the golden lightning into one. Then, the lightning bolts gathered, and a thunderous sound rang out, and the blood-colored light disappeared. And in its place, only a palm-sized milky white jade pendant was floating in the air. The surface of the jade pendant was covered with silver spell characters. “It was indeed the outer shell of the Golden Jade Book. But why is the original Golden Jade Book in Ma Yuan’s hands?” This was the third original Golden Jade Book he had obtained. Unfortunately, the contents were so far removed from reality that he would only be able to use them after reaching the Mahayana Realm [the highest cultivation stage]. However, even if he couldn’t use the Heavenly Refining Technique, the insights he gained from studying it might be of great help. Han Li made up his mind and sent out a blue aura. As the blue aura gathered, the jade pendant spun around and tried to escape upwards. Han Li, who had already anticipated this, reached out like lightning, and an invisible force covered the jade pendant and pulled it in. He took out a jade box from his storage pouch, carefully placed the jade pendant inside, and then attached several layers of golden restriction talismans. After finishing everything, Han Li transformed into a blue beam of light and shot out of the main hall, flying along the demonic energy passage. Inside the light, he was holding a top-grade wood-attribute spirit stone and absorbing it. The pills he had taken were also slowly taking effect, and pure spiritual energy was spreading throughout his body. He was sensing the location of the Gold Devouring Beetles and flying towards them. If he went there, he would be able to find out why the woman from the Zheng clan had risked danger to come to the Demonic Gold Mountain Range. Although the battle with Ma Yuan had been fierce, it hadn’t taken up much time, so he would be able to catch up. Seeing that the Gold Devouring Beetles were still in one place, it seemed that the woman from the Zheng clan had not yet obtained what she wanted. Although he had consumed a lot of magic power in the battle with Ma Yuan, he had no reason to fear the woman from the Zheng clan. * When he had passed about half of the passage, a tremendous roar echoed, and the entire mountain shook. The demonic energy inside the passage fluctuated wildly, and black wind blades became a storm, slashing in all directions. Han Li was startled and summoned a gray aura from his sleeve to protect his body. No matter how fierce the wind blades were, they were powerless against the Primal Magnetic Divine Light. Heeheehee! But suddenly, a strange sound like a horse’s whinny echoed in his ears. “… !” As soon as he heard the sound, for some reason, the magic power in his entire body froze, and he was unable to cast any spells. The gray light dissipated, and Han Li fell, being slashed by the black wind blades. If it had been another cultivator, they would have already been seriously injured here. However, his body, which was as tough as a Fusion Realm demon beast, deflected all the wind blades. Han Li used the Great Evolution Technique to restore the frozen magic power in his body to normal. Crack! As he rose again as a blue beam of light, the floor of the passage cracked, and pitch-black lightning bolts shot up. Han Li flinched, retrieved the spirit stone he was holding, and formed hand seals, summoning a golden and silver lightning cannon. Kwaruru! However, the demonic energy passage, which had been struck by a large amount of black lightning, was different. The floor cracked, and the black lightning bolts exploded, causing it to collapse. At the same time, Han Li was unable to avoid the falling rocks and was buried in the pile of rocks.