Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 987

Han Li, his expression dark, emitted a blue aura and drew the small monkey closer. A strand of crystalline thread shot out from between his brows, piercing into the small monkey. He had condensed his consciousness into a thread-like form and infused it into the spirit beast’s body to assess its soul state. Even as the crystalline thread entered its body, the soul showed no reaction. Han Li half-closed his eyes and thoroughly examined the spirit beast’s body with his consciousness.

“How can this be!” After a long while, Han Li wore an expression of disbelief. The weakened energy had already recovered, and the spiritual power flowing through its body and meridians was twice as strong as before. Even as he observed, these changes continued. “Is it trying to evolve again?” It was unexpected that its body had strengthened and its spiritual power had increased explosively to this extent after unleashing a powerful divine ability in the Demon Forbidden Mountain Range. Han Li carefully examined the soul’s body again. “What is this? There wasn’t anything like this before…” Numerous tiny, transparent granules had gathered in the soul’s dantian [an energy center in the body], barely visible. The granules were smaller than millet grains and emitted no energy, but the soul’s Soul-Consuming Divine Light was enveloping and refining each granule. Han Li quickly racked his brain. The scene of the soul killing and instantly devouring the blood spirit’s nascent soul in the Demon Forbidden Mountain Range flashed through his mind. ‘Could these crystals be remnants of the blood spirit’s nascent soul or the Extraterrestrial Demon Lord residing within it?’ Such a thing had never happened before, no matter how powerful the ghost or soul he had devoured. Han Li was speechless for a moment, lost in thought. ‘That can’t be it!’ Han Li’s expression changed drastically. Without much hesitation, he moved the crystalline thread circulating within the soul’s body and pulled one of the granules from the dantian out of its body. It was so small that it was difficult to see with the naked eye, but Han Li stared at it without blinking. The blue thread extended, enveloping the granule and bringing it before his eyes. Han Li activated his Brightspirit Vision to its maximum, fixing his gaze on the granule. After a while, he exhaled a long breath and took out a small jade bottle, placing the granule inside. After securing the jade bottle, he retrieved the still-unconscious soul. He immediately rose and left the secret chamber. After confirming with his consciousness that Wawa was guarding the herb garden well, he transformed into a streak of blue light, left the eastern part of the mountain, and descended. He rode the spirit beast carriage to the center of Yun City and spent over half a month visiting shops that dealt with scriptures, buying a large number of books. He purchased books covering a variety of topics that he would normally never have glanced at, mainly those dealing with special cultivation methods and secret techniques, or stories of various strange and unusual events. Han Li took all the scriptures back to the eastern part of the mountain and began to quickly absorb their contents, searching for something. However, after only a day, he left his residence again with a disappointed look and visited other shops in Yun City, buying various books. As this continued, he had spent a huge amount of spirit stones on scriptures in just half a month. Then, one day, a smile bloomed on Han Li’s face as he examined an old jade fragment. “That’s it! Even if there are few who know about the True Spirit Source, I knew there would be records in the ancient scriptures.” With a serious expression, he carefully studied the jade fragment again. Han Li, who had been concentrating and motionless, sighed deeply after a while and threw the jade fragment to the ground. “Unbelievable! To miss such an incredible opportunity!” Han Li was greatly disappointed and took out the small bottle containing the granule. As soon as he opened the lid, the granule slowly floated up, and Han Li’s expression was filled with regret as he looked at it. According to the scriptures, the True Spirit Source was real. It was created from a minute amount of chaotic energy that separated when a True Spirit-level being was born. If an ordinary person consumed it, they would undergo a transformation close to a complete rebirth, greatly increasing their cultivation and potentially reaching the Composite Body stage. Considering how few True Spirit-level beings there were in the Spirit World, it was clear how rare the True Spirit Source was. The True Spirit Source took the form of energy, but because the power of the source it contained was so strong, it took a long time to refine even after consumption. After a certain period, the True Spirit Source would transform into a granule within the body. To completely absorb the energy contained in the granule, it would take anywhere from a few decades to several centuries. He had rejoiced when he read this far, but his energy drained away when he saw the following content. Once the True Spirit Source took the form of a crystal, it had already assimilated with the main body and could not be refined by another cultivator. If another cultivator forcibly absorbed it, the crystal would scatter and disappear as ordinary energy. Han Li’s expression as he stared at the True Spirit Source granule was a sight to behold. “The scriptures might be wrong, so I should check it out.” No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t let such a good opportunity slip away. He formed a hand seal with one hand and sent a blue thread to envelop the granule. Poof! Poof! Poof! He shot several different colored magic seals at the granule in succession. The granule, which had been transparent at first, turned from a pale red to black, and then finally shone like gold. Seeing this, Han Li changed the shape of his hand seal. From the blue light enveloping the granule, spell characters emerged, forming a tiny light formation. The golden granule was at the very center of the formation. A blue light shot out from Han Li’s mouth and headed towards the formation. Bang! The light formation created by the spell characters shone brightly, and as the light mixed into it, a blue flame appeared in the center of the formation, engulfing the golden granule. Whoosh! Within the blue flame, the golden granule emitted an even stronger light and then began to vibrate softly. ‘…!’ Just as Han Li was about to send another magic seal, a small explosion was heard from within the formation, and the granule scattered into golden energy. The golden energy swirled around, making a loud thunderous sound, and in the blink of an eye, it had increased dozens of times in size. The blue flame and formation enveloping the energy did not last long before they burst, and the large golden energy flickered, as if it would lose control and explode at any moment. Han Li’s expression changed at the enormous power contained within it. Swish! One of his hands turned pitch black, emitting a gray aura. A gray barrier enveloped the golden energy. Clang! Rumble! The gray and golden energies clashed, and a loud roar echoed. Even the Yuan Magnetic Divine Light [a powerful defensive technique] flickered wildly, struggling to cope. Han Li felt a moment of fear and slipped into the corner of the secret chamber, summoning a crystalline shield from his sleeve. The shield grew large, blocking his path. At that moment, he heard the sound of the Yuan Magnetic Divine Light cracking, and golden light overflowed from within. Han Li’s heart sank, and he poured spiritual power into the giant shield. At the same time, golden light flashed on his body, and golden scales appeared. Han Li, prepared for a huge impact, worried whether the secret chamber, or even the eastern part of the mountain itself, could withstand it. But something unexpected happened. Thump. The golden energy, freed from its restraints, did not grow any larger or explode. Instead, it transformed into a pillar of light, piercing through the ceiling of the secret chamber. The ceiling of the secret chamber was pierced like paper, and the pillar of light, leaving a small hole, disappeared into the sky. Han Li, surprised, raised his head and saw light streaming in through the hole in the roof. Not only that, but he also felt a powerful wave of spiritual energy from the sky that made his hair stand on end, and the heaven and earth spiritual energy of the mountain peaks was fluctuating wildly. Han Li twisted the corners of his mouth, threw a white magic seal to repair the roof of the secret chamber, and then transformed into a streak of blue light, leaving the secret chamber. The light flashed, and he flew out of the eastern part of the mountain, looking up at the sky with a scowl on his face. A golden storm appeared in the high sky, roaring very loudly, and countless colorful dots of light gathered around it, making its momentum immense. Han Li’s expression turned pale at the sight. It was fortunate that he hadn’t recklessly swallowed the granule. If that terrifying energy had erupted in his stomach, he would have been in a terrible state by now. Han Li’s commotion could not have gone unnoticed by the other cultivators who had established their residences on the mountain peaks. Spiritual lights flickered from various places on the mountain as cultivators gathered and whispered among themselves. Han Li scratched his forehead, trying to come up with a plan. He needed to come up with a suitable excuse before anyone asked about the incident. At that moment, someone’s hearty laughter was heard from somewhere on the mountain. “Hahaha! I don’t know who is researching a new secret technique and has gathered so much heaven and earth spiritual energy! I was just about to refine a treasure and needed a large amount of heaven and earth spiritual energy, so you’ve saved me some trouble.” A streak of crimson light flew up from the foot of the mountain and plunged straight into the storm in the sky. The crimson light, with flames rising from it, transformed into a huge fire-attribute flood dragon and opened its mouth. Kwarururu. Red energy flowed out of the fire dragon’s mouth, enveloping all the dots of light and the golden storm in the sky. In an instant, the fire dragon, having absorbed the heaven and earth spiritual energy, burst into laughter and transformed into a human figure, floating in the air. The old man, with a sturdy face and wearing a purple robe, waved his white hair and raised an object he was holding as if showing it off. The surface of the crimson gourd was engraved with flame patterns and a bright red evil dragon. It was a dragon that looked exactly like the fire dragon that had been sweeping through the sky a moment ago. “Isn’t that Old Devil Xu?” “How did that old devil appear?” “His strength has increased even more than before.” The cultivators below became noisy after discovering the old man in the purple robe. Most of them seemed to know the old man and were busy whispering. Han Li quickly scanned him with his consciousness and found that he had a late-stage Void Refinement cultivation [a high level of cultivation]. He was the most powerful cultivator on the mountain peaks where Composite Body stage cultivators did not reside. That was why the other alien race cultivators were surprised. Although he was flustered by the appearance of the other party, he was fortunate that the phenomenon caused by the True Spirit Source had been resolved, preventing him from attracting the attention of other cultivators. Han Li, pretending not to know anything, transformed into a streak of blue light and returned to his residence. He then restored the restrictions on the eastern part of the mountain and the secret chamber and sat down in a meditative position. He summoned the soul from the black light and let out a deep sigh. The situation just now had confirmed that the contents of the scriptures were undoubtedly true. The True Spirit Source was being slowly absorbed by the soul. It was a good thing that his spirit beast would be able to grow greatly in the future. It was much better than the True Spirit Source reappearing in the world after hundreds of years and falling into the hands of another cultivator. Han Li organized his thoughts and shook off his regretful feelings. He summoned the soul and took out the blue jade bottle with a serious expression. Several restriction talismans were attached to the mouth of the bottle. He raised his eyebrows, threw the bottle into the air, and summoned about a dozen formation flags from his sleeve. Swish! As he chanted incantations, the flags transformed into various colors of light and permeated every corner of the secret chamber. Buzz. Then, a yellow barrier with spell characters swirling around it unfolded. Only after deploying another small formation did Han Li blow air into the mouth of the jade bottle. The restriction talismans fell off, and as the bottle cap opened, a faint light flickered inside. And then, something of various colors appeared from inside the bottle, looking like a human-shaped doll. Han Li, observing the doll, did not relax his tension and threw in magic seals in succession. The doll, having absorbed the various colored magic seals, grew larger and gradually regained its original form. It was a monster twice the size of an average person, with purple root-like growths on its limbs. It was the Earth Immortal that Han Li had captured in the Demon Forbidden Mountain Range. Now, the Earth Immortal was completely suppressed by the various talismans attached to its body and was in a deep sleep. His face was filled with curiosity as he scanned the Earth Immortal from head to toe. It wasn’t the first time he had seen a spirit medicine that had taken a human form. His Nine-Crooked Spirit Ginseng also possessed spirituality and ran around the herb garden in the form of a white rabbit. But the Earth Immortal had not only taken a human form but had also succeeded in transforming into a human shape. This meant that it was a spirit creature of a much higher grade than the Nine-Crooked Spirit Ginseng.