A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248

by Translator: Johnchen

  Han Li couldn’t help but break out into a cold sweat as he finally processed the fact that the mysterious young man was deceased. That would make him some sort of ghost, would it not? Also, from what Doctor Mo revealed in his tirade, it seemed that the weird technique he just used was learned from the man he had killed!

  The mysterious man finally replied angrily, “Well, what else do you want me to do? I already swore on my ancestors, my parents, my whole family, and even on my family name, are you still not satisfied?”

  Hearing this, Han Li couldn’t help but feel his heart jump a beat as he realized that the mysterious man was so perverse and demented that he would swear on so many of his family members just to gain Doctor Mo’s trust. At first he felt a sense of connection as they both seemed to be in dire straits but that feeling quickly disappeared from Han Li’s mind.

  “You’re right. You can’t do anything to me right now since your body has been destroyed, leaving behind your soul. You can’t even see the light of day, and what little strength you have left is useless against me” Doctor Mo said in a slow and deliberate manner in order to maintain his facade.

  Chapter 56: Battle of the Light Globes

  “Yu Zhitong, I just want to remind you again that if anything happened to me, you won’t be any better off.”

  “You know that your soul won’t last long in its current state and that you depend on me to help you look for a new body. So if there is anything you want to say, say it now while there is still time. I will not be angry unless it turns out you failed to tell me some crucial knowledge” said Doctor Mo as he was unwilling to give up any attempts at trying to pry out hidden information from the mysterious youth.

  From these words, it becomes evident to Han Li that Doctor Mo was in fact very afraid of Yu Zhiyong doing something at the final moment that would cause his downfall and was looking for more reassurance that his plans have not been tampered with.

  In response to Doctor Mo’s words, Yu Zhitong, who fully understood the risks involved with harming Doctor Mo, replied smoothly, “There is no point in me tampering with your plans, and if I do then may my family suffer heaven’s retribution.”

  "Besides, after using the Seven Soul Devouring Technique, at the price of your fundamental essence, you would temporarily receive a certain amount of magic power, enabling to use a few simple spells; but your existence now is currently that of a soul, once your fundamental essence is used up, are you sure you could still execute such a spell?” After Yu Zitong swore a venomous oath against harming Doctor Mo, he prodded at his weaknesses and leaving no way for Doctor Mo to back out.

  Although Han Li wasn’t religious, listening to their dialogue made Han Li pray silently to the Heavens that Doctor Mo would give up his evil plans. It seems like a ridiculous thing to do, but it was the only thing he could do.

  “Okay, I will use what I trust and ignore what I don’t. Since there are such great benefits, it is only natural that there would be some risks,” said Doctor Mo after making up his mind.

  Hearing this, Yu Zhitong seemed quite happy and excitement appeared in his words. “See, that is the correct mindset. Think about it. You were originally a mere mortal without spiritual roots, unable to step onto the path of immortality. But if this plan becomes a success, that will no longer be the case! With your new body and powerful spiritual foundation, any large sect or clan would beg for you to join. Not only that, your body would be immune to sickness and death, allowing you to live five times as long as a normal mortal!”

  “Haha, then I will trust you on this matter. Do not worry, I, Mo Juren, am a man of my words. What I say will most definitely be done. Once I am successful in this endeavor, I will immediately help you find a suitable body with a strong spiritual foundation. I promise you that I won’t let you down, Little Brother Yu.” After listening to Yu Zhitong’s promises, Doctor Mo initial worry was gone as he took up a kinder tone, addressing Yu Zhitong with close familiarity.

  “Then if that is the case, I thank Big Brother Mo. After your success, I will single-handedly teach you each and every one of the cultivation techniques I have in my possession” said the cunning Yu Zhitong; he knew he had successfully lured in Mo Juren with his words.

  Han Li listened as the two shamelessly talked about using his body without asking for his opinions. Even though he realized that he wasn’t able to do anything given his current situation, he couldn’t help but feel annoyed at how they don’t give him any face.

  Once Doctor Mo dispelled his doubts and made up his decision to follow through with the plan, he no longer delayed, immediately pulling out some golden needles and stabbed them into his mixue acupuncture point located in the back of his head. He was immediately invigorated, his body filled with enough energy to perform the next step of his plan and increase his chances of success.

  He strode to where Han Li lay, sat him upright into a meditating position, and then proceeded to sit in front of Han Li with his arms crossed over his chest, tightly hugging his shoulders.

  Then, Doctor Mo executed a Celestial Technique. With a wave of his hand, a red beam of light shot out from his palms and hit the pattern that was laid out underneath Han Li, causing the jades placed around the perimeter of the diagram to glow.

  Doctor Mo proceeded to whisper the spell incantation that held an enchanting and bewildering effect, causing those who heard it to feel drowsy. As the chant continued, Han Li felt a deep sense of weariness, causing everything to become a blur as he slowly lost consciousness.

  “Not good” thought Han Li, knowing fully well that this was the intended effect of the mysterious chant and that once he fell unconscious, his body would be possessed. Holding onto this thought, Han Li resisted the temptation to sleep. Thoughts of biting his tongue and pinching himself were quickly disregarded as he was not in control of his body, so in the end, no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to fight off the effects of the spell and fell to a deep slumber. Right before he fell unconscious, the last image he saw was the handsome face of Doctor Mo. At that moment, however, Doctor Mo looked more like an ugly devil than a handsome figure. The last words Han Li wanted to say to Doctor Mo was, “Your ugliness suits you.”

  Within the endless darkness of his subconscious, Han Li dreamt a very strange dream. In his dream, he was a fist-sized globe of green light that was happy and free in his own little world.

  But not long after, a thumb-sized yellow globe carrying an evil intent suddenly invaded his dream. Upon seeing the green globe, the yellow ball of light aggressively charged at the green globe of light, suddenly revealing its mouth to bite down upon the green globe that was Han Li. Of course Han Li was not weak, and he also opened his mouth to retaliate. After just a few exchanges, Han Li easily ended the battle by swallowing the yellow globe of light. The victorious Han Li rejoiced in his victory, but soon enough another intruder entered his subconscious. This foreign entity was also a green globe of light that was many more times the size of Han Li, but it did not contain the same glow and luster of Han Li’s globe of light. When the enemy saw Han Li’s globe of light, it was shocked; hesitation appeared on its features.

  After Han Li experienced the amazing taste of devouring other globes of light, the sight of a new enemy did not cause Han Li to give much thought to his opponent’s power as he charged right at his enemy with the intent of devouring him. The enemy, seeing Han Li’s attack, reluctantly chose to charge forward and engage in battle. Even though the opponent was many times bigger than Han Li, its attacks were only slightly stronger than the yellow globe of light Han Li recently devoured. Upon realizing its disadvantage, the invader tried to turn and escape, but Han Li was unwilling to let it leave so easily and gave chase, biting at the fleeing invader. The invader was very tricky and slippery; every time Han Li seemed to have caught it, the green globe would cut off the part that was caught and continue to flee. In the end, the invader managed to flee, but its body mass was one third its original size. Although Han Li was reluctant to le
t his opponent go, there was nothing he could do about the matter and so decided to wait around for more enemies to invade so that he could also devour them. Sadly, no more globes of light came, and he continued to float around.

  Chapter 57: Body Awakening, Enemy Perishing

  Hidden within the depths of his heart, an icy chill slowly appeared and quickly spread throughout Han Li’s body, rousing Han Li from his stupor.

  When Han Li became clear headed,the first thing he felt was an immense pressure in his head, followed by waves of pain across his entire body. He felt indescribably weak as one would feel at the onset of a serious illness, and he was unable to open his heavy eyelids no matter how much effort he expended.

  Still feeling a bit dazed, Han Li managed to recall the events that occurred right before he passed out.

  Han Li was struggling for control over his body when an immediate sense of panic flashed through Han Li’s mind, causing adrenaline to flood through him, sharpening his befuddled mind and allowing him to quickly assess the situation around him.

  “Yi!” He exclaimed in shock as he realized that his mind had not been taken over by Doctor Mo. True, he could barely move his eyelids, not to mention the rest of his body, but the waves of pain spreading throughout his body told him clearly that he had regained control over his own body and that Doctor Mo had failed in his plans.

  “Why did Doctor Mo’s plan fail? Did he do something wrong?”

  Filled with surprise, Han Li was able to think of one plausible explanation for his current situation.

  Barely containing the excitement within his heart, Han Li patiently waited for his body to regain some of its energy before he tried once more to open his eyes. After a short but strenuous battle he managed to crack open his eyelids to see the what was going on around him.

  The first image he saw when he opened his mind was the sorry state Doctor Mo was in: his hair was all white, his face was thin, wrinkled, and haggard. It seemed like he was at least ten years older than he was before his youthful transformation. With this appearance, it was impossible to imagine him any older. His features seem to embody the meaning of the word “old,” and he was now simply a poor old man.

  In front of Han Li, Doctor Mo’s eyes were wide open as he stared at Han Li with a look of unbridled terror.

  Han Li himself was equally shocked, and his muscles immediately tensed. All sense of weakness left his body as the only thought that rang out within him was to make the first move and gain the upper hand.

  Clearly learning from his previous lesson, Han Li was unwilling to once again fall under someone else’s control.

  But afterwards, Han Li realized something strange. His opponent’s face seemed to be frozen in fear and there was no sign of breathing from Doctor Mo. It became apparent that he was dead and may have been dead for quite a while now.

  Unwilling to let down his guard, Han Li continued to stare deeply, with eyebrows furrowed, at Doctor Mo’s facial features in search of anything that might give him away.

  After a whole thirty minutes of careful scrutiny, Han Li was forced to admit that Doctor Mo was indeed dead for he did not hold any resemblance to that of someone who was still alive.

  Hesitating, Han Li carefully crawled up to him and stretched out one hand to grasp Doctor Mo’s wrist while his other hand was placed under the his nose. In this position, he waited for a while, but there was still no reaction.

  It was only with this final affirmation of Doctor Mo’s death that Han Li felt his heart settle and relax. The sense of oppression he had felt in his heart was finally discarded.

  Until now, Han Li had always carried some doubts within his mind as he did not believe his biggest enemy, the cunning and crafty Doctor Mo, would die so easily from an unknown cause of death.

  Han Li scratched his forehead, only to realize that the “Soul-Lock Talisman”, which had been fixed to his forehead, had disappeared without a trace. This made Han Li feel strange. He would later learn about talismans and sealing techniques, and only then would he realize what had happened! It seems that all the power in the yellow talisman had been used up and thus it had disintegrated into dust, so Han Li was unable to find it.

  The now relaxed Han Li, decided to continue being cautious and started to scan the area around Doctor Mo to see if there were any traces of life.

  Han Li noticed that the candles were still lit, signaling to him that he had not been out for a long time. The jade pieces, on the other hand, had lost all their previous luster and seemed to have been degraded, unable to catch anybody’s eyes.

  Shifting his attention towards the left side corner of the stone room, he focused on an object that had previously evade Han Li’s detection.Han Li was not a stranger to this object. This object was the invading green globe from his dream that had managed to escape from his grasp but not before having one third of its mass devoured by Han Li.

  At this time, it desperately tried to dig into the corner of the room, apparently afraid of Han Li and trying its very best to hide from his sight.

  Amused, Han Li looked at this scene with one hand stroking his chin.

  Then, he quickly stood up and strode over to the ball of light.

  Only when he was half an inch away from the ball of light did he stop and slowly open his mouth:

  “I think we both know each other. You should be Yu Zhitong. Am I correct?”

  The green light, which contained Yu Zhitong, started to tremble and flicker at the sound of Han Li calling its name, but after pausing for a moment it started to shine brightly again.

  “You guessed correctly. It seems you truly are Doctor Mo’s disciple. You are just like him, tough and hard to deal with,” said the ball of light, accepting its fate. From its voice, Han Li could tell that it really was the young man whom Han Li heard conversing with Doctor Mo.

  It did not try to hide its identity and instead confirmed Han Li’s thoughts.

  Now knowing what he was dealing with, Han Li asked, “Since you were one of the culprits trying to take my life and possess my body, shouldn’t you provide me with an explanation?" Han Li did not reveal any anger as he talked to the culprit; instead, he had a rather calm demeanor.

  Even so, Yu Zhitong, seeing Han Li’s indifferent attitude, was at a loss regarding what to do, feeling a sense of dread within his heart.

  In the recent battle between their two souls, he experienced first hand Han Li’s might and even had a portion of his soul devoured, causing his Internal Qi to drop by half. The remaining half of his Internal Qi could only be used to perform minor incantations that had neither the power to kill Han Li nor the power to protect himself , allowing a sense of fear to ingrain itself within his heart.

  “What do you want to know?”

  He knew that, Han Li had recently escaped from a life threatening situation and therefore would not be emotionally stable. Although he may look calm and collected, who knows how he was truly feeling. In a sense, he was comparable to a volcano about to erupt as no one is able to accurately predict a dormant volcano’s destructive power.

  Caught, Yu Zhitong’s best option for him was to comply with all of Han Li’s demands without testing his patiences with riddles or trickery. The last thing he wanted was to anger Han Li and suffer from his rash actions.

  “I want you to honestly tell me everything concerning what you are and exactly how you came to know Doctor Mo. Right now, the only resource I have in my disposal is time, so I will listen to all you have to say.” As he spoke, Han Li seemed to be wearing a mask, his face hiding all emotional fluctuations from Yu Zhitong’s wary perception.

  Chapter 58: Immortal Cultivator

  “Kek! Speaking of which, I am also a victim.”

  The moment he opened his mouth to speak, Yu Zhitong tried to get Han Li’s sympathy, doing his best to downplay the relationship between him and Doctor Mo, even to the point of breaking all ties. However, his act was in vain. Han Li was not moved at all! Without much of a option, Yu Zhitong had no choice
but to continue explaining.

  “Originally, I was an Immortal cultivator.”

  Yu Zhitong honestly told Han Li about his history, explaining every details about the circumstances from how he got to know Doctor Mo to how he ended up in his current state. Of course, in his tale, he made himself out to be the victim in the story, pushing all responsibilities and negative connotations on to the head of the dead Doctor Mo. After all, dead men tell no tales.

  Han Li naturally would not completely believe what he had said. But comparing the story he just heard, alongside with Doctor Mo’s words back when he was still alive, Han Li deduced that about 70-80% of the story he just heard was true. It was highly improbable but not totally impossible for the circumstances to occur as they had.

  After removing parts of the story that seemed inconceivable, Han Li already had a rough understanding of the truth.

  From what Han Li understood, regarding his past, Doctor Mo had no reason to lie to him. The stories he heard from Doctor Mo, that he got ambushed and decided to search for ways to regain his original powers and appearance, should be true. There was no need for Doctor Mo to lie to him about that.

  However, Han Li recalled that Doctor Mo told him earlier that he discovered a mysterious book that outlined a way to regain his vitality. After considering all that transpired, Han Li decided that the story was false, because it does not match with what Yu Zhitong had said! Ultimately, Doctor managed to regain his youth because of Yu Zhitong, yet, he was also cursed because of Yu Zhitong.

  Originally, Yu Zhitong was a member of a cultivation clan. He had managed to cultivate the Eternal Spring Arts to the 7th level. It could be said that he had some expertise, but ultimately, because of his limited talent, he made no advancement in the Eternal Sprint Arts and thus was unable to meet the requirements to enter the Foundation Establishment stage.

  Cultivators who were not at the Foundation Establishment stage could not be considered cultivators at all. At most, they could only be considered powerful mortals, halfway to the point of stepping into the realm of immortal cultivators. Because Yu Zhitong was unable to achieve a breakthrough, he decided to explore the secular world for enlightenment, hoping to make a breakthrough in his state of heart, overcoming the bottleneck that forbade him from reaching Foundation Establishment stage!