“Junior Martial Sister, let’s just let it go! The time that the sect arranged is about to pass; if we don’t leave now, we’ll be late!” The male disciple weakly said. It seemed as if he was very scared of this Junior Martial Sister.
“Humph! It’s the fault of a worthless piece of trash like you. You couldn’t even keep track of a tenth layer cultivator girl. She actually slipped away from right underneath our noses! If this spreads, people will make laughingstocks out of me and my sister, the Masked Moon Sect’s Twin Beauties!
But words were just words in the end. The female disciple glanced at the brightness of the sky, and did not dare to continue to search. She didn’t want to interfere with the major plans of her sect; even if her status was special and she had a strong backer, they were all relatively unimportant.
On the other hand, she was also unwilling to leave this place with her tail between her legs; after hesitating many times, she gritted her teeth and pulled out a blue talisman.
Looking at this talisman, she laughed evilly, and abruptly tossed the talisman behind her.Then, she quickly ran out from that area until she was about a hundred meters away before stopping and turning around to watch from there.
Seeing this, the male disciple complained incessantly under his breath, but he quickly followed after her, not daring to slight her.
At this time, the talisman became a huge black cloud, roughly the size of forty meters; the sky above the area was completely covered up by the cloud, and the nearby temperature abruptly dropped, becoming incomparably cold.
In no time, countless massive ice awls began to fall from the black cloud at an increasing speed, and in a very short amount of time the entire area was densely packed with ice awls stuck into the ground. It was as densely packed as the needles on a cactus.
In the time it took to boil a pot of tea, the black cloud slowly dissipated. At this time, the entire desert sparkled like crystal.
The female disciple opened her eyes wide, sweeping across the entire desert, which was virtually impossible to stand on. However, she didn’t see even a trace of anything peculiar.
Her face viciously fell, and she unhappily shouted at the male disciple. She resentfully took the lead and left the area. Her so-called cultivation partner naturally followed closely behind her.
The Masked Moon Sect woman who had just left didn’t notice that in a corner of the ice-awl covered desert, a trace amount of red liquid had seeped out. Unfortunately, its color was too light, and so it escaped the notice of that female disciple.
After half of a quarter of an hour, when the dark red had begun to spread, a spherical small bubble suddenly emerged from the yellow sand, becoming increasingly large and increasingly noticeable.
In the end, the sand bubble exploded in a raging torrent, and a green-robed female tumbled out of it, a long, slender awl stuck into her shoulder. Fresh blood flowed from the wound, covering half of her body already. Her hand was tightly gripping a yellow handkerchief; radiance flickered on its surface, as if it were not a common item.
The woman slowly crawled to her feet. When she looked at the wound on her shoulder, her sleek eyebrows tightly knitted.
She raised her other hand and lightly grabbed the latter half of the ice awl; then, gritting her teeth, she pulled out the ice awl. The woman delicately groaned in pain, and tears leaked out of her graceful eyes. Fresh blood poured out from the site of the wound.
However, she couldn’t afford to wipe away the tears on her face; she didn’t dare delay. After a brief flurry of movement, she retrieved a flowery porcelain bottle from her storage pouch. She dumped out some yellow medicinal powder onto her wound, and the blood immediately stopped gushing from her wound.
After finishing, the green-robed woman sat down on the desert sand and hugged her knees, unmoving. After a brief moment of time, she suddenly buried her head in her hands and began to cry. However, because she was scared of drawing the attention of other people, this woman kept her crying volume to a minimum.
After the time it took to eat a meal had passed, this female disciple from Spirit Beast Mountain finally stopped weeping. She raised her head. Gazing at the uninhabited desert, she couldn’t help but shiver!
She bit her lip, and then struggled to stand up. After vacillating for a long time, she finally determined her direction and staggered towards the central area. The woman’s pretty and pleasant face still had some tear stains on it, but at the same time, she wore a stubborn and resolute expression that didn’t seem to match her appearance.
This woman was the one who had sold Han Li the “Golden Sincerity Brush”. However, now that she had been wounded and was walking silently on the sandy ground alone, she was even more beautifully pitiful, causing people to want to take care of her.
After a brief moment of time, she continued to onward with her wounded body as she disappeared into the yellow sands.
Chapter 192: Flying Snakes
After walking on the route for a little less than half a day, Han Li finally reached the outer reaches of the central area.
Han Li felt that something was unusual; the entire way here, absolutely nothing had occurred, and he hadn’t run into anybody else attacking him from afar!
Of course, he couldn’t know that the people who had come in the same direction earlier had all been killed off by those so-called “elites”. The people behind him, on the other hand, were disposed of, having run into Feng Yue and the woman with many treasures.
Like that, although there were some fish that escaped the net, they all knew that to steal treasures from others was impossible at this point. Thus, they covered up their tracks and found a place to hide, sticking their head into the ground like an ostrich. This was the open secret of how the weaker cultivators would preserve their own lives in the Trial by Blood and Fire!
If Han Li wanted to obtain the three main ingredients to refine his Foundation Establishment Pill, he obviously could not follow in their footsteps. That was why he currently stood in front of a stone wall about ten meters high, intently looking at it with a strange expression.
On the side of the stone wall, not too far away, stood an interesting and appealing large bronze door. The door had many markings on it that Han Li could not understand; they were written in an ancient language that almost looked like a decorative design.
Since this copper door was wide open today, people must have already gone through it.
According to the information that Han Li knew, there should have been four kinds of these copper doors, each one in each of the cardinal directions. They were the only entrances into the central area. The areas not including the doors were surrounded by a stone wall that didn’t seem to be too high.
If one didn’t want to enter through the bronze doors, instead wanting to seize every possibly opportunity and jump over the stone wall to get into the central area, these people would definitely be incredibly unlucky. They would be sliced into shreds by the wall’s wind restriction spell.
Of course, Han Li knew this and naturally wouldn’t idiotically choose to climb over the wall. The only reason he was closely watching the wall’s movements was entirely because this section of the wall was truly somewhat different from the others. Its surface contained an extra “thing” that other normal walls did not have.
On top of this wall stood three people wearing different clothing. They had been impaled by a thick ice awl, their limbs nailed together to form the Chinese character “large (?)”, which hung on top of the wall in a row. Seeing that there was no odor at all, they must’ve already been dead for a long time.
The fresh blood that poured out of the four wounds coagulated into a purplish-black solid; this solid was all over the place, both on top of the wall and nearby. According to Han Li’s speculations, at the time that these people had been nailed on top of the wall, the majority of them had not yet died. However, they had later tragically died on the wall due to blood loss.
There were no clues or trails left next to th
e three corpses, but if one thought about it carefully, anyone could realize that these people were killed to make an example of. The goal was to scare away people arriving later from entering through this door!
Han Li very carefully inspected the painful expressions of the three corpses, then licked his somewhat dry lips and walked expressionlessly towards the copper door. It was as if the miserable fates of those three people had not affected him that much.
In reality, however, Han Li knew his own feelings quite well; the previous scene had really left him apprehensive! It was apparent from the way those three people died that their killer most likely was someone whose heart was twisted; if he were to fall into that person’s hands, he would be a bit more fortunate if he hurried to kill himself.
However, Han Li had already come here; naturally, he wouldn’t flee from here simply because of a little fear. Today, in front of him were the true extreme dangers. He would have to summon up his own courage and barge in this time!
Like this, Han Li walked through the door, carrying a stomach full of uneasiness. However, he maintained his composure on the surface, as leisurely if he were strolling around in his home’s backyard.
He had just entered when he was greeted by the scene of a paradise of fragrant flowers and birdsong. All kinds of odd flowers and grasses, as well as many strange trees with unknown names, were strikingly everywhere. Silver chrysanthemums as wide as bowls, blood-red strange trees, purple grass releasing a strange smell, yellow bamboo as thick as a person, etc. – these were all rare items that were very difficult to even see in the outside world. In the midst of these precious plants actually was a serpentine path made of crushed rocks; this path extended from where Han Li was standing to a faraway place, obscured by all of the vegetation. From a brief glance, it seemed as if there was no end to this path.
Seeing this surprising scene, Han Li briefly stared blankly, but he immediately subconsciously took a deep breath. What dense Spiritual Qi! The dense, heavy, and mixed smell of plants contained a Spiritual Qi that just soaked into a person’s lungs, causing Han Li’s spirits to rise.
This kind of paradise, no wonder it could bring forth all the spiritual medicines that exist! Han Li was deeply moved.
“Boy, have you gawked enough?”
“Who is it?”
Sounding like a broken gong, a noise, suddenly came over, causing Han Li’s heart to shiver with fear. He couldn’t help but cry out.
“Hehe! Since you’ve seen it already, you can die in peace!” This person completely ignored Han Li’s inquiry, instead talking out to himself out loud.
At the same time, two green shadows slyly streaked out from a flower patch on the side, silently charging towards Han Li’s back.
Although his back was facing these green shadows, they were not concealed from Han Li’s spiritual sense, who was already on guard. His expression grew grim. His upper body had not moved at all, but his body had already automatically shifted laterally a few feet, causing these two green streaks to pass by him both in front and behind him.
In the middle of the chaos, Han Li glanced at the green shadows. They were straight, thin, and long, like chopsticks, and their entire bodies were green and had some faint black characters on them. Their appearances were truly somewhat strange.
However, in the chaos, Han Li had no time to look closely at them. Even though he had easily neutralized the opponent’s attack, his expression was still solemn, and he didn’t dare to be careless. The miserable appearance of the three people outside the door was still vivid in his mind; he did not want to end up with a fate similar to theirs.
Thus, the cloudy-faced Han Li’s eyes began sweeping in all directions, flickering without stopping, in order to find the hiding enemies. However, at this time a strange whistle suddenly came out of that person’s mouth; hearing it would make one’s heart extremely uncomfortable!
When Han Li heard it, he briefly froze; just as he was trying to figure out what the opponent’s intentions were, his facial color changed drastically, and he flew backwards at an almost inconceivable rate. This time, Han Li flew at least ten meters away before stopping.
What caused Han Li to move in such a manner had actually been those green streaks that had only narrowly missed him! Because they weren’t very far in front of Han Li, they suddenly began to twist around, at the same time unfolding a pair of pale green, translucent wings.
They were actually two flying snakes with wings; when they had attacked Han Li, their bodies were always stretched tightly, causing Han Li to mistakenly believe that they were inanimate objects. With a gentle flap of their wings, their bodies rapidly turned around 180 degrees as quickly as lightning; in fact, they were not slower than Han Li, who had used the Shifting Smoke Steps. How could this not make Han Li incredibly cautious!?
These two flying snakes reared their heads, and four small green eyes released an ice-cold chilliness. They were baring their fangs at Han Li, about to take another attacking stance against him.
“Boy, you run pretty quickly! But even if you were quicker, could you be quicker than these two Jungle Mountain Flying Snakes? It would be better if you obediently allowed my lovely snakes to bite you once, and you would feel no more pain!” The person with the rough throat was somewhat astonished by Han Li’s movement speed, but he clearly had more faith in his flying snakes, which was why he mockingly said what was spoken above.
“Rubbish!”
Han Li cursed in his heart, but he didn’t actually speak those words out loud! It wasn’t because of fear of the opponent that he didn’t speak; but rather, those two strange snakes had already become two streaks of green, charging forwards in a blur.
Halfway there, they suddenly split into two and wordlessly agreed to slash out in arcs, flanking from both his left and his right.
Seeing this, Han Li naturally could not afford to talk back apart from quietly cursing in his heart for a few moments. His body nevertheless could not be much slower than the green streaks as he shot backwards; in the blink of an eye, he and the green streaks had flown in many circles in this small area, as if he was unwilling to stop his feet for even a moment.
At this point in time, he completely relied on the spiritual boots on his feet to run, but he didn’t use the Shifting Smoke Steps or the Imperial Flight Technique.
It wasn’t that Han Li was being negligent and purposefully looking down on his opponent; rather, after encountering two fierce battles in a row, and adding on the fact that he had just reached his limit when practicing with these boots, his energy had not completely recovered. Thus, if he had not reached a life or death crisis, Han Li was unwilling to use the energy-squandering Shifting Smoke Steps. As for the Imperial Flight Technique, it was the same principle; having already obtained good fortune in getting the spiritual boots, adding on the speed boost of the Imperial Flight Technique would cause the burden on Han Li’s body to be too great and would not aid the recovery of his energy.
Of course, Han Li would also not allow the two flying snakes to chase after him to no end.
Although Han Li did not dare to carelessly wear a barrier and cause himself slow him down, to test whether the barrier or the strange snakes were stronger, he still had many methods to get rid of the two small snakes! It was only that most of his attention had been focused on the hidden person controlling the snakes, who in the end had never come out, thus allowing the two flying snakes to attack him. Seeing that this person had seemingly decided to completely rely on these two flying snakes to kill him, Han Li naturally would not continue to be polite.
Han Li’s decision had been made. He flipped his hand, and a Flame Serpent Talisman appeared in it. Two of his fingers pinched this talisman together, and he was about to excitedly throw it out and start a wild game barbecue!
“Cloud Step Boots?
“Stay your hand, I have something to say!”
The person with the rough throat recognized the spiritual boots on Han Li’s feet, and he immediately yelled
out to ask for a pause in the battle, sounding full of incredulity. He stopped the two green streaks with an unknown method of yelling! The two snakes paused in midair and flew backwards along the original route, slipping into the vegetation and disappearing without a trace.
Upon hearing this, Han Li knitted his eyebrows; after slightly hesitating, he decided not to throw out the talisman in his hand, but he kept his hand cautiously resting on top of his storage pouch.
Chapter 193: Division Between Enemy and Friends
“Old Feng’s treasured boots? How did you acquire them? What is your relationship? As far as I know, that guy truly treasures his Cloud Step Boots. He absolutely wouldn’t lend them to others!”
Following these few words, a gaudily dressed person came out from an unknown place and dropped down from a huge flowered tree more than sixty meters away from Han Li. He had a medium stature, eyes of different size, and a black pocked face. He appeared to be about forty years old and had seven to eight different pockets of various sizes.
However, his unbearably ugly face was shocking! His two eyes were rigidly staring at Han Li’s spiritual boots. It seemed he did not dare believe that Han Li was wearing the “Cloud Step Boots”.
“Who is your esteemed self? Why have you attacked me?” Han Li did not reply to his question and instead bluntly asked this question. He truly didn’t wish to be lead by the nose and be suppressed by the other’s presence.
When the ugly man heard this, he was surprised but immediately grew angry, his ugly face turning vicious. He raised his hand, wanting to immediately teach this brat before him a lesson in appreciating the kindness of others. However, he soon thought of something and immediately restrained his wrath with great effort, lowering his hand. He still very fiercely said, “Boy, don’t believe that just because you wear Old Feng’s spiritual boots, I won’t dare to teach you a lesson! When that old fellow Feng Yue gave you those spiritual boots, did he not mention the name of Spirit Beast Mountain’s Zhong Wu? Regardless, I am quite baffled. You are obviously someone from Yellow Maple Valley. How could he give those boots to you? Could it be that you are Old Feng’s illegitimate child? No, you don’t look quite like him!”
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 95