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

by Translator: Johnchen

  As the ugly man said this, he was sizing up Han Li with a peculiar gaze.

  This time, it was Han Li’s turn to be angry. He snorted with an unsightly expression and coldly said, “Will your esteemed self refrain from wantonly making casual contact with others? That guy Feng Yue has already long been dead. These boots were peeled off his corpse!”

  “Dead? That madman Feng Yue?”

  The ugly man’s originally overbearing closeness, after hearing Han Li’s words, jumped three feet into the air and became unceasing bewilderment! Soon after, he couldn’t help but fall back several steps, once again measuring up Han Li.

  “You killed him?” The fiendish man let out a deep breath as his eyes spun, asking with a harsh voice. He ceased becoming cruel and vicious.

  “That’s right. Do you want to avenge him?” Han Li moved his hands behind his back. Motionless, he silently looked at his opponent.

  From within the storage pouch, he secretly took out the thread and quietly wound it around his ring finger.

  The reason why Han Li was so calm facing this person and admitted that he had killed Feng Yue was actually mostly to give him established power. He hoped this person would back out without a fight and no longer bother him. He did not wish to immediately engage in a battle where neither would win and waste his much important time for medicine gathering.

  Although he heard from this person’s tone that it was as if he had friendly relations with Feng Yue, Han Li believed that the possibility of him truly taking revenge on behalf of Feng Yue wasn’t too large! After all, they were cultivators. The majority of them were those with few and fickle desires. Even more, this person was a villainous man.

  Naturally, if the opponent insisted on taking revenge on behalf of Feng Yue, Han Li could only strike first to take the advantage. He would consume much of his physical strength to fully use his movement techniques and catch the opponent off guard, using the thread wound around his finger to quietly wrap around his neck and stealthily finish him off.

  However, Han Li fully understood that the odds of success for this sort of surprise attack was not too high! The odds of success were only thirty to forty percent.

  Because the distance between him and this ugly man was too far, although Han Li could rush through the sixty meter gap with his movement technique, there was no guarantee of a one-strike kill! In addition, if the opponent felt like using a defensive magic technique, his thread would become useless.

  “Revenge? What kind of joke is that? Do I look like someone that bored?” As expected, it was as Han Li had thought. After the ugly man heard Han Li’s words, he chuckled and said those words with disdain.

  “Previously I truly had a friendship with that man; However, it wasn’t some deep friendship. Since this person is already dead, There is naturally no longer a friendship!” The ugly man shamelessly said. Although, his words clearly revealed his position, he wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest.

  Han Li remained silent. Although he did not relax his guard, he slightly relaxed his heart. It seemed he would need to fight a heavy battle immediately after entering the central area.

  “But young brother, you are truly formidable and fierce! You were actually able to deal with that guy Feng Yue, especially with his top-grade magic tools, zeze! Some of those magic tools are truly hard to come by!”

  The ugly man stroked his nose and became far more affectionate toward Han Li, changing the way he addressed him! However, after he asked this, it seemed as if he indistinctly fell back several steps, greatly increasing the distance between them.

  Having seen this scene, Han Li couldn’t help but bitterly smile to himself!

  According to Han Li’s estimations, if they were to immediately have a falling out and fight, the odds of success just declined, making success unlikely. If this “expert” was as cunning and experienced as Han Li expected, he wouldn’t be easy to deal with!

  Furthermore, he guessed that the opponent most likely believed that he obtained all of Feng Yue’s magic treasures. As a result, he faintly showed off the appearance of being afraid of retaliation.

  After he became aware of this, Han Li smiled but did not speak. Since he didn’t say whether he obtained the magic tools, he didn’t need to say it, causing this evil man further annoyance and a greater fear of retaliation.

  “That masterpiece on the wall in front of the gate, is that your esteemed self’s doing?” Han Li faintly asked, thinking of the scene in front of the gate.

  “Nonsense! That was the work of that demon from the Saber Transformation Dock, Han Tianya. I definitely wouldn’t have done such a pointless thing! It was a great pity of such blood and flesh that was wasted. It would have been better if I fed it to my little ones; I heard the flesh of cultivators are a great supplement for them.”

  As Han Li listened, he couldn’t help but faintly smile. However, when the ugly man said those words, he took out a large pouch from behind his back and threw out a bloody chunk of flesh, causing Han Li’s smile to become forced. There were even faint signs of his expression breaking.

  The evil man peeked at Han Li’s current expression and couldn’t help but secretly reveal his intentions.

  In the end, this Yellow Maple Valley disciple was far too young and far too soft!

  With just a few of his words, he caused his mind to become restless. It a true battle broke out, this definitely would’ve been a significant mistake.

  However, for this person to be able to kill that Feng Yue, he could truly be cause for surprise! But how could he see or think that such a extremely common appearance could truly be such a ferocious character?

  It could be said that with this guy’s young age and meager magic power, even if he had several good magic tools, he wouldn’t be able to beat Feng Yue’s Yellow Parasol and his great quantity of top quality magic tools equivalent to the Cloud Step Boots! Still, that guy Feng Yue nonetheless fell underneath this boy’s hand. This matter was truly a bit strange, but he did wear the Cloud Step Boots; this was undeniable.

  Could it be he really didn’t kill him but was able to acquire them from some other fortunate occurrence?

  Zhong Wu pondered about this, but he was still confused. He was unable to accurately judge Han Li’s true strength. This caused him to take the initiative to test this with his own hands. If he tried to kill him but couldn’t…naturally such a clever man as himself wouldn’t take such a dangerous action!

  After the ugly man remained puzzled and gave much deliberation, he took out his cloth pouch and blinked his uneven eyes several times. With a face full of smiles, he said to Han Li, “Oh wait, I still haven’t asked .What is Young Brother’s surname. Do you think you could tell me?”

  “Yellow Maple Valley’s Han Li.”

  This wasn’t something worth concealing. Han Li calmly replied with an improved complexion.

  “So it turned out to be Brother Han! I previously hadn’t heard of Young Brother’s great name. Surely, your distinguished self is one of Yellow Maple Valley’s new and rising stars? How much does Brother Han understand about the central area?” Zhong Wu appeared very cordial as if he were speaking to a friend he hadn’t seen for many years.

  “I don’t know much, but Brother Zhong is many years my senior. He surely must know much more than Han Li!” Han Li did not know what the other party was planning, but he grew greatly vigilant.

  “Hehe! Brother Han, if you were to trust this one named Zhong, wouldn’t it be better for us to exchange our information on the central area? How about it? This is something that would benefit the both of us.” After Zhong Wu hesitated for a moment, he eventually spoke his true intentions with a soft voice.

  After Han Li heard this, he was startled and inwardly contemplated this. Although it was strictly stated in the rules that exchanging his sect’s information without the approval of sect elders was not allowed, in reality, it was an act that disciples did much of! Thus, after a short moment, he wore a smile and said, “Sure. After we exchange
resources, we will each greatly benefit.”

  “Haha! That’s great. I knew it, Brother Han isn’t some overly careful person. Come! We’ll put our information into jade slips and then exchange them with each other. Zhong Wu’s face full of pockmarks of all sizes was glowing with excitement as he continuously rubbed his hands. It seemed he was greatly expectant of Han Li’s information.

  When Han Li saw this, he greatly sneered several times; however, his external appearance was naturally in complete agreement.

  To create a copy of information was a very effortless task! After the time it took to make a cup of tea, they finished making their copies and threw the jade slips to each other.

  When they each had the jade slips in hand, they both roughly examined the contents. After they confirmed it seemed to be information of the central area, they both looked at each other with a smile containing an ulterior motive.

  Within this small amount of time, it was naturally impossible to forge false information! However when the copies were made, some crucial information would be overlooked; this was naturally mutually understood!

  After this event, Zhong Wu and Han Li seemed to all of a sudden become much closer! Zhong Wu actually told Han Li a few remarkable stories from the world of cultivators! Seeing these two laugh and talk so closely, it was truly hard to believe that not long ago they had been nearly irreconcilable adversaries. It seemed these two were experts in knowing when to retreat!

  Although Han Li wore a beautiful smile and appeared as if he was interested in this chat, he was truly cursing endlessly in his heart.

  ‘If you want to chat, then chat! Why would you continue to maintain such a long distance!’ So long as he advanced a step, the other party would take two steps back with a hearty smile. Although Han Li had no intention to kill him, the other party’s degree of cautiousness caused Han Li to be dumbfounded.

  Chapter 194: The Secret Information of the Central Area

  However, Han Li was not impatient! The central area of the forbidden area was truly different from the outer regions.

  In areas outside of the central area, spiritual grasses and wondrous fruits for the most part grew without patterns and at random; one could find traces of them at any location, and it was often first come first serve. Those who managed to pick them would also immediately retreat far away. Thus, in these areas, conflicts over medicinal ingredients very rarely occurred. More often, people would die either because they were being cleaned up by other people or because others were killing them to steal their treasures.

  However, in the central area, things were not the same! According to the lucky disciples who had been able to return, this central area was very large, taking up almost a third of the forbidden area, and was entirely encircled and surrounded by the stone wall. If one started counting from the four large copper doors, the entire area could be split into three outer layers. It was similar to a common fruit, containing the skin, the “meat”, and the pit; each layer was very distinct. How very peculiar!

  The elegant picturesque place that Han Li was currently in was the outermost layer of the central area.

  According to the information, the distance to the next layer was actually not too large; it should only be half a kilometer. Inside this layer, the plants and flowers were all incredibly rare and scarcely seen, not easily found elsewhere in this world. However, very few of these could be used to create spiritual medicines for them to be of any practical use to cultivators. Everybody could only admire and fiddle around with them.

  Many people from the Seven Great Sects reasoned that this layer was purposefully arranged in this way by the master of the forbidden area, intending to turn this layer into a flower garden of sorts. The extremely eye-catching and contested plants were originally used by the owner of the forbidden areas to relax and enjoy. If one wanted to find anything of use, it would be better to go to other areas to look, and one would comparatively need to worry less!

  The high-grade spiritual medicines that were useful to cultivators all grew within the second layer of the central area. The disciples from various sects entering this area were all mostly aiming for this layer. The three main ingredients for refining the Foundation Establishment Pill were also in this layer and were naturally their main goal. Han Li was also determined to get these spiritual ingredients!

  Speaking of this second layer, when Han Li merely saw the information related to it, he was stunned for quite a while!

  This second layer was a huge ring-shaped mountain range; the entire year, it was completely sealed off by fog so dense that one couldn’t see their hand in front of their face. This mountain also contained caves, secret valleys, cliffs, and other natural formations. There were also stone houses, stone temples, and other human constructs, as well as many kinds of spiritual ingredients grew in these locations.

  (TL: ‘ring-shaped mountain range’ means a ring of mountains chained together)

  The materials that the ugly man and Han Li had primarily exchanged were the distribution charts of the locations of these spiritual ingredients. This was because nobody could guarantee that when they walked into these locations, the currently existing materials would exist in the area which they were in. Thus, in this aspect, the more distribution charts one had, the better, since one could more easily piece the information together and begin searching!

  However, the fog on these mountains was too thick and wide! When cultivators normally entered this mountain, they would permanently be lost within this dense fog and could only slowly feel their way forwards, one step at a time. As for whether or not they could emerge again, that depended entirely on their own luck.

  But what caused one’s head to hurt even more was that countless demonic beasts lived on the ring-shaped mountain range, from the lower grade one Flame Mouse and Chasing Wind Rabbit to the peak grade one Golden Light Python and Ice Fire Wolf. It roughly contained all of the grade one demonic beasts that the Seven Great Sects had heard or would hear about in the future.

  Even the seven or eight of the weakest of demonic beasts could be easily dealt with by a sixth or seventh layer cultivator. However, if the the elite disciples from the Seven Great Sects were to meet peak-level beasts, their only option was to escape as quickly as possible.

  Luckily, the last kind of demonic beast was very rare in these mountains, and most of them had become guardians of some spiritual ingredients. It would be unlikely to come across them!

  Thus, the majority of the more vicious demonic beasts were of upper grade one. However, they could be easily dealt with under the cooperation of many of the elite disciples. Of course, if one were to run into them alone, a bloody battle would be inevitable.

  Regardless of whether it was the dense fog on top of the mountain or the demonic beasts that occupied the mountain, if they were to encounter one of these alone, these proud and arrogant elite disciples might reluctantly try to take a risk and enter to pick spiritual ingredients. However, if two of them encountered each other, they would have no choice but to look at each other in dismay. Going up and down the mountain under these circumstances was definitely a one-way trip!

  Thus, the first few groups of disciples that had ever entered the forbidden area only picked some normal spiritual ingredients outside the central area before considering it done. They had never entered the ring-shaped mountains before!

  However, a few excursions later, a cultivator from the Masked Moon Sect had racked his brains and defined a magic treasure called “Precious Moon Sun Pearl”. This object actually could not attack enemies or protect oneself; its only use was to emit a strange light that could pierce through many kinds of dense fog or poisonous miasma. It was specially created for use in the forbidden area!

  As expected, the Masked Moon Sect disciples that obtained this treasure were able to shine very brightly in the next opening of the forbidden area!

  With their backs faced against the other sects, and after getting rid of most of the dense fog, they began to reap the rewar
ds of the ring-shaped mountains. Relying on that time’s harvest, they produced large quantities of Foundation Establishment Pills; then, they broadly recruited other disciples, and their sect’s strength increased greatly. From then on, the Masked Moon Sect was established as the State of Yue’s top cultivator sect.

  However, as the saying goes, there wasn’t a wall in this world that didn’t let wind through! News of the Masked Moon Sect’s use of the Precious Moon Sun Pearl to harvest a great amount of spiritual ingredients still spread. Not long after, the other six sects came looking for them, unwilling to let them keep their profit to themselves.

  (TL: “There isn’t a wall in this world that doesn’t let wind through” means that there is no such thing as an absolute secret.)

  The Masked Moon Sect, unwilling to anger everyone yet also unwilling to give up their precious pearl like this, finally gave it up after bargaining with the other six sects. Ever since, this became the common item of the Seven Great Sects.

  The Seven Great Sects would take turns wielding this treasure. After every trip to the forbidden area, the sect holding the precious pearl would have to hand it over to another sect for preservation.

  However, regardless of which sect controlled the precious pearl, as soon as they entered into the forbidden area, disciples of that sect would have to, under the supervision of disciples from other sects, use this treasure at a certain time period according to a rule that was set beforehand. One could not purposefully hasten or delay the dispelling of the fog.

  This way, all of the disciples that had reached the central area on time could enter the ring-shaped mountain range at the same time to pick spiritual ingredients. This method appeared incredibly fair.