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

by Translator: Johnchen

  When the others saw this, they didn’t mind in the least. After all, the death of this enemy was almost entirely due to Han Li; naturally, no one would fight Han Li over the spoils.

  Zhong Weiniang unexpectedly appeared somewhat pleased after seeing her sweetheart avenged and repeatedly expressed her thanks to Han Li.

  She also said that when the fallen hear of this in the underworld, they would certainly be grateful that Han Li had avenged them!

  Those words caused Han Li, who had come here with another objective in mind, to feel a bit embarrassed.

  He hastily changed the subject and suggested that the others hurriedly search other areas of the Imperial Palace for any Black School Fiend Disciples that remained hidden. He also said that he had to stay behind and attend to a few matters, such as withdrawing the great formation.

  Hearing Han Li’s words, how could the Yellow Maple Valley cultivators not understand what he had meant? He was clearly giving them the opportunity to loot the remains of the Black Fiend School’s nest.

  Song Meng beamed with happiness while the others found it somewhat embarrassing. Han Li then said, “Let’s rendezvous after I finish putting everything in order. As for the Black Fiend School Master, he should have enough high quality items on his body to satisfy me!”

  The others felt this was reasonable and did not further refuse. After all, everyone had suffered quite a bit from today’s great battle.

  Thus, after Han Li withdrew the great formation, the others flew away on their magic tools.

  Only when the others could no longer be seen did Han Li feel reassured enough to wave his two puppet beasts over. They flew back toward Han Li with the results of their search.

  Chapter 330: Fiend Core

  When Han Li saw that the “Five Element Blood Cores” were among the Emperor’s items, he was jubilant.

  He immediately took them from the puppet beast’s mouth and closely examined them.

  From the great spiritual power contained in the cores, Han Li verified that their medicinal properties were genuine. Relieved, Han Li took out an exquisite jade box from his storage pouch and carefully placed the five Blood Cores inside.

  Han Li didn’t know the specific effects of the “Five Elements Blood Cores” mentioned by the young prince Xin. But from how urgently the Emperor of Yue had collected these items, their usefulness toward Core Formation should most likely be true.

  Han Li then shifted his attention to the other items: a pitch-black alms bowl, an awl with an inch-long, blood-red spike, and a jade slip emitting a light-grey Qi.

  Upon seeing these items, Han Li felt somewhat fearful of them.

  These kinds of magic tools were commonly used by devilish and evil cultivators. It was likely that such items would have restrictions or curses placed on them, so he wasn’t in any hurry to fiddle with them. Instead, he took in a deep breath and covered his hands in a layer of faint azure light.

  With this protection, Han Li was able to pick up the jade slip with his heart at ease, and carefully examine it.

  Apart from releasing a strange aura, the jade slip didn’t have any sort of obvious restrictions. Han Li let out a sigh of relief and slowly submerged his spiritual sense into the slip.

  As his spiritual sense entered the jade slip, Han Li stood motionless. However, his expression underwent strange changes. First, he appeared pleasantly surprised, then dismayed and finally, extremely cautious with a slight trace of fear.

  After the time it took to make a cup of tea, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense and found himself in a daze.

  The jade slip’s contents went far beyond Han Li’s expectations.

  It contained information on all of the Black Fiend School’s cultivation arts such as the young prince’s “Black Fiend Asura Art”, the four Blood Servant’s “Fiend Demon Art”, the Emperor of Yue’s “Divine Blood Light” and so on.

  Han Li was shocked to discover that all of these cultivation arts mentioned a book called the “Profound Yin Scriptures”; it seemed to be the origin of all these arts. This greatly piqued Han Li’s curiosity.

  But as Han Li hurriedly scoured the jade slip, he was unable to find anything related to the whereabouts of the scripture.

  With no other choice, Han Li could only bury his desire to find the scripture in his heart and focus his attention to some of the strange secret techniques.

  A few of these greatly pleased Han Li. Not only did they resolve some of his long held doubts, but they also mentioned the true use of the “Five Elements Blood Cores”.

  Han Li calmed himself and carefully examined the passage.

  It turned out that the “Five Elements Blood Cores” were formed within the bodies of cultivators who practiced the “Fiend Demon Art”, much like how a demonic beast condense a core within their body. It was the most important aspect of the “Fiend Demon Art”.

  The reason as to why they were able to turn into fiend demons and didn’t need to use Foundation Establishment Pills to enter Foundation Establishment was because of the formation of this core.

  Although this “Fiend Demon Art” didn’t require the use of blood sacrifices, it still greatly increased the speed of cultivation. However, Foundation Establishment was the highest layer this cultivation art could achieve; there would be no hope of reaching Core Formation.

  In fact, the rest of these cultivation techniques were more or less the same and held the fatal flaw of being incapable of reaching Core Formation.

  Of course, their speed of cultivation left others astonished through the additional assistance of blood sacrifices.

  It seems these “Five Elements Blood Cores” were supposed to be a solution to the defects of these kinds of cultivation arts.

  The jade slip also mentioned a secret technique called the “Fiend Core Technique”.

  According to what was stated by the secret technique, even if one were a late Foundation Establishment cultivator with poor aptitude, so long as they consumed the “Five Elements Blood Cores” in accordance with the technique, there was a one-third chance of forming a “Fiend Core”. This “False Gold Core” would be similar to a genuine Core Formation cultivator’s gold core.

  With the successful formation of a Fiend Core, while one’s strength would be inferior to a genuine Core Formation cultivator, the difference wouldn’t be that great. In addition, it would have the wondrous effect of extending one’s lifespan similar to genuine Core Formation.

  When Han Li read this, his heart nearly jumped out of his chest. A one-third chance of forming a core? The “Five Elements Blood Core” was truly heaven-defying!

  He immediately felt an urge to set everything else aside and consume the Five Elements Blood Cores!

  However, a flaw later mentioned in the description of the secret technique had left Han Li astonished.

  Since the “Fiend Core” was an artificial Golden Core, there was no possibility of further improvement. This implied that for the rest of one’s lifetime, there would be no way to further one’s cultivation and progress past early Core Formation Stage.

  If it were only this, Han Li still wouldn’t allow such an opportunity to pass him by.

  This was because the method the “Three Essence Revolutions Technique” used to form a core was truly unpredictable and unreliable. Even if he were able to scatter his cultivation three times, Han Li wasn’t confident it would work.

  After all, this cultivation method was something created from the mere conjectures of the founder of the “Azure Essence Sword Art”! No one had ever successfully cultivated it before.

  On the other hand, from the tone of this text, the “Fiend Core Technique” was certain to have previously been used.

  A one-third possibility of Core Formation was extremely enticing to Han Li!

  As for the inability to reach Nascent Soul Stage after forming a Fiend core, this matter was too far removed from Han Li’s current situation for him to consider.

  “Nascent Soul Stage” was still something H
an Li could only dream about.

  At the moment, being able to achieve Core Formation was his highest objective. As for whether or not he could extravagantly hope to condense a Nascent Soul, he would only think about it after he reached Core Formation.

  But the following details of the “Fiend Core Technique” left Han Li dumbstruck.

  It said that after the “Fiend Core” was formed in one’s body, Fiend Demon Qi would be continuously released for a long period, and it would be capable of gradually eroding a cultivator’s mind.

  Although the erosion wouldn’t leave one completely without mind or memories, decreased mental acuity along with gradually reduced intellect were unavoidable.

  This caused Han Li’s heart to tremble without end.

  What Han Li was most confident of was his mind and quick-wittedness. These were the main reasons that he had been able to remain so free and unfettered in the cultivation world until now.

  Thus, when he read that passage, Han Li had only a moment of internal struggle before completely severing any intentions of using the “Five Elements Blood Cores”.

  After reading about the drawback, Han Li was extremely vexed. He had done so much to acquire the “Five Elements Blood Cores”, but it proved to be of absolutely no use to him.

  After a moment of further consideration, Han Li felt that something was amiss.

  If the drawback was so severe, then why would the Emperor of Yue specially cultivate these cores? That cunning old fox certainly wasn’t going to directly consume it.

  With that thought, Han Li looked through the secret techniques once more and his attention was caught by a very interesting secret technique — “External Reincarnation”.

  This was a renowned top grade secret technique of the Devilish Dao; Han Li had heard about it long ago.

  Although there were many techniques called “Reincarnation” techniques, the specific cultivation method and effectiveness of these techniques were exceedingly strange and varied. Regardless of the “reincarnation” technique, to a Devil Dao cultivator, they were all as precious as their own lives. They were all fundamentally the greatest secrets of each sect.

  The Seven Sects of Yue had previously attempted to collect all the cultivation arts related to reincarnation but ultimately ended up empty-handed!

  Han Li quickly read through this technique several times and grew rapt with joy. He had found a use for these “Five Elements Blood Cores” after all.

  If he had guessed correctly, the Emperor of Yue must have had the same plan in mind. Thus, he had painstakingly cultivated those blood servants in order to condense those “Five Elements Blood Cores”.

  As for the blue-robed man, the self-proclaimed Black Fiend School Master who had died from the Heavenly Lightning Seed, that was an incarnation he had refined.

  Only that would explain why the blue-robed man was completely willing to allow his cultivation to be absorbed without the slightest resistance.

  The distracting thoughts that Han Li had pushed to the back of his mind resurfaced as he read through the secret technique.

  As for secret techniques such as the “Cultivation Essence Pill” and methods of blood sacrifice, since Han Li didn’t cultivate Devilish Arts, he had little interest in them.

  Only the condensation method of the “Blood Spirit Drill” caught Han Li’s eye as he read on. He read through it several times and memorized it.

  After Han Li withdrew his consciousness from the jade slip, he properly digested the information before moving on to the next two items.

  The blood-red awl was the solidified form of the Blood Spirit Drill after leaving the body. It should be quite a useful magic tool.

  As for the pitch-black alms bowl, it must have been the rarely seen magic tool, the “Soul Congregation Bowl”. It was specialized in holding the souls of cultivators. Any soul that entered this magic tool would gradually lose its intelligence and become a feral, common soul suitable for refinement or control.

  After only briefly examining this “Soul Congregation Bowl”, the dark, cold Qi that the bowl contained caused Han Li to shiver and he hastily deposited it into his storage pouch.The magic tool’s dark, cold Qi gave an impression that countless cultivators’ souls must have been ruined within. The more he made contact with this bowl, the more ill he felt! Han Li clearly understood that without cultivating these kinds of dark arts, he would have no use for this magic tool.

  The more he made contact with this bowl, the more ill he felt!

  Chapter 331: Orders

  After carefully putting away the items he procured from the Emperor, Han Li looked up toward the rainbow light and quickly flew to a corner of the bamboo forest.

  After a brief moment, Han Li arrived at a huge bamboo stalk with a formation flag stabbed into it and pulled the flag out.

  The rainbow light barrier immediately disappeared without a trace.

  Han Li smiled faintly and flew off to another corner of the forest.

  Soon after, Han Li left the bamboo forest, having retrieved all of the formation flags and plates with exceptional care.

  After experiencing the might of the improved “Five Elements Reversal Formation”, Han Li had come to value it far more than before.

  When Han Li calmly walked out of the bamboo forest, something caught his eye: the pulverized corpse of the Emperor of Yue. It seemed that when the rainbow light had disappeared, the body had fallen onto the ground.

  Han Li wrinkled his bow and let out a sigh. He then shot a fist-sized fireball toward the corpse, turning it to ash.

  Han Li would have lamented if the ashes of such a remarkable character had been blown into the wind after death. As such, Han Li patted his storage pouch, and a streak of golden light flew out, blasting a large hole in the ground.

  Han Li then lightly waved his sleeve, sweeping the ashes into the hole with a gentle gust of wind.

  Suddenly, white light flashed. Just as Han Li thought to close the hole, he paused.

  With amazement, Han Li beckoned with his hand, causing an embroidered cloth to fly from the ashes and into his hand.

  “This is...” Han Li took a quick look at it with curiosity.

  This embroidered cloth was slightly yellow and appeared to be ancient. He did not know what it was made from, but it emitted a faint glimmering light. Han Li suspected that the embroidery was actually an indistinct map.

  Han Li’s curiosity was piqued and he hastily examined the map. After looking through it several times, he then lost all interest.

  This was because after careful examination, it was certain to not be any terrain in the State of Yue as it was particularly unfamiliar. The drawing should be of a strange land. Furthermore, the cloth was clearly damaged and incomplete. He wasn’t sure if it was even half of the original map or merely a tiny piece.

  However, since the map only appeared after the Emperor of Yue had turned to ash, it seemed he had used some sort of secret technique to conceal it within his body. Else, his puppet beasts would’ve found it from the start.

  From this, it appeared that the map was extremely important!

  Han Li pondered for a moment before deciding to store the badly damaged map into the jade box along with the Five Elements Blood Cores.

  Now was not the time to unravel this mystery. He had to hurry and find the others.

  After all, with the Emperor of Yue dead, the aftermath would be quite troublesome!

  When Han Li found Chen Qiaoqian and the others in front of the Cold Palace, he was met with some unfortunate news.

  They discovered Wu Xuan’s corpse within the Black Fiend School Master’s private room; he had recently died as a blood sacrifice and had his blood essence absorbed.

  When Han Li heard this, he was startled. But then he smiled bitterly and remained silent.

  Because of this matter with the Black Fiend School, many of his own sect’s Foundation Establishment cultivators had died. When Han Li returned, his master, Li Huayuan, definitely wouldn’t look at
him favorably. After all, this matter was brought up because of him!

  After wallowing in the feeling of helplessness, Han Li bluntly passed the responsibility of dealing with the aftermath to Chen Qiaoqian and Zhong Weiniang. He then found an excuse to return first to the Qin Residence.

  However, Han Li completely had not expected that as soon as he returned, he would meet an entirely unexpected visitor.

  ……

  “Greetings to Martial Uncle Han!” A middle-aged man wearing embroidered clothes saluted him.

  “Martial Nephew Ma! Why have you come to find me so late? Has something important happened?” Han Li’s eye’s flashed with confusion.

  Han Li, who had just returned from the Forbidden City of Yue, did not expect to find the disciple responsible for contacting the sect from Yuejing to be waiting for him in his courtyard.

  Furthermore, it appeared the disciple had been waiting for quite a long time.

  “Martial Uncle, this one has just received news of an order. All Foundation Establishment disciples must hurry to the Seven Sect’s main barracks at the border. The enemy has delivered a war ultimatum. In two months, the Six Devil Dao Sects will have a battle for supremacy with the Seven Sects of Yue. For this, all hands are to return to the battlefield. In addition, Martial Ancestor Li has sent a message to you!” The embroidered-clothed man solemnly said and handed a writ and jade slip over to Han Li.

  When Han Li heard this, he was slightly startled, but he still maintained his calm expression as he took the two items and carefully examined them.

  The writ’s orders were exactly as he had been told. All Foundation Establishment cultivators out on missions are required to assemble at the border camp within a month of receiving the writ and the date of the decisive battle had already been determined. The spiritual signature at the end of the writ was also genuine.

  Having finished reading the writ, Han Li submerged his spiritual sense into the jade slip.

  A hollow image of Li Huayuan appeared within and spoke very plainly. He merely instructed that Han Li no longer needed to protect the Qin Residence and that Han Li along with his other disciples were to return to the border. He had previously received information that the Devil Dao’s plan to infiltrate the State of Yue’s secular world and wreak havoc was canceled for some unknown reason.