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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Soon after, the scent faded away and the two white spiders returned to normal.

  While this result came as a pleasant surprise, he also felt worried about his Bloodjade Spiders. After carefully examining them for the next few days and finding that nothing strange had occurred, he finally felt relieved.

  With this trump card in hand, he was suddenly filled with confidence in hunting demon beasts for their cores. After making another round of preparations, not only did Han Li bring a large amount of Rainbow Skirt Grass, but he also visited the many coral islands in Deep Jade Island’s territory after arriving. After all, Rainbow Skirt Grass could only survive on coral islands.

  As such, after laying down his inescapable net on Red Coral Island, he waited for the Rainbow Skirt Grass to mature and have demon beasts come knocking on his door.

  Han Li had found an isolated coral reef in the sea at the center of the ring-shaped red coral island and planted his Rainbow Skirt Grass sprout on it.

  Although he knew that the older the Rainbow Skirt Grass, the greater area of effect it would have, he started off with hundred year old Rainbow Skirt Grass to be safe.

  Han Li took out a small bottle from his body and carefully dripped the green liquid onto the spirit herb. He then meditated on a nearby coral island with Crooked Soul by his side, both of them preserving their strength for what was to come.

  Three days later, the Rainbow Skirt Grass had unfolded a leaf before Han Li’s eyes and released a bizarre scent.

  Han Li silently waved his hand. With a flash of radiance, glowing formation flags of various colors appeared embedded in the ground around him.

  Han Li gazed at the formation flags for a moment before calmly closing his eyes once more. He had already decided that if no demon beasts appeared in the next few days, he would give the Rainbow Skirt Grass another drop of the green liquid and increase the range of its demon luring effect. With this, demon beasts were bound to visit.

  Chapter 396: Hunting Demon Beasts for Cores

  Han Li’s worries were soon proven unfounded. A mere hour later, Han Li felt two huge Spiritual Qi fluctuations head towards the red coral island, one from the east and one from the west.

  His expression changed and he suddenly opened his eyes, rigidly staring at the line of formation flags before him. Although he had already completed his preparations, he couldn’t help but become nervous as two high grade demon beasts were coming at the same time.

  Suddenly, a purple formation flag in front of him flashed with radiance and lightly trembled.

  Han Li’s expression grew solemn, but he didn’t take any immediate action and only silently looked on. He knew that although a grade five demon beast could be considered intelligent, it wouldn’t be able to break free from the Five Elements Reversal Formation only a moment after entering it. A grade five demon beast may possess similar cultivation to an early Core formation cultivator, but its fighting strength was almost always inferior to a cultivator of similar rank. After all, its intelligence was poor and it was capable of far too few magic techniques, allowing cultivators of similar strength to easily kill them. In addition, they would need quite some time to break through profound creations such as formation spells.

  As such, Han Li felt at ease allowing one more demon beast to enter his magic formation before setting out to act.

  Just as he was apprehensively thinking to himself, a yellow formation flag flashed with brilliance and released a soft hum. Suddenly, Han Li’s solemn expression became somewhat happy. He then formed an incantation gesture with his hands and restricted the scent of the Rainbow Skirt Grass with the formations surrounding it.

  After doing this, Han Li held out his bare hands, and two of the glowing formation flags flew into them with a single word, “Come!”

  Behind him, Crooked Soul opened his mouth and spouted out a yellow radiance. The yellow radiance flourished, swirling around Han Li and carrying him off towards the sky in a yellow streak of light.

  After a short moment, Han Li appeared above the westmost formation, the Illusory Heavensifting Formation. The formation’s colorful green-yellow clouds were incessantly rolling, and an ox’s roar could faintly be heard booming from within the formation.

  Han Li then took out his Divine Wind Boat and had it fly away by itself.

  He then took out the yellow formation flag and lightly waved it. The formation flag shot out a yellow beam of light towards the colorful clouds, causing them to vanish and reveal the demon beast within.

  The demon beast was about ten meters long and had a round body surrounded by spikes of fire-red light. At first glance, it appeared to be a huge sea urchin. However, over thirty dark green eyes protruded from its body.

  The eyes’ gazes were ice-cold, and they shot out scarlet streaks of light in quick succession towards the formation. Its bull-like roar came from its fat abdomen and sounded as if it was violently irritated.

  “Thousand Eyed Demon!” After seeing the demon beast’s appearance, Han Li immediately recognized it and became somewhat interested.

  As it was one of the most commonly seen grade five demon beasts in the Scattered Star Seas, it would make for good practice.

  He didn’t dare delay for long since this formation wasn’t strong enough to endure much more of the demon’s rampage. He immediately gave Crooked Soul an order.

  After receiving the order, the yellow light enveloping Crooked Soul’s body suddenly turned blood-red. He then brought his hands together and quickly separated them, shooting out a yellow crescent from his hand towards the Thousand Eyed Demon in the formation. This was the magic treasure that Crooked Soul had nearly fully refined, the “Immemorial Bowl”.

  Although the Thousand Eyed Demon was trapped in the formation, it seemed to realize how powerful the yellow crescent was. All of the eyes on its body locked onto the Immemorial Bowl flying towards it and shot scarlet beams at it simultaneously, combining into a thick red beam of light. For a short while, the beam rigidly blocked the yellow crescent’s advance, forcing a contest of magic power with Crooked Soul, the magic treasure’s controller.

  Han Li then revealed a smile.

  He patted a bulging storage pouch at his waist, causing over a hundred white lights to quickly fly out and surround the great formation.

  These white lights were sinister puppet beasts that appeared to be almost three meters tall. They immediately opened their mouths and dazzling light began to condense in them as if they were prepared to act.

  At this moment, Han Li’s face was flushed with excitement. He waved his hand, causing his Redthread Shadowchaser needles to appear in his hand. At that same time, the puppet beasts each shot out a beam of light towards the Thousand Eyed Demon.

  The demon beast seemed to have discovered the direness of its situation and suddenly let out a sharp whistle. Its entire body let out a groan and curled into a huge ball of flesh covered in spikes of light. At the same time, the red light released by it eyeballs started to turn green. These green streaks of light weren’t launched as an attack, and instead condensed into a thick barrier of light around its body.

  The hundred beams of light simultaneously struck the green light barrier, causing an explosion of radiance to shine around it. The demon beast’s barrier managed to withstand the attack. However, the green light barrier began to flicker as if it would collapse before long.

  With the absence of the red beam of light that previously restrained it, the Immemorial Bowl was free to attack. Under Crooked Soul’s command, it suddenly became a huge disk that spanned about ten meters. In concert with the light beam attacks, it fiercely struck down onto the demon beast.

  The sound of a sharp rupture soon followed. Although the light barrier was being sustained by desperate releases of green light by the Thousand Eyed Beast, the repeated attacks of the puppet’s light beam along with the Immemorial Bowl’s strike had completely destroyed its barrier.

  Han Li, who had been waiting for this, instantly reacted, raising his hand. A
set of red threads flew off and shot towards the demon beast’s vulnerable body.

  After the time it took to finish a meal, Han Li was inside the formation with a green orb the size of a chicken egg now in his hand along with a wide smile on his face.

  Underneath his foot was the heavily damaged demon beast corpse with a fist-sized bloody hole on its body.

  “Go!” Han Li didn’t delay any longer. After storing the demon beast’s corpse in his storage pouch, he set off and was immediately swept up by Crooked Soul’s yellow light and hastily taken to a different formation spell.

  ……

  That was how Han Li spent an entire month on Red Coral Island.

  He would periodically place a drop of green liquid on the Rainbow Skirt Grass, gradually increasing the range of the demon lure. This attracted demon beasts in intervals of two or three days, allowing Han Li and Crooked Soul to slay over a dozen grade five demon beasts, much to Han Li’s great delight!

  But when the Rainbow Skirt Grass had reached four hundred years old, it attracted a grade six demon beast by the name of “Fowlcombed Flood Dragon”. Han Li was very surprised and hastily cut off the scent of the Rainbow Skirt Grass with his formation spell. After the demon beast swam a few rounds nearby after the scent disappeared, it angrily left.

  Frightened, Han Li discovered the Rainbow Skirt Grass was best used aged up to three hundred years. Maturing it past that point would attract even stronger demon beasts. When that time came, he hastily took out a new Rainbow Skirt Grass sprout and started over.

  But as of current, nearly all the grade five demon beasts near Red Coral Island had perished. After having no demon beasts attracted within a week, Han Li and Crooked Soul immediately put away their spell formations and left the island. After flying for several days in the Outer Star Seas, they found another coral island and continued hunting demon beasts with the same method.

  This exciting, repetitive, and dangerous lifestyle in the Outer Star Seas continued for five years!

  During this time he had killed hundreds of grade five demon beasts. He had also encountered unfamiliar demon beasts rarely seen in the cultivation world. The first time Han Li had come across them, he had found himself caught on the thin line between life and death.

  Were it not for the vicious fearlessness of Crooked soul and his puppets, he would’ve already met his end in the vast ocean, even with the assistance of his formation spells.

  Furthermore, time wasn’t the only thing that was consumed during those years. Not only were a vast majority of his puppets destroyed, but many of his tools for setting up formations had been destroyed or badly damaged by the more violent demon beasts.

  Even his most impressive Five Elements Reversal Formation had been destroyed half a year ago when he had carelessly attracted a grade seven demon beast. He could only helplessly trap the demon beast inside while he and Crooked Soul made their escape.

  While his losses during these five years were great, it was only natural that his returns were even more astonishing.

  Apart from receiving several hundred grade five demon cores, Han Li also acquired an incredible quantity of rare demon beast materials. He even had to discard a few of his less valuable items from his storage pouch to make room for all of them.

  In addition to killing several hundreds of demon beasts, he had also tempered his combat skills to perfection and developed quite a few minor techniques for killing demon beasts by himself.

  As of now, Han Li could calmly face a lone common grade five demon beast without a trace of fear.

  Chapter 397: Bitter, Secluded Cultivation

  Han Li was on his way back to Deep Jade Island, as careful as he had always been. He completely understood that without his puppets or formation spells, it was extremely dangerous to rush through the Outer Star Seas.

  Although they were easily able to deal with a grade five demon beast, if they were to catch the attention of a grade six demon beast or worse, it would be difficult to avoid death.

  According to his estimations, the demon cores he had gathered should be more than enough to get him through the second or even third revolution of the Three Essence Revolutions Technique. His several hundred grade five spirit stones would net him a couple hundred thousands of spirit stones at the very least. The rare materials he had gathered alone would double the price.

  However, Han Li wasn’t inspired by greed. This had all been done so that he may tread a bit farther in pursuit of the Immortal Dao. Thus, when it became increasingly dangerous to continue hunting demon beasts, he immediately decided to return.

  As of now, he had traveled quite far into the Outer Star Seas. Had he not recorded all of the strange islands he had been to on his map, he might not have been able to find his way back.

  Even if he knew the way back, Han Li’s return would still take several months of flight. He greatly valued his life and feared that he might encounter ferocious demon beasts on his way back or cultivators that may try to rob him.

  Demon beasts shouldn’t prove to be problem. At most, they would just circle around him a bit, but they wouldn’t approach him too closely. But if he were to come across any malicious cultivators, they definitely wouldn’t let them go. His demon cores would be difficult to protect, let alone his fragile life!

  As such, Han Li and Crooked Soul were highly vigilant during their journey. Whenever they encountered traces of other cultivators, they immediately hid or fled.

  In this way, Han Li eventually arrived back on Deep Jade Island without any problems, allowing him to let out a huge breath of relief.

  Han Li entered an extremely shabby, small street and found that apart from two shopkeepers being replaced, everything else had remained the same.

  Not paying attention to any of the shopkeepers’ interested gazes, he walked towards the stone room with the transportation formation.

  The Star Palace cultivator in the stone room had been replaced by a middle-aged man with a gentle face. Upon seeing Han Li and Crooked Soul enter the room, he faintly smiled, asking, “Do you two want to use the formation?”

  ……

  Han Li dove onto his large bed and soon fell into a deep sleep.

  As of current, he had already returned to his cave residence on the thirty-ninth layer of Heavenly Star City. As both his body and mind were fatigued, he was unable to deal with any other matters. He’d first deeply sleep for a few days before waking up with the energy he needed.

  His journey through the Outer Star Seas had tired him by no small amount!

  After awakening, Han Li took a stroll around his cave residence. As he hadn’t been there for many years, he felt that he should refamiliarize himself with it.

  But when he went to the insect room he saw that the Gold Devouring Beetles had turned into a huge silver sphere once more, hanging from the ceiling in hibernation. Han Li couldn’t help but lightly shake his head in response.

  Soon after, Han Li took a trip to the city market and bought all of the pill recipes being sold in the market before returning.Han Li then busied himself once again with pill concoction.

  Han Li then spent an entire two years within his cave residence refining large quantities of medicine pills in accordance to the pill recipes he had collected, combining aged spiritual herbs with demon cores. His original problem of developing a tolerance for medicine was now a thing of the past.

  During this time, he gradually sold off the demon beast materials he didn’t need to the travelling merchants visiting Heavenly Star City. As a result, he wouldn’t have to worry about spirit stones for a while.

  After finishing these matters, Han Li thoroughly sealed off his cave residence and started to make preparations for dispersing his cultivation. But while he was arranging his medicine pills and the remaining demon beast materials, he unintentionally took out a particular item that gave him a bit of a headache — the large quantities of hundreds-year-old Rainbow Skirt Grass that he had used to lure demon beasts while in the Outer Star Seas.
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  They couldn’t be sold for much, but it would be a pity to destroy them after having used quite a bit of the green liquid on them. Besides, Han Li had always held some interest in its great demon luring power when its leaves uncurled and had wanted to carefully research it.

  As Han Li looked at the bunch of Rainbow Skirt Grass in front of him, he came up with a rather strange thought. The thoughts became stronger until he couldn’t contain it, causing himself to feel a bit flabbergasted.

  After tilting his head in thought, he gathered the Rainbow Skirt Grass and suddenly walked to the insect room containing the Gold Devouring Beetles. He then casually tossed the Rainbow Skirt Grass into the room, but the Gold Devouring Beetles didn’t show the slightest reaction.

  Having seen this, Han Li laughed to himself. But after a moment of hesitation, he had Crooked Soul plant the Rainbow Skirt Grass on a few huge chunks of coral in the medicine garden.

  Not long after, Han Li entered a hidden room and started to carefully scatter his cultivation in accordance with the Three Essence Revolutions Technique.

  For the purpose of stability and safety, Han Li scattered his cultivation at a very slow pace. He had gradually scattered his cultivation for an entire half month before dropping down to his intended target, early Foundation Establishment stage.

  After reaching this point, Han Li left seclusion. He would first consolidate his cultivation before practicing the Three Essence Revolutions Technique with the aid of medicine pills.

  By some unknown compulsion, Han Li used a green drop to further mature a stalk of Rainbow Skirt Grass and threw it into the insect room when it started emitting its strange scent. Soon after, he stood outside the room, carefully staring inside through a slim gap, only to experience slight disappointment.

  The silver sphere of clustered Gold Devouring Beetles didn’t move in the slightest as if they hadn’t detected any difference. Although this had slightly surprised Han LI, he wasn’t particularly puzzled. This was because the Rainbow Skirt Grass didn’t have an attractive effect on all demon beasts. As the Gold Devouring Beetles were high ranking demon beasts, not being attracted was always a distinct possibility.