Unable to avoid such a dense barrage of attacks, the demon corpse’s eye gave off a vicious glint, and it spat out a ball of black Qi to face the barrage of fine azure beams of light. He then crossed his arms in front of his body to block the attack and closely followed after the black Qi.
The black Qi managed to disperse a majority of the azure light, but those that managed to strike its body merely dispersed into azure smoke and scattered radiance. The demon corpse revealed a trace of a grimace, slightly baring its teeth before taking tyrannical strides toward the huge apes.
With a series of cracks, a few of the nearby puppets were ripped apart by the claws of black light. Han Li frowned upon seeing this and Crooked Soul immediately released a hundred meter high blood light and condensed it into a huge blood-red saber before fiercely chopping down towards the refined corpse.
Clang. The blood saber chopped down onto the demon corpse’s head, but it produced only the sound of struck metal, seemingly unable to be damaged by the slashes. The slash appeared to have only attracted the corpse’s fury. It grabbed the blood saber with one hand and swung down the other as if wanting to destroy the saber to vent its fury.
Han Li couldn’t help but reveal calm joy at the sight!
With an incantation gesture, Crooked Soul’s blood saber turned into violet flames. In an instant, the refined corpse was engulfed in wild flames, causing it to shriek out in panic and flap its hands onto its body.
However, the demon corpse quickly discovered that although the violet flames were difficult to extinguish, they didn’t cause it any injuries and could be ignored. It then sought to find the culprit of the flames.
But as soon as it raised its head, two huge white nets silently covered it, sturdily entrapping it as it was caught unaware. They were the spiderwebs of the Bloodjade spiders.
The demon corpse was greatly alarmed and hastily attempted to break free with all of its strength, but at this same time, the purple flames turned into a bowl-thick serpent of purple flames and firmly wrapped around its body.
With the spider webs and the flame serpent binding its body, it would be unable to escape for a while.
Then without the slightest hesitation, Han Li and Crooked Soul turned into a streak of light, retrieved his spiders and puppets, and immediately flew off without any thoughts of looking behind them.
If he hadn’t heard incorrectly, there had been a third wretched scream from Grandmaster Zenith’s direction. If he didn’t take the opportunity to escape now, he’d definitely turn into the old devil’s slave.
Han Li’s and Crooked Soul’s joined powers allowed them to fly over fifty kilometers away in a single breath. After shifting their direction several times, they came across a small nameless island.
The two immediately descended onto the island and buried themselves over forty meters deep. They then wrapped themselves with the aura severing muslin cloth and used the nameless incantation to restrain their Qi.
Even after performing all of this, Han Li still felt apprehensive, not knowing if he would be able to escape detection from the two devil’s spiritual sense. After all, a Nascent Soul cultivator was certain to have far greater spiritual sense than an average Core Formation cultivator.
Unfortunately, Han Li had no way of knowing that over fifty kilometers away, Grandmaster Zenith Yin was standing in his original position with a leisurely expression, seeming to have given up his chase on the runaways. Additionally, there was a large red-robed, purple-faced man next to him along with over a dozen dark-green refined corpses.
In front of Grandmaster Zenith Yin and the purple-faced man was an unconscious middle-aged man floating in midair; he was being held up by strange needles emitting blue light that were stabbed into his body.
As for Elder Zhao and the others, they were behind the two, prostrated with fear, not daring to breathe too loudly. Even the Core Formation cultivators lacked the slightest trace of pride.
“I truly didn’t expect that Violet Spirit girl would actually escape! I had originally thought to hand her over to Fellow Daoist Scarletflame. It seems we’ll only be able to look for an opportunity in the future!” Grandmaster Zenith Yin said with a calm expression.
“Please don’t be disheartened, Senior Wu. Although that Violet Spirit girl is among the top ten furnace cauldrons I would consider, your grandson seems to have taken quite an interest in her. How about we leave her for him?” The large, purple-faced man chuckled.
“Then many thanks to Fellow Daoist Scarletflame! After we return, I’ll send twenty acceptable female cultivators to Turtle Source Island as compensation. Besides, your master can be considered my Senior. Please send him my respects!” After Grandmaster Zenith Yin heard this, his face revealed a rarely seen trace of a smile.
“Senior, I also haven’t seen my master for quite some time. If I see him, I will definitely mention you.” Eccentric Scarletflame spoke with an extremely polite tone before rolling his eyes and continued, “However, now that the Violet Spirit girl has escaped, she may contact the Star Palace. Are there any problems we should worry about?” Scarletflame revealed a trace of worry.
“The Star Palace? Hehe! There are no problems to be had.” Grandmaster Zenith Yin casually sneered.
“As far as I know, the Heavenly Star Palace’s elders are all in seclusion. Currently, they definitely won’t deal with any minor, trivial matters. Those two old bastards of the Star Palace are refining some technique called the Divine Essencefused Light for no reason. As a result, the two can only leave Heavenly Star City for half a month on a fixed date every year, otherwise their cultivation will greatly decline. It seems that during the next trip to the Heavenvoid Hall, we will have far less enemies to worry about.” Grandmaster Zenith Yin’s tone was laced with schadenfreude. The corner of Scarletflame’s mouth twitched.
“However, my master had mentioned this before. So long as the Heavenly Star City Sages remain in Heavenly Star City and draw the support of their essencefuses Mountain, they are an unstoppable existence. In addition, if they managed to cultivate to the great success stage of Divine Essencefused Light, they would no longer be confined to Heavenly Star City and would reign supreme in the Scattered Star Seas!” Scarletflame said with deep worry.
Chapter 409: True Appearance
“Great success stage? Heh, that’s just the two sage’s wishful thinking. They didn’t even bother to consider why no one had truly cultivated the Divine Essencefused Light despite it having been so widespread in the Scattered Star Islands for countless years. Of course, it could be considered good luck for them if an Essencefused Mountain would unknowingly emerge from the ocean floor and be transported back to Heavenly Star City. But returning to the main point, the Divine Essencefused Light is something that can only be cultivated by relying on external objects. I completely suspect that the founder of this cultivation art wrote it as a joke. What cultivation art in this world could possibly control all five elements? In addition, their cultivation of this technique is completely meaningless. Even if they don’t succeed in cultivating this technique, their cultivation realm alone already makes them an exceptional existence in this world.” Grandmaster Zenith Yin refuted.
“I hope it is as Senior says!” Although Scarletflame was still somewhat worried, he could only agree.
“As for those who escaped, there were two from the eighteen that managed to break free from the Heavenwide Corpses, in addition to Fairy Violet Spirit and her sect’s envoys. This was quite unexpected!” Grandmaster Zenith Yin revealed a peculiar gaze as he stroked his short, thin beard.
“That’s right. Fairy Violet Spirit carried her sect protecting treasure on her: the Wood Dragon Tablet. By relying on its protection, she was able to bring herself and her sect envoys to safety. However, the other two who escaped were quite strange. From a distance, I saw that the two released a large number of human-like mechanical puppets. Although their offensive and defensive abilities were very lacking, being able to control over a hundred of them all
at once was quite unusual.” Eccentric Scarletflame was also surprised and nodded his head in agreement.
“Let them be. There is no need to concern ourselves over two small fish! If I weren’t restricted by the limited amount of magic power I hold post possession, I would’ve been able to use other methods to prevent them from escaping before my eyes. Still, the most important goal has been fulfilled; the traitorous disciple has been captured. I will be bringing him back to find out where he took the ruined Heavenvoid Map.” Grandmaster Zenith Yin spoke indifferently as if he didn’t care in the slightest that Han Li and Crooked Soul had fled.
Having heard this, Eccentric Scarletflame let the matter drop. Not longer after, he said his farewells to Grandmaster Zenith Yin and flew off after turning into a black cloud.
After seeing Eccentric Scarletflame disappear into the horizon, Grandmaster Zenith Yin faintly sneered. He slowly extended his hand and relaxed his fingers, revealing a several-inch-large white ball of spiderwebs
As Zenith Yin gazed at the spidersilk, he revealed a strange, captivated expression.
“Bloodjade Spider! I truly didn’t think I’d see them again. It seems the heavens haven’t abandoned me! I still have a chance!” After Grandmaster Zenith Yin muttered to himself, he suddenly howled with laughter as he faced the sky. Elder Zhao and the others paled in complete shock.
Grandmaster Zenith Yin abruptly stopped his hysterical laughter and loudly shouted, “Go! We’re returning to the island!” Afterwards, he grabbed hold of the floating, middle-aged cultivator and led the way back.
Han Li naturally didn’t know what had happened fifty kilometers away. He remained underground for an entire month due to his trepidation before emerging with absolute caution. After he carefully scanned the vicinity to confirm that nobody was nearby, he wordlessly flew back to Heavenly Star City with Crooked Soul.
This trip had left him greatly shaken; he had nearly lost his life. But what made him most gloomy was that he had braved this great danger without anything to show for it. He reckoned the Heaven Lightning Bamboo had fallen into the hands of Grandmaster Zenith Yin. As such, he could only return to Heavenly Star City in dejection.
Heavenly Star City was as flourishing as it had been in the past. When the Star Palace gatekeepers respectfully addressed him as Senior, Han Li was unable to feel any happiness since he had recently escaped from death and entered the city with a miserable expression.
But when he returned to his cave residence on the thirty-ninth layer, he was stunned.
A sound transmission talisman was peacefully floating outside the cave residence’s restrictions.
Han Li’s expression darkened as he frowned. He then took out the authority talisman and somewhat unwillingly shot out a green light from the medallion. The sound transmission talisman was enveloped by the green light and shot towards Han Li in a streak of fiery light.
Han Li then shot out a speck of white light from his finger and struck the talisman, causing it to vigorously ignite and release the beautiful voice of a woman.
Han Li was initially stunned upon hearing this, but he soon revealed anger.
That was the voice of Lady Fan! She dared to so shameless come knocking on his door despite having put him through such hardship.
The belly full of rage Han Li had been stifling since that day suddenly bursted out. His hand immediately flashed with red light and formed a fist-sized fireball, intending to throw it out and destroy the sound transmission talisman. However, the next words she said stirred Han Li’s heart, and he stilled his hand.
A short moment later, Lady Fan’s voice faded away. Han Li casually extinguished the fireball in his hand and grabbed his chin, sinking into deep thought.
To tell the truth, Han Li was slightly surprised that the three female cultivators were able to escape. However, he currently didn’t hold the slightest goodwill towards them.
She had requested for him to meet them at some inn and raised the topic of the Heaven Lightning Bamboo, faintly speaking as if they were in possession of it. This caused Han Li to become beyond furious and his emotions to become unstable.
But in the end, Han Li decided to go see them after some more thought. He wouldn’t agree to assisting them with any matters of revenge and would merely have to purchase the bamboo above the market price. He was sure that any others wouldn’t regard the Heaven Lightning Bamboo as useful as it would be to him and would only consider the item to be of little interest.
After all, rare wood attribute materials were normally used as a core material for magic treasure refinement, apart from some peculiar magic treasures. After dissolving the bamboo’s impurities, there wouldn’t be enough leftover material to refine even a dagger as Lady Fan had described the small stalk of Heaven Lightning Bamboo to be only a few inches long.
With that thought, Han Li headed toward the inn with roused spirits.
An hour later, Han Li arrived at the Grand Flourish Inn and entered a room on the third floor along with Crooked Soul.
The inn was quite particular, as the first two floors were for mortals and the third floor was reserved for the use of cultivators.
Han Li leisurely found the mentioned room. However, the room door was covered in a layer of faint white light. It was clear a formation had been set down as a method of detection.
Having seen this, Han Li couldn’t help but reveal a trace of self-mockery. It seemed the beautiful women had been greatly startled by the recent events as well.
Han Li lightly shook his head before using his hand to shoot a speck of white light towards the restriction, causing it to release a series of ripples.
No sound came from within a room, but a short moment later, Han Li felt a wave of spiritual sense quickly fly around him and Crooked Soul before returning into the room.
Then with a flash of white light, the door’s restriction disappeared. Fairy Violet Spirit’s clear and cold voice then said, “So these two Seniors have arrived. Please, come in! Us sisters have been waiting for you for quite some time.”
Han Li pushed the door open with a calm expression and slowly walked in with Crooked Soul in tow.
The room’s arrangements were simple, and apart from a red wood table and a few tasteful rattan chairs, there were no other items. However, Han Li was shocked to find that there was an unfamiliar woman with a languid expression in the room where the Exquisite Sect Members should have been.
The woman wore yellow clothes and had a predictably flawless, pale face with bright and clear eyes. She turned to look at Han Li with a slight smile.
After a moment of surprise, he doubtfully asked with hesitation, “You’re Miss Violet Spirit?”
Although he hadn’t seen Fairy Violet Spirit’s true appearance, he had heard that she possessed peerless beauty. Han Li blinked with slight confusion and thought, ‘Surely this isn’t her? Although this young, yellow-clothed woman was very pleasant to the eyes, it definitely didn’t match her grand reputation. Could it be this wasn’t her true appearance?’
“Senior seems shocked! Is it because Wang Ning’s true appearance causes Senior Han disappointment? Sorry to disappoint you, but this really is my true appearance!” The yellow-clothed woman saw through Han Li’s shock and indifferently spoke with a slight smile.
“True appearance?” Han Li attentively looked at the young woman’s face for a moment before wordlessly shaking his head. Although he didn’t see anything amiss with her appearance, seeing neither any illusion techniques or other alternations, he still didn’t believe that this was actually Fairy Violet Spirit’s true appearance.
After all, there were many strange treasures in this world. It wouldn’t be considered off if there were at least one or two that could mask one’s true appearance and change their face to another.
Over-obvious foreshadowing?
Chapter 410: Elder
Fairy Violet Spirit saw Han Li’s disbelief but didn’t address it. Instead she turned to Crooked Soul and sweetly smiled, saying, “So Cr
ooked Soul is Senior Han’s external incarnation?
Han Li’s body grew still upon hearing this and he stared at the woman with a cold gaze for a long while before coldly asking, “How does Lady Violet Spirit know this?”
“Hehe! Senior doesn’t need to be so shocked. Our sect also has a method of clone refinement. However, its costs are far too great and its rate of success is terrible. As such, it is rare for any of our sect members to use it. However, Senior’s clone is quite peculiar. Normally, a clone would have far inferior cultivation. However, Senior Han’s clone is also at early Core Formation. How strange!” Fairy Violet Spirit lightly smiled with bright, wandering eyes.
“Since Fairy Violet Spirit has seen through it, I won’t conceal this. However, why aren’t the other two fellow daoists here?” Han Li admitted this with a relaxed expression, but asked another question after looking through the room. Han Li knew that it was only a matter of time before Crooked Soul was discovered to be his clone and wasn’t particularly astonished.
“Senior, please sit! My two Senior Martial Sisters went to the market city to purchase a few items and also a long-term residence in Heavenly Star City along the way.” The young woman gracefully invited Han Li to take seat and gave an explanation with a gentle tone.
After taking a seat, Han Li frowned and doubtfully asked, “What? You three Fellow Daoists don’t intend to return the Exquisite Sound Sect?”
“Return to the Exquisite Sound Sect? We don’t dare! Since Zenith Yin Island became our enemy and our two great sect elders have betrayed us, we would fall into those devil’s hand were we to return. Other small and mid-level powers would also jump at the opportunity to absorb us. As such, we’ve decided to relocate the Exquisite Sound Sect to Heavenly Star City for the time being with our sects savings.” Fairy Violet Spirit sighed and bitterly smiled.
“I see.” Han Li nodded. As Han Li didn’t have much of a relationship with them, he didn’t make any excessive displays of enthusiasm.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 223