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

by Translator: Johnchen

  ‘Nevertheless, my ghost demon cultivation art was something that you had imparted to me. I had originally thought to use it to search for the spirit ginseng, but I hadn’t expected that my traitorous disciple would betray me. It has become my last hope!’ The Bone Sage’s eyes flashed with cold light.

  ‘I wasn’t really imparting anything. We were just taking what we needed.’ The man spoke with a deep sigh.

  [1] Specifically references to the constellation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tortoise

  Chapter 450: Revealing One’s True Nature

  ‘Enough, don’t speak any more nonsense. First, you’ll help me find the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng. Then, we’ll kill the youngster and give his body to you.’ The Bone Sage coldly interrupted him.

  ‘That will be no problem! With our great spirit searching arts, finding that lone spirit ginseng will be a trivial matter.’ The man disdainfully said.

  ‘Then let us go!’ With that said, the Bone Sage’s expression grew heavy, and he flung his sleeve downwards.

  Two threads of black Qi shot out from his sleeve. In an instant, they had bored into the earth and disappeared from sight. At the same time, a strange dim green light streaked down from the Bone Sage before quickly fading away. Motionlessly floating in place, the Bone Sage closed his eyes.

  Down on the ground, Han Li was playing around with the yellow formation flags with a calm expression. However, his gaze continuously flickered as if he were pondering a problem. Hesitation could be seen from his brow.

  With a flick of his hand, the flags flew off as streaks of yellow light, firmly inserting themselves into the ground.

  “Although I couldn’t find anything wrong with the formation flags, did you truly believe I wouldn’t suspect anything?” Han Li muttered to himself with a smirk.

  Soon after, he reached towards his treasure pouch, and took out over ten yellow flags that bore a similar appearance and emitted dense earth Qi.

  A strange expression flashed across Han Li’s eyes as he glanced at the small flags flickering with light.

  ……

  The Bone Sage’s expression stirred, and he suddenly opened his eyes.

  The two threads of black Qi and the green light shot up from the ground and quickly reentered the Bone Sage’s body.

  ‘Found it. The Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng sure knows how to hide. It concealed its true body in the groove of a huge stone. Were I not careful, it would’ve been difficult to spot.’ The man proudly said.

  ‘Good! I will go and see whether that youngster finished setting down the formation. Conceal yourself and be careful. Don’t just appear as you wish and allow him to discover you.’ The Bone Sage solemnly exhorted.

  ‘Be at ease. My disguise technique can only be detected with the spiritual sense of a Nascent Soul cultivator. In the coming moments, if you are unable to restrain him, don’t rely on me for help. His Gold Lightning Bamboo’s Divine Devilbane Lightning is particularly lethal to bodiless souls such as I.’ The man spoke of the ugly matters upfront.

  ‘Humph! I don’t need your help to deal with an early Core Formation junior. I naturally hold complete certainty in dealing with him. Also, you need not fear his Divine Devilbane Lightning. A few days ago, he had discharged his flying swords in battle. Any remaining lightning in his magic treasures should’ve been exhausted in dealing with the ghost mist. As for when we had originally fought, he had released a swarm of gold-silver beetles, much to my dismay. Despite my great experience, I am unable to recognize them, strangely enough. Although I don’t know specifically what these spiritual insects are, they should be fiercer than common insects!’ The Bone Sage spoke with an indifferent expression.

  ‘Oh! Without the Divine Devilbane Lightning, he will pose no threat to me. I will act in accordance to how things play out.’ The man let out a breath of relief.

  The Bone Sage smirked and didn’t say anything else. Although the Bone Sage held onto a sliver of the man’s life essence, he knew it was incapable of completely controlling him. As this ghost had immersed himself in the Ghost Dao for so many years, he was sure to be more experienced with the matters of soul restrictions than the Bone Sage was, and he was both willing and able to break free of his restrictions by risking severe damage to Origin Qi. As such, the Bone Sage was unwilling to threaten him.

  After looking around, he turned into a black cloud and flew off in Han Li’s direction.

  A short moment later, he found Han Li and dropped down.

  Although the land here could be considered to be level, it was overgrown with weeds. There was even a small forest of sparse large trees nearby.

  The Bone Sage appeared before him and calmly asked, “Have you finished setting up the formation?”

  “Of course I have! It’s over there.” Han Li leaned against a large tree and pointed behind him.

  With an attentive glance, he saw a large quantity of earth spirit Qi fluctuations behind Han Li as expected.

  The Bone Sage inwardly rejoiced and took out a jade box from his storage pouch. He then opened its lid in front of Han Li.

  Han Li’s nose was assailed with a strong fishy scent as soon as it was opened. He immediately stood straight and held his breath. With an alert expression, he took a few steps back and suspiciously gazed at the Bone Sage. “What’s that?”

  The Bone Sage spoke with an indifferent expression, “There is no need to be overly suspicious. This is the feces of an Orchid Musk Beast. Although it is rather unpleasant to us, the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng is immensely attracted to its scent. So long as we place it into the formation, the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng’s avatar will be sure to search for it. After restraining its avatar, we’ll be able to easily excavate the main body of the Spirit Ginseng. There will be no fear of it transforming and escaping.”

  “Orchid Musk Beast feces?” Han Li glanced at the jade box in the Bone Sage’s hand.

  He now saw it clearly. It was only a thumb-sized faint yellow lump. The intense smell it released greatly surprised Han Li.

  He had heard of the Orchid Musk Beast before. It was a strange spirit beast raised by cultivators. It had an odd, fire-red horn that released a peculiar fragrance that placated souls, receiving much favor from cultivators as a result. He hadn’t expected that its feces would prove to be so unpleasant. He was also completely dumbfounded that a spiritual object such as the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng would be fond of it.

  But after Han Li looked at the Bone Sage’s indifferent expression, he widely smiled and said, “Senior, please place the item in the formation spell. I will go and examine the formation flags to ensure everything is properly in place. Afterwards, I will guard this place and seize its avatar. As for the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng’s true body, I will have to trouble Senior to fetch it.” With that said, Han Li cupped his fist and walked into the forest behind him. With some unknown method, he soon disappeared without trace.

  The Bone Sage was startled. He inwardly frowned as he looked at the earth spiritual Qi in the forest. After his mouth twitched, he raised his hand. A strange serpent of black Qi flew out and flew straight into the heart of the forest with the jade box in its mouth. After placing down the jade box, it flew back towards him.

  With that done, there was still no trace of Han Li, causing a grim expression to momentarily appear on his face. He immediately flew to the sky in silence.

  ‘What? Are you actually scared of your own trick, the formation flags that you gave him?’ The man’s mocking voice suddenly appeared in the Bone Sage’s mind.

  ‘Carefulness leads to no mistakes! I will first test the formation and see whether or not it is properly set up. Although the chance that he happened to possess earth attribute formation flags is miniscule, I cannot take the risk!’ The Bone Sage spoke without caring.

  The man clicked his tongue, ‘If you were originally this careful, you wouldn’t have fallen to this degree. It seems you’ve learned your lesson about that great flaw of yours, old pal Bone Sage!’

  The
Bone Sage couldn’t make out whether he was sarcastic or truly praising him. With an inward snort, he didn’t pay any further attention to the man’s words.

  The Bone Sage floated in the air and opened his hand. A yellow formation flag appeared in his grasp. This flag appeared similar to the four that he had given to Han Li but it was a bit shorter and appeared quite exquisite.

  The Bone Sage glanced at the small flag and lightly shook it. The flag immediately released a faint yellow light. After it twirled in the Bone Sage’s hand, it pointed down towards the forest.

  The Bone Sage let out quiet breath, and his face revealed an evil smile. After putting away the small flag, he turned his gaze to the small mountain and flew off.

  At that moment, Han Li had finally appeared from the forest.

  Han Li’s eyes coldly glinted as he watched the Bone Sage fly farther away. After his expression stirred, his body became blurred, leaving behind only a breeze. The fishy smell from the jade box was becoming increasingly potent, causing Han Li to tightly frown. All he could do was hold his breath.

  As time passed, doubts began to spring into his heart. He couldn’t stay there for long. If the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng wasn’t duped into appearing, he could only return in vain.

  As Han Li was thinking this, his expression stirred. His spiritual sense detected a small object burst into the trees. Han Li was pleasantly surprised by this and immediately concealed his body’s aura. He then stared at the jade box with complete attention.

  A yellow light flashed. A sneaking rabbit was floating outside the formation spell. This rabbit’s body was snow white and its blood-red eyes were swivelling incessantly, occasionally glancing around. It appeared extremely timid.

  Despite this, the rabbit’s pink nose was continuously sniffing in the direction of the jade box and would occasionally reveal a human-like expression of infatuation.

  What was an extremely unpleasant odor to Han Li proved to be an extremely pleasurable one to this small creature.

  Chapter 451: Two-Faced

  There was no doubt. This small animal was certain to be the avatar of the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng.

  Han Li excitedly looked at the white rabbit and circulated the entirety of his Great Development Technique through his eyes. The white rabbit’s pure spiritual Qi was astonishingly brilliant.

  It was undoubtedly a wondrous item born from nature. Han Li felt deeply moved, but he didn’t relax in the slightest. As he rigidly stared at the white rabbit, his hand had already formed an incantation seal.

  The rabbit continued to stay outside the great formation before its two fire-red eyes glanced at the jade box several times. It was clearly unsatisfied with merely staying in place and continuing to only smell it. It was now coming up with a clever plan.

  Now that he saw the rabbit’s intelligence, Han Li became increasingly careful and revealed a tense expression. After all, the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng was most adapt in evasion techniques. Were he not careful, he would’ve wasted all of his previous efforts.

  After the rabbit circled around the large formation, its two ears swayed incessantly while still as if it were attempting to sense any oddities with the nearby spiritual Qi.

  Han Li felt slightly worried. If the spirit ginseng avatar saw through the trap and wouldn’t enter the formation, he would have to forcefully capture it with the gold net. However, the chance of success would be pathetically small.

  During Han Li’s moment of hesitation, the white rabbit’s body blurred and disappeared into the underbrush.

  Han Li was left completely stupefied.

  During Han Li’s bafflement, a white blur appeared from a different side of the underbrush. The white rabbit’s speed left incomplete afterimages. It shot towards the jade box in an instant. After grasping the jade box in its jaw, it ran back without the slightest hesitation.

  Although the white rabbit’s actions had left him in a slight daze, he immediately awoke. How could he allow its mere tricks to succeed?

  An arrow-like ray of gold light shot down from the trees, intercepting the white rabbit’s path of escape. The white rabbit fearfully twisted its body in mid flight and threw itself in a different direction.

  It was already too late. A barrier of yellow light had already surrounded it, firmly sealing it. The white rabbit’s head knocked against the light barrier and was repelled.

  After rolling several times across the ground, it got up with a swaying head and eyes filled with panic. With a flash of white light, it turned into a fist-sized ball of rainbow light and immediately flew downwards into the ground.

  But when the ball of rainbow light sunk several inches into the ground, it was pushed back by another burst of yellow light.

  Now it was truly worried. The rainbow ball of light flusteredly knocked against the light barrier like a housefly, but it was always met with resistance. At that moment, a streak of golden light shot down towards the ball of light white it was in midair. It was caught completely unprepared.

  Then with a blur, Han Li appeared on the ground. The golden light then flew into his hand, revealing itself as the gold threaded net that the Bone Sage had given him.

  The light turned back into the white rabbit while in the net, and it struggled to break free. It’s figure became blurred, large, and small, but it proved to be of no use. The gold net closely matched its transformations, firmly holding it in place.

  Han Li smiled at the sight. After he brought the gold net close to his face and closely examined the white rabbit, he hung the net at his waist. He then sat down at the center of the formation with no intention of disabling it. He then took out the flower basket desolate antiquity and placed it in front of him. He also released two spirit beast pouches of Gold Devouring Beetles and had them continuously spiral above him, forming a huge glowing cloud of gold and silver.

  Han Li then calmly sat down and closed his eyes, waiting for the Bone Sage to bring back the main body of the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng.

  With all of this in place, Han Li hoped that this would tacitly tell the Bone Sage that it would be best to not shed all pretenses of cooperation and to sincerely hand the spirit ginseng over to him. He clearly understood that their cooperation would only persist so long as the Bone Sage believed that he wasn’t weak. Naturally, if the Bone Sage showed any killing intent, Han Li would bluntly take the first move.

  Regardless of whether on not the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng truly possessed the miraculous effect of condensing a Nascent Soul, he was still determined to acquire it. After all, this spiritual item possessed great fame. He was convinced that even if it didn’t hold any effect towards Nascent Soul formation, he was certain it still had other equally impressive uses.

  With that thought, Han Li unconsciously opened his eyes and looked at the white rabbit at his waist, the avatar of the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng.

  He was left stunned. It completely lacked its previous vigor and had grown completely powerless.

  Han Li’s heart stirred. Its main body was certain to be in the Bone Sage’s grasp. Otherwise, its avatar wouldn’t appear so lifeless. Han Li then turned his gaze to the skies outside of the forest.

  After the time it took to finish a meal, the Bone Sage eventually flew over as a dark cloud. He came to a stop outside the formation spell and wordlessly floated there.

  Han Li expressionlessly stood up and stared at the dark cloud. He didn’t plan on speaking first.

  A long while later, the Bone Sage’s bone-chilling voice came from the cloud, “You appear as if you’re facing a great enemy. What are you planning?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that my cultivation is too low. I am truly scared of suddenly having a falling out with Senior.” Han Li calmly replied.

  “Humph! You really are overly suspicious! If I didn’t plan on giving this spiritual item to you, then why would I bring you to such a far away place. Don’t forget that I still need your help in dealing with my traitorous disciple!” The Bone Sage spoke as if he were suppressing anger.


  “Senior, I’m not sure if you know, but times have changed! Perhaps Senior truly needed my help before entering the Heavenvoid Hall. But now, I’m not entirely sure that Senior hasn’t already acquired another assistant.” Han Li stared at the Bone Sage with a gaze sharp as a sword.

  “What do you mean?” The Bone Sage’s voice grew colder, and he faintly revealed an expression of shock.

  Han Li frowned and impatiently said, “Senior doesn’t need to continue to feign ignorance. Why don’t you call out to him. I saw him appear when he was looking for the spirit ginseng.”

  After hearing this, the Bone Sage grew silent. Not long after a man’s deep, unfamiliar voice came from within the cloud, “Youngster, how did you discover me? I cannot believe that you saw through my disguise technique.”

  “I have no interest in answering a stranger. Now I will ask a question to Senior Bone Sage. Do you truly wish to fight in a battle where both sides suffer, only to the benefit of Zenith Yin?” Han Li spoke with a mocking expression.

  “Both sides suffer? You truly overestimate yourself! Although killing you would consume a bit of effort, I am willing to pay the cost.” With that said the dark cloud suddenly shot out a streak of yellow light, striking the barrier of the formation spell.

  The color of the barrier abruptly changed to a fiery red. The center of the formation spell began to release a scorching heat as if it were a furnace.

  Han Li’s expression didn’t change upon seeing this, and he lightly sighed. He raised his hand and shot an azure incantation seal towards the barrier. The barrier’s color fluctuated many times between red and yellow before finally returning to its original yellow. The scorching heat had disappeared as if it were an illusion.

  “Yi! What did you do to my formation flags?” A shocked voice came from the dark cloud.

  “What did I do? I just did what you did!” Han Li spoke with a noncommittal tone.

  “Humph! Very good. You’ve must also used my golden thread ball quite well then.” The Bone Sage tone turned icy.