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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Han Li gasped in shock and couldn’t help but turn his head towards her, asking, “What is this? How can it restore itself? Could it be that Senior placed it under the influence of a restriction or spell?”

  The young woman indifferently said, “Spells? Restrictions? You think too highly of me; this is merely Lapis Stone. Also known as Spirit Absorbing Stone, it is an incredibly rare tool refinement material. It is impervious to the spiritual power of magic techniques and treasures, and only great strength can harm it.”

  Han Li faintly frowned and turned back towards the stone wall. He slowly said, “Lapis Stone? This Junior is quite inexperienced and ignorant. I haven’t heard of such a material before.”

  The young woman casually explained, “Hehe, it is natural for Fellow Daoist to not hear of this material. This material was incredibly rare even during the era of antiquity, and there aren’t many that presently know of it.”

  When Han Li heard this, he was flabbergasted. Just as he thought to say something else, the young woman sweetly smiled and interrupted him, “Although Fellow Daoist’s cultivation is nearing the false Nascent stage, your aptitude seems inferior. No, it would be better to say that it is terrible. It seems you’ve come across fateful encounters to be able to reach this stage of cultivation. Otherwise, your greatest efforts would’ve only taken you to the Foundation Establishment stage. Meeting me could also be considered an act of fate. If you don’t find the idea undesirable, this elder has a treasure that I can lend to you.”

  As soon as Han Li heard her, he revealed a odd expression, “Lend this Junior a treasure?”

  As if seeing through Han Li’s suspicions, her expression sunk and she coldly said, “Of course, there will be conditions. First, this item will only be lent. You will have to return it. Secondly, after taking the treasure, there is something you must carry out on my behalf as payment for it.”

  She rummaged through her robes for a moment before taking out a jade box in her hand.

  The jade box was pitch-black and only the size of a fist. Its exterior was incredibly rough and crude, but there was a trace of yellow within the black. It seemed to be incredibly old.

  Han Li glanced at the young woman’s face before turning his gaze back to the black case. Still silent, his expression fluctuated for a moment as he pondered for a moment. He then gravely asked, “Could Senior first tell this Junior what is inside the box before he decides?”

  Upon seeing Han Li’s hesitation, the black-clothed woman revealed a trace of impatience. With her brow raised, she pointed at the black box and said, “Surely you must know what a spirit well is. This box happens to hold a spirit well stone of the highest rank, known as a jade spirit well. At the very least, its spiritual Qi should allow you to further stabilize your cultivation at the false Nascent stage. It will allow you to condense a Nascent Soul with greater ease. This treasure has been with me for many years. If not for my current cultivation and my current inability to further use it, I wouldn’t be lending it to you.”

  With that said, she stroked the black jade box with a reluctant expression.

  “Jade spirit well!” Han Li’s expression changed several times. This would cut down the time it would take for him to reach false Nascent stage by two-thirds! He completely swallowed his original words to reject her.

  After some hesitation, Han Li sighed and said, “Might I ask what Senior would like Junior to do? If you can’t do something with your current cultivation, how could I possibly help you?!”

  The young woman revealed an expression of joy seeing that Han Li was willing to agree. “Be at ease! I’m not asking you to kill someone. I’m only asking you to run errands. Although my cultivation is great, I cannot depart from this room for a certain reason. I only want you to deliver a letter for me.”

  “You only wish for me to deliver a letter?” This was completely beyond his expectations.

  “Of course. Did you really believe that I’d have you kill someone?” The black-clothed woman covered her smile, revealing an overwhelming allure.

  Chapter 611: A Golden Talisman

  When Han Li heard this, he faintly blushed.

  “If it’s only to deliver a letter, Junior is willing to accept.” It was only natural for him to accept such a trivial task, considering the reward.

  The young woman seemed rather happy and raised her hand without another word. The box was wrapped in a green light and smoothly flew over to Han Li.

  Han Li received the black box and swept his spiritual sense over it. The spiritual Qi within the box was truly abundant as if it really contained a jade spirit well. Of course, given Han Li’s cautious nature, he wanted to personally examine what was inside the box.

  With a flash of azure light from his hand, the black box opened by itself to reveal a dense, white mist of extremely pure spiritual Qi, flooding the stone room in an instant.

  Han Li’s heart stirred and he examined the inside of the box with suspicion.

  He only saw a gentle white light that emitted from a sparkling white jade stone only several inches long.

  Han Li was left startled not by the stone itself, but by the thumb-sized cow inside the transparent stone that was continuously wagging its tail as if it were alive.

  When the young woman saw Han Li’s shock, a peculiar expression flickered from her bright eyes. She casually smiled and asked, “What’s the matter? This jade spirit well had quickly nurtured a treasure incarnation. Common spirit well stones are incomparable to it. If you were to cultivate with this, you would achieve twice the results with half the effort.”

  After taking another glance at the jade spirit well inside the box, he eventually closed it and calmly raised his head. “Right. With this item, Junior would only spend about a dozen years to reach false Nascent stage instead of several tens.”

  At that moment, Han Li had finally realized that the Jadecloud Fox had been stained by the jade spirit well’s spiritual Qi. That was why it had possessed such a faint, pure spiritual Qi. It was quite possible that its transformation into a demon had something to do with the spirit well.

  Han Li’s regained calm somewhat surprised the young woman. She couldn’t help but take another glance at him in her astonishment.

  After drawing away a loose hair from her forehead, she casually said with an insipid voice, “Alright, since I’ve already given this item to you, I’ll be giving you the jade slip to deliver as well. There is also another jade box below on the platform I am sitting on. Tear off the talisman that seals it and hand it to me. There is a token in the box that I want you to deliver with it.”

  “You want Junior to take it for you?” Han Li revealed suspicion and grew vigilant.

  “Humph! Still afraid this old woman means you harm? If I could grab it myself, would I ask you to do it?” The young woman resentfully smiled and lifted up her long robes with her hand.

  Han Li’s expression greatly changed upon seeing her legs. They were shriveled like firewood as they were crossed together. There wasn’t the slightest flesh apart from some dried up skin. It made for a rather fearsome appearance. But what surprised Han Li even more was the several silver sparkling chains that penetrated her legs that deeply bore into the stone platform..

  Han Li pursed his lips and raised his head to look at the young woman. Although his face appeared completely bewildered, he didn’t ask anything further. He knew that the woman was certain to offer the explanation.

  As a result, the woman’s face grew icy and she placed her robes back down. She dryly said, “I am in this stone mountain for the Lapis Stone. I had a room of it and then I used the two chains to restrict my legs and trap myself here.”

  “You trapped yourself?” Han Li was entirely confused by this.

  “That’s right. My cultivation art is the Underworldly Slaughter Arts. Although the cultivation art is incredibly fast and its might is extraordinary, it has a fatal flaw. Once it is completed, the cultivator will easily lose their human nature and become bloodthirsty. Ba
ck then, I had a fateful encounter with this technique and decided to cultivate it despite the advice of others; I had been extremely confident of my exceptionally powerful spiritual sense. After I successively cultivated this technique and entered Nascent Soul stage, I was no longer able to restrain my urge to kill and swept through the cultivation world at the time in a massive storm, resulting in no small number of enemies. As a result, I finally tangled in a battle with several Nascent Soul cultivators, resulting in the loss of my arm.”

  The young woman expressionlessly glanced at her vacant arm and shook her head.

  “After receiving this injury, I thought long and hard. If I had no way to control myself then I would die sooner or later. As a result, I steeled my resolve and asked my dear friends to forge the Divine Heavenfire Chains and the room of Lapis Stone to imprison me. Due to fear I wouldn’t be able to tolerate the loneliness or would suddenly become regretful, I gave the key to the chains to my best friend. They made a promise that they would come visit me every so often to see whether or not I’ve gotten better so that they may release me.”

  After that was said, the young woman’s expression grew sullen.

  “But I didn’t expect that after coming only a few times, my good friend would suddenly disappear without a single word. I don’t know whether or not they became impatient or if something unexpected happened to them. As such, I’ve been imprisoned here until now. Because this room was refined from Lapis Stone, my spiritual sense is only able to reach out about a kilometer, despite having already reached the mid Nascent Soul stage. I wished to call for help, but I lacked any method to. These Divine Heavenfire Chains were refined through a very peculiar method, connecting them to my primal soul. Although my cultivation has greatly increased and I am able to break the chains, I will instantly die from doing so. Now that destiny has had us meet, it seems the Heavens have heard my plea. I no longer have to waste the rest of my life in this stone room.”

  The black-clothed woman gave a general explanation of her past to dispel Han Li’s suspicions.

  However, the story left Han Li dumbstruck. If she spoke truly, then her past must’ve truly been unfathomable.

  After a moment of deliberation, he hesitantly asked, “Could it be that Senior wishes for Junior to deliver a letter to your best friend? With so many years having passed, it wouldn’t be unlikely for your friend to have passed on!”

  The young woman sighed and bitterly smiled, “That’s right. Even if that’s the case, there is no need to be worried. I just ask that you to bring the key for the Divine Heavenfire Chains. We were on good terms. If anything had happened, they should’ve passed it on to their descendants for safekeeping. It’ll be the same if you found their descendants instead.”

  After a moment more of thought, Han Li found this to be reasonable and that there were no gaps in logic. As a result, he stepped forward without speaking any useless words and circled around the stone platform to find a hole.

  Han Li carefully probed it with his spiritual sense and he raised his brows. He reached in to find a jade box.

  The jade box had an antique style and was a faint yellow with odd flames engraved on it. The silhouette of a person could be seen standing within those flames as if they were roaring towards the Heavens.

  There was also a flickering golden talisman on the jade box that faintly emitted an aura that caused Han Li to feel uneasy. He unconsciously frowned.

  The black-clothed woman couldn’t help but grow excited and said, “That’s the box! Fellow Daoist, tear off the talisman and let me look at it.”

  Han Li had already placed his hand on the jade case and was about to tear the talisman off. However, when he the young woman’s voice trembled in uncontainable excitement, Han Li felt an indescribable feeling of dread.

  After a moment of hesitation, Han Li withdrew his hand from the box and raised his head instead. Han Li’s heart thumped upon seeing her.

  Her eyes had changed into a dark green and her appearance had become warped. A fearsome, menacing guise had completely replaced her previously dignified air.

  When the young woman saw Han Li raise his head, she was startled and regained her awareness. Her warped appearance and green eyes disappeared in an instant. She said in a relaxed tone, “Fellow Daoist, why are you looking at me? Why haven’t you torn off that talisman? Don’t forget, the jade spirit well is a treasure rarely seen in this world and I’ve already given it to you. Why are you still hesitating?”

  Han Li glanced at the black-clothed young woman and looked down at the golden talisman tightly sealing the jade box. Without saying anything further, he narrowed his eyes and slowly walked towards her with the jade box in hand.

  “Fellow Daoist, what are you going? Stop! Don’t come closer!” When the woman saw Han Li walking over with the golden talisman still on the jade box, her expression immediately changed and she began to shout with a panicked expression.

  Chapter 612: Cadaver Demon

  When Han Li saw the young woman’s reaction, his expression immediately became gloomy and a cold glint appeared in his eyes. He wordlessly raised the box as he approached her.

  Although he didn’t know why she was so scared of this talisman, he knew she wasn't harboring any good intentions toward him, and he decided to drop any formalities.

  The black-clothed young woman had completely lost her mind to fear as he approached and instantly slapped the stone platform beneath her to launch herself away. However, this action activated some sort of restriction. Just as she reached three meters away, red light enveloped her and brought her back to her original position.

  At that moment, the jade box flew out of Han Li’s grasp and released a series of clear rings as it flew towards the woman’s head. The golden talisman on the box flourished with radiance and released countless golden talisman characters that slowly floated down towards the young woman.

  “NO!” The black-clothed woman shouted in despair. Her beautiful appearance warped in an instant. She quickly used her sole arm to cover her face and dropped her head down to her chest, desperately trying to keep her face away from the talisman.

  As the golden talisman characters finally dropped down to the young woman’s shoulder, golden light sparked and released a wisp of green smoke.

  The young woman’s body greatly trembled as she released a monstrous wail of anguish. The wail was deafeningly sharp and inhuman, much to Han Li’s shock. He unconsciously took several steps back and he felt cold sweat line his palm. In one hand he tightly grabbed onto his spirit beast pouch with the Gold Devouring Beetles and tightly clutched onto the jade scepter with the other as he solemnly stared at the stone platform.

  As further talisman characters fell onto the black-clothed young woman, even more green smoke began to surge from her body. After a short moment, the green smoke had enveloped her. Her body could no longer be seen, but the flashes of light and wails never ceased. In a moment, the wails became screeching; in another, they became frantically hoarse. The sudden and unceasing transformations of the monstrous wails were awful to behold.

  As Han Li watched in apprehension, he held his breath and pursed his lips. A fishy scent had filled with room as soon as the green smoke appeared. Each breath of it immediately caused him to feel a wave of dizziness and nausea, much to his surprise. The smoke seemed to be extremely poisonous.

  Soon after, cracks began to sound out from within the green smoke.

  Han Li was startled. Before he realized what those sounds were, he heard a swish of wind.

  A dark green claw that was tangled in silver chains suddenly extended from the mist at the speed of lightning and fiercely swiped towards Han Li at the corner of the room. The claw was as flexible as a snake, suddenly bending and reaching out ten meters towards Han Li trying to grab him.

  Han Li trembled and his grip tightened on the jade scepter. Just as he thought to execute a technique, the silver chains suddenly restrained the ghostly claws in a storm of sparks, filling the room with a scor
ched stench.

  A painful moan roared from within the smoke and the sharp claw quickly withdrew.

  Han Li stared into the mist with tightly shut lips, his expression continuously fluctuating. After some consideration, Han Li’s expression grew sullen and he drew back with two additional steps. With the Lapis Stone wall close against his back, he poured a great amount of spiritual energy into the jade scepter, thickening the red-yellow light barrier around his body and causing him to feel somewhat more at ease.

  After the time it took to brew a cup of tea, yet another monstrous scream left the mist, and the radiance of the jade box’s golden talisman gradually dimmed. The amount of talisman characters it produced had also started to grow sparse.

  With all that he had seen, Han Li mused, ‘It seems the golden talisman is capable of restraining either ghosts or demons, but it has a rather limited amount of spiritual Qi. It will eventually expire and will no longer be able to restrain her.”

  Fortunately, Han Li’s worries were unfounded.

  In the following moment, the final scream faded away and the smoke had grown still. However, the golden talisman’s light had yet to fade away.

  Han Li glanced at the golden talisman and didn’t immediately approach it. Instead, he waited for a moment more. After the golden light faded away and the jade box fell into the dense smoke, Han Li’s expression began to stir.

  He waved his arm and put away the spirit beast pouch for the time being. He then formed an incantation seal with the newly freed hand and began to mutter something in a low voice. In the following instant, a red, egg-sized fireball appear in front of him.

  After taking a glance at the fireball, Han Li pointed into the smoke and the fireball flew into the green smoke as a streak of red light. He raised his brows and uttered, “Explode.”

  Boom! The smoke was swept up in a gale and was scattered in an instant, only to be replaced with a burnt stench.