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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Ku Yao’s expression vastly changed and instantly pointed at the fire flood dragon without any further thought. The flood dragon immediately raised its head and spouted a scarlet stream of light from its mouth, directly striking at the bottom portion of the formation. The formation faintly trembled for a moment, but it continued falling as if unaffected.

  With a paled complexion, Ku Yao rubbed his hands together before suddenly raising them, shooting a dense barrage of countless fist-sized fireballs into the sky.

  Han Li’s heart stirred at the sight of this. This wasn’t something that was a result of many fireball talismans, but something that had been instantly produced by one’s own cultivation. Spell warrior spirit techniques were vastly beyond what ordinary elemental Daoist techniques were capable, and were far more useful in battle as a result.

  As Han Li’s mind wandered, the many fireballs struck the underside of the huge formation like shower of meteors. However, this strike also proved to be of little effect. The diagram continued falling down with immense speed as it enveloped Ku Yao and his flood dragon.

  At that moment, the cultivators and spell warriors watching the battle were no longer able to see Ku Yao; they only saw the huge eight trigram formation slowly revolve as they surrounded it.

  Old Man Ma didn’t reveal the slightest delight from having his attack succeed. Rather, he solemnly sat cross-legged with his hands forming an incantation gesture as soft white light twirled around his body. At that same moment, the huge diagram seemed to have merged with the rainbow light and suddenly released rolls of deafening thunder — pulsing with light as it flickered.

  The shriveled spell warrior wore a worried expression on his face. He turned to the black-robed figure and politely asked, “Sir Heavenweep, will Sage Ku Yao be fine in there? If it’s dangerous, we don’t need to respect the agreement for a one on one; we can just go in and rescue him. It is truly beyond belief that this Nascent Soul cultivator could possess such an odd ancient treasure!”

  The black-robed figure softly laughed. “Don’t worry about him,” he said with a careless tone, “While that Supreme Eight Trigram Diagram is a truly formidable ancient treasure, this cultivator still hasn’t grasped the true method to use it. He is barely able to use it by forcing his spiritual power into the treasure. This won’t be able to hold Fellow Daoist Ku for much longer. This brutish method of using the formation diagram will surely consume a great amount of magic power. How foolish! But still, it is no surprise that few know the true method to use such a rare ancient treasure in this remote area.” His words seemed to carry a tone of disdain towards the cultivators of the Heavenly South.

  The shriveled spell warrior relaxed when he heard this and decided to temporarily hold on his plan to organize a party of spell warriors to rescue Ku Yao.

  As for the bald man and the others, their expressions possessed both worry and joy. They had been excited when they saw the spell warrior trapped by the eight trigrams formation. But when they saw Old Man Ma still maintaining the formation with a solemn expression with strange sounds occasionally sounded out from within the formation, they knew that the battle was far from over.

  For a time, the old man had actually been cursing without end! This treasure was something that he had only recently acquired, and he had only previously used it against Core Formation cultivators. Those cultivators had been entirely powerless before this treasure and were each killed with ease.

  However, this spell warrior was able to temporarily obstruct the diagram through use of his own attacks along with the unceasing, ferocious attacks of his flame dragon. Stabilizing the interruptions caused by these attacks had drained much spiritual power from the formation diagram.

  The battle in the air grew calm for the moment. Apart from faint explosions sounding out from within the formation diagram, there was only silence.

  Worry became more apparent on the faces of Heavenly South cultivators. Han Li was the only one who still maintained a calm expression as he watched the battle unfold.

  Silvermoon clicked her tongue from the back of Han Li’s mind in disappointment. ‘That Fellow Daoist Ma is truly overexerting that treasure by using the Supreme Eight Trigram Diagram in this manner. That ancient treasure is no weaker than the Purple Cloudlace.’

  With a still expression, Han Li inwardly asked, ‘Supreme Eight Trigram Diagram? You know of this ancient treasure?’

  ‘Of course,’ Silvermoon quickly answered, ‘It was a renown ancient treasure in the past. However, it seems this particular treasure is of poor quality. Otherwise, that spell warrior should’ve already perished, despite the old man’s ignorance usage of the treasure. If it were a high quality Eight Trigram Diagram, the magic power consumption wouldn’t be so great.’

  After some hesitation Han Li asked, ‘If a poor quality diagram can display this much power, then what would a good quality diagram be capable of? When you say that the Purple Cloudlace is no weaker than this treasure, could it be that there is a secret method that must be used to draw out its full power?’

  Silvermoon smiled and replied, ‘The Purple Cloudlace isn’t that troublesome to use! You simply need to pour spiritual power into it and use it. Furthermore, the Jadesun True Fire only takes a few tries before it is properly grasped.’

  When Han Li heard this, he grew silent. He gaze then turned towards the sky once more and he frowned, thinking, ‘Not good.’

  A huge explosion rippled through the air, and the Eight Trigram Diagram suddenly distorted. Countless beams of red light shot out from the diagram, tearing away at the formation.

  As this shocking scene occurred, another series of explosions sounded out from the corner of the formation. A ball raging flames emerged and shot thirty meters straight up before fading away, revealing Ku Yao with a blood-red complexion as he stood on top of the fire flood dragon. The flood dragon had returned to the size of three meters from an unknown time, and appeared vastly weakened.

  To the side, Old Man Ma didn’t appear much better. His face was pale and his eyes listless. However, the old man gritted his teeth and waved his arm at the shredded formation diagram. In a flash of rainbow light, it flew back into the sky and dropped back down into the old man’s hand as a scroll.

  Chapter 734: Heavenflash Devil Arts

  When the old man saw that the scroll was in tatters, his face greatly paled. It was clearly ruined beyond use.

  “What a pity!” The black-robed figure spoke with a trace of regret, “If Fellow Daoist Ku Yao hadn’t been in such a rush to break free and used his fire spirit’s vitality to stall of time, that cultivator’s magic power would’ve been exhausted and he would’ve taken the initiative to dispel the formation diagram regardless.”

  The shriveled cultivator pondered for a moment before he found himself agreeing.

  With the spell warrior broken free, Old Man Ma’s complexion turned sickly pale as he grasped onto the scroll. He quickly placed it away in his storage pouch, and viciously gazed at Ku Yao. Ku Yao snorted in response and had the flood dragon beneath him surge once more with flames and red light.

  The shriveled spell warrior suddenly shouted from above, “Sage Ku Yao, cease!” He then turned to the Heavenly South cultivators and said, “How about ending this battle in a draw? Both of their magic power is nearly exhausted. Nothing will result from having this battle continue.”

  The bald man was somewhat surprised to hear this. After exchanging a look with Gu Shuangpu, he nodded his head, “That is fine. Let’s have this battle end.”

  Although Old Man Ma felt somewhat opposed this decision, he knew that it would be futile to continue the battle and flew back without any better option. Ku Yao also felt gloomy at this decision and begrudgingly recalled his flood dragon before flying back into the spell warrior ranks.

  Old Man Ma returned down below and received a few consoling words from the bald man, easing the tension from the old man’s face.

  But at that moment, the black-robed spell warrior and the shri
veled old man was muttering something to each other. As a result, the black-robed figure gently floated in the air and arrived at the location of the previous battle.

  He gloomily swept his gaze past the other cultivators and a trace of contempt was revealed from his eyes. In his hoarse voice, he said, “This time, you will be fighting me, but I will say this first. This battle will last until someone is dead. Don’t have any delusions of stopping this battle while it is in progress.”

  The black-robed figure’s arrogant words infuriated Gu Shuangpu and the bald man. However, the two didn’t dare to rise up to the challenge. They both knew that two Nascent Soul cultivators have already perished at the hands of this strange spell warrior. As they still greatly valued their lives, they were hesitant.

  “Let me try him on.” Han Li indifferently said.

  The bald man blinked in surprise upon seeing Han Li take the initiative to fight, but soon, he inwardly sighed with relief. “Ah! Fellow Daoist Han wishes to go? You must take care. If there is something amiss, we will naturally go to rescue you.”

  Han Li smiled and said little else. Azure light glowed from from his body before he streaked across the skies. In the blink of an eye, he arrived before the black-robed figure, and expressionlessly stood in the air with his hands held behind his back.

  The black-robed figure appraised Han Li for a moment before his eyes began to turn from black to green in what appeared to be a monstrous display.

  Han Li narrowed his eyes and asked, “Are you demon or ghost?”

  “You don’t think this old man is human?” The black-figure coldly chuckled. At that same moment, inky threads of black Qi began to wrap around his body. Ghostly wails soon began to howl, followed by gusts of Yin wind.

  Han Li took a short breath and calmly said, “So you were originally a man, but it seems that you’ve cultivated the Dao of a demon or ghost.”

  “Humph! Junior, you speak too much rubbish. There is no need to examine me any further as you will soon die by my hand. Don’t waste your effort.” With that said, black Qi suddenly surged around his body, nearly hiding him entirely from sight.

  “As I don’t have the patience to play with you, I’ll be taking your life now.” The black-robed old man sinisterly laughed and formed an incantation gesture with his hands. Suddenly, he grew to giant about six meters in height.

  Although the vortex of Yin Qi surrounding him mostly blocked him out of sight, one could faintly make out two horns poking out from the robes and two fangs as well. It was no wonder so many cultivators believed this unfamiliar spell warrior was a transformed oddity.

  Han Li’s eyes shined with blue light, revealing the huge man’s ferocious appearance.

  “What?” Han Li was shocked by the demonic appearance of the huge man. His current appearance was exactly the same as the one of the phantoms of the Six Apex Devils he encountered when he fought the disciple of Archsaint Six Paths.

  “What relation does your esteemed self have with Archsaint Six Paths?”

  The huge man evilly grinned after a moment of surprise. “Who is this Archsaint Six Paths? Don’t think that your nonsense will allow you to stall for time. Accept your death!” He then raised his hand and scattered some of the black Qi, suddenly shooting a black object towards Han Li. However, the object flashed with black light as soon as it left the cover of the black Qi and disappeared from sight.

  Han Li’s expression sank and suddenly shot back ten meters. At that same moment, a huge ghost claw appeared where he was originally standing. The attack was so sudden, it seemed to have materialized out of thin air.

  “Yi!” The huge demonic figure yelped in surprise at seeing his attack miss.

  Han Li stared at the ghost hand and indifferently said, “Not bad at all. Although you aren’t a ghost Dao cultivator — as you cultivate Devil Dao techniques — your methods of attack are quite similar to ghost cultivators. If one were to truly regard you as a ghost cultivator, they would definitely suffer.”

  The large demonic man stayed still as it coldly glanced at Han Li.

  At that same moment, Han Li frowned and he moved about ten meters to the side in a blur. As a result, yet another green ghost claw had silently struck where he once stood.

  The huge man was no longer able to keep his calm after missing a second time and asked, “Since you’ve already dodged two of my attacks, could it be that you’d seen other ghost cultivators in the past?”

  “Of course I have. How else could I have so easily dodged your attacks?” Han Li replied smilingly with a half-truth.

  “Humph! Your esteemed self is actually a vastly experienced individual. Regardless, even if you know that I use Devil Dao techniques, what will come of it? With the might of the Heavenflash Devil Arts, you will be dead in only a moment.” The huge man spoke sinisterly. He then abruptly released an intense, ear-piercing whistle that was capable of even splitting stone.

  When Han Li saw this, his calm expression turned stern.

  The black Qi enveloping the huge man began to rapidly revolve in place. Soon after, an astonishingly powerful wave of devilish Qi suddenly erupted out of thin air, and the huge man shot out from the black Qi, instantly arriving before Han Li as he left afterimages in his wake.

  With a slight movement of his arms, an impenetrable flurry of black-green claws immediately surrounded him. It seemed that he intended to use his claws to cut Han Li into countless pieces.

  Han Li took a deep breath and wore an odd expression as he remained in place. He slapped his hands together before spreading them out, summoning a net of golden lightning around him. With thunder ringing in the air, Han Li glanced at the claws around him with complete fearlessness.

  Without any further thought, the huge black figure then ordered the claws to strike Han Li without mercy.

  From the huge black figure’s point of view, common devilish arts might be subdued by lightning attribute techniques, but the Heavenflash Devil Arts is by no measure common. It wouldn’t be stopped by some trifling lightning. However, the cultivator he faced seemed to know quite a bit, much to his unease; he felt it best to immediately dispose of him.

  But before the black figure finished his thoughts, he suddenly felt his own claws grow hot, soon followed by an unimaginable pain. Golden light then brightly chined from before him. The golden lightning net had actually broken through the claw phantoms and was making its way to envelop him.

  Unable to protect himself from behind and trapped by the net of golden lightning, a legend he once heard suddenly appeared in his mind. In the past when he was learning of this devilish art, his master had repeated warned him of the greatest nemeses of the Heavenflash Devil Arts. But because he had never encountered any equal opponents after cultivating this devilish art, he had forgotten about this matter!

  “Golden lightning? It can’t be! It’s so similar. Don’t tell me —” The black figure’s expression grew completely tense and he felt his heart drop. Unwilling to remain idle in the oncoming danger, he immediately howled and had his tall stature suddenly shrink in size, becoming a dwarf that was only a meter tall, buying him more time before the golden net struck him.

  In that time that he bought, his shrunken body suddenly fluctuated in size before hastily erupting into countless threads of black light — scattering in every direction.

  Chapter 735: Two Tailed Serpent

  A cold glint shined from Han Li’s eyes, and he suddenly shook his hands, shooting a bolt of lightning towards the golden net. Countless arcs of lightning began to spark from the net upon impact, causing it to instantly constrict. Then, each of the black threads collided against the golden lightning.

  With a huge flash, the golden lightning turned the black threads of Qi into ash, each burned thread accompanied by a wretched and tragic scream.

  Soon, the remaining black threads returned towards the center of the golden net, condensing into a glossy black demon Nascent. Its face was filled to the brim with fear. It opened its mouth and spat out clo
uds and clouds pitch-black Yin Qi. They quickly wrapped around it in layers in an attempt to prevent the Divine Devilbane Lightning from approaching any closer to its body.

  Han Li’s face was expressionless apart from the sneer that momentarily appeared. From his hand, he shot a bolt of lightning — so dazzling and bright it was difficult to see — and enveloped the demon Nascent. Yet another miserable shriek soon followed and the rolls of thunder quieted down, leaving only silence for a short while.

  When Han Li saw this, he inwardly sighed with relief before retracting his remaining lightning and taking a pitch-black storage pouch into his hand. He then raised his head and expressionlessly swept his gaze past the spell warriors up above. Then with azure light shining from his body, he flew back down towards the Heavenly South cultivators.

  After an exchange of a few brief words, Han Li exterminated his opponent with Divine Devilbane Lightning with unbelievable speed.

  Not only were the Heavenly South cultivators dumbfounded, the Moulan spell warriors completely shaken with disbelief.

  While the Heavenly South cultivators didn’t know about the finer details of the black-robed figure, they had a general idea. These mysterious cultivators should’ve arrived at the Moulan Plains from a great continent. Although they didn’t know why these cultivators suddenly appeared at the Moulan Plains, they reached some sort of agreement with the three Divine Sages of the Moulan Tribes. And it was clear to see that these cultivator had abilities far beyond cultivators of a similar grade — before the true war even started, two Heavenly South Nascent Soul cultivators had perished one after another, earning the confidence of these two Moulan Sages.

  As for why the black-robed figure participated in the second battle, it was because he felt that there were too many Nascent Soul stage cultivators that were guarding the grand formation, and he felt it best to first exterminate one while he could. But who could’ve known that this ordinary appearing youth would actually be able to kill the black-robed figure with ease. Not even his Nascent Soul was able to escape, much to the shock of the two spell warriors.