When the shriveled spell warrior and Ku Yao regained clarity of mind, he glanced at each other with terror and hesitated for a moment — not knowing whether or not they should continue the battle, or deal with the uproar of the spell warriors behind them. But at that moment, they suddenly heard a faint, nearly inaudible voice speak in their ear.
“Retreat for now. Our momentum has already died. Let us further consider our plans tomorrow. When that time comes, that formation may already be... hehe! While Heavenweep’s death will be inconvenient, I’ll personally explain the matter to the Divine Sages.” The voice sounded neutral in tone, but the words carried an unmistakable air of command.
The shriveled man the Ku Yao were stunned for a moment upon hearing the voice, but they soon complied with their orders and began to give commands to the spell warriors under their command. With some disturbance, the army made an about face and slowly retreated.
The two sages naturally brought up the rear, gloomily watching the cultivators as they retreated. They glared at in particularly Han Li before flying off.
Gu Shuangpu watched the spell warrior army retreat and doubtfully asked,“Should we pursue them?”
“Leave them be.” The bald man shook his his head and said, “Although they’re retreating, they still haven’t been defeated. If we were to pursue them, we could find ourselves surrounded. Also, we have to guard the grand formation. It’ll be best if we nurtured our strength and bide our time. Our Yellow Dragon Mountains’ Thousand Soundform Formation isn’t easily broken. If the Moulan wish to seize it, they will need to double their forces at the very lease.”
After that was said, the bald man couldn’t help but turn his eyes towards Han Li. Due to the surprise of Han Li managing to kill the black-robed cultivator, the cultivators found themselves in an awkward silence, all at a loss of what to say.
As of current, Han Li was wearing a faint smile as he fiddled with a black storage pouch in his hands.
Originally, Han Li’s faint smiles hardly inspired any feelings in these cultivators. But after he managed to kill a Nascent Soul cultivator, Han Li’s smile now gave them a profound and odd feeling — not to mention that their original contempt for him was now completely gone.
The bald man smiled and and said, “Fellow Daoist Han, congratulations on slaying a high grade spell warrior. I will be certain to inform the Nine Nations Alliance of your achievement. They will most definitely reward you greatly.”
Old Man Ma and Gu Shuangpu also congratulated him with a smile. However, Han Li’s expression still remained as subtle as before, despite the faint admiration and respect their tones held.
As if ignoring this, Han Li simply exchanged a few courteous pleasantries with them as his gaze unconsciously wandered to one of them in particular. When nobody noticed this, he couldn’t help but wear an indistinct smirk.
Once the spell warrior army disappeared from sight, the bald man opened a passageway into the mist down below and the party hastily disappeared from sight, the mist closing its entrance soon afterwards. Now, the surroundings of the Yellow Dragon Mountains grew peaceful once more.
When Han Li and company returned to the hall, they had a quick discussion about the battles that occurred today before reach returning to their own residences to rest. Old Man Ma in particular not only had his treasure destroyed, but his vitality had greatly suffered as well. He was in dire need to rest and recover. Thus in the blink of an eye, only the bald man remained in the hall.
He sat in the main building and lowered his head, his mind lost in thought. A short moment later, he suddenly raised his eyebrow and a strange expression appeared on his face. He softly shouted, “Who is there? Come out.”
Then with a flash of light, another person appeared in the hall. “Hehe! Brother Lu’s abilities are truly profound. Just as I entered, he was able to perceive me. It is not wonder why the Nine Nations Alliance had you guard the formation alone.”
The bald man frowned and wore a strange expression. “You? Why aren’t you resting? Why did you come back stealthily?”
“It’s nothing. I merely discovered a secret. I felt that I should have a discussion with you.”
The bald man glanced at him with an appraising look and puzzlingly asked, “Secret? What secret?”
“The Drifting Cloud Sect’s Fellow Daoist Han is likely a spy for the Moulan!” He spoke without the slightest hesitation and slowly walked inside.
The bald man involuntarily laughed and his face was filled with disbelief. “Spy? Could it be that your mind if unclear? Fellow Daoist Han had just slain a Nascent Soul spell warrior today. The thought is ridiculous.”
“I know that Brother Lu might not believe it, but I have evidence. You’ll know that I’m speaking the truth.” This person sighed and bitterly smiled before summoning a jade slip into his hand with a flash of light. He then stepped forward and neared the large man.
The bald man wore an expression of astonishment and stood up to face him. He then calmly took the jade slip into his hand.
At the same time the bald man took the jade slip into his hand, his expression vastly changed and a fierce expression appeared in his eyes. In a flash of green light, the jade slip suddenly turned into a small emerald-green snake. It bit the bald man’s wrist with the speed of lightning.
With an expression of shock, he couldn’t even scream before he motionlessly collapsed onto the floor, his complexion turned a black-violet.
Joy flickered from the man’s face and he muttered, “The Twintailed Jade Serpent is truly as poisonous as its reputation. It is it no less inferior than the Ten Supremes Poison. After the bite, it robs even a Nascent Soul the power to escape. If the snake was able to fly, it’d be an incredibly powerful method of killing other cultivators.” He then took a step forward the examine the corpse that was slowly melting.
The small dark-green snake released its fangs from the corpse and slid away, revealing the two slim tails on its back. Its two tails struck the earth and then flung itself into the palm of its master. It coiled around itself and hissed with its purple-black tongue, its eyes glowing with a eerie dark-green light.
At that moment, this person lightly waved his hand and took the corpse’s storage pouch into his hand. He then excitedly searched the storage pouch with his spiritual sense as if he were looking for something in particular.
Chapter 736: Exposure
A short moment later, this person softly whispered, “It can’t be, where is the command medallion? I clearly saw him place it in the storage pouch.” He then resentfully turned the bag upside down and tossed its belongings onto the ground, forming a pile of various inferior magic tools and a few low grade spirit stones.
Once the man clearly saw what was on the ground, his complexion turned deathly pale and his body suddenly flashed with green light. Without another word, he shot towards the hall exit in a streak of light.
A long sigh echoed through the hall. Soon, silver light flickered from every wall, enveloping them in waves of silver light and forming a huge barrier of light all around him.
With a cold snort, the man continued without any intention of stopping. He slapped his waist and summoned a jet-black pangolin spirit beast, striking at the light that blocked his path. With a muffled bang, the spirit beast was repelled by the light barrier with the barrier completely unharmed.
In the man’s alarm, he suddenly gritted his teeth and spat out a blue trident from his mouth. In an instant, the magic treasure duplicated into two and combined together as a streak of large blue light before striking the light barrier. Then with a muffled explosion, the blue light was reflected ten meters back before spinning to the ground.
“There is no need for Brother Gu to go through so much trouble.” The bald man’s voice echoed throughout the hall. “As this place is the core of the grand formation of the Yellow Dragon Mountains, it is only natural for it to be guarded by the most powerful restrictions. Don’t think that you’ll be able to leave.”
Th
e blue light faded away to reveal the Controlling Spirit Sect’s Gu Shuangpu. However, his complexion was deathly white and his gaze was brooding, barely able to keep his calm. “So you didn’t die, you used a flesh puppet. I had heard that there was a mysterious cultivator amongst the Nine Nations Union that was adept at refining flesh puppets identical to oneself, where one cannot even differentiate the true person from the puppet. I didn’t actually expect this to be true.”
Then in a flash of white light, the bald man revealed himself from within the hall. He glanced at Gu Shuangpu from outside the barrier before turning his gaze to the ruined corpse on the floor. “Brother Gu knows much about the affairs of our Nine Nations Union as expected as well as the matter of doppelganger puppets. That’s right, what you killed was a corpse puppet that I had controlled. Even a Nascent Soul cultivator such as yourself was unable to tell any difference from its exterior.”
“Humph! Rubbish! If I hadn’t used my spiritual sense to closely examine your doppelganger out of fear of being detected, I definitely wouldn’t have been deceived. Besides, even if I meticulously cultivated the Twintailed Jade Serpent for several hundreds of years, its incredibly vicious poison definitely shouldn’t have been capable of killing a Nascent Soul cultivator alone.
I originally planned only to use the serpent to heavily injure you, but I had mistakenly overestimated the toxicity of the snake upon seeing you perish in a single blow. It seems I’ve become arrogant.” Gu Shuangpu spoke with an icy expression, but a trace of regret was betrayed from his eyes.
The bald man emotionlessly said, “Hehe! I had requested a puppet to be refined for me out of a moment’s fancy. I didn’t truly think that a dead corpse would actually be refined to my likeness. However, spending this corpse puppet to discover that Brother Gu was a traitor was well worth the spirit stones the puppet had cost.”
Gu Shuangpu’s cheek twitched and grew silent for a spell. But a short moment later, he icily said, “From your tone, you seemed to know that I would come find you and you had already prepared a substitute ahead of time. Could it be that you’ve discovered something amiss after I arrived at the Yellow Dragon Mountains?”
The bald man shook his head. “Of course not. How could I suspect an elder of the Controlling Spirit Sect without cause or reason. I was merely given a warning from someone else. I originally felt unsure of the matter, but now it has been made certain.” He then turned his head to the sides of the hall and shouted, “Fellow Daoist Han, Brother Ma, you may come out!”
When Gu Shuangpu heard this, he was no longer able to maintain his gloomy expression. Alarm was betrayed from his face.
Then in a flash of yellow light from both sides of the hall, a calm Han Li and a grave Old Man Ma walked out.
With a pained expression, the old man sorrowfully said, “I didn’t expect that Fellow Daoist Gu would actually do this. What kind of benefits did the Moulan offer you to do such a deranged thing?”
Gu Shuangpu stared at the old man and coldly snorted. “Deranged? I was originally from the Moulan tribes. How could my decision possibly be deranged?”
“You’re a person from the Moulan?” The party of cultivators couldn’t help but reveal surprise.
“Of course.” A maddened expression appeared on Gu Shuangpu’s face. “Did you believe that benefits were enough to rope in a Nascent Soul cultivator like me? You Heavenly South cultivators should realize how sparse cultivation resources are in the Moulan plains.
There are countless talented low grade spell warriors that never progress in their cultivation due to a lack of spirit stones and medicine pills, and they turned to a pile of bones after only a hundred years because they lacked the optimal circumstances for cultivation. Why is that you Heavenly South cultivators were able to take such a good area, and us spell warriors must make due with a sparse few spirit stones to use? So long as the Moulan acquire the cultivation resources of the Heavenly South, in less than a hundred years the number of spell warriors will double. With such vast strength, we’ll be able to defeat the Soaring Tribe’s Immortals, and rule over the entirety of the Moulan plains.”
When Gu Shuangpu said that, the others couldn’t help but glance at each other in dismay.
Han Li expressionly asked, “Defeat the Soaring Tribe’s Immortals? It seems the Moulan had suffered a decisive defeat by these Immortals, and now a majority of the Moulan plains are being held by these towards Immortal masters. Is that why you’ve staked it all in order to invade the Heavenly South?”
“How... How do you know of this?” Gu Shuangpu was stunned for a moment before suddenly something came to his mind and he viciously glared at Han Li. “You eavesdropped on my sound transmissions with Sage Le.”
Han Li expressionlessly said, “It seems Brother Gu had realized it quite quickly, but don’t blame me. Who was it that told you to so brazenly sound transmissions in front of me. With my slightly superior spiritual sense, I was just able to listen to your voice transmissions, and informed Fellow Daoist Lu of the matter.”
With a pale complexion, Gu Shuangpu rigidly stared at Han Li and resentfully said, “Good, very good! All of my secrets are leaked! I’ve been concealed in the Heavenly South for so long, yet it can’t be anything but unjust to fall to such a careless mistake. But to say that your spiritual sense is only slightly superior? Humph! Your esteemed self is far too modest. How could our secret voice transmission technique compare to common sound transmissions?
Unless your spiritual sense is as strong as a late Nascent Soul cultivator, there was no other way you could’ve eavesdropped on my conversation.”
Old Man Ma shouted in alarm, “Late Nascent Soul stage?”
The bald man was also alarmed and glanced at Han Li with amazement.
Han Li frowned. He didn’t think that this matter would unintentionally reveal the strength of his spiritual sense. But soon, he eased his brow and instead wore a relaxed expression, leaving the bald man and Old Man Ma feeling skeptical of Gu Shuangpu’s words. After all, it was a bit too outrageous for an early Nascent Soul cultivator to have a spiritual sense on the level of a late Nascent Soul cultivator.
The bald man reluctantly turned his gaze away from Han Li and icily gazed at Gu Shuangpu inside the light barrier. “Since we now know you are a spy, don’t blame us for being ruthless. Although I wish to spare your life and hand you over to the enforcers of the union, there is a great battle ahead of us; we do not have the option to keep you alive.”
Soon after, he flipped his hand and summoned a command medallion that flickered with silver light. He raised the command medallion into the air, shooting a beam of light at the barrier. The barrier cleanly absorbed the beam and began to flicker, suddenly shining with countless silver flowers, each vastly beautiful.
Gu Shuangpu saw the silver flowers just like a poisonous insect and his expression grew unsightly. Without further thought, he quickly slapped several places around his body, placing several layers of various colored light around his body. At that same time, he pointed to the blue trident in front of it. It began to spin above his head and formed a barrier of blue light around him.
Once the silver flowers began to rupture and fill the light barrier, the bald man turned around with disinterest and solemnly spoke to Han Li and Old Man Ma. “Let’s go, there’s nothing good to see. Although his cultivation is high, he won’t be able to endure the restrictions for long, and will soon have his soul destroyed. We still have to deal with the aftermath. Although this person was a Moulan spy, he was still a Controlling Spirit Sect elder. We will have much explaining to do to the union.”
Chapter 737: Spiritfuse Serpent Monster
Seeing that the large man possessed such confidence in the hall’s restrictions, Han Li blinked but said nothing else. Old Man Ma also felt somewhat doubtful of the bald man’s words and frowned.
Han Li smiled and suddenly said, “To tell the truth, although this matter is somewhat troublesome, there is no need to worry too much over it.”
&nb
sp; Not daring to ignore Han Li given his previous accomplishments, the bald man hesitantly asked, “What does Brother Han mean?” Old Man Ma also looked at Han Li with astonishment.
Han Li rubbed his chin and said, “Our alliance leaders should surely know something of the Moulan spies infiltrating into the Heavenly South. They must’ve caught some in the past. So as long as this high grade cultivator was a spy, the Controlling Spirit Sect won’t be able to do much about it.
Since we all come from different alliances, most cultivators won’t think that we had deliberately framed the Controlling Spirit Sect Elder. As such, we only have to explain ourselves and deliver the information we acquired from the Moulan. Once they’ve verified this information, no trouble should come of this. I believe the Controlling Spirit Sect should’ve had their own misgivings about Elder Gu by now. Surely Fellow Daoist Gu wasn’t able to perfectly conceal everything after so many years. And even if they don’t, they should be able to find something suspicious from his past movements.”
The bald man unfurled his brow and suddenly revealed a white jade slip in his hand. He wore an odd expression and said, “Brother Han’s words are reasonable. I had also used a secret technique to record his previous words in a jade slip as well. We’ll be able to use it as evidence when the time comes.”
After hearing Han Li’s explanation and seeing the bald man’s jade slip, Old Man Ma breathed a sigh of relief. “That will do. It is a pity that Fellow Daoist Bu wasn’t able to come out and stand witness as his injuries were so severe that he had to conceal himself, but it won’t pose a problem.”
Once that was said, the three had a more detailed discussion about the matter when hisses suddenly sounded out from the silver light barrier. The three were greatly surprised by this and they glanced at each other with bewilderment.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 394