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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Although the Aureate Sword Formation was immensely powerful, it was difficult for Han Li to sustain with his current cultivation. It was a massive drain on his magic power and he wasn’t able to increase the speed at which the sword formation moved after activation. Otherwise, he would’ve had the sword threads close in on the black-robed youth in the blink of an eye and put an immediate end to him, preventing him from figuring out a way to resist.

  Han Li reckoned that the optimal time to cultivate the Aureate Sword Formation would be during mid-Nascent Soul stage. If he wasn’t only using half of his flying swords, he simply wouldn’t be able to activate the sword formation due to his level of cultivation, despite how his magic power exceeded that of ordinary early Nascent Soul cultivators.

  The black-robed youth surrounded himself in a layer of black Qi and snorted. With an imposing tone, he said, “You truly believe a trifling sword formation can truly trap me? Your sword formation may be incisive, but can it cut my sect’s protective treasure?” He glanced at the golden threads that were less than thirty meters away and silently raised his hand before striking at his chest.

  Black blood sprayed out of his mouth, as a green, inch-long banner appeared from within the blood.

  As soon as the banner appeared, it flickered with green light and completely absorbed the black blood that surrounded it, turning it dark green.

  The black-robed youth gloomily waved at the banner and it shot into his hands as a streak of black light. The green banner brightly glowed and immediately grew until it was a meter tall. The banner now glistened with green light as if it was densely covered in Yin clouds, causing its surface to be concealed. However, one of the corners of the banner seemed to be missing as if it were damaged.

  Han Li’s pupils shrank at the sight of the banner. “The Ghost Sifting Banner!”

  Originally, the Yin Sifting Sect Master had wanted to use their sect protecting treasure to fight Devil Concord. While it hadn’t actually been used in battle, its name had stuck in Han Li’s mind. Now that the black-robed youth took out the small banner, Han Li managed to guess what it was.

  The black-robed youth coldly smiled after hearing that Han Li recognized it. He said with absolute confidence, “Aren’t you clever? This is one of the main banners of the twenty Ghost Sifting Banners. I’ll have you experience its might.”

  Soon after, the youth firmly grasped onto the banner and waved it towards one of the golden threads. With a gust, a dark-green Yin cloud flew out from the banner and surged, enveloping the body of the black-robed youth.

  The bone-chilling Yin cloud expanded and the sky was suddenly turned pitch-black, as the cloud blotted out the sun from the sky. This incredible darkness had somehow spread from the green ghost mist with ghastly wails and screams echoing all around.

  With a mere shake of the banner, the entire world around them had changed. It was no wonder why he was so confident in this treasure. Despite Han Li’s confidence in the Aureate Sword Formation, even he felt dumbfounded at the current situation.

  At that moment, the sound of tearing wind suddenly arrived from the flag, and several black threads shot out from the mist surrounding the youth, directly attacking Han Li.

  Golden light flashed as the sword formation’s restrictions were activated. Countless golden threads chopped the black threads into pieces. However, the threads immediately turned into green mist and returned back to the main body.

  Before Han Li could react, the black-robed youth shouted in alarm from within the green mist. The Yin ghost threads were said to be incredibly durable, but they were easily struck down in a single blow, much to his surprise. After a moment of thought, he decided to unleash the full power of the ghost banner.

  He suddenly tossed the green banner from the mist and it bore into the earth a meter in front of him.

  Soon, he began to utter a cryptic incantation and a series of Yin winds swept up the dense fog around him, sweeping towards the banner at its center. In the blink of an eye, the banner grew to six meters in height and the mist that had been covering it scattered, revealing its true form. Its appearance vastly shocked Han Li.

  Han Li fiercely shouted, “How many souls did you use to refine that banner!? How many people have you killed!?”

  The green banner’s surface was densely filled by innumerable faces. They all continuously squirmed from the flag as if they were alive and wore expressions of agony.

  The youth’s sinister voice spoke from within the fog, “How many? Who knows? It should be around a hundred thousand or so. There are also at least several hundred cultivator souls in there as they are required to refine a single main banner.”

  Han Li grew silent and he coldly stared a the green mist. A moment later, he said, “You are all damned.”

  The youth sneered and said, “Damned? There are many that have said this to me before, but here I am, alive and well. And all the people who said this to me had their souls seized by the banner, becoming a part of it. You will be no exception.” He then struck the banner with a red spell seal.

  Green light magnificently flashed, summoning a meter-wide hole in the flag. Black Qi flowed out of it, releasing a series of Yin winds and piercing whistles. Soon, huge skulls flew out in a line from the hole, their eyes glowing with ghastly green flames and trailing green smoke.

  The biggest of the skull had huge bull horns emerging from it, but the rest of it features appeared entirely human.

  Han Li was alarmed. Could it be that the skulls were from metamorphosis stage demon beasts? But for the time being, he placed the thought at the back of his head.

  Once the first wave of skulls emerged from the flag, various flaming ghost skulls followed. In the blink of an eye, over a hundred ghost skulls surrounded the black-robed youth.

  Pointing at Han Li from within the mist, the youth shouted, “Go!”

  Chapter 790: Devouring Devils and Ghosts

  These eerie white skulls screamed before launching green flame wisps from their mouths towards Han Li. Of course, when the flame wisps traveled too far, golden threads suddenly appeared and flashed towards them.

  But something different happened this time. The golden threads sliced the skulls apart, but in a flash of green light, they restored themselves as if they hadn’t suffered any damage. Additionally, they weren’t impeded by the sword threads at all and continued their approach.

  Han Li was stunned when he saw this, but he soon realized that the ghost skulls had no physical body; they were refined Yin Ghosts. Although his sword threads may be fierce, they couldn't cut through something intangible.

  However, Han Li was hardly flustered. As the ghost skulls approached him, he willed a net of golden lightning to appear in the air and intercept them. Since they were ghosts, he decided to activate the Divine Devilbane Lightning.

  To Han Li’s surprise, the ghost skulls revealed fear upon seeing the golden net and came to a stop, but after the horned ghost skull shrieked, all of the skulls opened their mouths and shot green flame wisps towards the golden net.

  In a roar of thunder, the lightning net flashed and exterminate the flame wisps, but the net’s advance was stopped, restrained by their unending barrage.

  Han Li frowned and revealed an expression of surprise. If they were common flame wisps they would’ve immediately turned to smoke after touching the Divine Devilbane Lightning, but these flame wisps were able to forcefully restrain the lightning, much to his alarm. The Ghost Sifting Banner’s title as the Yin Sifting Sect’s protective treasure was well deserved.

  When the black-robed youth saw that the ghost skulls were able to block the Divine Devilbane Lightning, he couldn’t help but smile in relief. While he appeared confident, he was actually filled with dread.

  If the flag wasn’t damaged, he wouldn’t be worried about the devil skulls being able to resist the Divine Devilbane Lightning. But without the opportunity to repair it after it was damaged, he had been worried about it being able to resist the Divine Devilbane Lig
htning.

  Since his worries had been addressed, the youth wickedly grinned and continuously sent spell seals into the banner. The meter-wide gap in the banner quickly swelled to the size of three meters, resulting in even more ghost skulls emerging. With ghost mist spreading through the air, loud ghost shrieks and wails accompanied the skulls.

  With the previous skulls resisting the golden net, the latter wave of skulls flew past the sword formation and charged straight towards Han Li.

  When Han Li saw this, he calmly slapped his storage pouch and summoned a streak of black light thatt circled once in the air before falling to the ground. The light disappeared to reveal a small jet-black ape, the Weeping Soul Beast.

  The ape appeared as if it had just woken up and its eyes were half closed. When it sniffed at the air, it suddenly opened its eyes and looked at the ghost skulls not far away, howling with excitement.

  When the approaching ghost skulls saw the Weeping Soul Beast, they were shaken and immediately began to spiral in place, unwilling to continue their charge forward. At that moment, the howls they had been releasing were abruptly cut off as if in a display of fear.

  When the black-robed youth saw this, his heart thumped as the sword formation was drawing ever closer to him.

  In his desperation, he shot grey light from his mouth towards his palm and lightly spun around his hand before severing his fingers in a bloody display. As the fingers fell from his hand, they exploded into clouds of blood mist and quickly drifted towards the horned ghost skull.

  A sinister light twinkled from the ghost skull’s eyes and it opened its mouth to inhale the blood mist. The flames surrounding the skull suddenly rampaged around it, coercing the other skulls to launch a wave of green flame wisps towards the Weeping Soul Beast.

  When the Weeping Soul Beast saw this, it hammered its chest as black light wrapped around its body. In the blink of an eye, it grew ten meters tall. It then snorted, releasing a yellow mist of light from its nose that swept away the ghostly flame wisps and directly approached the group of ghost skulls.

  As the yellow mist of light swept past them, the group of ghost skulls were sucked in without any resistance. When the remaining ghost skulls saw this, they scattered in terror and even the horned ghost skull’s rage wasn’t able to stop them.

  At that moment, the yellow mist of light spread around the fleeing ghost skulls and trapped them. When the horned ghost skull saw this, it condensed a brilliant mass of green light around its skull and grew a body the size of two meters, turning into a full-fledged devil ghost with hair draped around its face and curved horns. As soon as the ghost appeared, it immediately spread out its hands and launched a barrage of black fireballs towards the yellow light mist in a wave of explosive booms.

  As soon as the fireballs entered the yellow mist, they completely disappeared and not a sound was produced from the impact. When the devil ghost saw this, it wore an expression of terror and turned around to flee, but it was already too late. The yellow mist closed in on it and instantly absorbed it inside, leaving nothing behind.

  The yellow mist then quickly returned into the Weeping Soul Beast’s mouth before it spouted out another mist from its nose, sweeping the air clean of any remaining skulls.

  When the black-robed youth saw this, he wore an expression of fright and rage. Although he had heard that Han Li’s ape beast had absorbed the undead Qi from the Copper-armored Corpses and destroyed a majority of them, he hadn’t taken it to heart.

  He absolutely didn’t think that the spirit beast would be able to devour the Yin Essence Devil Skulls created from the Yin Sifting Banner. Even the leading devil skull had been absorbed without being able to put up any resistance, leaving him feeling terror and helplessness.

  If he knew that Han Li’s spirit beast had the ability to devour devils and ghosts, he definitely wouldn’t have accepted the task of meeting him alone. The other elders of the sect knew of the spirit beast’s abilities and had grown fearful. Its abilities were as much of a threat to them as the Golden Lightning Bamboo.

  As these thoughts surged through the youth’s mind, he felt a wave of regret. By then the golden threads were less than ten meters away from him. With his death slowly drawing closer, he couldn’t remain calm and hastily slapped his storage pouch. Eight treasures instantly shot out all around him in balls of various colored light.

  When they reached the edge of the sword formation, countless golden threads flashed by and shredded the treasures into scrap.

  The youth paled at the sight of this and with panic filling his mind, he waved his hand to the Ghost Sifting Banner. With the flag back in his hand, he gritted his teeth and began to revolve around the banner with both his hands on it. He turned into one with the banner and transformed into a cloud of eerie green mist before shooting towards the sky.

  As of current, he could only hope that the might of his sect protecting treasure would be able to withstand the attacks from the sword formation and allow him to escape. Otherwise, he could only sit and wait to die.

  When Han Li saw this, he knew that the youth had exhausted his options and was driven to desperation. As a result, he opened his mouth and shot a ball of golden lightning. As soon as the golden lightning left his mouth, it ruptured, forming a huge golden net several tens of meters wide.

  At that moment, the mistform black-robed youth had reached the edge of the sword formation. Over a hundred golden threads waved around him, with each flash shredding away a fraction of the Yin mist protecting him. In the blink of an eye, a majority of the mist had already been dispersed.

  The Yin mist scattered in an attempt to escape, but there were too many golden threads blocking him path with no chance of escape. Every gap was immediately blocked with tens of golden threads, pushing the mist back and trapping him inside.

  With only a thin layer of the Yin mist remaining, the youth’s voice hoarsely shouted in rage, “You actually want to kill me! Don’t you want the method to dissolve the Soul Seal Curse?”

  Han Li calmly responded, “Don’t worry. I will just extract the information from your primal soul.”

  “You want to use a Soul Search Technique? You don’t... Ah!” The youth shouted in terror, but the last layer of the Yin mist protecting him was shredded away, cutting him off. In a blood-curdling scream, his body was dismembered into a myriad of pieces. Only a ball of green light remained, his Nascent Soul.

  It took this chance to try and escape, but a net of Divine Devilbane Lightning had already been set up outside. Han Li pointed to the net and uttered, “Restrain,” immediately closing the net around the youth’s Nascent Soul.

  As soon as the Nascent Soul encountered the net, lightning flickered followed by screams of pain. The Nascent Soul suddenly shrieked with resentment, “If you wish to use a Soul Search Technique on me, I will detonate my Nascent Soul. I won’t let you have your way!”

  “Detonate your Nascent Soul?” Han Li frowned and immediately stopped the net from closing in.

  The Nascent Soul rejoiced upon seeing this and immediately shrieked, “So long as you let my Nascent Soul go free, I will tell you the method to dissolve the curse and save your Dao companion. Otherwise, you will have no way of finding out.”

  Silent, Han Li’s gaze flickered as he considered the conditions. At that moment, a light suddenly appeared around the Nascent Soul as a purple net wrapped around it and immediately tightened. At that moment, Silvermoon silently appeared behind it in a flash of white light. She quickly spat a fragrant pink mist from her mouth and launched streaks of silver from her fingers.

  Chapter 791: Along the Way

  The Nascent Soul grew dizzy as the fragrant pink mist gathered around it, and its mind weakened. When the silver lights struck it in quick succession, its body was frozen and completely disabled, rendering it incapable of detonating itself.

  The Nascent Soul’s face paled and stared at the white-clothed woman next to Han Li in disbelief.

  “Not bad! Your actions have reso
lved the situation cleanly.” Although he was the one who had ordered Silvermoon to attack, he praised her nonetheless.

  Silvermoon smiled and said, “It was all because Master told me to attack at an opportune time. This person only wished to escape and was careless, allowing me to replace myself with an illusion and escape his notice.” Afterwards, she waved to her illusion and it dissolved into a ball of white light.

  Han Li said nothing further and smiled. He had the giant net of golden lightning transform into a golden ball that flew into his hand and disappeared without a trace. As for the Aureate Sword Formation, Han Li had already dissolved it and had the thirty-six swords shrink before flying back into his sleeve.

  Han Li took this opportunity and calmly looked at the black-robed youth’s Nascent Soul. It tried to curse as loudly as it could, but it lacked the strength to even open its mouth.

  Han Li’s expression sank and he sullenly said, “Silvermoon, bring him to the edge of the forest and search him for the method to dissolve the Soul Seal Curse.” After speaking, he took to the skies and flew towards the other side of the forest.

  Silvermoon respectfully answered, “Yes, Master.” Grabbing onto the Nascent Soul, she followed after him. A pink fragrant mist soon scattered across the forest after they left.

  About a hundred kilometers away from the island where Han Li battled with the black-robed youth, six streaks of light were making their way towards the island. The one that headed the party was a silver-haired old man, Elder Cheng of the Drifting Cloud Sect.

  A red-nosed fat old man following after him asked, “Fellow Daoist Cheng, did you sense correctly? The transportation formation was rather simple. It seems somewhat out of the ordinary for it be able to transport someone so far.”

  “I can’t be wrong. I sensed it clearly, and Junior Martial Brother Han should be close to here. Be careful everyone. He should be a devil cultivator at mid-Nascent Soul stage at the very least. Although we greatly outnumber him, we must be careful with regards to our weaker cultivation.”