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

by Translator: Johnchen

  At that moment, the flame toad croaked with satisfaction at having killed the enemy that intruded upon its lair. Then in a blur of red mist, it turned around in a preparation to return.

  In that moment, the three cultivators glanced at each other with dismay. Han Li felt particularly anxious. Since the flame toad’s core was a matter of life and death for Nangong Wan, Han Li couldn’t allow it to escape. A harsh expression on his face, his figure blurred and he shot towards it in a streak of azure light, his lone figure appearing at the edge of the spell formation.

  Marquis Nanlong and Lu Weiying were stunned when they saw this, but they soon realized what Han Li planned.

  Han Li’s appearance had alarmed the flame toad just as he had intended. It quickly turned its head around and rigidly stared at the new enemy that had suddenly appeared close by. It remained motionless as it bewilderedly examined Han Li with one of its eyes.

  Han Li remained silent and simply raised the ball of flame in his hand while he slapped his storage pouch with his free hand. Six balls of blue light dropped behind him, revealing themselves to be ten-meter-tall blue tortoise puppets.

  Under Han Li’s mental command, the shells of the six huge tortoise puppets began to faintly glow with icy Qi, quickly condensing foot-long icicles from their shells. Soon, their original meek appearance had turned extremely intimidating.

  The flame toad seemed to sense Han Li’s hostility and a cold glint appeared in its eyes. With a single breath, it released another ball of flame from its mouth.

  When Han Li saw the fireball expand and shoot towards him with overbearing force, he remained silent and promptly raised the hand holding the ice flames, intending on testing the might of the flame toad’s demonic flames. Suddenly an ember of blue ice drifted forward and met the oncoming giant ball of flame.

  At that point, the flame toad’s fireball had already expanded to twenty meters in diameter, but the ember of the Celestial Ice Flames was only several inches long. At a glance, they didn’t appear comparable in the slightest, but upon contact, the flames and blue light ruptured in an astonishing display. A layer of dense blue ice covered the fireball, turning it into a ball of ice with a scarlet flame flickering at its center.

  Han Li was somewhat shaken by the sight of this.

  But when the Ancient Flame Toad saw that its fireball was restrained, it was enraged and threw open its mouth, releasing hundreds upon hundreds of fist-sized fireballs in a furious barrage.

  Han Li pursed his lips and waved his hands. The six tortoise puppets lying behind him simultaneously shook their shells, launching the countless icicles that had condensed on their backs towards the barrage of fireballs.

  Explosions filled the air. Ruptured icicles turned into an icy mist and fireballs imploded into large waves of flame, filling the air with roiling white Qi.

  Han Li stared in front of him and narrowed his eyes. Soon it became clear that the fireballs were far stronger than the tortoise puppet’s icicles. A moment later, the wave of fire began to overcome the icy mist.

  When Han Li saw this, he muttered to himself for a moment before suddenly retreating in a blur. The six huge tortoise puppets closely followed after him.

  At that moment, the wave of flames had completely overwhelmed the icy mist formed from the destroyed icicles and rushed forward without hesitation. But then, the six tortoise puppets shot out another barrage of icicles, blocking the wave of flames with a glacial mist.

  Han Li closely stared at the Ancient Flame Toad that now appeared motionless and had its mouth closed. According to the information he had researched about Devilfall Valley, the Ancient Flame Toad should be able to recover its strength by drawing power from lava. In addition, with its immense skill in fire movement techniques, it’s able to draw support from flames to travel over three kilometers in an instant.

  Since the interior of the mountain was submerged in a sea of lava, it would easily escape once it entered into the ground. However, Marquis Nanlong and Lu Weiying didn’t seem to mind this. After all, they were here to acquire the treasure left behind by the deceased ancient cultivator. Even if they couldn’t slay the beast, it was all the same if they could acquire the treasures from the cultivator remains. But this was not the case for Han Li since he needed to acquire the demon beast’s core for Nangong Wan. So long as the beast was lured into the spell formation and prevented from escaping, he would be able to wholeheartedly attack it. Making sure it couldn’t escape was absolutely crucial.

  When the Ancient Flame Toad saw that Han Li immediately retreated after fighting, it couldn’t help but be puzzled. Since the beast wasn’t very intelligent, it blurred forward without much thought and vigorously chased after Han Li.

  Han Li was overjoyed upon seeing this.

  After travelling a short distance, the flame toad became surrounded in a barrier of faint blue light. Several white lights flashed from the light barrier, releasing several ice dragons that coiled around the barrier, turning it icy and cold.

  The flame toad was alarmed and unconsciously came to a stop as it wildly looked around it before releasing a menacing croak.

  At the same time, light shined from either side of the light barrier and Marquis Nanlong and Lu Weiying simultaneously appeared. When the two saw that the flame toad was trapped by the spell formation, they began to unleash attacks without restraint.

  Marquis Nanlong tossed the jade ring from his hand and Lu Weiying unleashed twin blue halberds that spiralled towards the flame toad. As expected, the spell formation’s barrier didn’t obstruct their treasures in the slightest and their attacks penetrated the ice barrier to strike the flame toad within.

  The ice dragons surrounding the light barrier all flew up from it at once and attacked with brandished fangs. When Han Li saw this from a distance, he seized the opportunity to activate a formation flag in his hand, releasing a supplementary restriction in the formation to join together with his party’s attacks.

  When the flame toad saw this, it knew that things were far from good. It released a world-shaking howl and its body suddenly shrank before violently expanding, unleashing its life-saving ability.

  As soon as the beast howled, foot long shields of scarlet light appeared all over the flame toad’s body. Afterwards, they stuck to its body, creating three impenetrable barriers of fiery light.

  At that moment, the green jade ring, the ice dragons, and the blue twin halberds struck the fiery barrier simultaneously. Then a rumble shook the ice barrier and various colored lights collided, releasing a blinding burst of light.

  But when the flame toad beast wildly roared again, a meter wide beam of light suddenly shot out from its mouth, striking a side of the ice barrier. The barrier groaned as it withstood the attack, but after only a moment, a large hole was easily melted through it.

  Chapter 820: Beast Slaying

  Red light brightly shined from the center of the ice barrier and the huge pillar of flame swept all around the Ancient Flame Toad. Regardless of whether it be the ice dragons or magic treasures, they were all forcefully knocked away. The Ancient Flame Toad’s silhouette could be faintly seen within the pillar of light.

  The column of flame quickly dispersed, and knowing that it was trapped, the Ancient Flame Toad took advantage of this opportunity to attempt an escape. It transformed into a ball of raging flames and shot itself towards the hole it just made in the barrier.

  When Marquis Nanlong and Lu Weiying saw this, they hastily commanded their magic treasures to block the beast from escaping the spell formation, but they were too late.

  In the blink of an eye, it arrived next to the ice barrier, but then a sharp whistle erupted from the distance as soon as the toad’s front legs left the barrier. The toad saw a streak of black light appear and sweep towards it. Immediately after, it felt a burning and icy sensation from its leg, suddenly discovering that a large portion of it was missing.

  The flame toad trembled for a moment before roaring with unbearable pain. Despite the beas
t’s powerful abilities, it became overwhelmed by pain and promptly fell from the sky.

  Marquis Nanlong and Lu Weiying rejoiced at the sight of this and immediately commanded their treasures to surround the flame toad and unleash a flurry of attacks.

  The dark-green ring blurred several times and transformed into several hundred phantoms, revolving around the flame toad in an attempt to restrain it. As for the twin blue halberds, they turned into twenty-meter-long ice pythons in a flash of blue light before pouncing at the toad.

  Showing itself to be a great beast deserving the fear from Master Cang Kun in the past, it showed no sign of being affected from having a missing limb and condensed a dense layer of small light shields around its body in preparation to receive the attacks.

  The green ring phantoms were incapable of growing any closer to the flame toad’s body and restraining it. They were only able to strike at the light shields to little effect. As for the two ice pythons, they were able to restrain the fire element light shields with their own ice attribute attacks. With each pounce, they smashed another light shield, but the number of shields seemed endless and the attacks had little effect.

  But six beams of blue light soon joined the barrage of attacks, shattering the light shields with flashes of light. With a loud rumble, the ancient flame toad was overwhelmed despite its attempts to resist.

  When Marquis Nanlong saw this, he looked to the side in surprise, spotting Han Li who had appeared nearby at an unknown time. Han Li had his arm raised, black Qi scattering from it. Behind him, there were six tortoise puppets that were each emitting bowl-thick beams of light that were striking the flame toad.

  Han Li turned his eyes to glance at the flame toad’s severed limb that fell outside the ice barrier. Although it was separated from its body, it still glowed with red light and floated near the ice barrier as if it still possessed spiritual power.

  When Han Li saw this, his eyes betrayed a trace of astonishment.

  A moment ago when Han Li saw that the flame toad was about to escape from the ice barrier, he unleashed the Yin Devil Execution in a moment of desperation. However, he didn’t expect that the flame toad would still be so tenacious and fierce after it fell. It was still able to endure even under the attacks of two Nascent Soul cultivators and six of his puppets. It was no wonder why Master Cang Kun didn’t dare to fight it while he was weakened.

  Lu Weiying shouted, “Fellow Daoist Han, those fire-attribute shields surrounding his body are endless! I fear we will need you to restrain it with your ice-attribute ability or it will take too much time.” The light shields shattered into mist as soon as they were destroyed and after only a brief delay, the mist was sucked back into the toad’s body and the light shields reappeared. It was no wonder why Lu Weiying’s voice sounded apprehensive.

  Even without Lu Weiying pointing this out, Han Li knew what had to be done. With a wave of his sleeve, over ten sparkling golden swords flew out from his sleeve. The swords revolved around him once before condensing into a three-meter-long sword that glistened with golden light and released a chilling aura.

  Lu Weiying and Marquis Nanlong were puzzled upon seeing this. They had expected him to use that fearsome blue flame to deal with the flame toad, not unleash some flying swords.

  With the huge sword materialized, Han Li expressionlessly waved his hand. In a flash of golden light, the huge sword flew in front of Han Li. Then with breath, he blew a sliver of blue flame onto the huge sword, covering it in a layer of raging blue flame.

  He hesitated and then clapped his hands together before casting a spell seal, drawing out the Divine Devilbane Lightning from the sword. Thunder roared, raising countless thin arcs of flickering golden lightning from underneath the blue flames on the sword.

  A cold glint appeared from Han Li’s eyes. As he pointed down at the flame toad, Han Li commanded, “Go.”

  The air rumbled before the sword cleaved towards the flame toad in a streak of gold.

  After a series of violent but ineffective attacks, Marquis Nanlong’s and Lu Weiying’s pressure had begun to weaken, granting the flame toad an opportunity to catch its breath. Fire-red spiritual light pulsing from its body, it began to wildly expand as if attempting to break through the barrier with another attack.

  In the blink of an eye, the huge golden sword arrived at the flame toad’s head, striking down as it left of thunder in its wake.

  The flame toad stared at the golden sword dropping towards it with green eyes and sensed that the sword posed a massive threat to it. Unable to continue expanding its stomach, it strangely croaked and spat out a sparkling scarlet fireball to meet the golden sword’s attack.

  The fireball was only the size of a fist, but it was smooth and flickered with red light as if it were a huge pearl made of flame. As soon as it appeared, the air within the ice barrier became scorching hot.

  “Demon core? It can’t be! It isn’t material.” Han Li was initially frightened when he saw this, but was relieved to discover it wasn’t a genuine demon core. After all, the flame toad should be too afraid of the consequences of actually using it.

  Han Li continued the command, urging the golden sword to chop down at the fireball without any hesitation. With their enhanced sharpness and the might of their condensed numbers, Han Li believed the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords should be able to slice through it despite how odd the fireball appeared.

  With a bang, an astonishing scene occurred. As golden and fiery red light intertwined, the huge sword was only able to penetrate halfway through the fireball before the sword was forcefully blocked.

  What appeared to be contempt appeared in the flame toad’s eyes and it howled, rupturing the half-cut fireball.

  A large expanse of the scarlet light spread out before instantly condensing into a six meter long red python. It leaped up and suddenly coiled around the huge sword, holding it in a rigid grip and restraining it.

  Han Li was initially stunned, but he soon smirked. With his hands in an incantation seal, he pointed to the huge sword and it wildly flashed with golden light. Soon, arcs of lightning began to appear on the surface of the sword and they all struck the light python that was wrapped around the sword, forcefully repelling it.

  The huge sword took advantage of this opportunity to disappear with a tremble. A moment later, it made a reappearance above the Ancient Flame Toad and struck down as blue flames surged from the sword’s surface.

  Under the sword strike, the shields of light surrounding the flame toad were thoroughly frozen by the blue icy flames that surged from the huge sword and shattered.

  In a single breath, over ten of the small shields were shattered and the huge sword continued downward, fiercely chopping down at the ancient toad’s head.

  The flame toad didn’t expect the situation to take such a dire turn. In its last attack, it had unleashed a fireball that condensed its body’s essence flame, and without the chance to catch its breath, the huge sword had shattered its defenses and was cutting towards its head. Fear filled its eyes.

  Helpless, the flame toad could only open his mouth and launch its jet-black tongue from its mouth with a swoosh. At that same moment, it crouched on its hind legs, ready to leap.

  If it were an ordinary treasure blade, the beast’s action would’ve had an effect. After all, its tongue was incredibly durable and would be able to block common magic treasures without much effort. However, the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords had been refined with Auric Essence and were far sharper than ordinary flying swords. As soon as the tongue touched the sword, it was cleaved through in a flash of golden light while the sword continued its descent.

  Slash. Just as the Ancient Flame Toad leaped up three meters, its huge head spun as it flew off its body. Additionally, the light shields surrounding the toad soon scattered into ashes.

  When Lu Weiying saw this, he shouted with delight, “It’s done!”

  Marquis Nanlong sighed and wore a smile. He then held his hands in an incantation gesture and walked towards
the ice barrier.

  “Wait a moment!” Han Li coldly shouted, stopping Marquis Nanlong from deactivating the ice barrier.

  “What is it, Brother Han?” Marquis Nanlong wore a bewildered expression and unconsciously placed his hand on his storage pouch. Lu Weiying also glanced at Han Li, his face revealing a trace of vigilance.

  Han Li turned a blind eye to their actions and calmly said, “It's only that I’ve yet to confirm that the flame toad is truly dead. Please don’t be too hasty Brother Nanlong.”

  “What? The flame toad is still alive?” Marquis Nanlong and Lu Weiying were shocked to hear this and hastily glanced down toward the ice barrier. They discovered that there was something strange about the flame toad. Its severed head and body were still glowing with light and floating in the air.

  Chapter 821: Ancient Cultivator Remains

  Two clouds of light extended from the separated pieces of the flame toad as they gradually merged together.

  “Its body is immortal! The flame toad actually possesses such an ability?” Marquis Nanlong cried out in alarm. Lu Weiying appeared just as shocked.

  “Immortal? There is nothing in this world that is truly immortal. Its vitality is simply more powerful than common demon beasts.”

  Having read many records, Han Li knew what an “immortal body” was. After he severed the Ancient Flame Toad’s arm, Han Li had noticed how strange it appeared and felt that something was amiss. As a result, he had shouted for Marquis Nanlong to not dissolve the barrier, denying the flame toad an opportunity to restore itself and escape.

  At that moment, Han Li wore a cold smile and pointed at the flame toad’s head once more. The huge sword spun around once in the air before splitting into two and chopping down at each of the toad’s body parts.

  In a flicker of blue light, two bangs sounded out. The flame toad’s head and body were instantly covered in layers of frost. The scarlet lights was sealed within and were scattered by the flying sword’s strike. With the body destroyed, all the remained was a scarlet sphere, the Ancient Flame Toad’s demon core.