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

by Translator: Johnchen

  It was clear to see that this stabilized the black passage, but it had consumed a great deal of spiritual power. But a moment later, the black passage has lost stability once more.

  This bewildered Wang Tiangsheng. As a result, he commanded his three Core Formation disciples, “You three, come and help. Although your cultivation is inferior, you will do enough together!”

  “Yes, Sect Master!” When the three disciples heard this, they didn’t dare to delay. They hastily gathered their spiritual power and shot beams of light towards the black light.

  The Confucian scholar simply stood in place as he watched this all occurred.

  As time slowly passed, Wei Wuya and the others had poured nearly half of their spiritual power into the spatial tear and finally stabilized it so that it will no longer flickered. When the cultivators saw this, they released a long sigh of relief and ceased channelling their spiritual power into it.

  Wang Tiangsheng narrowed his eyes when he saw this and asked, “This is truly the passage into the Spirit Ether Garden?”

  The Confucian scholar didn’t reply. Instead, Wei Wuya answered, “It should be genuine. I’ve already sensed the other side of the passage and there is a vast area.” His expression stirred as he spoke and licked his lips.

  The others lacked the spiritual sense to see inside of it, but when they heard this, they rejoiced.

  “Since Brother Wei has said this, it seems to be true. However, it is best to be careful. Let’s test it first.” Wang Tiangu forcefully suppressed his giddy excitement and waved his sleeve. A black mist with the silhouette of a small ghost was sent forward into the passage.

  Chapter 838: Devil Corpse

  Pop. As soon as the small ghost flew into the passage, it ruptured into a ball of Yin Qi. Wang Tiangu, whose spiritual sense was connected to the ghost, paled when this happened; it seemed as if its destruction had caused him quite a bit of damage.

  Wang Tiangu looked at the Confucian scholar with a furious gaze and asked, “What’s going on? Could it be that there is some trick behind the passage?”

  “Did you believe that the passage to the Spirit Ether Garden would be ordinary? Let alone some minor ghost with a hollow form, even ghost king grade souls would scatter as soon as they entered. Even if I were to enter the garden, I would need to draw support from the body of the scroll. In any case, the passage has been opened. It will be up to you on whether or not you can pass through it.” The Confucian scholar spoke with a tone of indifference and then transformed back into a ball of green light and flew directly into the floating portrait scroll.

  Wang Tiangu’s expression turned sullen. From the scholar’s words, it seemed that formless entities like ghosts had no method of entering the passage. He and Wang Tiansheng exchanged looks of surprise.

  Wei Wuya mulled all of this over and said, “I’ve already used my spiritual sense to look across the passageway. Although I am only able to see a vague image, there is no doubt that there is a space beyond the passageway. I do not have the patience to further deliberate over the matter, and will be heading through first, as to avoid any mishaps that may appear due to hesitation.” He then took off into the passage in a streak of green light.

  Wang Tiansheng’s expression stirred at the sight of this. He turned to his disciples and commanded, “You three will stay here and stand guard. Junior Martial Brother Wang, let’s not be overly cautious and go together. A bit of danger is simply the cost of going to the Spirit Ether Garden.” He then turned to look at the portrait in front of him and saw that there was no further change.

  Wang Tiansheng extended his hand and summoned the scroll before putting it away in his sleeve. Then with Wang Tiangu beside him, he flew into the passageway. Since it was said that the Spirit Ether Garden contains all heavenly medicines, if they were too far behind Wei Wuya, they could suffer quite a loss.

  As a result, the three quickly entered the passageway and disappeared without a trace while directly passing through the border between worlds.

  “This isn’t the Spirit Ether Garden!” At the very front, Wei Wuya arrived through the passage. He surveyed this unfamiliar land with a gloomy expression.

  There were no other colors at their destination apart from grey, and piles of black stone were spread out as far as the eye could see. All Wei Wuya could see for five kilometers around them was grey mist that reached a hundred meters into the sky.

  Before any of them had arrived, they wouldn’t have believed the Spirit Ether Garden’s legends, where all kinds of spiritual herbs grew and possessed several times more spiritual Qi than the mortal realm. However, when Wang Tiansheng and Wang Tiangu arrived, their expressions appeared odd as if containing both anger and surprise.

  Wei Wuya turned his head and looked at them with slight surprise before raising his guard. He originally believed that they would’ve called upon Master Cang Kun’s remnant soul from the portrait scroll in anger once they arrived at the so-called Spirit Ether Garden.

  Eventually, the Ghost Spirit Sect Master broke the silence and said, “Junior Martial Brother, do you feel it? The devilish Qi here is at least two times greater than that of the mortal realm. If we were to fight here, the might of our devilish arts should be substantially increased.”

  Wang Tiangu’s eyes flickered and he replied with a complex expression, “Senior Martial Brother, we cultivate the same devilish arts. How could I not feel it? If we were to cultivate here, we would have a very large chance of breaking through our bottlenecks.”

  When Wei Wuya heard this, the stone he was standing on shattered and he gloomily said, “Fellow Daoists, are you not going to call upon the soul remnant and interrogate him? Don’t tell me that I’ve exerted such a great effort only to arrive here.”

  When Wang Tiansheng heard this, he was reminded of the anger he had towards the soul remnant and replied with a malevolent expression, “Of course. If he doesn’t give us an explanation, I will show him the pain of soul refinement.” He then tossed the scroll on the ground, wishing to summon Master Cang Kun’s soul remnant.

  But before Wang Tiansheng could execute the technique to summon him, light flashed from the scroll and a ball of green light shot out. Standing at the side, Wang Tiangu acted swiftly, releasing a foot-large black hand of light to grab it. However, the ball of green light seemed to have already predicted this and was able to quickly avoid it before streaking across the air.

  Knowing his place, Wei Wuya simply watched from the side. As for Wang Tiansheng, he was furious from the soul remnant’s impudence.

  He summoned a crimson command medallion with a flip of his hand and a harsh expression appeared on his face. He fiercely shook the medallion in the direction that the green light flew off and the medallion began to glow in crimson light, slowing down the ball of green light in the distance and causing it to sway.

  Wang Tiansheng rejoiced at the sight of this, but the ball of green light began to stabilize and flew off with even greater speed. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a small speck of light in the distance. Not only was the Ghost Spirit Sect Master stunned by this, the other two were also dumbstruck.

  “If I am not mistaken, the Ghost Spirit Sect’s Soulfright curse no longer has an effect on the soul remnant. Interesting. I will go and capture it in your place and see what the ghost intends.” Wearing a cold smile on his face, Wei Wuya streaked through the air in a blur of green.

  Wang Tiangu recovered from his shock and said, “Senior Martial Brother, what...”

  “When I used the Soulfright Curse on him earlier, it was working as intended, as you personally witnessed. Now, I am also quite interested in why it has no effect on it. Let’s follow after him. I also wish to know what he is scheming to have brought us here.” With a malevolent expression on his face and an ominous glint shining from his eyes, Wang Tiansheng shot after them. Given that this pocket dimension was only so large, he didn’t need to fear that they would escape from sight.

  Wang Tiangu bitterly laughed and could
only follow after him.

  Not long after, the two arrived near the center of the pocket dimension and found Wei Wuya facing the materialized form of the Confucian scholar in confrontation. The scholar didn’t display the slightest trace of fear, somewhat to the two’s surprise. But when the two raised their head to look behind him, they felt a wave of alarm.

  Thirty meters behind the Confucian scholar, there was a hundred meter tall demonic statue carved out of fiery crystal that was shrouded in faint mist. It had two arms, four legs, a single horn, and pitch-black scales that shimmered with light. It had an evil and fierce appearance with bared fangs.

  Wang Tiangu’s heart thumped and he cried out in alarm, “What is this? It has such dense devilish Qi.”

  He wasn’t shocked by the huge demonic statue’s appearance, but the dense devilish Qi that it emitted nearby despite being sealed. It was several times denser than what they had felt where they arrived, arousing a faint feeling of trepidation.

  “We’ll talk about that later. First, we’ll hear what he has to say.” Wang Tiansheng looked at the demonic statue with fear, but after some hesitation, he floated down to Wei Wuya’s side with Wang Tiangu. After all, he didn’t have much to fear with the backing of a late Nascent Soul cultivator.

  When the scholar saw the other two arrive, he smiled without the slightest fear. “Fellow Daoists, come. This is good. Now I won’t have to explain myself more than once.”

  “For what reason did you bring us here?” Wang Tiansheng spoke calmly, but after examining the scholar, his heart was shaken.

  This was because the crimson talisman characters were continuously flickering across the scholar’s body. The Soulfright Curse was clearly under full effect, but despite the pulsing talisman characters roaming his skin, the scholar was wearing a beaming smile that didn’t contain even a trace of pain. Not to mention that his materialized form was completely stable and didn’t show any signs of distortion.

  With complete calm, the scholar said, “Given that Fellow Daoists Wang cultivated a devilish art passed down from antiquity, I’m sure they’ve felt a devilish Qi that isn’t present in the mortal world.”

  “So what? Do you mean to say that this is the Spirit Ether Garden?” Wang Tiangu asked.

  The scholar chuckled and said, “The Spirit Ether Garden? It could be, or not.”

  An icy expression appeared on Wang Tiangu’s face. “What do you mean by that? Do you still wish to play with us even after we arrived here?”

  The Confucian scholar wore an odd expression and said, “Did you truly believe that the cultivators of antiquity would leave behind a secret area filled with medicine and spiritual Qi for you later generations? Countless years in the past, there truly was such a thing as the Spirit Ether Garden and several of them in fact. But now, they are all plucked clean and were destroyed in battles for possession. It might be true that this was an abandoned Spirit Ether Garden, but now, it is simply a pocket dimension that borders our Holy Realm and the mortal realm.”

  “Holy Realm? You’re an Elder Devil!” When Wei Wuya heard him, he shouted out in alarm with a harsh voice. At that same time, he hastily formed an incantation gesture and submerged his body in green roiling mist.

  Chapter 839: Decay Transformation

  “You know of our Holy Realm?” A trace of alarm flashed past the scholar’s face, glancing at Wei Wuya in surprise.

  Within the green mist that shrouded him, Wei Wuya icily said, “Although I don’t know much of the Elder Devil realm, I do know that you Elder Devils were incapable of coexisting with the ancient cultivators. In times of antiquity, you even attempted to rule over our mortal realm.”

  The Ghost Spirit Sect Master and Wang Tiangu’s expression changed upon hearing this and black light flickered from their bodies. Yin Qi emerged and enveloped them in a sphere. When they turned their gazes towards the Confucian scholar once more, they unconsciously took two steps back.

  Although the two hadn’t heard of the Elder Devil Realm or Elder Devils, Wei Wuya’s intimidated appearance and the scholar’s confident calm had caused them to be vigilant.

  With a deliberate tone, the scholar calmly said, “You don’t need to know what I am. I simply wish to make an exchange with you. If you agree, your cultivation will be vastly increased and you may even ascend to the realm of Deity Transformation. Would you three be interested in listening?”

  The Ghost Spirit Sect Master exchanged a glance with Wang Tiangu and calmly said, “Oh, we might as well hear this grand offer for the time being!”

  “It’s quite simple. Do you see the Elder Devil corpse behind me? Assist me in removing its seals and I will use its body to open a tear into the Holy Realm. As a reward, I will use the True Devil Qi of the Divine Ancestors to turn your constitution into that of a supreme devil, becoming a member of our Holy Realm. Would you three be willing? With your talents, your cultivation will make massive leaps once the infusion of devilish Qi is finished. Entering the Deity Transformation stage would only be a matter of time.” The scholar’s voice was smooth and alluring.

  “Dissolve the seal and infuse devilish Qi?” The Ghost Spirit Sect Master felt his heart stir. An instant and massive increase in cultivation and the ability to enter Deity Transformation stage were truly tempting. He turned to look at Wang Tiangu and saw that he was tempted as well.

  Having lived for so long, Wei Wuya was beyond cunning and was able to see their intentions at a glance, so he called out to them, “Snap out of your foolishness! Do you truly believe you will still be yourselves after being infused with devilish Qi? You could lose your intelligence and become a puppet of that Elder Devil.”

  “Brother Wei, what do you mean?” Wang Tiangu immediately sobered as if cold water was dumped on his head.

  Wei Wuya spoke without the slightest restraint, “What do I mean? You dare to trust a devil from another world? Although I don’t know exactly what this devilish Qi will do to you, do you truly believe that forcefully raising your cultivation with strange Qi from another world will be good for you?”

  The Ghost Spirit Sect Master and Wang Tiangu’s expressions grew unsightly when they heard him. Then their gazes turned icy as they looked at the scholar.

  When the scholar heard this, he frowned and thought to say something when Wei Wuya’s expression had a strange change.

  There was a sudden whistle from a rock pile three meters behind them and a black blur shot out of it, penetrating the scholar’s abdomen in an instant. Then it shot thirty meters away and spiralled in the air.

  It was a small, jet-black snake. It had a small snow-white, thumb-sized horn that appeared incredibly sharp and a glossy black scaleless body.

  A bowl-sized hole appeared in the scholar’s abdomen. Because he didn’t have a body of flesh, there was no blood, but the hole revealed the shattered remains of a walnut-sized crystal in his the body.

  The scholar stared at the shattered gem with an expression of disbelief, “How did you know where my soul stone was?”

  From the green mist, Wei Wuya emotionlessly said, “I do not cultivate the Ghost Dao so I don’t know what a soul stone is. However, my soul devouring snake is rather adept in dealing with Yin ghosts and demon souls. Killing a materialized soul remnant was an easy task for it.”

  When the scholar heard this, he wryly smiled as his body burst into a cloud of grey-white Qi that roiled throughout the air.

  The Ghost Spirit Sect Master and Wang Tiangu appeared surprised at this turn of events, but when they glanced at the huge demonic statue in the distance, they sighed with relief.

  As Wang Tiangu looked at the devil corpse, he couldn’t help but ask, “Fellow Daoist Wei, shall we destroy the Elder Devil Corpse?”

  After some silence, Wei Wuya shook his head and said, “If it could be destroyed, don’t you think the ancient cultivators would’ve done so already? It’d be best if we left this place.”

  Wang Tiangu grew hesitant as the Ghost Spirit Sect Master broke the silence and said, “
Brother Wei’s words are reasonable. This place is quite strange, and it’d be best for us to leave sooner rather than later.”

  When Wang Tiangu heard this, he raised no further objections and took to the air as a voice suddenly spoke out from behind them, “Who said you can leave? Since you’ve arrived at the place where my devil body was sealed, do you believe that you’ll be able to leave alive? Forfeit your lives while you still have the choice!”

  When they heard this familiar voice, the cultivators quickly turned around in disbelief and saw that the white Yin Qi that had previously scattered from the scholar had condensed into a ball.

  In the blink of an eye, it took the form of a grey, single-horned ghost head that malevolently stared at the three cultivators.

  Upon seeing this, the Ghost Spirit Sect Master was the first amongst them to attack. He quickly raised his hand and released a black flying dagger. The dagger sliced through the center of the ghost head, but the split halves condensed back into one as if nothing had happened.

  When the three saw this, they felt their blood turn cold and their expressions revealed shock. The Ghost Spirit Sect Master in particular felt his heart drop.

  The Ghost Spirit Sect was specialized in secret techniques that controlled and destroyed ghosts and the sect master’s own flying dagger was refined with this in mind. But when it had no effect on the ghost head, a faint feeling of dread blossomed in his heart.

  When Wei Wuya saw this, he sharply whistled and the horned snake spiralling in the air swept down in a black streak. At that same time, his green mist roiled and a large, dark-green arm appeared from within it. With a faint tremble, it charged towards the ghost head in a fierce streak.

  The other two had no intention of letting Wei Wuya deal with it on his own. One of them spun around and released a cloud of Yin Qi towards the ghost head while the other took a deep breath and spat out a sparkling gold skull that howled forth.