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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Han Li kept his faint smile and said nothing further.

  The three didn’t talk about anything more on the way and they soon returned to the Drifting Cloud Sect.

  His two senior martial brothers parted from Han Li and immediately went to the sect’s official hall. They gathered together their important disciples to inform them of the Drifting Cloud Sect’s new position as the number one sect of the Dreamcloud Mountains. At that same time, they discussed a few changes and future plans.

  As for Han Li, he paid a visit to the restricted area where Nangong Wan was sealed. After spending several hours there, he left with a tired expression and flew back to his cave residence.

  On his visit to the restricted area, he had spent much strength using a secret technique to examine Nangong Wan’s condition under the Soul Seal Curse, resulting in both good and bad news. The good news was that the Ancient Fire Toad’s core was truly effective and was weakening the curse’s hold on Nangong Wan’s soul. The bad news was that the effects were far weaker than he had anticipated. It would be difficult to say whether or not the core would be able to dissolve the curse. He would have to observe her for a while more before he could come to a conclusion.

  Fortunately, even if the demon core couldn’t dissolve the curse, it would weaken its effects and give Han Li more time to find a solution.

  ...

  Half a day later, Han Li was sealed inside a secluded room. He was sitting cross-legged with his eyes tightly shut. He had forcefully pushed the matter of Nangong Wan to the back of his mind to focus entirely on cultivation. Any distraction weighing on his heart could lead to a cultivation backlash.

  Ever since Han Li entered the hidden room, he remained in a meditative state. Now that he had put his heart to peace, he slowly opened his eyes and spit out a small longan-sized ball of golden threads. It spun in place as it floated in front of his chest.

  As he stared at the ball, Han Li flicked his finger and struck the ball with an azure spell seal.

  Rolls of thunder sounded out and the gold ball suddenly began to release threads of fine golden lightning. Afterwards, the ball of golden light violently flashed several times and all the lightning disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a small orb of blue flames.

  As soon as the ball of blue flames appeared, Han Li opened his mouth and spat out a small orb of his own blue flames, wrapping around it. In the blink of an eye, the flames fused together before shooting back into Han Li’s mouth.

  Without another word, Han Li immediately formed an odd incantation gesture and closed his eyes once more.

  He began to refine the last strand of the Celestial Ice Flames he needed to control the Heavenvoid Cauldron. If he could control it, he would be able to roam the realm mostly unobstructed.

  ...

  About half a month later, Han Li emerged from his meditative state and opened his eyes. He then extended his finger with a flick, summoning a small ball of blue flames in a crackle.

  He stared at the blue flames with tightly closed lips. Then, he flicked his finger and the flames flickered before taking the form of a slim snake. The flame snake tightly wrapped around his finger.

  “Go,” Han Li muttered. The flame snake then grew a pair of fiery wings and quickly shot towards the ceiling of the room. It began to spiral in the air close beneath the ceiling before nimbly fluttering throughout the room.

  Han Li silently observed the movements of the fire snake, and after the time it took to finish a cup of tea, he pointed at it.

  Bang. The fire snake ruptured and scattered blue embers shot towards Han Li in a gust of wind before disappearing into his body.

  At that moment, Han Li smiled and muttered, “It appeared the Celestial Ice Flames became far quicker after being refined. At the start it took me half a year to refine a single strand, but the same amount of flame only took me half a month.

  Han Li then tilted his head in thought and slapped the storage pouch. He summoned a small cauldron in his hand in a flash of azure light. It was only several inches wide by it was intricately and exquisitely designed.

  Han Li stared at the Heavenvoid Cauldron with a pensive expression before tossing it into the air. The cauldron then roiled for a moment before floating in the air.

  Han Li rubbed his hands together, igniting a fist-sized ball of blue flame above his palm. Then, he placed his other hand over the ball of flame and suddenly shot a stream of blue flames from both of his palms, striking the ball of blue flames and causing it to quickly expand.

  A short moment later, the fireball grew to the size of a head and began to pulse in size. Despite the violent roiling of the flames, it didn’t release even a trace of heat.

  Han Li raised his head and looked up at the small cauldron, and with a mental command, the ball of flames suddenly struck it.

  A strange scene resulted. The small cauldron didn’t rupture from the strike, but rather, fused together with the ice flames. Enveloped inside the raging ice flames, the Heavenvoid Cauldron began to slowly turn.

  Han Li coldly stared at the small cauldron and squinted his eyes. Soon after, he released his spiritual sense and immersed it within the Heavenvoid Cauldron, closely examining to see if anything about the cauldron changed inside the ice flames.

  As time slowly passed by, Han Li’s frown became more tense.

  Even when enveloped with the refined Celestial Ice Flames, the cauldon didn’t reveal the slightest change.

  Han Li lowered his head in thought before suddenly raising it to stare at the Heavenvoid once more. His eyes shined with blue light as he channeled the entirety of his spiritual sense into his eyes.

  Chapter 872: Artifact Imprint Techniques

  Not long after Han Li activated the Brightsight Spirit Eyes, his expression began to stir as if having discovered something. He raised his finger to the Heavenvoid Cauldron and released several thin threads of azure spiritual Qi that soon disappeared from sight.

  In a flicker of blue light, the ice flames began to surge around the cauldron, causing it to expand from its original size of several inches to three meters wide. Clear carvings of landscapes, animals and other aspects of gentle nature could be seen on its surface.

  When Han Li saw this sudden transformation, he calmly stood up and beckoned to it, having it move a meter in front of him as it floated in the air.

  After examining it a moment more, Han Li passed his hand through the icy flames and pressed it against the cauldron. As a result, the icy flames surged and swept up into a tornado around it. Followed by the sound of dragon cries, a three-meter-long flood dragon of blue flames emerged from the tornado. It shook itself with delight before suddenly disappearing into the cauldron.

  At that same moment, the cauldron’s faint copper exterior instantly turned blue. The various animals on its exterior suddenly began to shine with light and seemed to come to life, roaming across its surface in an incredible display.

  Han Li was unphased by the sight of this and quickly pierced the cauldron with several azure threads from his palm, pouring in an unending stream of spiritual power. When a large quantity of spiritual power was absorbed, the cauldron began to hum.

  As Han Li gazed at the cauldron, blue ancient characters began to appear and float across on the cauldron’s surface, and in a flicker of light, they began to gather three meters in the air to form a strange spell scripture. Han Li raised his head to look at it and unconsciously slowed the infusion of spiritual Qi into the cauldron, causing the characters to suddenly dim before disappearing. In his alarm, he hastily resumed the flow of spiritual Qi, causing the scripture to appear once more in a faint blue light.

  The scriptures weren’t long and only reached about a thousand characters in length. When Han Li read through it, his face initially revealed happiness but his smile soon turned bitter. The scripture was easy enough to understand; it was the method to control the Heavenvoid Cauldron.

  The scripture clearly stated that there were two conditions to control the ca
uldron. The first would be to refine the Celestial Ice Flames. The second condition was a kind of ancient technique known as the Artifact Imprint Techniques.

  These techniques were established to control Divine Spirit Treasures and other equivalent treasures. Each and every Divine Spirit Treasure passed down from antiquity has their own specific Artifact Imprint Technique. These specific techniques were incapable of being exchanged between their respective treasures as each one had their own characteristics and abilities.

  As a result, there is a clear divide between ordinary ancient treasures and Divine Spirit Treasures. Only ancient treasures that had an Artifact Imprint Technique could be considered Divine Spirit Treasures. And it was only after their respective command technique was cultivated that they could be sealed within one’s body and could be slowly tempered.

  Of course, Divine Spirit Treasures aren’t able to be fused with one’s spiritual sense unlike common treasures. Rather, they are closer to devilish artifacts in this regard. In order to gain influence on the treasure’s spiritual nature, one had to use Artifact Imprint Technique as the treasure was housed in their body. As a result, the Divine Spirit Treasure’s spiritual nature will gradually shift to become suitable to the user’s spiritual sense, eventually reaching the stage where one could wholly unite with their treasure and use it to its fullest extent.

  And given the fantastical might of Divine Spirit Treasures, it reduces its wielder to a supporting role while in use due to the strain it puts on the user’s spiritual sense. As a result, it isn’t something that can be casually used such as one’s own bonded magic treasure; rather, it requires opportune timing to use but would allow its user to easily defeat their opponents. In summary, the tradeoffs for a Divine Spirit Treasure’s amazing power was the inability to use it immediately, requiring its owner to use its respective Artifact Imprint Technique to mold the spiritual nature of the Divine Spirit Treasure, as well as some difficulty in using it during combat.

  The scripture above the Heavenvoid Cauldron had explained this in simple terms, and Han Li felt quite a bit of joy from this. But after he read the incantation, his expression to turn unsightly.

  Although the incantation itself was rather simple, it comprised of three layers. The first layer of the incantation required the cultivator to be at mid-Nascent Soul stage. As for the second and third layers, they required the cultivator to be at late Nascent Soul stage and the Deity Transformation stage respectively to cultivate.

  As a result, he would only be able to use only a small portion of the Heavenvoid Cauldron’s power after he cultivated the first layer. Greatly disappointed, he withdrew his hand and ceased pouring spiritual power in the cauldron, causing the scripture to immediately fade away.

  Han Li stared at the huge cauldron in front of him with a gloomy expression. Although he didn’t know how much strength was a small portion of the cauldron’s power, Han Li didn’t have high hopes for it. Would it be able to compare with the Aureate Sword Formation and Purple Apex Flames?

  After a moment of silence, Han Li sighed once more and decided on refining the first layer of the cauldron’s Artifact Imprint Technique. This would allow him to store the Heavenvoid Cauldron within his body, allowing him to later nurture it.

  With that thought, Han Li swept his sleeve, sweeping up the huge cauldron in a jet of azure light and instantly shrinking it back to its original size. Then with the cauldron grasped in his hand, he put it away into his storage pouch in a flash of light.

  With that done, Han Li sat cross-legged and slowly closed his eyes. The first layer of the Artifact Imprint Technique appeared in his mind and he began to silently comprehend it.

  The technique wasn’t very complicated, taking Han Li only about a month’s time to fully comprehend it. However, the scripture didn’t state that how long he would have to temper the Heavenvoid Cauldron. Fortunately, the Artifact Imprint Technique worked on its own. So long as the Divine Spirit Treasure was kept in one’s body, his spiritual sense gradually influence the treasure’s spiritual nature.

  ...

  Two months later, Han Li emerged from seclusion.

  Comprehending the Artifact Imprint Technique was far quicker than he had anticipated, allowing him to seal the Heavenvoid Cauldron inside his body. As for his remaining time, he was using the materials that Senior Martial Brother Cheng had given him as well as the puppet remains from Heavenvoid Hall to refine a single Nascent Soul grade puppet.

  This wasn’t a result of not having enough materials, but the remarkably high failure rate of refining the Nascent Soul stage puppets. He originally had enough materials to refine four puppets, but he only succeeded in creating a single one, much to Han Li’s regret.

  Needless to say, Monarch Soul Divergence’s grand puppet also needed more and higher grade materials to create. The success rate of creating this great puppet was sure to be even worse, so it was possible that he would need to collect several times as many materials for additional attempts.

  When he mentioned this matter, Monarch Soul Divergence proudly explained that the refinement method was something that he had created himself and that there was no need to worry about that as he simply wouldn’t fail. If he truly failed, then the fault would most likely be in the refinement method itself. Having heard that he wouldn’t have to collect even more materials, Han Li sighed with relief.

  Now that he emerged from seclusion, he first paid Nangong Wan a visit in the restricted area and observe the curse’s condition, then returning to his cave residence and spending several days refining many medicine pills greatly useful for Mu Peiling’s Core Formation. Afterwards, Han Li bid farewell to Senior Martial Brother Cheng and Lu Luo before heading to the Seven Spirit Islands to meet with Master Sunreach.

  Although Senior Martial Brother Cheng and Lu Luo were occupied with the acquisition of new sources for the sect, they had personally sent off Han Li from the Dreamcloud Mountains, causing Han Li to smile.

  ...

  After Han Li left the Drifting Cloud Sect, he took north in a streak of light.

  The Seven Spirit Islands were to the north of the State of Xi. It was reported that if one flew a day across the Endless Sea, one could see the huge whirlpool and the Seven Spirit Islands.

  A week later, Han Li found himself on the edge of the Endless Seas, but before he could see the Seven Spirit Islands, he had already sensed an astonishing change in the sea.

  Although the sea water was as murky as ever, it was now a slight tint of blue. And with his spiritual sense, he was able to detect small fish and other life in the waters. The fearsome sea beasts that originally lived in these waters were nowhere to be seen. And the most notable of all was the massive change in the nearby spiritual Qi.

  After flying for half a day, Han Li eventually sensed a huge spiritual Qi source from a distance away as well as seven smaller spiritual Qi fluctuations nearby, the so-called Seven Spirit Islands.

  Greatly curious, Han Li couldn’t help but fly faster.

  When he could faintly make out a few dots on the sea, he saw a small groups of cultivators floating in front of them. They comprised five Foundation Establishment cultivators with one Core Formation cultivator acting as their leader, a woman in palace robes.

  Han Li didn’t conceal any trace of himself and met the group of cultivators directly head on. Naturally, they welcomed him as soon as they saw him.

  When the woman in a palace robes saw Han Li, she deeply bowed to him after a brief moment of surprise. She respectfully said, “Greetings Senior, I am a disciple of the Harmonious Bond Sect. I’ve received orders from my superiors to block off this section of the sea. Might I ask you what brings you here?”

  Not responding to her, Han Li frowned and muttered, “Block off? It seems Fellow Daoist Sunreach was correct. There truly is a problem here.”

  “Could it be that you’re Senior Han for the Drifting Cloud Sect?” After the woman took another look at Han Li’s face.

  “That’s right, I’m Han
Li. Master Sunreach had invited here. Will you have to make a report before I can enter?”

  When the group of cultivators heard Han Li’s name, they were thrown into turmoil.

  Chapter 873: Endless Devilish Qi

  As of current, Han Li’s reputation has reached a stage of fame was known to the entire cultivation world of the Heavenly South. In their alarm, the group of cultivators revealed expressions of awe.

  Not daring to slight him, the woman in palace robes quickly said, “Since it’s Senior Han, there is no need to make a report. Senior Sunreach already gave the command to let you pass. This Junior will be bringing you to Spirit Turtle Island.”

  Han Li nodded with an emotionless face and said nothing else. The woman then called out to the cultivators behind her and had them remain behind before guiding Han Li.

  They flew towards a black dot in the distance, an island that spanned about thirty kilometers.

  Knowing it was the first time Han Li arrived at this place, the woman carefully explained, “Senior Han, this is Spirit Phoenix Island, the base of the Harmonious Bond Sect. It is neighboring the Spirit Turtle Island which is the base of the Great Truths Sect.”

  Han Li glanced at the location that the woman pointed out and found that the island was still too far away to see. However, he was able to sense a huge spiritual source in a different direction, releasing clear and astonishing spiritual Qi fluctuations. The source of this immense quantity of powerful spiritual Qi must be the rumored whirlpool.

  Han Li pondered as he followed after the woman into the distance. About two hours later, he arrived at Spirit Turtle Island.

  This island was slightly larger than Spirit Phoenix Island and its outline did resemble a turtle as suggested of its namesake.

  When the two had drawn close to the island, the woman had sent out a voice transmission talisman, causing a while streak of light to welcome them when they arrived.