“There is no need for Senior to be so dejected. The cycle of death is something all are equally subjected to. Even if you ascended to the spirit realm, you might not necessarily be freed from the shackles of your lifespan and only be entering a world full of Immortals. But it is extremely difficult for mortals like us to ascend to the spirit realm. There are only a few people that had managed it since ancient times!” Something seemed to stir in Han Li as he said this.
“Hehe! I am still unwilling to give up. I’ve always believed that I am absolutely among the best in the world with regards to cultivation aptitude and intelligence, but at the very end, my soul became trapped in a puppet body and I only slowed down my death. If another opportunity had been given to me, I would've surely enter Deity Transformation stage without too much difficulty.” Monarch Soul Divergence muttered with regret and his voice gradually became softer as he went on.
When Han Li heard this, he felt a trace of sadness deep in his heart. In the past, he established a sect in the Far West and none in the Heavenly South posed to be his match. He was even more illustrious than Han Li and was peerless without a doubt, but he was never able to enter Deity Transformation stage. This pitiful end of his weighed heavily on Han Li’s heart. Monarch Soul Divergence’s current circumstances was a very likely possibility that Han Li could find himself in.
With that thought, Han Li’s expression turned gloomy and he didn’t say anything further.
The auction proceeded as usual and the items became even more precious as time went on, but there was nothing that caught Han Li’s interest. When the auction was bidding the very last magic treasures and pills, Han Li lost his patience and promptly left the auction, attracting a strange gaze from the two women that sat at his side.
After he left, he paid no further attention to the other booths and left the plaza, slowly wandering around several buildings absentmindedly.
When he passed by other foreign cultivators and a few disciples of the three noble clans, he paid little notice of them either.
With slow and steady steps, he gradually made his way to a far more remote area.
After the time it took to finish a cup of tea, Han Li stopped and looked to the side. He was now in front of a building with a white-robed Foundation Establishment cultivator standing inside it. The cultivator was looking around as if he were waiting for someone.
With an expressionless face, Han Li quickly swept his spiritual sense around him and found that there were no other cultivators nearby, nor were there any powerful restrictions. The nearest cultivators were over three hundred meters away and wouldn’t pay any attention to this area. As a result, he approached the cultivator standing inside the building.
The fierce-looking man was surprised by Han Li’s appearance and asked, “Does Fellow Daoist have any business here?”
When Han Li approached him, he smiled and said, “Are you a Kong Clan cultivator?”
The large man sized Han Li up and saw that he had a variety of pouches at his waist. Since he didn’t seem to be a vagrant cultivator, the large man politely replied, “That’s right. I am the Kong Clan’s chief external affairs attendant. Does Fellow Daoist...”
“I have a few matters that I must talk about with your clan master. Do you think you could inform him?” Han Li asked in a friendly tone.
“See the clan master? I’m afraid that isn’t possible,” the large man said with a frown, “Our clan master is currently handling important affairs. He cannot casually see a stranger. If it is important, you may as well tell me first.”
With a deliberate display of hesitation, Han Li then said, “Very well. Just as I left the auction hall, I discovered that there was an item with a problem. I wished to talk about with your clan master.”
“The auction hall? Something is wrong with your item?” The large man’s expression suddenly froze and he said, “ If that’s the case, you should bring up the matter with the Fellow Daoists at the auction hall.”
“It isn’t something that the auction hall can resolve. You’ll see once I show you the item.” Han Li sighed and then he touched a pouch at his waist.
When the large man saw Han Li’s action, his many years of experienced caused him to unconsciously place his palm at his waist, but when Han Li flipped his hand, he took out a shining red gem and handed it over to the large man. The large man’s suspicions disappeared and his body relaxed. With a confused tone, he said, “Isn’t this a Firesmelt Gem? Why would you need to see the clan master over this?”
Just as he spoke and reached out to take the gem, a wisp of blue flame suddenly shot out from the stone. At such a short distance, the large man couldn’t dodge and just as he was about to yell, his head froze and a chill ran down his body. In the next moment, his body was sealed in a layer of frost and he couldn’t move in the slightest.
Han Li swept up a wave of blue light from his sleeve, wrapping up the frozen man in it and bringing him deep into the building. He then entered the building with a blur.
Chapter 912: A Small Town Inn
Han Li brought the large man to an unremarkable room in the building and laid him on the floor. His body was covered in blue frost, and his eyes were open wide and filled with terror.
Han Li then summoned a silver needle in between his fingers with a wave of his hand and stooped down, quickly stabbing the needle several times into the large man’s head. The man trembled as a result and turned completely lax.
Han Li formed a hand gesture and softly muttered an incantation before striking the man’s body with several spell seals. The frost immediately disappeared from the man’s body and he sat up with blank eyes and stiffly crossed his legs, to then wait motionlessly like a puppet.
With azure light covering his face, Han Li waved his sleeve, releasing several various colored spell flags around him. They surrounded the two, creating a Qi concealing spell formation. After activating the formation, his body blurred and reappeared behind the large man.
He raised his hand and pressed it against the top of the large man’s head. At that moment, light brightly glowed from Han Li’s body and enveloped the man.
“What is your name and what is your position in the Kong Clan?” Han Li’s cold and emotionless voice echoed from the light.
The large man listlessly replied, “I am Kong Dou. I am the chief of external affairs.”
“Since when did the Kong Clan occupy Falcon Cloud Village? Where did the original residents go?”
“Seven years ago, the original residences were all relocated to a town by the name of Snowriver.”
“What is the purpose of the Kong Clan’s Grand Assembly?”
“That is...”
After a string of questions, Han Li extracted most of the information he wanted. At the end, he released his grip on the large man and the man immediately fell to the ground. Han Li then took out a medicine pill and forced him to swallow it before striking all the acupoints on the man’s body with a silver needle.
A while later, Han Li stood up and muttered, “With the Worryfree Needle, his recent memories should be sealed. He won’t immediately stir any trouble. It is a pity I can’t make use of the Dreamtear Technique because of my lacking cultivation and save myself all this trouble.”
Han Li shook his hand and then withdrew the spell flags before walking out of the building. Afterwards, he directly made his way to the village’s exit, having completely lost his interest in further participating in the Grand Assembly.
There were quite a few cultivators that were already leaving. As a result, Han Li hadn’t attracted any attention from the guards at the entrance.
In a streak of azure light, he made his way to the small town that the large man had mentioned.
The small town wasn’t very far away from the Snowmound Mountains. Soon, he faintly saw Snowriver Town over the horizon. It was about four times larger than Falcon Cloud Village, but it still barely qualified as a town. When he entered, it was already late and the sky was dark, leaving scar
cely few people wandering on the streets. As a result, Han Li’s arrival hadn’t stirred up any attention.
As he walked through the streets, he slowly released his spiritual sense, in case there were any Nascent Soul cultivators hidden nearby.
As he expected, there were cultivators in the town, but a majority of them were low-grade ones. The highest of these cultivators was a Core Formation cultivator that was hidden in a courtyard in the southwest corner of the town. As Han Li stealthily swept his spiritual sense through the town, none of them detected him in the slightest.
After confirming that there were no threats to him present in the town, he concealed his aura and walked down the street, occasionally sweeping his eyes to either side as if he were looking for something.
Soon, he arrived at a wide intersection, what seemed to be the center of the town. He glanced at the sign for an inn and narrowed his eyes before coming to a stop.
The signboard was a meter long and was written with the silver words, “Pleasant Arrival”. It was a common name for inns in the Great Jin. There were surely several hundreds at the very least, if not thousands. Han Li was staring at the teapot mark at the corner of the sign in particular and his eyes wandered.
After examining it for a short moment, he took a deep breath and looked up at the small inn. Seeing that there was no one around, his figure blurred and in a flicker of faint yellow light, he phased through the door as if it weren’t there.
The main hall was pitch-black and completely quiet. It was unknown if there were any guests or if they were all sleeping. After some consideration, Han Li closed his eyes and released his spiritual sense, immersing his mind with the image of the place.
He then silently turned into a gust of wind and disappeared into the darkness.
...
The owner of the Pleasant Arrival Inn was a shriveled old man in his fifties and was among the wealthiest people in the village. After a busy day, he had drawn himself into deep slumber, embracing a young concubine that he had married earlier in the year. But suddenly, he felt an icy bone-chilling wind blow past him, rousing him wide awake. He suddenly opened his eyes and broke out into a cold sweat.
In the pitch blackness, there was someone standing at his bedside, staring at him with cold shiny eyes.
“You...” Just as he was about to yell, a silver line flashed and his throat turned numb; his voice coming to an immediate stop.
“Don’t be loud. Although there are no cultivators in the inn, I don’t wish to alarm anyone. I only want to speak to you about this item.” Han Li raised his hand and a key shining with silver light appeared in front of the old man.
When the old man saw this key, his body trembled and then relaxed. Suddenly, a trace of delight appeared on his face.
The old man hastily jumped up from the bed and gestured with his hands, attempting to speak but no sound came out from his mouth. Han Li smiled and raised his hand, taking out a silver needle from the man’s throat.
The old man coughed several times and eventually regained his voice, then asking, “Could you allow me to examine the silver key?”
After a moment’s pause, Han Li handed it over.
The old man took the silver key and examined it for a long while before handing it back to Han Li with both hands. With a respectful expression, he deeply bowed to Han Li and said, “Are you the great Young Master?”
“You already saw the key,” Han Li said, “Is there a problem?”
“None. Since the Young Master sought me out and he has the genuine key, your identity is certain, but...” The old man then turned his gaze to the young woman sleeping behind him.
Han Li blinked and calmly said, “Don’t worry, I already put her under a spell before I woke you up. No matter how loudly you shout, she will hear none of it.”
“That is good,” the old man sincerely said, “The clan master hasn’t contacted me after several years. I am only a mortal, so I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t dare to make any inquiries, fearing that I would attract the attention of other cultivators. Now that the Young Master has brought the silver key, I can finally relax. Were if not for the clan head mentioning that you had changed your appearance, I wouldn’t have dared to believe it.”
“Something had truly happened to the Feng Clan. As such, I will need to open the secret reserves and take a few items out. Apart from the clan head, none knows of its location. He should’ve left behind a backup map with you. Give it to me.” Han Li spoke bluntly and with a commanding tone.
“Yes! Since you have the key to the reserve, you clearly have the qualifications to open it. Just a moment, Young Master!” The old man then covered himself in several articles of clothing and led Han Li to the inn’s rear courtyard.
Once they reached the courtyard, the old man grabbed an iron hoe and began to dig at an unremarkable corner of the courtyard. Afterwards, he used his hands to carefully search the soil, eventually finding a stone brick with a common appearance. At that point, he was already covered in sweat.
The old man handed over the brick to Han Li and said, “The location of the secret reserve is sealed in here. There is a restriction on it and I am incapable of opening it, but Young Master should be able to!”
“Of course I do!” Han Li gave the brick a few appraising glances and nodded with satisfaction. Then with a stern expression, he commanded, “Now that I have this item, you shouldn’t stay here any longer. Travel far away and hide your identity!”
The old man’s expression turned dim when he heard this. “Then something must’ve truly happened to the Feng Clan! Don’t worry Young Master, I will immediately depart in a few days. I won’t have the information of Young Master leak out.”
Han Li put away the stone brick and took another glance at the old man’s dim expression. With a moved heart, he flipped his hand and gave a small azure bottle to the old man. “You should know how things stand now. Since you’ve always remained loyal to the Feng Clan, take this bottle of medicine pills. Although you are only a mortal, the pills will strengthen your body and allow you to live a longer life!”
The old man was stunned for a moment before happily replying, “Many thanks for your generosity, Young Master!”
Han Li waved his hand and expressionlessly said, “Alright, I’ll be leaving now. Take care of yourself!” Then in an azure flash, he disappeared from the inn without a trace.
The old man glanced around him in shock and after a long while, he confirmed that Han Li had left. Then, he lowered his head and blankly looked at the medicine bottle before letting out a sigh.
...
When Han Li left the inn, he immediately flew out of the town and went to find a desolate mountain. After dropping down, he summoned an azure brick with a flip of his palm.
Chapter 913: Killing Intent
With the brick in hand, Han Li took a closer look at it and swept his other hand past it. With fingertips glowing in azure light, they brushed past the brick’s surface and caused it to ripple in white light.
He curled his lips into a smile and nodded.
The brick was consistent with what Feng Yue told him. It was actually a storage pouch in disguise, but it needed to be opened with a specific incantation. If it were opened by force, the items it contained would be turned into ash.
Han Li acquired the incantation from Feng Yue before his death and now uttered it, spitting out a ball of azure light with talisman characters roaming across it. It struck the brick and enveloped it within.
Soon, he formed an incantation gesture with a single hand and quickly pressed against each corner of the brick with his finger. With a light bang, a pitch-black hole appeared on its surface.
He didn’t take the risk of sticking his hand into it. Instead, he slapped the bottom of the brick and it trembled with light, causing two items to fly out from the hole. There was a jade slip that was several inches large and a pile of tightly bundled documents.
He easily caught them in the air with a single hand.
After putting away the brick, Han Li paid no attention to the documents and immediately immersed his spiritual sense into the jade slip. Not long after, his expression warped and turned sullen.
Monarch Soul Divergence saw his reaction and asked, “What is it? Could it be it doesn't contain the location of the Feng Clan’s secret cave?”
“It’s there, and it even details its exact location.” After letting out a long sigh, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade slip and frowned.
“Then why are you so gloomy? Could it be the cave is in a dangerous place?” As expected of an eccentric nearing the age of ten thousand years, Monarch Soul Divergence guessed correctly.
Han Li sighed and wore a helpless expression, saying, “It is possible I’ll run into trouble. The secret cave is located deep into the Snowmound Mountains.”
“Why did the Feng Clan establish it there? Could it be they didn’t know there was something strange about the mountains and that cultivators often disappeared?” Monarch Soul Divergence spoke with a flabbergasted tone.
“Who knows?” Han Li said with a wry smile, “Perhaps the Feng Clan Ancestor felt that the more dangerous the area, the safer it would be.”
Monarch Soul Divergence lazily said, “Since they had always used this secret cave, it shouldn’t be too dangerous. There’s no point in being too worried.”
“I hope so! Now that I’ve acquired the map, I can’t let this go by because of some unknown danger. If this goes smoothly, I’ll arrive there in a day.”
Afterwards, Han Li put away the jade slip and then picked up one of the documents, flipping through it before yelping in surprise.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 494