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

by Translator: Johnchen

  After putting it away in a wind of azure light, he slapped the bamboo tube on his back and summoned several jade slips out from it.

  Han Li swept his spiritual sense through the jade slips and read that they did indeed contain the experiences of Monarch Soul Divergence’s life, including many secret techniques as well as many strange secrets of the cultivation world. After a while, he put away the jade slips in his storage pouch and muttered to himself as he sank into thought.

  Now that the grand puppet was complete, the next step was to refine the Triflame Fan. Then, he should have enough strength to face the Elder Devil.

  However, the fan would be somewhat troublesome to create. He would need the assistance of the true flames of earth, heaven, and man.

  During his time at the Hundred Possibilities Pavilion [1], he grew quite interested in their vein of earthlung fire. In truth, he had wanted to use the flames to assist him in refining the materials, but now that he was in the Great Jin, the matter was impossible.

  If he wanted to refine the materials that required earthfire, he’d have to find another pure reservoir. There were many in the Great Jin and quite a few famous ones that didn’t belong to any sect. Rather, these areas were easy to find but they were desolate lands that lacked spiritual Qi.

  As for flames of man, a true fire of any cultivator would do, including his Nascent flame.

  The sole problem was finding the flames of heaven. According to the jade slip, the so-called heavenfire was the flames produced from heavenly lightning. It would require a violent storm as he would be using the naturally occurring lightning in the refinement process.

  Even if he were to use a Heavenly Lightning Bead, something that was refined from worldly lightning, it wouldn’t require lightning but that power turned into flame.

  So long as the conditions were fulfilled, he’d be able to refine all the materials in about three months. Then, the completion of the Triflame Fan would only be a matter of time.

  Additionally, he still had enough time to meet with the Nine Serenities Sect’s Elder Wei at the empire’s south border.

  Although Han Li had agreed to his request with ulterior motives and didn’t regard it with importance, there was a volcano at the southern border named Silver Snake Mountain. It erupted yearlong and was a famous fire vein in the Great Jin. Many cultivators would go there to refine their magic tools and treasures, allowing him to kill two birds with one stone.

  He was also quite interested in the matter, given how seriously Elder Wei treated the request.

  To tell the truth, he had completed about half of his objectives in the Great Jin. All that was left was for him to acquire the removal incantation for the Soul Seal Curse from the Yin Sifting Sect and seize back the two flying swords from the Elder Devil. Before then, he would have to refine another set of his flying swords with the new Auric Essence.

  After thinking about this for a long while, he settled on a plan of action, but there were still two matters he had to handle first.

  He promptly flew towards a small mountain range on the island and released his Hidden Fortune Mansion on top of one. After placing down a few concealment formations, he entered his hidden chambers.

  Six days later, he had taken in the Spiritform Talisman that he acquired into his body. With that done, he sat down cross-legged and flung a spirit beast pouch from his waist into the air.

  The bag opened and white mist spilled out to reveal a meter-long yellow demon beast that resembled a pangolin. It was the Armored Earth Dragon he acquired several years prior.

  The beast had various colored restriction talismans stuck all around its body, and its limbs were pierced with several sparkling golden needles, leaving it motionlessly lying on the floor. When Han Li released it, its eyes anxiously wandered and it looked at Han Li with a miserable appearance.

  It appeared that these few years had greatly weakened the beast’s unruliness.

  Han Li eerily said, “There is no need to play the fool, demon beast. You will agree to pay allegiance to me, release your spiritual senses of your own accord, and allow me to subject you to a soul restraint. Otherwise, I’ll simply kill you. Your demon core and scales should fetch me a good price.”

  When the Armored Earth Dragon heard this, its body trembled and fear betrayed in its eyes. But then, it resentfully glared at him.

  Han Li looked at the beast and bluntly said, “I won’t have you become an inherited spirit beast. You will only be under control during my lifetime. During this, if I perish or ascend to the next realm, you’ll be freed. Since your lives are far longer than ours, this will only be a moment of your time.”

  The dragon’s gaze wavered and appeared to show hesitation.

  Han Li mysteriously smiled and slapped his storage pouch, summoning a small green bottle into his hand. Foosh. Purple flames ignited, enveloping the bottle and releasing its lid into the air. Then, a glacial mist quickly shot out and rapidly dropped the temperature in the room.

  When the dragon felt this glacial Qi, its entire body began to tremble and astonishment appeared in its eyes.

  Han Li flicked his wrist and a drop of silver liquid flew out from the bottle and quickly condensed into a pearl.

  Its eyes grew dull and its nose began to twitch towards the pearl. Suddenly, bestial snarls began to leave its mouth as if in a show of excitement.

  “Good, you recognize it. If you agree to become my spirit beast, I’ll give you two drops of Glacial Quintessence, allowing you an opportunity to survive ascension tribulation. Now choose,” Han Li coldly said.

  Though the dragon was tempted by the pearl, its face still twitched with hesitance.

  After a long while, the demon beast still didn’t make any clear signs. Han Li snorted and then put the bottle away. Then, purple flames flickered from his hand and slowly condensed into the form of a sword.

  When the Armored Earth Dragon sensed the sword's fearsome spiritual power, its expression shifted. Han Li then released the sword, causing the demon beast to scream out in terror and yelp out in submission.

  Chapter 973: Twin Scorpion Mountain

  Half a day later, Han Li put away the Hidden Fortune Mansion and flew off to the mainland in a streak of light. He rapidly reached land after a few undisturbed weeks.

  He didn’t revisit the Heavenly Talisman Sect and instead rushed to Nanjiang, the southern border. He intermittently stopped throughout the journey to refine the portion of the Triflame Fan that required human flames. Han Li was gloomy that he wasn’t able to encounter a thunderstorm along the way.

  He wasn’t worried, rather the opposite, the dense jungles of the southern border had a rainy climate with lightning often mixed in. It would only be a matter of time before he could refine the heaven flame.

  Four months had passed before Han Li arrived at the Nanjiang[1] Region, having to go through multiple provinces along the way.

  [1] The Nanjiang Region is a name that literally translates to the southern border. Not only is this territory is on the southern border, but its name literally translates to this as well.

  The region was one of the few places that weren’t under the rule of a large sect. Rather, the region’s resources were split up between a dozen or so mid-grade sects. Although there would commonly be strife in between these sects, if an external power were to invade, they would immediately unite. Even the great ten righteous and devilish sects haven’t been able to subject the territory under their rule, assuming an almost independent position in the Jin Empire.

  Under such conditions, these sects were distrusting of outsiders and cultivated closely related techniques that were born of themselves.

  They mostly cultivated rare Yin Poison techniques that were rarely seen. Not only were they skilled in using poison and insects, their skills in curses had reached perfection. If one fought with a Nanjiang cultivator, a single moment of carelessness would result in a vicious, unblockable blow.

  The Chaoyun Prefecture was placed west in Nanjiang, with
Twin Scorpion Mountain located in one of its desolate mountain ranges. It was covered in miasma hundreds of kilometers wide yearlong. Unless one had high enough cultivation or took medicine for the miasma, they would be unable to enter.

  The mountain range was actually somewhat famous in Nanjiang. As a result of its miasma, the mountain grew many valuable poisonous plants and is the home to two types of venomous scorpions that were ideal for low-grade cultivators using insect techniques.

  When Han Li arrived near this mountain, it was during the yearly eruption of miasma. Many cultivators were gathered nearby as the two breeds of venomous scorpions would emerge from their burrows during this time.

  However, a majority of these cultivators were at Qi Condensation stage with a few Foundation Establishment cultivators mixed in. Since the mountain range was of little interest to high-grade cultivators, not even a single Core Formation cultivator was present.

  If a mid-Nascent Soul eccentric like Han Li was discovered in the area, it would be cause for a great commotion. As such, he hadn’t stayed in the mountain’s surroundings and instead flew into the dense, pink miasma. The azure light protecting his body easily blocked it and the venomous insects that lurked inside.

  After making sure of his bearings, he directly made his way to the heart of the mountain.

  Although Elder Wei had originally mentioned the name of the Twin Scorpion Mountain, he hadn’t given a specific point. As such, Han Li decided to visit the main peak first.

  While he flew and pondered about the purpose behind Elder Wei’s request, he suddenly heard a miserable scream from far away.

  “It’s a Scorpion King, an Iron Tail Scorpion variant! Everyone, run!” A hoarse man’s voice shouted out in terror, followed by the nearby sounds of explosions and a strange insect’s cry.

  Han Li glanced in their direction with blue light flickering from his eyes.

  With sounds of tearing wind, a group of men and women began to appear within the miasma as they rushed in his direction. They were running with pointed feet and were sweeping across the ground in a clear display of body lightening techniques.

  One of the women in the group caused Han Li to suddenly yelp in surprise when he saw her.

  Soon after, he swept his sleeve and an azure mist spread out, clearing the miasma in the area, clearing an area of a hundred meters. The group came to a sudden stop when they entered the clearing.

  Before they could react, Han Li pointed to the area behind them and made a fist. A hand of azure light appeared and captured something black in its grasp. Then, it flew in a circle and returned to Han Li.

  The hand held a foot-long scorpion with a shiny jet-black shell, its half-foot-long tail was barbed and glowed with a purple light. This was the Iron Tail Scorpion variant that was pursuing these low-grade cultivators.

  The scorpion was only a grade-two spirit beast, and was firmly confined by the hand of light, only capable of snarling in its capture. These cultivators were all dumbstruck when they saw Han Li in the air and were at a complete loss.

  The light around him scattered and he asked one of the women, “I didn’t think I’d see Fellow Daoist Wang here after I left the Jin Capital. Is Young Miss Cao doing well?” [1]

  “It’s Fellow Da- No, Senior Han! Junior Martial Sister Cao is still in the Jin Capital. I’ve only come here with a few comrades in search of spirit medicines.” Lady Wang hurriedly took the initiative to respectfully salute him. Ever since Han Li took off after he was attracted by the sword cry, she had come to realize Han Li’s identity as a high-grade cultivator and didn’t dare to act casually with him.

  When the others saw that Lady Wang recognized this great cultivator, they felt relieved and all stepped forward and saluted Han Li in thanks. However, they all believed Han Li to be at Core Formation stage as Nascent Soul cultivators were far beyond the possibility of contact.

  Han Li nodded in acknowledgment and then turned to look at the confined scorpion with a frown. “As the niece of the South Pillar General, you shouldn’t need to brave the risk of looking for spiritual herbs.”

  Lady Wang’s expression blanked and then she wryly smiled, “Although my clan is rich and has provided me with a few spirit stones, my aptitude is only average. How could they possibly afford so many spirit stones on me?”

  “Hmm. In truth, your aptitude is quite good; Foundation Establishment stage isn’t out of reach for you. Since we had the fate to meet again, I’ll hand this over to you. I have business to attend to soon, take care of yourselves.” After that was said, Han Li casually pointed to the hand of light.

  With a soft bang, the hand scattered into specks of light and the large scorpion trembled before falling to the ground, completely immobile.

  “Senior, I...” Just as Lady Wang was about to utter words of thanks, Han Li disappeared in a flash and her words came to a sudden stop.

  The other cultivators looked at the large scorpion variant with envy.

  However, since the scorpion was something a high-grade cultivator had given her, none of them dared to rob her. They could only watch as the woman stuck several talismans on it and happily placed it in her spirit beast pouch.

  Moments later, an explosion sounded out and the miasma covering the sky began to coil. Then, a furious wind scattered some of the miasma to reveal a black storm cloud floating in the air.

  At that moment, Han Li glanced at the black mountain in the distance and muttered, “The time has finally come.” He then flew towards in the mountain in a streak.

  Rolls of thunder sounded out and heavy rain pelted the surrounding miasma, causing it to shrink down to several meters off the ground. On the mountain in the distance, a storm began to reveal itself.

  Han Li descended onto a large boulder on the mountaintop, remaining dry with the aid of a barrier of light surrounding him. However, there were eight cultivators already gathered: two at Foundation Establishment and the rest at Qi Condensation.

  The group all had their hair wrapped in a bun and wore native outfits. When they saw Han Li appear, they all looked at each other in dismay.

  Han Li swept his gaze at the cultivators and released a flood of astonishing spiritual Qi. After waving his arm at the cultivators, he coldly shouted, “Get lost!” as wind wildly blew around him, a mist of azure mist surged.

  In their alarm, a few of the cultivators released protective barriers and hastily flew off on their magic tools. However, all of them were engulfed by azure mist and flung a hundred meters away. This made for a sorry sight as they wore faces of terror.

  At that moment, they wordlessly rushed off the mountain now that they knew Han Li was a high-grade cultivator.

  As Han Li watched them disappear from the mountaintop, he expressionlessly turned his gaze to the sky.

  Lightning roared and danced in the black clouds above him.

  [1] The green-robed woman Han Li spoke to was Cao Mengrong’s Senior Martial Sister Wang who he had earlier met on his way to the Jin Capital.

  Chapter 974: Visitors

  After his outburst, Han Li felt the last trace of distress from Monarch Soul Divergence’s passing dissolve. In any case, since he planned on gathering the storm’s lightning, he didn’t want any interruptions. With a long sigh, he slapped his storage pouch and took out various colored spell flags, sending them off in every direction with the wave of his hand, burrowing into the ground without a trace.

  He looked at the unceasing lightning in the sky and the corner of his mouth twitched. His body glowed with light as he floated a hundred meters in the air. Forming a strange hand gesture, he began to mutter an incantation.

  Suddenly, various-colored light flashed from down below. Muffled pops sounded out followed by several pillars of luminescence emerging to the sky and forming huge spell flags. They stood off the ground and remained completely motionless.

  Continuing his incantations, the spell flags beneath him began to release threads of spiritual Qi and slowly took the form of a thirty-meter-wide spirit
gathering spell formation.Within the brilliant glow, talisman characters began to rise from the center, fully activating it.

  In that instant, the lightning flashing in the distant skies were suddenly attracted towards the formation and gradually grew closer as the sounds of thunder quickened.

  Han Li narrowed his eyes and ceased casting incantations. He flipped his hand and summoned a slender jade bottle, a magic tool he had specifically refined to capture the lightning.

  He released it into the air and struck it with an azure spell seal, causing it to quickly spin several times before it held still in the air.

  At that moment, Han Li clapped his hands and raised them, releasing two dense bolts of golden lightning, both simultaneously striking the bottom of the jade bottle. In a clap of thunder, the bottle trembled and completely absorbed the lightning.

  With a murmur, Han Li pointed at the air. Crackles sounded out as lightning arced from the bottle and formed a flickering ten-meter-tall pole pointing up into the dark sky. Silver lightning split the sky and struck the golden pole before it was dragged into the bottle.

  This happened in great succession as more and more silver bolts struck down and was easily collected.

  Two hours later, the bottle gathered another dense bolt and began to release the sounds of a rumbling storm.

  When he heard this, he inwardly rejoiced. He raised his arm and reached out for the bottle, causing the golden pole to disappear and summoning the jade bottle into his hand.

  He then flung his sleeve into the sky and produced another bottle of a similar appearance, repeating the process all over again.

  With that done, he began to carefully examine the bottle that he recovered. It rumbled and trembled without end, flashing dazzling silver light from its mouth as if it could rupture at any moment.

  Han Li slapped a golden talisman onto it, and the bottle’s activity came to a sudden halt. After properly placing the lid and putting it away, he turned his attention to the sky once more.