Cultivator Yuan and Bai Yaoyi’s heart stirred when they heard this. The Dark Violet Pearl was one of the three signature treasures of the Nine Serenities Sect!
Old Man Fu slowly asked, “How about it? If you do your best to assist me and manage to capture the Umbra Yin Horse, I will immediately use it to refine the Nascent Cultivating Pill and I guarantee you each a single pill. As the pill is something that can only affect your body once, it will have the same effect no matter how many you take. For anything else you might find inside, that would be left up to chance. Even if we encounter a fearsome ghost monarch within, we’ll be able to deal with it well enough with our combined strength.”
The three were silent when they heard this. Even Cultivator Yuan, the most excited of them, wore a pensive expression.
Bai Yaoyi moved a strand of hair from her face and calmly asked, “Since Brother Fu has already made such preparations, why did you seek us out? If you wanted mid-Nascent Soul cultivators, it shouldn’t be hard to find them in your Nine Serenities Sect.”
When the other two heard this, their expressions stirred. Cultivator Yuan in particular closely stared at Old Man Fu’s face.
A fierce look appeared on the old man’s face and he angrily said, “This might be true for others but not to me. Because of grievances in the past, I’ve become hostile with most similar-grade cultivators in my sect. Apart from my Junior Martial Sister Chang, the rest are looking forward to the day I die. Even if they agreed to help, I fear they would be waiting for opportunity to betray me.”
Han Li was stunned by how empty these words were. Who could tell if they were true? However, since he’s said this, it would be difficult to further pursue the matter and they could only remain silent.
Bai Yaoyi lowered her head in thought. Then, she raised her head and said, “Given how dangerous it is to enter the Yin Yang Cave, I must properly think about it. Can you give me three days to come to a decision?”
“Of course. We won’t even begin until half a year regardless. We must first wait for the twenty-year cycle when the Yin winds are weakest in the cave, and you should also prepare treasures to deal with the ghosts beforehand. But before we depart today, I will require you all to sign this Underworld River Page with your blood essence, swearing a venomous oath that you cannot mention this to any other. I am a coward first and foremost and a gentleman later. I don’t want this matter attracting any attention down the line.” Old Man Fu smiled and with a wave of his sleeve, a piece of yellow paper appeared in a flourish of black flames.
“An Underworld River Page?” Cultivator Yuan cried out in alarm, “The wicked tool used to befall calamity on those who break their oaths. Hadn’t it disappeared several hundred years ago?”
When Han Li heard this, he felt shocked.
Old Man Fu indifferently replied, “I had to spend quite a sum in the underground market to acquire this. While it isn’t nearly as outrageous as legends swear, it can at least keep you quiet for a short time. Fellow Daoist Han might not know of the death of the Heavenly Devil Sect’s Feng Tianxing, but Fellow Daoists Bai and Yuan should know. Feng Tianxing was a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator like us and I hope that none of you would wish to test its effectiveness.”
Cultivator Yuan’s expression wavered for a long while, and then he decisively said, “Fine, I won’t let something as valuable as a Nascent Cultivating Pill pass me by. In half a year, I will arrive on schedule.” Afterwards, he summoned the flaming black page a meter in front of him with a wave of his hand. He then spat out a cloud of blood essence next to it.
He dipped his finger in the blood essence and quickly wrote a few ancient characters on the page. Shortly after, a malevolent ghost face emerged from the black flames and wickedly smiled at the large man. Then, it sucked the bloody characters on the page into its mouth before disappearing into smoke.
The strange scene caused Han Li’s heart to thump.
Old Man Fu recalled the page and examined it for a moment before revealing a satisfied expression. Then, he turned his gaze to Bai Yaoyi.
The woman shortly hesitated before resigning herself and summoned the page towards her. Following the same events, the ghost head also made a strange and abrupt appearance.
When Old Man Fu turned his sights on Han Li, he inwardly sighed. Although he felt a trace of fear towards this item, it appeared he didn’t have a choice over the matter.
He expressionlessly pointed at the page and summoned it. After staring at it, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a cloud of blood essence. He quickly wrote down that he swore not to divulge the details of the day’s meeting and in a flash of crimson light, the ghost face appeared once more from the black flames.
It sinisterly smiled and opened its mouth, but something suddenly stirred inside of Han Li and it let out a strange cry. Although the sound wasn’t loud, all the nearby cultivators could clearly hear it.
While the others didn’t react when they heard this, the ghost face suddenly warped and it let out a howl before disappearing in a panic.
Old Man Fu and the others were all dumbstruck by the sight.
Han Li wore an odd look on his face and sighed. He swept away the page and said, “There is no need for me to consider anything, and will arrive as scheduled. But it appears that there is something about me that is able to restrain this page so I am incapable of writing down an oath.
However, I am only a vagrant cultivator and won’t be departing from Nanjiang in the coming six months, nor will I tell anybody else of this matter.”
Han Li had swept back the page to Old Man Fu in a wave of azure light.
He grabbed the page, still wearing an astonished expression, and appeared to be at a loss. Apart from the Underworld River Page, he had no other method of keeping Han Li quiet on the matter.
Then, the black-clothed woman finally broke her silence, “Senior Martial Brother Fu, I feel that Fellow Daoist Han’s words are reasonable. I’ll trust him to keep quiet.”
The woman’s voice was somewhat hoarse, but it invoked an indescribable attraction. With a flutter of her bright eyes, it felt like she could bewitch someone with her beauty.
Chapter 977: An Eccentric
When Old Man Fu heard his Junior Martial Sister, he hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded after some thought. “Since the Underworld River Page has no effect on Fellow Daoist Han, I won’t force the matter. But I will have to place a marker on your body. It will disappear of its own accord in half a year if you remain in Nanjiang, and I hope Fellow Daoist Han won’t force me to take action!”
Han Li smiled and immediately replied, “Go ahead, Fellow Daoist Fu. I don’t care to hide my whereabouts.”
With that, Old Man Fu grasped one of his hands in a gesture and released a blue light after an incantation was muttered.
Han Li attentively watched him and saw that he was only using a common imprinting spell seal. As such, he raised his hand and allowed the blue light to strike him before disappearing without a trace.
Old Man Fu appeared satisfied and put away the Underworld River Page. Then he said, “I’ve already finished telling you all about the affair. Since Fellow Daoist Bai still needs three days to consider the matter, my Junior Martial Sister and I will remain here in the meantime. Brother Yuan and Fellow Daoist Han may depart and begin their preparations. Although the entrance to the Yin Yang Cave is covered in many poisonous plants that shouldn’t pose too much of a threat to us, I hope that Fellow Daoist Yuan will bring poison warding treasures with him. It’d be best that we don’t waste any magic power before we enter.”
“Only that much?” Cultivator Yuan chuckled, “To those of us at the Sacred Poison Sect, warding poison is an extremely easy matter. Please leave it to me. Now then, I’ll be departing first.” He cupped his hands in a salute and slapped his storage pouch to release a huge tortoise. Then, he took to the skies, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake.
Han Li followed suit and bid farewell before streaking through the sky in az
ure light.
Half a year was a bit short, but he might have just enough time to complete the Triflame Fan. As for preparing any ghost warding treasures, there was no point as he already had the Divine Devilbane Lightning and the Weeping Soul Beast.
Of course, he wanted to quickly refine the fan in case they encountered any unforeseen danger. With both the fan and the human-like puppet in his possession, he would be free of worries.
With that in mind, Han Li flew off towards the Silver Serpent Mountains at the center of Nanjiang.
Ten days later, Han Li appeared above a peculiar mountain range. The mountains only spanned for a couple hundred kilometers, but it was rather slender and winding like a huge serpent. The mountains were filled with verdant trees with many strange ones that grew faintly silver leaves. It appeared the name of these mountains were well deserved.
Han Li quickly passed by the other areas and directly few towards the top of the Silver Serpent Mountains.
Before he grew closer, he could already feel waves of hot wind strike his face along with the pungent scent of sulfur. Soon, several flaming and malformed volcanoes appeared before him. They would occasionally rumble and release grey ash into the air, creating a fear-invoking scene to a lesser existence.
Even with this activity, there were streaks of various-colored light passing nearby. Several tens of cultivators were darting in between these volcanoes. Most of them were at Foundation Establishment with a few Core Formation ones mixed among them.
This was to be expected. Core Formation cultivators usually used their own core flames to temper their own magic treasure and had little other reason to come to a place like this, even more so with regards to a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Han Li stopped in the sky and looked down below. As blue light flashed from his eyes, he looked down at the fire veins and swept his spiritual sense through the ground.
Shortly after, Han Li found the area with the strongest fire vein and arrived between two of the volcanoes in a streak of light.
He came to a stop when he was three meters above the area. Then, he flung his sleeve and released eight small golden swords. As they circled around him, he formed an incantation gesture and shortly shouted, invoking a ring from the swords. Brightly glowing with light, they fiercely cut down into the ground as ten-meter-long streaks. Suddenly, a series of eruptions sounded out from below as blinding golden light flared.
The swordlights returned from their attack and circled back around him. He had created a sixty-meter-wide crevice deep into the earth.
The cultivators refining magic tools in the nearby areas naturally took notice of Han Li’s alarming actions. There were even a few of them who flew over in curiosity.
Han Li grew sullen at this turn of events and released the immense aura of his cultivation, sweeping his surroundings with a suffocating spiritual pressure.
All of the cultivators in the nearby ten kilometers who felt this were alarmed and those who originally thought to investigate the commotion hastily withdrew. A few of the nearby cultivators that were busying themselves with tool refinement had now scattered, afraid of unintentionally angering this great Senior and bringing about their own destruction.
When Han Li saw that the nearby cultivators had tacitly departed, he was greatly satisfied and turned his attention to the crevice down below.
Soon, the cultivators that came to Silver Serpent Mountain to refine their magic tools had all scurried off knowing that there was a Nascent Soul-grade cultivator nearby, turning a five kilometer area around Han Li into a temporary restricted area.
As time passed by, the crevice was silent with no activity, but after a month, the sounds of thunderous explosions would occasionally call out. These explosions grew more sparse after another month passed by, but they were instead replaced with a series of clear rings similar to a phoenix’s cry. Soon after, all that was left was silence.
While Han Li was busying himself with creating the Triflame Fan, there were a dozen variously-dressed cultivators gathered together in a side chamber of the Great Jin’s Imperial Palace, including those dressed in Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian attire. These cultivators all possessed Nascent Soul cultivation. Two in particular possessed mid-Nascent Soul cultivation, a square-faced cultivator and an old Daoist Nun holding a golden cane. The old man with a black hat was amongst them as well.
These dozen people were all sitting in the hall but none had uttered a word. They would only impatiently look at the hall’s door.
The square-faced cultivator turned to a white-haired Daoist priest and asked with a trace of apprehension, “Eleventh brother, are you sure it is him? Three hundred years ago, I personally saw our Seventh Uncle perish.”
“Given how unique Seventh Uncle’s appearance is, how could I have mistaken him or his magic treasure, the Glacial Moon Blade?”
The old Daoist Nun gloomily asked, “Second Brother, there is no need to be nervous. It will only be a moment before we know for certain. What is there to fear now that we’ve all gathered. If he is truly our Seventh Uncle, then he will be of tremendous help to our Ye Clan. If he is fake, then he won’t be setting foot outside of this hall even if he were a late-Nascent Soul cultivator.
“That’s true, but we may as well be careful.” The square-faced cultivator felt that her words were reasonable and sighed, speaking no further.
After two hours had passed, the sounds of bell rings sounded from a distance. A lanky silhouette then appeared at the hall’s entrance. He took a step forward in the air before strangely arriving at the center of the hall.
His appearance was clear to see. He had fine eyes and withering eyebrows, but more notably his head that was far larger than what was considered ordinary and his swaying neck that appeared to be on the verge of snapping at any moment.
When the cultivators all saw this peculiar appearance, they all stood up in shock. The square-faced cultivator took a deep breath and carefully asked, “Are you truly our Seventh Uncle?”
The eccentric chuckled and tossed a green jade slip towards him. “Second Nephew, have you already forgotten me after a few hundred years? However, this is not surprising. My return from death is sure to raise doubts. I have Third Nephew’s sound transmission slip here. Take a look.” The eccentric chuckled.
The square-faced cultivator caught the jade slip with an alarmed expression and quickly sank his spiritual sense into it.
After a long while, his expression fluctuated several times before withdrawing his spiritual sense. Then with an expression of joy, he deeply saluted the eccentric and said, “So Seventh Uncle’s death was something that our grand elder had orchestrated. Forgive me, I have been lacking in manners.
The uncle waved his hand and said, “I am happy that you acted with such care. How could I blame you?”
The other cultivators then began to look through the jade slip and soon, all of them called out to him with delight and paid their respects.
“It truly is Seventh Uncle!”
“I pay my respects to my third Great Uncle!”
The eccentric waved his hand with a chuckle and took the main seat in the hall. “You may stop.”
The old Daoist Nun respectfully replied, “Third Brother stated that two hundred years ago, Seventh Uncle had entered late-Nascent Soul stage. Is this true?”
“That is correct. In the past, those great sects were secretly plotting to strike me down, feeling that it was possible for me to enter it. As per the clan’s arrangements, I fled after escaping calamity and managed to somehow live up to my expectations and ascended to this stage of cultivation. The last generation of Ye Clan Elders had schemed for me to make an appearance when our clan was on the verge of death. But Third Nephew, who was the only one who knew of my existence, suddenly came to find me, and told me about your plans. As the grand elder of the current generation, he asked me to assist in this matter. I considered it for a while and felt that it was important enough for me to break my concealment.” The eccentric’s face
turned serious.
Chapter 978: A Half Year Later
The square-faced cultivator happily said, “With Seventh Uncle and Third Brother, we will have two great powers assisting us in acquiring the treasure. And with all of our clan’s internal disciples and the external cultivators we’ve hired, we will be able to contest against the ten great sects of the Righteous and Devilish Dao. Our expedition to Nanjiang will have great hopes for success.”
The eccentric slowly said, “I’ll only be lending my strength and nothing more. Whether or not the Ye Clan will be able to escape the control of the Righteous and Devilish Dao will be up to you lot.”
The square-faced man and the old Daoist nun both rejoiced upon hearing this and uttered humble words. Afterwards, the elders of the greatest clan in the Jin Empire schemed for half a day more before departing from the hall.
...
In a hidden room in the chambers of the Imperial City, the huge figure of a two-headed four-armed devil was shrouded in pitch-black devilish Qi with purple-black light twinkling from his eyes.
After an unknown amount of time, the devil eventually shouted, and the Qi surrounding him coiled as it rushed into his body like streams to the ocean. His body crackled in great succession as he held his arms in an incantation gesture and his body assumed the form of an ordinary youth with a face that resembled Han Li.
This was the Elder Devil that had concealed itself inside the Ye Clan.
The devil spoke with a sneer, “Not bad, I’ve mostly recovered from my injuries. So long as I don’t encounter any of those ancient eccentrics, none will be able to cope against me in the Great Jin. Those Ye Clan members should soon take action, and with my familiarity with ancient matters, they will certainly bring me along. When I’m there, hehe...”
...
In the Yin Sifting Sect’s secret cave outside the Jin Capital, Ge Tianhao said to the Endless Sky Saintess, “I’ve already acquired information that the Nine Serenities Sect’s Fu Cheng has appeared in Nanjiang. Were it not for a tip we received, we wouldn’t have known that he had joined the underground trade meet with that wretch surnamed Han. It is possible that he is accompanying Fu Cheng. Since our sect’s grand elder has matters to attend to in the area, he will be making a trip in passing and will personally deal with this Han fellow if he manages to discover him. Is Fellow Daoist Lin interested in going?”
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 529