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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Then, she felt her heart sink.

  It was now clear that this technique was powerful far beyond her expectations, and hadn’t the slightest hope of breaking it.

  The strange cackle continued to grind without end and with greater volume, now more thunder than laughter. In the time being, even more eyes began to appear, each one just as large as before.

  Soon, the demonic orbs filled the sky above the haze surrounding them.

  They suddenly began to light up and changed into bright crescent moons. Afterwards, footsteps emerged from the haze along with harsh wails, almost as if the nightfiend would emerge at any moment.

  These overwhelming circumstances unnerved the black-robed woman and she asked, “Brother Han, do you have a method to dissolve this technique?”

  If this mysterious Fellow Daoist Han wasn’t able to dispel this technique, she had resolved herself to consume a large amount of blood essence to employ a secret technique.

  Instead of replying to her, Han Li raised his hand and released a dense bolt of golden lightning.

  In a clap of thunder, it struck one of the crescent moons in the haze.

  A resounding explosion sounded out as the golden lightning ruptured along with the crescent. At nearly the same time, the other eyes collapsed into endless streams of silver dust, filling their surroundings with blinding light.

  The black-robed woman suddenly felt her world spin around her and couldn’t help but close her eyes once more. By the time her senses returned to normal, she discovered that she was in the cavern once more without a trace of mist or light to be found.

  She felt greatly relieved to be freed of the bewitchment and managed to collect herself.

  The Silver-winged Nightfiend was now across from them, at the base of the bamboo stem and remained still. However, his wings were folded in front of him to block the dense bolt that Han Li had released. With crackles and light still sparking from the wings, he grimly looked in Han Li’s direction.

  The black-robed woman now spotted a pitch-black mirror held in the nightfiend’s green hand.

  It wasn’t large or remarkable, but glowed with a wicked inky light. If a person looked at it, they would sense their mind sinking in.

  “Now that’s baffling. You were able to find me from within the illusion... With the assistance of the Evil Moon Mirror, my Silver Eye Bewitchment should near twice in power. Even more formidable spiritual sense shouldn't be able to see past it. Could it be you’ve cultivated an exceptional spirit eye technique?” After this was said, the nightfiend waved its wing and limped the remnant lightning to the side.

  When Han Li heard this, he coldly smiled. In utter silence, he shook his sleeve and released several tens of golden flying swords around him with a clear ring, gathering to his front as a wave of gold. Meanwhile, thunder rang out from his back with the appearance of a pair of silver wings.

  Not stopping there, Han Li took a deep breath before spitting out a snow-white pearl covered in twirling purple flames. As soon as it appeared, the temperature in the cavern steeply dropped.

  The Silver-winged Nightfiend was indifferent to the appearance of Han Li’s flying swords and only slightly surprised at the appearance of his wings. The Snow Crystal Pearl wrapped in Purple Apex Flames, however, caused its face to grow solemn as it recognized the formidable threat.

  Then for a finishing touch, Han Li: slapped his storage pouch, filling the air with a swarm of golden beetles; clasped his hands in an incantation gesture, summoning a barrier of seven-colored light around him; and flipped his hand to summon a glowing purple mirror in the air.

  Apart from his greatest killing measures, he now displayed the full might of his long gathered power.

  Now that he faced a fearsome enemy that was superior to even a late-Nascent Soul cultivator, he couldn’t afford to hold back.

  Chapter 988: The Evil Moon Mirror

  The black-robed woman’s spirits were roused upon seeing Han Li control so many exceptional magic treasures.

  She raised her hand and summoned a small azure shield before slapping her storage pouch and summoning two butterfly-shaped magic treasures. They fluttered about as if they were alive.

  As a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator, she had even more treasures, but in battle, the more treasures summoned didn’t necessarily translate to an advantage.

  Using magic treasures would restrict a certain amount of one’s spiritual sense, and in battle, one needed to spiritual sense to utilize magic techniques as well. As for spiritual sense one needed to preserve, that depended on individual circumstances.

  If one had stronger treasures but weaker techniques, they would use more of their spiritual sense to summon treasures, and vice versa.

  In addition, the more formidable a treasure, the more spiritual sense that was required to control it. As such, there were few Core Formation cultivators capable of effectively controlling ancient treasures. Even those with more powerful spiritual senses can only select a few powerful treasures in battle. Han Li’s simultaneous use of this many treasures clearly displayed just how powerful his spiritual sense was.

  But before they could launch an offensive, an ominous light shined from the Silver-winged Nightfiend’s face and an immense pressure burst from his body. Then, he shot forward and struck the ground with his palm.

  Before the two cultivators realized what had happened, an eruption sounded out from the cavern and the huge spell formation around them suddenly glowed with rainbow light. The dried corpses chained to the stone pillars in the area then began to stir.

  “Not good!” Han Li shouted in alarm. Without another thought, he flapped his wings, leaving only his Gold Devouring Beetles and Weeping Soul Beast behind in a flash of silver.

  The Silver-winged Nightfiend sinisterly smiled and black energy flared from his body. Then, he too, vanished.

  A blast sounded out at the edge of the formation. Silver and black streaks simultaneously weaved in and out of sight. Following an explosion, the light faded away to reveal two winged figures, Han Li and the Silver-winged Nightfiend.

  In that short time, the chained dried corpses released wisps of Qi as dark beams of light shot out from the stone pillars, forming a huge barrier of light surrounding the area.

  They were now trapped with no way out.

  The black-robed woman was already making her way out of the area upon seeing what was happening, but she was still too late. The barrier appeared after she only flew sixty meters away. Seeing that she was trapped, her expression wavered.

  Vexed, Han Li looked at the nightfiend with a gloomy expression.

  At that moment, the nightfiend was glowing with black light and had flickering crimson rings flash around his neck and limbs. They were clearly restrictive magic tools.

  Han Li sighed and coldly said, “As expected, you can’t leave the range of the formation. Why else would you remain here given your grand abilities? Though I didn’t expect that you could be able to activate it without the use of spirit stones.”

  While the light from the spell formation faded away, the black pillars and barrier didn’t show any sign of wavering.

  The nightfiend flared his wings and let out a deep laugh of satisfaction. “It is a devil entrapment formation specifically laid down for me. But little would the creators of the spell formation know that after so many years, a portion of its restrictions would be under my control. You’re now trapped here with me.”

  An icy light flashed from Han Li’s eyes and the Weeping Soul Beast snorted. A mist of dazzling yellow light rushed out, moving to capture the nightfiend with immense speed.

  The nightfiend’s laugh was cut short and he suddenly waved his wings, disappearing in the blink of an eye, he reappeared near the huge stalk of bamboo.

  But with a wave of the Weeping Soul Beast’s head, the yellow light pursued after the nightfiend relentlessly.

  The nightfiend glared at the attack with unconcealed hostility and waved his wings, suddenly releasing countless rays of li
ght, aimed at the yellow mist that the Weeping Soul Beast had released. Unexpectedly, the yellow mist wasn’t able to block the light despite his innate ghost restraining properties.

  Although Han Li knew that the Silver-winged Nightfiend was no ordinary refined corpse, the scene caused his heart to tremble.

  When the Silver-winged Nightfiend saw that his attack was effective, most of the fear was gone from his heart and he sneered loudly. His body blurred with black light and re-appeared above the Weeping Soul Beast. He then opened his mouth to reveal shining black energy as if intending to release an attack.

  However, he suddenly heard loud buzzing above him and looked up in astonishment, instead releasing the black light from his mouth towards the sky and striking a three-meter-wide golden cloud. They were Han Li’s Gold Devouring Beetles.

  When Han Li made use of lightning movement, the beetles had remained in place. Now that the nightfiend appeared near them, he ordered them to attack without reservation.

  The black beam was corpse Qi that the nightfiend had refined for countless years. Not only was it incredibly corrosive and cold, but it even contained vicious corpse poison.

  The Gold Devouring Beetles were normally resistant to poison and other effects, but upon contact with this light, the beetles began to fall from the sky in troves. A third of their number had been reduced from this single strike.

  The rest all scattered and were no longer concentrated in a single place.

  In that brief moment, the Weeping Soul Beast had already launched another attack, releasing one more yellow mist with a snort.

  The nightfiend then calmly flapped his wings and reappeared over thirty meters away, dodging the yellow mist.

  Silver light then flashed and thunder clapped from where it originally stood, followed by Han Li’s appearance.

  He wordlessly waved his arm and had his flying swords sweep towards the Silver-winged Nightfiend in a golden tide. The purple mirror circling above his head shined with light and shot a purple ray after them. Meanwhile, he stealthily flicked his finger from his sleeve and a red line briefly appeared.

  With that done, he glanced at the Gold Devouring Beetles lying on the ground. Their wings suddenly stirred and they buzzed to the air once more, much to Han Li’s relief. However, they appeared quite weakened from the previous attack.

  Additionally, the black-robed woman had used this opportunity to command her two white jade butterflies to attack.

  The two jade butterflies flared with white light before expanding to the size of a person. Then with rapid waves of their wings, a white tornado appeared in front of her.

  After an incantation, the tornado transformed into two white flood dragons that charged towards the nightfiend with overwhelming momentum.

  But when the nightfiend saw so many attacks heading in his direction, he sinisterly smiled. He held onto the Evil Moon Mirror in one hand and summoned a fist-sized ball of light with the other. The ball was grey, but it contained a cold serene shine.

  He icily glanced at the attack that would first strike, the golden swordlight. He slapped his hands together and the ball of light vanished into the mirror. Soon after, black radiance flashed and countless similar balls of light rushed out and quickly fused together.

  In the blink of an eye, a ten-meter-wide ball of light appeared with the Silver-winged Nightfiend at its center.

  As the swordlight swept across it, it fiercely struck the ball.

  With a soft bang, the huge sphere popped like a bubble, fragmenting into many smaller balls.

  The golden light swept past the nightfiend and flashed as several tens of flying swords shredded him to countless pieces. Afterwards, the swordlights shot out from the many small orbs of light in the vicinity.

  When Han Li saw this, he felt alarmed and doubt sprung up from his mind. There was no way he was able to kill the nightfiend with only his flying swords.

  As expected, an inconceivable scene occurred.

  The small balls of light gathered together and reformed into another huge ball. The shredded nightfiend was also perfectly restored inside.

  Han Li frowned. The purple ray of light and the two wind dragons then aggressively struck, resulting in the same scene.

  The huge light was destroyed and scattered, only for it to become whole once more.

  The Silver-winged Nightfiend looked at the cultivators with an icy smile, but he didn’t take any action. Rather, he simply waited as balls of light flashed from the mirror in his hand, causing his surrounding light to grow even stronger.

  A grave expression appeared on Han Li’s face. Although he didn’t know how that light barrier worked, it was anything but good.

  Aghast, the black-robed woman instantly formed an incantation gesture and controlled her wind dragons to circle in for another attack. They easily shattered the light once more along with the nightfiend’s illusion, but this time, the wind dragons didn’t depart after their initial attack. Instead, its jaws gaped open and released countless blades of white wind in every direction, preventing the balls of light from condensing back together and scattering them to even smaller pieces.

  For a time, howling winds raged at the core of the sphere.

  Han Li didn’t have his flying swords join in on the attack. He instead narrowed his eyes, blue light flickering from them, and observed everything.

  Chapter 989: Breaking the Light

  “Stop the assault,” Han Li shouted at the black-robed woman, “Your wind flood dragons have shrunk significantly.”

  In truth, she didn’t need the warning, having already felt that something was amiss. When she heard Han Li, she had immediately formed an incantation gesture in alarm. The wind dragons ceased releasing blades of wind and shot away from the vicinity.

  As the dragons coiled in the air, it was clear to see that their size was reduced by nearly half.

  The balls of light had been repeatedly split by the blades of wind but condensed back together in the instant the winds dragons left.

  The huge ball now had also reached a hundred meters wide, nearly taking up a third of the space inside the spell formation.

  The Silver-winged Nightfiend reappeared in the ball of light with a cold laugh and sneered.

  Han Li sighed, having saw this in the past when he fought against Wen Tianren, Archsaint Six Path’s disciple, back in the Scattered Star Seas. At the time, he had used a peculiar treasure to warp himself in a purple cloud, preventing Han Li from injuring him with his flying swords. Han Li had relied on the overbearing might of the Yin Devil Execution to break through it and destroy Wen Tianren’s arm.

  The ability that the Silver-winged Nightfiend was using was the same in nature but clearly far more powerful.

  Though Han Li had busied himself with cultivation ever since and didn’t have the time to condense another Yin Devil Execution, he did have other techniques that could produce similar tyrannical power.

  It was a pity that his Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords were unable to form the Aureate Sword Formation, else the Silver-winged Nightfiend would be dead for certain, no matter how bizarre the technique.

  Having thought this, a plan came to mind.

  He took a deep breath and slapped his storage pouch, summoning a scarlet talisman into his grasp. Flame-like characters flickered on its surface along with the image of a life-like flood dragon.

  This was a Spirit Subjugation Talisman that Han Li had refined with the Scarlet Flame Flood Dragon’s soul after he was done creating the Triflame Fan, and the reason why Han Li was late in his meeting with the others at the entrance of Myriad Poison Valley.

  Because he had experience in refining the talisman once before, it was now far stronger and could produce even more power.

  He slapped it onto his body and the talisman entered his body, followed by the appearance of an illusory flood dragon above him.

  Glowing in red light, horns grew from his head and scarlet scales emerged all over him. In only a moment, he assumed a half transformation of
the flood dragon and his magic power had risen to the peak of mid-Nascent Soul stage.

  “Fellow Daoist Han!”

  “Yi!”

  Upon seeing this transformation, both the black-robed woman and the nightfiend couldn’t help but shout out in shock.

  When the nightfiend in particular sensed Han Li’s rapid rise in cultivation, his smile disappeared.

  Then, Han Li grasped his hands in an gesture and the tens of flying swords surrounding him began to spin. After letting out a clear ring, they blurred, turning into six identical copies of themselves.

  These hundreds of golden swordlight gathered together, flaring with the light of a scorching noon sun.

  As the flare disappeared, a giant thirty-meter-long sword materialized above the nightfiend’s regenerative ball of light, releasing an astounding pressure that caused even the demon to betray a trace of shock.

  With the huge sword formed, Han Li then pointed to the Snow Crystal Pearl, having it shoot towards the sword in a purple streak.

  At that same time, he activated a technique on the giant sword with a mental command.

  A terrifying explosion sounded out!

  Bolts of lightning as dense as an arm began to arc across the surface of the sword, wrapping around in intertwining radiance as thunder roared without end.

  Then, the Snow Crystal Pearl arrived at the swords handle.

  Purple light flashed and the pearl merged into it without a trace. Soon after, purple flames blazed on the hilt and gradually spread across the blade, fusing together with the golden lightning.

  The nightfiend’s expression turned unsightly and his complexion turned pale.

  Currently, the huge ball of light had expanded to nearly half of the area within the barrier, forcing them to slowly retreat. As the giant sword floated, both the black-robed woman and the nightfiend awaited to see what would happen with bated breath.

  Even a late-Nascent Soul cultivator wouldn’t dare to receive such a strike.