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

by Translator: Johnchen

  As for the huge skeleton that was occupying Gui Ling’s attention, it echoed the piercing shriek and its body dissolved after leaping into the air, forming five grey clouds that launched towards the old devil.

  Although the pearl was destroyed and Old Devil Qian was no longer able to form the crimson silhouette, he was able to still fuse with the cinque devils and possess their body.

  Of course, Gui Ling wasn’t about to allow them to easily escape. Her body instantly shrunk back to her original size as she chased after them.

  If his Nascent Soul was allowed to escape the Greatnorth Essence Lights, he would then be capable of instantaneous movement, allowing him to quickly arrive next to the cinque devils and fuse together with them.

  But now that his movements were restricted to an ordinary speed, he had no way to outpace Han Li’s Thunderstorm Wings.

  As expected, Han Li waved his wings and appeared in front of Old Devil Qian with a raised hand, releasing a net of golden lightning.

  The old devil instantly recognized this to be Divine Devilbane Lightning and spit out a blood mist in his panic to temporarily block the attack, then quickly changed his direction.

  But then, another flash appeared in front of him, a silhouette in silver light. The light surrounding him soon faded away to reveal a middle-aged cultivator with a pale complexion. He wore yellow robes, had a blank expression, and held a small red bow in his hand — He was the human-like puppet that possessed the cultivation of a late-Nascent Soul cultivator.

  But when the puppet appeared, it didn’t attack. Rather, its eyes suddenly shined with a blinding purple light that released ripples into the air.

  When Old Devil Qian saw this purple light, he instantly became captivated as if his soul was being drawn into it.

  His body became warm and his mind grew blank.

  “No! A bewitchment technique!” Although he was now reduced to his Nascent Soul, his well-nurtured spiritual sense was able to quickly awaken.

  He rapidly turned his head, completely overwhelmed with shock, not daring to look into his eyes. Black Qi surged from his body and he quickly took off in a different direction.

  However, he suddenly felt spiritual Qi fluctuations above him and he couldn't help but to look up.

  It was a small cauldron that shined with a faint azure light revolving in the air.

  Although this was the first time he had seen this treasure, in his thousand years of experience, he instantly sensed that it was beyond strange and hurriedly flew off in a black streak.

  The cauldron then let out a clear ring and released a dense azure mist, quickly spreading out in the direction he left in.

  Chapter 1031: Devouring Backlash

  The light appeared ordinary at first, but in a brief flash it had appeared behind Old Devil Qian’s cloud of black Qi.

  Under the radiance of a thousand rays of light, Old Devil Qian roared in anguish. The devilish Qi dissolved to reveal the crimson Nascent Soul and the Ghost Sifting Banner beneath.

  A short moment later, countless threads of azure mist tightly bound his soul. No matter how much resistance he raised with violent flashes of green light and roaring crimson flames, he wasn’t able to escape them.

  Rapidly, Han Li arrived next to Old Devil Qian’s Nascent Soul in a flash of silver. He smiled and raised his hand.

  Spatial fluctuations appeared above the both of them, followed by the appearance of the Heavenvoid Cauldron.

  After it dropped into his grasp, he looked at the captured Nascent Soul.

  Old Devil Qian’s Nascent Soul writhed with terror and his heart dropped when he saw Han Li look at him with hostile intentions, but soon, a vicious resolve was born in his heart and he bit to the tip of his tongue with a grimace.

  Han Li’s gaze turned cold.

  With two pops, talismans were stuck onto the soul’s body, one gold and one silver, freezing his magic power and dissolving the suicidal attack he was about to launch.

  Right after, the yellow-robed middle-aged cultivator appeared behind Old Devil Qian in a flash of light, it was the late-Nascent Soul puppet. It had silently arrived there at an unknown time. Han Li wore a mysterious smile following its appearance.

  At the start of the ambush, Han Li had the puppet conceal itself in the direction of the palace gates If the old devil was truly as cunning as he believed, he would flee without a thought. And since the puppet wasn’t alive, its aura was concealed with extreme ease. Apart from seeing it with one’s own eyes, one would be incapable of detecting it.

  As a result, Old Devil Qian ended up ambushed by the arrow of Golden Lightning Bamboo while he made his escape, and was forcibly pushed back deeper in the hall.

  But because Han Li needed to capture his Nascent Soul alive, he used Divine Devilbane Lightning to scare him away after he destroyed the Blood Devil Pearl using the dagger refined from the Devil Essence Diamond. Then as he fled in a panic, his puppet sneaked behind him and used its witch eyes refined from the Brilliant Glow Gem to entrap him in a bewitchment technique.

  Having experienced the fearsome might of its witch eyes for himself, Han Li was confident it would be able to disable the old devil momentarily, no matter how powerful his spiritual sense may be.

  And when the eccentric lost consciousness as he expected, he used the opportunity to deploy the Heavenvoid Cauldron to easily restrain him.

  Following those thoughts, Han Li turned his attention to the small cauldron in his hand. Because he had only refined the first layer of its Artifact Imprint Technique, he was only capable of commanding it to release a bit of its light. If he truly wished to open the cauldron, it seemed he would have to first reach late-Nascent Soul stage.

  “Fellow Daoist Han, what should I do with these devils?”

  As Han Li was basking with joy, heavy footsteps sounded out from behind him. Gui Ling released a cloud of black-white Qi from her hand, containing five pure white skeletons that were reduced to a foot-tall.

  Having lost the connection to Old Devil Qian’s Nascent Soul, the cinque devil incarnations had dropped dead onto the ground, allowing Gui Ling to restrain them.

  “Those five...”

  Han Li was about to continue when the five black skulls biting onto the old devil’s Nascent Soul suddenly released their bite and screamed, turning around and returning to the five skeletons nearby.

  Not only were their screams incredibly loud, but it also inspired a blood-chilling fear that pierced the mind.

  Then, the trapped skeletons suddenly sensed something and their eyes violently flickered with crimson light , filling the air with the stench of blood.

  The skeletons all opened their mouths and simultaneously struck a single point in the black-white mist using a deep-green devil flame.

  An explosion sounded out. Caught off guard, Gui Ling’s restriction had been destroyed.

  The five shot out in streaks of white Qi towards their jet-black skulls, but when Han Li saw this, he coldly snorted and waved his hand at the small cauldron.

  The azure mist poured out from it and instantly formed a wall to block the five streaks.

  He then commanded a portion of the azure mist to wrap around them, preventing the foot-tall skeletons from reaching the skulls.

  The skeletons were then thrown into a crazed frenzy.

  Although the threads held them firm, their limbs struggled with all their might. They relentlessly spat emerald flame wisps at the azure strings that bound them.

  When Old Devil Qian’s Nascent Soul saw this, a trace of fear plagued his face and he suddenly yelled, “No! You... quickly release them!”

  When Han Li swept his gaze over across them, he felt somewhat baffled, but he wasn’t about to listen to him. The result that followed astonished him.

  The skulls suddenly let out a sharp hiss and returned back towards Old Devil Qian’s Nascent Soul.

  Right after, the skulls didn’t simply gnaw on the Nascent Soul, but their mouths began to bear down with strength, clearly intending
on devouring him.

  “Devil backlash!” Han Li’s heart jumped when he realized what was happening.

  Because Old Devil Qian’s magic power had greatly decreased, he had momentarily lost control and the obedient cinque devils suddenly turned savage towards their master.

  However, Han Li had no intention of allowing him to perish. He waved his hand at the small cauldron without another thought.

  A series of clear rings rang out from within and countless azure threads shot out from the light covering its surface, firmly binding the skulls and forcibly dragged them away from the Nascent Soul. Even so, the skulls still bit at the air with wild strength born from insanity.

  He didn’t pay the skulls any further head and instead focused on the old devil’s Nascent Soul.

  Although it had only taken a moment, the soul’s body was reduced to less than half its original size and was on the verge of death. But in his gaze, it made no difference so long as it was still present.

  Then with a deep breath, Han Li grabbed the Ghost Sifting Banner at the old devil’s side and quickly examined it before placing it in his storage pouch. Soon after, he swept his gaze to a place in the distance.

  The human puppet stirred and flickered from sight before returning to Han Li with a black storage pouch in hand.

  It had dropped to the ground when Old Devil Qian’s Blood Devil Pearl was destroyed.

  He paid no further attention to the items in the storage pouch and turned his head to Gui Ling, “Fellow Daoist Gui, deal with the cinque devils for the time being. I will be handling this Nascent Soul.”

  He didn’t wish for any others to watch while he was in the process of soul extraction.

  “Please go ahead. I’ll deal with the cinque devils,” Gui Ling calmly replied. Then she opened her mouth and enveloped the skeletons and skulls in black-and-white mist, taking over Han Li’s restrictions of them.

  He nodded and reached out to the azure mist, creating a large azure hand that grabbed the Nascent Soul.

  A streak of azure light then flew away and disappeared into the Greatnorth Essence Light nearby.

  As for the human puppet, it remained motionless.

  When Gui Ling saw him disappear, she began to examine the puppet for a long time. Then, a trace of shock appeared on her face. If she hadn’t personally seen Han Li summon it out from a storage pouch, she would’ve hardly believed that the cultivator before her was actually a puppet.

  Time slowly moved by and a quarter hour passed. The Greatnorth Essence Light stirred and parted way for Han Li to emerge. He revealed no emotion and Old Devil Qian’s Nascent Soul was nowhere to be seen.

  When he approached Gui Ling, she pointed to the five cinque devils and asked, “How should we deal with them? To the best of my knowledge, there is no other way to vanish them from this world apart from slow refinement from great Yang flames.”

  “Refine?” Han Li paused for a moment, “There is no need for that. I have another use for them. I’ll just seal them away for the time being.”

  “Then so be it.” Despite her surprise, she readily agreed.

  Han Li waved his sleeve, summoning a dense swarm of talismans from within and instantly covered the skeletons and skulls with various colored balls of light.

  He then clapped his hands together and flicked a finger, arcing lightning from his hand and weaving it together with golden strings layer upon layer around them.

  As light flashed, over ten balls of golden light appeared before them.

  With an incantation gesture, Han Li released spell seals at the balls, quickly shrinking them to the size of a fist.

  When Han Li looked at them, he frowned when something came to mind. He opened his mouth and spat out a bubble that glowed with Buddhist light.

  It was the vajra barrier that he had been nurturing his body with.

  He pointed to the item in his hand and a seven-colored radiance swept them all up, absorbing them into the golden orb.

  With Divine Devilbane Lightning and the Buddhist treasure suppressing it, no matter how vicious what lay ahead, they shouldn’t have any way of escaping.

  He finally felt at ease and placed the vajra barrier into a jade box before carefully putting it away.

  “Let’s go! Fellow Daoist Gui should have some hidden locations on this mountain. We’ll hide there for a few days and wait for the opening in the seal to recover once more.

  “A hidden location?” With roused spirits, Gui Ling instantly answered, “I did unintentionally discover a place like that, and there shouldn’t be anyone else that knows of it.”

  Chapter 1032: The Appearance of Divine Spirit Treasures

  When Han Li heard about a hidden location that only Gui Ling was aware of, he nodded and said, “Good, let’s go. If we encounter our enemies along the way, there is no need to fight them. We’ll just shake them off.”

  After he put away the human-like puppet, he hurriedly flew out from the palace hall.

  The two flew through the Greatnorth Essence Light in the blink of an eye, but when the flight restrictions took effect once more, they could only drop to the floor and use body lightening techniques to conserve their magic power.

  He swept his spiritual sense into the distance and didn’t see anyone on the exterior of the Greatnorth Essence Light, much to his delight and surprise.

  He called out to Gui Ling and calmly emerged from the light with the Tailstar Essence Shield and Triflame Fan in hand.

  After taking another careful look around, he slowly walked out from Kunwu Hall.

  It was deathly quiet on the outside, and when he had a clear view of the area, he felt a hint of surprise.

  In the large plaza past the felled Goldweight Spirit Trees, the ground was littered with holes and piles of rubble as if a grand battle occured.

  When Gui Ling walked up behind him, she looked at the scene and paused.

  “How curious, could it be they fought amongst themselves?” She puzzlingly mused.

  Han Li regained his composure and sullenly said, “I’m unsure. It is possible they encountered that first group of cultivators. Although I don’t know their origins, since they were able to rend open the seal to Kunwu Mountain, their abilities should be great.”

  Gui Ling sighed, “That could be the case. When the seal was broken, I followed them from a distance and noticed that two of them had a similar cultivation to mine.”

  “Oh, do you remember their appearance?” From the first wave here, he only knew about the square-faced middle-aged man. He had seen him use a powerful treasure to defend himself against Old Devil Qian.

  Gui Ling shook her head, “Since their strength was sure to be powerful, I didn’t dare to approach. I only viewed them at a distance with my spiritual sense.”

  Han Li was a little disappointed to hear this. He had wanted to know if the Elder Devil was among those here and if he should plan for an opportunity to seize back his two flying swords.

  But now with Gui Ling and the human-like puppet, he was confident that he would have more than a fighting chance against the Elder Devil and wouldn’t need to flee.

  His gaze flickered as he pondered for a moment, then concluding, “In any case, they shouldn’t have been able to easily exterminate those here. They most likely chased them elsewhere.”

  Although he had spoken as such, Han Li knew that something else was afoot. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have so easily departed from their original goals, much like how Grand Immortal Xu and the Endless Sky Saintess had come to pursue him.

  Could it be that the first one here were so powerful that they could force the lot of them to rout?

  But even that was highly unlikely. If they had such an advantage, why would they wouldn’t they remain and wait for an opportunity to fight for the treasures?

  With all things considered, he contemplated a moment more and rubbed his chin before dropping the matter.

  No matter what happened, his objective had been achieved. He only needed to stay safely hidden
until he could depart from the brewing storm.

  He would have to think of a method to reclaim the two flying swords the Elder Devil stole after he left Kunwu Mountain.

  Having pondered over the matter, Han Li promptly came to a decision.

  “Fellow Daoist Gui, let’s first go to the secret place you spoke of! There is no need to follow them. In a few days, there will be even more cultivators who will enter!” Han Li then led the way down the stairs to the main plaza.

  Gui Ling wryly laughed and followed suit.

  Along the way, they saw sword scars, scorch marks, and other signs of battle.

  These cultivators had been pursued when they made their escape.

  “This is...” When a huge gorge suddenly appeared before them, Han Li approached and took a look before tensely frowning.

  The huge split was certain to have been created from the strike of a blade-type treasure. It had rend the stairs in two and created a gap over three hundred meters wide and a hundred meters deep.

  He even mused that if he made use of the full might of his giant sword technique, he wouldn’t be capable of such a feat.

  Silvermoon’s voice echoed from his mind, “It seems those cultivators definitely encountered trouble, given the power of the abilities that had been displayed. The battle was much more intense than we imagined.”

  “Hmm, perhaps — but what does that have to do with us?” Han Li casually replied. Soon after, he launched himself from the ground and floated across the ravine.

  Gui Ling moved closely behind.

  After he landed, his expression stirred and he glanced at one of the huge rocks in front of him with a cold gaze.

  Then, Han Li’s expression sank and he harshly yelled, “You, come out from there!”

  A cloud of black Qi then shot out from the nearby. A Nascent Soul could be faintly seen within it.

  “Yi!”

  Since the cultivators on the mountain were more likely to be enemies than not, there was no need to be polite and let him slip away.

  Thunder rang out from his back and he suddenly disappeared from sight. A short moment later, he appeared in front of the black mass in a flash of silver light.