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

by Translator: Johnchen

  “So it seems it’ll take some time before victory is certain, I can’t delay this any longer!” Yuan Cha saw that the giant wind sphere was about to lose control and took a deep breath. Then, her figure blurred, disappearing like a wisp of smoke.

  Ling Long paused, then wore a harsh expression in realization. Her head of silver hair flicked forward, shooting towards an empty space beneath the sphere.

  But before her silver hair arrived, black Qi suddenly condensed to form a three-meter-large black wolf with two heads.

  The wolf revealed surprise upon seeing silver hairs shoot towards it, but it soon turned to disdain. It shook its body and released spikes of sparkling black fur from its back like a barrage of arrows. As the attacks collided, deafening clangs rang from the air.

  The wolf then used this opportunity to dive straight into the sphere of wind.

  The sphere violently trembled for just a moment before it became entirely stabilized.

  At the same time, Han Li sensed that the black knife became slowed as if it had sunk into a pit of tar.

  In his alarm, he ordered the puppet to channel all of its spiritual power into the knife to forcibly recall it. But an icy snort sounded from the sphere, and the knife trembled before losing connection with the puppet’s spiritual sense.

  Without another thought, he clapped his hands together and raised them, releasing two foot-thick bolts of lightning in the air. Meanwhile, the flying swords circling in front of them vibrated before roaring with thunder. Countless arcs of lightning leapt between them and condensed together into one sixty-meter-long flood dragon.

  The dragon of dancing lightning roared ceaselessly as soon and brandished claws and fangs as it appeared. As soon as the dragon took form, Han Li commanded it in overbearingly charge at the giant wind sphere.

  His grand and imposing use of the Divine Devilbane Lightning was well noticed by everyone.

  The giant sphere of black wind was condensed from pure devilish Qi. If it were struck by the lightning, they would dissipate, given that Yuan Cha didn’t pull any further tricks.

  Currently caught in a deadlock fighting off the black spikes, Ling Long gasped upon seeing the lightning dragon.

  Although she had some understanding of the power of Han Li’s Divine Devilbane Lightning from Silvermoon’s memories, this was the first time she personally witnessed it. The lightning's might came as a shock to her.

  Within the sphere, the two-headed wolf had restrained the black knife using a transparent ooze. When she saw the golden dragon roll forth its eyes stained crimson and both of its heads released beams of red light.

  In the blink of an eye, the two attacks collided. Suddenly lightning wildly danced and the stench of blood choked the air. The blood managed to hold off the lightning for the time being.

  When Ling Long saw the red light, she tensely scowled and furiously shouted, “You dare to destroy my body like this?”

  The crimson beam was the wolf body’s blood essence. It was only natural that its sacrificial use would anger its original master.

  “Why should I give any consideration to a body with a dead owner?” Yuan Cha sneered, but her voice sounded far weaker than before.

  Ling Long’s face warped from anger, but she soon calmed down, “How arrogant! Your spiritual sense is no longer at Deity Transformation stage. Will you still be able to detonate the Black Wind Flag? And even so, could it even break the seal?”

  “Should you already know that?” Yuan Cha looked down at the ball of light at the altar and sinisterly smiled. It had been fueling the wind sphere with devilish Qi this entire them. She then set her plan into motion.

  The huge sphere dazzlingly flared with black radiance and a loud shriek whistled. All of the vortexes contained within combined into a single thirty-meter-wide vortex that flickered with light. The two-headed wolf was at the center, breathing out black radiance onto a small black flag.

  Soon after, the vortex emitted an astonishing spiritual pressure, followed by clouds of rainbow light being released.

  As the light swept through the air, it left specks of dust in its wake, only to be later absorbed by the vortex and increasing its power.

  The lotus-form of the Eight Spirit Ruler seemed to have reacted and its light faded to return to its original form as a sma;; green wooden ruler. Then with a cry, it summoned eight of its spirit beast phantoms around it, charging into the mist without a trace of hesitation.

  Ling Long’s expression vastly changed and she clasped her hand in an incantation gesture, spitting out the Star Defying Plate from her mouth. She then pointed at it and had it spin in the air, quickly growing three-meters-wide.

  She pressed her hand on the top of the plate with her fingers stretched out, crystalline light soon flourishing out from her body. Then, golden starlight shined from the surface of the plate and stretched out from its center.

  When the two-headed wolf saw the black vortex, it looked down in disgust as if it held her actions in contempt.

  At that moment, a great amount of white light had entered the sphere, causing the space nearby it to distort like wrinkled paper. The closer the area to the vortex, the more warped space became.

  When Han Li saw this, he felt his breath turn cold. Having witnessed immensely powerful spatial tears in the past, his body blurred as he backed as far as he could in the space containing them, his puppet following suit. While he did this, he also sent a few voice transmissions.

  Gui Ling’s and Lin Yinping’s brows fell as they were fighting the three-headed devil to a stalemate. They suddenly retreated towards the back wall of the area.

  Corpse Xiong and Daoist Sevenwonders also heard the conversation between Yuan Cha and Ling Long. With the strange changes in the black vortex, they knew that things had turned for the worse. With the retreat from the two women, they followed suit and withdrew in streaks of light.

  Having suddenly lost its opponents, the three-headed devil paused in surprise, but it soon flew into a rage and blurred from sight, instantly moving in front of Daoist Sevenwonders. It waved its weapons, forcibly halting his path in an explosion of black light.

  Either by the short time the large-headed eccentric had turned into the devil or the corruption of turning into an Elder Devil, he wasn’t particularly clever. After setting its eyes on Sevenwonders, it blinked several times without any restraint on its magic power and began to chase him, preventing him from straying very far from the altar.

  Sevenwonders’ heart sank.

  Chapter 1068: Black Hole

  As space began to warp around the giant black vortex, the Star Defying Plate finally began to display its might.

  With starlight pulsing from its center, countless fist-sized balls of light rushed out, painting golden streaks wherever they passed. The mesmerizing scene was like that of shooting stars spreading throughout the night sky.

  The two-headed wolf ignored the attack and pressed the black vortex into a greater frenzy, causing it to consume many more specks of white light from its surroundings and increase its degree of compression.

  But in the next moment, the black wolf was amazed by what it witnessed.

  Golden star light brushed past the top of the vortex, rather than striking.

  ‘Was I mistaken? Absurd, how can this happen with the guidance of spiritual sense?’ The wolf felt puzzled but it suddenly sensed something abnormal and one of its heads turned around, frightened by what it saw.

  The wolf’s other head quickly uttered a series of incantations and released another wave of rainbow light from the vortex, attempting to isolate the golden starlight from joining together.

  But then Ling Long shouted, “It’s too late! I’ve already released him!”

  As soon as she said this, a large mass of starlight converged around a hundred meters behind the vortex, followed by the drop of a silhouette. Floating amidst the starlight, he looked around him, bewildered.

  Once Han Li saw him, he was completely flabbergasted. “Him!? How did he g
et here?”

  He was Xiang Zhili[1], an old man with a sly appearance who was sealed by the combined soul of Ling Long and Yuan Cha through the use of Phantasmic Air when he entered Kunwu Mountain. Back then, the merged soul was able to use various secret techniques of both the spirit and Elder Devil realm, resulting in a fearsome power comparable to Spatial Tempering-stage cultivation.

  This was enough to temporarily seal Xiang Zhili in a space separated from spiritual Qi.

  As for Phantasmic Air, it was an ancient technique that was long lost in the mortal realm. It was vastly demanding but could temporarily seal someone inside a spatial tear. The tear shouldn't exist for long and couldn't be entered from the outside. This technique also went by several other names such as the Immortal Seal Curtain or the Nightmare Prison.

  Of course, the efficacy of the technique would depend on the cultivation of both the technique’s target and its caster. An attempt of a low-grade cultivator to use it to trap a high-grade cultivator would likely just backfire.

  Additionally, one would be able to use incisive magic treasures to forcefully break open the tear, or they could also wait until the technique expired.

  Apart from a few peculiar circumstances, the magic technique wasn’t very useful. After all, even if high-grade cultivators used it to seal lower-grade cultivators, the targets of the seal could still easily break out of it. It was also needless to say how little of an effect it would have vice-versa. As a result, it was most often used against cultivators of a similar grade, when the timing was right and they found themselves hard-pressed to use any other techniques. Of course, these techniques were only usable once one was at mid-Deity Transformation, likely the reason why the technique had gone extinct in this world.

  Dissolving the technique itself also required an immense amount of magic power and a powerful spiritual sense. By relying on the power of the Star Defying Plate, Ling Long was able to forcefully dissolve it.

  Although Xiang Zhili didn’t comprehend the technique, he had heard a few legends related to it, and remained in peaceful meditation ever since he was sealed inside. The slightest movement would likely trap him in a dangerous illusion. Now that he was freed, he was at a complete loss, having just awakened.

  He rapidly looked around him with confused and narrow eyes.

  Then, a resentful expression momentarily appeared from the faces of the two-headed wolf and it promptly released two beams of black at the Black Wind Flag in front of it. The banner trembled and released countless black threads, wrapping around the vortex from every direction.

  The vortex had already condensed to three meters in size. The black threads caused the vortex to stop before quickly shrinking into a foot-wide sphere.

  The sphere was a void with edges pulsing in size. With the violent distortion of the space around it, it was almost as if the void was consuming it.

  Only a spatial-type Divine Spirit Treasure such as the Black Wind Flag could possibly create something so fearsome and inconceivable.

  When Xiang Zhili saw the ball, his expression warped and he shouted, “Not good!”

  He quickly spat out a crimson triangular token. It flashed, wrapping itself in a golden inferno and blinding light before taking the form of a beast.

  The construct had an armored body, two horns, and golden flames wrapping around it, like a cross between an ox and a tiger. The moment it appeared, the beast leapt up in a streak of gold and shot into the black hole.

  Meanwhile, Xiang Zhili’s body lit up with purple radiance, creating a barrier around him and staring at the black hole replica with a tense face.

  Before the fire beast drew close to it, Yuan Cha wickedly howled with laughter from within the black void. The sphere suddenly sank through the air and warped several times before it shifted directly above the altar. It pulsed hard as if it were about to rupture.

  Han Li saw countless thin and long black cracks appear throughout the air. The cracks shrieked and stretched outward like lightning.

  From a distance, it resembled a huge fragmented mirror.

  Han Li’s complexion paled. Would he have to go through another spatial tear?

  Previously, the spatial collapse of the Devil Suppressing Pagoda’s eighth floor activated the floor’s restrictions, so there wasn’t any true danger, but this time was different. The unstable tears appeared without any pattern with threads of black light flickered from them.

  Even if he managed to somehow get lucky and be absorbed by a large enough spatial tear, he would only survive if he was somehow lucky enough to be taken to a small spatial pocket.

  Han Li caught sight of Daoist Sevenwonders, who had been firmly held in place near the altar by the three-headed devil. Being the closest to the epicenter of this calamity, he had eight foot-wide spatial tears brush past him, completely erasing his existence. As for his Nascent Soul that escaped from his ruined body, it was sucked into one of the larger spatial tears and completely disappeared from this world.

  After witnessing that, Han Li inwardly cursed as several tears made their way towards him and surrounded him. He could also heard Gui Ling’s miserable scream from a distance.

  Han Li had no time or the mind to look elsewhere. He could only grit his teeth and try to escape alive. He took the initiative to meet an incoming spatial tear that was only several inches thick, using the Heavenvoid Cauldron to welcome it.

  With no other choice, Han Li could only hope that the cauldron would be durable enough to withstand the destruction of a spatial tear.

  To his joy, the cauldron just lit up with azure light and hummed upon contact with the thin tear, forcibly blocking it.

  He quickly blurred, flying around the tear. Then, he turned his head and saw several black tears whip through where he originally was, turning it into a ceaseless mass. Cold sweat lined his back.

  The tears trembled and lit up in bright black light. Han Li grimaced when he saw this and his heart grew tense once again, but what happened next shocked him.

  As the black light brightly bulged from the tear, it withdrew as soon as it appeared, shrinking back as if time were turning back.

  In the blink of an eye, the spatial tears near Han Li had disappeared as if they were just illusions.

  Relieved, Han Li suddenly recalled Gui Ling’s earlier scream and quickly searched for her.

  He looked where she was originally, but he didn’t catch any sight of her.

  Han Li’s heart trembled and his spiritual sense looked into the demon’s lifesoul tile, but the tile was gone.

  He sighed in lament and quickly turned his attention back to the matter at hand.

  Lin Yinping and Corpse Xiong hadn’t made it as far as him, but they were unharmed.

  Corpse Xiong was enveloped in a blinding crimson light and his expression was calm, a complete contrast to Lin Yinping’s deathly pale complexion. Just recently, several tears had brushed past her, so she was lucky to be alive.

  Perhaps the vast abilities of the Endless Sky Patron God had secretly protected her.

  Chapter 1069: Escape

  Han Li only gave Corpse Xiong and Lin Yinping a glance before turning his focus back at the altar, betraying blatant nervousness from his face.

  Intending to destroy the altar’s seal, Yuan Cha’s soul fragment had detonated the Black Wind Flag, enveloping the altar in a giant jet-black void. Although he couldn't see through it, he could sense that a majority of the stone pillars comprising of the spell formation were destroyed.

  Han Li stared attentively at the sparkling black light, seeing it rapidly collapse and suddenly disappear, causing his eyes to widen.

  Nearly half the altar was now missing, the upper half vanished as if it were cleaved off.

  There was now a person floating near the ruins of the altar.

  It was Xiang Zhili, covered in a barrier of purple light that was on the verge of collapse.

  He was laden with sweat and his face was bloodless as if he had gone through an intense battle.

&nbs
p; Two items were floating next to him: the foot-wide Star Defying Plate that was spinning in the air with a golden paste-like barrier surrounding it, and a broken pitch-black stick. Han Li soon recognized it to be a small piece of the Black Wind Flag.

  Most of the Divine Spirit Treasure had been annihilated in the eruption. What remained of it sparkled with black light as if its spiritual nature was still intact.

  Han Li looked around and saw no sign of Ling Long or the black wolf. As he puzzled over this, the Star Defying Plate spun and released a mist of golden light from its core.

  Ling Long emerged from the mist and coldly glared at the remains of the Black Wind Flag, which mirrored the Star Defying Plate and released a cloud of black Qi, quickly condensing into a meter-tall two-headed wolf. The wolf’s fur was dull and eyes listless.

  Xiang Zhili’s expression sank at the sight of the two and he took several deep breaths. His pale complexion turned radiant and he wordlessly raised his hand, pointing two fingers towards the wolf.

  Two gusts of wind followed, and one gold and one red swordstreak were released, expanding into two celestial dragons overlapping each other as they charged at the wolf.

  Xiang Zhili was quick to act. Although he was in the dark as to what had happened, he was certain that the wolf filled with devilish Qi was the devil that had been suppressed in the pagoda. He knew he had to take advantage of this moment of weakness to subdue it.

  The wolf scowled at the attack and its two heads spat beams of black light to block the swordlight, but it was clear that the counter wouldn’t prove a match. It had exhausted too much of its devilish Qi detonating the Black Wind Flag.

  Surprisingly, the wolf wasn’t afraid. Instead, it gave a sinister glance down at the altar below and suddenly let out a shriek that could shatter even metal.

  In the distance, Han Li couldn’t hide his disbelief at what unfolded.

  The remains of the altar completely collapsed, leaving nothing behind.