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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Han Li had learned about all this through arduous research.

  Of course, if that plan failed to eventuate, it wouldn't be impossible for Han Li to find another obscure location to cultivate in. However, that clearly wasn't as safe and secure as a spatial pocket would be.

  Having said that, the refinement method of the spatial pocket was known only to the Hidden Fortune Pavilion, so it would most likely be rather difficult for him to request it. But then again, if a great cultivator were to request anything from any power, regardless of how reluctant that power would be to provide it, they would most likely still do their best to satisfy that great cultivator's request.

  After all, no power would be willing to make a late-Nascent Soul great cultivator their enemy if they could afford it.

  As for why the Hidden Fortune Pavilion had been able to keep this refinement method confidential to this day, that was most likely because the secret technique was more trouble than it was worth, and simply couldn't attract the interest of all of the major sects. Otherwise, Han Li didn't believe that a mere Hidden Fortune Pavilion would be able to keep such an important secret technique confidential for so long.

  Of course, he would have to employ some strategies if he wanted to obtain this refinement method.

  With that in mind, a cold smile appeared on Han Li's face, and he disappeared into the distance following a few flashes.

  Over half a year later, light rain was falling over a certain mountainside town in the State of Yu, which was tens of millions of kilometers away from the Heavenly South Region.

  On a bluestone street that was glistening with the falling rain, there were almost no pedestrians. The few pedestrians that were on the street were all hurriedly walking along with umbrellas over their heads, and none of them were eager to linger on the streets.

  A yellow-robed man holding a white oilcloth umbrella suddenly appeared on this street.

  However, this man was walking in a calm and unhurried manner, as if he were taking a casual stroll in the countryside. His umbrella was tilted forward slightly, and it just so happened to obscure most of his facial features.

  However, judging from the fair and supple hand that was holding the umbrella, the man appeared to be quite young, and was not a normal lowly citizen who had to engage in manual labor all day.

  Some of the passersby couldn't help but take an extra glance at this man as they strode past him, but he remained unfazed and his footsteps were still unhurried.

  Just as he was passing by a nondescript alleyway, he suddenly changed directions and made his way into the alley.

  Even though this was a rather deep alleyway, it was quite apparent that the conclusion of this alley was a dead-end with no way out. There weren't even any houses or shops on either side of the valley, only walls that were several tens of feet tall, and it was a place that was rarely frequented by anyone. However, the yellow-robed man paid no heed to all of this and continued to make his way forward.

  Just as he was about to reach the conclusion of the alleyway and appeared as if he were about to crash into the stone wall, white light suddenly flashed as he disappeared into the wall.

  If a mortal had been present and witnessed such a bizarre scene, they would definitely be yelling at the top of their lungs about supernatural phenomena. However, cultivators would barely pay any heed to this. It was just an extremely simple illusion technique, so there was no need for alarm.

  However, if that cultivator were to pass through the complex layers of restrictions beyond this illusionary wall, they would most likely be flabbergasted as well.

  This was because there was a gargantuan jade gate over 1,000 feet tall behind those layers of restrictions. After passing through that colossal gate, a white jade staircase would be revealed, with every step hovering in mid-air, leading toward a huge green palace.

  White spiritual mist swirled around the palace, and there was a pair of rare spirit beasts circling in the air above the palace in a leisurely manner. There were also many types of peculiar flowers and plants growing on the ground nearby, embellishing this place with their beauty and making it appear as if it were an immortal paradise.

  However, if one were to sweep their spiritual sense through the surrounding area, they would discover that even though this place appeared to be quite cavernous, it was actually just a small restricted space. In fact, it was only just over five kilometers in size, but its height of several thousand feet was, admittedly, rather astonishing. However, that staggering height as necessary to construct such a peculiar floating palace in this place.

  At the foot of this massive jade gate, there were two rows of warriors clad in golden armor. All of them were around 20 feet tall, and were standing completely stationary with wooden expressions on their faces.

  However, among these warriors, there was an armor-clad man with a dark complexion, sitting on a rock beside a pillar. He was currently conversing with the yellow-robed man with the oilcloth umbrella in a lazy manner.

  "No matter what you're here for, I can't disrupt the pavilion master when he's entertaining guests. Otherwise, I'll be punished by the pavilion master. Why don't you sit here for a while and have a chat with me? I've on duty here at the Hidden Fortune Pavilion, I've been staying here with these mutes for over half a year; I'm bored out of my wits," the dark-complexioned man chuckled.

  This man was a Core Formation cultivator, yet he was only a gatekeeper here. That was quite extraordinary. The two rows of massive warriors beside the gate were merely puppets, so it was no wonder that he was unable to converse with any of them. However, each and every one of these puppets were extremely life-like, and it was very difficult to tell that they were puppets just by looking at them.

  The yellow-robed cultivator had already put away his white umbrella, revealing a set of stern facial features. "Cao Fengwei! I'm not here to kid around with you; I really do have an extremely important matter to consult with the pavilion master about. Even if I can wait, that person may not be willing to. If we delay for too long and bring disaster to the pavilion, neither you nor I will be able to handle the repercussions!"

  The yellow-robed man was becoming rather enraged.

  "That person? Who are you referring to, Brother Zhang?" the armored man asked with a bewildered expression.

  "He's referring to me." The voice of an unfamiliar man suddenly interjected from up above.

  Chapter 1227: An Unexpected Guest

  "Who's there?" the armored cultivator exclaimed in shock. He immediately summoned a barrier of white light to protect himself, then made a hand seal as all of the puppet warriors began to shimmer with spiritual light and rose into the air at his behest.

  The yellow-robed man's face paled upon seeing this, and he hurriedly yelled, "Wait, Brother Cao, this is Senior Han! Don't you dare attack him!"

  "Senior Han?" The armor-clad man had no idea who that was.

  However, the yellow-robed man's cultivation base was comparable to his, and he was clearly extremely wary of this Senior Han, so it could be deduced that he was definitely not just some ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator. Otherwise, with the two of them situated within this spatial pocket, they would be powerful enough to combat even an early-Nascent Soul cultivator.

  Could it be that this Senior Han was a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator? That would not be something that he and a few puppets could handle.

  With that in mind, the armor-clad man hurriedly swept his spiritual sense toward the warrior puppets, making them descend onto the ground again.

  The unfamiliar male voice harrumphed coldly. "You've made the right decision. I was about to teach you a lesson there."

  Immediately thereafter, azure light flashed above their heads, and an azure-robed man with his arms crossed appeared in the air above, looking down at the two of them with a cold expression.

  The armor-clad man swept his spiritual sense toward that man, upon which a shiver ran down his spine, and an expression of incredulity and horror appeared on his face.


  The man up above had made no effort to hide his cultivation base, and he was a late-Nascent Soul cultivator!

  But when had a new great cultivator by the surname of Han appeared in the Great Jin? Why had he never heard of such a great cultivator?

  The armor-clad man shuddered with lingering fear as he thought back to how close the puppets had been to attacking this man, and he hurriedly rose into the air before extending a deep bow.

  "My apologies, Senior. Please forgive me for any offense I may have caused!"

  The young man up above remained expressionless and didn't say anything. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the hovering palace nearby, and a hint of surprise appeared on his face.

  Meanwhile, the armor-clad cultivator down below was sweating profusely, and he didn't dare to stand up straight again without receiving an instruction permitting him to do so. After all, virtually all Nascent Soul cultivators had peculiar, and often foul tempers, so it would be very easy to irk them. He didn't want to be killed due to an oversight on his own part.

  Thankfully, the yellow-robed man swooped in to save him.

  A wry smile appeared on his face as he rose into the air, and he also bowed deeply as he asked, "Senior Han, didn't you say that you were going to give me several months to inform the pavilion master of this matter? Why have you followed me here?"

  "I have limited time and no longer want to wait any longer, so I decided to come here to speak with your pavilion master in person. So this is the legendary Hidden Fortune Palace, right? I had heard that this palace was situated in a spatial pocket, and an extremely rare free radical spatial pocket, at that. The location of its entrance will automatically self-adjust once every few years, so normal cultivators would never be able to find it. After coming here for myself today, I can see that this is indeed an extraordinary place. You can get up now. You're a guard here and you were only doing your duty, so I won't take your actions to heart. However, I do want to see your pavilion master, so you can lead the way there for me." The young man turned to the armor-clad cultivator with an implacable look on his face.

  Cao Weifeng was quite relieved after hearing the first half of Han Li's sentence, but his heart clenched tightly again upon hearing Han Li's instructions, and he turned to the yellow-robed man for help.

  In all honesty, he still didn't even know why this great cultivator was here, nor whether he was friend or foe!

  The yellow-robed man's lips twitched slightly upon hearing this, and after a brief hesitation, he turned to Cao Weifeng with a slight nod.

  The armor-clad cultivator no longer hesitated any longer upon seeing this as he hurriedly asked, "I would be happy to lead the way to our palace master, but he's currently entertaining a guest. Please allow me to inform our palace master of your arrival, then take you to him. Is that alright, Senior Han?"

  "He's entertaining a guest?" A hint of surprise appeared in the young man's eyes, but he still nodded expressionlessly.

  The armor-clad man was ecstatic. He hurriedly pulled out a voice transmission talisman from his storage pouch, then spoke into it in an urgent voice before releasing it into the palace.

  After doing all that, he gave the young man up above a fawning smile before stepping up the jade staircase, leading the way to the palace master.

  The yellow-robed man also hurriedly followed along behind them.

  However, both of them were forging ahead on foot rather than flying up the jade staircase.

  There's a flight restriction!

  The young man's brows furrowed upon making this discovery, but a cold smile immediately appeared on his face as he rose into the air as a streak of azure light, seemingly completely unaffected by the flight restriction.

  The two people down below could only exchange wry smiles upon seeing this.

  The surrounding flight restriction was able to prevent all cultivators below the Nascent Soul Stage from rising more than three feet into the air. However, it was obviously next to completely ineffective against a late-Nascent Soul cultivator like Han Li.

  The young man hovering in the air didn't seem to want to excessively challenge the palace master's authority, either, as he was flying slowly behind the two Core Formation cultivators, rather than accelerating and speeding up the staircase.

  This young man was naturally none other than Han Li, who had arrived in the Great Jin.

  Even though his cultivation base had taken large strides, it still took him half a year to reach the Great Jin through the Moulan Plains.

  As he was passing through the plains, he encountered no difficulties whatsoever, and that leg of the journey had been extremely smooth.

  This was rather surprising to Han Li.

  He had prepared himself to teach the immortals of the Soaring Tribe a lesson as he passed through. After all, he had almost been killed by those Soaring Tribe cultivators once upon a time.

  However, along the way, he only encountered some low-grade immortals, and not even a single one at the Core Formation Stage or above.

  Only after doing research did he understand the reason for this. It turned out that over 100 years ago, the Endless Sky Saintess and the Illustrious Grand Immortal issued a joint order, gathering all of the high-grade immortals to the Endless Sky Temple to engage in seclusion for some unknown reason. Without orders or permission for them to leave, they were prohibited from exiting the temple. Through this order, the Endless Sky Saintess and the Illustrious Grand Immortal seemed to be trying to forcibly increase the overall power of the cultivation world in the Soaring Tribe.

  Han Li was naturally a little disappointed after hearing about this information. However, he certainly wasn't going to rush over to the Endless Sky Temple to hunt them.

  After all, the Soaring Tribe was quite a force to be reckoned with, and if he were to attack the Endless Sky Temple, he'd be facing the might of their entire tribe rather than just a single cultivator or two. This was different from killing that Elder Ximen of the Star Palace, whom he had a personal vendetta against. The power of the entire Soaring Tribe was something that he still had to be rather wary of.

  With that in mind, Han Li relinquished his plan to pick on the Soaring Tribe, leaving the Moulans Plains and continuing his travels toward the Great Jin.

  Obtaining the refinement method for the spatial pocket was simpler and less time-consuming than the other two things that he had to do, so he decided to take care of this matter first.

  He first visited a renowned market in a certain state within the Great Jin, then tracked down a branch of the Hidden Fortune Pavilion. He told the shopkeeper of the branch, who was the yellow-robed man, that he wanted to purchase the refinement method for the spatial pocket.

  If a normal Nascent Soul cultivator had stated such a request, the shopkeeper would've most definitely rejected him without a second thought.

  However, Han Li hadn't been hiding his cultivation base in the slightest, and the late-Core Formation Stage shopkeeper was petrified to be in the presence of a great cultivator. As such, he could only offer a respectful smile as well as a rather uneasy explanation.

  He had no right to even know the refinement method for a spatial pocket, let alone sell it. As such, he would have to ask the master of the Hidden Fortune Palace for a verdict. This was quite an important matter, so it would be inappropriate just to send out a voice transmission talisman. Thus, he had to pay a visit to the palace in person, and he was asking for Han Li to wait two to three months for his reply.

  Han Li felt this to be quite reasonable, so he agreed.

  However, he wasn't actually just going to sit around and wait for so long. Instead, he unleashed a secret technique to track the yellow-robed man to this place.

  As far as he was aware, even though the Hidden Fortune Pavilion was supposed to be just a chain of shops, they actually had connections with many of the renowned righteous sects, as well as Devil Dao sects. Furthermore, they also had a late-Nascent Soul great cultivator as their guest grand elder. Very l
ittle was known about this guest grand elder, and he was an extremely mysterious character.

  However, none of that mattered to Han Li.

  As long as this guest grand elder wasn't the master of the Yin Sifting Palace, even if he were an elder of the Heavenly Devil Sect or the High Zenith Sect, it wouldn't have anything to do with him.

  As such, even though he intended to secure this secret technique through intimidation, he wasn't going to really ask for it free of charge. Instead, he had already prepared a large quantity of spirit stones and rare materials in advance.

  As such, there really was no reason for them to risk offending a great cultivator just to maintain the confidentiality of a secret technique that was more trouble than it was worth.

  Upon reaching around the halfway mark on the staircase, the sound of a tolling bell suddenly rang out from the hovering palace, extending a welcome to the guest of the Hidden Fortune Palace.

  A dozen or so streaks of light then shot forth from within the palace, soon revealing themselves to be a group of cultivators. All of them hovered in the air on either side of the entrance to the palace, seemingly unaffected by the flight restriction in place.

  Two people emerged from the center of the group, standing side by side as they looked down on Han Li and the others.

  Han Li's brows furrowed upon seeing this, but his expression quickly reverted back to the normal. He abruptly raised a foot and covered a distance of over 100 feet with a single step. Following a few more steps, he had abruptly appeared at the entrance of the palace, where he was directly facing the two people at the center of the group.

  The cultivators on either side naturally burst into a frenzy upon seeing this, and some of them had even laid their hands on their storage pouches with panicked expressions on their faces.