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

by Translator: Johnchen

  When he was halfway to Yu Yang City, he was at a crucial point in the consolidation of the Vajra Art’s fifth layer. Unfortunately, that was also when he was ambushed by several demon beasts.

  Although he managed to kill them, he soon encountered backlash from the Vajra Arts and his cultivation sharply dropped by nearly an entire level.

  During his moment of peril, he came across a young merchant named Fatty Fan that happened to carry a few suitable rare medicines.

  Since Han Li was saved by these medicines, he felt grateful to the merchant, but he also wanted someone that could help conceal his existence. As such, he followed the Fatty Fan to Yu Yang City and helped him out in secret, expanding his auction house until it was one of the greatest in the city.

  And as a spell formation master and possessor of immensely strong spiritual sense, a bit of practice was all he needed to become a spirit tool master.

  He continued to stay at Yu Yuan City for several decades.

  During this period, he reached the peak of the sixth layer and decided to make a journey away from the city.

  In that year, he found out that the Gold Jade Sect’s brocade-robed man had already entered Core Formation-stage.

  When the man surnamed Qin saw that Han Li had already completed the fifth layer of the Vajra Arts, a level that could compete with Core Formation cultivators, he was completely astonished. Nevertheless, he kept his promise and made arrangements for Han Li to use the Nine Profound Brightjade Pool.

  By drawing the support of the pond’s extraordinary power, he was able to breakthrough the sixth layer bottleneck in a few short days, saving him at least a dozen years of bitter cultivation.

  When he returned to Yu Yang City for his next decades of hidden cultivation, he eventually reached the bottleneck at the seventh layer.

  To breakthrough the last bottleneck, he couldn't stay in the city and continue the slow method of bitter cultivation. He planned on using the most common method of body refiners to breakthrough a bottleneck.

  That was to leave civilization and enter the savage wilderness, breaking through the bottleneck by force by hunting powerful demon beasts.

  However, he would need to travel far away and it was likely he wouldn’t be returning to the region. As such, it’d be best for him to retrieve his treasures at the Azure Sifting Desert.

  With his current achievements in body refinement, he could protect himself well enough, not to mention the various treasures he carried on him.

  After he rested at An Yuan City’s ruins for half a day, he set forth towards the Azure Sifting Desert.

  After a month, Han Li found azure sand and began to tread deeper in the area.

  But soon, his face changed and alarm rang through his mind.

  The desert was too quiet.

  Apart from the rustling of desert winds, there was no other sound that could be heard. There should’ve been many beasts present in the desert. Even the few insects on the ground disappeared.

  It was as if the Azure Sifting Desert turned into a dead land.

  With faint shock on his face, his awareness became heightened to its utmost extent as he tread in the direction that he buried his treasures,

  Although the sands frequently shifted in a desert, Han Li had done a bit of a trick when he buried his treasures. He used a particular method of searching for the treasure without using any magic power.

  Over ten days later, Han Li arrived at some point in the desert and was dumbstruck when he saw a large white object not far away.

  It appeared to be a shed crystalline shell of a large insect.

  The shell had six three-meter-long wings and appeared to belong to a huge centipede.

  As Han Li looked at the enormous centipede shell, he muttered in shock, “The Six-winged Frost Centipede? How was it possible? How could it evolve so quickly?”

  When he took several steps forward and the centipede shell began to turn in the sand, he shook his sleeve and released a silver flash.

  A light bang sounded out.

  The silver light struck the crystalline shell and was repelled. It was a rope that sparkled with silver light.

  It was the wyrm tendon that Han Li had someone refine before the beast torrent at An Yuan City. Over the past few decades, he used it considerably to much effect in killing many beasts and enemies. Later on when Han Li grasped spirit tool refinement, he hadn’t made any changes to it. At his stage of body refinement, ordinary spirit tools had little benefit to him, and he saw no use in changing it as it was easy for him to use.

  In any case, under his control, the rope contained the force comparable to a magic tool. As the shell didn’t suffer the slightest damage, one could imagine how durable it was.

  It was worthy of belonging to a Six-winged Frost Centipede that finally grew six wings.

  Han Li swept his gaze past it and then he felt a wave of bewilderment.

  He had twelve centipedes, but now there was only one. Where were the other eleven?

  “Could it be...” A thought flashed through Han Li’s mind as he considered the possibilities and his face faintly changed.

  At that moment, an odd shriek sounded from a distance, followed by rolls of thunder. A roiling black cloud rolled past the sky with flashing lightning and harsh winds.

  When Han Li saw this, his lip twitched. When he saw the weather was changing, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes.

  Although he wasn’t able to release his spiritual sense, the connection he felt in his mind couldn't be mistaken. In the distance, there was a Six-winged Frost Centipede hidden in the changing weather.

  However, in the blink of an eye, the connection to his mind became somewhat unfamiliar.

  After the Six-winged Frost Centipedes fully matured, they unexpectedly gained the heavenly power of calling upon wind and rain, much to Han Li’s astonishment.

  The Six-winged Frost Centipede familiarity with manipulating the worldly origin Qi was an entire stage higher than when Han Li still possessed his cultivation. They were on the verge of Deity Transformation power.

  Just as Han Li felt astonishment, he suddenly ring a loud buzzing in the air. From the other end of the sky, a large rainbow cloud swiftly rushed toward the black cloud.

  Under close examination, his face turned pale.

  Within the rainbow cloud were groups of winged scorpions. They were the size of a palm and were stained with all sorts of colors.

  As Han Li felt his mouth grow dry, he saw a sixty-meter-long scorpion king in the middle of the swarm.

  The scorpion didn’t have any wings, but it managed to suspend its huge body in the air with a poisonous mist. It had a thirty-meter-tall tail raised in the air that glowed green.

  Han Li felt a chill run down his body.

  But under closer inspection, he found out that the so-called scorpion king was actually condensed from countless small scorpions.

  The other surrounding scorpions had done the same and wriggled together, converging onto the huge scorpion king.

  Before Han Li realized what was happening, a fierce hiss sounded from a distance and the black cloud roiled to reveal a frost centipede that was over thirty meters long. It stretched its hideous head forward.

  In that same instant, Han Li felt a faint connection to his mind and heart stirred, realizing what it was. “So that was it!”

  The giant Six-winged Frost Centipede possessed the soul markers of a dozen of the four-winged centipedes. They either somehow fused together, or one of them ate the rest.

  Under these circumstances, it created a fully mature Six-winged Frost Centipede.

  However, where did these scorpions come from? When he crossed the desert with the Heavenly East Enterprise caravan, they would’ve definitely met their end if they came across the scorpions.

  Just as Han Li mulled over his gloomy thoughts, the black cloud and rainbow mist struck one another.

  Hissing filled the air and intermittent buzzing. Countless flying scorpions dropped to the ground, f
rozen by the icy winds that flew out of the black cloud.

  However, balls of rainbow poison spat out from the flying scorpions soon consumed a portion of the black cloud, causing the cloud to violently roil.

  In the blink of an eye, the black cloud grew sparse, revealing the lower half of the Six-winged Frost Centipede.

  Chapter 1294: Taking Back Treasure

  The Six-winged Frost Centipede was slightly smaller than the scorpion king, but it was colossal compared to ordinary demon beasts.

  When it stretched its ugly head out from the black cloud, it opened its mouth and launched a dense beam of ice.

  As the icy light brushed past the air, the sound of tearing space sounded. When the attack struck the huge scorpion, it left a hole three-meters-wide.

  The huge scorpion was the result of countless winged scorpions condensed together. Even as powerful as the strike may be, it didn’t truly hurt it. The huge scorpion simply let out a piercing shriek and raised its tail to strike at the frost centipede.

  A green light shot out and the scorpion tail seemed to stretch a hundred meters forward as if it were an illusion. It arrived above the centipede’s head and swung down.

  Meanwhile, the huge hole in the scorpion abdomen stirred and it quickly mended.

  The Six-winged Frost Centipede didn’t appear to mind the attack from the huge tail. The centipede’s wings grew transparent for a moment before the entire centipede disappeared.

  The scorpion tale shrieked but it only landed past the air.

  In a short moment, the air above the huge scorpion warped to reveal giant winged centipede.

  Its wings shook once more and its entire body blurred, charging into the huge scorpion and sinking its fangs deep inside.

  A ball of icy light blossomed from the huge scorpion, quickly expanding until it covered most of the scorpion’s body, turning it crystalline.

  But then, the light stopped and the huge scorpion’s body crumbled. Countless scorpions rained down from the sky.

  The remnants of the giant scorpion no longer condensed back together. Rather, they scattered in every direction.

  In the blink of an eye, the rainbow poison cloud completely dissipated.

  When the Six-winged Frost Centipede saw this, it didn’t bother to pursue them. It simply opened its mouth and spat out an icy wind. It swept up all the frozen scorpions nearby and brought them to its mouth.

  Han Li watched this from a distance, feeling calmer.

  He finally realized why the Six-winged Frost Centipede had evolved so quickly. During the time he was away, they devoured countless winged insects. As for those winged scorpions, they seemed to have a history with the centipedes and weren’t ordinary demon insects by any means. They must’ve served as a catalyst after being consumed.

  That must’ve been why he hadn’t seen any other insects after he entered the desert. It appeared that they had cleanly devoured by either the scorpions or the centipedes.

  Just as Han Li’s thoughts continued, the huge centipede finally finished cleaning off the scorpions and looked down in Han Li’s direction with a cold glint shining from its eye.

  When Han Li met its gaze, his heart thumped and he faintly felt the thing he worried the most was about to happen.

  Suddenly, the Six-winged Frost Centipede let out a hiss and flapped its wings, arriving in front of Han Li above the blink of an eye.

  It coldly looked down at Han Li with a hostile gaze.

  Its fangs were clearly gnawing against each other.

  Han Li wore an odd expression and stared at the insect without blinking. However, he shook his sleeve behind his back and summoned two Immortal Vanquishing Beads into his palm.

  The white centipede simply let out a hiss and turned around, suddenly flying off in the distance and disappearing.

  The insect treated Han Li as a mere passerby and went off of its own accord.

  Han Li sighed in relief and his stiff face finally loosened. He soon let out a bitter laugh.

  The insect’s shocking growth and evolution from four wings to six greatly went against Han Li’s expectations.

  Although ancient exotic insects weren’t able to take human form like demon beasts, they were able to develop a level of intelligence.

  With such harsh magic power, it naturally thought to sever its spiritual sense connection.

  If he still had magic power, he could easily suppress the insect with the restrictions he originally placed on it. But now that he lacked the slightest magic power, all his secret techniques were unusable.

  Under these circumstances, it wouldn’t be rare for the centipede to turn on him.

  As such, Han Li prepared for the worse and fetched his Immortal Vanquishing Beads with cold sweat lining his palms.

  To tell the truth, it was fortunate that Han Li had meticulously nurtured the dozen centipedes since they were larva.

  The mental connection between the two had become remarkably stable over the past hundreds of years and now that the dozen centipedes fused together, the connection was a dozen times stronger as well. They were unable to easily shake it off.

  Just then, the centipedes struggled to break free for a time before eventually deciding to abandon any hostile intent towards Han Li and go on its own way.

  Of course, Han Li made no attempt to stop them.

  In his current state, he could only watch them while feeling at a loss of whether he should laugh or cry.

  Back in the mortal realm, he spared no effort and even used the small mysterious bottle to nurture the insects. Now that they have matured, he could no longer control them.

  He felt somewhat depressed over his loss.

  However, Han Li took a breath and soon calmed himself.

  Although the insect broke free from his control for the time being, when he recovered his magic power, he could make it yield to him once again.

  The only problem was in a place as vast as the spirit realm, he might never see it again, or with so many cultivators present, it could’ve been captured by someone else of considerable power.

  Han Li stood in place lost in his thoughts before eventually shaking his head. Eventually, he turned his mind to the Gold Devouring Beetles and the Weeping Soul Beast.

  His face sank as he quickened his steps to a place a few hundred meters away.

  He took a look down and wordlessly made a fist. With light shining from it, he struck the ground.

  A large boom shook the air, scattering the sand as if a top-grade magic treasure struck it.

  A large cloud of dust rose into the air, leaving a large crater beneath it. It was over ten meters deep and over thirty-meters wide.

  At the heart of the crater were a storage pouch and three spirit beast pouches.

  When Han Li saw the storage pouch was intact, he felt relief. Then he walked over to the three spirit beast pouches.

  He grabbed them and wore a pensive expression.

  Although he wasn’t able to examine them with his spiritual sense, they appeared sealed as he left them. After he weighed it in his hand, he knew nothing was missing from them, apart from the empty pouch that contained the Six-winged Frost Centipedes.

  The other two pouches were slightly open. Without looking at them, Han Li could sense the presence of the Gold Devouring Beetles and the Weeping Soul Beast. He could even sense that the Weeping Soul Beast was still soundly asleep.

  Han Li’s faintly smiled. The last of his worries were gone.

  He promptly put away his pouches deep in his robes.

  As they all appeared exquisite, they would contrast with Han Li’s unremarkable appearance.

  However, the shed shell the Six-winged Frost Centipede left behind would be somewhat troublesome.

  He frowned and simply punched down to make an even larger hole. Then he tossed the shell into the hole and buried it.

  Han Li circled around the area several more times and found no other signs, much to his satisfaction.

  Then, he looked in the direction t
hat the black cloud disappeared and wore a gloomy expression. Eventually, he gathered himself and walked off.

  Now that he completed his first objective, he needed to journey far away to an area filled with demon beasts.

  His goal was the border between a demon land and the Heavenly Origin Region.

  The border area was a harsh place belonging slightly to both the demon beasts and the Heavenly Origin Region. It was extremely wide and lawless, acting as a buffer between the regions.

  Furthermore, demon beasts, savage ancient beasts, and even half-demons on occasion freely roamed the area. The closer one was to the central, the more dangerous it would be.

  It was said that mysterious spirit clans made of Deity Transformation individuals or giants that were over a hundred meters tall were seen there. Some even heard the cries of true dragons there as well.

  With so many strange rumors, the area was shrouded in a layer of mystery. However, most people didn’t take these rumors to heart.

  But, it was true that Deity Transformation-level cultivators and demon cultivators did appear here. This inspired fears in the higher echelons of the demon and human clans. If a fight broke out at that level, it could inspire a war between humans and demons. As a result, such fights were prohibited.

  These fights could disturb the origin Qi of heaven and earth, causing rivers to flow backward and mountains to collapse.

  Even existences on the level of the three human sovereigns and the seven demon kings opposed such a thing from happening.

  If something that dangerous were to happen, the area would truly be too dangerous to tread.

  As it so happened, the area was never officially developed or claimed by humans or demons. But the border region contained extremely precious spirit veins and medicines. There were even once of a kind spiritual objects that sovereigns and kings would pay a hefty price for.

  As a result, large quantities of cultivators and body refiners would gather there.