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

by Translator: Johnchen

  As such, Han Li's sword struck empty air.

  Han Li's expression changed slightly as he turned toward a certain direction. There, over 200 feet away, a ball of yellow light suddenly erupted, following which two humanoid figures emerged from within.

  They were none other than the armor-clad overseer of the match, as well as Han Li's opponent.

  The former remained expressionless as usual, yet the latter's face was deathly pale, and his suit of azure armor was stained with blood as he glowered at Han Li with resentment in his eyes.

  It appeared that even though Han Li's punch had been buffered significantly by the suit of azure armor, his opponent had still suffered internal injuries, to the extent that he had thrown up a mouthful of blood. The fist indentation on the back of his armor was quite apparent.

  Han Li glanced at his opponent expressionlessly before stowing away his longsword and extending a salute to the armor-clad cultivator.

  "Thank you for stepping in, Senior. I was unable to withdraw my attack in time and almost wounded Fellow Daoist Weng there!" Han Li said with an earnest expression.

  His opponent almost threw up another mouthful of blood upon hearing this.

  Unable to withdraw his attack in time? He clearly had no intention of withdrawing his attack at all! He was striking to kill!

  A peculiar look flashed through the armor-clad cultivator's eyes, following which a hint of a smile appeared on his face.

  "It's easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment in a battle, so that's very much understandable. In this battle for the Spirit Land, Fellow Daoist Weng has conceded, so Fellow Daoist Han is naturally the victor and will take possession of the Spirit Land. Do either of you have any objections?"

  Han Li smiled upon hearing this; he naturally wasn't going to pose any objections.

  His opponent wore an indignant expression and opened his mouth several times, but refrained from saying anything in the end.

  Seeing as neither of them said anything, the armor-clad cultivator nodded before extending a hand toward Han Li. "Hand over your Dark Azure Pendant!"

  Han Li immediately flipped his palm over upon hearing this, summoning the azure jade pendant, which he then tossed over to the armor-clad cultivator.

  The latter caught the jade pendant before bringing it toward a thumb-sized green crystal in his other hand that he had already prepared in advance. The small stone immediately disappeared into the jade pendant right as the two made contact with one another.

  "Alright, the coordinates of the Spirit Land have already been injected into your Dark Azure Pendant. Unless you voluntarily relinquish this plot of Spirit Land, you won't be able to participate in the battle for the Spirit Lands that's held once every century. You two can leave now; the next match is about to begin soon."

  The armor-clad cultivator returned the jade pendant to Han Li before waving a dismissive hand at both of them. At this moment, an opening had already appeared in the white light barrier around them.

  Han Li didn't say anything further as he cupped his fist in a salute toward the armor-clad cultivator, then disappeared into the distance through that opening as a streak of azure light.

  Meanwhile, his opponent wore a thunderous expression as he also flew away from the venue. However, he paused nearby and glowered at the direction that Han Li had left in before flying toward the opposite direction.

  Even though he had sustained internal injuries during that recently concluded battle, he was still flying quickly. After a short while, he had appeared high in the air over an unfamiliar place, upon which he came to an abrupt halt.

  "Why is your aura so chaotic? Were you injured in the battle for the Spirit Land?" A familiar cold voice sounded, following which azure light flashed in the air nearby. That miniature green wyrm appeared and inspected the man with a cold expression.

  Chapter 1326: Cave Abode

  "Sorry to disappoint you, Master; that man was unfathomably powerful, and I was defeat by him. If it weren't for the intervention from the Heavenly Guard in the end, I would've perished by that man's sword." As soon as the green wyrm appeared, the man hurriedly lowered his head in a respectful manner.

  "Your opponent is only an early-Deity Transformation cultivator, and I even lent you my Thousand Soul Bell; how did you manage to lose? When did you become so useless?" The green wyrm's expression darkened significantly.

  Cold sweat immediately began pouring down the man's face as he explained, "I did everything I could, Master, but there seemed to be no end to the tricks that my opponent could pull out of his sleeve. He had a cauldron spirit treasure, and he's also achieved complete mastery of the Vajra Arts."

  "He also has a spirit treasure? And he's completely mastered the Vajra Arts?" The green wyrm was rather surprised to hear this.

  "Indeed, I speak only the truth, Master." The man was slightly relieved upon hearing the hint of intrigue in the wyrm’s voice.

  A contemplative expression appeared on the green wyrm's face before it suddenly extended a claw toward the man.

  A ball of black light shot forth from his body, carrying the Thousand Soul Bell into the wyrm's grasp.

  It carefully inspected the bell for a while, following which its expression immediately darkened again.

  The man was feeling quite uneasy upon seeing this.

  The green wyrm chuckled coldly, and scoffed, "So that means this man is walking the path of simultaneous cultivation. Hehe, such a style of cultivation was popular once back in ancient times, but barely anyone pursues this path now. Body refinement and cultivating magic power both take an extremely long time; doing both works to a certain extent at low cultivations bases, but over the long term, one's cultivation would inevitably trail behind their peers if they were to continue down this path. On top of that, body refinement requires a certain level of aptitude. As far as I'm aware of, there are only a small handful of people who have reached the Body Integration Stage while pursuing this path, including the Heavenly Yuan Holy Sovereign. All of these people were body refinement warriors to begin within, and only became cultivators after consuming some type of spirit medicine. Otherwise, walking this path will only ruin one's future cultivation."

  "This man has already achieved full mastery of the Vajra Arts; are there any other body refinement techniques for him to use to continue strengthing his body?" the man asked with furrowed brows.

  "Attaining full mastery of the Vajra Arts is already the pinnacle among mortal body refinement warriors. The next step for him to progress is to naturally begin using some demonic cultivation arts to further refine his body. However, those cultivation arts naturally aren't meant for humans, so it'll be very perilous for him to engage in such practices. For him to be able to cultivate both his magic power and his body to such an extent makes it no surprise that you were no match for him. However, that doesn't explain how he was able to break free from my Thousand Soul Bell. Not only was the main soul in the bell destroyed, around 60% to 70% of all of the other Yin souls within are also missing." The wyrm's voice suddenly cooled as he spoke.

  "I don't know how he managed to do this, either. I trapped him in that space, but he managed to escape not long after that, and I wasn't able to witness what he did in there," the man hurriedly explained.

  The wyrm scrutinized the man for a long time before withdrawing his gaze with a cold harrumph. "Hmph, the Thousand Soul Bell isn't a powerful enough treasures to make it onto the Chaotic Myriad Spirit Roll, but it's more than powerful enough to crush a late-Deity Transformation cultivator. It appeared that this man either possesses a treasure that is the bane of all Yin souls or has mastered an extremely powerful Yang-attribute cultivation art. So be it, I'll just have to capture some more beast souls to replenish the ones that are missing. However, we can't give up on the treasures left behind by that person."

  The man was elated that the wyrm wasn't pinning any further blame on him, but a hesitant look then appeared on his face as he mused, "Thank you for sparing me, Master. The
problem is that the plot of Spirit Land already belongs to that man. If he sets up restrictions around the plot of land, it'll be rather difficult for us to go in and search for treasures there."

  "That will indeed be rather troublesome, but the plot of Spirit Land is quite large, and he won't be able to set up so many powerful restrictions in a short time. Go to where my true body is residing in seclusion, and I'll give you something for you to take to my good friend, Gongyang Gui. He possesses a Heavenly Five-Colored Flag that has extraordinary concealment abilities. Borrow that from him and we'll sneak into the Spirit Land at the right opportunity. In doing so, we'll be owing Old Devil Gongyang a big favor," the green wyrm grumbled.

  The man didn't dare to say anything in response, and could only nod emphatically with a respectful expression on his face.

  Meanwhile, Han Li had just flown out of Deep Heaven City, and was traveling toward the plains outside of the city.

  Following the conclusion of that battle, he was heading straight toward the plot of Spirit Land he had chosen rather than returning to the Flying Spirit Palace.

  With Han Li's current abilities, he was able to fly extremely quickly, and it only took him an uneventful journey spanning around three to four days to reach a massive set of lush mountain ranges.

  This was the so-called Glorious Sound Mountain, and Han Li stopped in the air above one of the mountains in the mountain ranges. He scanned his gaze over this massive mountain, which was hundreds of thousands of kilometers in size, and his narrowed with a contemplative expression.

  Even though this was the most inferior of the three mountain ranges displayed by the Heavenly Jade Pavilion, it was still a set of mountain ranges that could be used for cultivation by Deity Transformation cultivators, so it naturally possessed high spiritual Qi density. Compared to so-called cultivation holy lands in the human world, the difference was night and day.

  After inspecting the mountain for a while, Han Li gave a content nod before descending into the mountain ranges as a streak of azure light.

  Not long after that, he had already covered a distance of over 50,000 kilometers.

  Even though he was racing ahead at an astonishing speed, his powerful spiritual sense allowed him to detect everything within a radius of over 5,000 kilometers.

  Along the way, he had already passed by four or five shimmering restrictions, which were clearly where the cave abodes of other cultivators were situated.

  Han Li paid no heed to these neighbors and continued to fly on ahead.

  After passing through almost the entirety of the mountain ranges, Han Li finally found the plot of Spirit Land on the map that belonged to him. The plot of land stretched for over 10,000 kilometers, and there was no end to it in sight. Furthermore, there was not even a single cultivator here aside from himself.

  Han Li was quite elated, but he wasn't in a hurry to build a cave abode. Instead, he flew in a circle around the annotated border on the map, which indicated the boundaries of his plot of Spirit Land. During the process, he would toss out white formation flags at regular intervals, all of which burrowed into the ground and disappeared.

  These formation flags were only treasures of the lowest grade and only possessed a very lackluster illusionary effect. They were only there for symbolic purposes, informing other nearby cultivators that this plot of land now had an owner, thereby serving as a warning against trespassers, intentional or not.

  After that, Han Li began to travel through this area in a leisurely manner.

  Over half a day later, he discovered several small spirit mines and a few naturally occurring spirit medicine patches.

  Of course, the spirit stones and spirit medicines that could be found at those locations were all quite low in caliber, and it was most likely the case that the previous owner of this land couldn't even be bothered to excavate and farm those sites.

  These sites naturally didn't really catch Han Li's eye, either, but they came as a minor pleasant surprise to him.

  After inspecting the entire area, Han Li hovered in the air high above the center of the plot of Spirit Land with a contemplative look on his face, feeling a little perplexed.

  He didn't discover anything special about this place, but his opponent had gone to such extreme lengths during their battle. Could it really be the case that he was simply targeting this place because it was beneficial for the cultivation of one of his secret techniques?

  Han Li shook his head to reject the notion as soon as it appeared in his mind.

  His opponent's reaction to losing the battle indicated that things definitely weren't as simple as that. Furthermore, the Spirit Land was such a vast area; why was he willing to go so far for this particular plot of land, to the extent that he was prepared to kill Han Li? It appeared that this place would have to be carefully searched again. Otherwise, Han Li felt as if there was something constantly nagging at him, and he wouldn't be able to cultivate with a calm heart.

  After making his decision, Han Li began to consider constructing a cave abode.

  Even though the land here was all quite similar, there were naturally a few locations were spiritual Qi was especially rich and abundant.

  After some careful consideration, Han Li finally made a decision. As such, he immediately rose into the air as a streak of azure light, and flew toward the location he had chosen.

  Not long after that, Han Li appeared between two massive mountains, in a place with tumbling five-colored mist.

  This place seemed to be a massive swamp, and the vibrant five-colored mist emanating from it reached altitudes of thousands of feet. It didn't possess extremely toxic properties, but inhalation was far from advisable, even for cultivators.

  Most importantly, there were some unknown constituents in this mist that restricted Han Li's spiritual sense to a certain extent, making him unable to detect what lay deep within the mist.

  Only after using his Brightsight Spirit Eyes was Han Li able to discover that several kilometers into the mist, there was a natural valley that connected the two massive mountains.

  Such a naturally obscure location was perfect for Han Li's cave abode.

  As such, Han Li flew deep into the mist before easily carving out a hole in the side of a certain nondescript rock face within the valley. He then released his flying swords to dig out two extremely long passageways that led directly into the bellies of the two giant mountains.

  He was planning to construct two cave abodes at once.

  One of them was a hoax that would be used as a diversion, while the other one was the cave abode in which he would cultivate, as well as nurture his spirit insects, spirit beasts, and spirit medicines.

  As for that Hidden Fortune Abode, it was too small, so there was naturally no need to use it now.

  After constructing his cave abodes, Han Li immediately transferred the spirit herbs and spirit medicines he'd taken here from the human world into the medicine garden. The Gold Devouring Beetles were also placed into an enclosure. After being nurtured for so many years, all of the Gold Devouring Beetles had reached astonishing sizes, and appeared to be extremely menacing. They were clearly already close to full maturity.

  As for that, Leopard Kirin Beast, Han Li also prepared a comfortable nest for it so it could cultivate on its own.

  However, after walking into a particularly eerie empty beast room, a solemn look appeared on Han Li's face.

  He gently waved his spirit beast bracelet toward the beast room, following which a burst of black light swept forth, and a black object that was around 10 feet tall abruptly appeared.

  Chapter 1327: Profound Heavenly Fruit

  The object was round and resembled a cocoon. It was emitting faint black light, and the image of a crimson malicious spirit could be seen on its surface.

  The malicious spirit possessed a single horn and three eyes, giving off a very sinister appearance.

  This cocoon was naturally formed by the Weeping Soul Beast. Back when the Weeping Soul Beast had last evolved,
it had also transformed into a black cocoon just like this one. The image of the malicious spirit on the cocoon was identical to the one on the Weeping Soul Beast's back.

  Han Li stroked his chin as he looked at this cocoon, and a hint of elation flashed through his eyes.

  During the battle for the Spirit Land, when he was sucked into the Yin soul space, he had immediately sensed the abundant Yin Qi in the air. Immediately thereafter, countless vicious souls materialized, all of which swept directly toward Han Li, led by a powerful ghostly monarch.

  Han Li naturally released his Weeping Soul Beast without any hesitation upon seeing this.

  This beast possessed the incredible ability to devour souls, and as light poured forth from its nostrils, none of the normal Yin souls were able to put up any resistance as they were reduced to sustenance for the Weeping Soul Beast. Only that ghostly monarch was a little troublesome to deal with. It had cultivated its body to take on a substantial form, thus allowing it to resist the Weeping Soul Beast's light.

  However, Han Li used his Thunderstorm Wings to appear behind it and unleash a sneak attack with his Divine Devilbane Lightning, upon which the situation changed drastically.

  After being wounded, the ghostly monarch was no longer able to use its secret technique to stabilize its soul. In the end, the Weeping Soul Beast swooped in to devour the ghostly monarch during its battle with Han Li.

  After engulfing so many vicious souls and this final ghostly monarch, which possessed powers comparable to a Deity Transformation cultivator, the Weeping Soul Beast immediately broke through its evolution bottleneck, thereby transforming into this black cocoon.

  Thankfully, Han Li had witnessed the same phenomenon in the past, so he was filled with elation rather than panic.

  As such, he didn't have any time to take care of the rest of the vicious soul as he forcibly broke out of the Yin soul space with his Law Destruction Eye, escaping into the outside world with this cocoon.