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

by Translator: Johnchen

The squad of cultivators changed direction and flew off tens of kilometers.

  They came across an unremarkable pile of stone and a purple miasma that seemed to surround the swamp.

  The old man looked at the Foreign Spirit Plate in his hand and nodded. Then he waved his hand and commanded, “It appears to be there. We can’t let it escape.”

  Suddenly, the black-armored guards splat out treasures to defend themselves and released their spiritual sense below.

  After the time it took to finish a cup of tea, the cultivators; expression faintly changed.

  “They’re a close distance away but our spiritual sense still can’t find them. It seems that we’ll only be able to personally search for them.” The old man took a deep breath and called out to the middle-aged man with narrow eyes, “Fellow Daoist Qin!”

  “Don’t worry, Squad Leader. I know what to do.” The middle-aged man quickly replied. Soon after, he slapped the storage bracelet on his wrist and took out a pile of jet-black balls.

  He raised his hand and scattered the balls underneath and began to chant.

  A series of cracks sounded and the surface of the balls sparked with blue lightning. Their bodies morphed in the blink of an eye and they turned into fist-sized sparking bees. They were black and buzzed from their vibrating wings.

  The others remained motionless in the air. Only the middle-aged man sat in midair with his hands forming an incantation. He formed an incantation gesture and over a hundred iron bees.

  It appeared the patrolling cultivators took in the lessons of their predecessors and didn’t rashly drop to the ground where they would tangle with the foreign tribe in a messy situation.

  Otherwise, with the strange unblockable tricks of foreign beings, they could find themselves dead in mutual destruction.

  It would be better to control a few puppets to investigate.

  Not only after the iron bees were released the Foreign Spirit Plates trembled and let out an exceptionally high-pitched shriek. A few of their plates even burst with blinding light, much to their shock.

  The large fierce man looked at the spell plate in his hand and shouted, “Not good, the foreign being is near us. It’s already entered our hundred-meter perimeter.”

  The others looked at their spell plates and were thrown into an uproar as they looked around them with wide eyes.

  Within three hundred meters of them, above and below, they found nothing; it was completely empty.

  “Everyone, quickly dispel its concealment! It will be over if it approaches us.” The old man shouted loudly, leaving a faint ringing in his subordinates’ ears. He then flipped his hand and produced a copper mirror.

  The old man flung the copper mirror over his head and suddenly, it took the form of a bright moon. Light flashed from its surface and a bowl-sized azure beam shot out. It twirled around the moon before scattering in every direction.

  The others began to unleash their own treasures to break the foreign being’s concealment, but the light found nothing.

  However, the piercing shriek from the Foreign Spirit Plates only grew sharper. It was clear that it was already close.

  At that moment, the cultivators revealed panic and the old man felt his face pale.

  This situation was without a doubt because the foreign being or beings were scouts of the foreign tribes that shouldn’t be provoked. Not only did it not think to flee, but it thought to kill them instead.

  As if squeezing his voice out from his throat, the old man shouted, “Quickly lay out the Elemental Spirit Light Formation! Common protections won’t protect us!”

  Soon after, he paid no further attention to the mirror above his hand. He flipped his hand and summoned a red command token. He tossed it into the air and turned into a ball of flickering red light.

  The other black-armored guards suddenly realized something and they released various magic tools into the air.

  But at that moment, the magic tools slowed down.

  Bang. Three of the Foreign Spirit Plates simultaneously erupted.

  Above the owners of the three plates, several faint blurs suddenly appeared.

  These silhouettes blurred as soon as they appeared and rushed towards the cultivators.

  “Ah!”

  The three black-armored cultivators finally discovered these grey silhouettes and couldn't help but shout. However, the magic treasure and spirit light protecting them didn’t block the blurs from entering their body.

  Suddenly, they let out screams of pain and they fell to the ground as they covered their heads. It was unknown if they survived.

  As soon as he saw the blurs, the old man’s face vastly changed and he hastily shouted, “They are shadow puppets from the Shadow Tribe! Quickly release your lightning-attribute treasures and techniques!”

  Afterwards, he opened his mouth and spat out a silver-white flying sword.

  Once the sword appeared, it covered the old man in silver-white lightning.

  Afterwards, a grey shadow appeared right behind him, but thunder rang and a bolt of lightning shot out, flinging the shadow ten meters away.

  The Shadow Tribe had an infamous reputation, and the cultivators immediately realized what was happening. However, only two of them were able to release their lightning-attribute treasure. The rest of them felt their bodies turn cold and they couldn't help but curse.

  Lightning was an overbearing but rare element. Not many cultivators possess such a treasure.

  The Shadow Tribe was also a bizarre race. Apart from lightning attributed treasures and a few peculiar techniques, nothing affected them.

  And in their brief moment of hesitation, more grey shadows appeared beneath them.

  The black-armored guards glanced at each other in terror and they shouted, scattering in streaks in every direction in an attempt to throw off the shadows.

  However, the grey shadows seemed to truly become the cultivator’s shadow. They turned into streaks of grey light and relentlessly pursued the cultivators.

  In the blink of an eye, the cultivators and the shadow puppets were a hundred meters away. All that remained in the original location was the old man and the other two black-armored guards that possessed a lightning treasure.

  However, as time went on, an increasing number of grey shadows began to appear in front of them. There were now eight of them that were drifting around them, but rolls of lightning continued to hold them at bay.

  However, these shadows didn’t seem to know pain since they continued to approach.

  The old man took a deep breath and no longer concerned himself with the wellbeing of his subordinates. His wrist flashed with red light and suddenly produced a stack of talismans.

  “Evil creatures, you’re courting death!”

  The old man fiercely glared at them and approached one of the shadows. With a harsh expression, he released a talisman. It sharply crackled, releasing a dozen bolts of blue forking lightning at the grey image.

  Rolls of thunder rang and lightning erupted. The grey shadow let out whimpers as a net of lightning surrounded it and turned it to dust.

  The old man was overjoyed to see this. It seemed the hefty cost of these lightning talismans was well worth it.

  He flipped his hand to produce another stack of talismans and released it in an attack.

  But just as the forks of lightning was about to strike at another grey shadow, a cold snort sounded from all around them.

  Meanwhile, the grey shadow suddenly produced a large green hand from the front of its body and its fingers blurred. The green hand somehow caught all the lightning in its hand.

  After a series of muffled eruptions, the lightning disappeared without a trace.

  “A green shadow!” The old man’s pupils shrunk.

  “You all are courting death.” A cold emotionless voice sounded from the green hand. The hand trembled and twisted, turning into a green light silhouette.

  The silhouette was in the shape of a person, but their head seemed extremely large, about
two or three times larger than an ordinary human. The green light flickered from the face to reveal a pair of bright scarlet eyes.

  It appeared to be a high-grade Shadow Tribe being as the old man expected. The old man’s lips twitched and his face turned blue.

  Although lightning was effective on a majority of the Shadow Tribe, green shadows were at the same level as Deity Transformation-stage cultivators and their bodies were somewhat resistant to lightning. When a Deity Transformation cultivator and a green shadow fought, most of the time, the cultivator perished or lost.

  And from the number of shadow puppets the green shadow could control, he feared that the green shadow was the highest of its grade.

  The old man’s heart completely dropped.

  At that moment, he heard distant eruptions from a distance. It was clear that the black-armored cultivators sank into a desperate battle.

  The green shadow cared not for the old man’s terror and wordlessly took a step forward. His body strangely warped until he was a few meters away from the old man and he raised his arm towards the overbearing lightning surrounding the old man’s body.

  He planned on directly grabbed ahold of the old man’s magic treasure.

  The old man’s heart leapt. The green shadow was too fast. It was too late for him to dodge. He could only shout and pour the entirety of his magic power into his protective treasure.

  The silver lightning thundered in front of him and grew three times thicker.

  When the green shadow saw this, a trace of disdain appeared from his crimson eyes, and his palm continued forward. He reached out to grab the lightning.

  Thunder rolled and the thick lightning bolt ruptured in a wild display, eventually revealing a small sword.

  The small sword shifted its form continuously and wildly trembled, but the large green hand held firm.

  The old man’s face became bloodlessly pale.

  The green shadow let out a bewildering cackle and his body blurred as if he was about to take action.

  But suddenly, thunder sounded above the old man and azure-white light flashed. A winged silhouette suddenly appeared.

  As soon as the winged figure appeared, he wordlessly pointed his hands downward.

  Chapter 1353: Foreign Tribe Suspicions

  He flicked his fingers and five dense bolts of lightning lashed out. Another light flashed from his hand to produce a square embroidered cloth drifting downward. Its surface faintly glowed with strange talisman characters in a mysterious fashion.

  When the green shadow saw this, he was alarmed but not frightened. Instead, he shook his shoulder, summoning two grey shadows from his back. In a blur, they split off to confront the oncoming lightning and cloth.

  The green shadow then twisted his body, wanting to create some distance.

  An icy harrumph sounded from the winged silhouette above him.

  An inconceivable event followed!

  As soon as the green shadow heard him, he violently trembled. Afterwards, his figure stopped and was left in a daze.

  A rolling thunder rang and the five bolts of golden lightning were the first to strike the shadow puppet.

  Upon contact, the grey shadow dissolved from the golden light like ice to the sun. A grey mist was all that was left behind.

  Simultaneously, the odd talisman characters on the embroidered cloth lit up and ruptured. Myriads of fine silver threads covered the grey shadow and immediately retracted it back into the cloth, holding the shadow puppet firmly in place.

  Thunder rang from the embroidered cloth, and countless arcs of lightning leaped out, attacking the immobile shadow puppet.

  At that moment, the winged silhouette flapped his wings and immediately disappeared with the flash of a silver line.

  A moment later, the silver line appeared above the green shadow. The winged silhouette then waved his hand in a casual motion.

  His palm sparkled with light and soon light lit up from his fingers, releasing five various colored bone rings.

  The rings were as fine as jade with pea-sized skulls meticulously carved from their surface. The eyes in the skulls stirred and the skull opened its mouth as if it were alive.

  The five skulls release different colored glacial flames, and they fused together to create a gorgeous barrier of rainbow flame.

  Just as he collected himself from being intimidated before, the green shadow saw flames light from in front of him as he was about to be engulfed in rainbow flames.

  He felt his entire body tensed and felt it become incredibly slow.

  In the next moment, the green shadow felt great terror.

  However, he was a high-grade existence in the shadow clan. He instantly let out a piercing shriek from his mouth, causing his green body to burst into countless green threads. They scattered in every direction to avoid being trapped by the rainbow flames.

  The winged silhouette seemed to have already anticipated this and suddenly swiped down with his other hand.

  Light lit up from it and the image of a small black mountain was faintly revealed from his hand. With a flip of his hand, rings of grey light suddenly rushed out from his palm.

  When the grey light flew out, the green threads seemed to have encountered their match. As the rings swept the green threads inside of them, they were instantly crushed and turned to green dust.

  At that moment, the green shadow’s crimson eyes were filled with terror.

  However, his body felt immense pressure as if the land itself was weighing down on him. Against such a powerful ability, he couldn't muster himself to escape.

  Winds tore as differently colored light shot out from the winged silhouette’s hands, placing a series of talismans on the green shadow.

  The green shadow blurred and the crimson light gradually faded from his eyes.

  An inconceivable event occurred.

  Under the restriction of the talismans, the green shadow began to shrink until he was only a fist-sized green ball that weakly pulsed with faint green light.

  The winged silhouette didn’t find this odd in the slightest and withdrew his abilities. He simply reached his hand out in the air.

  The green ball immediately tore through the air and easily arrived in the person’s hand.

  At that moment, the winged silhouette turned to the dumbstruck azure-armored old man and said with a smile, “Fellow Daoist Yue, I’m afraid I’ve arrived too late. Are you alright?”

  The old man eventually collected himself and withdrew the flying sword in front of him. He returned the smile and saluted the man, “Brother Han, what are you saying? Had you not saved my life, I fear I would’ve been in trouble. I’ve long heard of your exceptional abilities, and now I see those rumors are entirely true! Even a high-grade Shadow Tribe member isn’t enough to be your match.”

  The winged silhouette was actually a youth wearing a set of azure armor, Han Li!

  But at that moment, Han Li already progressed his cultivation to mid-Deity Transformation stage.

  Han Li chuckled in response and said, “Brother Yue is exaggerating. It's just that my techniques happen to be effective against the Shadow Tribe members. If it were another foreign race, my attacks wouldn’t have been effective.

  “Hehe, Fellow Daoist Han is quite modest. Who could’ve known that your small squad would suffer no casualties during decades of patrol assignments? I heard in those years, you’ve killed quite a few foreign tribe spies. Tch tch, considering all your merits, my praise hadn’t been enough.” The old man wryly laughed and shook his head.

  “Nonsense, so the other Fellow Daoists must be alright?” Han Li chuckled and then he looked around.

  “There should be any problems. Since that Shadow Tribe member has been restrained, the puppets he controlled should’ve dispersed. My subordinates had been earlier possessed, but since only a short time had passed, their vitality will only be a bit damaged in the worst case. So why did you come across this place? Where are your subordinates?” When the old man saw that Han Li didn’
t want to continue that conversation, he tactfully changed the topic.

  Han Li took out a jade box from his storage bracelet and put the restrained green shadow in it. Then he calmly answered, “Hehe, it was only a matter of luck. I recently acquired a high-grade Foreign Spirit Plate, so it gives me a broader range. I happened to be patrolling with my squad in a nearby area and the plate rang. As for my subordinates, I ordered them to stay in place before I took off.”

  “So it was like that. I’ve managed to escape calamity through luck alone!” The old man sighed.

  At that moment, the two black-armored guards nearby approached Han Li and uttered deep thanks for his timely arrival.

  From a distance, the other cultivators were returning and arrived before Han Li, uttering a similar word of thanks.

  Han Li uttered a few pleasantries before saying farewell and flying off in an azure streak.

  After Han Li disappeared from sight, the large man with a fierce expression muttered, “I heard when Senior Han just arrived at Deep Heaven City, he was only at early Deity Transformation-stage cultivation, but his abilities were on par with a mid-stage cultivator. And ten years ago, he entered mid-stage and his abilities became even more profound.”

  The other black-armored guard said with admiration, “More than just that. I heard that in the decades he spent on his patrol assignment, he killed eight high-grade foreign beings. He can’t be compared to an ordinary dark azure guard. Could it be that ascended cultivators are all such fearsome existences.”

  The middle-aged woman snorted and said, “Ascended cultivators are a grade stronger than those native to the spirit realm, but that Senior Han is an outlier even among ascended cultivators.”

  The other cultivators were startled when they heard this.

  After Han Li faded from sight, the old man twirled his beard long in thought. After a short while, he waved his hand and had his squad depart.

  Hundreds of kilometers away, an azure streak tore through the air and the light faded away to reveal Han Li.

  At that same moment, a dozen streaks of light flew up from the ground and stopped before Han Li to reveal black-armored cultivators.

  “Squad Leader!”