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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Sure enough, the new sword formation became a lot more powerful as a result, and he was able to better control it as well.

  Han Li stared at the myriad sword artwork in an intent unblinking manner.

  The things he had gleaned from the artwork were collected and named the Sword Observation Art by him, but he knew that he had only gleaned a minuscule portion of what the artwork truly had to offer. It was just that the rest was too profound for a Spatial Tempering cultivator to comprehend.

  After a long while, he heaved a faint sigh before sweeping his sleeve through the air, and azure light flashed before the artwork reverted back into its scroll form and vanished into thin air.

  A contemplative look appeared on Han Li's face. He had reaped many rewards from the Vast Glacial Realm, and aside from the Spirit Refinement Technique and myriad sword artwork, the one that he held in the highest regard was the Spiritvoid Pill that he had swindled.

  Even Body Integration Stage beings like Cai Liuying and Duan Tianren had plotted for tens of thousands of years to secure these pills, so they naturally had to be extremely valuable.

  Unfortunately, this was the first time that he had heard of these pills, and they were presumably only useful for Body Integration Stage beings, so this pill wasn't going to be of any use to him before he made his breakthrough.

  Aside from the Spiritvoid Pill, he had also obtained many other spirit medicines from the medicine garden within the ruins. However, most of these spirit medicines had been given to Qian Jizi and the others, and he had only retained one of each so he could nurture them to the point where they could produce seeds.

  Even though he was still unable to identify those unique spirit flowers and spirit fruits, they were definitely all extremely difficult to find in the Spirit Realm.

  The spirit medicine that he held in the highest regard among them was naturally none other than that silver lotus seed pod. This spirit medicine was most likely the most precious one in the entire medicine garden, but he had no idea what it was, so he couldn't do anything with it for now. He could only hope that he would be able to learn how to use these spirit medicines in the future.

  Setting those aside, he could brew some Red Silk Heavenly Wine with the Red Silk Fruits. This wine could extend one's lifespan and enhance one's physical constitution, so it definitely couldn't hurt to drink it. Furthermore, the Red Silk Fruits that he had procured had been growing for countless years, so perhaps the spirit wine brewed with these fruits would have some additional positive effects.

  As for the Corrosive Poisonweed, that was an important material for refining several types of pills that could improve a Body Integration Stage being's cultivation base, so he could begin refining those pills after he made his breakthroughs.

  Aside from those, the completely depleted talismans and that starry sky diagram in the world within the screen were all items that were very much worthy of further examination. Han Li was sure that studying them would be greatly beneficial to his prowess in the areas of talismans and formations.

  However, during the past century or so, he had primarily focused his time on cultivating the Spirit Refinement Technique and some other secret techniques, so he hadn't had much time to examine those things. As such, they had been sitting idly inside his storage bracelet this entire time.

  After a long while, Han Li exhaled as he focused his attention on his Body Integration Stage bottleneck.

  His spiritual sense had been vastly enhanced, and that, in conjunction with all of the spirit pills he had obtained from the Thunder Continent, would greatly increase his chances of making a successful breakthrough.

  However, prior to that, he had to refine some spirit pills and treasures first. After all, the Body Integration Stage bottleneck was different from all of the major breakthroughs he had made in the past. Not only did he require a large number of pills to assist himself during the breakthrough process, he also had to set up a formation to draw upon the world's origin Qi to further increase his chances of success.

  This formation was one that Han Li had obtained by chance while passing through the territory of a foreign race during his return journey.

  It was said that this formation was an extremely closely guarded secret of their race, and if it weren't for a series of fortuitous events, he wouldn't have been able to learn the method to establish the formation.

  This formation wasn't necessarily all that complex, but the thought process behind it was quite brilliant, and it required a few specific treasures to form the core of the formation. Han Li would naturally have to refine these treasures himself, which was why he had purchased so many materials from Deep Heaven City.

  He flicked his wrist, and his storage bracelet flew through the air as a streak of black light before hovering in the air in a stationary manner.

  He waved a hand toward the bracelet, and red light flashed as a crimson cauldron that was around an inch in height appeared below it.

  A burst of azure light then swept forth from the storage bracelet, and spiritual light flashed on the ground, following which a series of containers appeared.

  Han Li made a hand seal, and the cauldron quickly expanded to several feet in size. A faint smile appeared on his face, and he pointed a finger at the cauldron, upon which a wisp of azure flames erupted from his fingertip.

  The flames revolved around the cauldron before abruptly swelling to several times its original size, upon which a scorching aura was released, drastically increasing the temperature within the secret chamber.

  Meanwhile, Han Li made a grabbing motion toward one of the jade boxes on the ground, and the lid of the box flew off on its own before a piece of unknown metal emerged from within.

  The surface of the metal was of a glossy black color, and there were wisps of spiritual Qi emanating from it; this was clearly a material that had already been roughly refined.

  The black piece of metal vanished into the cauldron in a flash, and Han Li swept a sleeve through the air, upon which the azure flames swelled once again to encompass the entire cauldron.

  After that, he added one material after another into the cauldron, and only after two months did he finally complete the refinement of all of the treasures and pills that he required.

  He then spent another half month or so to carefully set up a huge formation with the mountain as the center.

  After all of those preparations were made, Han Li went into seclusion and cultivated for half a year to prime himself into the best condition before finally beginning to attempt a breakthrough.

  On this day, the white-haired elderly man from the Gu Family branch was meditating in a cave abode when the ground suddenly began to tremor, following which the entire secret chamber began to quake violently.

  The elderly man opened his eyes and was just about to yell out to inquire what was happening when a thought suddenly occurred to him.

  His expression immediately changed as he rushed out of the secret chamber as a streak of light, and after just a few flashes, he appeared on a giant rock on the mountain summit, then cast his gaze toward the sea of mist in the distance with a solemn expression.

  Moments later, a few more streaks of light rushed over to join the elderly man, and they also directed their attention toward the sea of mist.

  There were heavenly phenomena taking place again!

  The same thought appeared in everyone's minds at the same time as a dozen or so giant silver pillars of light erupted from within the sea of mist.

  Each and every pillar of light was over 1,000 feet tall with faint golden runes flashing erratically on their surfaces.

  The sea of mist tumbled violently, and countless specks of lights of different colors were converging toward the center of the sea of mist from all directions.

  The elderly man released his spiritual sense, and his face immediately paled. Within his sensory range, all of the world's origin Qi was surging toward the sea of mist in a frenzy. Enormous amounts of spiritual Qi was being released by the near
by spirit veins, and they seemed to have been stirred up by some kind of powerful force.

  In the blink of an eye, massive five-colored spirit clouds had appeared above the sea of mist to cover the entire sky.

  Loud thunderclaps rang out as bolts of purple lightning appeared within the clouds before intertwining violently like a series of purple lightning snakes.

  All of a sudden, a long cry suddenly rang out from within the sea of mist, followed by a tremendous eruption of spiritual pressure.

  The spiritual pressure was powerful beyond belief, and even though all of the spectating cultivators were situated hundreds of kilometers away, all of them felt a gargantuan weight crashing down upon them. Some of the cultivators with weaker cultivations bases blacked out on the spot and collapsed with blood trickling out of all of their orifices.

  Even the more powerful beings like the white-haired elderly man also experienced momentary loss of vision before involuntarily falling to their knees.

  These people were naturally extremely alarmed, yet before they had a chance to do anything, bursts of Buddhist chants suddenly rang out from within the five-colored spirit clouds, and runes of all different colors began to appear.

  Right at this moment, an inhuman roar erupted from the center of the sea of mist, where the mountain was situated, and a streak of golden light shot forth. The light then receded to reveal a golden figure that was over 1,000 feet tall.

  The golden figure had a pair of huge menacing eyes and was baring its fangs in a ferocious manner; it was a vicious-looking giant golden ape.

  As soon as this ape appeared, loud thunderclaps immediately erupted from within the five-colored spirit clouds. Countless purple lightning arcs then converged toward the same spot in the clouds, forming a giant purple wyrm that was not inferior in size to the massive ape.

  Another earth-shattering thunderclap erupted, and the purple wyrm came crashing down with devastating force.

  The giant golden ape looked on with a ferocious expression and pounded its own chest with its huge fists before leaping up to meet the purple wyrm.

  Chapter 1764: Progressing to the Body Integration Stage (1)

  The giant golden ape spread its massive arms before wrapping them around the neck of the purple wyrm, then tore the head off the huge wyrm with a ferocious roar.

  The purple wyrm's body disintegrated into countless arcs of lightning amid a resounding boom, and the giant ape abruptly raised its head before taking a deep breath, then opened its mouth to expel a vast expanse of golden light.

  All of the dispersing arcs of lightning were immediately captured by the golden light before being drawn into the golden ape's mouth. In the blink of an eye, all of the lightning had vanished.

  However, the giant ape had no intention of stopping there. Spiritual light swirled around its body, and the golden light it had expelled from its mouth vanished into the five-colored spirit clouds as a pillar of light.

  A string of dull thumps rang out in rapid succession within the spirit clouds, and they began to revolve around the golden pillar of light.

  All of the runes within the clouds were drawn into the golden light in a frenzy by a burst of enormous suction force, and these runes were all devoured by the gargantuan ape.

  Moments later, the surface of the golden pillar of light was riddled with runes of all different colors, which were surging downward in a frenzy.

  The giant golden ape's mouth was like a bottomless pit that seemed to have an unlimited capacity for these runes.

  All of the spectating cultivators around the sea of mist all looked on in a flabbergasted manner.

  Meanwhile, the terms "Giant Mountain Ape" and "true spirit bloodline" reverberated within the white-haired elderly man's mind, and he was even more shocked than all of the other cultivators.

  As a branch leader of a true spirit family, he was naturally far more knowledgeable and experienced than other cultivators of his caliber, and he immediately identified that gargantuan ape as the projection of a Giant Mountain Ape, a revelation that immediately had his jaw dropping straight to the ground.

  "No wonder he was unwilling to join our Gu Family; he possesses a true spirit bloodline himself! But this projection is way too powerful! Even from this far away, its aura alone is enough to fell so many of us. On top of that, the phenomena taking place on this occasion are even more astonishing than those from last time. So much of the world's origin Qi is converging toward one place; could it be that he's attempting a breakthrough to the Body Integration Stage?" The elderly man wasn't all that powerful himself, but he was quite smart and managed to strike the nail on the head in just a short time.

  At this moment, not only were the runes above the sea of mist being drawn into the golden light, even the five-colored spirit clouds themselves were being swept up.

  A short while later, the spirit clouds in the sky had been warped and elongated to form a giant funnel-like structure with a wide top that tapered down to a narrow bottom.

  Vast amounts of these spirit clouds were surging into the giant ape projection in a frenzy, and the slightly indistinct projection gradually became clearer during this process.

  Not long after that, all of the five-colored spirit clouds had been sucked away, and the giant ape projection seemed to still be dissatisfied. It closed its huge mouth before thumping its own chest again, and piercing golden light erupted from its body.

  A white tornado took shape around the giant ape projection before swelling rapidly in size, and in the blink of an eye, it had completely encompassed the giant projection within it.

  At the same time, a burst of invisible fluctuations was rapidly spreading in all directions from the tornado, and the scope covered by these fluctuations was quite astounding.

  All of the world's origin Qi in a radius of thousands of kilometers were stirred up into a frenzy, and they all surged toward the sea of mist as pea-sized specks of light.

  These specks of light vanished into the tornado like moths to a flame, and the giant ape's roar rang out from within the tornado once again. On this occasion, the roar was slightly urgent and pained.

  As the number of five-colored specks of light increased, the giant ape's roars gradually subsided before it fell completely silent in the end.

  However, regardless of how many specks of light were converging toward the tornado, it seemed that the tornado would never be filled.

  All of the cultivators around the sea of mist looked on in awe and astonishment. If a normal cultivator were to absorb so much of the world's origin Qi, they would've most likely self-detonated and perished already.

  After a long while, a shrill cry suddenly rang out from within the white tornado, followed by an earth-shattering boom.

  The tornado was then blown apart, and gusts of fierce winds erupted in all directions, dispersing all of the nearby specks of light.

  The giant ape appeared once again, but its body was no longer golden in color. Instead, it was riddled with dazzling five-colored runes, presenting a very peculiar yet spectacular sight to behold.

  The giant ape had its hands on its head, and its expression was changing rapidly, transitioning erratically between unspeakable agony, extreme fury, and a series of other emotions, making it appear as if it had gone insane.

  At the same time, the runes on its body flashed violently, and its entire body was fluctuating in clarity in an extremely unstable manner.

  All of the spectators were rather puzzled to see this, but a sense of horror welled up in the white-haired elderly man's heart.

  This situation was a clear indication that the man had reached a critical juncture in his breakthrough and had been afflicted by inner demons.

  If he were to succumb to his inner demons and lose control over himself, it was very possible that his inner demons would make him go on a senseless killing rampage.

  With this man's astonishing powers, none of the spectating cultivators would be able to offer any resistance, and they'd be as good as dead.
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br />   Breaking through major cultivation bottlenecks was always an extremely perilous endeavor, and such events were far from uncommon.

  With that in mind, the elderly man's horror was exacerbated even further, and in his desperation, he circulated his own magic power with all his might, trying to stand up against the enormous pressure so he could lead all of the other cultivators away from here, but he had only just risen to his feet before his legs gave out from under him, and he knelt down onto the ground again.

  Even though the giant ape projection in the distance was clearly quite disoriented, the spiritual pressure it was releasing showed no signs of abating. As a mere Nascent Soul cultivator, he was completely immobilized, and even his magic power was completely unable to circulate, so he wasn't even able to alert the others of how perilous this situation was.

  As such, the elderly man could only look on helplessly as his horror mounted.

  Meanwhile, within the secret chamber in the mountain, Han Li was seated with his legs crossed inside a peculiar small formation. His body was completely still and lifeless, and there was a golden and azure Nascent Soul that was around half a foot tall hovering several feet above him. The Nascent Soul was staring at a corner of the secret chamber outside of the formation, and it was holding a golden blade segment in its arms.

  There were 72 small azure swords around it, each of which was around an inch in length, forming a secure protective barrier.

  Around the small swords were a short silver ruler, a small azure cauldron, and a huge black sword, all of which were slowly revolving around the Nascent Soul.

  The Nascent Soul's current appearance was very unsettling as one of its eyes were of a shimmering blue color while the other was as red as blood, and the two halves of its face that were separated by the bridge of its nose wore completely contrasting expressions.