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

by Translator: Johnchen

  The cold look in the eyes of the brocade-robed devil became even more pronounced as he harrumphed coldly, and bright red light suddenly began to glow from his horns. Countless crimson threads shot forth, all of which struck the surrounding balls of azure light with unerring accuracy before piercing through them in a flash.

  However, before the brocade-robed devil had a chance to do anything else, a crisp crack akin to the sound of shattering porcelain suddenly rang out.

  All of the azure balls of light exploded in unison and radiated blinding spiritual light.

  All five devils immediately closed their eyes as an instinctive reaction to this piercing light.

  Taking advantage of this opportunity, the middle-aged couple shot forth toward two different directions as two streaks of azure light, and at the same time, both of them let loose long cries of different octaves.

  The five devils were only disoriented for a split-second before immediately returning to normal, and they were naturally all infuriated to see this.

  "I'm going to rip you to shreds and torment your soul for all of eternity! Go and chase down those two; leave this old fart to me," the brocade-robed man roared as he rubbed his hands together. Bursts of inky-black devilish Qi erupted from his body, then converged to form a two-headed devilish projection.

  The devilish projection was rather blurry and indistinct, and one could only just barely make out its rough form, but it was extremely fast and pounced toward the elderly man in a vicious manner.

  The elderly man remained calm as he opened his mouth to release several streaks of yellow sword Qi. The sword Qi formed a sword barrier that shielded him from the oncoming devilish projection, and he seemed to be content to merely defend himself against his opponent's attacks.

  The devilish projection immediately gained a significant upper hand as soon as it clashed with the sword Qi, but it was unable to immediately break through the barrier to kill the elderly man.

  The four Deity Transformation Stage devilish beings shared a few hesitant glances upon seeing this, then split up into two groups to pursue the two streaks of azure light.

  Meanwhile, the Wood Tribe beings who had just stormed into the fortress down below all displayed expressions of surprise upon hearing the long cries from the middle-aged couple, but they immediately turned around and flew back the way they had come without any hesitation.

  However, on this occasion, the devilish beings weren't willing to let them leave so easily. They let loose fierce war cries as they rushed out of the stronghold to pursue the retreating Wood Tribe beings, and none of the wooden giants were able to assist them as they were still locked in battle with the giant rhinoceros beasts.

  Thus, the entire stronghold was instantly plunged into a state of chaos.

  Meanwhile, no one noticed a faint azure shadow appear high up in the air right below the devilish node, then reverted back to its original form, revealing itself to be Han Li.

  The node was covered by a layer of inky-black devilish Qi, and there were over 100 devilish beings on a dozen or so battle canoes guarding the node.

  They were clearly far more powerful than the average devilish being in the stronghold, and they remained completely unmoved by the battle taking place below them.

  These devilish beings were naturally greatly alarmed to see someone suddenly appear before them, but before they had a chance to do anything, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, which transformed into hundreds of azure threads that instantly vanished into thin air.

  In the next instant, all of the devilish beings and their flying treasures were shredded by streaks of azure sword Qi, following which Han Li opened his mouth to expel a ball of silver flames.

  The silver fireball exploded as soon as it emerged, scattering through the air as countless silver sparks. The remains of these devilish beings and their battle canoes were set alight as soon as they came into contact with these silver flames, and they were incinerated into nothingness.

  Immediately thereafter, layers of five-colored light appeared over Han Li's body as he quickly made a hand seal, and he flew directly into the dense devilish Qi.

  This devilish Qi was clearly supposed to be some type of restriction, but it merely gave way to the five-colored light around Han Li's body.

  In the blink of an eye, Han Li had passed through the devilish Qi and arrived before the devilish node up above.

  The node was a vast expanse of darkness, and there were bursts of devilish Qi occasionally pouring out of it.

  A solemn look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and after a brief pause for contemplation, he made a hand seal to summon a suit of antiquated black devilish armor over his own body.

  Countless black runes then surged out of the suit of armor in a frenzy at his behest before enveloping his entire body.

  Immediately thereafter, extremely dazzling and vibrant light erupted from his body, and he transformed into a giant five-colored heavenly phoenix.

  The heavenly phoenix gave off an extremely authoritative aura, and it flapped its wings to send faint fluctuations rippling through the nearby space, instantly eradicating all of the oncoming gusts of black wind.

  The giant heavenly phoenix then flew directly into the massive black hole.

  Chapter 1971: Underground Glacier

  Five-colored light flashed within the black hole, and the heavenly phoenix abruptly vanished.

  With the heavenly phoenix's innate spatial abilities and Han Li's past experience with spatial rifts, he naturally wasn't going to see this mere devilish node as much of an obstacle.

  After all, even normal devilish lords could pass through this node; there should definitely be no issues for him.

  The only thing that he was wary of was that there could be some extremely powerful devilish beings situated on the other side of the node, in which case he would be landing himself in a lot of hot water.

  However, the chances of this happening in such a small node was virtually negligible.

  After flying through the devilish winds for a while and breaking through a dozen or so barriers formed by spatial power, specks of light began to appear up ahead.

  Han Li was ecstatic to see this, and he flapped his wings vigorously. Five-colored light flashed over his body, and he became a barely visible shadow.

  The exit on the other side of the node led to a boundless grey desert.

  On the ground down below, there were two black buildings that seemed to be a pair of watchtowers, within which were several tens of devilish guards who looked up at the node from time to time.

  After the span of just a few breaths, the spatial power faded, and the heavenly phoenix emerged from the node, then immediately vanished into thin air.

  Even the most powerful devilish guards situated in the two watchtowers were only at the Nascent Soul Stage, and nothing of note had happened here for many years, so they had become complacent and completely failed to notice Han Li's stealthy entrance.

  The heavenly phoenix emerged in the distant sky before reverting back to its human form, and Han Li heaved a faint sigh of relief as he cast his gaze back toward the node with a slightly peculiar look in his eyes.

  His infiltration into the Elder Devil Realm had been far smoother than he had anticipated, and he hadn't been made to use any of the measures he had painstakingly prepared.

  This naturally made him quite elated.

  Han Li began to inspect his surroundings in this realm that the human race proclaimed to be a hellish cesspool of a world.

  The sky was of a faint yellow color, and there was no cloud or mist to be seen. There were three crimson suns overhead, and aside from that, everything else seemed to be quite similar to what things were like in the Spirit Realm.

  The only other striking difference that could be sensed was that the spiritual Qi here was clearly a lot less abundant than it was in the Spirit Realm, and there was faint devilish Qi drifting all throughout the surrounding air.<
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  However, this devilish Qi was not very pronounced, and it could easily be missed if someone weren't paying attention to it.

  This was a rather surprising sight for Han Li.

  However, he hadn't ventured into the Elder Devil Realm to conduct geographic research; he had something important that he had to do. As such, he only inspected his surroundings for a short while before chanting something, and his suit of devilish armor reappeared before expelling a large amount of inky-black devilish Qi that completely inundated his body.

  Immediately thereafter, he made a hand seal, and his human aura was completely concealed.

  He then let loose a low cry, and faint golden scales appeared over his body. However, after coming into contact with the devilish Qi, the scales immediately turned black. At the same time, a third black demonic eye also appeared on his glabella.

  Han Li made a brief inspection of his own body with a faint smile on his face. With his current aura and appearance, he was identical to a high-grade devilish being.

  If he didn't encounter any devilish beings that were more powerful than himself, no one would be able to see through his disguise.

  Following his transformation, Han Li didn't dare to linger in the area any longer and immediately flew away as a gust of black wind.

  Around an hour later, he emerged from the desert and appeared above a hill that was riddled with grey shrubs.

  As soon as he reached this place, he immediately noticed that the devilish Qi had become denser. The difference was only an extremely minute one, but it confirmed Han Li's suspicions, which was that just like spiritual Qi, the abundance of devilish Qi differed from area to area in the Elder Devil Realm.

  Han Li continued onward and flew for a day and a night. He passed through the hilly region, over a giant lake, and through several black mountain ranges.

  Perhaps it was because the Elder Devil Realm was very bleak and barren to begin with or he was traveling in the wrong direction, but aside from a few low-grade devilish beasts, he didn't encounter any other devilish beings.

  This made Han Li feel slightly more relaxed, but also a bit more wary.

  On the fourth day, Han Li finally encountered several mid-grade devilish beings with human bodies and horse heads battling at the foot of a small mountain.

  These devilish beings wielded wooden clubs with beasthide garments draped over their bodies. They were extremely ferocious, and seemed to possess a certain level of intelligence.

  There was a black devilish beast that resembled a sabertooth tiger lying completely still nearby, and it was quite clear that these devilish beings were fighting over this prized prey.

  Han Li was ecstatic to see this, and he descended from above before releasing a few arcs of golden lightning to knock out these devilish beings.

  He then made a grabbing motion to draw one of them into his grasp before pressing a hand firmly onto the top of the devilish being's head.

  His eyes narrowed slightly, and black light flashed from his fingertips as he unleashed a soul search technique.

  Just as he had expected, the devilish being possessed only a very elementary level of intelligence, and there really wasn't much for him to sift through in its spiritual sense.

  Thankfully, he wasn't searching for any complex information, and from through his soul search technique, he discovered a suitable place that wasn't far away.

  Golden lightning sprang forth from his hand again to instantly incinerate this devilish being into dust, and he did the same for the other devilish beings, as well as that devilish beast carcass.

  After that, he flew toward a different direction compared to his original one.

  Several hours later, a boundless canyon appeared up ahead.

  The black winds faded, and Han Li appeared in the air above the canyon before casting his gaze downward.

  The canyon down below was several thousand feet wide and unfathomably deep. Howlings winds were blowing incessantly through it, and there was a vast expanse of murky yellow mist within it.

  Han Li descended into the canyon without any hesitation as grey light flashed over his body, and the fierce winds faded as soon as it came into contact with this grey light.

  As he descended further and further, the air temperature plummeted drastically, and a layer of frost could be seen on the faces of the canyon.

  These temperatures naturally weren't low enough to be of concern to Han Li, and after descending for over 10,000 feet, he finally reached the bottom of the canyon, where a blue glacier was situated.

  Theoretically speaking, the temperatures here should've frozen this river completely solid, but it showed no signs of freezing over at all. However, there were thick layers of blue ice on either side of the river, and fierce winds were howling in the air over 100 feet above the glacier.

  Han Li hovered in the air several tens of feet above the glacier, and he swept his gaze downward, upon which a hint of surprise appeared on his face.

  "This river is indeed rather peculiar; it's so calm and still on the surface, but it's as violent as a waterfall deeper down; it most likely leads straight to an underground river. On top of that, the glacial power here is also rather peculiar," Han Li murmured to himself.

  Right at this moment, a burst of hissing rang out from the fierce winds up above, and two extraordinarily fast streaks of blue light shot forth, reaching Han Li in a flash.

  This was a pair of translucent blue flying snakes with triangular heads and black crowns that resembled those of roosters. Just from their appearance alone, it was quite clear that they possessed lethal poison.

  Han Li's expression darkened upon seeing this, and his hands shot forth in a blur to catch the two flying snakes before crushing them without any hesitation. The two snakes didn't even have a chance to utter one final sound before they were instantly killed.

  Han Li tossed the bodies of the flying snakes into the water down below, they were instantly frozen solid before slowly sinking into the river, vanishing into its depths in the blink of an eye.

  Han Li closed his eyes before releasing his spiritual sense to track the progress of the two snake carcasses, following which a content look soon appeared on his face.

  "As expected, they were swept away. I don't know where this glacier will lead to, but I'm sure something that's tossed into it will have a very low likelihood of being discovered," Han Li murmured to himself as he flipped his hand over to produce a pristine white wooden box.

  He took a rather forlorn glance at the wooden box, but gritted his teeth and tossed it downward in the end.

  A layer of blue ice instantly appeared over the surface of the wooden box, and it also sank into the glacier.

  Han Li stared down into the depths of the glacier in silence, and after close to an hour had passed, he heaved a faint sigh as the expression on his face eased slightly.

  At this point, the wooden box had already disappeared into the underground river. He was quite reluctant to part with the treasure, but it contained two Sacred Ancestors, so it was naturally best to get rid of it as early as possible.

  He didn't know whether those two devils would be able to escape from the confinement of the Devil Sealing Lock someday, but from this day forth, they no longer had anything to do with him. The Elder Devil Realm naturally wasn't a place to linger in for an extended period of time, so Han Li didn't hesitate any longer as he flew out of the canyon before embarking on a journey back to the Spirit Realm.

  Meanwhile, within the space inside the wooden box that was drifting along the underground river, Che Qigong was meditating in a cave-like secret chamber with black and white light flashing over his body, seemingly cultivating something.

  Within a mysterious stone hall elsewhere in the same space, Feng Xie was doing the same thing while seated atop a futon.

  Both of them were completely oblivious to what was going on outside the wooden box, and if they were aware, they would most likely be cursing Han Li with all of the derogatory terms in their voc
abulary. After all, Han Li had just unintentionally foiled their plan to secure the other half of the Chaotic Yin Yang Qi through his cautious actions.

  Chapter 1972: The Return Trip and the Mystery of the Elder Devil Race

  The return journey proved to be a very smooth one for Han Li. Flying at full speed, he returned to the yellow desert in just a day, and the devilish node soon appeared up ahead.

  Everything was the same as when he had left the node, and Han Li wasn't all that surprised to see this.

  The black Qi around his body faded, and he transformed into a heavenly phoenix again before flying toward the node as a faint streak of light.

  After just a few flashes, he flew into the node, escaping the detection of the devilish guards down below once again, and this journey through the node was also a smooth and uneventful one.

  A short while later, the heavenly phoenix emerged in the Spirit Realm as a ball of five-colored light, but in the instant before he exited the node, he swept his spiritual sense through the surrounding area.

  As he had expected, devilish beings had surrounded the node, and a cold smile appeared on his face after detecting this.

  Bright light erupted from the heavenly phoenix's body, and it disappeared from the spatial passageway in a flash.

  In the next instant, spatial fluctuations appeared outside the node, and an azure figure emerged out of thin air.

  As soon as Han Li appeared, a loud cry of "attack" rang out nearby.

  Immediately thereafter, countless streaks of black light hurtled toward him from all sides, and fierce winds were swept up overhead as a dozen or so two-headed devilish birds swooped down from above.

  Down below, two azure battle arks that were each several hundred feet in length emerged, and they blasted forth two pillars of black light that reached Han Li in a flash.

  Several hundred devilish guards had gathered near the exit of the node, and as soon as Han Li had returned, they immediately unleashed a torrential barrage of attacks.