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

by Translator: Johnchen

  At the front of the boat stood an azure-robed young man with his hands clasped behind his back, peering into the distant ocean.

  This was none other than Han Li, who had already arrived at the edge of the Devilish Origin Sea.

  With the large number of pills at his disposal, he had recovered from most of his injuries. However, he had been forced to use his Second Nirvana Transformation and Profound Heavenly Spiritslash Sword, as well as to withstand two of the golden crab's attacks, so he wouldn't be able to recover to his peak without at least half a year of rest and recuperation.

  Thankfully, this wasn't an issue as he had the golden crab by his side, so he wouldn't have to fear anyone aside from the devilish patriarchs.

  However, after obtaining this Faux Immortal Puppet, he had changed his mind about leaving the Elder Devil Realm right away.

  He had only been able to enter the Elder Devil Realm by taking advantage of the devilish tribulation. Once the devilish tribulation concluded, it would be very difficult for him to enter the Elder Devil Realm again even if he were to progress to the Grand Ascension Stage.

  As such, after some extensive consideration, he decided to stay in the Elder Devil Realm to obtain some treasures of interest before departing.

  The treasures in question were naturally none other than Bloodtooth Rice, and the crystalline beads within the mysterious pieces of Foreign Devilish Metal.

  One of those two things could enhance his physical constitution while the other could rapidly bolster his magic power, so they were both extremely valuable to him.

  On top of that, according to the information that he had gathered, both of those things could be found in the same place.

  "Blue Waterfall Lake!" Han Li murmured to himself as a hint of yearning appeared in his eyes.

  After a brief moment of consideration, he flipped a hand over to release a mature Gold Devouring Beetle. However, the beetle was curled up into a ball and lying on his hand in a completely lifeless manner.

  What was even more peculiar was that silver cracks had appeared all over its body, as if it could completely shatter at any moment.

  Han Li appraised the beetle with furrowed brows and a contemplative look in his eyes.

  Meanwhile, Daoist Xie was seated with his legs crossed in the large cabin of the boat, and his eyes were tightly shut in an expressionless manner.

  Not far away from him sat a gorgeous yellow-robed young woman who also appeared to be meditating, but she was occasionally stealing glances at the young man with a faint flush on her face.

  Chapter 2117: Death of Xue Guang

  A month later, a massive stir was created in the entire Elder Devil Realm by the Immortal Vanquishing Order that Yuan Yan had issued.

  Even some Sacred Ancestors were quite tempted by the massive reward being offered, and the target of the Immortal Vanquishing Order was only a Body Integration Stage human cultivator from the Spirit Realm, so many of the Sacred Ancestors sent their clones after the target, thinking that he would be easy pickings.

  However, there were several Sacred Ancestors who were on very friendly terms with Yuan Yan that received some insider information, and all of them had decided to refrain from pursuing this target.

  Even so, some Sacred Ancestor clones and Body Integration Stage devilish lords had begun to hunt for the target in question.

  Two months later, someone finally discovered Han Li near one of the major cities of the Elder Devil Realm, Jade City, and this information was reported to the four devilish lords in the city.

  Thus, the four devilish lords managed to intercept Han Li near the teleportation formations in the city, only to be killed by Daoist Xie with ease. The tens of thousands of devilish beings nearby were petrified upon seeing this, and Han Li was able to stroll right through them before departing using a teleportation formation.

  Three and a half months later, Han Li was sighted once again in a renowned perilous region of the Elder Devil Realm known as the Golden River Valley.

  The vastly renowned Sacred Ancestor Tian Ya sent a clone and three devilish lord subordinates to intercept Han Li once again. However, following a fierce battle, the Sacred Ancestor clone and two of the devilish lords perished with only a single devilish lord that was adept in movement techniques that managed to escape.

  News of this quickly spread, and it quickly became a hot topic on everyone's lips.

  Half a year later, Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang and two of his clones arrived in a small town with many of his subordinates to confront Han Li, then unleashed astonishing powers to try and capture Han Li and his group alive.

  Han Li and Daoist Xie naturally retaliated, and a battle ensued.

  During the past half a year of recuperation, Han Li had mostly recovered, and the benefits that he had reaped from the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Clean Spirit Lotus really began to shine through, particularly in the form of the massive stride he had made in his Provenance True Devil Arts.

  As such, Han Li immediately underwent his Second Nirvana Transformation, displaying incredible powers that allowed him to match Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang's true body in battle.

  Following a fierce battle that spanned a day and a night, virtually the entire town was destroyed, and countless devilish beings were killed or injured as collateral damage.

  However, what was most astonishing to everyone was the outcome of the battle. In the end, Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang's true body had been forced to flee with severe injuries, while his clones and subordinates had all been killed.

  The previous two battles had alerted all of the devilish beings to how fearsome Daoist Xie was, but following this battle, everyone realized that Han Li was not to be messed with, either.

  However, the true bombshell was still yet to come. Several days following the conclusion of that battle, Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang's mutilated body was found in a mountain range hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from the site of the battle.

  His head had been split open, indicating that not only had his body been severely mutilated, even his Nascent Soul had been forcibly captured.

  This created an even more massive stir throughout the entire Elder Devil Realm, and all of the Sacred Ancestors immediately deployed their subordinates to investigate this matter.

  Competition had always been encouraged in the Elder Devil Realm, and it wasn't even that uncommon to see devilish lords being killed, but it had been tens of thousands of years since a Sacred Ancestor was last killed.

  Some of the Sacred Ancestors suspected that Han Li and Daoist Xie were behind this, but there were more people suspecting that he had been killed by his enemies, who had taken advantage of the injuries he had sustained during the battle.

  As such, all of the Sacred Ancestors became very wary of Han Li and Daoist Xie following this incident, and none of them dared to send anyone after Han Li and his group again.

  After all, with the formidable powers of Han Li and Daoist Xie, deploying clones or subordinates would only be sending them to their deaths, while pursuing them in person could create chances for the enemies of these Sacred Ancestors to kill them.

  As for the ordinary devilish lords, with no Sacred Ancestors willing to lead the way, all of them naturally gave up as well.

  Thus, Han Li and his group suddenly became a bunch of hot potatoes that no one wanted to hold onto.

  Of course, the original Immortal Vanquishing Order still stood, but it had become more of an empty formality than anything else.

  As a result, Han Li forged a resounding reputation for himself in the entire Elder Devil Realm.

  ......

  In a cave within the belly of a barren mountain, there sat an elderly man and a burly man.

  The elderly man had a pair of remarkably long eyebrows with a set of gaunt facial features, and there was an image of a menacing devilish projection with three heads and six arms emblazoned onto his robes.

  As for the burly man, he had a heavy beard and was wearing a suit of black armor, giving off
a very imposing appearance. The auras being released by the two of them were far more fearsome than that of a normal devilish lord, but they didn't seem to be at the Grand Ascension Stage yet.

  Both of them were currently appraising an item between them with rapt focus.

  This was a crimson cauldron that was only around a foot tall. Its top half was of a square shape, and there were horrifying ghostly faces carved onto each of its four corners.

  The cauldron was trembling incessantly while bloodcurdling cries rang out from the ghostly faces, as if some devilish being had been trapped within the cauldron and was being brutally tortured.

  "Why continue to resist, Xue Guang? The sooner you disclose the locations of those secret caves to us, the sooner you'll be put out of your misery. After being sealed within the Devil Sealing Lock for so long, Fellow Daoist Che and I have developed immense reserves of patience, so we could easily torture you for 1,000 years without growing bored. In the end, you'll still have to disclose everything to us. Besides, all of us originated from the same soul, so you won't be handing everything over to outsiders at least," the burly man sighed in a display of empathy.

  "Indeed, if you return everything that you took from us, perhaps we'll release you. You know us; Fellow Daoist Feng Xie and I are men of our word," the elderly man chimed in as well.

  These two were none other than Che Qigong and Feng Xie, who had been trapped in the Devil Sealing Lock.

  They had somehow managed to escape from the Devil Sealing Lock, and an opportunity finally arrived for them to destroy Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang's physical body, then capture his Nascent Soul and trap it within this devilish cauldron.

  Judging from what they had said, it was clear that there was a lot of history and bad blood between the three of them.

  "Hehe... keep Dreaming! There's no chance... that you'll... release me. I'd rather... have the treasures in the secret caves be buried forever... than hand them over to you. Without those things... it'll take at least... several thousand years... for you to recover your powers. Our holy realm... is currently facing a major tribulation... With your powers... you could easily die! How could I... give up the only chance... I have for revenge?" An agonized voice that was filled with hatred and resentment rang out from within the cauldron in response.

  "Hmph, you insolent bastard! Truth be told, I've only unleashed 1% of this Soul Refining Cauldron's power. If I wish to do so, I could increase your suffering by a hundredfold! You'll truly know what it means to wish you were dead then!" Che Qigong said in an enraged manner.

  Immediately thereafter, he made a hand seal before chanting something and casting a string of incantation seals into the cauldron.

  Brilliant crimson light erupted from the cauldron, and the four ghostly faces twisted with agony in unison.

  The bloodcurdling cries coming from within the cauldron became even more unsettling to listen to, but Che Qigong's expression remained completely unchanged.

  As for Feng Xie, he merely shook his head and closed his eyes to meditate as if he couldn't even hear anything.

  ......

  Meanwhile, over 100 horned high-grade devilish beings had surrounded a man and a woman in the air above a boundless desert.

  The sandy ground down below was littered with dismembered bodies and soaked in blood.

  Among the duo who had been surrounded, the woman was an exquisite beauty in a white dress, while the man was extremely hideous and wore a suit of black armor.

  It was none other than Bao Hua and Hei'e!

  Bao Hua's brows were currently slightly furrowed as she appraised the devilish beings before her with dark expressions.

  These devilish beings were all completely identical in appearance, and they were all completely expressionless, as if they weren't even living beings.

  Hei'e's suit of armor had almost been entirely stained red with blood, and he cackled in a ferocious manner as he licked the blood on the corners of his lips. "Hmph, I can't believe you foolish bastards still dare to stand against us even after having so many of your brethren slain!"

  In response, one of the devilish beings merely uttered the word "go" in a completely emotionless manner.

  Immediately thereafter, all of the horned devilish beings raised their hands to reveal a series of black badges, which conjured up black balls of light that hurtled directly toward Bao Hua's duo from all directions.

  Chapter 2118: Profound Heavenly Sacred Tree

  Hei'e let loose a furious roar as he swung his giant mace through the air, which instantly swelled to around 10 times its original size.

  Countless mace projections emerged before transforming into a gust of black devilish wind that encompassed everything within an area of around an acre.

  Resounding booms rang out as one mangled devilish body after another fell out of the black wind.

  These horned devilish beings were quite powerful, but they were clearly no match for Hei'e and were quickly suffering casualties.

  Even so, they displayed no intention of running away, and it was as if they knew no fear.

  Hei'e was far more powerful than these devilish beings, but he seemed to have endured many fierce battles already. As a result, he didn't have much magic power left, and he was quickly beginning to struggle.

  His attacks were still as ferocious as ever, but a sheen of sweat had begun to appear on his face.

  After around a third of the surrounding devilish beings were slain, Hei'e's mace finally began to slow down, and he was unable to completely keep all of the oncoming attacks at bay as his body was struck by one ball of light after another.

  These black balls of light were imbued with some type of power that allowed them to pass through Hei'e's suit of armor, almost rendering it completely redundant.

  A string of explosions began to ring out from Hei'e's body as one ball of black light exploded after another.

  Hei'e's body began to sway unsteadily amid the explosions, but he didn't even take so much as a single step backward as he continued to stand firmly in front of Bao Hua.

  The powerful physical bodies of the Evil Dragon Race were impervious to the average flying sword, but his skin and flesh were being torn open with ease by the balls of black light.

  Bao Hua's expression darkened even further upon seeing this, but strangely enough, she merely continued to stand behind Hei'e, displaying no intention of assisting him.

  After a long while, the final horned devilish being was finally killed by Hei'e. However, Hei'e also seemed to have expended the last of his magic power, and his mace slipped out of his hands as his bloodstained body plummeted out of the sky.

  Only then did Bao Hua heave a faint sigh as she swept a sleeve through the air, releasing a burst of pink light that caught Hei'e before he could fall any further.

  Several silver runes flashed within the light, and Hei'e's body immediately began to shrink as he transformed into a miniature crocodile that was only around an inch in length.

  The crocodile's body was riddled with wounds, and it was completely unconscious.

  The pink light swept the miniature crocodile into Bao Hua's sleeve, following which she raised her head, and said, "You two have been watching from the sidelines for quite a while; isn't it about time you showed yourselves?"

  "Hmph, I knew we wouldn't be able to fool you. For this day, I've sacrificed all 500 of my devilish soldiers, but you also no longer have any allies by your side, so it was worth the sacrifice."

  As soon as the voice trailed off, spatial fluctuations erupted in the distance, and an elderly woman and a burly man appeared.

  The elderly woman wore a set of red robes, and she was appraising Bao Hua with eyes that were filled with intense resentment.

  These two were the vastly renowned Sacred Ancestor Tian Qi and Sacred Ancestor He Yan.

  Both of them possessed unfathomable powers and were adept in combination techniques. They were renowned in the Elder Devil Realm for how vicious and ruthless they were, and their reputations a
lmost matched those of the three devilish patriarchs.

  Even the average Sacred Ancestor would avoid facing them at all costs.

  They had somehow been able to track down Bao Hua and Hei'e, and they immediately sent out a large number of subordinates to attack the duo.

  Bao Hua could sense that these two were lurking nearby and didn't want to expose her own current weakened state, so she could only rely on Hei'e to face these enemies alone.

  After a few rounds of fierce battles, Hei'e's magic power was finally completely exhausted, leaving Bao Hua to fend for herself.

  The burly man, Tian Qi, cast his gaze toward Bao Hua, and said, "Long time no see, Fellow Daoist Bao Hua; you're still as beautiful and youthful as ever."

  A hint of surprise appeared on Bao Hua's face as she appraised Tian Qi while completely ignoring the elderly woman. "Your disposition has changed a lot, Fellow Daoist Tian Qi; I must congratulate you for the clear progress you've made in your cultivation."

  He Yan was furious upon seeing this, and she slammed her cane downward amid a resounding boom as she said in a fierce voice, "Bao Hua, we can see that you haven't fully recovered your powers, so there's no way you'll be a match for my senior martial brother and myself. If you kneel down and kowtow to us, perhaps we can grant you a swift and painless death."

  "Looks like you're here for revenge for what happened all those years ago. Are you here for the same objective, Tian Qi?" Bao Hua asked in a calm manner.

  "My next tribulation isn't far away, and I require a treasure of yours." Tian Qi's reply was very straightforward.

  A hint of enlightenment appeared in Bao Hua's eyes upon hearing this. "Are you referring to my Lighningward Tag?"

  "Indeed. With that treasure, there's a good chance that I'll be able to transcend my next tribulation, so I'm hoping you'll hand it over to me." The tone of Tian Qi's voice remained completely unchanged, but a cold look had appeared in his eyes.

  "I'm not completely opposed to handing over my Lightningward Tag to you, but it's one of the most important treasures in my possession, so I can't just give it to you for no reason. How about this? If you can take one attack from me, I'll lend you the tag for 10,000 years; what do you think?" Bao Hua asked with a relaxed smile.