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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Even though Han Li hadn't said anything just now, the look in his eyes struck Wu You with an indescribable sense of foreboding.

  "Brother, if he wants to know where we obtained this Foreign Devilish Metal from, then why don't we just tell him the location of our private mine? We're leaving this city anyway, so even if he wants to investigate the matter, we'll be long gone before he discovers anything; we're missing out on a huge sum of devil stones here!" a devilish woman urged.

  "It's not that simple. We have no information about this man; he is indeed not from this city, but if we were to disclose the location of the private mine to him, he could expose us to the powers in the city. Alright, now that we've received the devil stones, let's split up and leave Blue Waterfall City right away. Once we exit the city, leave this area along the routes we planned out in advance. Once we're completely safe, we'll reunite at Lion Cliff City," Wu You said in an implacable manner.

  His subordinates naturally didn't dare to offer any opposition, and all of them gave affirmative responses.

  At this point, Han Li was already racing along a street in a beast-drawn carriage.

  He was seated in the beast-drawn carriage, inspecting a piece of Foreign Devilish Metal with an excited expression as he murmured to himself, "I've finally found it!"

  Within the storage bracelet that he had just obtained were over 20 pieces of Foreign Devilish Metal that contained the mysterious crystalline beads.

  This confirmed the notion to Han Li that Wu You and his group definitely had what he was searching for.

  If it weren't for the fact that their transaction had taken place in a very densely populated part of Blue Waterfall City, he would've captured them by force and used a soul search technique on them to find the information he wanted.

  However, he wasn't overly concerned about the current situation anyway. During the transaction, he had already placed spiritual sense marks on Wu You and his group, so he would be able to track down and capture them as soon as they tried to leave Blue Waterfall City.

  With that in mind, Han Li stowed the piece of Foreign Devilish Metal away amid a flash of spiritual light, then repressed his own excitement as he closed his eyes to meditate.

  Time quickly flew by, and several hours later, he returned to the inn.

  Once he emerged from the carriage, he was greeted by the sight of a rather familiar black-armored devilish being, and his expression changed slightly before he brushed past the devilish being and entered the inn.

  Meanwhile, a hint of elation appeared on the devilish being's face at the sight of Han Li, and he followed Han Li into the inn in a respectful manner.

  Moments later, the black-armored devilish being handed over an azure stone shard to Han Li in a respectful manner inside a secluded room.

  Han Li accepted the stone shard before pressing it against his own forehead to inspect its contents, upon which his eyes began to narrow slightly.

  Finally, Han Li removed the stone shard from his forehead, then rubbed his hands together to reduce it to powder as he said, "Alright, I've seen everything now; go back and tell your mistress that I'm very pleased with her work."

  "Yes, Senior! I'll be taking my leave now," the black-armored devilish being said with a respectful bow before exiting the room.

  Following his departure, a cold look appeared on Han Li's face as he murmured to himself, "Hehe, so he built a private mine in secret, eh? In that case, everything makes sense."

  Chapter 2132: News

  The black-armored devilish being had been sent by Violet Spirit.

  With her status as one of Sacred Ancestor Liu Ji's disciples, she had a considerable amount of influence in the Blue Waterfall Lake and could call upon many subordinates.

  As such, it was naturally a simple task for her to investigate the origins of a Spatial Tempering Stage being.

  In less than a day, Violet Spirit had identified him and gathered all of the information surrounding his private mine.

  In reality, it was not uncommon to see private mines being excavated in secret in the Blue Waterfall Lake. Wu You and his group's private mine had been opened on a mine vein of a rather low caliber, and he was a late-Spatial Tempering Stage being, so even though the other powers were aware of this, they didn't step in.

  "How could so much premium Foreign Devilish Metal have been mined from a low-quality mine vein? There has to be some hidden circumstances involved," Han Li mused to himself.

  With that in mind, he didn't hesitate any longer and made a hand seal as he closed his eyes to activate the spiritual sense marks he had left on Wu You and the others.

  With his current fearsome powers, they were naturally completely unable to sense what he had done.

  Shortly thereafter, a rather peculiar look appeared on Han Li's face.

  He could sense that most of Wu You's group had already left Blue Waterfall City, but there were two spiritual sense marks that were only several kilometers away and were slowly approaching him.

  Han Li was naturally quite surprised to see this, and he released his spiritual sense out of his room toward the direction where the two marks were situated.

  Moments later, Han Li was able to identify the approaching duo as a devilish man and a devilish woman.

  The man looked to be in his thirties while the woman appeared to be in her twenties, and they seemed to be a couple.

  Through Han Li's spiritual sense detection, he could see that they had just emerged from a beast-drawn carriage, and after a brief discussion, they continued on toward the inn that Han Li was staying in on foot.

  After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li quickly guessed why this devilish couple were doing this, and he ascertained that they had most likely come here to see him.

  Thus, he smiled and withdrew his spiritual sense before waiting in his room.

  Sure enough, not long after that, the two spiritual sense marks appeared outside the room that he was staying in.

  However, the two of them seemed to be rather hesitant and were indecisive about how to proceed.

  Han Li's brows furrowed slightly, and his lips tremored slightly a few times.

  In the next instant, his voice abruptly rang out in the ears of the devilish couple. "Seeing as you're already here, why don't you come in?"

  The couple's expressions changed slightly upon hearing this, and they exchanged a glance, following which the devilish man gritted his teeth, and said, "Let's go. Senior Han has already detected us, so there's no turning back."

  The devilish woman nodded with a wry smile after a brief hesitation, and thus, the two of them entered the room.

  They were immediately greeted by the sight of a rather small hall, and Han Li was seated on a chair inside the hall, appraising them with an indifferent expression.

  "We pay our respects to Senior Han." The devilish couple hurriedly bowed toward Han Li in unison.

  "No need for formalities. Why have you two followed me here? Is there something you wish to discuss with me?" Han Li asked.

  "Your wisdom is truly unmatched, Senior; we do indeed have something we'd like to tell you," the devilish man said with a fawning smile.

  "Go on then; I have many things to attend to, so I don't have much time to waste," Han Li prompted.

  The devilish couple exchanged another glance upon hearing this, following which the devilish man mustered up his courage, and said, "Senior Han, does your previous offer still stand?"

  "Previous offer? Oh, you're talking about what I said to Wu You before I left, right? Of course it does; are you two interested in disclosing the information to me?" Han Li asked in a calm manner.

  "We are! We actually know more than Wu You about the specific area where the Foreign Devilish Metal was mined as we were there in person when this batch of Foreign Devilish Metal was excavated. If you're willing to issue the promised devil stones to us, we'd be more than happy to reveal this information to you, Senior," the devilish man replied in an elated manner.

  "Wu You d
oesn't know you came here, right?" Han Li asked instead of giving a direct response.

  "Indeed. It's not that we wanted to do this behind Wu You's back; Wu You was the one who wronged us first. We were overseeing the proceedings at the mine when the batch of Foreign Devilish Metal was excavated, so they'd been planning to dump everything on our heads if we were to be caught. They want us to be their scapegoats, and if we hadn't overheard them discussing this by chance, we'd still be completely in the dark. On top of that, Wu You is only going to split a very small portion of the devil stones with us, and we're naturally unwilling to settle for this after taking such a huge risk," the devilish man said in an indignant manner.

  "I don't care about what happens between you and Wu You; as long as you provide me with satisfactory information, I'll give you the amount of devil stones I promised earlier," Han Li said in an emotionless manner.

  "Thank you, Senior; I'm sure the information we have will satisfy you," the devilish man immediately replied in an elated manner.

  "Alright, then go ahead," Han Li prompted.

  "This batch of Foreign Devilish Metal was excavated from the first private mine that we opened, and it was discovered by myself and my dao companion. However, it was found at the deepest part of the mine in an extremely secluded area, so without proper guidance, it's very difficult to find the entrance to that area; we only stumbled upon it after running the mine for close to 100 years. The exact location is..." Thus, the devilish man began to disclose the information that he had, and Han Li occasionally interjected to ask some questions.

  After all of his questions had been answered by the devilish couple, Han Li nodded with a pleased expression, and said, "The information you've provided will save me a lot of trouble, so I'll be issuing you the devil stones that I promised. However, if I find that the information you provided me with is false, you won't be alive to spend the devil stones! Is there anything you'd like to add?" Han Li said in a cold voice as a red storage bracelet that was filled with devil stones appeared in his hand.

  "Rest assured, Senior; we wouldn't dare to lie to you," the devilish man said with a fawning smile as he glanced at the storage bracelet in Han Li's hand with a hint of yearning in his eyes.

  "Hehe, I certainly hope so. Alright, you can go now," Han Li said as he flicked a wrist, tossing the storage bracelet toward the couple.

  The devilish man caught the bracelet and immediately injected his spiritual sense into it. Upon discovering that it was filled with devil stones, he immediately extended an ecstatic bow before backing out of the room with the woman as he said, "Thank you, Senior; we won't occupy any more of your time now."

  After that, the couple arrived in a secluded alley near the inn, and the woman asked, "Did Senior Han give us the promised number of devil stones?"

  "I didn't check it thoroughly, but it should be the right amount. Judging from how generous he was, I'm sure he wouldn't try to fool us over something like this. I didn't think that he would hand over the devil stones so easily; looks like we won't have to use the trump cards we prepared now," the devilish man replied with an excited expression.

  The woman was ecstatic to hear this, but a cautious look then appeared on his face. "What do we do next? Do we leave the Blue Waterfall Lake according to the route Wu You had planned?"

  "We definitely can't stay in the Blue Waterfall Lake any longer, but we can't take the route that Wu You stipulated, either; we'll have to go in another direction. With these devil stones, we won't have to suck up to him as servants any longer," the devilish man immediately replied, having clearly already considered this matter.

  "Alright, we'll do as you say," the woman agreed after a brief hesitation.

  Thus, the two of them hailed a beast-drawn carriage before traveling toward the nearest city gate.

  Meanwhile, Han Li was still seated in his chair, contemplating the information that he had just received.

  As he was listening to the devilish man's account, he had unleashed a very subtle type of secret technique.

  This secret technique wasn't as effective as a soul search technique, but it was very potent for determining whether someone was telling the truth. Otherwise, with his cautious nature, there was no way that he would've handed over the devil stones so easily.

  As long as the information that the devilish man had revealed to him was truthful, he didn't care if some details had been withheld.

  Of course, he had chosen to take this route as capturing the couple and using a soul search technique on them could attract attention from other high-grade devilish beings staying in the inn, which would be quite troublesome.

  After contemplating the situation for a while longer, Han Li suddenly rose to his feet, and murmured to himself, "So be it, time is of the essence, so I'll let him go and visit the private mine right now."

  Chapter 2133: Mine Slaves

  Thus, Han Li immediately rose to his feet and exited the inn before hailing a beast-drawn carriage toward a certain city gate.

  The private mine naturally wasn't situated on the island. In fact, it was very far away, and even at his speed of flight, it would take him several days to get there.

  Three days later, Han Li was flying through the air as a streak of azure light.

  Instead of a rippling lake, there was an undulating dark green mountain range down below.

  All of a sudden, a mountain that was as straight as a giant sword appeared up ahead. The mountain was over 100,000 feet tall, and appeared to be extremely majestic.

  An elated look appeared on Han Li's face at the sight of the mountain, and he immediately descended toward it.

  The azure light faded, and Han Li landed on a giant rock at the peak of the mountain, then closed his eyes and released his enormous spiritual sense downward.

  A short while later, he reopened his eyes before making a hand seal, and a series of yellow runes suddenly appeared over his body, following which he abruptly vanished from atop the giant rock.

  In the next instant, yellow light flashed deep within the belly of the mountain, and Han Li re-emerged.

  He looked around at the dim environment, and his brows furrowed slightly as he swept a sleeve through the air to release a ball of white light. The ball of light drifted up to hover above his head, and everything around him was illuminated to be as bright as day.

  Even though Han Li would be able to see everything using his spirit eye ability, this was naturally far more convenient.

  Only then did Han Li discover that he was situated in a dilapidated mine tunnel, and that the stone faces around him were all riddled with pits and bumps.

  He cast his gaze forward and discovered a winding tunnel that led forward, and it seemed to be extending deeper into the belly of the mountain.

  Han Li swept his gaze over the surrounding area, and his attention was drawn to a nondescript piece of ore embedded into one of the stone faces.

  This piece of ore was of a very low value, and its surface was riddled with cracks, so no one would develop any interest in it.

  However, a faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as he appraised the piece of ore, then reached out and made a grabbing motion.

  The piece of ore was immediately wrenched out of the stone face by a burst of enormous power, then drawn into Han Li's grasp as a streak of yellow light.

  Han Li then closed his fingers around it, and it exploded into a ball of yellow light.

  After the light faded, a black talisman that was shimmering with faint light appeared in Han Li's hand.

  "Hehe, they're quite crafty, I'll give them that!" Han Li chuckled as he swept his spiritual sense over the talisman, then stowed it up his sleeve before continuing onward.

  The mine tunnel that he was situated in was very long, and there were countless crossroads making it resemble a convoluted cobweb-like system.

  However, Han Li seemed to know exactly where he was going, taking one turn after another without any hesitation. After a short while, he had already traveled 5,000
feet, then finally stopped at a crossroad.

  There, he inspected his surroundings, then suddenly pointed toward a certain corner of the crossroads. A rock on the corner exploded, and another black talisman emerged.

  Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of azure light, which swept up the black talisman before drawing it into his grasp.

  After stowing away that black talisman as well, Han Li made his way into one of the mine tunnels and continued onward.

  It was clear that these talismans had a certain guiding effect, and Han Li was able to use them to travel toward the deepest part of the mine.

  Thus, through the detection between the talismans, Han Li was able to pull talismans out of various parts of the mine tunnels at regular intervals.

  Around eight hours later, he had already reached a very deep point in the mine, and the crossroads were becoming fewer and fewer.

  The pits on the walls also gradually became less and less prevalent, and at the end, they became almost nonexistent.

  However, from the ore fragments that were scattered on the ground, it could be seen that the quality of the ore here had clearly improved significantly.

  It was no wonder that the mine slaves were still unwilling to abandon this mine tunnel even though they knew they had already deviated from the designated route.

  Just as Han Li was thinking this to himself, his footsteps suddenly drew to a halt.

  The tunnel up ahead had been filled by countless loose rocks, indicating that someone had intentionally collapsed the tunnel.

  Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he continued onward, and the white ball of light above his head vanished as yellow light flashed from his body, and he phased into the rocks up ahead as if he possessed no substantial form.

  Shortly thereafter, Han Li had passed through the collapsed section of the tunnel and emerged on the other side.

  The yellow light emanating from his body faded, and he began to inspect his surroundings.

  As a result, he discovered that there was still a tunnel up ahead, but this one was far smaller and cruder than the previous ones, clearly having been created not long ago.