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

by Translator: Johnchen

  A cold light flashed through Daoist Xie's eyes, and he opened his mouth to expel a pillar of golden light, which struck the center of the white bone claw almost at the exact same moment as the fist projections did.

  A dull thump rang out, and the golden light exploded beneath the bone claw, forming a giant ball of light that resembled a scintillating golden sun.

  The giant bone claw was imbued with incredible power, but it was stopped in its tracks by the explosion of golden light.

  At the same time, the entire nearby space began to buzz loudly, and there were some parts of the passageway that were beginning to twist and warp.

  All of the devilish guards on the giant ark were horrified to see this. If the spatial passageway were to collapse, none of them would be able to escape.

  Right at this moment, a cold harrumph rang out from within the cabin of the giant ark, and the bone claw closed its fingers around the ball of golden light down below.

  The ball of light was instantly snuffed out as a result, and Han Li couldn't help but draw a sharp breath upon seeing this.

  However, during this brief moment of respite, his flying carriage had managed to pass by the giant ark before suddenly vanishing on the spot.

  In the next instant, it appeared over 1,000 feet ahead of where it had been just an instant ago, and it continued onward as a ball of azure light.

  The giant bone claw also shattered amid a dull thump, and all of the devilish guards were left at a loss for what to do.

  A short while later, the same elderly voice rang out again from within the cabin. "Leave them be and keep going!"

  "Yes, Master!"

  All of the devilish guards immediately sprang into action, and the giant ark accelerated significantly as it hurtled toward the exit of the spatial passageway.

  Within the cabin of the giant ark, a young devilish boy who appeared to be around 12 years of age asked, "Are we just going to let them go, Master Tun Tian? How about we send some people after them?"

  His question was directed toward a white-haired elderly man who was lounging on a taishi chair, and the elderly man replied, "I have more important things to attend to, so I'll let them go. No one else will be able to capture them aside from myself."

  "Are they really that powerful? You didn't even use much of your true power just now," the young boy exclaimed.

  The elderly man seemed to be quite fond of the young boy, and he replied with a doting smile, "Hehe, that is indeed true, but those two brats didn't use their full power, either. If a battle had been initiated, I wouldn't have been able to take them down in a short time."

  "I didn't think they were that powerful!" the young boy said with a hint of lingering shock in his eyes.

  "No weakling would be able to infiltrate our holy realm, then force their way back through a spatial passageway. If it wasn't for the fact that I can't use too much power in this passageway, I definitely wouldn't have let them get away," the elderly man said as a cold look flashed through his eyes.

  "Of course! Outside of the passageway, those Spirit Realm beings would've had no choice but to surrender to you!" the young boy hurriedly flattered.

  The elderly man chuckled in response as he stroked his long beard, seemingly very pleased by the young boy's flattery. However, in reality, he was actually feeling rather perplexed as he felt like he had seen the young man on the flying carriage who had unleashed that burst of golden light somewhere before, but he was unable to identify him.

  In the end, he decided that he would investigate the matter once he returned to the Elder Devil Realm. In his mind, seeing as this wasn't even someone that he could immediately identify, he couldn't be an overly important figure.

  ......

  Around eight hours later, spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted on the other side of the spatial passageway, following which a flying carriage that was enveloped within a ball of azure light abruptly shot forth.

  There were several devilish guards outside the passageway, as well as three giant pyramids down below positioned in a triangular formation, and the nearby patrols were all extremely startled by this as they quickly converged toward the flying carriage.

  At the same time, a series of stone doors of different sizes opened up on the sides of the huge pyramids, and many devilish beings began to emerge from within them.

  However, the flying carriage was far faster than they had imagined, and only after it had completely vanished into the distance did several devilish lords fly out of the devilish pyramids in an enraged manner.

  Han Li was standing at the front of the flying carriage, and he looked around at the lush forest of giant trees down below as he murmured to himself, "This is indeed Wood Tribe territory. I visited the Wood Tribe many years ago, and the environment here is very unique, so there's no mistaking it."

  Meanwhile, Zhu Guo'er was looking around in an excited manner. "So this is the Spirit Realm! The spiritual Qi here really is far more abundant than in our Small Spirit Sky."

  There were many humans in the Small Spirit Sky who were originally from the Spirit Realm, and all of them told tales of what a wonderful place the Spirit Realm was.

  Han Li withdrew his gaze as he shook his head, and said, "The Spirit Realm is indeed a very good place, but our human race isn't very powerful here and is in a very perilous situation, so it's not as good here as you think."

  "In any case, the Spirit Realm is definitely a better place to cultivate than our Small Spirit Sky. By the way, Senior, when are you planning to travel to the Small Spirit Sky? Make sure to take me along with you," Zhu Guo'er said with a smile.

  "Don't worry, I'll definitely take you with me. I don't know anything about the Small Spirit Sky, so I'll be requiring a guide," Han Li replied.

  Zhu Guo'er was ecstatic to hear this. "You have my gratitude in advance then, Senior!"

  Han Li merely nodded in response before falling silent.

  He was spurring on the flying carriage to travel at its maximal speed, so he wasn't concerned about being chased down by any pursuers.

  However, after flying for around half a day, Han Li's expression had gradually become grimmer and grimmer.

  They were indeed flying over one lush forest after another, but some of the trees in the forests were dark green in color, creating a stark contrast with the other exuberant green trees.

  As the flying carriage flew further and further, these dark green trees began to appear with increasing regularity, to the point that close to half of the trees that they encountered were of this color.

  On top of that, a faint black mist had begun to permeate throughout the forests, and even though it was extremely thin, it was still very unsettling to behold.

  Even Zhu Guo'er's expression had gradually transitioned from excitement to concern upon seeing this.

  After flying for a while longer, she finally couldn't help but ask, "Senior Han, these trees seem to be very similar to the plants of the Elder Devil Realm, and this mist appears to contain devilish Qi as well; what's happening here?"

  "I'm not too sure, but the devilish beings are most likely behind this. What's even stranger is that we still haven't encountered a single Wood Tribe being even after flying for this long. The Wood Tribe isn't as powerful as our human race, but it's certainly nothing to be scoffed at," Han Li replied with a grim expression.

  Chapter 2148: Crisis of the Wood Tribe

  "Could it be that all of the Wood Tribe beings have already been wiped out by the devilish army?" Zhu Guo'er asked in a concerned manner.

  "There's no way that could be the case. The Wood Tribe has a population of billions, and there's no lack of Body Integration Stage beings among them; there's no way the devilish army would've been able to wipe them out so quickly. On top of that, the Wood Tribe is part of an alliance with several other races, including our human race; the other members of the alliance wouldn't just watch the Wood Tribe fall. I'm guessing the Wood Tribe beings here have most likely vacated the area after the devilish army
gained the upper hand here," Han Li replied.

  Zhu Guo'er felt this to be quite a reasonable assumption, and she nodded in response. "You're right, Senior; we should begin to start seeing Wood Tribe beings once we get further away from the spatial passageway."

  Han Li offered no reply to this.

  Three days later, the flying carriage had stopped in the air above a boundless forest, and there were eight high-grade devilish beings standing over 1,000 feet away.

  These devilish beings each had a pair of fleshy green wings and crimson eyes, creating a very menacing sight to behold.

  Behind them was a flock of around 600 two-headed devilish birds, each of which was around 10 feet in size with a single black horn on each of their heads.

  "What number are we up to?" Han Li asked in an expressionless manner.

  "This is the seventh wave, Senior," Zhu Guo'er replied.

  "Hmph, it seems that the high-grade devilish beings overseeing this place still haven't learned their lesson. After I get rid of this group, they should stop bothering us for some time," Han Li said in a cold voice.

  Immediately thereafter, he swept his sleeves through the air, releasing 72 miniature azure swords amid a flash of azure light.

  Han Li made a hand seal before pointing a finger at the small swords, and they quickly began to multiply until thousands of small flying swords had filled the entire sky.

  The high-grade devilish beings up ahead were quite alarmed to see this, but they displayed no intention to retreat as they all summoned their weapons, then flew directly toward the flying carriage as gusts of black winds.

  All of the devilish birds behind them also let loose extremely unpleasant squawks as they flapped their wings and followed closely behind the high-grade devilish beings.

  A cold look flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, and all of the small azure swords instantly transformed into sword projections that were around 10 feet in length each at his behest.

  All of the sword projections surged through the air, quickly inundating the high-grade devilish beings and two-headed devilish birds.

  Agonized howls rang out incessantly as blood and dismembered limbs rained down from the heavens, and all of the devilish beings and devilish birds were instantly slain.

  Only then did Han Li sweep his sleeve through the air again to withdraw all of his azure swords.

  At this point, there was no longer even a single living devilish being in sight.

  The flying carriage immediately continued onward as a ball of azure light at Han Li's behest, and just as he had anticipated, no more devilish beings appeared to intercept them thereafter.

  However, there was still no end in sight to the dark green trees that appeared down below, and it seemed that they had spread over the entire Wood Tribe territory.

  What was even more unsettling to Han Li was that they were still yet to encounter a single Wood Tribe being; it was as if the entire Wood Tribe really had been eradicated!

  A month later, as the flying carriage was traveling over a certain valley, Han Li finally discovered a small Wood Tribe settlement that was being attacked by over 1,000 devilish beings.

  The settlement was comprised of over 10,000 Wood Tribe beings, but only around 2,000 of them were fit for battle, and they were being completely dominated by the devilish beings.

  Han Li was ecstatic to see this, and they quickly slew all of the devilish beings without any hesitation before revealing himself to be a human.

  From the elder settlement, he finally learned what had happened in the Wood Tribe during the past few decades.

  It turned out that after several fierce battles, an impasse had been reached between the devilish army and the Spirit Realm races. However, five years ago, the devilish beings suddenly diverted their forces away from the human and demon territories, unleashing a surprise attack on the Wood Tribe instead.

  In the face of their ferocious assault, the Wood Tribe army was quickly forced onto the back foot. Due to how abruptly everything had happened, the allies of the Wood Tribe were unable to assist them in time, and in an act of desperation, the grand elder of the Wood Tribe emerged from seclusion to face the enemy.

  However, as soon as he appeared on the frontlines, he was immediately ambushed by three Sacred Ancestors who had concealed themselves on the battlefield in advance.

  The three Sacred Ancestors weren't of the same caliber as the likes of Yuan Yan, Liu Ji, and Nie Pan, but they weren't just some clones, either, so the Wood Tribe grand elder was quickly severely wounded and almost killed.

  In that dire situation, the grand elder summoned a holy tree that the Wood Tribe had been worshipping for countless years, and only by drawing upon the power of that tree was he just barely able to escape with his life. However, his powers had been severely diminished, and he wasn't even comparable to a Grand Ascension Stage being anymore.

  Having lost its most powerful backer, the Wood Tribe's morale completely plummeted, and in the short span of just a single year, it had lost most of its territory to the devilish army.

  At that point, allied reinforcements finally arrived, but under the looming threat of the three Sacred Ancestors, the Wood Tribe was only able to hold onto its remaining territory without being able to reclaim any of its old territory.

  Prior to this, all of the remaining Wood Tribe settlements had already retreated to areas under the protection of the allied races, but there were inevitably some settlements who received the news too late or acted too slowly and were caught in the territory that had been conquered by the devilish army.

  This settlement was one of them, and they could only pray that they could weather the storm by hiding in this secluded area.

  However, during the past few years, most of these settlements had already been wiped out by the devilish army, which was why Han Li hadn't encountered any Wood Tribe beings prior to this.

  The settlement that had just been saved was only a small portion of a large Wood Tribe settlement that had been discovered and forced to split up for survival.

  Even so, this group of Wood Tribe beings had still been discovered by the devilish army, and if Han Li hadn't intervened, they would've all been killed or enslaved.

  "Senior, I've answered all of the questions you have for me; would you be able to protect us until we can return to a safe area?" the elder of the settlement implored with a hint of desperation in his eyes.

  Han Li looked at the Wood Tribe beings to find that two-thirds of them were women, elderly, or children, and he sighed, "I can take you with me, but I must tell you that I've already killed many waves of devilish beings on the way here, so the devilish army has most likely already set their sights on me. It'll only be a matter of time before high-grade devilish beings come after me, and when that time comes, you may be plunged into even more danger as I won't be able to protect all of you once a battle ensues."

  "I see. In that case, we'll make do on our own, but if you can, please inform our allies seniors of our situation so they can come and save us as soon as possible; we would all be eternally grateful to you, Senior." A disappointed look appeared on the elder's face upon seeing this, but he then extended a deep bow toward Han Li.

  "I'll be sure to do that. However, I'm unfamiliar with the current distribution of the devilish army; would you happen to have a map or some relevant information?" Han Li asked.

  "We've been in hiding all this time, but we have managed to gather some information; it's just that it's very rough and by no means comprehensive," the elder replied.

  "That should be enough," Han Li said with a smile.

  After that, he received a map from the elder before continuing on his journey.

  The Wood Tribe beings naturally didn't dare to linger in the valley any longer, and they all fled the scene as well.

  Around half a month later, Han Li was flying over a green lake when all of a sudden, a massive green hand emerged from the lake like lightning before instantly grabbing onto the flying carriage, cru
shing it into pieces as it burst into green flames.

  Chapter 2149: Battling Yuan Cha Again

  Right at this moment, spatial fluctuations erupted over 200 feet above the flying carriage, and Han Li's trio emerged.

  Han Li had managed to react in the instant before the surprise attack, and he immediately teleported the three of them out of the carriage.

  Han Li was currently standing in mid-air, looking down at the lake with a grim expression.

  The fact that the enemy down below had been able to conceal themselves from both him and Daoist Xie was a testament to their powers.

  It was clear that a truly powerful being had tracked them down.

  Right at this moment, the massive green hand exploded into countless water droplets that rained back down into the lake.

  At the same time, the water in the lake churned violently, following which a hall that was around 100 feet tall emerged.

  The hall was completely translucent and was glowing with faint blue light, looking as if it had been constructed purely from the water of the lake.

  At the entrance of the hall stood a green-armored woman with a slightly dark complexion, and she was appraising Han Li with a cold expression.

  The devilish woman was giving off the unfathomable aura of a Grand Ascension Stage being, and Han Li's expression changed drastically at the sight of her.

  "Yuan Cha! Your true body has descended into the Spirit Realm?"

  A cold smile appeared on the woman's face as she replied, "I didn't think that I would get to meet you so soon. You've crossed me on more than one occasion, and this is where your life ends! If you surrender yourself to me, perhaps I could consider granting you a swift and painless death, but if you resist, you'll only be setting yourself up for pain and suffering."

  "Do you really think I'll fear you just because your true body is here? I've encountered multiple Sacred Ancestors recently, and none of them have been able to do anything to me," Han Li replied in a nonchalant manner.