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

by Translator: Johnchen

  Han Li chuckled coldly upon seeing this, then made a hand seal before uttering the word "slash".

  The azure threads that had pierced through the stemborer's body instantly transformed into azure flying swords that revolved around the stemborer's head like lightning.

  The giant stemborer was instantly decapitated, and the azure flying swords plunged back into its body again, tearing it into shreds along with even its soul.

  Thus, the two fearsome human-faced stemborers had been felled in the blink of an eye.

  A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as he withdrew his swords, and only then did he cast his gaze toward the other battles.

  As he did so, he immediately heard a shrill screech ring out in the distance.

  The stemborer that was facing Xie Lian had been trapped within her three silver rings and was completely immobilized.

  Xie Lian then released a burst of white light that sliced the stemborer's body cleanly in half.

  As expected of Bao Hua's identical twin, Xie Lian was definitely more powerful than the average Grand Ascension Stage being as well.

  Almost at the exact same moment, an earth-shattering boom rang out in another direction, and the entire space tremored violently.

  Han Li and Xie Lian hurriedly turned their attention toward that direction to find that a gigantic crater had appeared on one of the edges of the plaza.

  The blue human-faced stemborer was lying at the bottom of the crater with its entire body charred black. Its exoskeleton had been completely shattered, and half of its head had disappeared. There was green blood all over its body, and it was immobilized from a series of severe injuries.

  In the air above the giant crater, Daoist Xie was hovering with his giant silver blades in his hands.

  He looked down in an expressionless manner, then abruptly slashed his giant blades downward, and they instantly transformed into two thick bolts of lightning, which combined as one to form a silver spear.

  Daoist Xie drew back his arm before hurling the lightning spear down from above, and the spear vanished into thin air amid a loud thunderclap.

  In the next instant, a dull thump rang out within the giant crater, and the spear was plunged into the stemborer's body before exploding violently.

  Countless arcs of silver lightning instantly filled the entire crater, and despite how powerful the blue stemborer's body was, it could only resign itself to its demise as its body was erased out of existence by the fearsome lightning.

  Meanwhile, Daoist Xie took a step forward and abruptly disappeared before re-emerging next to Han Li amid a burst of spatial fluctuations.

  "Nicely done, Brother Xie. That stemborer you faced is most likely no less powerful than the average Grand Ascension Stage being, yet you were still able to kill it so quickly," Han Li praised.

  "It still can't compare with a true Grand Ascension Stage being. Having said that, the average Grand Ascension Stage being would find it very difficult to defeat this insect," Daoist Xie replied in an indifferent manner.

  "Indeed. Setting aside how powerful these stemborers are, they fight without any regard for their own lives, and that's something that the average Grand Ascension Stage being can't compare with," Han Li said as his smile faded slightly.

  "That's right. Fellow Daoist Lü Shi has cleared gained the upper hand over there, but he's unable to defeat that stemborer due to its near-suicidal battle style. How about we give him a hand?" Xie Lian said with a smile.

  Han Li cast his gaze toward Lü Shi, and sure enough, Lü Shi was struggling to land a killing blow against the final stemborer.

  A smile appeared on his face, and he was just about to respond to Xie Lian when Lü Shi suddenly yelled, "There's no need for you to step in, fellow daoists; I'm more than capable of taking down this puny insect! Azure Atlas Seal!"

  Lü Shi was quite embarrassed to see that he was the only one still struggling with his opponent, and he immediately let loose a thunderous roar as he suddenly released nine identical azure stone seals out of his sleeve.

  The seals revolved in mid-air before fusing as one with his giant golden seal from before, transforming into a massive azure seal with countless golden runes revolving around it, which then crashed down toward the giant stemborer.

  A loud buzzing sound rang out, and the power of laws within an area with a diameter of around a kilometer was swept up.

  As a result, the human-faced stemborer down below was immediately immobilized.

  The giant azure seal descended with astonishing might and instantly crushed the stemborer into a pile of mincemeat.

  Only then did Lü Shi heave a faint sigh of relief, and he made a hand seal, upon which the giant seal was drawn back into his sleeve.

  However, at this moment, the green Qi revolving around his body had thinned slightly, and his aura had also become marginally weaker; it was clear that the powerful ability he had just unleashed couldn't be used regularly.

  "So that was the Azure Atlas Seal; it's truly just as powerful as the rumors proclaim. Even though it's not a Profound Heavenly Treasure, its powers are almost comparable to one," Xie Lian said with a faint smile.

  "I'm embarrassed to say that I wouldn't have been able to take down that stemborer so quickly had I not resorted to one of my trump cards," Lü Shi said with a wry smile.

  He had clearly realized that he was the weakest one of the four, and that made him rather uneasy.

  "Now that they've been taken care of, there shouldn't be any other stemborers inside; let's go in," Han Li said as he cast his gaze toward the hall.

  "Sure, let's go and take a look," Xie Lian agreed with a smile.

  Lü Shi naturally had no objections, either.

  Thus, the four of them immediately drifted toward the hall.

  As soon as they entered the hall, Xie Lian and Lü Shi's expressions changed slightly as they discovered piles of bones and damaged weapons and armor strewn beyond the entrance.

  "These were most likely the guards assigned to this underground palace; they had to have been killed by the Stemborer Queen once it broke out of its seal," Xie Lian sighed before sweeping a sleeve through the air, releasing a string of crimson fireballs that incinerated all of these remains into ashes.

  Chapter 2232: Underground Stone Forest

  Han Li cast his gaze toward the damaged weapons, and his brows suddenly furrowed slightly as he made a grabbing motion.

  A shimmering fragment of a sword blade immediately flew into his hand, and he began to carefully inspect it.

  There was a deep claw mark on the surface of the blade fragment, and it was as if it had been intentionally carved into the blade.

  Han Li exerted more force with his index finger and thumb to squeeze onto the blade fragment while also releasing a burst of golden light into it through his fingertips.

  As a result, a finger indentation that was about as deep as the claw mark also appeared on the fragment.

  "Have you discovered something, Fellow Daoist Han?" Xie Lian asked in an intrigued manner.

  "Take a look for yourself," Han Li said as he tossed the blade fragment toward her.

  Xie Lian raised a hand to catch the object, and after only a brief inspection, she suddenly exclaimed, "High Zenith Platinum! This weapon was refined from High Zenith Platinum!"

  "High Zenith Platinum? That's an extremely renowned material across all realms, and there aren't many materials more resolute than it. The owner of this blade must've been quite fortunate to have obtained such a large piece," Lü Shi said in a stunned voice.

  "Hmph, I'm not sure they were all that fortunate considering they've been slain by these stemborers. Setting that aside for now, your physical body must be extremely powerful to have left such a deep indentation on such a material. How much of your strength did you use just now, Fellow Daoist Han?" Xie Lian said as she also squeezed the fragment between her fingertips, yet was only able to leave a very light indentation.

  As for Lü Shi, he could only shake his head with
a wry smile, clearly conceding his inferiority.

  "I naturally had to use a significant amount of my strength. Otherwise, there's no way I would've been able to leave such a deep indentation on this material. I wonder what kind of stemborer could've possessed a body powerful enough to shatter this weapon. At the very least, that's definitely not something one of the human-faced stemborers we encountered earlier would've been capable of," Han Li said with a serious expression.

  "Those human-faced stemborers were inferior to us in power, so there's definitely no way they could've done this. Could it be that the Stemborer Queen was the one that did this?" Lü Shi's face paled slightly as this thought occurred to him.

  "Most likely not. With the Stemborer Queen's incredible powers, there's no way it'd fight a group of guards in person," Xie Lian said with a shake of her head.

  "So there must be stemborers even more powerful than those human-faced ones in this underground palace," Han Li mused.

  "It looks like it," Xie Lian sighed in a resigned manner.

  "There's no need to be overly concerned, fellow daoists. Even if stemborers of that caliber exist, surely there wouldn't be too much. There are over 40 fellow daoist who have entered this earth palace in total; that'll definitely be enough to handle all of these stemborers," Lü Shi said in an optimistic manner.

  "Those stemborers must indeed be extremely rare. Otherwise, there's no way that Bao Hua and Yuan Yan would've been unable to collect any information on them; perhaps there are only a handful of them," Xie Lian agreed.

  "In that case, there's nothing to fear. Let's examine the damaged restrictions here first, fellow daoists," Han Li said.

  After that, he and Daoist Xie led the way deeper into the hall.

  Xie Lian and Lü Shi exchanged a glance before also following along.

  A short while later, Han Li and the others were situated within a room at the center of the hall, discussing something as they stood around a formation that spanned the entire room.

  The giant formation appeared to be extremely complex and profound, but it was clear that a portion of it had been forcibly altered not long ago.

  There was also another part that had been completely destroyed, so the entire formation was looking unrecognizable.

  "Fellow Daoist Xie Lian, do you think you'll be able to repair this formation?" Lü Shi asked with tightly furrowed brows.

  "I have the blueprint for this formation, but I didn't think that it would've been altered significantly. Given enough time, I would be able to return it to its original state, but Bao Hua didn't give us that much time," Xie Lian replied with a wry smile.

  "We're in some trouble then. I'm not an expert in formations, so I won't be of any help here," Lü Shi sighed.

  "If we have the original blueprint, then I can lend you a hand. Fellow Daoist Bao Hua only asked us to repair the restriction to the best of our abilities; let me take a look at the blueprint and see if we can somehow make the restriction temporarily work without fully repairing it," Han Li said.

  "Are you familiar with formations as well, Brother Han? It would be fantastic if we could do that," Xie Lian said in an elated manner.

  She flipped a hand over as she spoke, then tossed a translucent jade shard toward Han Li.

  Han Li caught the jade shard before injecting his spiritual sense into it, and sure enough, there was an extremely complex formation blueprint within it.

  Thus, Han Li and Xie Lian began to devise a repair plan, while Daoist Xie and Lü Shi stood on guard duty outside the hall.

  With Han Li's expertise in formations and the blueprint available, it only took him less than half a day to think of a repair plan.

  Xie Lian listened to his plan and carefully mulled it over, then nodded with an elated expression upon determining that it was a sound plan.

  She immediately pulled some materials out of her storage bracelet and began to repair the giant formation together with Han Li.

  Throughout the entire repair process, both of them were extremely careful and cautious.

  After all, even the slightest mistake could activate all of the restrictions in the underground palace and even awaken the Stemborer Queen.

  In the end, it took the two of them a day and a night to finally repair the formation.

  Xie Lian cast an incantation seal toward the formation, upon which a buzzing sound rang out across the entire hall, while layers of gentle white light also emerged. At the same time, a burst of profound energy fluctuations proliferated through the room before vanishing without a trace.

  "It's done! Your plan really was feasible, Brother Han," Xie Lian said as she turned to Han Li with a smile.

  "Seeing as there are no issues, we'll just have to wait for a message from Bao Hua before we completely activate the restriction. I wonder if our other fellow daoists will be able to complete their missions in time as well," Han Li said with a smile.

  "According to Bao Hua's plan, we should be receiving a message from her in half a day at the latest. Let's meditate and recover some energy for now; we could be facing a fierce battle soon."

  Han Li nodded as he raised a hand to release a message talisman, informing Daoist Xie and Lü Shi of what was happening, then strode over to a corner of the hall before sitting down to meditate.

  Xie Lian also did the same, and moments later, two streaks of light, one azure and one silver, flew into the room before also sitting down to meditate.

  Thus, several hours flew by in a flash, and right at this moment, Han Li suddenly opened his eyes, as did everyone else in the room.

  The ground suddenly began to tremor without any warning, and a pillar of white light suddenly erupted out of the formation on the ground before vanishing into the ceiling in a flash.

  ......

  At the same time, the entire underground palace began to tremor and quake, and within a certain secluded area of the underground palace, a series of tall stone pillars erupted out of the ground to form a massive stone forest.

  Looking down from above, one would be able to tell that the stone forest was arranged to form a rectangular formation.

  At the center of the formation were eight copper pillars, and not only were these pillars riddled with rust, there was also indecipherable ancient text inscribed on their surfaces, as well as a ball of light hovering atop each pillar.

  Within each of these balls of light was a crimson lamp, and seven of the lamps had already been snuffed out, while the final still contained a faint yellow flame.

  At the center of the area surrounded by the eight copper pillars was a crimson sacrificial altar that was over 100 feet tall.

  Atop the altar sat an inky-black bowl with black Qi revolving all around it, striking one with an unsettling sensation.

  A burst of sinister cackling suddenly rang out from within the bowl.

  ......

  "What's going on? We didn't activate the formation yet; how was it activated on its own?" Xie Lian yelled as her face immediately paled.

  Lü Shi and Han Li's expressions had also darkened significantly.

  They didn't know what had happened, but it was clear that something had gone wrong.

  "Let's get out of here. We can't rely on the original plan anymore; we have to reunite with everyone else as quickly as possible," Han Li decided.

  He then waved a hand toward Daoist Xie before flying away as a streak of azure light, and Daoist Xie followed along close behind him as a streak of silver light.

  Chapter 2233: Treasured Phoenix Spirit Plate

  Xie Lian and Lü Shi exchanged a glance, and the latter asked, "What should we do, Fellow Daoist Xie Lian? Should we follow them?"

  "Brother Han is right; something's clearly gone wrong, so it would be unwise to stay here. Let's get out of here and find out what's going on first," Xie Lian said.

  She then swept a sleeve through the air and flew away as a floral projection.

  Lü Shi could only heave a faint sigh and follow along.

  At this point, Ha
n Li and Daoist Xie were flying along a narrow passageway, heading toward the direction where the tremors were the strongest.

  Even though the flight restriction was still in place, Han Li was still able to fly at quite a high speed at the expense of additional magic power expenditure.

  Han Li swept his spiritual sense around the passageway, and his brows immediately furrowed slightly.

  Countless cracks had appeared within the smooth-looking walls of the passageway, and the number of cracks was quickly increasing.

  It seemed that this underground palace wouldn't be able to hold itself together for much longer.

  Right at this moment, the tremors up ahead became even more violent, and it looked as if the entire palace could collapse at any moment.

  All of a sudden, a crossroads appeared up ahead, and Han Li turned into a new passageway without any hesitation.

  He was immediately greeted by two black human-faced stemborers that pounced directly toward him, and it seemed that these two stemborers had been waiting there for quite some time.

  Han Li harrumphed coldly upon seeing this, and a green sword mark suddenly appeared on his forearm, following which a green longsword that was around three feet in length instantly appeared in his hand before being slashed toward the pair of oncoming stemborers.

  The world's origin Qi in the surrounding area was immediately stirred up into a frenzy, and a burst of enormous power of laws descended upon the passageway.

  Peculiar energy fluctuations erupted around the two human-faced stemborers, and they were immediately immobilized, then sliced in half before they even knew what had happened.

  Han Li appeared behind the two human-faced stemborers in a flash, following which the stemborers' dismembered bodies abruptly burst into flames.

  Han Li didn't want to be stalled here, so he had used his Profound Heavenly Spiritslash Sword to kill the two human-faced stemborers right away.

  At his current cultivation base, he was able to use a part of the Profound Heavenly Treasure's power even without unleashing his Holy Nirvana Physique.