A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Mu Qing turned her head to the side at almost the exact same moment, and a peculiar look appeared on her face.

There in the distance, a vast expanse of grey mist was visible, and it stretched for as far as the eyes could see. The white bones beneath this grey mist all rose up and formed skeletons of strange configurations.

These skeletons weren't very large, but they had eyes that glowed with unsettling red eyes, and all of them turned their attention to the earth abyss army.

In the blink of an eye, the grey mist had spread to an area that was quite close to the earth abyss beings.

All of the low-grade demon beasts were becoming quite uneasy.

Han Li's expression changed slightly, and he couldn't help but take a glance at Mu Qing, only to find that she remained completely calm and collected, as if she'd already predicted this well in advance.

Just as Han Li was feeling rather perplexed, a low cry suddenly erupted from the rear. Two streaks of crimson light then shot forth from the puppets behind him, heading directly toward the oncoming grey mist.

The two streaks of crimson light transformed into two gusts of crimson winds before crashing into the grey mist.

A string of resounding booms rang out as the crimson winds and grey mist clashes, and both sides transformed into massive pillars of wind that rose straight up into the sky.

As the grey mist and crimson winds intertwined, hordes of nearby skeletons were swept up and completely pulverized.

However, the remaining troops in the skeletal army rose into the air with grey mist revolving around their bodies, hurtling toward the earthy abyss army at low altitudes.

These skeletons filled up virtually the entire sky, and there were far too many of them to count.

Han Li was feeling quite astonished upon seeing this.

Right at this moment, the white-haired beauty at the front of the party let loose a strange cackle as she rotated on the spot. A massive ghostly shadow with disheveled hair abruptly appeared behind her, then grew to several thousand feet in size in the blink of an eye.

The ghostly shadow suddenly opened its cavernous mouth to blast forth a burst of green Qi, which swept up vast numbers of skeletons up above.

A peculiar scene then ensued.

As soon as the green Qi came into contact with the skeletons, the grey mist around the skeletons' bodies dissipated, and they fell from the sky, having been completley dismantled.

Furthermore, there seemed to be no end to the green Qi emanating from the ghostly shadow's mouth, and in conjunction with the two gusts of crimson winds, they quickly eradicated the immense horde of skeletons. Thus, the crisis was averted even without the need for intervention from Mu Qing and Liu Zu.

Han Li couldn't help but draw a sharp breath upon seeing this.

When the crimson gusts of wind disappeared, the two crimson-robed figures flew back as two streaks for crimson light. The green Qi then dissipated, following which the massive ghostly shadow behind the white-haired beauty also vanished in a flash.

"Those were just some Yinbone Monsters; they're the easiest beings to deal with in the infernal river. The things that we encounter next won't be so easy to ward off," Mu Qing suddenly murmured.

She seemed to be speaking to herself, but also disclosing information to the nearby Han Li and Jin Ling, both of whom glanced at one another upon hearing this.

A contemplative expression had appeared on Han Li's face, but Jin Ling's furry face remained completely emotionless.

The party continued onward under Liu Zu's command.

Two days later, hordes of strange crimson bats appeared in the air over a crimson swamp, and they began to attack the earth abyss demon beasts in a frenzy.

Even after being torn apart or slain by the earth abyss demon beasts, their bodies would simply reform again and completely recover. Only by killing them a few more times or incinerating them into nothingness with fire-attribute techniques were they truly killed. As soon as they latched onto the body of an earth abyss demon beast, they would gulp down large mouthfuls of blood essence, and it would only take a few gulps to reduce their prey to a shriveled up corpse.

Some of these bats were as large as several tens of feet in size, while the smallest ones were only several feet long. The largest dozen or so bats among them had human faces and bat bodies, and they were capable of blasting crimson light out of their mouths. Any demon beast that was struck by this crimson light would instantly be reduced to dust.

In fact, this light was so formidable that even high-grade demon beasts weren't able to take a blast head-on.

As such, not only did all of the demon beasts spring into action to retaliate, even the four demon monarchs had unleashed their abilities to kill those human-faced bats.

Han Li had enshrouded himself in arcs of golden lightning, and the crimson bats would be reduced to clouds of crimson Qi as soon as they came into contact with this lightning.

At this point, he finally understood why all the demon monarchs held his Divine Devilbane Lightning in such high regard.

The majority of ghostly beings in the infernal river were imbued with devilish Qi, so his Divine Devilbane Lightning was extremely effective against them.

The earth abyss army was attacked by a vast number of these crimson bats, but through the retaliation from the four demon monarchs, the demon beast, the puppets, and the profound ghosts, the number of bats rapidly dwindled until there were barely any left.

The remaining two or three human-faced bats could clearly tell that their situation had turned into quite a perilous once, and blood mist erupted from their bodies as they fled into the distance.

At the astonishing speed at which they flew, they disappeared into the distance in just a few flashes.

Seven days later, within a vast expanse of strange blue mist, countless black ghostly shadows took on different shapes and forms as they danced around the earth abyss demon beasts at the foot of the mountain.

Even though they refrained from approaching the earth abyss army, all of them were capable of letting loose extremely unsettling ghostly cries that caused the low-grade demon beasts to sway unsteadily as their eyes glazed over, looking as if they could collapse at any moment.

At this moment, a large black bell flew forth from within the earth abyss army, and following just a single toll of the bell, most of the ghostly shadows were vanquished while the remaining ones screeched with anguish and horror as they disappeared into the mist.

A month later, in the air above a black lake, a three-headed giant with rotten green flesh all over its body stood atop the surface of the lake, wielding a massive beastbone club with its hands as it engaged in battle with a Purpleblood Puppet, which was comparable in size to itself.

Nearby, countless ghostly beings had emerged from within the lake to battle the earth abyss demon beasts.

At this point, there were only less than 10,000 remaining earth abyss demon beasts, and most of them were high-grade beings. Even the ghostly soldiers and puppets had suffered severe casualties.

On a certain day a month later...

Han Li raised a hand, and golden light flashed as a minotaur ghost before him was instantly sliced in half. Grey light then swept forth from behind him, sweeping toward a few oncoming bone arrows, and those arrows immediately disappeared without a trace. At the same time, he pressed a palm against the air and five-colored glacial flames erupted forth, reducing the two sinister ghosts that had appeared behind him to a pair of ice sculptures.

Right at this moment, a gust of howling winds came crashing down from above.

Han Li's expression changed slightly, and his body blurred as she disappeared on the spot.

A massive mace that was over 100 feet in length struck the spot where Han Li had been standing a split second ago, and black light flashed as a huge crater that was several tens of feet deep was smashed into the ground.

The wielder of the mace was a giant cyclops corpse with green fur all over its body, and it looked around with its single eye with a perplexed expression.

All of a sudden, azure light flashed in the air above the giant corpse, and Han Li appeared before pressing a palm downward.

A small black mountain appeared out of thin air before transforming into a massive mountain of over 10,000 feet as black light swirled around it.

Following a resounding boom, the black mountain crushed the giant corpse and also pulverized all of the other ghostly beings in a radius of over 1,000 feet.

Han Li heaved a sigh of relief, and only then did he get a chance to catch his breath as well as to survey his surroundings.

There were ghostly Qi and murky mist surging in all directions, and even with his Brightsight Spirit Eyes, he only had visibility for up to just over 10,000 feet.

He could only tell from the astonishing flashes of spiritual light and the relentless resounding explosions that there were many earth abyss demons still locked in arduous combat against this ghostly army. However, he didn't know where the four demon monarchs were, nor whether they'd been surrounded by the infernal river ghosts.

A wry smile appeared on Han Li's face.

During the preceding month, the first dozen or so days were filled with battles, but the going was relatively good, and they made fast progress. However, in the second half of the month, they passed through a dozen or so areas inhabited by powerful ghosts with special abilities.

Even the four demon monarchs were wary of such beings, and they had refined the 8,000 ghostly soldiers and over 10,000 puppets in advance to try and force their way through these areas. As for the low-grade demon beasts, there were almost none left in the aftermath of the previous battles.

Liu Zu and the others had already anticipated that this would happen, but they were still feeling rather uneasy. However, it was certainly far too late for them to turn back, so they could only continue onward, making sure to take any extra precautions that they could.

On this day, the army arrived at a set of highlands that Mu Qing proclaimed didn't house any powerful ghostly beings. All of a sudden, countless ghostly soldiers converged toward them from all sides, and there were so many of them that it was as if the entire heaven and earth had been dominated by their presence.

They were led by over 30 Spatial Tempering Stage ghostly generals, and they unleashed dense Yin mist in unison, surrounding the earth abyss army and taking them by surprise to scatter their entire formation. As a result, everyone was forced to fight on their own.

In the beginning, Han Li worked together with Jin Ling and the other earth abyss demon beasts nearby to ward off the attacks from these ghostly beings, but this Yin mist had an extremely unsettling property where one would immediately lose all sense of direction after straying even slightly too far away from their companions.

As such, even with Han Li's powerful spiritual sense and Brightsight Spirit Eyes, he still lost contact with everyone else after over a half a day of intense battle.

He could only indistinctly hear the sound of battle being waged in the distance, and there were still hordes of ghostly beings charging toward him without any fear of death.

Thankfully, even though there was an immense number of these ghostly beings, they were only at the Nascent Soul and Deity Transformation stages at best, and they weren't able to pose any real threat to him.

After battling for a while longer, he finally managed to kill all of the ghostly beings in the surrounding area, thereby earning him a brief period of respite.

However, he knew that it wouldn't take long for a new horde of ghostly beings to swarm to attack him again, and there were simply far too many of them to kill.

An indecisive look appeared on Han Li's face for a moment, following which he suddenly made a grabbing motion downward, and the massive black mountain disappeared in a flash.

He then shot forth as a streak of azure light toward the direction where the sounds of battle were the least intense.

He had to fly out of this mist to ensure self-preservation before worrying about anything else.

If worst came to worse, even though he was wary of the demon monarchs, he'd simply have to release his Weeping Soul Beast and force his way out.

Otherwise, there was a very real possibility that he could eventually be worn down and killed by these endless hordes of ghostly beings.