A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Chapter 578: Encounter in the Dark

Shock was clear in Han Li’s eyes as he fell towards the rocks a hundred meters below him. He abruptly twisted his body and bent his waist at a strange angle before kicking his feet out behind him. This caused him to shoot towards a large tree nearby before steadily coming to stand on one of its branches.

Han Li’s head was lined with cold sweat after his near fall. Fortunately, the Shifting Smoke Steps didn’t require any spiritual power to use. Otherwise, he would’ve just met his end by falling to his death. If a Core Formation cultivator were to actually die by falling, they’d become a laughingstock! Of course, many of the nearby Foundation Establishment cultivators weren’t as fortunate as Han Li and were certain to have suffered.

When Han Li finally regained his bearings, he heard a series of clangs from the distance. He quickly turned his head in that direction with a changed expression. Sure enough, the clangs came from the two sets of Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords that he hadn’t taken into his body. Not far to their side were the eight sided mirrors, the ancient flower basket, and the small silver bell. At the moment, they were all completely devoid of life as if their spiritual nature had disappeared.

Han Li’s heart trembled and he hastily tried to release a thread of spiritual sense to inspect the treasures, however his heart immediately grew cold. No matter how hard he tried, his immensely powerful spiritual sense now remained motionless within his body.

Han Li’s blood ran cold as both his magic power and spiritual sense were now incapable of being used. He was now no different than an ordinary mortal. Let alone his magic abilities, his storage pouch and his spirit beast pouches were now useless as well.

He turned around and paled upon seeing that the overflowing black mist had already filled the nearby skies.

With his current speed as a mortal, there would be no chance of him outrunning the ghost mist. After reflecting on the current situation with a gloomy expression, he gritted his teeth and his body blurred. He then appeared beside the lifeless treasures and frantically gathered them all into his arms.

Because he currently had no way of using his storage pouch, he could only hold the items close to his chest. Fortunately, they weren’t too large, otherwise Han Li would’ve been incapable of carrying all of them.

At the same time that Han Li was gathering up the treasures, the endless black fog suddenly descended onto the small island.

Han Li felt an immense attractive force coming in the direction of the mist, and before he even realized what was happening, he was already being sucked in.

Han Li was overwhelmed by shock and shifted his body several times, hoping to use his Shifting Smoke Steps to escape, but it proved completely ineffective. A moment later, he had been absorbed into the pitch-black mist and found himself among several flashes of black lightning that instantly wrapped around his body.

With several muffled booms, Han Li flickered with black light and disappeared without a trace into the fog.

Han Li heard a torrent of countless, strange sounds pour into his mind as the entire world around him blurred and was replaced with absolute darkness.

He felt his body suddenly come to a stop and then fell onto some kind of ground with a muffled thump. The ground was soft and thick, leaving him without the slightest injury, relieving Han Li of his most pressing worry.

He took the opportunity to glance around and found only an expanse of darkness, but he did manage to smell a strong, fishy scent.

Han Li wordlessly ran his hands over his body to find it sticky and wet with several things poking into him. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that he was lying on a pile of live, squirming fish and prawn.

Han Li frowned and slowly tried to stand up when his head suddenly broke out in pain. At that same time, he felt his limbs turn soft and he became overwhelmed with a sense of vertigo.

Han Li inwardly cursed. Without any magic power protecting his body, he was being subjected to the full aftermath of teleportation. It was likely that he wouldn’t be able to stand up for quite a while.

Since this was the case, Han Li emotionlessly lied down on the pile of fish and prawn, saving his strength until he could move his limbs once more.

But right then, yet another ball of black lightning appeared appeared about ten meters above him.

That faint flash of light allowed Han Li to see strange pointed rocks about thirty meters above him, and he was able to make out that this place seemed to be an underground cave. As for the strange lightning, there seemed to be something within it.

Han Li’s heart stirred as he gazed at it. After wildly flashing several more times, it disappeared and dropped a pitch-black object straight onto Han Li.

Han Li was startled and wanted to move out of the way, but his body was powerless. He could only watch on as the object fell onto him.

As a result, a soft woman’s body fell onto Han Li with a muffled grunt. It seemed she had also been teleported there.

The woman was clearly rattled, and not only did she not realize that Han Li was beneath her, she also crawled on him, grabbing onto Han Li’s hair.

Han Li smirked and let out a faint breath of pain.

“Huh?” The woman now realized that there was another person beneath her, an unfamiliar man. She cried out in alarm and hastily tried to stand, but her body swayed several times before she weakly fell back down.

As a result, she ended up falling onto Han Li once again with her upper body resting on Han Li’s stomach. From her look of fright, she seemed to be somewhat young.

“Who are you?” The woman asked with a trembling voice. Her heavy, thumping heart, could be clearly heard in the silent darkness.

The woman’s voice was quite pleasant, but since he didn’t know the woman and couldn’t clearly make out her appearance, Han Li jokingly replied, “Just some guy!”

“Hmph.” A trace of resentment appeared within her eyes as she fiercely glared at Han Li. But because her limbs were in pain, she could only raise her neck and turn her head towards Han Li just a bit, as this action didn’t seem to take much effort.

However, her pleasant fragrance did reach Han Li’s nose, arousing a strange feeling in him. With the addition of her soft, ample body pressing against him, a certain area was unconsciously aroused.

“What are you doing!” The woman immediately felt the change in Han Li’s body, and she fiercely glared at him with a shameful expression. However, Han Li saw this action to be quite adorable.

Han Li bitterly laughed and said, “It isn’t something that I can control. I have lost my magic power and spiritual sense. While I would like to control my body with my cultivation and calm down my little lord, I’ve returned to become an ordinary man. I am helpless to do anything about the reaction.”

The woman snorted. Although she didn’t say anything, she seemed to have heard him. Fortunately, she couldn’t move just like Han Li and could do nothing about it, despite her angry humiliation.

The darkness became silent once more, broken only by the breaths of the two.

Han Li felt this experience to be completely unprecedented. There were countless fish and prawn flailing about underneath him, and an unfamiliar, fragrant woman laying on top of him. This situation couldn’t be described as anything but absurd!

The woman suddenly broke the silence and asked, “Were you among the fellow cultivators that entered the island?”

“Seems likely, right?” When Han Li heard her, he immediately recalled the dozens of cultivators that had rushed to the small island. It seemed like this woman was one of them.

Doubt flickered within her eyes and she snorted before suspiciously asking, “What is that supposed to mean?”

Han Li smiled and thought to brush off her question with a vague response when disorderly footsteps suddenly sounded as several torches soon appeared in the distance and floated nearby. There appeared to be shadows that were faintly visible beneath the flickering torchlight.

Han Li’s heart trembled! There seemed to be people here and they didn’t appear to be the other cultivators that had been devoured by the ghost mist.

An instant later, the torches had drawn close to them.

Han Li’s eyes narrowed and he was able to clearly see the black silhouettes behind the flames. They were five exceptionally large men that were each at least a whole head taller than Han Li, and appeared to be about forty years of age.

They wore green robes and held a sword-like weapon in their hands with huge leather bags on their backs and were hastily travelling forward in large strides.

When Han Li saw them, his heart was shaken by fear. As he was guessing the identity of these men, a strand of black hair swept past his face. The woman had turned her head to gaze at them as well, and seemed to be ill at ease from her trembling..

Han Li furrowed his brow and began to move his fingers as a trace of strength had returned. It appeared that he was recovering his strength rather quickly.