A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Ancestor Linghu followed Han Li’s gaze and saw light flashing in the distance. He saw purple and black lights shine and flicker without end, covering up half the sky from view. And among these lights rose a hundred-meter-wide emerald-green cloud that had various bright lights slowly swivelling within it. When these lights interweaved inside the green cloud, a loud tremble sounded out along with a howl that could be faintly heard from a distance. 

The strange black-purple lights carried raging waves of overflowing devilish Qi throughout the sky, a devilish Qi that the three were very familiar with; it carried the same aura that Marquis Nanlong’s possessed body released after it transformed. However, this same aura was being emitted at full force from a distance and gave an oppressive feeling.

But what Ancestor Linghu was even more fearful of was how the black-purple lights and the green cloud were quickly heading towards their direction. It appeared they would soon arrive.

“Bloated Corpse Poison! That is a poison cloud formed from Wei Wuya’s poison techniques. It is capable of killing any cultivator that touch it. I’ve seen him use this before.” The white-clothed woman’s face lit up when she saw the green poisonous cloud.

When Han Li and Ancestor Linghu heard this, they exchanged glances with an odd expression but both of their eyes seem to contain a deep dread.

Although the power of this green cloud was vast, it was clearly inferior to that of the black- purple streaks of light. Could it be that his enemy was on par with a late Nascent Soul cultivator? However, from the astonishing aura that it emitted, his opponent definitely wasn’t the Elder Devil soul that was possessing Marquis Nanlong’s body.

When the white-clothed woman saw the other two’s expressions, she realized this as well and she expression grew sullen.

“Should we...” The white-clothed woman hesitated and thought to propose something when an icy spiritual sense swept past the three and interrupted her.

Han Li’s heart trembled when he felt this and Ancestor Linghu’s expression turned particularly unsightly.

After some silence, Han Li emotionlessly said, “Let’s hurry and decide what to do. If we take too long, we’ll miss our chance. Now that the Elder Devil we’ve been fighting has run over there, Fellow Daoist Wei will soon find himself overwhelmed no matter how deep his cultivation may be. Do you two plan on assisting him, or will you run off now and wait for the monsters to hunt you down after Wei Wuya is defeated?”

Before Han Li spoke to them, he swept his spiritual sense past the black-purple radiance. However, astonishing spiritual Qi fluctuations blocked him from seeing anything further, much to his gloom. It was clear that the battle was beyond his current level of cultivation.

Ancestor Linghu and the white-clothed woman couldn’t help but look at each other in dismay.

If it were possible, the two would rather flee for their lives than stake their all against another battle with the Elder Devil, but it was as Han Li said; if Wei Wuya was defeated, their chances of making it out of the valley were nil as they were far too deep inside.

Furthermore, if Wei Wuya did survive, he would know that they had remained idle rather than assisting him. And as fellow cultivators of the Nine Nations Union, this would bring no end of troubles; especially since they were grand elders of their respective sects, it could spell disaster for the Masked Moon Sect and Yellow Maple Valley. The two hesitated as they were resentful of being trapped in this situation, but for the sake of their sects, they had to stake their lives in this hopeless fight.

Han Li bitterly chuckled in his mind and watched the black-purple radiance in the sky with his hands behind his back, silent the entire time.

Ancestor Linghu frowned and gloomily sighed in his mind. He then said, “Among us, Fellow Daoist Han possesses the most powerful abilities. What do you plan on doing?” 

“Me? Well, hehe...” Han Li didn’t immediately answer and simply smiled.

When Ancestor Linghu saw this, he wryly chuckled and inwardly cursed at Han Li for his craftiness. So long as Han Li proposed to leave, the three could immediately leave. And if Wei Wuya later investigated this, he and the white-clothed woman could blame the matter on Han Li.

As Ancestor Linghu was trying to find a way to deal with this awkward situation, Han Li suddenly yelped, “Yi! There are also cultivators nearby. But this comes as no surprise. Given how loud the noise was, it would’ve attracted cultivators within several thousands of kilometers here.” 

When Ancestor Linghu and the white-clothed woman heard this, they hurriedly followed Han Li’s gaze and found that on the other side of the battle, a group of cultivators were flying towards the green cloud and strange radiance.

‘How can it be them? Why have they come to such a dangerous area?’ Han Li swept his spiritual sense past these cultivators and felt a wave of shock. He recognized two of the three cultivators in the group.

One of the cultivators was Daoist Heavencrystal, who he had traded with in the past. Following after him were two puppets with wicked appearances. They were riddled with scars and one of the puppets was even missing an arm.

The other person he recognized was a silver-haired old man, Han Li’s Senior Martial Brother Cheng.

As for the last person, it was the unfamiliar old man that had entered the valley with his Senior Martial Brother Cheng. The third cultivator that was supposed to be with them was missing; presumably, something had happened to him.

After recognizing these men, Han Li’s expression turned gloomy.

It seemed these cultivators were attracted by the fearsome battle. Perhaps they had mistakenly believed that it was between cultivators fighting over a rare treasure. Had they known that there were Nascent Soul consuming devils instead of treasure, they would’ve surely been flying away.

Because they were too far away from Han Li, he wasn’t able to reach them with his spiritual sense and couldn’t stop them. As a result, they drew closer to the battle in the blink of an eye. Wei Wuya would surely be interested in dragging them into the fray and force them to share the pressure, putting the newly arrived cultivators in danger.

Han Li didn’t care for the others, but his Senior Martial Brother Cheng had treated him with kindness at the Drifting Cloud Sect and he couldn’t stand by as he watched him die. It seemed he’d have to involve himself as well.

Helpless, Han Li’s original plans fizzled. He had intended to wait and see how the battle turned out before deciding to either involve himself or slip away.

If Wei Wuya was only at a slight disadvantage, he would naturally be willing to tangle with the Elder Devils. After all, as a fellow human, he didn’t wish for the Elder Devils to turn Devilfall Valley into a slaughtering grounds and have the cultivators’ souls devoured.

But if Wei Wuya was completely overwhelmed, he definitely wouldn’t involve himself and would quickly slip away, preserving his own life. As a result, calamity would strike at all the cultivators within the valley. As entities capable of defeating a late Nascent Soul cultivator, Han Li wouldn’t be able to contend against them but he should be able to escape.

But now that his Senior Martial Brother Cheng was heading towards the battle, Han Li’s expression wavered and could only summon the courage to involve himself. If it truly was too dangerous and worst came to worst, he should be able to use the Bloodshadow Evasion technique to escape.

However, he’d have to carefully choose his direction or else he would run into a spatial tear. He will definitely be reserving it only as a last resort.

With that thought, Han Li turned around and spoke to Ancestor Linghu and the white-clothed woman, “Since there are other Fellow Daoists going to assist him against those soul devouring devils, I will not stand idly. Regardless of what you decide to do, I’ll be heading off first.

However, given that you two are so close to the battle, I suspect that Fellow Daoist Wei has already discovered you. It may be awkward for your future relations with him if you don’t join the battle.” After speaking with a tone that both threatened and warned them, Han Li made his way towards the battle in a streak of azure light.

Afterwards, the remaining two Nascent Soul cultivators stood in place, speechless.

During this delay, the battle between the black-purple radiance and the green mist grew increasingly fierce. Han Li’s words likely held true. Since they were only about five kilometers away, if Wei Wuya had the mind to casually sweep his spiritual sense around him, they would be easily discovered.

Ancestor Linghu stroked his beard and bitterly smiled to the white-clothed woman. “Let’s go. Fellow Daoist Han is right. As human cultivators, we are duty bound to slay these devils.” 

The white-clothed woman’s expression turned sullen. She could only nod, having considered the stakes. Fortunately, there would be several cultivators simultaneously attacking these formidable devils and she should be able to survive. Hoping for the best, the two then gathered their courage and made their way towards the battle.

Unbeknownst to them, the grand elder of the Controlling Spirit Sect, Dongmen Tu, and the three of his sect disciples were fifty kilometers behind them. Only three of the five Nascent Soul cultivators created through the Elemental Spirit Nascents still remained; the other two perished from a spatial tear and a restriction respectively.

However, Dongmen Tu didn’t display the slightest sadness on his faces. Instead, he was glancing at the horizon with excitement. The spiritual Qi fluctuations were fierce and could be clearly felt from even fifty kilometers away. It was most likely a battle between cultivators for treasure, and he planned to see if he could take advantage of the chaos.

Even further away was the Ghost Spirit Sect Elder Zhong and the group of Ghost Spirit Sect’s disciples. Elder Zhong was wearing a particularly gloomy expression.

Although he had a planned route through Devilfall Valley, two of his disciples had perished to moving spatial tears on the way. Even worse was how the main objective of their arduous journey, the Spirit Kindle Fruits had been stolen away by someone else, nearly causing him to be taken away with fury.

The Spirit Kindle Fruit was crucial for him to enter late Nascent Soul stage. Since the cuts to the Spirit Kindle Fruit’s tree had been fresh, they must had to be immediately refined into medicine and they couldn’t have gone far. He sent his disciples out under this reasoning, but to his disappointment, they didn’t find them despite the many days they searched.

But just as Elder Zhong was about to dejectedly bring his disciples back, they came across waves of Qi that nearly wiped them away. Fortunately, he possessed a top grade protective ancient treasure and allowed them to all make it through without any damage.

Afterwards, another wave of astonishing spiritual Qi fluctuations stirred in the distance, and he immediately recalled the cultivator who stole away the Spirit Kindle Fruits while flying forward with his disciples with insuppressible impatience burned in his heart.