A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

First, I want to thank everyone for their opinions and thoughts on how we should overhaul completed novels. We've reviewed nearly 2000 comments across multiple platforms and forum, and while we haven't responded to everything I can promise I HAVE read it all.  First, I'm going to briefly go into some of the things which were discussed which may or may not work, because I don't want people to think I ignored anything. I'm putting those in 'spoiler' tags so people who don't care can skip it.  Then, we'll talk...

Read More...

First, I want to thank everyone for their opinions and thoughts on how we should overhaul completed novels. We've reviewed nearly 2000 comments across multiple platforms and forum, and while we haven't responded to everything I can promise I HAVE read it all.  First, I'm going to briefly go into some of the things which were discussed which may or may not work, because I don't want people to think I ignored anything. I'm putting those in 'spoiler' tags so people who don't care can skip it.  Then, we'll talk...

Read More...

Now, for a much shorter announcement than the last two.  For several months now, we've been working on a super secret project, and it's time to accelerate it!  We have a new platform called Wutopia Comics (Wuxia Utopia) coming up soon, and everything is very nearly ready.  We are getting ready to launch soon, but we need to speed up the pace of manhua translation even further!  These are paid work-for-hire translation jobs, starting off at $40-50/3000 Chinese characters (roughly).  Those who do well and have...

Read More...

Chapter 192: Flying Snakes 

After walking on the route for a little less than half a day, Han Li finally reached the outer reaches of the central area.

Han Li felt that something was unusual; the entire way here, absolutely nothing had occurred, and he hadn’t run into anybody else attacking him from afar!

Of course, he couldn’t know that the people who had come in the same direction earlier had all been killed off by those so-called “elites”. The people behind him, on the other hand, were disposed of, having run into Feng Yue and the woman with many treasures.

Like that, although there were some fish that escaped the net, they all knew that to steal treasures from others was impossible at this point. Thus, they covered up their tracks and found a place to hide, sticking their head into the ground like an ostrich. This was the open secret of how the weaker cultivators would preserve their own lives in the Trial by Blood and Fire!

If Han Li wanted to obtain the three main ingredients to refine his Foundation Establishment Pill, he obviously could not follow in their footsteps. That was why he currently stood in front of a stone wall about ten meters high, intently looking at it with a strange expression.

On the side of the stone wall, not too far away, stood an interesting and appealing large bronze door. The door had many markings on it that Han Li could not understand; they were written in an ancient language that almost looked like a decorative design.

Since this copper door was wide open today, people must have already gone through it.

According to the information that Han Li knew, there should have been four kinds of these copper doors, each one in each of the cardinal directions. They were the only entrances into the central area. The areas not including the doors were surrounded by a stone wall that didn’t seem to be too high.

If one didn’t want to enter through the bronze doors, instead wanting to seize every possibly opportunity and jump over the stone wall to get into the central area, these people would definitely be incredibly unlucky. They would be sliced into shreds by the wall’s wind restriction spell.

Of course, Han Li knew this and naturally wouldn’t idiotically choose to climb over the wall. The only reason he was closely watching the wall’s movements was entirely because this section of the wall was truly somewhat different from the others. Its surface contained an extra “thing” that other normal walls did not have.

On top of this wall stood three people wearing different clothing. They had been impaled by a thick ice awl, their limbs nailed together to form the Chinese character “large (?)”, which hung on top of the wall in a row. Seeing that there was no odor at all, they must’ve already been dead for a long time.

The fresh blood that poured out of the four wounds coagulated into a purplish-black solid; this solid was all over the place, both on top of the wall and nearby. According to Han Li’s speculations, at the time that these people had been nailed on top of the wall, the majority of them had not yet died. However, they had later tragically died on the wall due to blood loss.

There were no clues or trails left next to the three corpses, but if one thought about it carefully, anyone could realize that these people were killed to make an example of. The goal was to scare away people arriving later from entering through this door!

Han Li very carefully inspected the painful expressions of the three corpses, then licked his somewhat dry lips and walked expressionlessly towards the copper door. It was as if the miserable fates of those three people had not affected him that much.

In reality, however, Han Li knew his own feelings quite well; the previous scene had really left him apprehensive! It was apparent from the way those three people died that their killer most likely was someone whose heart was twisted; if he were to fall into that person’s hands, he would be a bit more fortunate if he hurried to kill himself.

However, Han Li had already come here; naturally, he wouldn’t flee from here simply because of a little fear. Today, in front of him were the true extreme dangers. He would have to summon up his own courage and barge in this time!

Like this, Han Li walked through the door, carrying a stomach full of uneasiness. However, he maintained his composure on the surface, as leisurely if he were strolling around in his home’s backyard.

He had just entered when he was greeted by the scene of a paradise of fragrant flowers and birdsong. All kinds of odd flowers and grasses, as well as many strange trees with unknown names, were strikingly everywhere. Silver chrysanthemums as wide as bowls, blood-red strange trees, purple grass releasing a strange smell, yellow bamboo as thick as a person, etc. – these were all rare items that were very difficult to even see in the outside world. In the midst of these precious plants actually was a serpentine path made of crushed rocks; this path extended from where Han Li was standing to a faraway place, obscured by all of the vegetation. From a brief glance, it seemed as if there was no end to this path.

Seeing this surprising scene, Han Li briefly stared blankly, but he immediately subconsciously took a deep breath. What dense Spiritual Qi! The dense, heavy, and mixed smell of plants contained a Spiritual Qi that just soaked into a person’s lungs, causing Han Li’s spirits to rise.

This kind of paradise, no wonder it could bring forth all the spiritual medicines that exist! Han Li was deeply moved.

“Boy, have you gawked enough?”

“Who is it?”

Sounding like a broken gong, a noise, suddenly came over, causing Han Li’s heart to shiver with fear. He couldn’t help but cry out.

“Hehe! Since you’ve seen it already, you can die in peace!” This person completely ignored Han Li’s inquiry, instead talking out to himself out loud.

At the same time, two green shadows slyly streaked out from a flower patch on the side, silently charging towards Han Li’s back.

Although his back was facing these green shadows, they were not concealed from Han Li’s spiritual sense, who was already on guard. His expression grew grim. His upper body had not moved at all, but his body had already automatically shifted laterally a few feet, causing these two green streaks to pass by him both in front and behind him.

In the middle of the chaos, Han Li glanced at the green shadows. They were straight, thin, and long, like chopsticks, and their entire bodies were green and had some faint black characters on them. Their appearances were truly somewhat strange.

However, in the chaos, Han Li had no time to look closely at them. Even though he had easily neutralized the opponent’s attack, his expression was still solemn, and he didn’t dare to be careless. The miserable appearance of the three people outside the door was still vivid in his mind; he did not want to end up with a fate similar to theirs.

Thus, the cloudy-faced Han Li’s eyes began sweeping in all directions, flickering without stopping, in order to find the hiding enemies. However, at this time a strange whistle suddenly came out of that person’s mouth; hearing it would make one’s heart extremely uncomfortable!

When Han Li heard it, he briefly froze; just as he was trying to figure out what the opponent’s intentions were, his facial color changed drastically, and he flew backwards at an almost inconceivable rate. This time, Han Li flew at least ten meters away before stopping.

What caused Han Li to move in such a manner had actually been those green streaks that had only narrowly missed him! Because they weren’t very far in front of Han Li, they suddenly began to twist around, at the same time unfolding a pair of pale green, translucent wings.

They were actually two flying snakes with wings; when they had attacked Han Li, their bodies were always stretched tightly, causing Han Li to mistakenly believe that they were inanimate objects. With a gentle flap of their wings, their bodies rapidly turned around 180 degrees as quickly as lightning; in fact, they were not slower than Han Li, who had used the Shifting Smoke Steps. How could this not make Han Li incredibly cautious!?

These two flying snakes reared their heads, and four small green eyes released an ice-cold chilliness. They were baring their fangs at Han Li, about to take another attacking stance against him.

“Boy, you run pretty quickly! But even if you were quicker, could you be quicker than these two Jungle Mountain Flying Snakes? It would be better if you obediently allowed my lovely snakes to bite you once, and you would feel no more pain!” The person with the rough throat was somewhat astonished by Han Li’s movement speed, but he clearly had more faith in his flying snakes, which was why he mockingly said what was spoken above.

“Rubbish!”

Han Li cursed in his heart, but he didn’t actually speak those words out loud! It wasn’t because of fear of the opponent that he didn’t speak; but rather, those two strange snakes had already become two streaks of green, charging forwards in a blur.

Halfway there, they suddenly split into two and wordlessly agreed to slash out in arcs, flanking from both his left and his right.

Seeing this, Han Li naturally could not afford to talk back apart from quietly cursing in his heart for a few moments. His body nevertheless could not be much slower than the green streaks as he shot backwards; in the blink of an eye, he and the green streaks had flown in many circles in this small area, as if he was unwilling to stop his feet for even a moment.

At this point in time, he completely relied on the spiritual boots on his feet to run, but he didn’t use the Shifting Smoke Steps or the Imperial Flight Technique.

It wasn’t that Han Li was being negligent and purposefully looking down on his opponent; rather, after encountering two fierce battles in a row, and adding on the fact that he had just reached his limit when practicing with these boots, his energy had not completely recovered. Thus, if he had not reached a life or death crisis, Han Li was unwilling to use the energy-squandering Shifting Smoke Steps. As for the Imperial Flight Technique, it was the same principle; having already obtained good fortune in getting the spiritual boots, adding on the speed boost of the Imperial Flight Technique would cause the burden on Han Li’s body to be too great and would not aid the recovery of his energy.

Of course, Han Li would also not allow the two flying snakes to chase after him to no end.

Although Han Li did not dare to carelessly wear a barrier and cause himself slow him down, to test whether the barrier or the strange snakes were stronger, he still had many methods to get rid of the two small snakes! It was only that most of his attention had been focused on the hidden person controlling the snakes, who in the end had never come out, thus allowing the two flying snakes to attack him. Seeing that this person had seemingly decided to completely rely on these two flying snakes to kill him, Han Li naturally would not continue to be polite.

Han Li’s decision had been made. He flipped his hand, and a Flame Serpent Talisman appeared in it. Two of his fingers pinched this talisman together, and he was about to excitedly throw it out and start a wild game barbecue!

“Cloud Step Boots?

“Stay your hand, I have something to say!”

The person with the rough throat recognized the spiritual boots on Han Li’s feet, and he immediately yelled out to ask for a pause in the battle, sounding full of incredulity. He stopped the two green streaks with an unknown method of yelling! The two snakes paused in midair and flew backwards along the original route, slipping into the vegetation and disappearing without a trace.

Upon hearing this, Han Li knitted his eyebrows; after slightly hesitating, he decided not to throw out the talisman in his hand, but he kept his hand cautiously resting on top of his storage pouch.

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

After walking on the route for a little less than half a day, Han Li finally reached the outer reaches of the central area.

Han Li felt that something was unusual; the entire way here, absolutely nothing had occurred, and he hadn’t run into anybody else attacking him from afar!

Of course, he couldn’t know that the people who had come in the same direction earlier had all been killed off by those so-called “elites”. The people behind him, on the other hand, were disposed of, having run into Feng Yue and the woman with many treasures.

Like that, although there were some fish that escaped the net, they all knew that to steal treasures from others was impossible at this point. Thus, they covered up their tracks and found a place to hide, sticking their head into the ground like an ostrich. This was the open secret of how the weaker cultivators would preserve their own lives in the Trial by Blood and Fire!

If Han Li wanted to obtain the three main ingredients to refine his Foundation Establishment Pill, he obviously could not follow in their footsteps. That was why he currently stood in front of a stone wall about ten meters high, intently looking at it with a strange expression.

On the side of the stone wall, not too far away, stood an interesting and appealing large bronze door. The door had many markings on it that Han Li could not understand; they were written in an ancient language that almost looked like a decorative design.

Since this copper door was wide open today, people must have already gone through it.

According to the information that Han Li knew, there should have been four kinds of these copper doors, each one in each of the cardinal directions. They were the only entrances into the central area. The areas not including the doors were surrounded by a stone wall that didn’t seem to be too high.

If one didn’t want to enter through the bronze doors, instead wanting to seize every possibly opportunity and jump over the stone wall to get into the central area, these people would definitely be incredibly unlucky. They would be sliced into shreds by the wall’s wind restriction spell.

Of course, Han Li knew this and naturally wouldn’t idiotically choose to climb over the wall. The only reason he was closely watching the wall’s movements was entirely because this section of the wall was truly somewhat different from the others. Its surface contained an extra “thing” that other normal walls did not have.

On top of this wall stood three people wearing different clothing. They had been impaled by a thick ice awl, their limbs nailed together to form the Chinese character “large (?)”, which hung on top of the wall in a row. Seeing that there was no odor at all, they must’ve already been dead for a long time.

The fresh blood that poured out of the four wounds coagulated into a purplish-black solid; this solid was all over the place, both on top of the wall and nearby. According to Han Li’s speculations, at the time that these people had been nailed on top of the wall, the majority of them had not yet died. However, they had later tragically died on the wall due to blood loss.

There were no clues or trails left next to the three corpses, but if one thought about it carefully, anyone could realize that these people were killed to make an example of. The goal was to scare away people arriving later from entering through this door!

Han Li very carefully inspected the painful expressions of the three corpses, then licked his somewhat dry lips and walked expressionlessly towards the copper door. It was as if the miserable fates of those three people had not affected him that much.

In reality, however, Han Li knew his own feelings quite well; the previous scene had really left him apprehensive! It was apparent from the way those three people died that their killer most likely was someone whose heart was twisted; if he were to fall into that person’s hands, he would be a bit more fortunate if he hurried to kill himself.

However, Han Li had already come here; naturally, he wouldn’t flee from here simply because of a little fear. Today, in front of him were the true extreme dangers. He would have to summon up his own courage and barge in this time!

Like this, Han Li walked through the door, carrying a stomach full of uneasiness. However, he maintained his composure on the surface, as leisurely if he were strolling around in his home’s backyard.

He had just entered when he was greeted by the scene of a paradise of fragrant flowers and birdsong. All kinds of odd flowers and grasses, as well as many strange trees with unknown names, were strikingly everywhere. Silver chrysanthemums as wide as bowls, blood-red strange trees, purple grass releasing a strange smell, yellow bamboo as thick as a person, etc. – these were all rare items that were very difficult to even see in the outside world. In the midst of these precious plants actually was a serpentine path made of crushed rocks; this path extended from where Han Li was standing to a faraway place, obscured by all of the vegetation. From a brief glance, it seemed as if there was no end to this path.

Seeing this surprising scene, Han Li briefly stared blankly, but he immediately subconsciously took a deep breath. What dense Spiritual Qi! The dense, heavy, and mixed smell of plants contained a Spiritual Qi that just soaked into a person’s lungs, causing Han Li’s spirits to rise.

This kind of paradise, no wonder it could bring forth all the spiritual medicines that exist! Han Li was deeply moved.

“Boy, have you gawked enough?”

“Who is it?”

Sounding like a broken gong, a noise, suddenly came over, causing Han Li’s heart to shiver with fear. He couldn’t help but cry out.

“Hehe! Since you’ve seen it already, you can die in peace!” This person completely ignored Han Li’s inquiry, instead talking out to himself out loud.

At the same time, two green shadows slyly streaked out from a flower patch on the side, silently charging towards Han Li’s back.

Although his back was facing these green shadows, they were not concealed from Han Li’s spiritual sense, who was already on guard. His expression grew grim. His upper body had not moved at all, but his body had already automatically shifted laterally a few feet, causing these two green streaks to pass by him both in front and behind him.

In the middle of the chaos, Han Li glanced at the green shadows. They were straight, thin, and long, like chopsticks, and their entire bodies were green and had some faint black characters on them. Their appearances were truly somewhat strange.

However, in the chaos, Han Li had no time to look closely at them. Even though he had easily neutralized the opponent’s attack, his expression was still solemn, and he didn’t dare to be careless. The miserable appearance of the three people outside the door was still vivid in his mind; he did not want to end up with a fate similar to theirs.

Thus, the cloudy-faced Han Li’s eyes began sweeping in all directions, flickering without stopping, in order to find the hiding enemies. However, at this time a strange whistle suddenly came out of that person’s mouth; hearing it would make one’s heart extremely uncomfortable!

When Han Li heard it, he briefly froze; just as he was trying to figure out what the opponent’s intentions were, his facial color changed drastically, and he flew backwards at an almost inconceivable rate. This time, Han Li flew at least ten meters away before stopping.

What caused Han Li to move in such a manner had actually been those green streaks that had only narrowly missed him! Because they weren’t very far in front of Han Li, they suddenly began to twist around, at the same time unfolding a pair of pale green, translucent wings.

They were actually two flying snakes with wings; when they had attacked Han Li, their bodies were always stretched tightly, causing Han Li to mistakenly believe that they were inanimate objects. With a gentle flap of their wings, their bodies rapidly turned around 180 degrees as quickly as lightning; in fact, they were not slower than Han Li, who had used the Shifting Smoke Steps. How could this not make Han Li incredibly cautious!?

These two flying snakes reared their heads, and four small green eyes released an ice-cold chilliness. They were baring their fangs at Han Li, about to take another attacking stance against him.

“Boy, you run pretty quickly! But even if you were quicker, could you be quicker than these two Jungle Mountain Flying Snakes? It would be better if you obediently allowed my lovely snakes to bite you once, and you would feel no more pain!” The person with the rough throat was somewhat astonished by Han Li’s movement speed, but he clearly had more faith in his flying snakes, which was why he mockingly said what was spoken above.

“Rubbish!”

Han Li cursed in his heart, but he didn’t actually speak those words out loud! It wasn’t because of fear of the opponent that he didn’t speak; but rather, those two strange snakes had already become two streaks of green, charging forwards in a blur.

Halfway there, they suddenly split into two and wordlessly agreed to slash out in arcs, flanking from both his left and his right.

Seeing this, Han Li naturally could not afford to talk back apart from quietly cursing in his heart for a few moments. His body nevertheless could not be much slower than the green streaks as he shot backwards; in the blink of an eye, he and the green streaks had flown in many circles in this small area, as if he was unwilling to stop his feet for even a moment.

At this point in time, he completely relied on the spiritual boots on his feet to run, but he didn’t use the Shifting Smoke Steps or the Imperial Flight Technique.

It wasn’t that Han Li was being negligent and purposefully looking down on his opponent; rather, after encountering two fierce battles in a row, and adding on the fact that he had just reached his limit when practicing with these boots, his energy had not completely recovered. Thus, if he had not reached a life or death crisis, Han Li was unwilling to use the energy-squandering Shifting Smoke Steps. As for the Imperial Flight Technique, it was the same principle; having already obtained good fortune in getting the spiritual boots, adding on the speed boost of the Imperial Flight Technique would cause the burden on Han Li’s body to be too great and would not aid the recovery of his energy.

Of course, Han Li would also not allow the two flying snakes to chase after him to no end.

Although Han Li did not dare to carelessly wear a barrier and cause himself slow him down, to test whether the barrier or the strange snakes were stronger, he still had many methods to get rid of the two small snakes! It was only that most of his attention had been focused on the hidden person controlling the snakes, who in the end had never come out, thus allowing the two flying snakes to attack him. Seeing that this person had seemingly decided to completely rely on these two flying snakes to kill him, Han Li naturally would not continue to be polite.

Han Li’s decision had been made. He flipped his hand, and a Flame Serpent Talisman appeared in it. Two of his fingers pinched this talisman together, and he was about to excitedly throw it out and start a wild game barbecue!

“Cloud Step Boots?

“Stay your hand, I have something to say!”

The person with the rough throat recognized the spiritual boots on Han Li’s feet, and he immediately yelled out to ask for a pause in the battle, sounding full of incredulity. He stopped the two green streaks with an unknown method of yelling! The two snakes paused in midair and flew backwards along the original route, slipping into the vegetation and disappearing without a trace.

Upon hearing this, Han Li knitted his eyebrows; after slightly hesitating, he decided not to throw out the talisman in his hand, but he kept his hand cautiously resting on top of his storage pouch.