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...

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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...

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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...

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Chapter 330: Fiend Core

When Han Li saw that the “Five Element Blood Cores” were among the Emperor’s items, he was jubilant.

He immediately took them from the puppet beast’s mouth and closely examined them.

From the great spiritual power contained in the cores, Han Li  verified that their medicinal properties were genuine. Relieved, Han Li took out an exquisite jade box from his storage pouch and carefully placed the five Blood Cores inside.   

Han Li didn’t know the specific effects of the “Five Elements Blood Cores” mentioned by the young prince Xin. But from how urgently the Emperor of Yue had collected these items, their usefulness toward Core Formation should most likely be true.

Han Li then shifted his attention to the other items: a pitch-black alms bowl, an awl with an inch-long, blood-red spike, and a jade slip emitting a light-grey Qi.

Upon seeing these items, Han Li felt somewhat fearful of them.

These kinds of magic tools were commonly used by devilish and evil cultivators. It was likely that such items would have restrictions or curses placed on them, so he wasn’t in any hurry to fiddle with them. Instead, he took in a deep breath and covered his hands in a layer of faint azure light.

With this protection, Han Li was able to pick up the jade slip with his heart at ease, and carefully examine it.

Apart from releasing a strange aura, the jade slip didn’t have any sort of obvious restrictions. Han Li let out a sigh of relief and slowly submerged his spiritual sense into the slip.

As his spiritual sense entered the jade slip, Han Li stood motionless. However, his expression underwent strange changes. First, he appeared pleasantly surprised, then dismayed and finally, extremely cautious with a slight trace of fear.

After the time it took to make a cup of tea, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense and found himself in a daze.

The jade slip’s contents went far beyond Han Li’s expectations.

It contained information on all of the Black Fiend School’s cultivation arts such as the young prince’s “Black Fiend Asura Art”, the four Blood Servant’s “Fiend Demon Art”, the Emperor of Yue’s “Divine Blood Light” and so on.

Han Li was shocked to discover that all of these cultivation arts mentioned a book called the “Profound Yin Scriptures”; it seemed to be the origin of all these arts. This greatly piqued Han Li’s curiosity.

But as Han Li hurriedly scoured the jade slip, he was unable to find anything related to the whereabouts of the scripture.

With no other choice, Han Li could only bury his desire to find the scripture in his heart and focus his attention to some of the strange secret techniques.

A few of these greatly pleased Han Li. Not only did they resolve some of his long held doubts, but they also mentioned the true use of the “Five Elements Blood Cores”.

Han Li calmed himself and carefully examined the passage.

It turned out that the “Five Elements Blood Cores” were formed within the bodies of cultivators who practiced the “Fiend Demon Art”, much like how a demonic beast condense a core within their body. It was the most important aspect of the “Fiend Demon Art”.

The reason as to why they were able to turn into fiend demons and didn’t need to use Foundation Establishment Pills to enter Foundation Establishment was because of the formation of this core.

Although this “Fiend Demon Art” didn’t require the use of blood sacrifices, it still greatly increased the speed of cultivation. However, Foundation Establishment was the highest layer this cultivation art could achieve; there would be no hope of reaching Core Formation.

In fact, the rest of these cultivation techniques were more or less the same and held the fatal flaw of being incapable of reaching Core Formation.

Of course, their speed of cultivation left others astonished through the additional assistance of blood sacrifices.

It seems these “Five Elements Blood Cores” were supposed to be a solution to the defects of these kinds of cultivation arts.

The jade slip also mentioned a secret technique called the “Fiend Core Technique”.

According to what was stated by the secret technique, even if one were a late Foundation Establishment cultivator with poor aptitude, so long as they consumed the “Five Elements Blood Cores” in accordance with the technique, there was a one-third chance of forming a “Fiend Core”. This “False Gold Core” would be similar to a genuine Core Formation cultivator’s gold core.

With the successful formation of a Fiend Core, while one’s strength would be inferior to a genuine Core Formation cultivator, the difference wouldn’t be that great. In addition, it would have the wondrous effect of extending one’s lifespan similar to genuine Core Formation.

When Han Li read this, his heart nearly jumped out of his chest. A one-third chance of forming a core? The “Five Elements Blood Core” was truly heaven-defying!

He immediately felt an urge to set everything else aside and consume the Five Elements Blood Cores!

However, a flaw later mentioned in the description of the secret technique had left Han Li astonished.

Since the “Fiend Core” was an artificial Golden Core, there was no possibility of further improvement. This implied that for the rest of one’s lifetime, there would be no way to further one’s cultivation and progress past early Core Formation Stage.

If it were only this, Han Li still wouldn’t allow such an opportunity to pass him by.

This was because the method the “Three Essence Revolutions Technique” used to form a core was truly unpredictable and unreliable. Even if he were able to scatter his cultivation three times, Han Li wasn’t confident it would work.

After all, this cultivation method was something created from the mere conjectures of the founder of the “Azure Essence Sword Art”! No one had ever successfully cultivated it before.

On the other hand, from the tone of this text, the “Fiend Core Technique” was certain to have previously been used.

A one-third possibility of Core Formation was extremely enticing to Han Li!

As for the inability to reach Nascent Soul Stage after forming a Fiend core, this matter was too far removed from Han Li’s current situation for him to consider.

“Nascent Soul Stage” was still something Han Li could only dream about.

At the moment, being able to achieve Core Formation was his highest objective. As for whether or not he could extravagantly hope to condense a Nascent Soul, he would only think about it after he reached Core Formation.

But the following details of the “Fiend Core Technique” left Han Li dumbstruck.

It said that after the “Fiend Core” was formed in one’s body, Fiend Demon Qi would be continuously released for a long period, and it would be capable of gradually eroding a cultivator’s mind.

Although the erosion wouldn’t leave one completely without mind or memories, decreased mental acuity along with gradually reduced intellect were unavoidable.

This caused Han Li’s heart to tremble without end.

What Han Li was most confident of was his mind and quick-wittedness. These were the main reasons that he had been able to remain so free and unfettered in the cultivation world until now.

Thus, when he read that passage, Han Li had only a moment of internal struggle before completely severing any intentions of using the “Five Elements Blood Cores”.

After reading about the drawback, Han Li was extremely vexed. He had done so much to acquire the “Five Elements Blood Cores”, but it proved to be of absolutely no use to him.

After a moment of further consideration, Han Li felt that something was amiss.

If the drawback was so severe, then why would the Emperor of Yue specially cultivate these cores? That cunning old fox certainly wasn’t going to directly consume it.

With that thought, Han Li looked through the secret techniques once more and his attention was caught by a very interesting secret technique — “External Reincarnation”.

This was a renowned top grade secret technique of the Devilish Dao; Han Li had heard about it long ago.

Although there were many techniques called “Reincarnation” techniques, the specific cultivation method and effectiveness of these techniques were exceedingly strange and varied. Regardless of the “reincarnation” technique, to a Devil Dao cultivator, they were all as precious as their own lives. They were all fundamentally the greatest secrets of each sect.

The Seven Sects of Yue had previously attempted to collect all the cultivation arts related to reincarnation but ultimately ended up empty-handed!    

Han Li quickly read through this technique several times and grew rapt with joy. He had found a use for these “Five Elements Blood Cores” after all.

If he had guessed correctly, the Emperor of Yue must have had the same plan in mind. Thus, he had painstakingly cultivated those blood servants in order to condense those “Five Elements Blood Cores”.

As for the blue-robed man, the self-proclaimed Black Fiend School Master who had died from the Heavenly Lightning Seed, that was an incarnation he had refined.

Only that would explain why the blue-robed man was completely willing to allow his cultivation to be absorbed without the slightest resistance.

The distracting thoughts that Han Li had pushed to the back of his mind resurfaced as he read through the secret technique.

As for secret techniques such as the “Cultivation Essence Pill” and methods of blood sacrifice, since Han Li didn’t cultivate Devilish Arts, he had little interest in them.

Only the condensation method of the “Blood Spirit Drill” caught Han Li’s eye as he read on. He read through it several times and memorized it.

After Han Li withdrew his consciousness from the jade slip, he properly digested the information before moving on to the next two items.

The blood-red awl was the solidified form of the Blood Spirit Drill after leaving the body. It should be quite a useful magic tool.

As for the pitch-black alms bowl, it must have been the rarely seen magic tool, the “Soul Congregation Bowl”. It was specialized in holding the souls of cultivators. Any soul that entered this magic tool would gradually lose its intelligence and become a feral, common soul suitable for refinement or control.

After only briefly examining this “Soul Congregation Bowl”, the dark, cold Qi that the bowl contained caused Han Li to shiver and he hastily deposited it into his storage pouch.The magic tool’s dark, cold Qi gave an impression that countless cultivators’ souls must have been ruined within. The more he made contact with this bowl, the more ill he felt! Han Li clearly understood that without cultivating these kinds of dark arts, he would have no use for this magic tool.

The more he made contact with this bowl, the more ill he felt!

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