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 344: Exterminating a Demon in a Formation 

Han Li didn’t carefully study the fragments; instead, he carefully swept his surroundings once more. After he was convinced that he hadn’t overlooked anything, he started to think about how he should deal with the huge mantis.

He didn’t want to let this demonic beast slip by. After all, its forelimbs were rare, high-quality crafting materials, not to mention the other parts of its body.

As for subduing the monster alive, Han Li abandoned the thought after some consideration.

He clearly understood that he did not have the experience required to attempt it. Cultivators that control demonic beasts have learned to restrain magic beasts since their childhood and have become extremely familiar with the process. Wanting to vainly keep such a powerful spiritual beast was just wishful thinking.

As for the Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator, he had probably lost control of the mantis when he lost his body and changed appearances. Else, his spirit beast would’ve  remained in his control. The spirit beast would’ve loyally served him for a lifetime and never leave him. It was bound to be more loyal than a human.

As for whether Han Li should inform the Seven Sects and their allies of this information, he decided to wait for a few days and listen for any news since he had no way of knowing whether the Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator’s information was genuine or not. After all, he could travel at great speed. Even if he was a few days late, he would be able to arrive at the Seven Sects’ Camp before the deadline.

As a result, Han Li spent a day in the dense forest near the mountain cave, secretly setting up the “Five Elements Reversal Great Formation”.

Han Li didn’t lay out a portion of the great formation in a hurry, like he did at the Imperial Palace. He had set up the formation in its entirety; its power was naturally far greater than before.

At this moment, he saw the huge mantis leave to hunt for food. It had actually brought back a huge black tiger, leaving Han Li astonished.

This was the first time he had seen this kind of black tiger; it was definitely no common beast. However, it was quite unfortunate that this beast had met its end, merely becoming a wholesome meal for the mantis.

Having finished his preparations, Han Li quietly snuck into the mountain cave.

But just a short moment later, he was already rushing out of the cave on his Divine Wind Boat, flying straight toward his formation. A shadow closely pursued him; it was the huge mantis that Han Li had startled.

Because he had placed the formation nearby, Han Li entered the formation’s territory soon after he left the cave. Although the mantis was somewhat intelligent, it couldn’t possibly comprehend the formation spell and was easily trapped within the formation spell.

In the following two days, Han Li allowed the huge mantis to frantically run around within the Five Elements Reversal Formation, fully displaying the effects of the illusionary entrapment and the boundaries of area confinement.

After the two days had passed, the demonic beast was exhausted and no longer moved within the formation. At that moment, Han Li took out many puppets and started to unceasingly harass it from outside the formation, prohibiting it from resting.

Although the mantis’ attacks were exceedingly fearsome, its defense was just ordinary. Because it couldn’t approach the puppets attacking it, it was forced to use its scythe-like forelimbs to protect itself.

This continued for half a day until the demon mantis was no longer able to endure, allowing the puppets to strike at its body. Although its injures weren’t heavy, its strength had been mostly exhausted. At this moment, Han Li took turns changing the puppets’ spirit stones.

Seeing that it was almost time to finish up, Han Li summoned a treasure talisman, a small yellow knife. Under the cover of the puppets’ attacks, it stabbed through the mantis’ head, killing it within the formation.

Victorious, Han Li walked toward the demon beast’s corpse with barely concealed excitement. He then took out his huge silver sword and cut off its incisive forelimbs.

Then with great expectations, he slowly opened the mantis’ abdomen. He hoped that this demon beast was truly a grade five demon beast. As such, he would be able to acquire an exceptionally rare demon core.

Han Li’s face suddenly revealed pleasant surprise, but his expression turned strange immediately after. He was shocked by the items he had taken out of the corpse, several identical shining white ovals with visible veins.

“Monster beast eggs?” Han Li spoke to himself with astonishment. He was a bit confused; he had been expecting a demon beast’s core.

After Han Li recovered from his astonishment, he removed another seven eggs from the mantis’ abdomen for a total of over ten eggs.

These eggs were the same size as a chicken’s egg. Han Li couldn’t help but laugh; this was truly a pleasant surprise.

He immediately thought of something and suddenly wrinkled his brows.  His brows remain furrowed as he placed his finger on a white egg and closed his eyes.

Shortly after, Han Li’s face became unsightly. These eggs didn’t contain the slightest aura of life and were clearly lifeless. This was quite common with regards to demon beasts. After all, how could an extraordinary demon beast leave behind offspring so easily?

With a gloomy expression, he tested the rest of the eggs. As expected, all the eggs were lifeless, causing him to feel depressed.

With an angry heart, Han Li thought of turning the eggs to ash, but after a moment of hesitation, he decided to keep them in a jade container.

“This mantis wasn’t a common demon beast. Even if its eggs were dead, they could prove to be useful!” Han Li said with unwillingness.

After he picked off the mantis’ gray wings, Han Li turned its corpse into ash and flew off toward the cave. Although his hopes weren’t high, Han Li still wanted to see if there was anything worth taking.

Han Li’s search resulted in a surprise.

Inside the cave, Han Li actually found a shriveled, gray-robed corpse. The corpse had an intact storage pouch at its waist.

As Han Li grasped the storage pouch, his heart was pounding heavily.

There was no question. This corpse was certain to be the remains of that Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator. When he ejected his soul from his body, he had actually left his storage pouch behind, leaving behind a pleasant surprise for Han Li!

Naturally, Han Li couldn’t have known that the Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator had immediately perished because his injuries were too severe. He was only able to bind his Green Brilliance Dagger and condense a small amount of his Golden Core’s spiritual Qi into that green ball, flusteredly taking two items with him before his soul left his body. After all, if he was too late, then his soul would perish along with his body.

The storage pouch in his hands had belonged to a Core Formation cultivator. After suppressing the giddy excitement in his heart, he submerged his spiritual sense into the storage pouch and carefully examined what was inside.

However, after searching through the storage pouch, Han Li no longer felt any of his previously held excitement.

The huge storage pouch was actually filled with jars and pots. A majority of them were demon beast feed for insects. This was naturally of no use to Han Li. The rest was just a bit better, containing all sorts of named insect specimens.

After a bit of investigation, Han Li found that most of the insects were still alive, much to his surprise. They had actually survived after several years without care. Their vitality was truly tenacious!

As for the high grade talismans, magic tools and treasure talismans that Han Li direly needed, not a single one of them could be found, leaving Han Li speechless.

Fortunately, Han Li had eventually reached the bottom layer of the storage pouch and found a green jade slip that greatly roused Han Li’s interest.

The slip contained that Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator’s experiences on breeding insects. Not only did it introduce over a thousand unknown insects to Han Li, but it also mentioned the secret techniques that were used to breed and control them. But what caught Han Li’s interest the most was his ranking of which insects were the most ferocious.

The huge mantis was obviously on the list. Although it was gray, he had called it the “Golden-back Demon Mantis”. This caused Han Li to be utterly confused for a moment.

This huge mantis was only ranked seventy-three in his list of strange insects. There were still over seventy-two even more fearsome insects on that list. Han Li, who had personally witnessed the strength of the “Golden-back Demon Mantis”, was stunned.

Han Li eagerly looked through the list for most of the day before finally withdrawing his spiritual sense from the jade slip. After a moment of contemplation, he started to match the insects in his possession with the description of the fantastical insects he had read about.

The results left Han Li beyond dissatisfied!

Without considering any other uses the insects may have, their rankings were far too low! Only two of them were ranked above a hundred and the vast majority of them were ranked among two and three hundred!

Had that Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator heard Han Li’s complaints, he definitely would’ve cursed him out! How could these strange insects be so easily acquired? Not to mention the top hundred rankings, even insects ranked in the top three to four hundred were rare breeds that were acquired over several hundred years of effort and violent struggle.

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