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 424: Demon Serpent

While everyone cried out in alarm upon seeing the shadow piercing toward him, Han Li raised his hand and tossed out his Green Brilliance Dagger he had prepared and struck the shadow.

The black shadow was pushed back to the pondside and hissed with an icy gaze.

Shockingly, the shadow turned out to be a meter long, jet-black serpent with a flesh horn.

A scarlet tongue hissed from its mouth, and it had a tri-colored flower bud on the top half of its flesh horn. It appeared rather ridiculous, as if a small flower were growing out of its head.

As for the rainbow radiance, it was a seven colored demon Qi that was formed from wisps coming out of the serpent’s mouth.

It appeared exactly the same as a true rainbow so it was no surprise that it had deceived all of them.

After seeing the black shadow’s true appearance, Hu Yue blankly stared at it, saying,“Crested Demon Serpent? It transformed the crest of its head into a Sevenglow Lotus!”

After clearly seeing this serpent’s true appearance, Shi Die's eyes coldly glinted, and she wordlessly raised her hand, releasing a purple folded scarf. This item released several explosive sounds as it shot towards the demon serpent.

“Careful! This serpent is extremely venomous. You aren’t its match!” Jin Qing abruptly said this before releasing his large, white block stamp to join the scarf as a streak of white streak of light.

The demon serpent watched the two items attack it with an ice-cold gaze, and then opened it’s mouth and spouted out a bright rainbow pearl. The pearl released a gorgeous radiance that blocked the large stamp and purple scarf, forcing them to a complete stop.

At that moment, Hu Yue finally woke from his disappointment at the loss of the treasure. After a moment of hesitation, he threw out two flying knives and entered the battle.

Suddenly, three streaks of white light and a streak of purple brilliance were intertwined with the rainbow light.

The serpent was completely fearless! After a few strange croaks, it spouted out several colorful clouds. The clouds made the magic treasures dim until they were nearly dark immediately after they made contact.

“How can this fiend be so powerful? Could it be a mutated demon?” Jin Qing was aghast at the sight.

But as soon as he finished talking, a red radiance was fiercely shot out, piercing through the colorful cloud in an instant and striking the demon serpent’s flesh horn.

A thumb-sized bloody hole was left behind by the strike.

The demon released a strange shout and painfully slammed into the limestone floor. Soon after, its body coiled, and it shot towards the pond in a blur.

But at that moment, a group of emerald flying swords flew down from above, nailing the serpent’s head to the limestone floor faster than lightning. The serpent then flusteredly thrashed around but wasn’t able to move away in the slightest.

This was the result of the sudden actions by Han Li and Crooked Soul.

In addition to Crooked Soul’s use of a Blood Spirit Drill, Han Li used the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords to hold it down. He had made sure to restrain his swords’ divine devilbane lightning to prevent the others from realizing that his swords had been refined from Heaven Lightning Bamboo.

Jin Qing and the others felt relief when they saw Han Li had successfully restrained the demon serpent.

After some slight discussion, Shi Die and the others decided to put away their magic treasures once they were released by the rainbow demon pearl’s pressure.

Afterwards, the party gathered around the demon serpent.

“This really is a Crested Demon Serpent, but it appears that someone grafted a Sevenglow Lotus’ likeness on it. It absolutely doesn’t have the capability to do such a thing innately.” Hu Yue revealed a puzzled expression as he watched the demon serpent struggling to free itself from the small swords.

“Obviously, this Sevenglow Lotus was some kind of ingenious trap. It is entirely possible that dead fellow over there had fallen for it; even we fell for it.” Jin Qing agreed with a bitter smile.

Han Li silently stood at the side as he examined the demon serpent before turning his gaze back to the right hand of the skeleton.

He couldn’t help but imagine someone excitedly attempting to pick the Sevenglow Lotus, as the demon serpent then flew out of the water and bit off his finger. Soon after, he was torn apart by the poison.

Han Li felt his heart coldly tremble as turned to look at the small arrow in the skeleton’s head. It had clearly been placed by someone who came later; whoever set this trap was truly quite the schemer.

Slice. The Crested Demon Serpent’s head was separated from its body with a cold flash of light. Shi Die coldly glanced at it from the side with a dagger in her hand.

Han Li slightly frowned.

Han Li knew that she detested this serpent because it had ruined her face, it was said that a woman’s appearance was just as precious as her own life. Even if the Crested Demon Serpent wasn’t the main culprit behind her ruined face, it was definitely one of the main causes.

Han Li lightly shook his head and raised his hand, returning his small swords back into his body.

Afterwards, his gaze fell back down to the arrow in the skeleton.

This arrow appeared to be the same emerald-green as Han Li’s own Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords at first glance, but further inspection proved otherwise.

Han Li’s flying swords were bright and shining while the arrow faintly carried a dark Qi, as if it had been tainted or refined with evil arts.

“Fellow Daoist Han, will we go and explore any other areas? Perhaps we will discover something.” Having seen Han Li continue to study the skeleton, Hu Yue couldn’t help but ask this. It seemed he truly didn’t want to go back empty handed!

“Please don’t hesitate to continue exploring, Crooked Soul and I will remain in the main hall.” Han Li said with a calm expression.

Hu Yue revealed slight surprise. After looking at the bones along with the emerald-green arrow, he revealed slight hesitation and ultimately didn’t move.

When Jin Qing and Shi Die saw this, they also silently stayed in the main hall.

After all, who knows what other dangers lay in wait in the cave residence, given the initial encounter? It was obviously safer to stay together.

Furthermore, they were able to guess that the arrow was unordinary. Why else would the mysterious Han Li continue to unceasingly examine it?

“Fellow Daoist Han, would you say that rather than being an ancient cultivator ruin, this place was actually an elaborate trap?” Jin Qing suddenly asked in a low voice.

“Impossible, this place is definitely an ancient cultivator ruin. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be too much of a coincidence that you found this place from the pearls? However, this place had already been discovered by someone else, and they had long placed down traps inside.” Han Li shook his head.

“If what you say is true, then are there no treasures left here?” Shi Die spoke with an icy voice.

Han Li revealed an expression of slight regret, but remained silent in tacit approval.

Jin Qing and Hu Yue then looked at each other with changed expressions.

Hu Yue’s face was more notable between the two. Not only did this trip end with no benefits, but of the two that he had invited, one had met an untimely end while the other had their face ruined. This treasure hunt ended up being a complete disaster!

During their moment of absolute silence, the pond released a faint groan.

The cultivators hurriedly turned their gaze towards the pond in alarm.

Cultivator Jian’s body, who should’ve already been dead for quite some time, slowly climbed out of the pond and let out an occasional groan from his skeleton mouth.

At that moment, the cultivators were dumbstruck and were looking at each other in dismay.

Since they were cultivators, it wasn’t particularly frightening for a malicious spirit or other evil entity to appear. They could just make short work of them. However, this was the body of a companion that had entered the cave with them not long ago. Could it be that he had a secret technique that allowed his primal soul to persist after his body was destroyed?

As it was unclear whether the corpse was currently possessed by its owner or a ghost, Hu Yue and the others were hesitant to act.

The corpse of cultivator Jian still continued to slowly climb out of the pond and approach them.

Hu Yue saw that something was amiss and hastily yelled, “Regardless of whether you are man or ghost, don’t come any closer or else our hands will be forced!” He flung out his sleeves, throwing his flying daggers out to revolve around its body.

Jin Qing and Shi Die were also vigilant and rigidly stared at the corpse.

Just as Hu Yue finished speaking, cultivator Jian’s body stopped and remained motionless. Hu Yue and the others involuntarily let out a sigh of relief in response.

But as Han Li detachedly watched on, he felt that something was very wrong and instinctively took out an item with a flip of his hand.

In the very next moment, a sudden and abrupt change occurred.

Cultivator Jian’s body suddenly kicked off the ground and fiercely pounced towards the group.

Hu Yue and Jin Qing’s expressions paled, and they instantly released their magic treasures. The two streaks of white radiance and the streak of white light struck cultivator Jian and cleanly destroyed the skeleton with a single blow.

But suddenly, Hu Yue felt a light wind gently blowing past him. With a chill running down his back, he turned his head to see a skeleton hand emerging from his abdomen, tightly grasping a bean-sized, sparkling blue core in its fingers.

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