Chapter 738: Beaten at Their Own Game

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...

With a screech, the golden radiance turned the Demon Nascent into a cloud of smoke that soon scattered.

It was said that the Spiritfuse Technique was an incredibly vicious ancient Devil Dao technique. Of course, the Demon Nascent that resulted from it was likewise incredible vulnerable to the Divine Devilbane Lightning, and was quickly destroyed — incapable of using instant movement to escape.

In the distance, the bald man had dropped his jaw and couldn’t muster the force to open his mouth. As for Old Man Ma, his face appeared calm enough, but his eyes were wide open and he couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

Han Li had already anticipated that the two would feel shocked, and he maintained his calm appearance. He summoned the storage pouch on the floor and the blue trident into his hands and then observed them with his spiritual sense before tossing them to the bald man.

Han Li glanced at the two and slowly said, “Although we did kill him, we should give his magic treasure and storage pouch back to the Controlling Spirit Sect in an untouched stage. That way, the Controlling Spirit Sect won’t have anything to say.”

When the bald man heard Han Li speak, he instantly recovered from his shock and immediately agreed, “Brother Han’s words are very reasonable. We’ll do as you suggested!”

Old Man Ma’s mouth moved several times, but no words were able to come out. Rather, he put away his ruler magic treasure with an embarrassed expression.

Han Li’s killing the black-robed man could be attributed to carelessness and luck. But this time, he managed to empty-handedly kill the spiritfused monster that possessed cultivation on par with a mid Nascent Soul cultivator, an opponent that was beyond their capabilities.

Without any prior discussion, they both felt that the Drifting Cloud Sect’s Elder Han could possibly have the abilities to deal with any opponent under late Nascent Soul stage. When this thought came to their mind, the two were unable to keep a calm appearance.

Han Li indifferently said, “Since the matter has been resolved, I will be going back to take a rest. If the spell warriors return, please call for me.”

“Brother Han, go ahead. We will naturally oversee this area.” The bald man’s words unconsciously carried a tone of respect.

Han Li smiled and waved his arm before leaving the hall.

The previous display of Celestial Ice Flames and Divine Devilbane Lightning was a forced measure. If he hadn’t taken the initiative to attack, the serpentine monster would’ve escaped and caused no end of problems for the future; the bald man and the Old Man Ma would’ve found it difficult to bar the monster’s way. Moreover, he didn’t feel the need to conceal his true abilities once he condensed a Nascent Soul.

His current circumstances were much different than when he was in the Scattered Star Seas. He had to keep himself hidden at the time because his cultivation was meager and he was in an unfamiliar area — if the wrong people noticed him, he would be hunted down. But now that he condensed a Nascent Soul, he now walked in the upper echelon of the cultivation world, and since there were only a sparse few that would pose much threat to him, he didn’t feel much apprehension about revealing himself.

Moreover, given the current invasion of the Moulan, it would be impossible to continue hiding his abilities. At the very least, the Ghost Spirit Sect and Marquis Nanlong’s party should know of his true abilities from what he had displayed at their treasure hunt in the Moulan Plains.

As such, he may as well reveal his true strength so he could intimidate any small fry that plotted against him. Otherwise, if any fellow cultivators believed him to be weak, it would provoke some needless problems.

Of course, Han Li wouldn’t easily reveal all of his killing moves.

As Han Li pondered this, he also recalled the strange feeling from the Purple Apex Flames when he enveloped the Demon Nascent. Just a moment ago, he had used the Purple Apex Flames together with the Celestial Ice Flames in order to freeze the monster in an instant.

Then when he recalled the Purple Apex Flames, he felt it become somewhat unstable. It seemed using the full might of these flames required a certain level of higher cultivation, as he had expected. With a feeling of self-mockery, Han Li slowly walked towards his residence.

When Old Man Ma saw Han Li leave, he wryly smiled and said, “Brother Lu, it seems we’ve made a misjudgement. Fellow Daoist Han’s abilities are miraculously profound. His strength is far beyond ours.” 

A trace of admiration appeared on the bald man’s face. “That’s right. Although his cultivation is at early Nascent Soul stage, with that golden lightning and blue flames, he could beat back even mid Nascent Soul stage cultivators.”

Old Man Ma smiled and said, “However, this matter turned out for the better for us. With such a powerful ally, we will have nothing to fear from the invading spell warriors.

“That makes sense.” The bald man nodded, but soon he frowned and said, “However, while I haven’t heard of this blue flame before, I’ve faintly heard of golden lightning before, but I can’t recall what it is. Does Brother Ma have an idea?”

The old man pondered for a moment and felt a faint chill. “None. This was also the first time I’ve ever seen golden lightning. This technique is so incisive, even a nearly incorporeal Nascent Soul was unable to escape it.”

“Let’s leave it be. Regardless of what great abilities Fellow Daoist Han cultivate, it is a fortunate matter for us.” The bald man frowned as if unwilling to speak further of the matter and said, “We still must talk about the matters for tomorrow.”

Old Man Ma was stunned and bafflingly asked, “What do you mean by tomorrow’s matters?”

A cold glint appeared in the bald man’s eyes and he sinisterly said, “Since the Moulan set off a spy to break the formation, why don’t we beat them at their own game?”

Something immediately came to Old Man Ma’s mind, “Brother Lu, you mean...”

“It’s quite simple. We...” 

Old Man Ma and the old man suddenly spoke in a whisper, their voices faintly echoing throughout the hall.

A short moment later, the bald man wildly laughed as if rejoicing at the brilliance of his own plan.

On noon of the second day just as the burning sun rose to the center of the sky, the beats of rumbling war drums traveled through the air. The spell warrior army gradually made their way from across the horizon, this time bringing along a huge monster at the center of their ranks.

From a single glance it seemed to be a huge rhino that was enlarged by several tens of times. At the top of its nose was a lustrous blue horn that was over three meters long. The beast’s extremely huge body was covered in a layer of glowing black battle armor that had talisman characters floating above it. It appeared extremely precious.

Not to mention its huge size, its four feet seemed to be treading entirely on blue clouds in an extremely nimble display. It didn’t appear clumsy in the slightest.

In addition, there was a woman sitting on the beast, a beauty in her prime — her feet bare and her appearance delicate — but there was an hostile aura faintly emitted from her eyes as her cold gaze wandered around. She wore simple and short dark green robes.

Ku Yao and the shriveled spell warrior were closely following at the side of the huge beast as if paying respect to the woman.

“Yi!” Before they grew close to the Yellow Dragon Mountains, the green-clothed woman yelped in astonishment.

Ku Yao couldn’t help but ask, “What? Has Master Le discovered something?”

An odd expression appeared on her expression and she slowly said, “Yes, there is something strange.” 

“Could there be a change in plans? Has that person failed?” The shriveled spell warrior grew still and worry appeared on his face.

“No necessarily. You two should go and take a look.” The woman indifferently said. Soon after, she closed her eyes and remained silent.

The shriveled spell warrior and Ku Yao looked at other and bafflingly spread their spiritual sense forward. Soon, the two wore astonished expressions.

With great amazement, Ku Yao bafflingly said, “What’s going on? The mist has already scattered. Didn’t we discuss that the restriction was supposed to break halfway through the attack so that we can exterminate all the cultivators? What happened for the restriction to suddenly disappear?

The shriveled spell warrior hesitantly said, “I don’t know. First, let’s advance and take a proper look before we decide what to do.”

With that discussed, the woman on the huge beast remained silent. As a result, the spell warrior army continued forward. However, the warnings of the shriveled spell warrior made sure that their army was especially vigilant.

Nothing out of the ordinary occurred when the spell warrior army finished making their way over the short distance to where they were yesterday. 

The endless sea of dark green mist no longer existed, only to reveal the mountains and their various jade platforms on each mountaintop.

However, the fine and exquisite structures were now ruined and scorched black, with a few of them releasing smoke. With the addition of the silence looming over the mountain range and the lack of any other people, it made for a miserable sight.

The spell warrior army split into two as the green-robed woman slowly moved her beast forward. They glanced at the beautiful figure on the huge beast with respect and kept silence rather than show their ordinary display of restlessness. Ku Yao and the shriveled spell warrior followed after her.

The woman glanced at the scene before her with bright wandering eyes. After a moment of silence, she brushed her hair back and a cold smile appeared on her face.

The shriveled spell warrior bewilderedly said, “It’s no good. Although the mist has stopped, there are still restrictions present that are blocking my spiritual sense from looking any further.

Ku Yao puzzlingly said, “That’s right. What we’re seeing currently is possibly only an illusion. If that person has truly succeeded, he should’ve joined us by now.”

With a cold voice, the woman said, “Then you mean to say that we will simply stand here and do nothing?”

“Of course not,” the shriveled spell warrior explained, “We will only need to be more careful. It is possible that person had only succeeded in part and had escaped after being detached. As a result, the other cultivators must’ve abandoned this place and made a retreat.”

Previous Chapter Next Chapter