A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Enemy’s Plan

Han Li quietly meditated in the room. After an unknown amount of time, the spiritual power that he had expended during the journey gradually recovered and he returned to its peak state.

When he opened his eyes and examined his body, a faint smile appeared on his face.

Ever since he cultivated the Azure Essence Sword Arts to the tenth layer, he clearly felt that his spiritual power recovery had greatly increased. This could be considered a pleasant surprise.

With that thought in mind, Han Li muttered to himself for a moment before taking out a shiny black wooden box from his pocket. There were a few azure restriction talismans pasted on the lid of the box.

He swept a hand over the lid of the box and several talismans fell off, flying into his sleeve as streaks of azure light.

Han Li used a finger to knock on the box, and the lid opened on its own, revealing what was inside.

A palm-sized talisman covered in runes was silently sitting in the box, and there was a small blood-red flood dragon swimming back and forth on the surface of the talisman.

Han Li stretched out his hand and gently waved at the talisman. Immediately, the talisman flew out, circled around, and gently landed in his hand.

He spent several days and failed three times in a row before finally successfully refining the talisman. Although he didn’t know how powerful it was, he was certain that this “Spirit Subjugation Talisman” was much weaker than what was described in the refinement method.

After all, three failures during talisman refinement had caused the grade eight flood dragon to lose most of its soul power. Its true effectiveness could only be tested in actual combat.

Han Li stroked the various runes on the surface of the talisman with his finger and fell into deep thought. His expression changed erratically.

While Han Li was sitting cross-legged in his room and deep in thought, at the spell warrior encampment that was tens of kilometers away from the Heavenly South Camp, there were a few mysterious figures gathered around a stone table in a stone chamber that was 200 to 300 feet underground, discussing something.

There were five men and two women. Among them, a man and a woman were wearing black robes, making it impossible to see their faces.

Among the other people, there were two people that Han Li knew. One of them was the woman surnamed Le who had used the ancient lantern during the battle of Yellow Dragon Mountain and caused him to suffer quite a bit. The other was the middle-aged scholar who had pursued him for several days and nights, causing him to suffer greatly. He was Divine Sage Zhong.

The other three men were the shriveled old man, a short man who was less than four feet tall, and a burly man in embroidered clothes.

The shriveled old man had wrinkles all over his face, but his eyes were clear and translucent. He sat at the corner of the stone table and indifferently asked, “Sage Le, how is the preparation of the spirit oil? You must know that the amount of time the holy lantern is lit determines how long the holy bird will appear in this world. There must be no mishaps.”

The green-robed woman surnamed Le solemnly said, “Divine Sage Zhu, please be at ease. This battle concerns the life and death of our race. I’ve already brought out the lantern oil that our race has stored for over 1,000 years. It should be enough to support the holy bird in this battle.”

“Brother Zhong, the Spirit Technique Formation you organized shouldn’t be a problem, right? We spell warriors are inferior to the Heavenly South cultivators in terms of the quantity and quality of magic treasures. We can only rely on the Spirit Technique Formation to suppress their attacks.” The old man turned to the middle-aged scholar.

The scholarly man calmly said, “There is no problem. My several hundred years of research into spirit techniques and formations wasn’t for nothing. I’ve already given them several newly refined formations. If the Heavenly South cultivators were to think that they have the power of the original spirit techniques and formations, they would be greatly shocked.”

“That’s good! Brother Bi, when the chaotic battle begins, have all the high-grade spell warriors summon their Void Spirit Beasts to attack first so that they can distract the other party’s attack and exhaust the cultivator’s magic power as much as possible. Sect Leader Fang, I still need the cooperation of your huge beasts,” the shriveled old man instructed the short man before speaking to the black-robed man in a polite manner.

“Before the battle begins, I will hand over those huge beasts to you. However, you won’t go back on what you promised us, right?” After the black-robed man agreed, he added with a deep meaning.

The shriveled old man’s eyes flickered and he coldly said, “Go back on our word? Brother Fang must be joking. After the battle with the cultivators, would our Moulan Tribe do something so foolish as to offend your sect? After all, your Yin Sifting Sect is one of the ten great sects of the Great Jin. Once our Moulan Tribe seizes the Heavenly South Region, we will do our utmost to cultivate and recuperate. It is not a big deal to hand over a few mortal countries to your sect. In any case, these mortals are from the Yan Race. We will not care about their life or death.”

The black-robed man nodded and emotionlessly said, “That’s good. If it weren’t for the fact that several of our Yin Sifting Sect’s sect-guarding treasures, including the Ghost Sifting Banner, had been destroyed by those Righteous Dao cultivators, we definitely wouldn’t have participated in the battle between spell warriors and Heavenly South cultivators. If we were to gather a large number of souls in the Great Jin, those Righteous Dao cultivators would’ve definitely come forward to pester us. Although we aren’t afraid of them, the restoration of our treasures cannot be delayed.”

“In addition, the souls of all the cultivators who died in this battle also belong to our sect. Divine Sage Zhu has no objections to this, right?” The black-robed woman also spoke. However, her voice was thick and hoarse, and it didn’t match her slender figure. Those who heard it for the first time would definitely be shocked.

The shriveled old man’s expression changed slightly upon hearing this, and he said, “We naturally won’t care about cultivators, but can you identify the souls of spell warriors and leave them alone? You’ve already put us in a very passive position by recklessly collecting the souls of those who died in battle. We can compensate you in other ways.”

“That won’t do. There’s no difference between the souls of cultivators and those of spell warriors to begin with. There’s no way to differentiate them. Besides, even if there’s a way to identify them, there will definitely be tens of thousands of spell warriors who will die in tomorrow’s battle. How are we supposed to identify them one by one? Are the three Divine Sages planning to break their promise on this matter?” The black-robed man narrowed his eyes, and his pupils instantly turned jade-green. His entire body emitted a sinister cold aura.

The scholarly man surnamed Zhong and the short man surnamed Bi were inwardly annoyed upon seeing this. Although they didn’t do anything, silver light faintly shined from their bodies and red light flashed from their faces as they stared at the black-robed man in silence.

The embroidered-robed man and the woman surnamed Le also coldly stared at the black-robed man with displeasure.

It had to be known that collecting the souls of spell warriors who had died in battle had already made these people very dissatisfied. If it weren’t for the fact that they really needed these Jin Nation devil cultivators, they might have already turned hostile.

“Cough! Stop! What are you doing? Sect Master Fang is a guest that I personally invited. Could it be that you won’t even give me any face?” The old man lightly coughed and his expression sank.

The black-robed woman on the other side also sent a voice transmission to the black-robed man.

When the black-robed man heard this, the green light in his eyes gradually receded and the glacial air around his body strangely disappeared.

When the others saw this, they let out a sigh of relief and dispersed their spiritual power.

They all knew very well that even though they did not find the other party very pleasing to the eye, they were currently taking what they needed. This was not the time for internal strife.

After a moment of hesitation, the shriveled old man gritted his teeth and said, “How about this? You can capture the souls, but you must do it stealthily after the battle. You can’t let anyone else see it. Otherwise, we won’t be able to suppress them.”

The black-robed man’s eyes flickered and he nodded in agreement, “Alright, I will agree to this condition.”

Although the scholarly man and the others were still somewhat dissatisfied, they could only accept this.

The embroidered-robed man suddenly said, “Are your sect’s preparations for the battles truly feasible? Don’t overreach yourself. You should know that there are devil cultivators in the Heavenly South. Don’t let them see through you.”

The black-robed man coldly laughed and disdainfully said, “Devil cultivators? You think so?! They only know a few superficial cultivation techniques, or they thought they were clever and changed the devilish techniques beyond recognition. How could they know the true power of ancient devilish techniques?”

“Is that so? But an elder of your sect was instantly slain by a Heavenly South cultivator of the same grade. I think Sect Master Fang shouldn’t underestimate him.” The short man surnamed Bi sneered.

The black-robed man coldly snorted and didn’t retort.

However, the black-robed woman took this opportunity to speak.

“Actually, I was just about to say this. That cultivator who released the golden lightning is somewhat useful to our Yin Sifting Sect. We hope that the three Divine Sages will hand him over to us to deal with. What do you think?”

“You want to have him?” The shriveled old man muttered to himself.

“What? Are the three of you unwilling to agree to this small condition?” The black-robed woman seemed to be somewhat dissatisfied, but her voice became increasingly rough and unpleasant.

The old man stared at the black-robed woman and squeezed out a strange smile from the wrinkles on his face. He calmly said, “If it were only an early Nascent Soul cultivator, it wouldn’t be a problem to hand him over to the two of you. However, if the Golden Lightning Bamboo magic treasure is involved, it will be different.”

“You’ve already guessed it, Fellow Daoist Zhu.” The black-robed woman’s heart sank slightly upon hearing this.

The old man slowly said, “Our Moulan Plains may be poor, but I do know a bit about the three great divine trees of the cultivation world. Although not many people know about the Divine Devilbane Lightning, he can’t hide it from us.”

The black-robed man saw through the other party’s intentions and coldly asked, “Since you know of the Divine Devilbane Lightning, you should know that our sect cannot allow this item to fall into the hands of others. If you have any conditions, just say them.”

The wrinkles on the old man’s face trembled and he said with a faint smile, “It’s quite simple. I heard that in addition to the dozen or so behemoths, you have also brought many bronze-armored refined corpses. I hope that Brother Fang will release these Corpse Soldiers at the crucial moment of tomorrow’s battle and lend us a hand. After all, no matter how well prepared we are, we don’t know how the cultivators will deal with us. We will naturally have to be careful.”

“Oh! I didn’t expect Fellow Daoist Zhu to know so much about our sect’s secret techniques. Although it’s easier to refine Copper Corpse Soldiers, if we lose too many at once, it’ll be detrimental to our sect’s future development. If you want that, you have to capture the Heavenly South cultivator who used the Divine Devilbane Lightning and bring him to our sect alive.” The black-robed man thought for a moment and didn’t refuse. Instead, he stated his conditions.