A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Snatching the Lantern

The woman didn’t take a closer look and muttered, “He’s actually concealing himself near the ignited Origin Bright Lantern. You’re courting death!”

As far as she was concerned, it was enough to know that the other party was a Heavenly South cultivator.

Ever since she lit the ancient lantern, there were already five or six cultivators who wanted to destroy it.

After all, ever since the giant bird had been summoned by the ancient lanterns, the nine ancient lanterns had been constantly burning, and anyone who saw them would be able to tell that something was amiss. A few cultivators who were confident in their concealment techniques naturally wanted to come over and extinguish the lanterns.

As a result, all of them were slain by the woman’s lantern flames.

At this moment, Han Li was only a few hundred feet away from this woman. When he saw that the unknown cultivator in front of him had been easily killed by this woman, his heart could not help but tremble.

His figure that was originally slowly flying over stopped without a sound.

Although this woman’s muttering was so soft that it could not be heard, with Han Li’s extraordinary spiritual sense, he could still vaguely hear most of it.

Han Li looked at the ancient lantern not far away and stroked his chin, muttering to himself.

It seemed that the ancient lantern was truly an extraordinary existence. Not only could it summon demon birds, but it also possessed the ability to break through concealment.

This was going to be troublesome.

Han Li’s expression wavered for a long while. He raised his eyebrows and suddenly had an idea.

He placed a hand into his storage pouch and took out a few items. Then, his gaze fell on a spirit beast pouch at his waist and he smiled.

…

At this moment, the woman surnamed Le was clearly on high alert.

She sat cross-legged in front of the ancient lantern, and the lotus shadow on her body was indistinct. Her bright eyes were constantly staring at the ancient lantern, and she connected her spiritual sense with the ancient lantern to sense any movements within a hundred feet.

All of a sudden, white light shone three hundred meters away, and a dozen or so huge apes appeared.

When Cultivator Le saw this, she wore an astonished expression.

The giant apes didn’t come over after they appeared. Instead, they stood in a row and raised their hands.

Dozens of pillars of light of different colors shot forth.

“Puppet Technique!”

Cultivator Le faltered slightly upon seeing this, and her brows furrowed as she cautiously looked around.

She didn’t discover the master of these puppets.

Cultivator Le paid no heed to the attacks of the pillars of light. She casually formed an incantation gesture, and lotus shadows flashed as she easily blocked the pillars of light.

The woman then moved and plucked a flame from an ancient lantern.

This time, the woman didn’t immediately release the flame. Instead, she held it in her hand and gently floated it up.

Cultivator Le stared at the ancient lantern with flickering eyes, preparing to respond to any changes.

A short moment later, the woman’s expression stirred and she opened her mouth without hesitation, blowing a mouthful of spiritual Qi into the flame in her hand.

The lantern flame flickered with azure light before disappearing from her hand.

Only then did Cultivator Le turn her head to look at a spot several hundred feet away.

With a soft pop, a humanoid figure appeared and enveloped him in a ball of azure light.

The woman made an incantation gesture and azure flames immediately ignited on the man’s body.

The woman hurriedly curled her lips into a cold smile.

“Huh! Why haven’t you been refined yet?” The woman’s smile suddenly froze. She discovered that this person didn’t instantly turn to ash like the others, nor did he show the slightest intention of struggling.

In her alarm, she hurriedly focused her gaze on it.

“This person is… No, he’s a puppet!”

The figure in the azure flames looked like Han Li, but his expression was wooden and his movements were stiff. He was simply a dummy. Furthermore, he did not seem to be afraid of the azure flames and did not seem to have been burned at all.

“Not good!” The woman suddenly thought of something.

She hurriedly turned her head to look at the ancient lantern, wanting to attach her spiritual sense to it again.

However, in that short moment of delay.

In another location over 200 feet away, a humanoid figure appeared in a flash of azure light. A muffled thunderclap sounded out, and the person disappeared amid a flash of lightning.

When Cultivator Le saw this, she was furious. She formed an incantation gesture with her hands and abruptly raised them, shooting several incantation seals toward the ancient lantern.

However, it was too late.

Lightning lit up beside the ancient lantern, and a human figure faintly appeared inside.

Soon after, a large black-red hand shot forth from within the light. In the blink of an eye, it was over 10 feet in size, and it fiercely grabbed at an ancient lantern.

“How did this person recognize the main lantern? Only the caster knows which lantern is the real one. Even a late-Nascent Soul cultivator wouldn’t be able to see through it.”

When Cultivator Le saw this, she became even more furious.

At such a close distance, the large hand and Cultivator Le’s incantation seals almost touched the ancient lantern at the same time.

The ancient lantern flashed with azure light, but just as it was about to change, the huge hand grabbed it and forcibly extinguished the flame.

At the same time, the other eight copper lanterns began to tremble as if they had sensed something. Spiritual light flashed and the flames disappeared one by one.

The ancient lanterns instantly turned into balls of spiritual Qi before dissipating.

“No!” The Moulan Tribe’s number one female Sage turned deathly pale upon seeing this.

She gritted her teeth and raised her hands, sending a large lotus projection toward the huge black hand in an attempt to take back the ancient lantern.

However, the huge black-red hand had already anticipated this. As soon as it grabbed the ancient lantern, it immediately flew back without the slightest delay.

However, a cold snort sounded from within the lightning, followed by the sound of thunder. As soon as the huge black-red hand entered the ball of light, the humanoid figure and the huge black-red hand disappeared at the same time. In the next instant, the humanoid figure appeared beside the puppet trapped in the azure light, holding the ancient lantern in his hand.

It was Han Li, who had snuck in when she was not paying attention.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

Cultivator Le glanced in the direction of the azure bird in alarm. When she saw that the holy bird hadn’t immediately disappeared, she calmed down and loudly screamed.

Soon after, azure light surged from the woman’s body, transforming into a gust of wind that chased after him.

Han Li’s expression darkened. With a flash of white light in his hand, the ancient lantern was put into his storage pouch. At the same time, the Thunderstorm Wings on his back flapped and he disappeared, reappearing in another place hundreds of feet away.

At that moment, the woman’s gust of wind caught up to him.

Han Li’s eyes flashed and he suddenly formed a hand seal with one hand, spitting out the word “Explode”.

The puppet in the azure light suddenly spat out an azure bead that struck the wall of azure flames. With a boom, arcs of golden lightning and azure flames intertwined and exploded.

Not only did it blow up half of the puppet’s body, but it also affected the nearby woman named Le.

The lotus projection on the woman’s body possessed the ability to automatically protect its master. Although its master was caught off guard, the lotus petals flickered and forcibly blocked the attack.

However, the power of the lightning beads that Han Li hid in the puppet was extraordinary.

Although the woman managed to escape, she was forced back several tens of feet.

The Wind Escape Technique was instantly neutralized.

Han Li sighed. Although he felt that it was a pity, he spread his wings without hesitation and disappeared again in a flash, quickly fleeing into the distance.

When the woman surnamed Le regained her balance, Han Li had already fled over 1,000 feet away.

The Moulan Grand Sage gritted her teeth and was about to give chase when the remaining half of the puppet suddenly let out a strange buzzing sound.

This woman, who had just been plotted against by Han Li, was shocked and hurriedly looked over.

Brilliant azure light erupted from the puppet’s body before it instantly disintegrated, transforming into swarms of tri-colored flying insects that soared into the air.

Cultivator Le’s heart jolted with shock, but she had no time to deal with these flying insects. She hurriedly activated the white lotus on her body to protect herself, wanting to force her way through.

However, in the blink of an eye, the tri-colored beetles condensed and transformed into several large tri-colored shields that continuously struck the woman.

Every time this woman made a hand seal and wanted to use the Wind Escape Technique, wave after wave of attacks would cause her to fail.

Cultivator Le flew into a rage and unleashed several spirit techniques in quick succession, only to discover that they were unable to harm the flying insects.

At this moment, she was shocked to recognize that apart from the color of these tri-colored insects being different from the Gold Devouring Beetles, they were exactly the same. They actually seemed to be mutated Gold Devouring Beetles.

In her alarm, she immediately took out a Wood Spirit Treasure from her storage pouch to trap the beetles.

However, at this moment, the flying insects let out a buzz and scattered in all directions.

The woman faltered slightly upon seeing this before her expression changed and she hastily looked into the distance.

At some point in time, Han Li had already used his concealment ability and disappeared without a trace, making it impossible to find him.

Cultivator Le’s face was a mix of red and white as she floated in the air, at a complete loss.

At that moment, the azure bird on the other side just so happened to spit out a ball of azure fire, breaking through an old man’s defense.

Just as it was about to fly down and kill its opponent, it suddenly felt the spiritual power in its body crazily drain away.

In its alarm, the bird couldn’t care less about injuring anyone and hastily turned its head to look.

Only then did it discover that there was no trace of the ancient lantern.

The huge bird panicked and only managed to let out a sharp cry before its body rapidly shrunk. The fire-attribute spiritual Qi that it had been controlling was also instantly out of control.

The azure sea of flames below roiled violently before disappearing, revealing the Sublime Truth Seven Cultivators.

As for the two devils that had escaped, they turned into a ball of green wind without the slightest hesitation and fiercely pounced toward the azure bird whose magic power had greatly decreased.

At this moment, the demon bird had shrunk to only a few feet in size. It stared at the two devils with an unwilling expression and had no intention of dodging.

As a result, the bird exploded into countless streaks of azure light before the two devils could even reach it.

The Yin Yang Devils faltered momentarily before coming to a sudden stop.

“What’s going on?” The old man who had narrowly escaped death asked with great joy.

At this moment, he had no magic power left in his body. He had thought that he was dead for sure.

“Look over there. There seems to be a problem with the treasure they used to summon the demon bird. Those ancient lanterns aren’t there anymore.” The old man in the lead let out a long sigh and glanced at the ancient lanterns.

He also had a look of relief on his face.

If he were to delay any longer, he would most likely lose his life!