A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

The Land of Lava

When the puppets scattered and fled, Han Li and the other two could not help but hold their breaths.

Although Han Li’s words were convincing, it was hard to say whether it would be effective.

Actually, even Han Li himself was not completely confident. After all, everything he knew about the Ten Absolute Poisons was obtained from ancient records. He had never done such a test before.

But a moment later, Han Li and the other two no longer had any doubts.

Just as the giant apes flew over 100 feet away, a series of strange, noisy cries suddenly erupted from the mountaintop.

As soon as this strange cry entered his ears, Han Li immediately felt the blood and Qi in his body roil. His head sank and he almost fell from the sky.

In his alarm, he hurriedly circulated all of the spiritual Qi in his body to stabilize himself. He then turned his head and used his spirit eyes to look at Marquis Nanlong and Lu Weiying.

They weren’t any better off either, and their bodies swayed a few times before returning to normal.

Han Li frowned and was secretly shocked.

This strange cry didn’t seem to be aimed at his spiritual sense, but rather at his body’s true essence. No matter how powerful his spiritual sense was, he was powerless against this strange attack.

The fact that the Purple Pattern Scorpion had such a strange talent was truly surprising.

It seemed that the records couldn’t cover all aspects.

Just as Han Li was muttering to himself, thirteen or fourteen streaks of dark purple light shot out from the top of the mountain, chasing after the giant apes in a flash. Han Li hurriedly used his divine sense to urge them, and the split souls in the giant apes immediately activated their maximum speed, turning into a few streaks of white light that shot into the distance.

Even though it was only for an instant, Han Li was still able to use his powerful spiritual sense to roughly see through the purple streaks of light.

They were frighteningly large and each of them was around 10 feet in size. Their bodies glowed with a dark purple light. They also had a pair of transparent wings. As for the rest, they were completely identical to ordinary scorpions.

However, the scorpion flying at the front was far larger than its own kind and was around 20 feet in size. It seemed to be the leader of this group of flying scorpions.

Seeing the ferocious appearance of the yellow mist, Han Li’s pupils constricted.

The giant apes’ speed was clearly far inferior to the purple streaks, but they were still able to lure the Purple Pattern Scorpions far away while running.

In the blink of an eye, they were reduced to small black dots.

A short moment later, someone suddenly shouted, “Let’s go! Some puppets have activated some kind of restriction. They’ve been caught.”

With that said, spiritual light flashed around Han Li’s body. The concealment spell immediately disappeared and he took the lead to shoot through the air.

When the other two saw this, they immediately transformed into streaks of golden light and shot toward the mountain.

The three of them knew that these Purple Pattern Scorpions came and went like the wind. If they didn’t hurry up and pass through the mountain in front of them, they would be in big trouble.

Fortunately, the three of them were not slow. Even without using the Thunderstorm Wings, Han Li relied on his profound cultivation that far exceeded that of cultivators of the same cultivation level to fly over the mountain in an instant.

At this moment, he sensed that the few giant ape puppets had lost contact with him. Han Li was shocked and did not dare to stay any longer. He flew more than five kilometers away from the Purple Pattern Scorpion’s nest.

Only when they stopped at another mountain did the three of them truly feel at ease.

Marquis Nanlong quickly said with a smile, “This time, it was all thanks to Brother Han’s Blue Dove Poison and mechanical puppets. Otherwise, how would we have been able to pass this trial? It would’ve been quite a headache.”

“Nothing. It was just a coincidence.” Han Li glanced at Marquis Nanlong but remained calm.

Although this Blue Dove Poison was originally something from Master Cang Kun’s treasure, Han Li did not bother to explain anything and only vaguely explained it.

When Lu Weiying saw that this matter was so easily resolved, he also praised him with sincerity.

Han Li smiled, and after a few words, the three of them resumed their journey.

After flying for half a day without encountering anything, the temperature in the air began to rise bit by bit.

The lush vegetation on the mountain range gradually decreased to a barren land as they advanced, making for a rather strange sight.

In the end, the rocks of all sizes on the mountain peaks even revealed a bewitching fiery-red color. Furthermore, one could faintly see a few large and small lava cracks on the mountain peaks. They were abnormally fiery red and spat out scorching hot winds and ash-gray ash.

It was the scene of a burning inferno.

Han Li and Lu Weiying revealed astonished expressions, but seeing Marquis Nanlong’s calm expression, they knew that they hadn’t taken the wrong path, so they didn’t say anything.

Not long after, the three of them arrived in front of a crimson mountain that was over 10,000 feet tall. A large portion of the mountain peak pierced through the fiery red clouds in the sky. Compared to the surrounding small mountain peaks, this huge mountain was particularly eye-catching.

Marquis Nanlong, who was leading the way, came to a halt upon seeing the mountain.

Seeing this, Han Li and Han Li looked at each other and their spirits were lifted.

“Fellow Daoists, the Fire Toad’s nest is located in a cave at the foot of the mountain. The remains of the ancient cultivator are in this nest.”

Marquis Nanlong let out a long sigh before turning around and solemnly saying, “It is said that this beast’s spiritual sense isn’t weak. Let’s stop and discuss first.”

“At the foot of the mountain?” When Han Li heard this, he raised his eyebrows and quickly probed with his spiritual sense.

As expected, there was a huge fiery hole at the bottom of the huge mountain. From time to time, gusts of hot wind would blow out.

To avoid alerting the Fire Toad inside, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense and did not rashly probe further.

Lu Weiying immediately said, “What is there to discuss? With Fellow Daoist Han’s ice-attribute cultivation arts as the main, the two of us will assist. We will directly exterminate the Fire Toad.”

Marquis Nanlong was prepared for this and said, “Brother Lu, how could things be so simple? According to Master Cang Kun, almost half of the Fire Toad’s nest is built in lava. Regardless of the beast’s injuries, as long as it jumps into the lava, the Fire Toad will immediately recover. Fighting with this beast in such a place will be extremely disadvantageous. The best method is to first set up a spell formation and lure it out of its nest to kill it. For this, I’ve prepared a set of water-attribute spell formation tools.”

When Lu Weiying heard this, he didn’t raise any objections. Han Li also felt that there were no problems. After the three made their plans, they began to make preparations.

In addition to the formation mentioned by Marquis Nanlong, Han Li also set up several other formations in case of any mishaps.

After doing all this, they decided to hide to the side and let Han Li use the puppet beast to lure the ancient Fire Toad out of its nest.

Han Li patted the spirit beast pouch at his waist, and the remaining white wolf puppet beast immediately flew out.

Then, Han Li sat cross-legged near the spell formation and controlled the puppet beast to fly straight to the cave under the huge mountain.