A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

“You truly are quite cunning,” said Doctor Mo. “If you were left to your own devices, even I would have some difficulty dealing with you.” Doctor Mo spoke in a calm and unhurried tone as he lifted Han Li and carried him outside of the house.

It was still very hot outside, which made Han Li realize that although he thought he had been in the house for a long time, the events had lasted shorter than he expected.

Doctor Mo continued to effortlessly carry Han Li as if he were a weightless object, walking at a leisure pace until he passed the medicine garden and came upon a remote cliffside. The silent giant continued to follow Doctor Mo’s footsteps, refusing to leave his side almost as if he were his shadow.

Through his own eyes, Han Li was able to see that there was more to the cliff than met the eyes. Upon closer inspection, he realized that carved into the cliff was a stone room he had never seen before. This room was similar to the stone room Han Li had cultivated in before, but this stone room was covered with a layer of limewash.

From its rough appearance, Han Li judged that the room was constructed recently. He was certain that he would be able to smell the pungent smell from the limewash.

Afraid that somebody might come along and disrupt his plan, Doctor Mo ordered the giant, “Iron Slave, stay outside and stand guard. If you see anyone near the house, kill on sight.”

He then easily opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. His familiarity with the layout of the room suggested that Doctor Mo built this place himself.

Han Li assumed that with the door tightly-shut and closed windows, the room would be pitched black, but contrary to his belief the room was filled with candles of many different shapes and sizes that were brightly illuminating the room to the point where it seemed as bright as the outside daylight.

The room left Han Li speechless, but even if he wanted to say something, he was unable to control his body.

Since he could not control his body, Han Li had no choice but to examine the interior of the room. He noticed a strange pattern in the center of the room. It seemed to be made of some sort of powder, but Han Li was unable to get closer look.

At the edge of the strange pattern were fist-sized pieces of jade that glowed in the candlelight. With a glance, it was obvious that each piece of jade was a rare and priceless item. If an expert on precious stones were to see such priceless treasures set on the ground, he would feel such an immense heartache that he would be unable to sleep for several nights.

At this time, Han Li felt his body being roughly thrown by Doctor Mo. His body made a “putong” sound as he crashed into the center of the pattern with his body facing upwards. Unable to move his body, he could only capable of staring at the ceiling.

To say the least, Han Li was extremely anxious from being unable to anything in his current situation. The fact that he failed to see any of Doctor Mo’s actions made him unable to calm down and heightened his fear. The only consolation he had was that he was not facing the ground or else he would have been been unable to to even look at the ceiling.

Pu Pu Pu… *sound of puffing*

A string of strange sounds heightened Han Li’s fear and confusion, but he soon realized that it was the sound of Doctor Mo blowing out several candles. Gradually, the room became dimmed.

Han Li did not know the purpose of this action, but he did not have much time to ponder on its meaning since Doctor Mo suddenly opened his mouth and said:

“The method you mentioned, will it really work?… Well I’m betting everything on it” said Doctor Mo in a cold tone that sounded out of place. This caused Han Li to be bewildered as he did not know if he was the one being spoken to. There were only two people in this room, him and Doctor Mo, so who else could he be talking too. Did Doctor Mo forget about the cursed yellow paper that prevented him from speaking?

“I guarantee it will work. After all, how could the Seven Ghost Technique that I passed on to you be fake?” A new voice suddenly replied, seemingly out of nowhere. At this point Han Li was beyond being surprised at the sudden appearance of a new character because all the strange things he experienced in the past few hours far exceeded the amount of strange things he heard in the past few years. Instead of being astonished, Han Li calmly deduced from the sound of the man’s voice that he must be a young adult around the age of 20.

“Heng! What’s the point if it ends up failing halfway?!”

(TL: “Heng” is an exclamation, not the name of the mysterious man)

Right afterwards, Doctor Mo released a out a string of curses which caused no amount of shock to Han Li. This type of vulgarity was nothing special coming from Doctor Mo, but his sudden transformation into a pretty boy made his dirty words seem out of place, allowing Han Li to feel a hint of sardonic pleasure in his pitiful situation.

“If you suddenly pull a trick at the end and make me fall into your trap, who am I to turn to then?”

Not waiting for the young voice’s reply, Doctor Mo continued on with a self-preserving tone, “I don’t want to hear your useless guarantees. I know you are already dead since I was the one who killed you. How could you not hold bitter hatred for me and try to look for any opportunity to gain revenge? Do you think you can deceive me? ”

Not giving the other person any chance to refute him, Doctor Mo kept talking almost as if he were taking this chance to pour out all his pent up thoughts and insecurities.

The mysterious man did not react to Doctor Mo’s spiel. As a result, the only audible sound within the penetrative silence of the stone room was Doctor Mo’s breathing

Han Li couldn’t help but break out into a cold sweat as he finally processed the fact that the mysterious young man was deceased. That would make him some sort of ghost, would it not? Also, from what Doctor Mo revealed in his tirade, it seemed that the weird technique he just used was learned from the man he had killed!

The mysterious man finally replied angrily, “Well, what else do you want me to do? I already swore on my ancestors, my parents, my whole family, and even on my family name, are you still not satisfied?”

Hearing this, Han Li couldn’t help but feel his heart jump a beat as he realized that the mysterious man was so perverse and demented that he would swear on so many of his family members just to gain Doctor Mo’s trust. At first he felt a sense of connection as they both seemed to be in dire straits but that feeling quickly disappeared from Han Li’s mind.

“You’re right. You can’t do anything to me right now since your body has been destroyed, leaving behind your soul. You can’t even see the light of day, and what little strength you have left is useless against me” Doctor Mo said in a slow and deliberate manner in order to maintain his facade.