A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

”Regardless of whether he’s a Great Jin cultivator or not, the fact that he was able to take the Heavenvoid Cauldron is a sufficient indication of his powers. If it weren’t for the fact that the Divine Essencefused Light we cultivated rejects treasures of the five elements, and that Heavenvoid map fragment doesn’t work for late-Nascent Soul cultivators, how could the spirit treasure have fallen into the hands of a foreign cultivator?” A forlorn look appeared on the man’s face.

However, a wry smile appeared on the woman’s face upon hearing this, and she said, ”Full mastery of the Divine Essencefused Light would allow us to use the power of the five elements, so how could we have been unable to secure a treasure of the five elements? We can only blame ourselves for missing out on this opportunity.”

After a prolonged silence, the man said in an apologetic voice, ”Indeed. If I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have dragged you along with me to cultivate this Divine Essencefused Light. This is my fault.”

The woman shook her calmly, and said, ”It’s not your fault. If we hadn’t tried to find a shortcut, we would’ve never been able to progress to the Deity Transformation Stage. As things were, if it weren’t for that hiccup in the final juncture, you and I would’ve successfully progressed to the Deity Transformation Stage already. At the very least, our lifespans would’ve been prolonged by over 1,000 years.”

”Indeed. Who would have thought that a five elements spiritual root was required to cultivate the Divine Essencefused Light to the final stage? If someone were to truly possess such a spirit root, they most likely wouldn’t even be able to reach the Foundation Establishment and Core Formation Stages, let alone the Nascent Soul Stage; how would they be able to cultivate this Divine Essencefused Light? It’s no wonder that this cultivation art had been created so long ago, but no one has ever been able to successfully cultivate it. I was able to reach the late-Nascent Soul Stage within 500 years and in my opinion, my cultivation aptitude is definitely not inferior to the past masters of the Star Palace. I even managed to resolve the so-called three insurmountable hurdles to cultivating the Divine Essencefused Light, but never did I think that I would suffer a fate like this. The ancient cultivator who invented the Divine Essencefused Light was clearly intentionally setting up a trap for people to fall into. I don’t know what his intentions were to create such a self-contradicting cultivation art. If I had known about all this in advance, I would’ve never dabbled in this accursed cultivation art.” The man’s voice was becoming more and more worked up as he spoke, clearly indicating that he was extremely resentful toward the creator of this Divine Essencefused Light.

The woman heaved a long sigh. After a brief silence, she offered some words of consolation. ”So be it. Regardless of whether this cultivation art was invented as a joke by that ancient cultivator, it’s a good thing that we discovered these things in the nick of time and didn’t continue down that path. Otherwise, if we had continued to cultivate on the Essencefused Mountain, the power of the five elements within our bodies would’ve imploded and we would’ve died. Come to think of it, we have to thank the Archsaint of the Six Paths and Wan Sangu. If they hadn’t forced us out of our seclusion early, we would’ve never noticed these things.”

”Hmph, those two are just not worthy of a mention. If it weren’t for the restriction of the Essencefused Mountain, I would’ve stormed their base and killed all of them long ago! Furthermore, this problem is not one that cannot be resolved.” The man’s voice became a little peculiar as he spoke.

”What do you mean by that? Have you really found a way to change our spirit roots?” The calm woman also couldn’t help but get excited upon hearing this.

After a brief hesitation, the man revealed, ”Ever since we discovered this issue, I’ve been reading through all types of ancient tomes in the past century, trying to find a way to overcome this problem. During the process, I discovered an ancient spiritual power that we could use. The technique can’t change one’s spirit root completely, but it does involve putting a pure-attribute treasure through a blood sacrifice, thereby using it to replace the missing spirit root in order to gain control over the power of the five elements.”

”It’s that simple?!” The woman was shocked to hear this.

”Of course, there are certain conditions that must be fulfilled with regard to the sacrificial process and the treasure used, but those aren’t problems to us. Most importantly, this method can only grant us control over the power of one element, but we won’t be able to sacrifice a second treasure. Otherwise, our Nascent Souls would be unable to handle the influx of power and our physical bodies will also crumble due to backlash. As such, unless we possess four attribute spirit roots in the first place, this method won’t work for us,” the man said in a resigned manner.

”I see. Then it really is completely useless to us as we only have two attribute spirit roots.”

The woman’s heart sank upon hearing this. The flames of hope that had just ignited in her heart were doused once again.

”So be it. We should stop being so fixated on mastering the Divine Essencefused Light. Even if there were other ways to resolve this issue, there’s not enough time for us given our remaining lifespans of less than 100 years. Let’s focus more on Yuling. After our combined efforts, she has finally progressed to the Nascent Souls Stage. Once her cultivation base is fortified in a few more decades, we’ll inject him with our power to forcibly take him to the mid-Nascent Soul Stage. In that case, with his mid-Nascent Soul Stage cultivation base, he should be ready to take over the Star Palace. Of course, we have to get rid of the Archsaint of the Six Paths and Wan Sangu before that.” The woman’s voice suddenly turned extremely cold and forbidding at the mention of these two enemies.

”It won’t be a difficult task for us to get rid of those two as long as we put our lives on the line,” the man said nonchalantly.

”What do we do with that cultivator with the Han surname? He possesses the Heavenvoid Cauldron and he might be a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator. If you and I were to leave this world someday, he could prove to be an extremely volatile element in the Scattered Star Seas. From the tone of Yuling’s voice transmission, she seems to have a rather good impression of him.” The woman was quite hesitant.

”He’s a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator with exceptional aptitude; he really is worth recruiting if possible. We’ll see if he wishes to join our Star Palace. If he does, then everything will be smooth sailing from there. We’ll set up a restriction to take his Heavenvoid Cauldron for Yuling to use when making a breakthrough to the mid-Nascent Soul Stage, and we’ll give him some other treasures as compensation. If he’s unwilling to join us, then we’ll just have to kill him!” The man’s voice had become extremely cold.

”That seems to be the only way.” The woman heaved a faint sigh, but stated no objections.

”However, this voice escape talismans has already been destroyed once, so he must be aware that we’re onto him. Ordinary elders won’t be able to subdue him, so it looks like we’ll have a make a trip in person,” the man said in an indifferent voice.

”Even if he possesses a spirit treasure, he’s just mid-Nascent Soul cultivator; it won’t require both of us to subdue him. I can take care of him myself. On the Divine Essencefused Mountain, he definitely won’t be a match for me even if he’s a late-Nascent Soul cultivator.” The woman was very confident in her own abilities.

”Alright, that works too. You have to be careful, though; that Heavenvoid Cauldron is not something to be scoffed at.” The man didn’t object to this course of action.

”As long as its a treasure of the five elements, its power will be severely debilitated in the face of my Divine Esscencefused Light, so what are you worried about?” the woman chuckled nonchalantly.

This time, the man in the cave didn’t reply. He had clearly acknowledged what the woman was saying.

At this moment, Han Li had already arrived at the Heavenly Star City.

The city really did live up to its name as the number one city in the Scattered Star Seas; Han Li was able to easily secure the missing materials from the markets here.

He also sold a few treasures that were useless to him, earning him a large amount of spirit stones in the process, before settling down in an inn.

Seeing as Ling Yuling was already aware of the fact that he possessed the Heavenvoid Cauldron, he naturally wasn’t going to head straight to the sacred mountain’s teleportation formation with that badge. Instead, he was going to infiltrate the Starry Sky Palace at night.

If it weren’t for the fact that the Heavenly Star Sages were guarding the teleportation formations, he naturally wouldn’t be wary of the guards there.

Of course, if this legendary pair really did appear, it would be yet to be seen whether they’d actually be able to stop him.

In order to attract the least amount of attention, he intentionally chose a small inn and briefly revealed a mid-Core Formation Stage cultivation base. As such, the Qi Condensation inn manager was naturally extremely respectful toward Han Li, offering him the best room in his inn. 

That night, Han Li snuck out of the inn without anyone noticing.

He could still clearly recall the location of the Starry Sky Palace and he shot forth directly toward the place where it was situated on the massive mountain.

Along the way, most of the guards he encountered were at the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment Stages. There was the occasional Core Formation cultivator as well, but Han Li was still able to easily sneak past them.

He arrived at the 50th level of the sacred mountain in the blink of an eye, upon which the massive palace appeared before him.

The passage of time hadn’t left any signs on the palace; it was completely identical to how it had been in the past.

A sense of nostalgia welled up in Han Li’s heart and just as he was about to unleash a secret technique to break through the restriction on the door, his expression suddenly changed as he abruptly disappeared.

A short while later, a few indistinct humanoid figures arrived soundlessly from another direction. Their bodies were rather blurry, almost completely blending into the night. Without careful examination using one’s spiritual sense, it was impossible to notice them.

Who are these people? Are they from the Starfall Coalition? 

Han Li looked on with a hint of surprise and curiosity in his heart.

These human cultivators could already be considered to be quite powerful. Among them, there were four Foundation Establishment cultivators and two Core Formation cultivators, but there was also a third or fourth layer Qi Condensation cultivator with them. All of their faces had been obscured by a layer of grey Qi, as if they were trying to hide their appearance from prying eyes.

However, the two Core Formation cultivators leading the way clearly consisted of a man and a woman.

Han Li immediately lost interest upon making the discovery that there were no Nascent Soul cultivators among them. As such, he couldn’t be bothered to use his spiritual sense to determine what these people looked like. All he did was stand still in mid-air, looking on with his arms crossed.

These people approached the door to the Starry Sky Palace in the blink of an eye before stopping in unison.

One of the Core Formation cultivators suddenly flipped his hand over, upon which a green formation plate appeared over his palm. He gently cast a Celestial Technique on it and the formation plate began to emanate faint white light.

The other Core Formation Stage woman also flipped over her hand to produce a small yellow flag. She waved it through the air and a cloud of yellow mist rapidly wafted forth from the flag, instantly enshrouding their group within. Immediately thereafter, the cloud of mist and that group of people all disappeared.

Han Li faltered slightly before a hint of surprise flashed through his eyes at the sight of the yellow flag.