A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Han Li turned to discover that the Endless Sky Beast’s attention had been drawn to the transparent substance and that inky-black eyeball.

”Do you recognize what they are?”

”Please tell me how you obtained these two items first, Fellow Daoist Han.” The small child turned to Han Li with a hint of bewilderment in his eyes.

”I found one of them in a fire cauldron that had been burning for an indefinite number of years, while the other one is the third eye of a three-yed demon beast,” Han Li replied.

”That makes sense; it’s exactly as I thought, then.” The small child nodded as if he had expected that response. He picked up the ball of transparent substance first, and introduced, ”This thing from that fire cauldron is known as the Fire Spirit Threads, and they’re an exceptional material for refining fire-attribute armor, which are quite rare even in the Spirit Realm. Its true form is an even rarer form of Yin-type ore and if it were to be constantly heated by scorching flames and melted as a result, it would form this type of substance.”

”Fire Spirit Threads!” Han Li looked at the transparent substance in the small child’s hands, and a peculiar look appeared on his face.

This was the first time that he had ever heard of this substance, but no matter how he looked at it, it didn’t appear to be in a thread-like form at all.

A hesitant look then appeared on the small child’s face as he said, ”This is not the Fire Spirit Threads’ final form. It’s going to require a cultivator who specializes in fire-attribute cultivation arts to refine this substance into strands before it reaches that stage. Hehe, that’s something that’s going to be beyond you. Fire Spirit Threads are a rare treasure in itself, and it can either be used as a material or refined directly into weapons. If you were to refine them into weapons, their powers wouldn’t be inferior to that of the average flying sword. However, what’s rather strange is that this type of Fire Spirit Threads should be faint blue in color, yet your one here is semi-transparent. It seems to be a little different from how I remember it to be.”

A thought occurred to Han Li, and his expression changed slightly as he asked, ”Oh, I see. How long would it normally take for this kind of substance to form over flames?”

”The reason why this material is quite rare is precisely because it takes a long time to form. At a minimum, it’ll take over 100 years and at most, it can even take up to several centuries. Normally speaking, the longer this process, the smaller the material’s mass will become, but it’ll also increase in purity,” the small child explained.

”I see!” A flash of enlightenment appeared in Han Li’s eyes.

”What is it? Have you thought of something?” The small child looked at Han Li with a curious expression.

”Nothing much. Tell me about the other thing.” Han Li smiled and didn’t reveal anything as he turned his attention to that eyeball.

The small child’s expression darkened slightly, but he decided not to pry any further into the matter in the end. Instead, he cast his gaze toward the black eyeball and said, ”This eyeball is an extraordinary treasure and even I’m quite drawn to it. It’s a pity that only my avatar had descended into this world and this treasure’s attributes aren’t right for me, either. If I were to cultivate it, the benefits I would derive would be limited, yet it could damage my spiritual sense.”

”Is this eyeball really such a big deal?” Han Li faltered upon hearing the small child’s words and a skeptical look appeared on his face. Back when he had slain that three-eyed demon beast, he had felt that this eyeball was indeed rather special. However, he didn’t think that it was anywhere near as important a treasure as the Endless Sky Beast was proclaiming it to be.

”Hmph, you don’t know anything! You’ve heard about heavenly true spirits like dragons and Qilins, right?”

”Of course I’ve heard of them. Those heavenly spirit beasts have long ceased to exist in our human world, but there have been many stories passed down about them. Does this eyeball have something to do with them?” Han Li was very surprised to hear this.

The small child explained with a serious expression, ”No, but it’s close enough. This is the third eye of the Ci Lie Beast, the sworn enemies of the dragons, and this eye is the vastly renowned Law Destruction Eye in our Spirit Realm. This beast has three heads and five tails, and there’s only one eye on its central head, which is the Law Destruction Eye. It’s said that the Ci Lie Beast will never open this eye on normal occasions, but once it does, it’ll be able to directly tear open space and slay enemies through the powers of the eye alone. Of course, this eye on its own won’t be quite that powerful. However, if it were to be cultivated using some kind of secret technique, it can be used to unleash some strang techniques. It can be used to directly attack the enemy and see through the majority of illusionary techniques. Even movement and teleportation techniques can’t escape the tracking abilities of this eye. This is why some cultivators who specialize in techniques like the Heaven’s Eye Technique regard this eyeball as a revered treasure and would go to great lengths to try and obtained it.”

Han Li drew a sharp breath upon hearing this. He stared blankly at the eyeball in the small child’s hand and was momentarily at a loss for words.

If this was the true Law Destruction Eye of a Ci Lie Beast, then its value wouldn’t be far off from the Golden Jade Tome. However, this Law Destruction Eye doesn’t appear to be very pure. Looks like the three-eyed demon beast that you killed wasn’t a true Ci Lie Beast, but was only a spirit beast that inherited a part of the Ci Lie Beast’s bloodline. Also, it appears that you extracted the eyeball before it had a chance to grow into full maturity. Hehe, I don’t know whether to congratulate you on your luck or lament your loss,” the small child sighed with a shake of his head.

”What do you mean by that?” Han Li asked.

”It’s very simple. If this were the eyeball of a mature Ci Lie Beast, then it would naturally be impossible for someone of your cultivation base to cultivate the Law Destruction Eye. However, seeing as it’s not a fully mature eye, you can give it a try, but the Law Destruction Eye that you attain from cultivating this eye won’t be anywhere near as powerful. Also, this eye isn’t the eye of a true Ci Lie Beast, so the abilities that you’ll attain from cultivating it will also be slightly different from those of the true Law Destruction Eye,” the small child explained in a serious manner.

”So you’re saying that the abilities of this eye will be far inferior compared to those of the Law Destruction Eye?” Han Li asked.

”Normally speaking, that would be the case, but this is not without exceptions. I recall that the Scorching Heaven Demon King of the Spirit Realm’s Nine Spirit Mountains seemed to have inherited part of a Fire Qilin’s bloodline, but the True Fire abilities he attained were quite fearsome even to a true Fire Qilin. However, these cases are extremely rare, but if I recall correctly, you seem to be planning on sneaking over to the Spirit Realm through a spatial node. In that case, you’re going to have to cultivate this Law Destruction Eye.” A hint of a smile appeared on the small child’s face.

”Why’s that?” Han Li raised his eyebrows in surprise.

He had inquired the Endless Sky Beast about spatial nodes a long time ago, but unfortunately, it was also the beast’s first time descending into the human world, so it knew a very minimal amount on this topic. However, it was suddenly bringing up this subject again, and Han Li found that to be rather perplexing.

”The Ci Lie Beast can’t forcibly travel through spatial rifts to other realms like the Heavenroaming Kun Peng or a Luo Mian Beast can, but it possesses abilities that can weaken the boundary between realms. As to how much the boundary would be weakened, that would naturally depend on the power of this eye,” the small child replied calmly.

”Does this eye really have that kind of ability?” Han Li was truly tempted now.

”Hehe! Once you cultivate this eye, you’ll naturally know whether it can grant you that ability or not. Why would I lie to you?” the small child chuckled.

Han Li fell into deep thought upon hearing this.

The small child merely smiled and continued to examine the two objects in his hands while Han Li mulled over the issue.

When Han Li raised his head again, he had already managed to compose himself, and he asked, ”Setting these two items aside for now, do you recognize the other two materials?” It appeared that he had completely cast the matter about the Law Destruction Eye to the back of his mind.

A hint of surprise flashed through the small child’s eyes upon seeing this, but he still replied nonchalantly, ”Those three crystals are Dream Separation Crystals. They’re a little noteworthy, but can only be used to refine disposable treasures that can unleash illusionary techniques on only one occasion, so it’s not very useful to normal cultivators like us. However, I’ve heard of a Heavenly Illusion Sect in the Spirit Realm that once offered astronomical prices to purchase these crystals, but quickly repealed this order for some unknown reason. As for whether this crystal can serve some other purpose, that’s beyond me. After all, these crystals are quite rare and as a result, their uses aren’t very well-documented. As for that black and white demon core, I cannot identify it at all. However, its attributes seem to be very special. Would you be able to describe the appearance of the demon core that it belonged to?”

”That demon beast’s appearance as very strange.” Han Li’s brows furrowed as he recalled that demon beast, which had the appearance of a pile of rotten flesh, that he had slain in the lake within the Devilfall Valley...

After hearing Han Li’s description, the small child thought to himself for a while before finally shaking his head.

”I’ve never heard of any demon beast like it. I can only assume that it’s some type of mutant demon beast. However, from your description, it appears that the demon beast wasn’t very powerful, so its demon core most likely won’t be very useful either,” the small child analyzed.

”But this demon beast’s ability to conceal its aura is very interesting. Perhaps this demon core can be used for tool-refinement purposes,” Han Li mused. He feigned a grabbing motion and the black and white demon core immediately flew into his hand. After rotating over his palm for a while, wisps of black and white Qi began to emanate from it, but there was a clear separation between the two types of Qi, creating quite a stark contrast.

The small child turned his gaze to Han Li, and hesitated momentarily before offering, ”How about this? As compensation for my error in judgment with regard to your Thunderstorm Wings, I can provide you with the methods to refine the Fire Spirit Threads and Law Destruction Eye. However, whether you’d like to refine these two items and whether you can succeed in doing so is completely up to you.”

”Alright, we’ll do as you say.” Han Li accepted the offer without any hesitation, as if he had been waiting for the small child to make that offer all along.

The small child faltered momentarily upon seeing this, and a slightly gloomy expression appeared on his face as his body swayed and disappeared.

The two objects in his hands naturally fell toward the ground.

However, Han Li reached out and grabbed the transparent substance and the black eyeball before they could fall very far.

Almost at the exact same moment, the Endless Sky Beast began to transmit its voice to him, and the contents of the voice transmission were none other than the refinement methods for these two items.

Han Li’s heart stirred and he immediately sat down with his eyes closed, paying close attention to the voice transmission.

Half a day later, several Foundation Establishment Stage stewards were gathered within a pavilion at the foot of a mountain within the Drifting Cloud Sect. They were sorting through a pile of materials in a storage pouch when a streak of red light suddenly flew into the pavilion. The red light circled through the air before landing in the hand of one of the blue-robed cultivators.

The red light transformed into a ball of flames, from within which a jade slip and a badge came falling out.

The blue-robed steward caught the two items and upon closer inspection of the badge, his expression changed drastically as he hurriedly reached both hands into the fireball.

Moments later, the fireball disappeared amid a loud explosion, yet the blue-robed cultivator’s expression only became more grave.