A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

”Hmph, you were lucky this time, but if I can manifest an inner demon once, then I can do it a second time! There’s definitely no way you’ll be able to survive,” the Heavenly Devilish Monarch roared in a furious voice.

Immediately thereafter, a ball of black Qi emerged out of thin air, then quickly began to take on a humanoid form.

”There won’t be a second time! You’re delusional if you think you can go into hiding again after you’ve already revealed yourself to me!” Han Li harrumphed coldly in response, then suddenly opened one of his three mouths to expel a ball of azure light.

The azure light was formed by the spiritual Qi within his body, and it contained a stick of yellow half-burned incense that was giving off the faint aroma of sandalwood.

Blue light flashed from the eyes of Han Li’s central head, and he made a grabbing motion to draw the stick of incense into his grasp before rubbing two his hands together vigorously.

A ball of silver flames emerged between his palms, and a plume of faint yellow smoke instantly began to disperse through the air.

At the same time, one of his other heads exhaled with all its might, and the yellow smoke transformed into an arrow that shot forth through the air, then abruptly vanished mid-flight.

In the next instant, the arrow reappeared amid a flash of yellow light not far away from Han Li before plunging into what appeared to be nothing more than empty space.

A muffled groan rang out, and a ball of twisted black light suddenly appeared out of thin air. The yellow arrow was embedded right into the center of the ball of light.

There was a miniature humanoid figure that was around several inches tall situated within the black light, and even though its body had been impaled by the arrow, it chuckled in a derisive manner, ”Hmph, you think an ordinary treasure like this can harm me? You must be getting desperate.”

The miniature humanoid figure’s facial features were completely indistinguishable, but just the mere sight of the pure devilish Qi emanating from its body made the onlooker feel as if they had been plunged into a glacial pit.

A relieved look appeared on Han Li’s face upon confirming that the arrow had struck its target, and he said in a cold voice, ”When did I say this is an ordinary treasure? Seeing as you’re just a wisp of a Heavenly Devilish Monarch’s devilish intent, this thing will be more than enough to get rid of you.”

”What? This is...” The miniature humanoid figure shuddered as it suddenly recalled what this item was from its extensive wealth of memories.

However, it was already too late. In the next instant, the yellow arrow exploded, and yellow smoke that carried the faint fragrance of sandalwood instantly dispersed to encompass roughly the surrounding acre of space.

The miniature black figure was unable to maintain its form within the faint yellow smoke, and before it completely vanished, it yelled in an indignant manner, ”Impossible! Black Infernal Ice Incense has already gone extinct in this realm; how could you possibly have this? Don’t celebrate too early! When you make your Grand Ascension Stage breakthrough, I’ll be sure to descend into this realm in person and make sure to put an end to your life!”

Thus, the Heavenly Devilish Monarch’s devilish intent was forcibly ejected out of Han Li’s spiritual sense.

He quickly made a hand seal upon seeing this and reverted back to his human form in the blink of an eye.

His face had turned slightly pale, and he was panting slightly from exertion. The ability that he had just unleashed had clearly expended a considerable amount of spiritual sense and magic power, which was why he had refrained from using it earlier.

Han Li glanced at the spot where the devilish figure had just disappeared, and his expression remained quite grim. He immediately made another hand seal, and his body disintegrated into specks of azure light.

In order to prevent the inner demon from affecting the spiritual sense he had left outside his soul, he had completely cut off his connection to his own physical body. Now that this threat had been averted, he was naturally immediately returning to his own body.

In the instant that Han Li opened his eyes, he caught sight of the surrounding grey specks of light, which had transformed into five ghastly apparitions that were trying to attack him through his treasures with all their might.

With each assault that they unleashed, the surrounding treasures would tremor violently, and the spiritual light being released by them had also dimmed significantly.

The five apparitions were constantly revolving around Han Li with astonishingly violent auras emanating from their bodies, and Han Li’s expression immediately darkened upon seeing this.

He let loose a loud cry as countless arcs of golden lightning sprang forth out of his body, and the five devilish apparitions manifested from baleful Qi were instantly destroyed without being able to offer any resistance.

After taking care of these five devilish apparitions, Han Li’s expression only darkened even further.

At this point, the restrictions and formations he had prepared specifically for this heavenly tribulation had already been activated, conjuring up several massive layers of light barriers that encompassed the entire stone pagoda.

There were currently 81 giant black wyrms overhead, blasting forth devastating bolts of lightning of different colors.

The smallest bolts of lightning were only around a foot in length, while the longest were around 500 meters long, and they were crashing down in a torrential downpour.

Amid the flashes of lightning, the restrictions were beginning to display signs of overexertion.

At this moment, all of the bolts of lightning crashing down from above suddenly combined as one to form a gigantic pillar of lightning, and all of the light barriers were instantly shattered.

Without any further impediment standing in its way, the bolts of lightning instantly vanished, then reappeared above Han Li in his secret chamber before continuing to crash down with devastating might.

Han Li immediately swept a sleeve through the air to release a dozen or so bolts of golden lightning, and a deafening boom rang out as the golden lightning and five-colored lightning canceled out one another.

However, this was only the beginning. Even more bolts of five-colored lightning had appeared overhead, and they were raining down upon Han Li with incredible ferocity.

Han Li’s eyes narrowed slightly as he made a grabbing motion with one hand. A ball of azure light appeared over his palm in a flash, then shot forth in all directions as 72 streaks of azure light.

All of a sudden, a loud dragon’s roar rang out, and countless streaks of azure sword Qi appeared before dispersing all throughout the entire secret chamber, then converged to form an azure ball of light above Han Li.

The ball rotated on the spot to release countless streaks of dazzling sword Qi, then shattered to reveal a green coiled dragon.

In the blink of an eye, Han Li had set up his Azure Coil Sword Formation. As expected of one of his trump cards, the azure coiled dragon managed to remain completely unscathed in the face of the five-colored lightning, and it was able to vanquish all of the bolts of lightning with devastating sweeps of its powerful tail.

At this point, the fiery clouds up above had already recovered to their original mass, and fire-attribute spiritual Qi surged within them, following which head-sized crimson fireballs came crashing down from above.

Han Li naturally wasn’t going to be fearful of these oncoming balls of flames. He took a deep breath and summoned his two extreme mountains, then laid a hand on each of them, upon which grey Divine Essencefused Light and streaks of invisible sword Qi surged out of the two mountains in a frenzy.

......

A day and a night later, the 81 black wyrms in the sky finally self-detonated into clouds of black Qi, and at this point, all of the spectating high-grade cultivators had already been completely awestruck by the ferocity of this heavenly tribulation, as well as the measures that Han Li had taken to oppose it.

This was the first time they had ever seen such a fearsome heavenly tribulation, and it was downright incredible to them that the might of a single person had been able to stand up against it.

In the instant that the black wyrms disappeared, a long cry rang out from within the stone pagoda, piercing straight into the heavens.

At the same time, an azure pillar of light erupted out of the pagoda, reducing all of the remnant fiery clouds and black Qi to countless runes of different colors.

After the pillar of light faded, an enormous humanoid projection that was around 10,000 feet tall with an appearance that was completely identical to Han Li emerged high up in the air.

”Isn’t that Fellow Daoist Han?”

”I see, so it’s Senior Han who’s been transcending his late-Body Integration Stage tribulation.”

......

Most of the nearby cultivators were immediately able to identify the projection as Han Li, and they immediately burst into spirited discussion.

The azure projection looked around at the countless runes in the nearby area, and a faint smile appeared on its face before it abruptly inhaled violently.

All of the runes shuddered before transforming into specks of light that flooded into the giant projection’s mouth, and with each inhalation, tens of thousands of these specks of light were devoured.

At the same time, the azure projection was expanding at a rapid rate, and after all of the surrounding specks of light had been devoured, more specks of light began to converge from the distance like moths to a flame, only to be devoured by the azure projection as well.

An alarmed look appeared on the white-robed elderly man’s face upon seeing this, and he hurriedly yelled, ”Everyone, get back! Fellow Daoist Han has already transcended his late-Body Integration Stage tribulation and is currently devouring the world’s origin Qi to reform his soul. We’re all currently in the affected area, so we have to get back right away!”