One of the two men was none other than the green-eyed man with the Zhuo surname who had taken Han Li to the Flying Spirit Palace.
A hint of recognition appeared on his face at the sight of Han Li, following which he hurriedly rose to his feet and extended respectful bow. "Greetings, Senior Han. Could it be that you're our new squad leader?"
"Indeed, I've been assigned the role of leader of the 56th squad. I'll be in your care from now on." Han Li smiled as he tossed his jade pendant casually through the air.
The man's heart jolted as he caught the jade pendant. He carefully inspected the jade pendant before returning it to Han Li in an even more respectful manner.
"Zhuo Chong of the 56th squad pays his respects to the squad leader!"
Seeing as Han Li's identity had been verified, the other man, who was a thin man that appeared to be in his thirties, also hurriedly rose to his feet. "Dongguo Feng pays his respects to the squad leader."
Han Li waved a hand to brush aside the formalities before asking, "Are you two the only ones here?"
"Aside from Daoist Priest Ma and Fairy Xu who aren't here, our other fellow Daoists are all meditating in the silent cultivation chamber. The two of us are here on patrol. Would you like me to alert everyone to your arrival, Senior?" Zhuo Chong asked.
"There's no need to disturb them. I've only just arrived in Deep Heaven City and I'm not too familiar with this place yet, so you can give me an introduction about our squad," Han Li replied with a smile.
"I'll be sure to tell you everything I know, Senior," Zhuo Chong immediately vowed.
During the following period of time, he introduced all of the members of their squad to Han Li, then also elaborated on the patrol missions assigned to their squad.
Just as Han Li was listening to his introduction, a burst of golden light suddenly flashed before rushing into the hall, hurtling directly toward the three of them.
Zhuo Chong and Dongguo Feng glanced at one another at the sight of the golden light, but neither of them did anything. In contrast, Han Li casually made a grabbing motion, and the golden light immediately fell into his grasp as a small golden sword, attached to which was a red jade slip.
Before Han Li had a chance to extricate the jade slip, someone suddenly pushed open the gate of the hall from the outside. At the same time, the refined voice of a man sounded.
"Hehe, was that a messenger sword from our higher-ups? Looks like I'm not too late, after all... Huh? You're..." A graceful Daoist priest strode into the hall before faltering at the sight of Han Li.
"Brother Ma, this is Senior Han; he's been assigned to be our squad leader," Zhuo Chong hurried introduced.
"Senior Han... This junior pays his respects to Senior Han!" A hint of surprise appeared on the Daoist priest's face as he hurried over to Han Li before extending a respectful salute.
"There's no need for formalities, Fellow Daoist Ma. Looks like you've reached the pinnacle of the late-Nascent Soul Stage, which means you're only one step away from the Deity Transformation Stage. That's very much worthy of celebration!" Han Li carefully appraised the Daoist priest before a warm smile suddenly appeared on his face.
Chapter 1330: Floating Dawn Swamp
"You have a sharp discerning eye, Senior Han. Unfortunately, I've been stuck at this cultivation base for several hundred years already. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to take that final step before my lifespan runs out," the Daoist priest replied with a wry smile.
Han Li gave him a faint smile in response, and didn't say anything. He pulled the red jade slip off the small golden sword before examining its contents with his spiritual sense.
The other three cultivators waited patiently off to the side.
Moments later, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade slip and uttered the name of a place.
"Floating Dawn Swamp!"
"What? How could it be that place?!" Zhuo Chong exclaimed upon hearing this. Dongguo Feng and the Daoist priest were also shocked by this development.
"Why? Is there something wrong with that place?" Han Li asked with furrowed brows.
"That's an understatement! That place is regularly frequented by beings of other races, and many of our fellow Daoists perish there every year! It's an extremely perilous place," Zhuo Chong explained in a grim voice.
"And we'll be the only squad patrolling this place?" Han Li asked with a hint of surprise on his face.
"That most likely won't be the case. The Floating Dawn Swamp is an extremely massive place; even if we fly non-stop, it'll still take us half a month to fly a lap around it. Generally speaking, there would be four or five squads patrolling the place at once," Daoist Priest Ma explained.
"If we're not the only squad there, then we have nothing to complain about. We'll just need to take extra care," Han Li said in an indifferent voice.
"Senior Han, you won't be aware of this, but two years ago, Leader Xuan Guang of the 12th squad was attacked by Shadow Tribe beings in the Floating Dawn Swamp, and he perished on the scene along with two of his companions; Senior Xuan Guang was already a mid-Deity Transformation cultivator at he time!" Dongguo Feng explained with a fearful expression.
"Is that so?" Han Li's expression finally changed slightly upon hearing this.
Right at this moment, the sound of footsteps rang out from the passageways on either side of the hall as a few more people emerged.
Among them were five men and a woman, two of which were elderly men, two of which appeared to be a middle-aged couple, and the remaining two were a young man who appeared to be in his late teens, as well as a boisterous-looking burly man.
These were clearly the squad members who had been meditating in the silent cultivation chambers, and they had emerged clearly because they had somehow been alerted to the arrival of the messenger sword.
All of them were naturally rather surprised to see Han Li before extending respectful bows toward him following introductions made by Zhuo Chong.
Han Li naturally responded politely in kind.
After sweeping his spiritual sense through these squad members, he took an extra glance at the teenager, who introduced himself as bearing the Ying surname.
This was at the pinnacle of the late-Nascent Soul Stage, just like Daoist Priest Ma and Zhuo Chong.
Surprisingly, the two with the lowest cultivation bases were the pair of elderly men.
After learning of the fact that they were being deployed to patrol the Floating Dawn Swamp, all of them also became quite concerned.
"Alright, we can't change the orders issues by our higher-ups, so we'll just have to be more careful in the next few years. Let's set off tomorrow; make sure you're all prepared for our journey by then." Han Li issued a few instructions before making his way into one of the passageways.
He then found a silent cultivation chamber for himself and settled in there. Han Li's nonchalant reaction made all of the cultivators present even more concerned. Everyone turned to Zhuo Chong in the end.
The young man who appeared to be in his teens asked, "Brother Zhuo, did you inform Senior Han of the perils of the Floating Dawn Swamp?"
"Of course I did, but it appears that he hasn't really taken me seriously." Zhuo Chong heaved a faint sigh.
"We have no choice in the matter anyway. The order was issued by the panel of elders; what are we going to do? Resist the orders?" the woman among them said in a resigned voice.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 1201-Chapter 1400)
Wang Yu's books
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 1-Chapter 200)
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 201-Chapter 400)
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 401-Chapter 600)
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 601-Chapter 800)
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 801-Chapter 1000)
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 1001-Chapter 1200)
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 1401-Chapter 1600)
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 1601-Chapter 1800)
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 1801-Chapter 2000)
- A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 2001-Chapter 2248)