A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 2001-Chapter 2248)

Golden light emanated from Han Li's body, easily keeping the purple mist at bay, and he also descended along with everyone else.

To their surprise, the canyon wasn't as immeasurably deep as it had appeared on the surface. After flying for only around 10,000 feet, a patch of gentle white light suddenly appeared up ahead.

Everyone quickly landed on the solid ground down below, and Han Li looked around to discover that they were all situated on a massive plaza that was over 100 acres in size and paved with translucent white jade.

There were fist-sized jewels embedded onto the ground at regular intervals, illuminating this area and making it as bright as day.

There were eight winding paths around the plaza leading in different directions, and Han Li looked up as the purple mist slowly converged from all directions before rising upward.

"Alright, the fact that we've managed to arrive safely indicates that the Stemborer Queen is still in its slumber. Now then, let's proceed according to the original plan. I'll lead a group of people to contact the spirit of the ancient seal, while Fellow Daoist Copper Crow and our fellow daoists from the Heavenly Crow Realm will venture deep into the underground palace to try and get into contact with our trapped allies. Our two fellow daoists from the Black Night Realm will go to the deepest part of the underground palace to find where the Stemborer Queen is hibernating and conduct surveillance on it, but make sure not to alert it.

"With the concealment secret techniques of the Black Night Realm, I'm sure this won't be a difficult task. As for everyone else, split up and travel to the formation cores of the underground palace to repair some of the key restrictions there. Those places may be guarded by the descendants of the Stemborer Queen, so be careful. The true descendants of the Stemborer Queen are far more powerful than the stemborers outside, and they're extremely dangerous even for Grand Ascension Stage beings like us," Bao Hua instructed.

"Hehe, we'll look after ourselves."

"I'll be going on ahead then."

"You be careful too, Fellow Daoist Bao Hua."

Thus, all of the Grand Ascension Stage beings split up into groups and departed from the plaza.

Han Li and Daoist Xie were split into a group with two other Grand Ascension Stage beings, and the four of them disappeared down one of the paths leading away from the plaza.

These other two Grand Ascension Stage beings were Xie Lian, and the foreign Grand Ascension Stage being enshrouded in green Qi, Lü Shi.

Their mission was to repair some of the restrictions at the formation core of the underground palace.

Xie Lian was walking on ahead while inspecting a jade slip in her hand, and Han Li and Daoist Xie were in the middle, while Lü Shi brought up the rear.

None of them said anything, and they gently glided along several feet above the ground.

Their spiritual sense was able to encompass the entire area within a radius of over 1,000 feet, and as long as there wasn't anyone far more powerful than them here, no one would be able to escape their detection.

Han Li was inspecting his surroundings with a calm expression, and he discovered that the path that they were traversing was lined with tall rectangular pagodas.

These pagodas were quite antiquated in design, and their surfaces were riddled with simplistic ancient runes, seemingly having already stood for countless years.

After flying along for around 15 minutes, they still hadn't reached the end of the path.

All of a sudden, Han Li's brows furrowed slightly, and he drew to an abrupt halt.

"Did you discover something, Fellow Daoist Han?" Xie Lian asked as she turned around.

Lü Shi also stopped in his tracks to hear what Han Li had to say.

"There seems to be something interesting over there; would you two like to take a look?" Han Li said with a smile as he cast his gaze toward a certain direction.

Xie Lian swept her spiritual sense toward the same direction, but was unable to discover anything, and her expression changed slightly as she said, "Your spiritual sense can detect things that far away?"

Lü Shi was also unable to detect anything with his spiritual sense, and he said, "I'd be happy to accompany you, Fellow Daoist Han."

It was clear that Han Li's spiritual sense was far more powerful than his and Xie Lian's.

Han Li nodded before drifting toward the same direction that he had cast his gaze toward, followed by an expressionless Daoist Xie.

Xie Lian and Lü Shi exchanged a cautious glance, and only then did they follow along.





Chapter 2229: Human-faced Insect


After straying only several hundred feet off the path, both Xie Lian and Lü Shi immediately detected something.

After flying for no more than 2,000 feet, a massive deep crater that was around 80 feet in size emerged up ahead.

There were seven stone pagodas around the giant crater that were in ruins, and the ground was riddled with countless deep trenches, indicating that a fierce battle had taken place here.

At the center of the giant crater laid the charred black remains of a giant insect, and it seemed that this was only less than half of the insect's entire carcass.

Even though the carcass was incomplete, it was still quite menacing to behold, and both Xie Lian and Lü Shi couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

This insect was similar in appearance to the average stemborer with a glossy exoskeleton, but on its long and thin neck was an extremely hideous male head, complete with all of its facial features and a head of disheveled green hair that resembled wild grass.

The carcass was lying still on the ground without any blood around it, having clearly perished here a long time ago.

"So this is a true descendant of the Stemborer Queen; it really is very disturbing to look at," Xie Lian said as her face paled slightly.

"It truly is. I didn't think that these insects would be so unsightly; the Stemborer Queen is most likely even more disgusting to look at. What do you think, Fellow Daoist Han?" Lü Shi asked.

"Perhaps so. I won't just come to any conclusions before I see the Stemborer Queen for myself," Han Li said with a faint smile, then suddenly swept a sleeve toward the giant crater.

A loud boom rang out as a burst of invisible power struck the insect carcass, causing it to flip onto its back.

Xie Lian's complexion paled even further at the sight of the insect's underside.

The insect had around a dozen shattered limbs attached to its abdomen, some of which were very sharp and lined with hard black fur, just like the limbs of actual insects.

However, the other limbs were fair and delicate, bearing a strong appearance to human hands, but instead of five fingers, each hand was comprised of three fingers, one of which was quite thin, while the other two were thicker.

Lü Shi's eyelids spasmed upon seeing this, and he raised a hand to conjure up a blue fireball, which he immediately sent flying toward the insect carcass.

The fireball didn't seem to be releasing any heat, but the air around it had become quite warped and blurry, clearly indicating that the flames were extremely fearsome.

As soon as the fireball struck the insect carcass, the latter immediately burst into flames.

Moments later, Lü Shi made a hand seal before pointing a finger at the carcass, and a dull thump rang out as the blue flames instantly vanished to reveal the carcass again.

However, aside from the fact that it was slightly more charred black than before, the carcass appeared to have been largely unaffected.

Lü Shi and Xie Lian's expressions darkened even further upon seeing this.

"Interesting! Let me give it a try as well," Han Li chuckled as he raised a hand to flick three of his fingers through the air.

Three streaks of azure sword Qi instantly erupted from his fingertips before striking the carcass in quick succession.