A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 201-Chapter 400)

As they journeyed on route, Han Li eventually learned of their assignment from the other cultivators. They were being sent to reinforce the garrison of a particularly large spirit stone mine. The original security assigned there was fundamentally incapable of resisting a minor Devil Dao raid.

Knowing that his assignment wasn’t to become cannon fodder in an upfront melee against the Six Devil Dao Sects, Han Li finally let out a sigh of relief.

In truth, even if he returned to Yellow Maple Valley, he was likely to be immediately be dispatched on a mission. Furthermore, his assignment might not necessarily be better than this one.

Although this assignment was slightly dangerous, so long as he was a bit careful, the possibilities of making it through in one piece was rather high. After all, this spirit stone mine of theirs was only somewhat large, spanning over ten mountains. If the enemy wanted to mount a raid on the seven sect’s spirit mines, it was likely they would target the largest mines first.

With this thought, Han Li’s conflicted mood faded away as he became much more familiar with Xuan Yue and the other cultivators throughout the following days.

Several days later, the group of cultivators finally arrived at a large wasteland within the borders of the State of Yue. That spirit stone mine was located within a huge canyon in the wasteland that was more than three hundred meters deep.

Under Xuan Yue’s guidance, they flew into the canyon, which was concealed by a formation spell. At the same time, several Seven Sect cultivators came out to greet them.

The leader of the original guards of the spirit stone mine was an old man at early Foundation Establishment wearing Heavenly Imperial Fortress clothes. Besides him were five or six Qi Condensation disciples.

With such weak guards, it was no wonder the upper echelons of the seven sects had anxiously dispatched support.

The old man who called himself Yu Xing led them into a huge cave dwelling inside the canyon. There, he gave Han Li and the others a detailed explanation on the circumstances of the spirit stone mine.Then, Xuan Yue swiftly and decisively arranged their defenses.

He took out over ten formation flags and formation disks and had the male cultivators arrange an autonomous attack formation named the "Four Fiend Formation" underneath the illusion formation. He also had Han Li and the other cultivators divide into groups to take turns patrolling and standing guard near the spirit stone mine in order to prevent enemy raids. Cultivators not on duty could meditate and cultivate their magic power.

Han Li was very pleased with Xuan Yue’s arrangements.

Like this, Han Li would be able to compensate for the deficiencies in his strength!

From what he experienced from his fight with the Ghost Spirit Sect, Han Li had come to understand that his previous manner of relying on strategy and nimble movement to deal with the enemy was fundamentally incapable of dealing against enemies with large disparities in strength. Upon meeting a ferocious character like the Ghost Spirit Sect’s young master, everything he could possibly muster had appeared powerless before him. Even the treasure talisman he had put high hopes in had almost been snatched away. He was no longer able to once again fix his problems with a single blow.

If it weren’t for the surprising effects of the poisonous fog released by the “Azurefire Miasma”, he would have long been buried underneath the yellow earth. Even his very own soul may have been collected by his opponent and tormented in more than a hundred ways. When he thought of that dreadful fate worse than death, Han Li felt chilled to the bone!

A great fear of that top-grade Devil Dao secret technique, the Great Blood Spirit Arts, had been born in Han Li’s heart!

He clearly understood that if he were to come across the Ghost Spirit Sect young master again, it was likely he would only be able to resign himself to death against his opponent’s secret techniques. Unless he cultivated the Azure Essence Sword Art to Core Formation, its divine abilities fundamentally wouldn’t be able to contend against that opponent.

During the Six Devil Dao Sect’s invasion of the State of Yue, the Seven Great Sects had vigorously struck back during the confusion, so melees between cultivators became commonplace. During this time, long-term plans had become secondary in favor of quickly increasing one’s strength, allowing a cultivator to preserve his life in this period of chaos.

Thus, his original plans for cultivation must adapt!

The Azure Essence Sword Art would be set aside for the time being. He would first cultivate the “Great Development Technique” to substantially increase his strength.

Having previously seen the overbearing power of mechanical puppets, Han Li was convinced that even if he could only cultivate the first layer of the Great Development Technique, he would have enough power to defend himself. After all, he already had several tens of mechanical puppets on hand.

Naturally, he would have to study those puppet sutras and hope he would be able to create a few simple mechanical puppets in the short term. With that along with the “Great Development Technique” he would have a continued source of strength throughout his time in Foundation Establishment.

After repeatedly pondering over this several times, Han Li felt this decision was correct and cultivated the “Great Development Technique” during his time off duty. At the same time, he also used a few simple materials he had on hand and started attempting to create elementary mechanical beasts, devoting his energy to creating puppets similar to his figurines.





Chapter 264: Mechanical Puppets and the Great Development Technique


On the wasteland, a meter-long lizard stuck its head out from a heavily eroded rock and looked around, preparing for the day’s hunt.

But just as it crawled out several meters from its nest, a yellow monster about three meters long suddenly leaped out from the sandy soil. It used its two front claws and mouth, pouncing at the lizard and easily breaking its neck. Holding the corpse in its mouth, it then hurriedly rushed forth in some direction.

This strange beast had four claws and a long pointed tail. It appeared to be a huge lizard but its entire body was extremely hard. As it ran, it made creaking noises; it was actually a mechanical figurine.

When this strange animal ran about half a kilometer, it reached a yellow-robed man sitting in meditation on a flat rock. Then it tossed the dead lizard next to this man’s side and ran off.

This yellow-robed man wasn’t surprised in the slightest. His expression remained unwavered.

He calmly moved his hand. The dead lizard at his side slowly flew up several feet in the air before stopping.

Then this yellow-robed man extended his forefinger to the lizard’s head and muttered something.

Not long after, a faint white light slowly emitted from his extended forefinger.

As he continued his incantation, the white light grew increasingly bright until it became blinding.

“Swiftly!”

Seeing that the crucial moment had not yet passed, yellow-robed man yelled this in a low voice.

The white light on his forefinger shot out a white thread that entered the deepest part of the lizard’s skull. Then the yellow-robed man strenuously pulled back at the thread. His expression was solemn as he exercised extremely caution.

Eventually, under the yellow-robed man’s careful gaze, the white thread pulled out a green sphere of light from the lizard’s corpse. It was light as a feather, only as large as his thumb.

When the yellow-robed man saw this, he beamed as if he had acquired a rare treasure.

A light flashed from his other hand, revealing a small light yellow jade bottle. Poof. Streaks of multicolored lights shot from the bottle, sweeping the green ball of light into the bottle.