A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 601-Chapter 800)

“They’re yours!” Before the old Daoist could even finish speaking with his insincere smile, Han Li unhappily swept his sleeve across the table. With a flicker of green light, a small pile of soul stones appeared.

Daoist Heavencrystal was overjoyed, but he thought he should say something further out of embarrassment. Han Li dismissed this by waving his arm and saying, “Because I was careless, I suffered quite a loss, but I have no complaints. Now that the debt has been settled, I will be taking my leave.” Han Li gave a salute before gloomily leaving the building.

The old Daoist glanced at Han Li’s departing figure and shook his head with closed eyes. He then nodded his head and excitedly placed the pile of gems into his storage pouch. He had managed to trade some unusable puppet designs for so many soul stones. It was only natural for him to feel satisfied. With these soul stones, he will be able complete those half finished puppets. However, the old Daoist was truly shocked to see Han Li take out so many soul stones and couldn’t help but think higher of him.

Unbeknownst to the old Daoist, Han Li’s gloomy expression had completely disappeared when he walked several streets away. Instead, he was holding onto the white jade slip with a strange smile on his face.

While ten thousand year old Ironwood would prove difficult for others to acquire, it would only take Han Li a bit of time. As for the supposedly unknown materials, they seemed to be salvageable from the remains of the puppets he found in Heavenvoid Hall if he remembered correctly.

If luck would have it, he should be able to gather the materials needed to create several high grade puppets. With strength rivalling Nascent Soul cultivators, these puppets would increase his combat power severalfold. His previously obsolete puppet techniques were about to once again become one of his killing moves.

Furthermore, the jade slip also contained several designs for puppets that were equivalent to of Core Formation cultivators. Although they could be considered rare, they were still purchasable with large quantities of spirit stones. These weaker puppets might not pose a threat to Nascent Soul cultivators when in small groups, but if he were to create several hundreds of them they would have the power to force a Nascent Soul cultivator to dodge.

However, these were simply musings. Even the lowest grade puppet designs had a cost equivalent to common magic treasures. Creating several tens of them, not to mention several hundred, was something that Han Li couldn’t afford at the moment.

Refining several hundred of the Thousand Bamboo School’s grade three puppets had nearly bankrupted him. Even after selling off most of his demon beast materials at the time, he was still barely able to afford them. The cost of the Nascent Soul level puppets paled even more in comparison. Han Li wryly smiled at the thought and gained his bearings before heading towards the city’s west gate.

Although the day was already late, it made no difference to him whether or not the sun was shining. As such, he decided that it was still a good time to seek out the owner of the Auric Essence.

...

With the official start of the trade fair, cultivators from various regions of the Heavenly South Continent now crowded the city. On the start of the second day, auction houses began to start accepting bids on various valuables. The rare goods that were displayed attracted the eyes of many wealthy cultivators.

A middle-aged cultivator standing at the very front of the hall wore a wide smile on his face and said, “The chunk of Auric Essence is sold to this Fellow Daoist for seven hundred sixty thousand spirit stones.”

There was an emerald tray sitting on top of a red wood table which had a walnut-sized piece of faint gold ore that appeared entirely unremarkable.

Afterwards, a silver-robed cultivator excitedly walked forward and handed over the spirit stones before acquiring the Auric Essence.

Sitting in the audience, Han Li simply sighed before taking his leave from the auction hall. Although the following items that were to be auctioned were even more precious, he had little desire for them.

On that night, he was able to easily find the owner of the Auric Essence with his spiritual sense. However, the owner would only exchange it for a grade seven demon beast egg or a legendary treasure refinement material named Divine Unity Paste. Possessing neither, Han Li could only depart in disappointment.

But from what was said, Han Li realized that he only possessed enough Auric Essence to temper seven of his swords.

But despite this, Han Li had still participated in the auction for the Auric Essence. But once the price exceeded five hundred thousand spirit stones, Han Li had completely given up. It seemed it would still be quite a while before he could complete the Aureate Sword Formation.

Having left the auction, Han Li went around the city, buying supplementary materials for puppet refinement. After he finished, he headed towards a corner of the city.

He recalled what Marquis Nanlong had previously said. As it was already the fourth day of the trade fair, he curiously headed towards the location mentioned in the jade slip.

After Han Li swept the surroundings with his spiritual sense, he stood in front of a stone building with an ordinary appearance. He approached the door, and it opened before he even knocked on it.

A long-bearded, purple-robed man wearing a jade crown then walked out of the building.

Marquis Nanlong spoke rather enthusiastically, “Fellow Daoist Han, you’ve arrived. Let me introduce you to our associates.”





Chapter 686: Secret Meeting


“Thank you for the trouble Marquis. And apologies for the wait!” After a few polite words, Han Li followed Marquis Nanlong inside.

The building’s interior was completely bare, to Han Li’s shock. But after he swept his spiritual sense through the building, he discovered restriction fluctuations throughout.

The Marquis smiled upon sensing Han Li’s actions and said, “This small trick of mine can’t be concealed from Fellow Daoist Han of course. Please follow me.” He then formed an incantation gesture with his hand and flung a golden mist from his sleeve.

With the appearance of the golden mist, the unremarkable interior flickered with white light, revealing a set of dark stone steps.

Marquis Nanlong wordlessly descended down the stairs. Han Li frowned, but he followed him all the same.

The stairs were rather short. After only a moment, they arrived before a small underground hall.

There were a few moonlight stones that were softly illuminating the room.

The hall had eight cultivators. Six of them were sitting and the other two were a man and woman pair standing together.

When Marquis Nanlong and Han Li walked in, all of them simultaneously glanced at them.

“It’s you!” The man that was standing couldn’t help but shout in shock at the sight of Han Li’s appearance.

A bright glint appeared from Han Li’s eyes. His sights fell onto the face of a late Core Formation cultivator. He caught sight of a deeply familiar silver mask. After a moment of shock, Han Li sneered.

That man was the young master of the Ghost Spirit Sect, Wang Chan, who had pursued him in the past [1]. He had the same silver mask, but the youthful rage contained in his eyes was replaced with an varied arrangement of emotions.

“I didn’t expect that I’d see an old friend here. What a surprise!”

“How is this possible? You... You condensed a Nascent Soul?” The Ghost Spirit Sect’s young master voice was hoarser than from his youth, but the terror in his voice was unmistakable.

The black-robed, middle-aged scholar sitting in front of him coldly asked, “What the matter? You recognize this Fellow Daoist?”

“Second Uncle, this person is the Yellow Maple Cultivator surnamed Han. During that year, he...”