A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

When Han Li heard this, he was greatly disappointed, but it also did not surprise him. After all, the Yellow Dragon Pellet and Gold Essence Pill were secular elixirs. To ordinary people these may be a miracle drugs, but to Immortal cultivators, these were indeed lacking.

Since the youth did not look up, Han Li also did not want to be long-winded, so he reached out to take the porcelain bottles back.

“Although these pill medicines are indeed lacking a bit, if you have more bottles, I will exchange with you!” The youth suddenly spoke, looking quite sympathetic.

After hearing the youth’s words, Han Li’s arm that was reaching out was immediately withdrawn. He laughed lightly.

“Did I say that I only have two medicinal bottles?” Han Li spoke slowly as he narrowed his eyes to focus on the youth.

“You have more?” The youth was slightly surprised, but he immediately revealed a cheerful expression.

“Of course, but if you want too many, I would still need to consider whether to agree with this transaction.” Han Li said noncommittally, as he was afraid that the youth might take advantage of the situation.

“That’s great! I don’t need a lot, just three bottles will do. It will be enough to allow me to break through the bottleneck in a short period of time.” The youth cheered up, appearing very passionate, which was very different from his previously cold demeanor.

This wasn’t surprising. Who would bear to part with any consolidation pill medicine that was able to boost cultivating effort? There wasn’t even enough to use on oneself! This was also the main reason why the youth had not exchanged the flight talisman these past few days.

Han Li’s Yellow Dragon Pellet and Gold Essence Pill were not considered top-notch spiritual medicine to Immortal cultivators, but thanks to the advantage of quantity, it was sufficient to allow the youth to break through to the tenth layer after being stuck at the peak of ninth layer for so long, thus increasing the youth’s power drastically.

However, only Han Li, a rascal who ate this type of medicine as mere snacks, could afford to use pill medicine for the exchange. Even so, Han Li was fully aware of the reason behind not exposing one’s wealth. Han Li didn’t want to the youth to have the impression that he could easily take out huge amounts of pill medicine without having any regrets.

Hence, Han Li touched his chin, making an appearance of pain as well as reluctance to part with his belongings.

“Is that so? Isn’t it too many? I have to exchange all the medicine I have on me!” Han Li intentionally muttered softly.

“This isn’t a lot! After all, this is an elementary high-grade spirit talisman. Think about it, if you had this spirit talisman with you, when you meet any dangers, you can immediately soar far into the sky. You can even fly faster than most of the birds. It’s equivalent to having another chance to live! Furthermore, as long as the talisman’s Spiritual Qi doesn’t disperse, it can be used repeatedly many times. It is truly a useful spirit talisman!” The youth saw Han Li looking like he was going to give all his pill medicine, so he strongly promoted the advantages of his Soaring Sky Talisman and flourished the smile on his face even more, afraid that Han Li would be unwilling and back out of the transaction.

“If we want to exchange, then fine. Give me a dozen of those talisman papers as a treat. That book too!” Han Li added when saw that the youth really wanted his pill medicine, so he straightforwardly pointed at a dozen slips of plain white talisman paper and an old book titled “Manual of Basic Incantations”.

The youth was shocked for a moment, but when he saw Han Li pointed to the low-rank talisman paper and an incantation book that was impossible to sell off, he was immediately delighted and agreed to it.

So this was how Han Li obtained Soaring Sky Talisman and even managed to acquire a dozen slips of talisman paper as well as the incantation book that he had his eye on from the very beginning.

Han Li flipped through the old book. In the book, there were all kinds of most basic elementary incantations, including seven to eight low-grade magic techniques and an elementary mid-grade “Earth Thrust Technique”.

To other Immortal cultivators, this kind of book was worthless, but it made Han Li extremely satisfied.

This was because Han Li was currently lacking in these types of basic incantation techniques. Even though the stall in front of him sold manuals that were better and more complete, their prices were astonishing.

One manual titled “Comprehensive Collection of Elementary Incantations of the Five Elements” was priced at 90 pieces of low-grade spirit stones, and another called “Fundamental Water Incantation Talisman Techniques” was priced at 60 pieces of low-grade spirit stones. Although all these books were thick and contained more incantation techniques, the current Han Li really couldn’t buy them at all.

(TL: “Five elements” refer to the 五行 Five Phases: Wood (木 ), Fire (火 ), Earth (土 ), Metal (金), and Water (水 ))

After obtaining these goods, Han Li felt a little tired and was not in the mood to continue strolling, so he directly exited the plaza and headed towards the pavilion.

Not long after leaving the plaza, Han Li turned his head to look and discovered that there were even more people within the plaza. It seemed like there were many of those night owl-like Immortal cultivators who prefered the nighttime.

When Han Li got closer to these palace-type buildings, he discovered that the towers were actually built using extremely precious paulownia wood and large pieces of limestone. Not only was every floor carved with a picture of dragons and phoenix and was very refinely constructed, there was even a faint fluctuation of spirit power coming from one of the nearby towers. Perhaps it was the restraining technique that Daoist Priest Qing Wen mentioned.

Han Li walked around for a lap, and and after finally finding the pavilion he was looking for, he walked towards it.

But about three meters away from his destination, Han Li suddenly felt like he slammed into something after an invisible immense force abruptly pushed him and forcibly forced him to retreat far back.

Han Li was somewhat startled yet excited. It appeared that there was a lot of things he still didn’t know about in the cultivation world, and he desperately wanted to learn everything.

As Han Li thought about this, his heart beat faster. He used the Heaven’s Eye Technique and gazed towards the small building.

In the end, Han Li saw a faint layer of green light in front of him, obstructing the way. The whole pavilion was covered in the same green light, as if a huge bowl had been overthrown and was covering it.

Han Li stepped forward once again, extended a finger, and lightly jabbed the green light. There was a soft and extremely elastic feeling. Using a bit more strength, there was a faint force that bounced back. The defense power of the green light was quite effective.

Since Han Li managed to understand the effect of the green light, he stopped investigating it. He took out the talisman that Daoist Priest Qing Wen gave him and walked closer towards the light screen. In the end, the green coloured light screen immediately cleared away in ripples. A round hole soon appeared for Han Li to pass through.

Han Li kept the talisman properly and strided in unceremoniously towards the tower. At this moment, the round hole slowly became smaller until it finally closed fully, returning the light screen back to its normal appearance.

The tower in front was not considered to be very big. There were only two stories and was about 33 meters tall. But from the looks of the area of the land, there was plenty of space to spare for ten or more people to live.

Han Li smiled and lifted his leg to enter the building. Upon entering the first floor’s hall, other than the two large eight-seat square table, there were ten wooden chairs with simple and elegant upholstery. There was even a few Immortal cultivators.

The small Buddhist Monk Ku Sang was sitting on the floor at the corner of the hall with his head lowered. His eyes were shut and he was chanting Sanskrit, looking like he was a senior monk. As for the other people, Han Li has not seen them before.

“Master Ku Sang, is Daoist Priest Qing Wen not back yet?” Han Li asked politely as he walked towards the Buddhist monk.

The small Buddhist monk paid no heed to Han Li and continued to mutter some words, until Han Li became impatient with waiting. The Buddhist monk opened his eyes and said to Han Li with a look of apology, “Almsgiver Han, please do not blame me. I was reciting the Diamond Sutra up to a crucial point, so I was unable to reply to your question immediately. Please do not get mad at me!”

Han Li heard the Buddhist monk’s reply and laughed dryly, “How is that possible? I admire focused people the most.”

Hearing Han Li say that, the small Buddhist monk laughed and leisurely said. “Daoist Priest Qing Wen and the others are currently waiting for Almsgiver Han at the second floor. They instructed me to immediately tell you to go up once I saw you. It seems like they are looking for Almsgiver for some matters.”

(TL: 施主 Almsgiver or benefactor is a traditional way buddhist monks address others.)

Han Li became somewhat gloomy when he heard this.

Really! Even though there were people looking for Han Li, this small Buddhist monk not only failed to immediately tell Han Li, he was still so slow and long-winded. In the future, it would be better to be further away from the same type of people as the small Buddhist monk. The further the better!

Han Li silently cursed in his heart, but his face remained unchanged as he nodded his head. He walked towards nearby stairs in the hall and headed up to the second floor.

Upon entering the second floor, Han Li saw the two brothers Hei Mu and Hei Jin talking at the stairway entrance. Once they saw Han Li coming up, they quickly stopped their conversation and welcomed Han Li.

“Brother Han, Daoist Priest Qing Wen is currently waiting for you in the house. Follow both of us brothers to go over there!” Han Li’s expression was calm, and he did not utter a single word. He followed the two brothers around seven to eight turns along the corridor and entered a house.

There were many people in the house. Apart from the Buddhist monk, everyone else was here. There were even two strangers that Han Li did not recognise.

One of them was a 16 to 17 year-old youth, and the other was a 21 to 22 year-old fatty with fair skin. It seemed that these two were the rascals that even caused a headache for Daoist Priest Qing Wen.

“Brother Han is here! Quickly sit!” Daoist Priest Qing Wen said to Han Li as he very politely pointed to a chair beside him.

Han Li nodded and sat there.

“These two people are Yunmen Ravine’s Wu Jiuzhi and Shitou Valley’s Huang Xiaotian,” Qing Wen pointed to the youth and fatty separately and introduced them to Han Li.

(TL: 九指 (Jiuzhi) means nine fingers. 孝天 (Xiaotian) means filial piety, sky/heaven)