A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Han Li gently held the pill between two fingers and brought it to his eye, carefully examining it before revealing a faint smile.

It seemed that the fight to flee wasn’t a wasted effort. As he had acquired several Dustfall Pills, the odds of his Core Formation should somewhat increase.

After properly putting away the medicine pills, Han Li carefully stored away the bottle in his storage pouch.

Now, Han Li had to find a location that was both safe and had an abundance of Spiritual Qi. So long as either Han Li or Crooked Soul managed to reach Core Formation, they would have a chance when fighting against any Core Formation cultivator that wished to hunt them down.

However, Core Formation wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a short amount of time. Other than genius cultivators blessed with heavenly spiritual roots, other cultivators require enough spirit medicines and time to break through the bottleneck.

Spirit Snow Water and Liquid Heavenfire are two such materials required for cultivators that wished to form their core.

While they aren’t required in order to succeed in Core Formation, the success-rate without them is so astronomically low that it would cause cultivators to spit blood. Although there wasn’t an official statistic, it is said to be less than one percent.

Apart from these two items, many other spirit medicines can also be taken to increase the odds of success for Core Formation, but none of them were as effective as Spirit Snow Water and Liquid Heavenfire.

Unfortunately, taking multiples of these medicines would prove to have no effect. It wasn’t like refining Qi during meditation where it was optimal to take appropriate amounts of other spirit medicines. In fact, it would most likely prove to have an opposite effect.

But what was laughable was not only were the effects of the other medicines far inferior to that of the Spirit Snow Water and Liquid Heavenfire, they required herbs that were more rare and harder to find. In addition, these medicines would often require several thousand-year-old herbs to create.

Ordinary cultivators wouldn’t have such mighty spending power! At best, they would have one or two luxurious additions to their Spirit Snow Water and Liquid Heavenfire.

Of course, this didn’t pose a problem for Han Li. Apart from the pills requiring a few rare spirit herbs he didn’t have or had never heard of, he had refined over ten spiritual medicines to aid in Core Formation, all of which were now safely stored inside his storage pouch.

But what was most surprising was that these medicines didn’t require Innate Truefire to be refined. They were simply mixed together like ordinary medicines of the mortal world. In addition, these pill formulas could easily be found in ancient records. When Han Li initially found them, he was stunned for quite a while; even to this day, he was still left puzzled.

As for the five Dustfall Pills he acquired, they were extremely rare supplementary medicines that all cultivators nearing Core Formation desired.

However, even with the aid of these many medicine pills, the probability of success in Core Formation wouldn’t be vastly higher than those without. According to Han Li’s research, his mind bogglingly extravagant method of Core Formation would only raise his odds of success by ten percent at most when compared to other cultivators.

On the whole, taking medicine should be a bit better than not, but this was only Han Li’s opinion.

Additionally, Core Formation wasn’t something that could be concluded in merely ten days or half a month. According to ancient records and the Core Formation experience of Li Huayuan, Han Li’s former master, it would take about three to five years to conclude. The specific duration would depend on an individual’s own aptitude.

From here on out, he would have to avoid feeling great emotion, avoid any battles with others, and find a place with acceptable Spiritual Qi.

Thus, it was imperative that Han Li found an island to seclude himself and attempt Core Formation, even if it were somewhat sparse regarding Spiritual Qi.

With that in mind, Han Li took out a jade slip that contained a huge map of the seas with Stalwart Star Island and the other two main islands at the center.

Han Li submerged his spiritual sense into the slip for quite some time. After eventually finding his approximate location, he then searched for remote, small sized islands.

After the time it took to cook a meal, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade slip with a thoughtful expression.

He looked at the seas and the blazing sun in the sky before finding his desired direction, turning into a streak of white light and disappearing across the horizon.

Along the way, Han Li stopped at a few desolate islands to recover his magic power. He avoided any islands that were inhabited, as he was fearful he of leaving behind traces for anyone pursuing him.

After changing direction several times, Han Li finally found the region he wished to travel to and quickly flew off.

……

Two months later, Han Li and Crooked Soul appeared above a remote island.

This island wasn’t nearly as large as Stalwart Star Island, but it was quite a bit larger than ordinary small islands, barely large enough to be considered a medium sized island. It was the “Sea Ape Island” that Han Li had endured a long, arduous journey for.

The island had few mortals and no cultivators above Qi Condensation, along with no island lord to speak of. It was a place of freedom where everyone could come and go as they pleased. As for the island’s name, the nearby seas were occupied by the particularly strange low-grade demon beast, Sea Apes.

This demon beast was almost entirely the same as a common ape, apart from its ability to use the low-grade Water Arrow magic technique and its considerable intelligence. By adulthood, it was nearly as intelligent as an eight-year old child, and cultivators are fond of capturing them to act as workers for their immortal’s cave.

Although Sea Apes are considered demon beasts, they are capable of being easily subdued by sixth layer Qi Condensation cultivators. As such, a few small ships would arrive annually, hiring low grade cultivators to capture and sell the beasts.

There were a few small merchants that had collectively set up a formation spell on the island and had established a long storefront that bought living Sea Apes year long. Every so often, a ship would arrive and leave with a large quantity of Sea Apes.

As such, the island became a gathering point for low-grade cultivators striving to acquire spirit stones.

But after a formation spell was established, rogue cultivators came to Sea Ape Island for long term residence as it contained a massive spirit vein of fair quality. Although the spirit vein couldn’t be said to be exceptional, tt was so large and broad that the entire island was suitable for low-grade cultivation.

As for spirit wells or any other dense areas of Spiritual Qi, Sea Ape Island was largely lacking when compared to other islands. Thus, it didn’t invite conflict with any high-grade cultivators.

With sparse Spiritual Qi and the mere local specialty of sea apes, it naturally escaped the notice of greater powers and became a free land of low-grade cultivators. Although a Foundation Establishment or Core Formation cultivator would occasionally arrive at the island, they were mostly just passing through.

This island made for an exceptionally good place for Han Li to hide and undergo Core Formation!

……

Two days later, Han Li stood on the peak of some desolate mountain on the island. As he gazed at his newly created temporary cave dwelling, he felt great satisfaction.

Apart from a simple medicine garden and two secret rooms, there weren’t any other complex designs.

Han Li used a formation tool set to lay down an ordinary concealment formation spell at the cave’s entrance and carefully released his two “Bloodjade Spiders” from his storage pouch, setting them to guard the entrance of his cave.

Having undergone years of nurturing, the two white spiders had grown to the size of his head and had ascended two grades, becoming high grade one demon beasts capable of easily dealing with ordinary Qi Condensation cultivators. Han Li had left all of his other wondrous bugs behind at his true Immortal’s cave on Minor Expanse island.

Han Li guessed that those who sought to either silence him or avenge Elder Gu would definitely search his Immortal’s cave at Minor Expanse Island.

Although the false and true Immortal’s cave were concealed by three great formations, they wouldn’t be able to withstand a Core Formation cultivator’s attacks for long. As for his false Immortal’s cave, it would undoubtedly be revealed.

But according to Han Li’s estimations, there was a fifty percent chance of his true Immortal’s cave remaining hidden.

This was because the passageway to his true Immortal’s cave was concealed by mortal mechanisms rather than any easily perceived formation spells. Its entrance was cleverly blocked by a huge, engraved stone chair.

If someone were to only inspect his false Immortal’s cave, Han Li was completely confident that they wouldn’t find anything amiss. But if a particularly meticulous examiner were to come, it may prove unfortunate.

After all, the other mountain contained wondrous bugs with an unique aura. It definitely wouldn’t be concealed from the strong spiritual sense of a Core Formation cultivator.

Although Han Li was unwilling to let go of the wondrous bugs he hadn’t been able to tame, he could only resign himself to fate.

Even if they weren’t fed for six years, they should still be able to survive. Such a situation situation had occurred before!

With those dim thoughts in mind, Han Li and Crooked Soul each entered their own respective rooms.