A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

”Indeed, but to make sure that this information is accurate, we’ll have to get someone to scout the situation. I’ll leave that to you, Elder Hui,” the Long Family patriarch said.

”No problem, I’ll be back in half a day,” Elder Hui replied with a nod before flying away as a streak of black light.

Following Elder Hui’s departure, the Long Family patriarch finally turned to the two devilish beings. ”I have some things to ask the two of you; if you reply truthfully, you’ll be rewarded, but if not, I’m sure you know what’s going to happen to you.”

”Please go ahead, Senior; we’ll definitely tell you everything that we know,” the burly devilish man immediately replied.

The elderly devilish man also nodded eagerly with an obedient and respectful expression.

”How far away from this place is Blood Crow City, and how far away is the nearest city to Blood Crow City? Also, what is the name of your city lord and what’s his cultivation base?” the Long Family patriarch asked.

He was posing many questions all at once, but none of them were taboo or related to confidential information, so the burly devilish man immediately replied, ”Blood Crow City is around 50,000 kilometers away from here, and the closest city to it is Night Asura City, but it’ll take at least two months to get there. As for our city lord, his name is Bing Qianren, and he’s a mid-stage devilish lord.”

”A mid-stage devilish lord, eh? That’s not bad. What’s the current situation in Blood Crow City like? Are there any teleportation formations in the city that lead to other cities? Alternatively, is there any way to skirt around the beast tide in the east?” the Long Family patriarch continued.

The burly devilish man hesitated momentarily before replying, ”In order to ensure that the city is prepared for a sudden attack from the Butterflytail Beasts, we’re in a state of total lockdown, but we’d be more than happy to have you. Unfortunately, our city is too small to facilitate teleportation formations. There is naturally a way to skirt around the beast tide, but it would take far more than half a month to do so, so I suggest you all wait in the city until the beast tide passed before continuing onward.”

”Regardless of how long it’s going to take, I still want to know how we can skirt around the beast tide; I’ll be the one to decide whether that option is suitable for us or not. Also, you have a map of this nearby area, right? Make a copy for me,” the Long Family patriarch instructed.

”Yes, Senior; please forgive me for jumping to conclusions in your stead! The beast tide in the east covers a very large area, so if you want to skirt around it, you’ll have to travel through the Withered Leaf Forest to the south or the grassland to the north...” The burly devilish man immediately revealed everything that he knew, and at the end, he pulled out a black crystal that he handed over to the Long Family patriarch.

The Long Family patriarch accepted the black crystal before replicating its contents into a white crystal. These crystals were similar to the jade slips of the Spirit Realm, and the Long Family patriarch had collected some prior to entering the Elder Devil Realm.

Their functions and method of usage were similar to those of normal jade slips, but devilish Qi was required to activate them.

This was naturally no issue to Han Li, who was using a devilish cultivation art, and everyone else was also able to use these crystals by drawing upon the power of their Devilfeign Beads.

In order to not arouse suspicion, all of them had prepared some commonly used items from the Elder Devil Realm for themselves.

After the Long Family patriarch replicated the map, he tossed the crystal to everyone else for them to make copies as well.

With a map of the nearby area, they were naturally able to examine the options they had for skirting around the beast tide, but after examining the map, none of the options proved to be very attractive.

Just as Han Li was pondering the situation, the Long Family patriarch’s voice suddenly sounded beside his ears. ”Fellow Daoist Han, it looks like we really won’t be able to skirt around that Butterflytail Beast Tide; how about we wait in the nearby area for some time and continue after the beast tide is over? A delay of around half a month won’t be of much consequence to us anyway. As for that Blood Crow City, I think we should stay out of it as a safety precaution.”

As a late-Body Integration cultivator, Han Li was naturally the first person the Long Family patriarch turned to for discussion.

Han Li was silent for a moment before replying, ”It is indeed not worth the risk to venture into the beast tide when we could just wait half a month instead, but I think we should make a trip to this Blood Crow City.”

”Oh? Why is that, Brother Han?” The Long Family patriarch was rather taken aback to hear this.

”I understand that you’re reluctant to enter the city as you’re concerned that our covers could be blown, but Blood Crow City is only a small city that doesn’t even have any teleportation formations, so it won’t have any powerful restrictions, either. As such, our disguise should be safe. The main reason I’m suggesting we go to Blood Crow City is because it’s very likely that we’ll be staying in the Elder Devil Realm for up to several decades. During such an extended period of time, it’s inevitable that we’ll have to come into contact with some devilish beings. The Devilfeign Beads can indeed disguise our auras, but our severe lack of knowledge of this realm could expose us sooner or later. On top of that, aside from the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Clean Spirit Lotus, there are some spirit medicines in this realm that are very difficult to find in our Spirit Realm; don’t you want to collect some of those as well, Brother Long?” Han Li replied in an unhurried manner.

The Long Family patriarch seemed to have been swayed by Han Li’s suggestion, and he replied, ”That does sound appealing, Brother Han. I’ll discuss this with Fellow Daoist Thousand Autumns and the others before we decide how to proceed.”

”Of course, I’m guessing Fairy Thousand Autumns is even more eager to enter Blood Crow City than we are,” Han Li chuckled in a meaningful voice.

The Long Family patriarch faltered slightly upon hearing this before also chuckling in response. ”Hehe, that’s true; there are a few extremely precious materials for the Spirit Race that can only be found en masse in the Elder Devil Realm.” He then turned and transmitted his voice to Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns, and judging from her reaction, she was clearly very receptive toward the Long Family patriarch’s proposal.

Their conversation was very brief, and Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns didn’t even discuss the matter with the other Spirit beings before giving the Long Family patriarch a very clear answer. It was clear that the Spirit beings had already made a decision among themselves.

Thus, it was decided that they were going to travel to Blood Crow City, and the Long Family patriarch informed the woman from the Ye Family and the man from the Lin Family of this decision as well.

Neither of them had any objections, and a consensus was quickly reached.

The two devilish beings could naturally see that Han Li and the others were discussing something, and they waited patiently and obediently without uttering a single word.

Half a day later, a streak of black light approached them from afar; it was Elder Hui who was returning from his scouting trip.

As soon as Elder Hui landed on the ground, the Long Family patriarch approached him with a smile, and asked, ”Did you manage to verify whether there’s a beast tide, Brother Hui?”

”There are indeed countless Butterflytail Beasts gathered in the east. I didn’t dare to approach them and only looked on from afar for a while before returning to deliver the news,” Elder Hui replied with a wry smile.

The Long Family patriarch had already anticipated this to be the case, and he asked a few more questions before he lowered his head with a contemplative expression. All of a sudden, he flicked a finger, and two streaks of golden light shot forth like lightning before vanishing into the bodies of the two defenseless devilish beings in a flash.

Never did the two of them think that this ”devilish lord” would suddenly launch a surprise attack against them, and they both slumped to the ground almost as soon as the streaks of golden light entered their bodies.

Everyone else aside from Han Li was rather bewildered by this.

”Why did you do that, Brother Long? Don’t we need them to take us to Blood Crow City?” Zang Xing asked.

”We already know the location of Blood Crow City, don’t we? We can just get there ourselves. Besides, I didn’t kill them; I merely knocked them unconscious,” the Long Family patriarch replied.

Zang Xing was also a wily old fox who had lived for countless years, and an enlightened look immediately appeared on his face. ”Oh? Could it be that you’re planning to...”

”Indeed. If I were to kill them, that would most likely attract the attention of that Blood Crow City Lord. There’s no need for us to fear a mid-stage devilish lord, but it’s naturally best if we avoid trouble as much as possible. I’m planning to unleash a soul seal technique on them to temporarily seal away their memories before releasing them. As for us, we’ll just enter the city disguised as ordinary devilish beings; I’m sure the devilish beings in the city won’t pay us any heed then,” the Long Family patriarch explained.

”That’s a good idea, but is your soul seal technique reliable, Brother Long? It would be very troublesome for us if the city lord were to see through it,” the man from the Lin Family said in a concerned voice.

”Hehe, this is a secret technique passed down by an unfathomably powerful being; unless a Sacred Ancestor were to examine the two of them in person, there’s no way anyone would discover anything amiss,” the Long Family patriarch assured.

Everyone was naturally instilled with a lot of confidence upon hearing this.

Thus, the Long Family patriarch made a grabbing motion to draw the elderly devilish man toward him, then expelled a ball of purple light out of his mouth, which completely encompassed the devilish man’s entire face.

After that, golden light flashed within his eyes as he looked into the devilish man’s eyes while chanting an incantation.