A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Mo Jianli’s expression changed slightly as he turned to appraise the jade box with an intent gaze, while Han Li looked on in an indifferent manner.

Xue Ran heaved an internal sigh of relief upon seeing this.

At this point, Hei Lin had already drawn the jade box into his own grasp.

The talismans and lid on the box were removed, and a loud thunderclap rang out as a jade badge that was around half a foot in length flew out from within.

The jade badge had arcs of lightning flashing all over its surface and countless golden runes inscribed upon it.

”So this is a Sanqing Lightning Talisman,” Hei Lin murmured to himself with an ecstatic expression.

”Brother Spirit, I also have three Asura Spider cores here; would you like to take a look?” On this occasion, it was Mo Jianli who had spoken.

Xue Ran’s expression darkened slightly upon hearing this, yet just as he was about to say something, the Spirit Monarch chuckled, ”Rest assured, fellow daoists; I don’t have many of these talismans, but there are definitely enough to trade for all of the cores in your possession.”

”That’s good to hear,” Mo Jianli said, but he still tossed a green wooden box toward the Spirit Monarch.

Xue Ran gave a cold harrumph as he produced a storage bracelet and also tossed it toward the Spirit Monarch.

Only Han Li continued to sit still on the spot, as if he really weren’t worried that there wouldn’t be enough Sanqing Lightning Talismans for everyone.

The Spirit Monarch took a meaningful glance at Han Li before sweeping a sleeve through the air to catch the cores being offered to him by Xue Ran and Mo Jianli.

After a brief inspection, he tossed a jade box toward each of them as well.

Mo Jianli and Xue Ran’s eyes lit up in unison as they caught the boxes, then removed the talismans and lids with excitement on their faces.

”Fellow Daoist Han, are you uninterested in my talismans or have you returned empty-handed?” the Spirit Monarch asked.

”Of course I haven’t returned empty-handed, but firstly, I’d like to ask how many talismans you have left,” Han Li replied with a smile.

The Spirit Monarch was rather taken aback to hear this. ”How many? Could it be that you’ve obtained a lot of Asura Spider cores?”

Han Li offered no explanation and merely awaited the answer to his question with a smile on his face.

Xue Ran and the others were rather befuddled to see this.

Each of them had only received three cores from the Asura Spiders, so why did it sound like Han Li had more?

The Spirit Monarch was silent for a long while before finally replying, ”Truth be told, the Sanqing Lightning Talismans are the most precious treasures of our Spirit Race, so even I don’t have many in my possession. Right now, I only have two left. If you really have that many Asura Spider cores, then you can take both of them.”

”Alright, then I’ll do just that,” Han Li replied without any hesitation.

Immediately thereafter, he flipped a hand over to produce a jade box and a small translucent sword amid a flash of spiritual light.

With a flick of his wrist, he sent the two items flying toward the Spirit Monarch as two balls of white light.

The Spirit Monarch caught the two items in his grasp, and instead of opening the box right away, he cast a curious gaze toward the small sword.

Moments later, a hint of enlightenment appeared in his eyes.

”Hehe, this flying sword is something that I obtained from a powerful enemy in the Small Asura Realm, and it’s constructed from a few Asura Spider cores. There were five of those swords in total, but four of them were destroyed during our battle, and this is the only one left,” Han Li explained in an unhurried manner.

Xue Ran and the others were also enlightened upon hearing this.

This flying sword was none other than one of the five being wielded by the brocade-robed man.

Four of them had been destroyed in battle, but the final one had fallen into the sand and was taken by Han Li in secret after the battle.

The brocade-robed man seemed to have forged a very strong alliance with the Asura Spiders prior to being betrayed, so it wasn’t all that far-fetched to think that he could obtain so many cores to refine those flying swords.

It was quite a brilliant piece of innovation to directly use cores to refine flying swords.

As for the jade box accompanying the sword, that naturally contained the other three Asura Spider cores.

After examining the cores to ensure that there was nothing amiss, the Spirit Monarch gave the other two talismans to Han Li without any hesitation.

For him, the more Threads of Time he could refine, the better.

Thus, all sides were very happy in the wake of the trades.

After that, Han Li and the others didn’t linger any longer on Concealed Spirit Mountain, and they quickly stood up to bid the Spirit Monarch farewell.

The Spirit Monarch didn’t try to keep them, either, so all of them quickly departed.

As soon as Han Li and Mo Jianli left, they headed straight toward the place where Silvermoon was waiting for them along with the Inkspirit Holy Ark.

Half a day later, the two of them descended into a concealed valley, where they were greeted by the ecstatic Silvermoon, Zhu Guo’er, and Patriarch Hua Shi.

Shortly thereafter, a burst of buzzing rang out from within the valley, and the Inkspirit Holy Ark emerged before flying toward human territory.

Han Li was seated at the center of a secret chamber on the bottom floor of the ark, and there were several items hovering around him, consisting of an antiquated lamp, two jade badges that with countless arcs of lightning flashing all over them, a five-colored bead, and a small white vial.

These were all treasures that he had obtained during this trip.

After examining these items for a short while, he suddenly raised an eyebrow before pointing a finger toward the jade badge.

Countless golden runes immediately appeared on the surface of the badge, and a bolt of lightning shot forth from it before striking the tip of his finger.

Han Li was struck by a numb sensation, and he lost all feeling in that entire hand while his skin turned slightly charred black.

Han Li’s heart jolted slightly upon seeing this, and he immediately injected his enormous magic power into his hand.

Only then did his numb hand regain its feeling and its former complexion.

”As expected of a legendary immortal talisman; I hope it really will be useful against heavenly tribulations,” Han Li murmured to himself with a pleased look on his face. After that, he flipped a hand over to produce two jade boxes, which he stored the pair of jade badges into. The two boxes were then stowed away in a flash before he waved a hand toward the antiquated lamp.

The treasure was immediately drawn into his grasp, and he began to carefully inspect it.

The lamp was capable of summoning a peacock similar to the Moulan Sacred Beast, so it was definitely no ordinary treasure.

Thinking back to how the brocade-robed man’s true form was also a peacock, one had to ponder what his relationship with the peacock manifested using the treasure was.

Aside from the spirit patterns all over the surface of the lamp, the materials used to refine it were extremely rare, and even Han Li wasn’t able to identify all of them.

However, the materials that he was able to identify were all very precious.

After a moment’s contemplation, he seemed to have made a decision.

He made a hand seal, and a translucent thread shot out of his glabella amid a flash of spiritual light before vanishing into the lamp.

He then closed his eyes and began to thoroughly examine the treasure.

Time slowly passed by, and only after a day and a night did the translucent thread return to Han Li, following which he opened his eyes with an elated expression.

”So this treasure is known as an Origin Soul Lamp. No wonder it’s able to summon that peacock; it’s formed by a wisp of the creature’s soul!”

Han Li was ecstatic upon making this discovery.

An Origin Soul Lamp was a treasure that could enhance soul fragments. There were also other treasures that soul fragments could be stored in, but unless the soul fragment could become an independent existence, it would inevitably disintegrate unless it returned to its host.

In contrast, there was no such concern with this Origin Soul Lamp. In fact, the treasure was capable of nurturing and enhancing the soul fragment stored within it over time.

If the soul fragment could be refined using some special secret techniques, then it could even become a clone-like existence. Furthermore, regardless of how powerful the clone was, there was no need to worry about backlash as long as one possessed this Origin Soul Lamp.

Under the correct circumstances, this treasure could even nurture a soul fragment of its owner to become more powerful than the owner themselves.

Han Li took a deep breath, and a hint of excitement appeared in his eyes.

Ever since the disappearance of his second Nascent Soul, he had intended to nurture a clone, and this treasure was perfect for that purpose.

He carefully examined the lamp several more times to ensure that it could indeed nurture soul fragments, and after ensuring that nothing was amiss, he immediately planted a soul fragment into the lamp.

Once this soul fragment became powerful enough, he would have to think about exactly how he wanted to develop it.

Thus, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air, releasing a burst of spiritual light to stow the Origin Soul Lamp away before directing his attention toward the small vial.

The contents of the vial was none other than the Xuan Wu True Blood he had obtained.

Once he devoured this blood and refined it, he would be able to drastically enhance the power of his 12 Awakening Transformations.

Ironically, he had thought that there was no way that anyone would be able to collect all 12 types of true blood and master all 12 transformations, yet he had already collected half of that, consisting of the true dragon, heavenly phoenix, Kun Peng, Five-colored Peacock, and Giant Mountain Ape.

If he could master the Xuan Wu transformation as well, then he would be over the halfway mark.

If he could attain all 12 transformations, then the true spirit forms that he could transform into would undoubtedly become unfathomably powerful.

After all, with each new transformation that was attained, the overall power of the 12 Awakening Transformations would be enhanced to an incredible degree.

With that in mind, Han Li grabbed the small vial before removing the lid and devouring its contents.