Immortal Mortal

Charging into the tunnel filled with fog, Mo Wuji felt as though countless needles were pricking his body. He noticed that many of the cultivators that rushed in with him had already slowed down considerably, likely circulating energy to resist the pricking sensation.

The pain from the pricking also affected Mo Wuji, but instead of circulating energy to reduce the effects, he picked up his pace. Pain and suffering was something he had experienced too much of, so this level of pain could not affect him yet, as one of the lowest leveled cultivators present, if he circulated energy to resist the pain, perhaps he would end up as one of the last few to leave the tunnel.

Mo Wuji not only did not fight the pain, but also increased his speed gradually, leaving most of the cultivators behind. From their point of view, Mo Wuji seemed like one of those people who had an advanced level or cultivation, so as he charged towards them, they quickly opened up a path for him.

In a moment, the scenery that Mo Wuji saw suddenly became much more spacious. He could see hundreds of shadows splitting up, thus he knew that he had already exited the tunnel and finally arrived in the Five Elements Desolate Domain.

While there was still some fog around, it was much sparser than before, mountain peaks and forests lay hidden in the distance, giving off a feeling of spaciousness and a slight murderous aura. The dense spiritual energy present caused Mo Wuji to exclaim, No wonder there are so many precious spiritual objects and herbs around. The spiritual energy is already so dense just at the entrance of the Five Elements Desolate Domain.

There was no time for hesitation, Mo Wuji chose a direction, and quickly sped off. At the square outside of the Five Elements Desolate Domain, no one dared to make a move on him. But this was now inside the Five Elements Desolate Domain, if he were killed, there would be no difference from an ant dying.

…

One day and night soon passed, then Mo Wuji came to an abrupt stop. It wasn’t that he could not carry on, but now he suddenly realised, what if he could not find his way back?

Thinking back, Mo Wuji could still remember where he came from, but whether he could still remember this after three months would be another problem. At this point, he frantically took out some paper and pen to make a rough map of the area.

But as he looked down to the bracelet on his wrist. The bracelet had a conspicuous arrow which pointed in the direction that he had just come from. Even after he moved to a different position, and the arrow still pointed towards the same place.

Whew. Mo Wuji heaved a sigh of relief. This is even more useful than a compass. It seemed as though the bracelet was not only required to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain, but also to leave it. It could clearly guide him towards the location that he had come from, which indicated that there was some form of directional array controlling it.

While Mo Wuji was a Tier 3 Mortal Pill Refiner, and had a frightening cultivation speed, he did not have a master. Thus there was no way he knew anything about smithing, arrays, talismans, etcetera.

The arrays that he had encountered previously were either large scale sect protection formations arrays or transfer arrays. The smallest was still a light projection array. Regardless which kind of array it was, he never had the chance nor the audacity to use his spiritual will to analyse them.

Now that the bracelet in his hand had a control array, it piqued Mo Wuji’s interest. Carefully slipping his spiritual will into the bracelet, countless criss-crossing runes immediately appeared within his field of vision.

This should have been the rumored array runes, but it was a pity that Mo Wuji did not understand any of it, and could only withdraw his spiritual will.

”Crack” A loud sound boomed through the air, followed by a bright streak of light that broke his concentration on the bracelet. As Mo Wuji raised his head, another crack exploded, and a thick bolt of lightning descended from the sky.

The whole sky became overcast, and after the large lightning bolt fell, many other small ones came pouring down continuously. Was it going to rain? Mo Wuji looked to his surroundings, instantly spotting a small mountain nearby. Regardless whether it was about to rain, he had to find shelter to hide in, then take a quick nap before understanding what was going on around here.

Circulating his spiritual energy, Mo Wuji speedily arrived at the base of the mountain. He chose a cliff wall, and climbed straight up until he was nearly 20m above ground. There he began using his sharp blade to dig a cave.

This was a decision made based on his past experience. Digging a hole on the side of a cliff would both avoid any assault from poisonous insects, and also would be much safer than propping up a tent on the ground.

The pace of digging was rather fast, and within an hour, he had dug a cave sufficiently big for sleeping in. His coat and bracelet came off and were placed to the side. Since he entered the Five Elements Desolate Domain, he had ran for one full day, and hence was fatigued. Now that it was about to rain, this was a good time to take a quick break before carrying on.

The lightning strikes continued to fall,. The crackling sounds coming wave after wave. After Mo Wuji lay down for a good deal of time, the sound of rain failed to appear, which made him suspicious. He had encountered instances of lightning without rain, but with the lightning striking for so long, and not a single drop of rain falling at all, this was something he never seen before.

Mo Wuji got up out of curiosity, and peered out of the opening of his cave.

”Bang!” another thunderous boom exploded in the sky, but what truly made Mo Wuji shudder was the sight of a gigantic demonic beast charging up and punching its fist onto the thick lightning bolt.

The lightning blew the demonic beast away and into a large crater.

Mo Wuji could not get it wrong now, he knew that it was not about to rain, instead, there was a demonic beast undergoing heavenly tribulation.

He had met Yuan Dan Stage experts before, like Yan Qianyin, but he did not hear anything about heavenly tribulation. This meant that for the three stages of the Earth realm, there would not be any lightning trials.

Yet a demonic beast was going through a heavenly tribulation before him, so how strong was it? It could not be any weaker than Heaven Seeking Palace’s Dean Feng. If he were to land in the hands of this demonic beast, would he be able to survive?

I have to leave immediately, That was the only thought that ran through Mo Wuji’s mind. However, even before he climbed down from the cliff, the demonic beast leapt out from the crater and in his direction.

This demonic beast must be unable to endure the lightning trial so it’s trying to escape. Mo Wuji’s mind filled with regret. If he knew that the source of the lightning was a demonic beast undergoing heavenly tribulation, even if he were drenched in the rain, he would not stay a minute longer here to dig any sh*tty cave.

”Rumble...Crack...crack…crack…” Three consecutive lightning bolts landed; the first two square on the muddy demonic beast’s body, which opened two wounds all the way to its bones; the third blocked by the gigantic fist of the demonic beast once again. The beast obviously would not be able to dodge the lightning bolts of the lightning trial, wherever it went, lightning bolts would follow.

At this point, Mo Wuji finally saw the whole situation clearly. The pasty mud on the demonic beast’s body was a mixture of mud and its blood. Its whole body was riddled with wounds, all caused by the lightning strikes. A thought suddenly came to mind. What if this demonic beast failed its heavenly tribulation and got struck to death by lightning? Wouldn’t I profit immensely from it?

Before Mo Wuji could finish that thought, the beast broke into deadly roar and leapt up, grabbing two people simultaneously.

”Bang!” A lightning bolt streaked through the sky again. This time, the demonic beast threw those two people at it. The flash of light illuminated their shockingly pale faces. Mo Wuji’s heart leapt into his mouth; he had seemingly seen these two people before he entered Five Elements Desolate Domain’s tunnel.

”Ka Cha! Ka ka…” Lightning landed on both their bodies, but they were simply useless as shields and got blasted to bits instantly. Another hit the entrance of the cave he was in, causing half of the cave to collapse.

At this point, how could Mo Wuji leave anything up to chance? Staying at the same spot was equivalent to waiting for death. Countless lightning bolts kept raining down from above, and the demonic east was busy taking care of them. There was no better chance for him to escape.

Mo Wuji directly leapt out of the cave 20m above ground, then rushing away like a madman.

Although he did not feel the demonic beast coming after him, he continued to flee. Some time later, Mo Wuji was attracted by a rather unique fragrance, which made him stop. This was because the fragrance gave him a sudden mental boost, as though as he just drank a cup of cool water from a spring after many days without water.

Immediately he saw a beautiful waterfall in front of him, and in the lake below the waterfall, countless enthralling flowers floated on the water surface. Even though he was quite some distance away from the waterfall, the dense spiritual energy made him very comfortable.

”These are lotus flowers?” Mo Wuji was elated. The flower’s fragrance itself had elevated his mental state,so if he could dig up the root, they might even be higher grade than the Treasured Blood Lotus. However, what he required the most then was higher grade lotus strips; only those could allow him to open up more meridians.

The lightning strikes were thrown to the back of his mind, as Mo Wuji dove into the lake without any hesitation.

Once in the water, a freezing cold sensation pierced through to the marrow of Mo Wuji’s bones, almost causing him to freeze solid in the lake. But it was also thanks to the cold that Mo Wuji’s greedy mind could be instantly calmed down.

This lotus root must be a treasure, so why aren’t there any demonic beasts around? The only reason could be that these roots already have an owner.

With this thought, a cold shiver ran down his spine. He had just escaped death at the cliff, only to run into certain death again at this lake.

Something’s not right. If there’s a demonic beast guarding this place, wouldn’t it have appeared once he approached the lake? What is it still waiting for? Unless, this land belongs to the beast that’s undergoing heavenly tribulation?

Another shiver ran down Mo Wuji’s spine, and the already cold lake water became even colder. At this point, he was almost certain that this was the territory of that beast undergoing heavenly tribulation. He only managed to go knocking on another door seeking for death.

Leave quickly! The thought flashed in Mo Wuji’s mind. But he soon discarding this idea. Not only did he stay, but he dove into the depths of the lake. This was good fortune not misfortune, even if it was misfortune, it was unavoidable at this point. After all, he did require high quality lotus strips, and since he had found some, he couldn’t just leave empty handed. This was simply not worth living in fear for a good half a day.

Swimming as fast as he could, Mo Wuji swiftly arrived at the bottom of the lake. His hands began to trawl through the mud like two shovels attached to his arms. Minutes later, he had already dug up six lotus roots, before he quickly surfaced.It was not that he did not want to dig anymore, but he just could not stand the freezing temperature anymore. If he continued any longer, Mo Wuji suspected that he would freeze to death at the bottom of the lake.