A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality - Chapter 523

Chapter 523

Chapter 523: Extracting Souls and Seizing Cores

With the formations at the entrance of his cave residence completed, Han Li had completed his preparations for an extended absence . As for the Soul Nurturing Tree, it had been continuously fed the green liquid over the span of two years and was now fully grown . The tree was just like the Gold Lightning Bamboo had been; it ceased growing after it reached the age of ten thousand years . It was completely unaffected by the green liquid after reaching that point of maturation .

Naturally, Han Li wasn’t going to just leave the tree behind and let it gather dust . He carved the foot-long trunk into a dozen thumb-sized beads and strung them together on a golden thread before wearing them around his neck . This type of divine wood didn’t need to be meticulously refined; one simply needed to wear it close to their body to receive its wondrous soul nurturing and recovery effects .

After dealing with everything in his cave residence, Han Li left his cave residence and quietly flew out from the mist surrounding the small island .

With the Rainbow Skirt Grass in hand, Han Li had no plans of heading into the depths . Not only did demon beasts of grade eight and higher wander there, but cultivators gathered too . Such a place would be completely unsuitable for him to place down a spell formation and lure demon beasts into . So long as he had the Rainbow Skirt Grass, any part of the nearby seas were all the same to him . As such, it would be better for him to find a secluded coral island instead .

With that thought in mind, Han Li got his bearings before shooting off into the west, disappearing in the blink of an eye .

A month later, Han Li stopped above a fire-red coral reef .

On his way here, he had already spotted many coral islands, but for fear of being too close to his cave residence and attracting trouble, he ignored them and continued flying . Although this reef was so small that it couldn’t be called an island, it was more than enough for the purposes of planting Rainbow Skirt Grass .

Han Li decided that this would be the location of his first hunting grounds .

Currently, he had already placed down four spell formations near the coral reef, tightly encasing the nearby surroundings . All that was left was to carefully place the Rainbow Skirt Grass at the center of the magic formations . Since he wanted to attract grade six demon beasts, he needed to mature the Rainbow Skirt Grass to four hundred years old .

It would require a month’s worth of time to acquire enough green liquid to mature the Rainbow Skirt Grass to that age . However, he wasn’t going to be able to spend that time idly .

The first three blooms of the Rainbow Skirt Grass attracted a few low grade demon beasts from him to practice on . Although pills made from the cores of grade five demon beasts would have little effect on Han Li’s cultivation , he could exchange them for quite a few spirit stones . He wasn’t about to just let them go .

As expected, after the fourth time the Rainbow Skirt Grass bloomed, four grade five demon beasts were pulled in . They were quickly and easily executed with a few of the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords .
……

Gazing at the Rainbow Skirt Grass with three uncurled leaves, Han Li let a long breath before carefully poured the green liquid on top of the plant . He then put the bottle away and sat down at its side before meditating .

When the third day had passed, the Rainbow Skirt Grass uncurled its fourth leaf, releasing its demon-luring scent . Han Li had spent the past two days honing his strength in silent meditation .

Although killing grade five and six demon beasts should pose no problem to him, at the end of the day he was still a lone person deep at sea . It was better to be safe than sorry .

The effects of the Rainbow Skirt Grass wasn’t always consistent . In the past, he had attracted a grade seven black dragon, nearly bringing about his death . He was forced to sacrifice a rather valuable spell formation in order to make his escape .

Han Li truly didn’t wish to lose his life over a brief moment of carelessness .

After most of the day had passed, Han Li’s expression suddenly twitched . He opened his eyes and coldly stared into the distance .

A short moment later, a storm of dense black clouds had in the horizon, accompanied by a thirty-meter-wide whirlpool that suddenly appeared beneath it . A faint rumbling could be heard coming from within it .

With a calm expression, Han Li shot into the air as a streak of azure light and gazed at the scene before him .

With the muffled rumblings coming from the whirlpool, a demon beast clad in black Qi leapt out from within . The demon beast wasn’t large, and was only about ten meters long . As it gazed towards the Rainbow Skirt Grass, it released a violent screech .

Han Li let out a sigh of relief at the sight .

He was unable to see the true form of the demon beast due to the black Qi blocking it from his sight . But from intensity of black Qi, it appeared to be a grade six demon beast .

This was the most optimal result as it shouldn’t prove to be dangerous in even the slightest .

As a result, Han Li remained motionless in the air as he stared down at the demon beast .

After only a short moment, the demon beast had been driven into a frenzy by the scent of the Rainbow Skirt Grass . With a loud snarl, it fiercely pounced towards the coral reef, stirring up a thirty-meter-tall wave following in its wake .

After having experienced the huge tortoise’s waves as it underwent tribulation, this mere level of display wasn’t enough to impress Han Li .

After seeing the demon beast draw close to the coral reef, a sneer appeared on Han Li’s face . With a wave of his arm, a dark-green formation plate appeared in his palm . After emitting a flash of azure light from his hand, Han Li struck the formation plate without hesitation, causing it to suddenly glow with a blinding yellow light .

In the next moment, over ten beams of yellow light shot out from the sea, forming a barrier of yellow fire that surrounded the demon beast .

The demon beast was clearly startled . It immediately brandished two claws from within the black cloud of qi and fiercely struck against the yellow light barrier .

With a huge bang, the yellow light barrier wavered on the verge of collapse . It appeared as if it wouldn’t be able to withstand much more .

However, it had already bought Han Li more than enough time . The Five Element Bands he had prepared in his hand released a clear ring before disappearing in a blur .

As a series of cries came from within the black cloud, rainbow light suddenly appeared and then disappeared into the black Qi . A second later, a frightened roar was heard as the black Qi scattered, revealing the demon beast within .

The demon beast turned out to be a twelve-meter-long grey prawn with three green eyes on each side of its head . It appeared panic-stricken .

It was currently restricted by the five copper bands and was rendered completely incapable of escaping .

At that moment, two streaks of bright azure light flew down and revolved around the huge prawn in coordination, chopping it into pieces . Green blood splattered onto the seas below .

The Five Element Bands trembled several times before disappearing in a glow of light and reappearing in Han Li’s grasp a moment later .

Han Li wore a slight smile on his face and shook the formation plate in his hand . The yellow radiance immediately faded away as the yellow barrier beneath him followed suit .

Then with a wave of his hand, the Five Element Bands had been replaced with a pitch-black alms bowl in a flicker of light .

With both hands clasped on the bowl, Han Li floated down next to the pawn’s corpse .

A cold glint flickered from Han Li’s eyes as he stared at the huge prawn’s head . Without further deliberation, Han Li extended his finger and started to mutter an incantation . The tip of his finger began to shine and gradually grew brighter .

Han Li coldly snorted . Several thin white strings shot out from Han Li’s finger before piercing into the huge prawn’s skull . Then with a shake of his finger, the white strings pulled out a fist-sized orb of green light from within the prawn’s head and brought it towards the Soul Congregation Bowl .

The green light knew that this wouldn’t end well, and began to struggle with all its might against the white threads . However, it was unable to break free as it slowly drew closer to the bowl .

When it was about a foot away from the Soul Congregation Bowl, the green orb of light was wrapped in black light and drawn into the bowl .

Han Li smiled at the scene . He then approached the prawn’s corpse and rummaged through the scattered remains before he found a light blue sphere .

Not only were grade six demon beast cores larger than those from grade five, but they were also more translucent and shined with a faint glow . It made for a beautiful sight .

After looking at it for a moment more, Han Li placed the core into his storage pouch and took another look at the huge prawn’s corpse as if something had just come to mind . He suddenly raised his hand and cut it with two more streaks of light .

He sliced off its claws and placed them into his storage pouch without any further thought . Afterwards, he shot a small fireball at the corpse, turning all of the remaining pieces into ashes .

Han Li calmly flew back to the Rainbow Skirt Grass and went back to sitting down cross-legged .

He was confident that the nearby seas didn’t only have one grade six demon beast . Now, he just had to calmly wait until the next one arrived .