A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality - Chapter 834

Mutated Beast

“There’s no need to be hasty. This spiritual herb has been here for so many years, so it’s impossible that there’s nothing guarding it. Otherwise, even if there’s an illusion formation outside, the spiritual fruit would have long been devoured by other ancient beasts.” Han Li was also excited, but he appeared exceptionally calm on the surface. At this moment, he replied even more calmly.

“Brother Han, are you saying that there are ancient beasts guarding this place?” Violet Spirit had already heard Han Li mention that there were ancient demon beasts in Devilfall Valley. Hence, she was shocked and immediately sobered up.

“That’s right. Look at the two obvious chewing marks on the top of the spiritual herb. There should be two spiritual fruits that have been eaten by the guardian ancient beast. If the Spirit Kindle Fruit is eaten raw, although it won’t increase one’s cultivation realm, it will still have some effect on breaking through the bottleneck. No wonder that creature couldn’t bear to devour them all at once,” Han Li slowly said. Then, he looked around the green lake and lowered his head slightly to look at the small lake.

If there was something lurking nearby, it would be hidden in the lake.

As soon as he entered the valley, Han Li took off the cloak on his head. As he drove the Wind Riding Chariot and used Brightsight Spirit Eyes, he did not avoid Violet Spirit. After all, this woman had already guessed that he had a way to avoid the spatial rifts, so there was no need to hide anything from her.

Thus, after sweeping his spiritual sense into the lake and not finding anything strange, a blue light flashed in Han Li’s eyes. In an instant, he saw through the hundreds of feet deep lake water and directly reached the bottom of the green lake. His expression changed.

Violet Spirit, who had been paying close attention to Han Li’s expression, frowned and asked, “What? Did Brother Han discover something?”

Han Li’s expression returned to normal in the blink of an eye. He turned to Violet Spirit and said indifferently, “Stand back. This guardian beast seems to be a little troublesome. I’m afraid we’ll have to use some methods to deal with it.”

The ancient beast in the lake actually had a way to avoid his spiritual sense detection, so Han Li naturally thought highly of it.

“Thank you for your trouble, Brother Han!” Violet Spirit knew that her cultivation was low and that staying by Han Li’s side would only add to his troubles, so she tactfully agreed. She immediately flew back three to four hundred feet before stopping and floating in the air.

When Han Li saw that Violet Spirit had stepped aside, he reached for his waist without hesitation and summoned three spirit beast pouches into the air. Then, he made a hand seal and tens of thousands of golden insects swarmed out of the three pouches. They filled the sky and blotted out the sun, turning the sky within a radius of hundreds of feet into a demonic golden color.

When Violet Spirit saw this from a distance, she couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise, “Ah!”

This woman naturally knew that Han Li knew insect control techniques. She had even personally witnessed them twice during the battle with the Six Paths of Reincarnation in the Heavenvoid Hall. However, the size and color of the winged insects that were about to mature and the Gold Devouring Beetles at that time were vastly different.

Now that Han Li had released tens of thousands of these enlarged and ferocious beetles, Violet Spirit was caught off guard. It was only natural for her to be shocked.

Han Li was not in the mood to pay attention to Violet Spirit’s shock. After setting up the Gold Devouring Beetles, he waved his sleeve and 36 Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords flew out from his sleeve, turning into dozens of foot-long golden lights that circled and danced under the insect clouds.

He cast several spell seals into the air.

All of the golden sword lights trembled several times before immediately splitting into over a hundred identical sword lights. At the same time, brilliant light erupted from them.

“Go.”

Han Li pointed at the sword light in the air and shouted.

The hundred or so streaks of sword lights trembled in the air and began to strangely disappear. In the blink of an eye, the cloud of insects had completely disappeared.

He instantly set up the Aureate Sword Formation around him.

Han Li pursed his lips and felt truly at ease. He lowered his head to look at the surface of the lake and a stern expression flashed across his face.

He rubbed his hands together, and golden light shone brightly. A loud thunderclap sounded, and a fist-sized ball of golden lightning appeared between his hands. Furthermore, under Han Li’s cold expression, it gradually became larger and more dazzling.

In an instant, the ball of lightning expanded to the size of a child’s head.

Han Li pushed with both hands, and with a loud boom, the lightning ball shot out and struck the lake more than 100 feet in front of him.

Golden light wildly flashed, and a huge thunderclap erupted as the ball of lightning exploded. In an instant, the entire surface of the lake was covered in arcs of lightning of varying thickness, and crackling sounds rang out incessantly.

Violet Spirit’s heart trembled as she bit her red lips, and her eyes flashed.

Before the golden arcs of lightning had even dissipated, the surface of the lake suddenly began to roil violently.

A massive vortex that was several tens of feet in size suddenly appeared at the center of the lake, following which a low, muffled roar erupted from the bottom of the lake. A burst of black and white demonic Qi shot forth from the vortex, faintly enveloping a strange ancient beast within.

This ancient beast had a strange appearance. Its sixty to seventy feet long body was like a pool of black rotten flesh. There were pits and holes of different sizes all over its body. In the middle, there was a huge meatball that was like a head that was slightly raised. Apart from a black eyeball, there were no other organs. At the very least, Han Li did not see a mouth or a nose.

All in all, this ancient beast’s appearance was truly disgusting. Even Han Li felt apprehensive when he saw it. Violet Spirit’s face turned even paler when she saw this ancient beast in the distance, and her hair stood on end.

However, Han Li had never heard of this ancient beast wrapped in black and white energy, nor had he seen it in any ancient records. He could not help but glance at Violet Spirit, and the woman smiled bitterly at Han Li. Clearly, she did not know the origins of this beast.

Facing this kind of unknown item, Han Li would not slowly search for its origins and let it unleash its abilities.

As such, he immediately raised his hand and struck the insect cloud in the air with an incantation seal. At the same time, he let loose a long and clear cry.

All of a sudden, the swarm of insects in the sky began to buzz and quickly converged toward the center. They immediately transformed into a huge golden cloud that descended toward the ancient beast.

When the ancient beast heard the Gold Devouring Beetles buzzing, it seemed to know that something was amiss. Its body immediately swelled and contracted as it spat out an unknown green liquid from those holes towards the golden cloud in the sky.

A nauseating stench filled the air.

Han Li frowned at first, but then he relaxed.

This was because the Gold Devouring Beetles that had been struck by the green liquid were completely unscathed. As for the golden cloud, it enveloped the ancient beast in an instant. However, the beast’s body was protected by black and white energy. Although it was submerged by the golden cloud of insects, it was temporarily fine.

When the beast saw that a small portion of the black and white energy that it had painstakingly cultivated for many years had been torn away in the blink of an eye, it felt great fear in its heart. It lowered its body and was about to plunge back into the lake.

However, at this moment, Han Li, who was already prepared, suddenly extended a finger toward the lake. With a puff, a blue fireball the size of a walnut appeared on his fingertip. Then, with a light flick of his finger, the blue fireball immediately shot out.

With a sizzling sound, the fireball exploded, emitting a piercing blue light.

Soon after, a layer of blue glacial air quickly spread out, turning the lake water into a thick layer of ice. In an instant, the entire green lake was frozen into a huge block of ice.

The ancient beast had originally planned to dive into the water, but its plan was foiled. Instead, it crashed into the blue ice and was repelled.

This caused the beast to grow even more fearful. The black and white energy suddenly trembled and it flew diagonally away with the densely packed golden beetles on its body.

However, just as he arrived at the edge of the green lake in a flash, golden light flashed in the air, and a golden thread as thin as a strand of hair appeared before flashing toward the ancient beast.

A small piece of black rotten flesh fell from the insect cloud, dripping with blood.

The barrier of black and white energy was instantly destroyed, and a small portion of the ancient beast’s body was sliced off by the golden thread. Without the barrier, countless golden beetles swarmed up and covered the ancient beast’s body.

The ancient beast immediately let out a shrill cry. Spiritual light flickered on its body, and a layer of demonic green flames appeared on the surface of its body with a puff, enveloping all the Gold Devouring Beetles in front of it.

Unfortunately, although the green flames were a powerful ability that the Gold Devouring Beetles had cultivated for a long time, they were able to turn a blind eye to this level of demonic flames. Instead, their ferocity was activated, and the beetles involuntarily sped up their devouring. In an instant, the beast was filled with indescribable pain, and immediately fled to the other side of the green lake with all its might.

Han Li stood at the side of the lake with his hands behind his back, coldly looking at the ancient beast that was enveloped by the cloud of insects. It was like a headless fly that was escaping everywhere. It was a pity that he had already set up the Aureate Sword Formation here. Although he had not officially activated this formation to kill the beast, no matter where the beast flew, golden threads formed from sword light would appear and ruthlessly cut off a piece of the ancient beast’s body.

In the blink of an eye, most of the beast’s body had disappeared, and its sharp cries had become weak. Finally, it fell onto the ice with a thump, unable to move in the slightest.

This nameless ancient beast’s true ability was its concealment ability. Once it used this ability, even late-Nascent Soul cultivators wouldn’t be able to detect it.

It was a pity that this beast was first seen through by Han Li’s Brightsight Spirit Eyes. Then, it was targeted by the Gold Devouring Beetles and trapped by the Aureate Sword Formation. It could not use this talent to escape and died easily at Han Li’s hands.

A short moment later, the golden cloud of beetles soared into the sky, and the iced lake immediately became empty, leaving behind only a strange black and white bead. This was none other than the beast’s demon core.

At this moment, Violet Spirit flew up and said to Han Li with an envious expression, “Brother Han, your abilities are truly unfathomable. You were able to slay one of the ancient demon beasts with ease. It seems the rumors that Brother Han is the most powerful cultivator below the three great cultivators are true.”

“It’s not that I’m powerful, but that this ancient beast wasn’t very powerful. It’s far inferior to the other ancient beasts I’ve seen before.” Han Li shook his head and said disapprovingly. Then, he raised his hand and grabbed at the air. With a whoosh, the demon core was sucked into his hand.

Han Li looked down and saw black and white spiritual light flickering on the surface of the demon core. This was the first time he had seen a demon core of this color. He could not help but reveal an interested expression.