A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 1-Chapter 200)

In his heart, Han Li followed the philosophy of “finders, keepers, losers, weepers.” As long as one did not obtain the item by stealing or robbing, to Han Li, the item obtained was his by right. If it was some ordinary item, Han Li might have been willing to return it back to the owner, but this mysterious bottle? Not a chance! Looking at the bottle, he surmised that this item had most likely been misplaced by either some rich kid from a big family or someone with a high status. Sadly, Han Li did not have any good impression of people from both of these categories.

Since childhood, Han Li was from an extremely poor family. Despite working very hard and living like dogs, they were often unable to afford to have a full meal. In the Seven Mysteries Sect, there were two types of people. The first type were those who threw their money about, wasting it on decadent luxury. They treated money as if it were water, spending it freely and without concern. Every time Han Li saw this, an uncomfortable feeling of rage would rise in his heart. The second type of people were those who looked down on the disciples who were born in rural villages. They would often abuse the less fortunate with scathing words and malicious actions. If there so happened to be any conflict between them and the villagers, however small the conflict was, the second type of person would usually form into groups and beat up the poorer kids. Han Li himself had his fair share of abuse. He had been beaten up by the rich kids until his face was swollen and he was unable to get up from bed, and had to rest for a few weeks in order to fully recover.

As for those within the sect that possessed both money and status, Han Li also did not have good impressions of them. A good example was Protector Wang. Despite accepting his Third Uncle’s bribes, Protector Wang did nothing to aid Han Li when he was taking the test. Instead, Protector Wang had been biased towards Wu Yan. Despite the fact that Han Li did not have the chance to see many of the grand figures residing in the sect, their image had long been tarnished by the actions of Protector Wang.

Whenever these two types of people lost their belongings, Han Li had no intentions of returning the items. He would even want to prank them by hiding the items in obscure locations.

After thinking of this, Han Li decided to remove the pouch which always hung upon his neck. His mother had personally sewn the pouch out of water-resistant leather, and inside the pouch was a good luck charm made from the tooth of a wild boar. His mother hoped this would protect him from danger and illnesses.

Han Li opened his pouch and hid the mysterious bottle alongside his good luck charm. He then swiftly sealed the pouch and placed it around his neck.

After doing so, he surveyed his surroundings; luckily, there was no one who had seen him or the mysterious bottle.

After taking so many precautions, Han Li felt more secure and threw away all of his concerns that the owner would discover the object and take it from him.

Han Li stealthily returned the hammer to the tool shed and casually walked back to God Hand Valley. As he limped back to his residence, night had fallen.





Chapter 13: Strange Phenomenons


Because Han Li’s foot was injured, Zhang Tie personally delivered the food to Han Li’s house and accompanied him for dinner.

Han Li watched Zhang Tie stumble around in his house in a clumsy manner, moving around the chairs and setting the table. Only after a long while did he finally finish, and it was time to eat. Han Li was rather amused by this, but also quite touched by this gesture.

After the table was set, both of them joked around as they ate, shoving food in their mouths while asking about their individual cultivation progress.

The moment Han Li brought up the Way of the Armored Elephant, Zhang Tie sighed dejectedly.

Currently, Zhang Tie had only managed to cultivate the martial skill to its first layer but was already half tortured to death by the immense pain. He had to soak himself in foul-smelling herbal baths every night as well as suffer beatings from Doctor Mo designed to toughen his body and strengthen his bones.

This method of boorish cultivation had caused Zhang Tie many sleepless nights. Because his entire body was swollen from the beatings, the moment his skin touched his bed, he would grit his teeth in pain.

To him, cultivating the Way of the Armored Elephant was nothing but a nightmare.

With regards to Han Li’s cultivation of the nameless oracular chant, Zhang Tie could not help but feel envy in his heart.

He felt that Han Li only needed to spend his time peacefully in meditation like a monk. Hearing Zhang Tie’s emotions, Han Li had nothing to say in his defense. He was also aware that his cultivation was much easier when compared to Zhang Tie’s arduous labor.

Han Li could somewhat understand Zhang Tie’s fear towards the Way of the Armored Elephant. As he progressed through the nine layers of the Way of the Armored Elephant, he would have to bear unimaginable pain.

Despite the difficulty, Zhang Tie persisted, refusing to give up. Han Li could not help but admire and respect Zhang Tie for his unyielding personality.

If Han Li were in Zhang Tie’s shoes, he would never have chosen to practice such a domineering skill. Even if the skill could turn him into a world-shaking expert overnight, he would still reject it.

The two of them had almost finished dinner as they were talking excitedly about martial arts. Once the meal was over, Zhang Tie cleared the bowls and bid his farewell. Before leaving, he still reminded Han Li to take care of his injured foot and to go to sleep early.

Standing at the door, Han Li watched as Zhang Tie left and quickly returned back to his house, closing all the windows except for a slight opening in the skylight to allow some air to flow through before taking out the mysterious bottle from his leather pouch.

Han Li was only a ten year-old child with a short attention span, and after studying the bottle for a short period of time, he quickly got bored. With his foot injury, Han Li also felt somewhat tired out by today’s turn of events. Unknowingly, he fell asleep on his bed with his hand holding onto the bottle.

Time passed by, and just when Han Li was sleeping soundly, he suddenly felt an icy cool feeling flowing from his hand.

Han Li involuntarily shivered, and he forcefully opened his heavy eyelids, gazing at his hand in a daze.

“Oh!” He immediately sat up with his mouth open from shock, to such an extent that saliva dripped down from his gaping mouth. He no longer felt sleepy; instead, his attention was fixed on the strange sight in front of him.

Rays of white light could be seen beaming through the gap from the skylight. The beams concentrated around the bottle Han Li held in his hand, forming many rice-sized white dots of light on it's surface, and enveloping the bottle in a layer of rays of white light.

The rays of light looked extremely gentle, not menacing at all, and that icy cool feeling originated precisely from the rays of light!

Han Li swallowed a big gulp of saliva and finally turned his eyes away from the bottle. As if it burned his hand, he quickly threw the bottle to one side before scrambling to the other side of the room.

After a moment of vigilance, he realized that nothing was wrong and slowly inched towards the mysterious bottle.

The mysterious bottle enveloped by the white light, and other than looking beautiful, it seemed to possess an aura that was not of this world.

Han Li hesitated for awhile before using his finger to poke the bottle a few times. Seeing there was no reaction, he cautiously picked up the bottle again. Putting the bottle on the table, he laid on the nearby bed and closely examined this never-before-seen phenomenon.

Han Li focused his full attention on the mysterious bottle for about an hour and a half without even blinking before he finally realized some of the secrets that the mysterious bottle was hiding.

The mysterious bottle was incessantly absorbing the rice-sized beads of white light surrounding it. No, not simply absorbing; it was as if the beads of white light had a will of their own and were fighting with each other in order to be the first to enter the bottle.

Han Li viewed this extremely bizarre event and used his fingertip to touch a bead of white light.

It felt icy cold! Other than this, there was nothing special about it.