A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm

At this point, Ye Susu had already composed herself, and she was meeting Dongfang Bai's gaze with a calm one of her own.

At the same time, she was recollecting everything that Han Li had told her prior to his departure, and her heart was filled with admiration. It seemed like he had predicted everything that would happen on this day, and all they had to do was follow his instructions.

Right at this moment, a streak of light descended into the courtyard, then faded to reveal Lü Yun.

"How did it go, Elder Lü?" Dongfang Bai asked.

"I detected some of Han Li's residual aura on a mountain several thousand kilometers north of here. It seems that he stopped there for a while, then got onto a flying carriage before continuing northward. From there, I also managed to detect more of his residual aura in other places, but it was all very faint, indicating that he employed some measures to conceal his own aura. I was in a hurry to get back here, so I only left some markings behind and didn't continue my search," Lü Yun replied as he cupped his fist in a respectful salute.

"Well done," Dongfang Bai said with a nod.

"In that case, it looks like they weren't lying," Tao Ji murmured with tightly furrowed brows.

Dongfang Bai took one final glance at Ye Susu, then said, "Let's go."

Immediately thereafter, he vanished from the spot, and Tao Ji and the others hurriedly departed as well.

In the blink of an eye, all that remained in the courtyard was the group of Azure Fox beings, and all of them were looking at each other in silence.

Ye Susu's palms were drenched in sweat, and she took a glance at her own mother before looking up at the enormous battleships in the sky, wondering exactly who Han Li was to have warranted the deployment of such a formidable army.

Tao Ji and the others appeared one after another on the deck of a battleship high up in the sky, and they discovered Dongfang Bai standing at the railing, looking down at Azure Fox City below.

As they approached him, he suddenly ordered, "Kill them all."

"What?" Tao Ji asked in a stunned voice, clearly not expecting such a cruel order.

From Dongfang Bai's perspective, it didn't matter whether the Azure Fox Tribe had allowed Han Li to escape or not. What was important to him was that information on Han Li's whereabouts had to be kept secret. Otherwise, if widespread attention was drawn to this matter, he wouldn't be able to claim the sole merit of recovering the Heaven Controlling Vial for himself.

"Yes, Palace Master!" Hei Dao replied as he cupped his fist in a salute.

"Make sure to destroy everything. Otherwise, it could spell trouble for us if the Immortal Prison launches an investigation," Dongfang Bai added.

Hei Dao gave another affirmative response before departing.

"Elder Tao, Elder Lü, it would be too slow to go after him with the entire army, so the three of us will pursue him on our own," Dongfang Bai instructed.

Lü Yun accepted this arrangement without any hesitation, while Tao Ji was silent for a moment before ultimately also giving an affirmative response.

He had personally witnessed Han Li's terrifying powers, so he was hoping to bring along more people for the hunt. Of course, with Dongfang Bai getting personally involved, Tao Ji most likely wouldn't have to play any role in the hunt anyway, and even if he couldn't kill Han Li himself, witnessing Han Li's death in person would be the next best thing.

With a casual sweep of his sleeve, Dongfang Bai summoned a white flying boat that was around a hundred feet in length, one that was clearly a graded immortal treasure.

He rose up into the air before descending onto the flying boat, and Tao Ji and Lü Yun hurriedly followed suit.

After Lü Yun pointed out the direction for them to travel in, the flying boat sped away as a streak of white light, vanishing into the distance in a flash.

Meanwhile, the golden battleships above Azure Fox City began to glow radiantly, and all of the runes on their surfaces lit up as they descended upon the city.

At the same time, all of the offensive arrays on the ships were activated, releasing an all-encompassing destructive aura.

According to later reports, Azure Fox City was burned to the ground on this day during the course of a calamitous natural disaster.

......

Over half a year flew by in a flash.

There were three large rivers in the northern part of the Golden Origin Immortal Region named the Dragon River, the Yuan River, and the Water Ripple River. These three rivers converged at the foot of Comb Grate Mountain to form the Three River Lake, which was several thousand kilometers in size.

It was said that there were once several hundred mountains where the Three River Lake currently stood. Those mountains were connected to Comb Grate Mountain, and they were all part of the same mountain range, with quite a large immortal sect constructed upon it.

However, countless years ago, that immortal sect was completely destroyed during a large-scale battle, and most of the mountains here were also razed to the ground.

Over time, the three aforementioned rivers converged to this place, submerging all of the remnants of the mountains that once stood here.

Even though the sect was already long gone, there were still many buildings left behind by the sect, most of which were taken over by the Comb Flow Sect, which had only been established here for several hundred thousand years. After some renovations, the buildings were made to look new again.

It was said that there were some destroyed immortal abodes beneath the Three River Lake, and they were all still protected by arrays, so there was a chance that there were undiscovered treasures on the lakebed.

Following its establishment, the Comb Flow Sect took over the Three River Lake, incorporating it as part of the sect's territory. However, the sect wasn't a particularly powerful one, so it didn't dare to seal the river and claim sole ownership of it. Instead, they renovated some of the ruined immortal abodes on the lakebed into underwater abodes for cultivators to rent.

Cultivators of advanced cultivation bases naturally didn't find the residual world's origin qi in these water abodes appealing, but many True Immortals, particularly those using water-attribute cultivation arts, or cultivators cultivating water law powers were very fond of staying here.

The rent on these water abodes wasn't a huge source of revenue, but it was very steady and had supported the Comb Flow Sect over the course of many years.

On this day, a tall male cultivator with a rather unremarkable appearance arrived on Comb Grate Mountain, expressing a desire to rent a water abode to cultivate in.

The man was naturally none other than Han Li, and he was greeted by a benevolent-looking elderly administrator.

The elderly man didn't openly display any disdain toward Han Li, but he certainly wasn't impressed by Han Li's unremarkable appearance and aura.

"Are you looking to rent a water abode, esteemed guest? You certainly came right in the nick of time! Right now, there are only three vacant water abodes left in the entire Three River Lake. I'll fetch a map for you and point them out right away," the elderly man said with a smile.

"There's no need for that. I heard that there are around a dozen water abodes that are still yet to be opened in the lake, and I would like to choose one of them," Han Li said.

There were many water abodes in the Three River Lake, but most of them had already been developed, and only around a dozen of them remained sealed by powerful immortal restrictions, making them inaccessible to the Comb Flow Sect.

However, the Comb Flow Sect didn't hire any powerful cultivators to break these restrictions. Instead, anyone could rent those unopened water abodes for the same price required to stay in the other water abodes, but as for whether one could actually enter the water abode, that would be up to them.

On top of that, the one who opened the water abode would be able to claim everything within it, so long as what they were taking didn't compromise the structural integrity of the abode.

In the beginning, there were often cultivators who would come to rent these unopened water abodes, but the vast majority of them failed to access said water abodes. Among those who were able to enter the abodes, many of them perished inside, so only very few people were able to successfully open a water abode before successfully re-emerging with the treasures inside.

Even then, many of them were hunted down by itinerant cultivators who received word of their exploits, and they were killed for the treasures that they had obtained.

Generally speaking, those who left the territory of the Comb Flow Sect were left to fend for themselves, with the sect claiming no responsibility for their safety.

Of course, even if one were to fail to enter an unopened water abode, the rent that they had paid wouldn't be refunded to them. Hence, for a very long time, the Comb Flow Sect actually earned far more revenue from these unopened water abodes than from renting out opened water abodes.

After all, there was never a shortage of people in the cultivation world willing to take significant risks for potentially exorbitant rewards.

However, as time passed, most cultivators began to realize that this was not a wise endeavor, and it had already been a very long time since this administrator had encountered a risk-taker like Han Li.

"Certainly! Please wait here for a moment while I fetch you a map of all of our unopened water abodes," the elderly man said before turning to depart.

However, he then stopped in his tracks and asked, "By the way, may I ask your name, esteemed guest?"

"Han Li," Han Li casually replied.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Fellow Daoist Han," the elderly man replied with a nod before departing.

Shortly thereafter, he returned with an underwater map of the Three River Lake and spread it out onto the table before giving Han Li a brief rundown of the layout of all of the water abodes.