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

Chapter 921: Traitor

As the line of scaled beasts continued onward, they gradually ascended higher and higher in altitude, and only on the next morning did they finally reach the halfway point up the mountain.

From there, the path ahead became narrower and even more arduous to traverse, to the point the scaled beast and the puppet at the forefront of the line had to eventually begin clearing out a path as they went, so progress was naturally very slow.

Almost all of the Profound City cultivators had come out to stand on the backs of their scaled beasts with grim looks on their faces.

All of a sudden, a burst of thunderous rumbling began ringing out from the valley beneath the mountain face, and everyone hurriedly looked down to discover a plume of white mist rising up rapidly from within the valley.

Concealed beneath the white mist were clusters of formidable blades of wind that gave off a bone-chilling glacial aura.

"Look out, here it comes again!" someone yelled, and profound acupoints lit up over everyone's bodies as they sprang into action.

Duan Tong was standing on the back of a Black Scaled Elephant, and he raised his enormous, bandaged right arm, then clenched his fist tightly and took a half-step backward before slamming his fist down onto an oncoming plume of mist.

It seemed that the tip of his fist was enshrouded within a vortex of starlight, and the space in front of him shuddered as a burst of tremendous force came crashing down.

The burst of force clashed against the plume of white mist, and both dissipated in unison upon contact.

On the back of another Black Scaled Elephant, Fang Chan was holding a roasted demon beast leg in his left hand, and he was gleefully tearing off chunks of flesh from the leg with his teeth.

The leg was already completely cold, with a revolting layer of frozen fat on its surface, yet Fang Chan didn't seem to mind at all.

He caught sight of a plume of white mist hurtling toward him out of his peripheral vision, and his brows furrowed slightly with displeasure, seemingly discontent at the fact that his meal had been interrupted.

All of a sudden, a cold gleam flashed through his eyes, and he set down the beast leg in his hand before turning to the white mist and letting loose a piercing screech.

A burst of incredibly powerful soundwaves erupted through the air before crashing into the plume of white mist, scattering the latter in all directions.

Han Li was observing this from afar when an alarmed look suddenly appeared in his eyes, and he yelled, "Look out!"

As soon as his voice trailed off, a black shadow shot out of the scattered plume of mist, immediately following which the head of a giant scaled python emerged, opening its cavernous mouth to bite down upon Fang Chan.

The scaled python had been concealed within the mist in the valley, but just its head alone was comparable in size to a Black Scaled Elephant, and it seemed to be capable of swallowing an entire Black Scaled Elephant whole in a single bite.

Despite his dull appearance, Fang Chan wasn't slow to react at all, having already sprung high up into the air as soon as he heard Han Li's warning. At the same time, he opened his mouth up wide and let loose another high-pitched screech toward the scaled python.

Halos of white starlight erupted out of his mouth, forming shockwaves that were visible even to the naked eye, and as soon as these shockwaves made contact with the scaled python's head, it immediately exploded, sending vast volumes of blood and countless scales erupting in all directions.

The remnants of its head crashed down onto the Black Scaled Elephant below, completely pulverizing the stone palace on its back, and the two other White Rock City cultivators hurriedly jumped up onto the nearby mountain face.

The mountain face beneath the Black Scaled Elephant crumbled under the combined weight of the elephant and the scaled python's head, and as a result, its two front feet were left suspended in mid-air.

The Black Scaled Elephant hurriedly stumbled back in a panic, crashing into the scaled beast puppet behind it.

As a result, the scaled beast puppet was knocked off balance, and it slid off the mountain face and began tumbling down into the valley below, while the blue rocks beneath it also began to crumble.

There were two women in light black dresses on the puppet's back, and they began swinging their arms through the air, while the white bone rings on their arms flashed with starlight.

The circle of star bones embedded into the giant scaled beast puppet's chest also began flashing brightly as it attempted to climb back up onto the mountain face with all its might, but the rocks beneath its feet were crumbling too quickly, and despite its best efforts, its fall appeared to be inevitable.

With the scaled beast puppet on the verge of being buried under the falling rocks, the two women finally decided to abandon it, springing up into the air toward the mountain face above.

However, right at this moment, the scaled python that had just been struck down by Fang Chan was somehow able to suddenly raise its head again, and it opened its cavernous mouth to release a burst of bone-chilling blue light.

The air in the wake of the blue light was completely frozen solid, and it was sweeping rapidly toward the two women.

The two of them had only just landed on the mountain face when the wave of glacial light descended upon them, and they hurriedly thrust their palms upward in retaliation.

Han Li could see that many profound acupoints had lit up over their arms, and it was clear that they were also accomplished bodily refinement cultivators.

However, their strength couldn't compare with that of the likes of Duan Tong and Fang Chan, so they were only able to scatter some of the glacial blue light before the rest descended upon them, completely freezing them solid.

As a result, the two of them were instantly immobilized, and they began falling involuntarily back down toward the valley below.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and all of a sudden, he abruptly vanished from the spot.

A string of loud thumps rang out as Han Li trod down onto the space beneath his feet to pursue the two women.

The profound acupoints on his legs were glowing radiantly, elevating his speed to the maximum, and he was able to grab the two women by their arms before darting back onto the mountain face.

At this point, the handsome young man from Puppet City had also arrived on the scene, and he was clearly taken aback to see Han Li swooping in to save the two women.

With the women already saved, he grabbed onto one of the short halberds strapped to his back, then twisted around before hurling the halberd through the air with all his might.

The bone halberd shot forth through the air as a streak of radiant silver light, giving off a burst of formidable starpower fluctuations.

The streak of silver light pierced straight into the scaled python's head before emerging on the other side, following which the handsome young man raised a hand, and a translucent white thread that was connected to the halberd swept through the air to slice the python's head open.

With a casual tugging motion, the halberd flew back into the young man's grasp, and hanging from the crescent-shaped blade attached to the main blade was a fist-sized beast core that was completely unharmed.

The body of the giant python tumbled down into the valley below, while the young man took the two women from Han Li as he said with a smile, "Thank you, Fellow Daoist. My name is Zhuo Ge, may I know yours?"

"Li Feiyu," Han Li replied.

"Please accept this B tier beast core as a gesture of my gratitude," Zhuo Ge said as he casually tossed the scaled python beast core at Han Li, who caught the beast core and cupped his fist to extend a salute before flying back toward Gu Qianxun.

"What an interesting guy," Zhuo Ge mused to himself before departing with the two women.

Upon Han Li's return, Gu Qianxun turned to him with tightly furrowed brows as she complained, "That was way too reckless of you, Fellow Daoist Li!"

"How so?" Han Li asked.

"Puppet City is our sworn enemy, so even if we're working together for now, you shouldn't have gone out of your way to save their cultivators. Everyone is going to see you as a traitor now!" Gu Qianxun explained through voice transmission.

Han Li took a glance at the nearby Profound City cultivators upon hearing this, and sure enough, they were all looking at him with hostile expressions, with the exception of Fang Chan, who was smiling at him, seemingly in gratitude for the verbal warning he had issued earlier.

Han Li turned his gaze back to Gu Qianxun as he replied through voice transmission, "Given how dangerous and unpredictable this place is, if we do not work together wholeheartedly, then we may not even make it out of this mountain range alive."

In reality, the true reason why he had decided to save those two women was for Violet Spirit's sake. He hadn't been able to find any information about her in Profound City, and thinking back to the puppet remnants in that cave, he felt like there was a very good chance that she had fallen into the hands of Puppet City.

He had been intending to dig up some information from the Puppet City cultivators, but the cultivators from the two cities were still quite apprehensive of one another, so he never had the chance to speak to any of them.

Hence, he had immediately pounced on that opportunity to appease Puppet City, and he didn't care if that was at the expense of offending those from Profound City.

After that close call, the cultivators from the two cities became even more cautious, constantly surveying the surrounding area for potential hazards, but even so, they were still attacked by several packs of powerful demon beasts, and the going had become very tough.

Thankfully, their efforts ultimately paid off, and after reaching the top of the mountain ridge, they had a much easier downhill journey to a giant canyon deep within the mountain range.

The entrance of the canyon was established as a boundary, with the cultivators of the two cities setting up camp on either side of it.

Inside the valley, one half of the rock face was blue, while the other was red, and they were giving off completely contrasting freezing and scorching auras. Through the valley, it could be seen that the black abyss cut through the entire valley, slicing it into two like a black river.

The area around the black abyss was completely filled with spatial rifts that were clumped together like a ferocious storm.