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

Chapter 709: Predicament

Chapter 709: Predicament

Right as Han Li and Mo Guang arrived at the entrance of the room, the former suddenly stopped cold in his tracks as his body shuddered violently.

"What's wrong, Fellow Daoist Han?" Mo Guang hurriedly asked.

Han Li offered no response. At this moment, a layer of gray light had emerged over his eyes, and his facial muscles were beginning to spasm, indicating that he was enduring some type of severe pain.

Immediately thereafter, his entire body began to tremble, while his complexion turned deathly pale.

For some reason, the baleful qi in his immortal acupoints had suddenly begun to churn violently in an uncontrollable fashion.

All of a sudden, bursts of inky-black baleful qi began to erupt out of his body, and they were flailing around like devilish tentacles, causing the surrounding air temperature to plummet.

"Let's go in the room first," Mo Guang said, and Han Li pushed the door open before making his way inside.

Could it be that my baleful decay is rearing its head again? What a terrible time for this to happen...

It had already been several centuries since the previous onset of baleful decay, and the delaying effect of the threads of time had already worn off, so this wasn't too much of a surprise.

With that in mind, he swept both sleeves through the air, releasing hundreds of array flags that landed around the room to set up several sturdy restrictions.

Mo Guang also contributed to the effort, raising a hand to release a burst of black light, which created another black restriction in addition to Han Li's.

This restriction was filled with black mist, and a series of interlocking black chains could be seen within it.

A burst of mellow baleful qi fluctuations was emanating from the array, interspersed with law power fluctuations, and it was immediately able to contain the majority of the baleful qi that was flowing out of Han Li's body.

Thanks to their combined efforts, all of Han Li's baleful qi fluctuations had been contained, but everything had happened so abruptly that they weren't able to contain the initial eruption of baleful qi.

At the same time, all of the baleful qi in the surrounding area was drawn to the palace in a frenzy, creating an enormous phenomenon that was no less formidable than what one would expect to see from a breakthrough for a Gray Immortal.

At this moment, Miao Xiu was on her way to the inner manor, and she suddenly turned in the direction of the palace as a hint of amazement flashed through her eyes.

"Such immense baleful qi fluctuations! As expected of a Void Integration being..." Miao Xiu murmured to herself with a contemplative look in her eyes.

Shi Chuankong was currently seated with his eyes closed on the bed in his room. The silver lute was hovering above his head, and he seemed to be refining the treasures, but all of a sudden, his eyes sprang open as he cast his gaze toward the entrance of his room.

......

Inside Han Li's room, Daoist Xie appeared amid a flash of golden lightning.

"I'm going to need your help, Fellow Daoist Mo Guang, Brother Xie," Han Li said as he sat down with his legs crossed and began to channel his cultivation arts.

In the next instant, a burst of radiant golden light erupted out of his body, accompanied by bursts of time law power fluctuations.

Mo Guang and Daoist Xie exchanged a glance with each other, then each made their way to a corner of the room before sitting down with their legs crossed.

Right as Han Li was channeling his time law powers to protect his immortal acupoints, he discovered that something wasn't quite right.

At this moment, only the immortal acupoints in his body that had been infiltrated by baleful qi were in a state of unrest, while his remaining, clean immortal acupoints remained normal, and that was different from the previous onset of baleful decay.

Could this not be an onset of baleful decay?

If this were an onset of baleful decay, then even though he was confident in his ability to suppress it, it was going to take him some time. At the moment, he was in the Gray Realm, so if anyone were to detect that he was enduring a baleful decay, then his cover would be instantly blown.

With that in mind, Han Li channeled his immortal spiritual power and time law powers to suppress the churning baleful qi in his body with all his might.

However, despite his best efforts, the baleful qi in his immortal acupoints only became more and more restless, as if they were being stimulated by something.

Han Li could feel his agitation growing by the second, and a burst of irrepressible impulses were arising within his heart.

At this moment, his eyes were glowing red, and his aura was becoming more and more violent.

On top of that, the baleful qi in the surrounding space was rapidly converging toward him as if it were being attracted before fusing into his immortal acupoints.

The amount of baleful qi in his immortal acupoints was rapidly increasing, and it was becoming more and more restless.

Han Li bit down onto the tip of his own tongue, using the pain to ensure that he remained lucid and in control, and he conjured up a door of silver light before stepping into the Flower Branch domain.

Upon entering the Flower Branch domain, the baleful qi converging toward him was also brought into the domain. As a result, the baleful qi in the room instantly became a lot sparser, while the amount of baleful qi in his immortal acupoints also ceased to compound any further.

Han Li's expression eased slightly upon sensing this, and he sat down with his legs crossed before summoning a Baleful Quelling Pill, which he promptly devoured.

The pill quickly melted away, and two enormous auras, one hot and one cold, appeared before flowing through his entire body.

All of his pores opened up involuntarily, and bursts of incredibly dense baleful qi surged out of his entire body.

When did I accumulate so much baleful qi? Han Li wondered to himself with a bewildered expression.

Thanks to the three Baleful Quelling Pills that he had taken last time, much of the baleful qi in his body outside of his immortal acupoints had been expelled, so it didn't make sense for so much of it to have returned in such a short time.

Could it be that the baleful-qi-rich environment in the Gray Realm is what's doing this to me?

After some contemplation, Han Li shook his head to rid himself of that train of thought before focusing on refining the Baleful Quelling Pill.

Right at this moment, Mo Guang appeared behind him, then began to chant an incantation before raising both hands to release two bursts of black light, which quickly converged to form a thick pillar of black light.

The pillar of black light took on the form of a giant beastly projection that appeared to be somewhere between a tiger and a lion, and it opened its mouth up wide, devouring all of the baleful qi that was surging out of Han Li's body.

Not only that, but the suction force released by the projection was enveloping his entire body, significantly increasing the rate of baleful qi expulsion.

Thanks to the Baleful Quelling Pill and Mo Guang's assistance, the baleful qi in his body was rapidly being expunged, and the baleful qi in his immortal acupoints gradually subsided as well.

Around a week flew by in a flash.

The baleful qi surging out of Han Li's body gradually diminished until it disappeared altogether, and he slowly opened his eyes, which had returned to their normal, lucid state.

At the same time, Mo Guang dispelled the pillar of black light, and Han Li inspected his own internal condition to find that the unrest in the baleful qi in his immortal acupoints had subsided.

However, the amount of baleful qi in his immortal acupoints hadn't decreased at all. In fact, it had increased slightly from the baleful qi that it had absorbed from the outside world, and he couldn't help but heave a forlorn sigh upon seeing this.

The baleful qi lingered in his immortal acupoints like persistent spirits, constantly threatening to rear its ugly head again.

"Thank you for your help, Fellow Daoist Mo Guang," Han Li said.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Mo Guang replied with a wave of his hand.

"Fellow Daoist Mo Guang, given that you've occupied this Gray Immortal body for all this time, I'm sure you must've become quite familiar with baleful qi. Were you able to make any observations these past few days? Why did the baleful qi in my immortal acupoints suddenly become so violent?" Han Li asked.

"At the moment, you're in the Gray Realm, so your body is constantly in contact with baleful qi from the outside world. Given your current struggles with baleful decay, there's a large amount of baleful qi in your body, and the two attract each other.

“Hence, ever since you entered the Gray Realm, the amount of baleful qi in your body has been rapidly increasing without your detection, and it was most likely the excessive abundance of baleful qi in your body that triggered the unrest in the baleful qi in your immortal acupoints," Mo Guang explained.

"I see," Han Li replied with a nod.

Upon entering the Gray Realm, it initially seemed as if he could acclimate himself to the environment here. However, due to the abundance of baleful qi in his body and the fact that he had used a Gray Realm cultivation art in the past, his body had undergone some changes, essentially making him half a Gray Immortal.

Under these circumstances, the baleful qi in his body would go into this state of unrest over and over again, causing his body to slowly acclimate to this environment. At this rate, it would most likely only take about a thousand years for him to completely become a Gray Immortal with no possibility of turning back.

"The baleful qi in other parts of your body can be easily expelled using Baleful Quelling Pills, but there's no way to expel the baleful qi in your immortal acupoints. We've managed to suppress your baleful qi this time, but I'm not sure how many more times we'll be able to do this," Mo Guang said with a serious expression.

"It looks like the only two options open to me are to return to the True Immortal Realm or overcome my baleful decay," Han Li said with a wry smile.

Clearly, it wasn't going to be easy to leave the Gray Realm in a short time, but overcoming his baleful decay in the Gray Realm was going to be next to impossible, and thus, he was faced with a very difficult predicament.