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

Chapter 927: Private Meeting

Half a day later, a loud explosion rang out near another quarry of crystalline white rocks, followed by a despairing wail.

A large hole had been pierced into an Ice Scaled Armadillo's abdomen by a sharp rock, and it tried in futility to crawl away, only to ultimately fall to the ground.

Han Li arrived beside the Ice Scaled Armadillo before quickly harvesting its horn.

After discovering their food source, Han Li's encounter rate with these Ice Scaled Armadillos had increased significantly, and after only half a day, he had already found four.

At this point, it was already very close to the rendezvous with Chen Yang and Xuanyuan Xing, so it was time to head back.

However, over the past half a day, he had been focused solely on searching for clusters of this white ore, so he had strayed away from his designated area, and he didn't really know where he currently was.

After jumping onto a rock and inspecting his surroundings momentarily, he quickly cast his gaze in a certain direction.

The rendezvous point should be in that direction...

The environment in the basin was very monotonous, so he couldn't be sure.

Even so, he still decided to depart in that direction while releasing his spiritual sense to search for the tracks that he had made on the way here.

The sky was quickly beginning to turn dark, and the freezing winds were picking up once again.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he sped up a little, but shortly thereafter, his expression suddenly changed slightly as he stopped in his tracks.

Two figures had appeared in his spiritual sensory range, but instead of Chen Yang and Xuanyuan Xing, they were Zhuo Ge and Wu Yun.

Why are they here? Could it be that they actually already noticed us earlier, but pretended to be oblivious, only to follow us here with sinister intentions?

Han Li immediately withdrew his spiritual sense upon detecting the two Puppet City cultivators.

At the same time, he also unleashed his Myriad Acupoint Technique, and all of a sudden, his aura completely vanished.

After that, he began to travel in the direction of the two Puppet City cultivators, and upon getting close, he hid behind a large rock.

Zhuo Ge and Wu Yun were standing near a giant rock several thousand feet away, and both of them were looking around with tightly furrowed brows.

Han Li immediately ducked behind his rock once again to remain unseen.

It doesn't look like they were planning to attack us.

A perplexed look appeared on Han Li's face as he began to wait. He wanted to see just what these two were up to.

Over two hours flew by in a flash.

All of a sudden, a pair of black figures appeared in the distance, and they sped onto the scene, reaching Zhuo Ge and Wu Yun in the blink of an eye.

Both figures were dressed in cloaks with their hoods up, making it impossible to see their faces.

A hint of relief appeared on Zhuo Ge's face at the sight of the two figures, following which he harrumphed coldly, "Could you two have come any later?"

The two figures offered no response, and one of them began to inspect their surroundings.

Han Li hurriedly ducked back down again upon seeing this.

"Rest assured, we've already carefully examined the nearby area several times to ensure that there's no one eavesdropping in hiding," Zhuo Ge said.

One of the cloaked figures lowered their hood and smiled as they said, "My apologies. E Kuai has been keeping us on a very tight leash, so it wasn't easy for me to manufacture this opportunity to bring Fellow Daoist Chen out here."

The figure was none other than Xuanyuan Xing.

At this moment, he was displaying none of his usual timidity. Instead, he was looking extremely confident and self-assured, and it was as if he had turned into a different person.

The other figure also lowered their hood, revealing them to be Chen Yang.

Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing this.

Judging from what Xuanyuan Xing had said, it seemed that they had already agreed to meet here well in advance.

On top of that, Xuanyuan Xing had just said that he had manufactured this opportunity, so could it be that he had intentionally failed in his array inscriptions, thereby wasting all those materials just so he could come here with Chen Yang?

If that were the case, then Xuanyuan Xing really had done a very good job of fooling everyone.

"I've heard many great things about you, City Lord Chen," Zhuo Ge said with a smile.

"Cut the chit-chat. Show me the proof," Chen Yang replied with a cold expression.

Zhuo Ge remained unbothered by Chen Yang's frosty attitude, pulling out a crimson jade slab before handing it to Chen Yang.

Han Li was just about to take a closer look when the jade slab was transferred into Chen Yang's hand, thereby obscuring it from view.

Even though it was only a fleeting glance, Han Li was still able to see some of the things on the jade slab. It seemed to have been riddled with tiny text, and there was also what appeared to have been an array diagram engraved upon it.

Chen Yang examined the jade slab closely, and a series of emotions flashed over his face, including shock, anger, and indignation.

Moments later, Chen Yang took a deep breath to compose himself, then stowed the jade slab away without Zhuo Ge's permission, but Zhuo Ge didn't seem to mind.

Chen Yang was silent for a moment, then said, "I agree to your proposal. However..."

Whatever he said next was delivered through voice transmission, and from there, the four men began conversing in secret through voice transmission.

After a brief discussion, all of them nodded in unison, seemingly having arrived at some type of agreement.

"Alright, everything that needs to be said has already been said, so let's end things here," Chen Yang said before turning to depart.

Xuanyuan Xing nodded at Zhuo Ge and Wu Yun, then also departed after Chen Yang.

Following their departure, Wu Yun asked in a tender, childlike voice, "Zhuo Ge, do you think Chen Yang will actually do what we agreed upon?"

"He has no other choice," Zhuo Ge replied in an indifferent manner.

"I suppose so," Wu Yun replied with a nod.

After that, the two of them promptly departed as well.

Only after waiting for a long while did Han Li emerge from hiding with a contemplative look on his face, following which he also departed from the scene.

The night quickly passed by.

At the entrance of the basin, Chen Yang and Xuanyuan Xing stood side by side, seemingly waiting for something.

Before long, they were approached by a figure from afar, and it was none other than Han Li.

At this moment, he was looking a little worse for wear. His clothes were torn and stained with blood in many places, and he was also looking quite weary.

"My apologies. I ventured too deep into the basin in search for Ice Scaled Armadillos yesterday, and I was also attacked by several powerful scaled beasts. I lost my way while escaping from them, so I wasn't able to return here in a timely fashion," Han Li said with a wry smile.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Fellow Daoist Li. Thank you for your tireless efforts," Chen Yang replied with a smile, and there was nothing unnatural about his expression.

"How did things go on your end, Fellow Daoist Li?" Chen Yang asked.

"I was able to kill four Ice Scaled Armadillos," Han Li replied as he pulled out four translucent horns.

"I killed three, while Fellow Daoist Xuanyuan killed one, so we have more than enough," Chen Yang said as he pulled out his own three horns.

"I came here to make amends, but it seems like all I did was drag everyone down again," Xuanyuan Xing said with an embarrassed expression as he pulled out a single horn.

Han Li sneered internally at the act that Xuanyuan Xing was putting on, but on the surface, he maintained an amicable smile as he said, "Don't say that, Fellow Daoist Xuanyuan. It was a team effort, and ultimately, we managed to reach our target, did we not?"

"Alright, now that we've gathered enough horns, let's go back right away so we don't keep Fellow Daoist Liu Hua waiting any longer. You don't look so good at the moment, Fellow Daoist Li, will you be alright to make the return journey?" Chen Yang asked.

"I'm fine, Fellow Daoist Chen," Han Li replied with a smile.

With that, the three of them set off in the opposite direction that they had come from.

Having already made this trip twice, they had become very familiar with the route, and it only took them a day to return to the campsite.

The Blush Crystals and Earth Tide Stones had already been prepared, and with the Ice Scaled Armadillo horns ready as well, work was able to resume.

……

Around a month passed by in a flash.

On this night, the sky was filled with stars, brightly illuminating the area in front of the canyon.

A giant, black flying boat was hovering around three feet above the ground with its wings extended outward on either side, looking like a giant bird that was about to take flight.

The entire boat was riddled with densely packed white runes, and even though they weren't glowing at the moment, they still appeared to be quite remarkable.

The two campsites were still standing, but the cultivators of the two cities were already prepared to set off, and they were arranged in a pair of orderly lines on either side of the flying boat.

Han Li was standing within the crowd on the left, and his gaze was constantly roaming over the collection of Puppet City cultivators.

There were far more Puppet City cultivators than last time, even more so than the number of Profound City cultivators.

Zhuo Ge met Han Li's gaze and gave him a slight nod, to which Han Li responded with a smile and a nod of his own.

The two women that he had saved were also looking at him with smiles on their faces under the veils of their conical bamboo hats, but they didn't dare to nod at Han Li as Zhuo Ge had.

In contrast, the other Puppet City cultivators were regarding Han Li in a far less friendly manner, but Han Li didn't care about that at all.

Instead, his attention was focused solely on searching for that purple-robed woman that he had caught a brief glance of last time, but unfortunately, she wasn't present.