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

Chapter 996: Night Infiltration

There was a dark alley that branched off from a main street in Night Sun City.

The alley was very secluded and completely empty, and at its end was a stone wall that was riddled with pits and bumps left behind by the ravages of time.

It was nearing nighttime, and the walls of the alley were basked in an orange glow from the light of the dying sun.

Right at this moment, Han Li abruptly emerged from the wall amid a burst of spatial fluctuations.

Upon arriving in the alley, he flipped a hand over to produce a Reincarnation Palace mask before putting it on, and he instantly transformed into a young devilish man with a short horn on his glabella before making his way toward the entrance of the alley.

Not far away from the entrance of the alley was a massive tree with a lush canopy that resembled an enormous umbrella, and there were currently several people gathered under the tree, chatting with one another.

One of them, a man in black, was particularly loud, and he yelled, "That's a load of nonsense! I think the third prince would make a fine ruler. In the past, we had to go through multiple identity checks just to go to the Maha Area, but now, many of the dogmatic rules established by the first prince have been abolished, making things far more convenient."

A thin elderly man clearly didn't agree, and he countered, "That may be the case, but you have to admit that it was a lot safer to go out back when the first prince was in charge. It may be much more convenient to travel between areas now, but there have also been far more scuffles as a result. It wouldn't really matter if the trouble-makers were the only ones affected, but sometimes, their fights spill out onto the streets and ruin other people's houses."

The elderly man was holding a young boy in his arms, and the boy said in a pure and naive manner, "If only the two princes could work together..."

Everyone else burst into laughter upon hearing this.

"Pardon my intrusion, seniors, but I've only just arrived from outside the city, so I don't know where I am at the moment. May I ask where we are right now?" Han Li asked as he approached the group and cupped his fist in a salute.

"Right now, you're in the southernmost part of the Laka Area. Where are you planning to go?" the middle-aged man in black replied.

Han Li feigned a surprised expression, as if this was his first time in the city, and he exclaimed, "I'm planning to travel to the Maha Area to visit a senior of my clan, and I thought I was already almost there, but it sounds like I'm still very far away. This sure is a massive city..."

"It must be your first time here. I advise you to rent a beast-drawn carriage from the market up ahead. Otherwise, it'll take you an eternity to walk to the Maha Area," the thin elderly man said with a smile.

However, Han Li was in no hurry to leave, and he said, "I just so happened to overhear your conversation just now. Is the Holy Monarch not running the city at the moment?"

"Where on earth did you come from? I can't believe you don't know about this! The Holy Monarch went into seclusion five hundred years ago, and the third prince is in charge right now," the black-robed man chuckled in an amused manner.

"I see," Han Li replied. "Wasn't it always the first prince that oversaw the city in the Holy Monarch's stead?"

"The first prince has already been missing for over a thousand years. Some say he went into seclusion, some say he's out traveling, some say he was imprisoned by the Holy Monarch, but no one truly knows where he is," the thin elderly man replied.

Han Li nodded in response, then cupped his fist in a grateful salute before departing.

......

One night, several days later.

There was a long stretch of palaces in the northern part of the imperial city. The area was brightly lit, and teams of armorclad guards were marching back and forth on patrol duty.

Han Li had changed into a black robe, and he was racing along between the palaces, sticking to the shadows cast by the nearby walls.

At this moment, his aura was completely suppressed, and he was moving with his physical power alone, so he didn't attract any attention from the patrolling guards.

The hidden arrays in the palace walls were as clear as day to him, and he was able to easily avoid triggering them as he sped along.

It didn't take long before he reached a beautiful, standalone palace, and even before he arrived at the palace gates, he could already smell a strong medicinal aroma in the air.

All of the windows of the palace were tightly shut, and steam was rising up from the rooftop.

After briefly inspecting his surroundings, Han Li pressed a hand against the palace gates, following which a burst of silver lightning erupted out of the palm of his hand before instantly spreading over the gates, destroying all of the restrictions inside.

He slowly pushed the gates open before entering the palace, yet before he even had a chance to catch a clear glimpse of his surroundings, a gust of wind suddenly came sweeping at him from both sides.

He had already anticipated that he would be attacked upon entry, and he ducked down slightly before throwing a punch to the left and the right in unison to strike his two assailants.

The two figures were instantly sent flying back through the air before crashing into a pair of pillars with a dull thump, following which both of them slumped to the ground.

Han Li had no intention of killing them, so he had struck an important acupoint on each of their bodies, causing their devilish qi circulation to stagnate, thereby knocking them unconscious.

"If you're not here to kill anyone, then you must be here to ask for help..."

A slightly raspy voice rang out from up ahead, and Han Li cast his gaze forward to discover a pool at the center of the palace. The pool was filled with some type of viscous-looking black liquid that was slowly churning and releasing clouds of steam.

A portly figure slowly stood up from within the pool, and they were dressed in an enormous black cloak that completely concealed their head and body.

"You must be Fellow Daoist Li, right?" the figure asked.

As the portly figure emerged from the pool, waves of fiery heat surged out of their body, quickly drying their black cloak.

Han Li was rather taken aback to hear this, and he asked, "Are you the grand priest?"

"You've come all this way to find me, yet you're not even sure if I'm the person you're looking for?" the portly figure asked.

"I'm just a little surprised by how lax the security here is, so I couldn't be sure if you were truly the grand priest," Han Li said as his brows furrowed slightly.

"The security here is lax, you say? I reside in the heart of the imperial palace, and I have a pair of early-High Zenith Stage personal guards. I think you're merely underestimating your own abilities, Fellow Daoist Li," the portly man chuckled.

"I don't have much time to waste here. If you're the grand priest, then I'm sure you know why I'm here, right?" Han Li asked.

"I already knew what you wanted from me since over a thousand years ago, but I'm afraid that I can't help you," the grand priest sighed.

"In that case, I'll just have to take your head and go to see the real grand priest," Han Li said with a cold smile.

"So you still don't believe that I'm the grand priest?" the portly man sighed in a resigned manner.

"If you're truly the grand priest, then how do you know that you can't help me without even inspecting her condition first?" Han Li asked.

"I conducted some divination over this matter over a thousand years ago, and the conclusion that I drew was that this is not something I should do," the grand priest sighed.

"Not something that you should do? So it's not something that you can't do then, is that right?" Han Li asked.

"Doing something that shouldn't be done would be a grave transgression," the grand priest replied with a shake of his head.

"It's already been over a thousand years, so why don't you conduct divination over this matter again? Perhaps the outcome will be different this time," Han Li said.

The grand priest faltered slightly upon hearing this, then chuckled, "Sure, why not? But if the outcome remains the same, would you be willing to let me off the hook?"

Han Li offered no response to this.

The grand priest heaved a faint sigh, then rubbed his hands together to produce five ornate coins, following which he casually tossed them up into the air before catching them again.

The five coins fell onto the palm of his hand in a pentagonal formation, and as soon as he caught sight of them, his expression changed drastically as he exclaimed, "Who are you? How is your fate this chaotic?"

"You seem to have overstepped some boundaries and looked into something inappropriate," Han Li said in a cold voice, and nine Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords shot out of his body, slicing the surrounding space apart as they surrounded the grand priest from all directions.

A peculiar look flashed through the grand priest's eyes upon seeing this, as if he had suddenly recalled something, and he exclaimed, "Could it be that your surname is Han?"

"You leave me no choice but to kill you," Han Li said in a cold voice as his expression darkened even further.

"Surely you wouldn't strike down a fellow comrade of our Reincarnation Palace, Fellow Daoist Han," the grand priest chuckled as he extended a deathly pale hand out of his sleeve, displaying a Reincarnation Badge.

Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, but his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords were still poised to strike as he asked, "Did you find out my identity through the Reincarnation Palace?"

"That's not important. What's important is that I can now fulfill your request," the grand priest said.

Han Li swept a sleeve through the air upon hearing this, conjuring up a door of silver light that led into the Flower Branch domain.

"Is this... a legendary domain treasure?" the grand priest asked with a stunned expression.

"That's right. Please wait a moment," Han Li replied with a nod, then stepped into the bamboo pavilion through the door of silver light before carrying Weeping Soul out into the palace.