The Long Journey to Immortality

The process of Han Lu using the Harmony Technique to integrate the Fire Phoenix bloodline was full of twists and turns.

Even though the secret technique had entered a period of calm again, unlike the intense one before, Han Lu wasn't entirely sure whether it would succeed until the moment before she lost consciousness.

This stalemate lasted for five days before the color of the phoenix's feathers finally began to stabilize.

The white feather on the top of the Ice Phoenix's head turned fiery red.

The Harmony Secret Technique can be considered essentially complete.

The only problem is that when Han Lu wakes up, she will have a headache and struggle with how to address her true spirit incarnation that has fused three kinds of true phoenix bloodlines.

However, the phoenix lying in the blood cocoon still showed no sign of waking up.

Han Lu is currently in a state as if she is fast asleep.

To wake her up and help her emerge from her cocoon, we can either hope she's had enough sleep and will wake up naturally.

Alternatively, she would need an external "alarm" to wake her from this incredibly comfortable state.

Clearly, Han Lu, who was still fast asleep, had not yet had enough sleep, and there was no one else in this temporary cave to do the work that an alarm clock should do.

Therefore, Han Lu could only continue to sleep, waiting for the right time to emerge and "transform from her cocoon."

Another seven days have passed.

The color on the blood cocoon has faded considerably.

The cocoon wall, which was originally a full inch thick, has become thinner, like a thin film that can be easily punctured.

Seven days ago, one could barely see the phoenix lying inside the blood cocoon, but on this day, the blood cocoon seemed to have turned into translucent amber, revealing the "treasure" hidden inside.

However, even so, Han Lu, lying in the blood cocoon as if she were in a warm bed, still showed no signs of waking up.

Time continued to pass, and in the blink of an eye, twenty-one days had passed since Han Lu opened the temporary cave dwelling and used the Harmony Secret Technique.

The blood on the cocoon had completely faded, and the red of the long feathers on the phoenix's head had become even more vivid.

Clearly, it won't be long before Han Lu wakes up from this comfortable state.

However, on this very day, three travelers arrived in this mountain forest, which usually receives few visitors and those who do only pass through in a hurry.

A chase between cultivators at the Qi Refining Realm was taking place in the dense mountain forest.

A female cultivator dressed in an ordinary light blue shirt, with two storage bags without the sect's name embroidered on them hanging from her waist, was exerting her spiritual power to use a lightness technique to quickly traverse through the gaps in the trees and forests.

Tree branches and various obstacles tore her ordinary clothes to shreds, and her already disheveled hair also showed the female cultivator's current disheveled state.

About a hundred meters behind her, two male cultivators dressed in sect uniforms were chasing after her.

The two male cultivators did not use their full strength; they merely hung behind the female cultivator, trying their best to maintain the chase with the idea of ​​wearing her down before killing her.

The chase, which began in a small village near the mountains, has lasted for nearly 15 minutes.

The female cultivator looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old, and her cultivation level was only at the fifth level of Qi Refining. Fortunately, the lightness technique she used was quite sophisticated and not the common stuff taught to ordinary Qi Refining disciples by ordinary sects.

Thanks to this exquisite lightness technique, she was able to withstand two cultivators whose cultivation levels were two levels higher than hers for so long without being captured.

Even so, the female cultivator had already used up 70% of the spiritual power in her spiritual meridians.

“This won’t do,” the female cultivator felt that her body had reached its limit and that the scenery in her eyes was becoming blurry. “We must find a place to hide temporarily, otherwise, we will only face death.”

She secretly complained, "I should have known better than to accept that gift from that Golden Core cultivator. I didn't get any benefit from it, and instead, I became a target for bad guys."

"My life is over."

The two male cultivators chasing after the female cultivator appeared extremely relaxed, as if they were strolling leisurely.

The two cultivators were already far superior to the female cultivator in cultivation level, and they could also sense that the female cultivator's running speed had slowed down considerably compared to the beginning, so they felt that victory was in sight.

"Senior brother, that Ci Daoist is truly blind! He actually said that my brother and I are not destined to be with him and refused to give us the treasure." One of the younger male cultivators complained to his companion.

The male cultivator, addressed as senior brother, chuckled and said, "So what? Ci Daoren is a Golden Core cultivator, so it's normal that we have no affinity with him. However, we are destined to receive those two magical treasures he gave away."

"Look, that female cultivator in front probably won't last a hundred breaths. When that happens, my fellow disciple and I can each get a treasure. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

The two male cultivators had already devoured the magical treasure that the female cultivator had obtained from the Golden Core cultivator.

The junior brother chuckled and said, "What you say makes sense, senior brother. But that female cultivator is quite pretty. Senior brother already has Senior Sister Feng with him. How about you have some mercy and let me have a go later?"

"Of course," the senior brother casually arranged, "Later, I only need one magic weapon, and I'll leave the person to you to handle."

"But let me make this clear first," the senior brother instructed, "make sure to clean things up after you're done, so that no one can find any fault with you."

After all, they were robbing a magic weapon given to them by a Golden Core cultivator, and the two brothers didn't want to leak the news and leave any hidden dangers.

After thanking him repeatedly, the junior brother said anxiously, "Senior brother, the time is almost right. Shouldn't we speed things up and finish this matter quickly?"

My senior joked, "Your thing down there is in such a hurry, but this place is secluded and perfect for doing something naughty. Your idea is not bad."

The remote mountain forest that Han Lu chose was indeed a good place to commit murder and plunder.

So the two of them quickened their pace slightly, thinking they could finish the matter within a hundred breaths, covering not much distance, and reap a great harvest.

Unexpectedly, following the spiritual energy fluctuations left by the female cultivator, the two chased for about three hundred meters, but lost track of her in front of a mountain wall.

“She must have found a place to hide like an ordinary person, somewhere nearby,” the senior brother, who had experienced more storms, immediately judged the female cultivator’s approximate whereabouts. “Junior brother, let’s split up and search. The female cultivator shouldn’t have much spiritual power left, so she can’t cause any trouble.”

"What you say makes sense, senior brother."

Without hesitation, the two each chose a direction and began searching in front of the stone wall.

Hearing the commotion outside the stone wall, the female cultivator who had just used her magic to slip through the crack in the stone into the temporary cave dug by Han Lu almost had her heart jump out of her mouth.

After confirming that the two people outside had not immediately noticed the obvious crack in the stone wall, she quickly popped a pill into her mouth, wanting to make the most of the remaining time to restore her spiritual power.

"Fortunately, I don't know how..." She only said half of what she was thinking when she turned around and saw the True Spirit Phoenix lying in the transparent cocoon in the cave. She almost vomited up the pill she had just swallowed because of the shock.

Sorry for missing a chapter.

Chapter 304 Senior, Save Me

"This..." the female cultivator exclaimed inwardly, "Could this be the legendary Phoenix, a true spirit that lives deep in the wilderness?"

"How could a legendary spirit appear in a place devoid of spiritual energy?" The female cultivator looked around, finding it unbelievable that a legendary spirit could appear in this otherwise ordinary cave.

Although it was a critical moment, the shocking scene before this mere Qi Refining Level 5 cultivator made her involuntarily forget the danger outside the stone wall.

Gazing at the phoenix lying in the transparent cocoon, the female cultivator mustered her courage and stepped closer.

"It seems to be asleep."

"It is also slightly smaller than the phoenix image in those folk tales."

"Looking at its white plumage, is it the legendary Ice Phoenix? But the temperature in this cave is quite normal, even a bit higher than outside."

"Moreover, its tail feathers are multicolored, and the feathers on its head are fiery red. It's really strange. Could it be some kind of mutated true spirit?"

……

Just as the female cultivator was observing Han Lu, who had transformed into a phoenix and was contemplating a problem, something else happened outside the cave.

"Senior brother, he's not with me."

"Junior brother, I don't have any here either."

"Could it be that they've climbed up the stone wall and are now at the top?"

"Or perhaps they dug a hole and are hiding inside, trembling with fear?"

"Search, keep looking."

……

After chasing for half an hour, with two more high-quality magical artifacts as temptations, the two brothers naturally wouldn't give up easily because of a small setback.

Despite having countless questions in her mind, the female cultivator couldn't help but turn her attention back to the immediate crisis when the voices of the two male cultivators outside the stone wall rang out.

Swallowing hard, an idea suddenly popped into the female cultivator's mind.

"Perhaps this phoenix spirit was seriously injured and is recuperating and sleeping here?"

"Judging from his age, he is not a minor; he is probably at the Golden Core stage of cultivation."

Thinking back to the days when she was chosen from among a hundred cultivators by the Compassionate Daoist and given two high-grade magical artifacts, the female cultivator felt that she was very likely the protagonist in those cultivation novels, whose fortunes would turn around after three years of unremarkable cultivation.

"Perhaps... this is a chance for me to escape from this world, a tremendous stroke of luck bestowed upon me by heaven!"

"If I could subdue this wounded, unconscious phoenix and awaken it."

"Those two bastards outside are definitely no match for this True Spirit's move."

"And I can also greatly increase my strength with this..."

The female cultivator couldn't help but let her imagination run wild again, fantasizing about how, fifty years later, she would advance to the Golden Core stage, sit cross-legged on the back of a fully grown phoenix, soar through the sky, and roam the Great Yu Dynasty.

However, it was only for a moment. A sense of crisis made the female cultivator bring her scattered thoughts back to the present.

Time was of the essence, and she dared not delay any longer.

Before the two careless villains outside discovered this mysterious cave, she had to act quickly.

Otherwise, not only would he miss this opportunity, but he would also lose his head, and the two top-grade magic tools in his storage bag, which he hadn't even warmed up yet, as well as the unclaimed true spirit in front of him, would fall into the hands of those two.

She bit her left index finger, then smeared the blood from it onto her right palm, quickly drawing a not-so-simple symbol.

Once the symbols were fully drawn, she carefully reached out and gently touched the almost transparent cocoon, muttering incantations about the "brainwashing" techniques used by human cultivators when subduing spirit beasts.

Han Lu, who was in a deep sleep, was completely unaware of all of this.

Just as the female cultivator was using her methods to try and subdue the true spirit phoenix that she considered to be without a master, the two male cultivators outside the stone wall finally noticed that the stone wall was somewhat abrupt, and that there were obviously some secrets hidden behind it.

The senior brother guessed, "Could it be that there's a hidden door here, and that the female cultivator accidentally triggered it and hid behind the stone wall?"

Upon hearing this, the junior brother agreed.

"Definitely. We've turned this place upside down. If the female cultivator can still hide, she must be hiding behind this stone wall."

"Senior brother."

"Let's find the mechanism quickly, open the stone wall, and snatch the treasure."

Hearing the conversation between the two male cultivators behind the stone wall, the female cultivator felt a pang of anxiety. She unconsciously increased the pressure on her hand, making the contact area between the runes on her right palm and the callus larger.

He ignored the incantation in his mouth and poured all the little spiritual power he had left into this matter.

The spell cast by the female cultivator transformed into a needle-like beam of light that pierced into Han Lu's sea of ​​consciousness, accurately targeting the phoenix avatar suspended in the icy sky above her sea of ​​consciousness.