The Long Journey to Immortality

Naturally, the power of the "Nine Dragons Thunder Formation" that Han Lu unleashed in the deep blue desert was also slightly enhanced.

Originally, Han Lu thought that if she could activate seven of the nine spirit swords in one go and shoot a bolt of lightning comparable to a Foundation Establishment technique at each of the two people when she first used the sword formation that she only had a slight understanding of, that would be good enough.

Unexpectedly, the final result almost shocked even Han Lu.

All nine spirit swords were activated, and nearly twenty bolts of lightning simultaneously struck the two people in the sword formation.

Seeing this, Zhong Zhengzhen and Zhang Chu quickly stopped the spells they were casting and hastily used protective spells or defensive magic items to defend themselves.

Since it was Han Lu's first time using the Nine Dragons Thunder Formation, she wasn't very skilled, and half of the nearly twenty lightning bolts missed their target and landed in empty space.

Even so, those ten bolts of lightning were enough for Zhong Zhengzhen and Zhang Chu to withstand.

The two who were struck by "ten thunderbolts" were so frightened by the sheer power of the move that their legs trembled. They secretly prayed that their spell would work.

The lightning struck its target, sending up streaks of light and clouds of dust.

When the light and smoke dissipate.

Zhong Zhengzhen and Zhang Chu, standing in the center of the magic array, looked disheveled.

Covered in dust and with their hair looking like it had been permed, they suffered considerable injuries from just one move by Han Lu, and most of their spiritual energy was also depleted.

Zhong Zheng was secretly relieved to be alive.

Zhang Chu was slightly better off, uninjured, but had fallen into a state of frenzy, wielding his spirit sword erratically within the magic array while uttering strange cries.

"Were you stunned by the electric shock?" Han Lu was a little confused, as she remembered that this sword formation did not have the ability to attack with spiritual sense.

"Second brother! Second brother!" Zhong Zhengzhen panicked.

The two of them had been at a disadvantage in their fierce battle with Han Lu, and now he had suffered a minor injury and lost a lot of spiritual power. If Zhang Chu went mad and became a burden, then he would really have no way to survive.

Zhong Zhengzhen's words brought Zhang Chu back to his senses somewhat.

With an exaggerated expression, he looked at Zhong Zhengzhen and asked, "Brother, how can a low-level Foundation Establishment cultivator be able to suppress two of us mid-level Foundation Establishment cultivators so completely? This doesn't make sense!"

Zhong Zhengzhen couldn't answer the question, so he could only change the subject, saying, "Second brother, there's no need to be too nervous. The move you just used was extremely powerful and must have required a lot of spiritual energy."

"That female cultivator is probably out of options now."

"If the two of us hold our ground, we will surely escape death."

Unexpectedly, no sooner had Zhong Zhengzhen finished speaking than thunder roared again from within the sword formation.

Zhong Zhengzhen was right; the move just now did indeed consume about 15% of Han Lu's spiritual power.

However, the Nine Dragons Thunder Formation that Han Lu is currently using has the effect of recovering the power of thunder. The thunderbolts that fall into empty spaces are reused, and 70% or even 80% of the spiritual power that is spent can be recovered.

This further enhanced Han Lu's already abundant spiritual energy and her ability to sustain combat.

At least in this deep blue desert, even if Han Lu activated the "Twenty Thunderbolts" move ten times in a row, she wouldn't feel tired at all.

As the rumbling thunder roared once more, Zhong Zhengzhen succumbed to despair.

He was about to beg for mercy and use his previous words to exonerate himself and Zhang Chu.

Zhong Zhengzhen was even prepared to use the golden pill worth thousands of spirit stones that he had stolen to buy his life.

But the quick-witted Han Lu did not give Zhong Zhengzhen this last chance for self-redemption, or a chance to try to survive in this world.

This time, the lightning triggered by Han Lu's spiritual sword strike increased significantly.

Nine swords were unleashed simultaneously, and more than twenty bolts of lightning swept through every corner of the sword formation.

When the sword formation dissipated, only two charred corpses and two spirit swords that had lost their spirit fell from the sky.

Under the power of thunder, the two cultivators who had just embarked on the evil path ended their lives, which had just begun to show promise.

Han Lu, who hadn't had enough fun yet, looked disappointed.

"Sigh, they're too weak. No wonder they can't form their own core on their own and have to steal other people's cores to exchange for beast cores, taking this crooked shortcut."

Han Lu sighed, gathered the nine scattered spiritual swords into one, and then rode the spiritual sword beneath her feet, spinning back to the ground.

After casually unleashing two flames to destroy the evidence, Han Lu waved her hand again, taking the two people's storage bags into her hand and taking the spirit swords that the two people had just mastered and which were now without an owner.

"One mid-grade magic tool and one low-grade magic weapon, how poor I am." Han Lu, a second-generation immortal, complained and casually put the two spirit swords, which could sell for three figures of spirit stones in a shop, into her storage bag for miscellaneous items.

Immediately afterwards, she rode her spirit sword and flew slowly towards the location of her temporary cave. During the flight, she casually opened her storage bag to check the spoils she had obtained after the battle.

Since Zhong Zhengzhen and Zhang Chu were of mediocre strength, there was naturally nothing good in their storage bags.

More than three hundred spirit stones, two low- to mid-grade magic artifacts, and a dozen or so Spirit Gathering Pills that were refined many years ago.

The only thing that could pique Han Lu's interest was a light gray golden pill stored in Zhong Zhengzhen's storage bag.

Looking at this golden core, which was only of the lower seventh grade, Han Lu felt sorry for its former owner, but at the same time, an amazing idea came to her mind.

"Am I now considered a human cultivator or a true spirit? What would happen if I refined this human cultivator's golden core?"

[Author's Note] The term "demoness" in the text is a product of censorship.

Chapter 321 You're Not Xiao Ran

What race does she belong to now? Is she considered a human cultivator or a true spirit? This question has been troubling Han Lu.

Although for most genius high-level cultivators, mastering one or two kinds of demonic beasts or true spirits, or being able to directly transform into a true spirit like Han Lu, is an extremely common thing.

However, cultivators like Han Lu, who can transform into a true spirit at the Qi Refining stage, or even whose biological parents might be true spirits, are still a minority.

Naturally, Han Lu had no one to refer to, and this philosophical and difficult-to-answer question continued to trouble her.

Now, there is an easily verifiable way to solve this difficult problem.

Although this method was foolish, it still made Han Lu feel confused and tempted for a moment.

However, this impulse only lasted for a moment.

Han Lu was naturally unwilling to ruin her future simply to solve a difficult but not fatal problem.

After carefully putting away the golden core, Han Lu murmured, "What does it matter whether it's a true spirit or a human cultivator? In the end, they are all cultivators pursuing the ultimate goal of the Great Dao, only their paths are slightly different."

By defining herself as a cultivator rather than a specific race, Han Lu answered this difficult question from a different angle, thus overcoming a small psychological hurdle.

Don't underestimate this philosophical self-questioning. If not handled properly, it can cloud your Dao heart and may even attract external demons when you advance to the Core Formation stage.

In fact, the vast majority of cultivators fail at the almost 100% successful advancement stage of Core Formation because they cannot answer certain questions for themselves, falling into madness and confusion, and ultimately leading to death.

After regaining consciousness from this "wise" state, Han Lu casually put the low-grade golden pill, worth at least a thousand spirit stones, into her storage bag.

She didn't intend to sell it for spirit stones; she simply wanted to keep it as a nice souvenir.

This serves as a reminder that the path of cultivation is fraught with danger, and one must never be complacent. Otherwise, even a pseudo-Core Formation cultivator could be defeated by two mediocre Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The other items in their storage bags were insignificant, including a lot of miscellaneous items and even five unfinished travelogues.

The author of the travelogue is Zhong Zhengzhen.

Han Lu finally learned the name of one of the two mediocre cultivators she had casually killed earlier through the words on the title page of this travelogue.

Xiao Ran was still forming his core there, while Han Lu was temporarily idle.

Having just dealt with two thugs who attempted to kill her and steal her pills, Han Lu felt that no one would bother her for a while, so she returned to her previous relaxed demeanor.

Holding Zhong Zhengzhen's travelogue in her hand, she leaned against the sand wall outside the cave, reading the last traces that cultivator left in this world under the intense midday sun of the deep blue desert.

Although he hadn't gone very far on the path of cultivation, Zhong Zhengzhen, who had once surpassed countless mediocre cultivators and was considered a genius, still had his own ambitions.

When he discovered that his talent only allowed him to reach the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, he planned to leave some traces of his existence in this world in other ways before his two hundred years of lifespan ran out.

This travelogue is his work.

It must be said that, as a cultivator, Zhong Zhengzhen can only barely be rated as passing.

But as a traveler, Han Lu thinks Zhong Zheng deserves full marks.

Han Lu's travelogue is rich in content and written in a humorous style. The descriptions are realistic and vivid, bringing the local customs and culture of various places in Dayu to life on the page.

After flipping through just over ten pages, Han Lu was captivated by the true stories in the travelogue, unable to stop reading with her hands and eyes, only wanting to finish the entire travelogue.

Although his cultivation level was far inferior to that of Ci Daoren, who also traveled through the Great Yu Dynasty, Zhong Zhengzhen traveled the Great Yu Dynasty much faster.

In the more than forty years that he began to travel around, Zhong Zhengzhen appeared in twenty-three of the thirty-two prefectures of the Dayu Dynasty.

As a cultivator, Han Lu's reading speed far surpasses that of ordinary mortals; she can read ten lines at a glance and understand and remember the text clearly.

As the sun was about to set and the fading clouds in the sky turned red, Han Lu had already read through all five volumes of travelogues.

Through this travelogue, Han Lu also learned the name of another cultivator she had killed, and the story of Zhong Zhengzhen and Zhang Chu in Mingsha Village.

In the end, Han Lu also learned that Zhong Zhengzhen had become obsessed with evil cultivation because of Ci Daoren's "encouragement" in Mingsha Village, and had started to commit murder and steal pills.

She also learned from the unfinished and unpublished text that this travelogue would never end.

After closing the book, Han Lu felt a sense of emptiness and mixed emotions.

“If he had shown me a few pages of this travelogue back then, perhaps I would have spared his life,” Han Lu whispered. “I feel a sense of guilt. I might as well find an opportunity to publish the first four volumes of this travelogue in the future, which would also fulfill this poor man’s wish.”

After making the promise, Han Lu felt much clearer-headed and refreshed.

At that moment, the attraction of spiritual energy within the cave changed.

The cave, which had been recklessly absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy as if it were a fake core forming, suddenly came to a standstill for a moment.

During the ten breaths that followed the pause, the spiritual energy that had dwindled in the surroundings surged towards Xiao Ran's temporary cave dwelling at an even faster pace.

Based on this, Han Lu knew that Xiao Ran should have already completed the formation of his core and successfully advanced to the Golden Core realm.

"He should be absorbing spiritual energy with his golden core right now. I estimate that he will emerge from his cave and share the good news with me once he has recovered a bit."

Sure enough, after a short while, Xiao Ran absorbed about a hundred breaths of spiritual energy in the cave, filled his empty dantian with some spiritual power, and then couldn't wait to release the restriction and walk out of the cave.

Having just advanced to the Golden Core stage, Xiao Ran's cultivation level was different from before, and his facial features and aura had also changed.

Advancing to the Golden Core stage will slightly alter a cultivator's facial features and bone structure, making them appear more like handsome men and beautiful women.

However, if your foundation is too poor, and you are inherently ugly, then even if you successfully advance to the Golden Core stage, your appearance can only be improved from 1 point to 3 points.

After Xiao Ran's appearance was slightly tidied up, Han Lu would rate him a 7.5 out of 10.

Now that he has advanced to the Golden Core stage, his score has naturally increased from seven and a half to eight and a half, which is barely enough to be considered a promising talent.

In terms of temperament, Xiao Ran used to be a righteous and unrestrained person, but now he has a casualness that is vaguely tinged with a bit of evil.

This puzzled Han Lu slightly.