The Long Journey to Immortality

"Do you need me to arrange accommodations for you? There are frequent business trips in Dongyang City, and the hotel fees are not low." Wen Xiaonan was quite concerned about Han Lu, this resourceful outside helper, and inquired about Han Lu's daily life over the past two weeks as the host.

"It's just a matter of gold and silver. Besides, I'm not picky. As long as I have a place to stay, that's fine."

As she spoke, Han Lu thought about finding a place to stay in Dongyang City, so she took her leave.

"Miss Wen, you're busy. Just wait for my good news tonight."

"Then I'll thank Fairy Han in advance for her help."

Just as Wen Xiaonan said, Dongyang City has frequent business travel and high per capita disposable income, which naturally makes the prices in the city one level higher than in other parts of the Southern Dynasty.

Normally, three taels of silver can buy a first-class room in a good inn for half a month.

However, in Dongyang City, the price was indeed five times higher.

It's no wonder that so many bandits gather in this place full of business opportunities, making their fortunes by robbing and plundering merchants and travelers.

After settling in the city, Han Lu cultivated in her room until sunset and moonrise before setting off.

He made hand seals, cast a phantom body spell, concealed his form, and quietly left the city.

Upon reaching the outskirts of the city and finding the surroundings deserted, Han Lu switched to flying on her sword, taking her time as she flew towards the island marked on the map in Wen Xiaonan's office.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the pirate king's lair, which had been roaming freely outside Dongyang City for almost two and a half years, came into Han Lu's sight.

The information provided by Wen Xiaonan was accurate.

With the Pirate King in charge, this island has become a holy land for most of the islands active along the coast of Dongyang City.

The pirates built the island into a village-like settlement where they traded and entertained themselves.

Furthermore, Han Lu noticed that there were even traces of magic array activity in several key areas of the island.

Clearly, in order to protect this territory, the many ordinary pirates controlled by the Pirate King did not skimp on money and set up defensive formations on the island, obviously having already made plans to defend the island.

Seeing this, Han Lu figured that her plan to sneak in and assassinate silently was unlikely to succeed, so she stopped hiding and switched to her second plan, hoping to do the job Wen Xiaonan had entrusted to her perfectly.

They use illusions to change their appearance and make themselves look completely different in the eyes of mortals.

In the eyes of ordinary people, Han Lu is now a female cultivator with a thin figure, short stature, wheat-colored skin, and ordinary features.

Appearing in this attire, no one would associate this female cultivator, who is about to wreak havoc on the pirate island, with the appearance of Han Lu, who is only nine and a half points.

After pondering for a moment and composing a few words, Han Lu immediately used magic to make her voice louder.

She took a deep breath and tried to make her voice sound more domineering as she shouted at the pirates below who were drinking and having fun on the island, enjoying their wonderful nightlife.

"Pirate King, come out and face your death!"

Chapter 574 Night Raid on the Pirate King (Part 2)

This blatant challenge above the heads of over three hundred pirates gave Han Lu the idea to muddy the waters.

Han Lu, who was good at storytelling, had already prepared a story in her mind. She was just waiting for the Pirate King to come out and tell the pirates the story she had prepared. She would completely hide her identity by pretending to be a cultivator of the Zhengyi Sect, so as to avoid breaking the unspoken rules and causing trouble for herself or her sect.

Han Lu's shouts naturally attracted the attention of the many pirates at her feet.

Some of the drunken pirates, completely unaware of the situation, joined in the shouting and cursing when they saw someone hurling insults.

Some quick-witted ones, knowing that cultivators had come looking for them, hurriedly ran into their lair to seek help from the few rogue cultivators who were currently on the island who had joined the group.

A few pirates who were clear-headed and had some understanding of the levels and realms of cultivators had already begun to plan their escape.

A middle-aged pirate with a white beard, along with his son and daughter-in-law, quietly left the bustling crowd and fled towards the only small port on the island.

"Father," the old man's son, drunk and somewhat sluggish, asked in bewilderment, "She's just a foolish female cultivator who willingly came to her death, what's there to be afraid of and run away from?"

Upon hearing this, the old man flew into a rage and roared, "What do you know? Are you courting death? I think today is the day the Pirate King dies!"

Never having heard his father speak to him in such a fierce tone before, the young man was stunned, still not understanding the reason, and asked, "What, Father, is that female cultivator very powerful?"

"Of course it's powerful!" The old man gestured for his son and daughter-in-law to board the boat while explaining, "Didn't you notice that the female cultivator who challenged you just now was flying through the air on a sword?"

"What's wrong?" The young man hadn't reacted yet.

The old man was so angry that he grabbed the oar and smacked his son's bottom hard. "Only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage can encounter flight. That female cultivator is at least at the early Foundation Establishment stage."

"Where's the Pirate King? He's at the sixth level of Qi Refining."

"Which one is more powerful, who lives and who dies? Hurry up and use your brain that's been soaking in alcohol to think about it."

Upon hearing this, the young man immediately broke out in a cold sweat and instantly sobered up.

In his haste to escape, he, who had been so nonchalant just moments before, slapped the backside of the beautiful wife he had snatched from a merchant and yelled, "Old woman, what are you dawdling for? Lower the sails! Do you want to die here with the pirate king?"

At night, two or three small boats quietly left Pirate Island and entered the sea. The next morning, several legal residents, whose professions were unknown but who were extremely wealthy, would appear in Dongyang City.

Flying through the air on her sword, she had no interest in arguing with those lowly thugs.

After calling out a few times and seeing that no one volunteered to fight, he suddenly realized why the pirates hadn't even sent a single cultivator.

"Damn it, I'm flying on my sword. Unless that pirate king is incredibly stupid, he'll definitely know I'm a Foundation Establishment cultivator and hide in fear."

Thinking of this, Han Lu quickly took out the Beast Eye and activated it. While using the Beast Eye to fly at low altitude and search for the Pirate King's whereabouts, she continued to shout out the revenge story she had made up.

In short, she fabricated a story about a younger sister who traveled from south to north by sea to visit relatives.

It is said that this younger sister was robbed by pirates a few days ago on her way to visit relatives, and her fate is unknown.

Upon receiving the news, she pinned the blame on the Pirate King.

Today, we will bring down the Pirate King and avenge my sister.

Han Lu's stories are simple, easy to understand, and frequently reenacted in the Central Plains.

However, the story of revenge has changed from "the underdog's rise to power" to "the strong bullying the weak".

In order to spread this story, Han Lu did not intend to target the ordinary pirates on the island.

There must be many ordinary people on the island who were abducted and brought there. She didn't have the energy to screen them all, so she simply left none of them unharmed or killed.

Her sole objective was to eliminate the Pirate King and other scum of the cultivation world tonight.

The island wasn't large, and even though the pirates dug deep underground and built some underground structures, it didn't cause Han Lu the slightest trouble in her search.

After telling the story, Han Lu didn't waste a moment. She casually unleashed a burst of spiritual energy, blasting open a nearby mountain and pulling out a cultivator who was hiding inside.

The cultivator, whose collar was being grabbed by Han Lu like a chick, trembled with fear.

He was acutely aware of the difference in strength between himself and Han Lu, and dared not entertain any thought of resistance. He could only plead tremblingly, hoping that Han Lu would show mercy and let him go.

"Are you the Pirate King?" Although Han Lu recognized the cultivator she had captured as not being the Pirate King based on the simple drawing provided by Wen Xiaonan, she still asked the question to make the act more convincing, so that the pirates would understand.

She came here seeking revenge without any special preparation, nor did she collude with the government or conduct any intelligence gathering.

When the cultivator heard Han Lu's question, he thought he had grasped a lifeline and hurriedly said, "No, no, fairy, I am not the pirate king."

"I know where the Pirate King is, I only beg the fairy to spare my life."

Han Lu snorted coldly and said, "If he's not the Pirate King, then he must be an accomplice who killed my sister."

"Be a good person in your next life, and don't do evil again."

After saying this, without waiting for the Daoist novice to argue, Han Lu casually tossed him into the air, summoned the steel sword given to her by the chivalrous Bu Haoxia, and stabbed the Daoist novice through the heart.

Han Lu's actions were solely aimed at concealing her identity as much as possible.

How could the Taoist boy's body withstand Han Lu's attack?

Before he even landed, the wicked Taoist boy who had aided and abetted the evildoer died, ending his sinful life.

Han Lu rescued the five cultivators who had joined the pirates and were hiding on the island.

Ask a question, deny it, kill it.

The entire sequence of movements was performed in one smooth motion.

When he found the Pirate King and saw the dead bodies of the other cultivators, he no longer harbored any illusions.

After Han Lu broke into his cave, he immediately summoned his magic weapon and fought a desperate battle.

Nine skulls flew out of the smoke and dust, attacking Han Lu.

Han Lu's spiritual sword transformed into a longsword, piercing straight through the skulls and skewering them.

Finally, the pirate king, who had dominated the coast of Dongyang City for more than two years, became Han Lu's live target for practicing the "word technique".

Under Han Lu's control, an ordinary steel sword unleashed the "Collapse Technique".

This still-developing "Collapse" technique is more than enough to deal with a cultivator at the sixth level of Qi Refining.

Before the pirate king could react and use magic to defend himself, he was struck in the waist by a steel sword.

The next second, the Pirate King was torn apart as if by five horses, his body exploding into bloody, mangled pieces of flesh.

Seeing this, Han Lu shook her head and said, "Sigh, your skills aren't quite there yet."

Without much thought, Han Lu summoned water to wash away the bloodstains on her body, and then used magic to piece together and store the pirate king's head, which had been split into three pieces.

Han Lu pretended to cry twice for her "deceased sister" and shouted "the great revenge has been achieved" before leisurely flying back to Dongyang City to find Wen Xiaonan, who was working overtime at the government office, to report back.

Chapter 575 Purifying Dongyang City

Han Lu felt that she had performed the play perfectly.

Combined with his illusions and a series of disguises.

Even if someone were to try and "make a fuss" by investigating which Foundation Establishment female cultivator was openly interfering in mortal affairs, they would certainly not be able to find her.

Although there were many bandits outside, and Dongyang City was under martial law at night, only the central area was brightly lit.

However, Han Lu, who was flying on her sword and deliberately using magic to conceal her tracks, was not discovered at all and arrived silently at the yamen where Wen Xiaonan was working.

In the yamen, besides Wen Xiaonan's office, there were several other rooms with oil lamps lit.

Clearly, there were quite a few officials in the Dongyang City Guard who, like Wen Xiaonan, were dedicated to their work.

Han Lu gently landed on her spirit sword. Just before pushing open the door to Wen Xiaonan's office, she removed the spells and illusions from her body, revealing her true form.

The door made a sound, but before it was fully opened, Wen Xiaonan, who had been pacing back and forth in front of the map in the room, suddenly looked towards the doorway.

Seeing that it was Han Lu who had returned, she smiled and said, "Fairy Han, you're back so soon? As expected of a master with the late Foundation Establishment stage, that pirate king probably couldn't have lasted three moves against you."

“One sword kills him,” Han Lu said, taking out the pirate king’s head from her storage bag and casually tossing it on the ground. “Wen, look, isn’t this the pirate king you’ve been hunting?”