A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality Chapter 609: The Chase

Before Senior Martial Wang and the other two descended, the youth surnamed Ma had already placed his finger on the white fox’s nose and angrily cursed, “Damn! This thing isn’t breathing! Don’t tell me that it died for nothing.”
With that said, he raised his head to the three and was about to say something more with an angry face.
The three that were descending suddenly had their expressions greatly changed as they shouted, “Careful! The demon fox is alive! It was only playing dead!”
The three all shouted different words, but their meanings were all the same.
The short and stout youth was rather quick-witted, and his expression abruptly changed upon hearing them. His hand instantly blurred and a white talisman appeared between his fingers. He fiercely slapped the talisman onto the fox’s tail.
However, his actions were clearly too slow. As soon as he extended his hand holding the talisman, he felt a sharp pain coming out from the hand that held onto the fox.
He loudly shouted as he unconsciously released his grip. The fox slipped away and rolled onto the ground.
In the blink of an eye, the fox’s tail had become erect and its fur became the same as needles. The youth’s hand was now filled with holes and dripping with blood.
When the other three saw this, they flew towards the small beast in furious alarm.
The white fox wasn’t about to easily be captured. It scuttled away and turned into a white streak as it shot forty meters away. With several hops, it fled back into the shrubbery.
In a moment of desperation, Senior Martial Brother Wang and the other two surrounded the bush and released their magic tools as they slowly combed through it.
But after a short moment, the three revealed astonishment. Apart from a pile of stones, there was nothing else in the bushes. The white fox had clearly disappeared without a trace. The three then despondently stood in place.
Kui Huan unconsciously turned his gaze to the sky and shouted in alarm, “Yi! Where is Junior Martial Brother Han going?” At that moment, the others also discovered that Han Li was quickly flying off into the distance.
Han Li’s voice transmission soon arrived at their ear, “There is no need for Senior Martial Brothers to be so flustered. That fox slipped away using a vision obscuring technique and dug into the earth. Right now, I am using a magic tool to track it down. Once it comes back up, I’ll capture it alive.” With that said, Han Li flew off towards the edge of the marsh.
When Senior Martial Brother Wang heard him, he grew delighted and called out to the others before impatiently chasing after Han Li. The other three were close behind him.
As they hurried along their way, Senior Martial Brother Wang turned his head around and asked, “Junior Martial Brother Ma, how is your hand?”
The short, stout youth was at the very rear. He muttered with a shameful expression, “It’s still good. Fortunately, the fox’s tail didn’t have any poison. It’s merely a superficial wound.” After all, it was his carelessness that had resulted in the fox’s escape. Additionally, the issue had been called to attention by someone, causing him to feel quite embarrassed.
Senior Martial Brother Wang forced a smile and said, “That’s good. Let’s quicken our pace. Although I don’t know what kind of magic tool Junior Martial Brother Han is using to track the underground movements of the demon fox, we should hurry after him.”
Kui Huan turned around and repeatedly nodded his head in agreement. With an odd tone, he said, “Nevertheless, the intelligence of this evolved Snowcloud Fox is truly too much. Even Senior Martial Brother Ma couldn’t tell that the beast was playing dead. It was quite a shock.”
Grabbing onto his wounded hand, the cultivator surnamed Ma deeply blushed.
Fortunately at that moment, Senior Martial Brother Wang spoke up for him, “We cannot blame Junior Martial Brother Ma. Even if I had been the one to check, things might’ve ended up the same. It’s just that the Snowcloud Fox was too sly.”
Having heard that, the youth surnamed Ma shot an appreciative glance at Senior Martial Brother Wang and felt much better.
As the three were talking, the youth surnamed Xi suddenly wore an incredulous gaze and suddenly shouted, “Everyone, quickly look! Junior Martial brother Han drilled through the stone wall. Wh-what should we do?”
The others glanced ahead in alarm and discovered that the marsh’s end lie ahead of them. A kilometer ahead of them, there was a mountain so huge that its peak couldn’t be seen. There was a cliff that faced them that had its black walls cut through with a sword.
Furthermore, Han Li was nowhere to be found. The four stood in front of the cliff and glanced inside the opening that had been cut with dumbfounded expressions.
Han Li had truly gone inside the mountain.
At that moment, he was holding a jade scepter with a wolf’s head that enveloped his body in a faint yellow radiance. There was a meter long yellow wolf in front of him that was opening a path with an earth movement technique.
As the artifact spirit continued forward, the earth parted as if there was nothing there. Han Li followed after the wolf with a pensive appearance on his face.
Underneath the scope of his spiritual sese, Ha Li saw the white fox strive its hardest to continue forward as it blurred a hundred meters beneath him.
With his profound abilities, it was only natural for him to see through the Snowcloud Fox’s act. He even saw how the fox took advantage of a stone vein in the shrubbery to slip away.
If this were a common low grade demon beast, Han Li would’ve naturally warned the disciples as a favor. But Han Li was quite surprised to see that when the spirit fox revealed itself, it possessed spiritual Qi fluctuations that felt quite familiar to Han Li.
In his astonishment, he carefully examined it and found that the beast faintly carried the same spiritual Qi fluctuations as the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng’s incarnation, the white rabbit.
Han Li was delighted, believing that he had discovered another incarnation of a spiritual object. But after he examined the white fox once more, he grew somewhat puzzled.
The spiritual Qi fluctuations of the fox were far too small in comparison with the Ninecurl Spirit Ginseng. The difference between them could be said to be as wide as heaven and earth. Moreover, upon deeper inspection, he found that the Snowcloud Fox possessed a true flesh body, not that of a spiritual incarnation. Otherwise, the trifling Obscure Track formation wouldn’t have been able to contain it.
Although the small fox wasn’t a spiritual incarnation in the end, Han Li was still deeply curious about it. He was certain that this pure spiritual Qi had something to do with how this ordinary beast was able to turn into a demon beast.
Having decided to investigate this fully, he allowed the fox to escape from the Qi Condensation cultivators and slowly followed after it, wishing to investigate the secrets of the fox.
When the fox had arrived in front of the cliff, it had turned into a ball of white light and blurred into the ground without hesitation. As a result, Han Li summoned the earth attribute artifact spirit from the jade scepter and had the wolf silently open a path. Else, if he were to use a flying sword to cut into a mountain, the fox would be scared away.
The mountain was obviously large. Han Li followed the white fox for at least a kilometer before it stopped, appearing inside what seemed to be a stone room.
Han Li rejoiced and hastily ordered the yellow wolf to hurry and clear a path. At the same time, Han Li increased the power of his spiritual sense and began to examine the inside of the room.
However, as soon as his spiritual sense neared the room, it was repelled by a strange force and he was unable to move it any further.
“Yi!” Han Li shouted out in surprise. His rush came to a stop and he suddenly grew careful.
At that moment, he felt his body grow still and heavy as if it were bearing the weight of Mount Tai itself. He then heard an insipid voice, “Since a guest has come, there is no need to be overly cautious. Don’t tell me that you’re waiting for this elder to invite you in?”
Just as this was said, countless yellow lights began to appear around him as a huge force pushed him forward.
Han Li merely saw a flash of light before he found himself inside the stone room. He was greatly alarmed and instantly waved the jade scepter, covering himself in a red-yellow barrier of light. At the same time, he opened his mouth and spat out a dozen streaks of azure light that hurriedly revolved around him outside the barrier.
It was only after this that Han Li could finally feel secure enough to look around.