A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Rogue Cultivator

Having or not having are two completely different concepts.

"Hmm? Something's not right. Why does this big guy exude a hint of old age?"

This is an old dragon whose lifespan is nearing its end.

"No wonder during the last trial, I felt that the black dragon that was just killed was in a strange state. It was clearly still far from accumulating enough power to advance, but in the original story, it successfully molted and transformed into level two in the face of Nangong Wan's magic weapon, the Vermilion Bird Ring. It turns out that after the elder died, the son devoured its demon body, thus shortening the accumulation process."

Extracting the soul of a demon beast doesn't actually take long, just a few breaths.

Sure enough, while the giant from two miles away was rushing over, Wang Li had already completed the soul extraction and sealing process.

"Roar."

However, the old dragon also leaped across a distance of about a mile in those few breaths, pouncing on Wang Li. The dozen or so high-ranking puppets that quickly formed their formation did not buy him even a moment.

"Whoosh..."

The large claws descended.

"Sa."

"boom……"

Amidst the smoke and dust, Wang Li flashed dozens of feet away.

"Buzzing..."

The fourth-level black dragon's head had sharp horns that were several feet long, and their jet-black luster revealed its extraordinary hardness and sharpness.

They were still more than two hundred meters apart when a flash of light appeared on them, and a dark beam shot towards Wang Li in the blink of an eye.

So fast!

The two puppets at the very front were instantly pierced by the dark light; immediately afterward, the top-tier magic artifact, the Meteorite Iron Shield, shattered with a bang. One of the six Underworld Shields did offer a slight resistance, but it was also blasted away a great distance; as for the protective light barrier of the Azure Origin Sword Technique, it was as brittle and thin as paper, unable to block the dark light in the slightest.

If it weren't for the fact that the seventh core component of the Hades Shield was obtained by him while he was scavenging the market, and that it hadn't shown remarkable intelligence at this crucial moment, actively buying him a split second.

Before the core construction could begin, Wang Li, who had only managed to turn half his body to the side, seriously suspected that he would suffer a severe injury right from the start and have his arm knocked off by Wu Guang.

In terms of raw power, one is a newly established Foundation Establishment cultivator, while the other is a monster who is virtually invincible below the Core Formation stage; the gap between the two is simply too great.

Of course, simply taking a beating without fighting back is not Wang Li's style.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh, bang bang bang..."

Dozens of beams of light shot out slightly later than the black dragon, causing its protective black clouds to tremble and its massive body, which was several dozen feet long, to stagger.

"Roar."

With a mouthful of menacing fangs, it roared and then followed closely by a jet of inky black water.

This time, Wang Li was quick-witted and agile, not only dodging the attack himself but also controlling the puppets to avoid every drop of black water.

"呲呲..."

The ground touched by the black water was immediately and severely corroded, even the soil and rocks were melting. The swamp, touched by a little black water, boiled for quite a while before cooling down. Compared to the little dragon from before, it was far more vicious and ferocious.

Seeing that the old black dragon was about to forcefully break through the blockade of the fan-shaped puppet formation, Wang Li simply threw out the six top-level puppet cavalrymen, and then concentrated his fire with even more powerful beams, trying to repel the old dragon's offensive.

Unfortunately, imagination is often far from reality.

The first-level top-tier demonic beast, comparable to a top-tier magic weapon, did manage to slow down the old dragon for a few breaths. But when the old dragon got angry, let alone six first-level top-tier puppets, even sixty of them lined up in a row wouldn't be enough... Well, they should be enough.

"Click".

With a single claw strike, the leader of the six puppet cavalrymen instantly disintegrated and shattered into pieces. The speed of its claw strike was so fast that even Wang Li's dynamic vision could only vaguely catch a fleeting afterimage. He wanted to warn the puppet or personally use his distraction to control it to dodge, but due to the inevitable sluggishness between the main body and the puppet, he missed the best opportunity to anticipate and dodge by the slightest margin.

"hiss!"

If this were applied to him, it seems like it would result in more than just broken bones and torn tendons.

That's a top-tier level one puppet; the main materials used are enough to forge a top-tier magic weapon.

"Whoosh..."

Seeing that brute force wouldn't work, Wang Li decisively changed tactics: with a swish, he summoned dozens more high-level puppets from his storage bag.

He's preparing for a war of attrition.

A war of attrition is Wang's forte.

The more puppets he possesses and the more spirit stones he carries, the greater his endurance will be, far exceeding that of ordinary people.

If you possess the Great Evolution Technique and don't rummage through the market to gather more spirit stones to stock up in your bag, that would be a sign of utter stupidity.

The essence of a war of attrition lies in energy reserves.

Having mastered the first level of the Great Evolution Technique, the amplification of his divine sense was significantly greater than that of ordinary people. A typical Foundation Establishment cultivator, even after mastering the first level, could only control a hundred puppets at most; but he could control one hundred and forty-two puppets simultaneously by entrusting his divine sense to a split point.

In other words, the Great Evolution Technique either enhances a cultivator's spiritual sense according to a certain coefficient, or it also has the additional characteristic of developing the power of the soul.

Applying this to Wang Li, and considering Han Laomo's condition in the original work, it's not hard to see that the Great Evolution Technique's effects lean more towards the first type: coefficient amplification.

"Roar."

With a snap of its jaws, another puppet cavalryman at the forefront was crippled and bitten in two.

But before it was destroyed, Wang Li activated the inscriptions on the puppet, detonating its second circuit and converting all the spiritual power from the two mid-grade spirit stones into explosive force. The explosion left the old dragon covered in soot and its lips cracked.

The old dragon, in pain and enraged, swung out a claw.

Of the remaining four top-tier level one puppets, one that was slightly behind was unable to dodge in time and was struck by the claws, instantly shattering into pieces.

Wang Li felt a pang of heartache upon seeing this.

"burst!"

"boom……"

It won't hurt your dog's paws, but it can make a loud noise to scare you and weaken your protective layer of dark clouds.

Of course, Wang Li had learned his lesson and never stayed in one place for more than three seconds. To prevent Wu Guang's fatal attack, he used the speed boost from the Sextet to become a series of afterimages that were difficult to detect with the naked eye, repeatedly leaping across various corners of the swamp. He used guerrilla tactics to try his best to limit the old dragon's ability to lock onto his true form.

To this end, he even cast three stamina talismans on himself in one go.

As its name suggests, it is a basic talisman that can be used to restore physical strength.

Like the low-level Earthquake Talisman, this is another low-level talisman that Wang Li kept as a trump card.

With its lightness skill, wind control technique, divine wind talisman, swift wind boots, pressure clamp, and azure bat wings, even the old dragon could only stare helplessly in this enormous space that was several miles wide and thirty feet high.

Chapter 71 Killing the dragon and extracting the soul

If the opponent is a Blood Jade Spider that doesn't have any special killing power, Wang Li might actually succeed by using a war of attrition.

But against a powerful bloodline type opponent like Mo Jiao, it can only be said that he was overthinking it.

Surrounded by hundreds of puppets, with his protective dark cloud rapidly weakening, and even being pushed back to a corner by powerful beams of light and energy blasts, the old dragon's eyes turned bloodshot.

"Roar."

A mouthful of thick, purple phlegm, the size of a millstone, exploded before it even touched the cave wall above, turning into a light drizzle.

not good!

Wang Li was in a great hurry. As he continued to move quickly, his right hand kept pouring magic power into the golden brick talisman, while his left hand patted his storage bag and pulled out more than a dozen intermediate talismans, excluding those with earth attributes.

This contained most of his mid-range inventory.

The total value must be at least four thousand spirit stones.

However, at this moment, he did not hesitate at all, throwing them all at the old dragon to restrain this ancient, immortal mudskipper. At the same time, he quickly gathered up the high-level puppets, intending to use his distraction to control them to retreat far away.

Unfortunately, the puppets were not as agile as he was. Apart from the nimble animal-shaped ones, most of the other small puppets were drenched by the rain that was blown by the wind and covered a large area.

next moment.

"呲呲..."

More than sixty high-level puppets, unable to avoid being drenched, all emitted the sounds of being corroded and destroyed by the strong acid.

Wang Li really believed Han Laomo's nonsense about a war of attrition.

Unsurprisingly, this thick phlegm was the elixir stored in the old black dragon's body.

If human cultivators condense their magical power into golden cores, then demonic beasts condense their own essence into demonic cores. The power of a level four demonic beast's essence is second only to that of a golden core.

It may seem like a great tonic, but it is actually highly poisonous.

After this exchange, Wang Li's face almost turned green.

Several thousand spirit stones were instantly lost.

The good news is that he has already activated the Golden Brick Talisman during this time.

Activating talismans while moving is a trick he developed after using talismans many times and doing a lot of research.

Normal cultivators, aiming for speed, sit cross-legged and wholeheartedly channel their mana, activating the technique in a dozen or so breaths. Wang Li, however, relies on the multitasking of the Great Evolution Technique and his mastery of mana to activate it while moving. The only drawback is the time required, about thirty-five or thirty-six breaths.

The powerful golden brick requires nearly fifty breaths to produce!

"go with!"

Facing the dozen or so layers of intermediate-level light barriers that could trap the old dragon but not the old mudfish for more than five breaths, Wang Li slammed down a large golden brick with all his might. And he aimed it directly at its head.

In that instant, Wang Li wanted to remove the other few of the dozen or so intermediate-level talismans that had not yet been destroyed by the old dragon and burned to ashes!

He feared that the golden bricks' destructive power would be weakened by the obstruction of several light barriers.

But seeing the old dragon easily pierce through several layers of light with a single sip of purple elixir, he instantly extinguished that thought.

Clearly, the old dragon also realized the danger and used its deadly moves.

The black dragon's elixir is finite, just like Wang Li using a mid-level talisman, which is equivalent to consuming its own reserves.

"Boom bang bang..."

The power of a talisman activated by Foundation Establishment stage magic is already ten times greater than that activated by Qi Refining stage magic. However, to ensure a successful attack, Wang Li further amplified the power of the golden brick by extending its lifespan, bringing it close to two-tenths the power of a true magic weapon.

This level of quality is comparable to that of ordinary genuine treasures.

However, it still sent a black water column mixed with elixir to the old dragon, which stood twenty feet above it, greatly reducing the speed and power of its descent.

"Hmph, don't even think about it."

Go to hell!