An ordinary child, not a chosen prodigy
Han Li begins life as a poor village boy nicknamed Er Lengzi, with no famous bloodline, heroic appearance or prophecy announcing his future. His family sends him to the Seven Mysteries Sect because becoming a disciple could mean regular food, wages and a better life for everyone at home.
He does not dominate the entrance test. He struggles, falls behind and is retained mainly because his effort catches the attention of the sect. That opening establishes the central promise of A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Han Li advances without the natural talent or protection that usually defines a fantasy hero.
His earliest motivation is also deliberately modest. He wants to earn money for his parents and become a respectable working adult. Immortality enters his life before he understands what cultivation is.
Seven Mysteries Sect and Doctor Mo
At Seven Mysteries Sect, Han Li and Zhang Tie are selected by Doctor Mo, also known as Mo Juren. Han Li begins practicing the Eternal Spring Art, or Changchun Gong, without realizing that it is a genuine cultivation method rather than an ordinary health exercise.
Doctor Mo becomes Han Li's first teacher and his first great warning. His unusual interest in Han Li's progress eventually reveals a plan to seize the young disciple's body. Han Li survives because suspicion leads him to study medicine, poisons, movement skills and hidden weapons before the confrontation begins.
This experience permanently shapes his relationships. Han Li can respect what a person teaches him while still preparing for betrayal. Trust, in his world, is earned through action and never allowed to replace evidence.
The green bottle changes the economics of cultivation
The mysterious green bottle is the quiet discovery that makes Han Li's path possible. Its liquid accelerates the growth of medicinal plants, turning time itself into a resource he can manage. Rare herbs lead to pills; pills support cultivation; and surplus materials can be traded for techniques, tools and information.
The bottle is not a button that grants levels. Han Li must discover its effect, keep it hidden, learn alchemy and survive long enough for each cycle of cultivation to compound. The advantage becomes powerful because he combines it with patience and secrecy.
This is the first major pattern in his journey: Han Li rarely wins by having the largest immediate attack. He builds systems that continue producing value while other cultivators compete for one-time opportunities.
Leaving the martial world for the cultivation world
The conflict between Seven Mysteries Sect and the Wild Wolf Gang brings Han Li into contact with Golden Light Monk, a low-level cultivator whose talismans and flying weapon reveal how far the immortal world stands above ordinary martial arts. Defeating him gives Han Li both practical tools and a route beyond the mortal sect.
An Ascension Decree leads Han Li to Yellow Maple Valley, one of the established cultivation sects in the State of Yue. The transition is important: he goes from being secretly exceptional among martial artists to being an unimpressive newcomer surrounded by people who understand spiritual roots, pills, formations and magical treasures.
Han Li accepts a medicinal-garden post and once again chooses access to resources over prestige. The decision looks humble, but it gives him the privacy and ingredients needed to turn the green bottle into sustained cultivation progress.
Foundation Establishment and the Scarlet Forbidden Zone
Foundation Establishment is the first barrier that makes the cultivation hierarchy feel brutally material. Talent matters, but so do rare pills whose ingredients are controlled by powerful sects. Han Li enters the Scarlet Forbidden Zone because gathering those herbs offers a realistic route through the bottleneck.
His behavior inside the trial defines the strategy fans later associate with 'Han Run-Run.' He avoids pointless battles, hides when stronger groups fight and acts decisively only when the reward or danger justifies exposure. Retreat is not cowardice in this story; it is a skill that preserves every previous investment.
The encounter with Nangong Wan and the Ink Flood Dragon begins one of Han Li's most important long-term relationships. The circumstances are dangerous and complicated, but the lasting narrative point is that their paths become linked across changing identities, sect loyalties and cultivation stages.
War, retreat and the road to the Scattered Star Seas
After establishing his foundation, Han Li becomes entangled in the war between the State of Yue's cultivation sects and the invading Devil Dao. Large battles teach him that individual skill cannot erase the danger of institutions, armies and senior cultivators operating far above his level.
He develops puppets, formations and the Great Development Technique while searching for an exit. An ancient teleportation array and the Great Teleportation Medallion finally allow him to leave Tiannan for the Scattered Star Seas, also translated as the Chaotic Star Sea.
The move is more than an escape. Changing regions breaks the network of enemies, obligations and assumptions surrounding him. Han Li repeatedly survives by recognizing when a battlefield has stopped offering acceptable odds and when a new environment provides better room to grow.
Core Formation and an arsenal built over decades
In the Scattered Star Seas, Han Li establishes a secluded cave residence, hunts demonic beasts, refines pills and spends years converting resources into stable power. He eventually reaches Core Formation, a stage that grants him far greater status and lifespan but also exposes him to more dangerous rivals.
His strength now comes from several connected systems: cultivated spirit insects such as the Gold Devouring Beetles, increasingly capable puppets, the Green Essence Sword Art and the beginnings of the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords. Each project requires time, materials and technical knowledge.
Zhang Tie's fate remains present through Crooked Soul, the body created from his old companion. It is both a practical asset and a reminder of the human cost behind Doctor Mo's schemes. Han Li's equipment is rarely detached from the people and events that brought it into his life.
Heavenvoid Hall and the danger of possessing treasure
Heavenvoid Hall draws Core Formation cultivators and Nascent Soul elders into a contest for ancient treasures. Han Li enters with limited information, temporary alliances and enemies who could kill him in a direct confrontation. His Bloodjade Spiders become crucial to the struggle surrounding the Heavenvoid Cauldron.
The arc demonstrates that finding a treasure is only the beginning. Han Li must understand who wants it, what they believe he possesses and how to leave before the balance of power closes around him. Yuan Yao becomes a significant ally during this period, connecting the treasure hunt to a relationship built through mutual assistance rather than sect authority.
Han Li escapes with resources that support later growth, but he also abandons exposed territory and changes locations again. Every famous treasure increases both capability and risk.
Wind and Lightning Wings and the return to Tiannan
While advancing through the later Core Formation stage, Han Li becomes involved with Feng Xi and the refinement of the Wind and Lightning Wings. He turns a dangerous situation into a mobility treasure whose lightning-based movement greatly improves his ability to disengage from superior opponents.
After years in the Scattered Star Seas, he eventually returns to Tiannan and enters Drifting Cloud Sect while keeping much of his history concealed. By this point, secrecy is not a temporary trick. It is part of how he controls the gap between his public identity and his actual resources.
His breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage transforms his position. Han Li is no longer merely surviving beneath the notice of the powerful; he becomes a senior cultivator whose decisions can affect sects and regional conflicts. Yet his basic habits remain recognizably the same.
The relationships that define the journey
Han Li's family gives him his first reason to endure. Li Feiyu shows him loyalty within the martial world. Doctor Mo teaches him the price of blind trust. Li Huayuan connects him to the formal cultivation system but cannot protect him from its wars. Nangong Wan becomes a relationship that survives separation, secrecy and enormous changes in status.
Zhang Tie and Crooked Soul embody loss, while Yuan Yao represents cooperation formed outside normal sect structures. These relationships matter because Han Li is often described as cold or excessively cautious. The fuller story shows something more precise: he limits emotional exposure, but he repeatedly accepts danger for people whose actions have earned a place in his calculations.
A useful character archive should therefore connect Han Li not only to weapons and cultivation levels, but also to the people who changed how he evaluates loyalty, obligation and risk.
Why Han Li's progression feels earned
Han Li reaches Nascent Soul through an extraordinary secret advantage, but the bottle alone does not explain his success. He learns medicine and alchemy, gathers incomplete techniques, studies formations, breeds insects, controls puppets, cultivates multiple escape methods and leaves regions before their political pressures become fatal.
His breakthroughs feel earned because the story repeatedly shows the preparation behind them. A pill requires herbs; herbs require time and secrecy; a treasure requires the strength to claim it and the judgment to survive possessing it. Every layer depends on earlier choices.
That is the core value of Han Li's story for global viewers. It is not simply a climb through named power levels. It is a long demonstration of how an ordinary person turns limited advantages into freedom through patience, disciplined risk and the willingness to walk away.
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