Chapter 264: Resolve
An hour later, Han Li returned to the mountain where his cave abode was situated.
At this moment, he was standing with his hands clasped behind his back on the stone steps in front of his cave abode.
The plaza in front of him was packed with Blaze Dragon Dao disciples, and upon his arrival, all of them turned to him in unison with different looks on their faces, including elation, unease, and admiration.
Even though new True Immortal Stage elders would be sent to oversee the secret area periodically, it was extremely rare that anything ever happened here, so the True Immortal Stage elders remained in seclusion the vast majority of their time here.
Hence, this was an extremely rare opportunity for the disciples to witness a True Immortal in action with their own eyes, and it instilled them with a great deal of motivation when it came to their own cultivation.
"All of you have done extremely well in the face of this unexpected disaster, severely mitigating losses despite the trying circumstances. I'll be sure to report this to the sect and request a reward for all of you," Han Li declared.
"Thank you, Elder Li!"
Everyone had thought that he would be unhappy about having his seclusion disturbed, so they were ecstatic to hear what he had to say.
"The mist in the canyon has already receded, and there's still some cleanup work that needs to be done. Tally all of the damage and report it to me so I can report to the sect. You can all go now," Han Li instructed.
"Yes, Elder Li!" everyone answered in unison before departing.
Han Li instructed Hu Zhen and the others to stay behind, and after rewarding them with some pills, he returned to his cave abode.
Inside his secret chamber, Han Li summoned his Mantra Treasured Axis amid a flash of golden light and the 24 Time Dao Runes on the axis were giving off bursts of law fluctuations.
For the average cultivator, even if they were to cultivate the Mantra Axis Scripture to the third level, there was still no guarantee that they would be able to manifest even 18 Time Dao Runes, yet Han Li had managed to manifest 24 Time Dao Runes at just the mid-True Immortal Stage, and he was extremely pleased with the power that it had displayed in the canyon.
With this Mantra Treasured Axis and his set of new Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, he was confident that he would be able to take on even the likes of Gu Jie's avatar on his own.
Of course, if Gu Jie himself were to come after him, then he would still have to run for his life.
According to the Mantra Axis Scripture, now that he had mastered the first level of the cultivation art, he could begin attempting to master the laws of time.
The time law powers imbued within the Mantra Treasured Axis was quite abundant at this point, but it was very scattered, and Han Li couldn't even manifest any law threads, so he was still severely lacking compared with those who had truly mastered the power of laws.
Otherwise, as one of the three paramount laws, the laws of time should've been capable of more than just slowing down enemy attacks.
With that in mind, he began to think back to how Gu Jie's avatar had used its power of wood laws in different ways, and a sense of envy and anticipation welled up in his heart.
If he could master the laws of time someday, then its power would definitely trump Gu Jie's laws of wood.
With that in mind, Han Li took a deep breath, then flipped a hand over to produce an Immortal Origin Stone. The Mantra Treasured Axis behind him then began to slowly revolve at his behest, and the Time Dao Runes on its surface flashed, releasing golden ripples that spread through the surrounding area in a radius of 100 feet.
After that, he closed his eyes to carefully sense the changes in the law powers around him.
The Mantra Axis Scripture hadn't laid out any specific method to observe the laws of time, so he would have to figure it out for himself.
Three to four months passed by in the blink of an eye, and Han Li remained seated with his legs crossed the entire time, as still as a statue.
All of a sudden, a flash of golden light appeared around him, and his eyes sprang open, while his brows furrowed slightly.
Even after several months, he was no closer at all to mastering the laws of time, and he felt as if he made no progress at all.
However, this wasn't a very surprising outcome.
If law powers were this easy to master, then True Immortals who had mastered the power of laws wouldn't have been so rare. On top of that, he was trying to master one of the three paramount laws, so the difficulty was only going to be heightened.
In order to master the power of laws, he had made extensive preparations.
All of a sudden, the eye of that one-eyed giant appeared on his hand amid a flash of gray light.
This was one of the things that he had prepared.
He cupped the eye in both hands, then drew upon the time law powers around him before slowly injecting it into the eye.
The eye began to emit a faint white glow, as well as a burst of peculiar time law fluctuations.
Han Li immediately closed his eyes to sense the laws of time within the eye, comparing it to the his own time law powers in the hope of making some type of breakthrough.
Several more months passed by in a flash, and Han Li slowly opened his eyes with a dark expression, once again, having made no progress at all.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he stowed the eye away before summoning his Heaven Controlling Vial, and there was a drop of green liquid rolling around inside.
Han Li was silent for a moment as he observed the vial, then grabbed onto the vial before injecting his immortal spiritual power into it.
All of the world's origin qi near his cave abode was instantly stirred up into a frenzy, forming an enormous vortex of spiritual power.
All of the Blaze Dragon Dao disciples were momentarily startled by this before paying no further heed to the phenomenon.
During the past two hundred years, similar phenomena had arisen countless times, so they were already accustomed to this.
Several days later.
Inside his cave abode, Han Li's face was slightly pale, and he was holding a crystal in his hand.
Having progressed to the mid-True Immortal Stage, his immortal spiritual power reserves had increased significantly, so manifesting these crystals no longer completely sucked him dry like it used to.
After consuming a recovery pill, his complexion quickly began to recover.
He then grabbed onto the crystal before injecting his spiritual sense into it, and the translucent golden thread within the crystal instantly lit up, as did the Mantra Treasured Axis behind him.
It seemed that the Time Dao Runes on the Mantra Treasured Axis were resonating with the crystal, and Han Li was ecstatic to see this, hurriedly closing his eyes once again.
A month passed by in the blink of an eye, and the translucent golden thread in the crystal disappeared, while the crystal itself also shattered.
Han Li opened his eyes, and a hint of excitement appeared on his face.
He still hadn't mastered the laws of time, but unlike his previous few attempts, he had made some progress, finally getting ever so slightly closer to his target.
It was as if a glimmer of hope had appeared within a boundless void of darkness.
He flipped a hand over to produce his Heaven Controlling Vial, and a smile appeared on his face as he discovered that another drop of green liquid had already emerged within it.
The Heavenly Controlling Vial was a major contributing factor behind how he had been able to cultivate the Mantra Axis Scripture so smoothly, and it seemed that he would have to keep relying on the vial if he wanted to master the laws of time.
However...
A contemplative look appeared in his eyes.
Regardless of how he tried to observe the laws of time within the crystal, he was only able to sense the law powers encapsulated within, but unable to glean any deeper insights.
If he wanted those deeper insights, he had to take things a step further.
With that in mind, a determined look of resolve appeared on his face.
He flipped a hand over to produce a jade container the size of a washbasin, then filled it with spirit liquid before finally dripping the drop of green liquid in the Heaven Controlling Vial into the container.
The colorless spirit liquid inside instantly turned a light green color as a result.
After that, Han Li flipped a hand over to produce another bowl before making a beckoning motion, and a ball of green spirit liquid rose up from the container before dropping into the bowl, almost completely filling it.
His plan was to drink this green liquid so that he could intimately feel the time law powers imbued within.
Han Li set the jade bowl aside, then swept a sleeve through the air to release his 72 Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, and even though he hadn't injected any immortal spiritual power into them, they were already releasing formidable sword qi that was causing the nearby space to buzz incessantly.
He released a series of incantation seals, and the 72 Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords fused as one into a single small azure sword.
Han Li then flipped a hand over to produce a silver talisman, which he adhered to the sword.
The sword qi emanating from the small azure sword instantly vanished, making it appear as if it were just an ordinary sword.
He set the Heaven Controlling vial down beside the small azure sword, then released the Essence Fire Raven amid a flash of silver light.
The Essence Fire Raven instantly transformed into a tiny fiery figure that danced around Han Li while crying out joyfully.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as he played with the fiery silver figure for a while, then raised it up on the palm of his hand.
"Do you recall this person?" A burst of azure light appeared over his other hand, and an image of Nangong Wan emerged within the azure light.
The fiery silver figure took a glance at the image of Nangong Wan, then nodded in response.
Back in the Spirit Realm, the Essence Fire Raven hadn't attained intelligence as it had now, but it had developed a sufficient level of sentience to recall Nangong Wan.
"I'm leaving these two things to you for now. If something happens to me, take these two things and go search for this person. Make sure to find her and give her these two things no matter how long it takes," Han Li instructed.
The Essence Fire Raven looked at Han Li for a while, and it couldn't understand why Han Li was doing this, but it still did as it was told, nodding in response.
Han Li patted the tiny silver figure on the head, then set it aside as a serious look appeared on his face.
He could still clearly recall the pair of wild rabbits that had had their bodies imploded back when he first found the Heaven Controlling Vial.
After that, in the Scattered Star Sea, he had used the spirit liquid produced by the vial to trap the Nascent Soul Stage Windbreaker Beast, Feng Xi, almost killing it in the process.
Of course, his current cultivation base was orders of magnitude above Feng Xi's, and he had attained a Profound Immortal body, but he could sense that the special energy contained within the spirit liquid produced by the vial had also become countless times more powerful than back then.
Even in his current state, directly ingesting this spirit liquid was an extremely risky move, and it was not impossible for him to die from this.
However, he was willing to accept this level of risk, and if he couldn't withstand the spirit liquid's power, he would do everything he could to force it out of his body. He had even prepared himself to expel his nascent soul out of his own body if required.
At this point, he had come to understand that if he wanted to master the laws of time, he had to take some risk for any chance at success.
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