Chapter 469: 2,000 Years in an Instant
Several more years flew by in a flash.
At this moment, Han Li was making his way slowly into a hall in the underground palace while holding a dark purple incense burner in his hand.
Traces of golden light emerged on the ground in the hall, giving off a faint hint of warmth.
"Please pardon me, Senior, but I'll have to seal this Soul Nurturing Burner for your protection while I break the core," Han Li said as he drew to a halt at the center of the hall.
Perhaps the soul fragment was simply very eager to be finally getting out of this place, or perhaps it was already accustomed to the disrespect that Han Li constantly directed toward it. In any case, it didn't say anything to retaliate, merely sitting with its legs crossed in the incense burner in silence.
With a flick of his wrist, Han Li summoned a pair of golden sealing talismans before plastering them across the incense burner, completely cutting off the soul fragment's connection to the outside world.
After that, he raised his left hand and tucked the incense burner up his sleeve.
He then took a deep breath before making his way over to the stone platform at the center of the hall, where the sundial was sitting.
In contrast with the last time he was here, this time, he could clearly sense the time law powers contained within the sundial.
The sundial's time law powers remained as still as the surface of tranquil lake when undisturbed, but now that Han Li was inspecting it with his spiritual sense, it immediately began to churn like a turbulent river.
Han Li was slightly taken aback by this, and he made a hand seal, upon which his Mantra Treasured Axis appeared behind him amid a flash of golden light.
He then closed his eyes as he made a hand seal, and a beam of golden light shot out of the Eye of Truth at the center of the axis, heading straight for the Extreme Yin Sundial.
Even before the beam of golden light completely descended upon the sundial, it suddenly shuddered slightly before rising up into the air.
At the same time, the black needle at its center began to revolve rapidly while blasting forth an arc of black lightning to clash against the beam of golden lightning.
A loud crackling sound rang out as the beam of golden light was shattered into a flurry of golden powder that encompassed the entire stone platform.
A resounding boom instantly rang out in Han Li's mind, and he entered the same special state that he had been in while manifesting his past time law threads.
However, this time, instead of having his senses heightened, an illusion was displayed to him.
All of the sudden, the golden powder formed by the shattered beam of golden light swept upward like a golden river to swallow up his entire body.
He felt as if he were flying through a river of time, and there were translucent golden threads constantly passing him by. He desperately wanted to grasp onto these threads, but each time he tried, he would simply grasp onto empty air.
His agitation was growing by the second, and he unconsciously began to channel his Mantra Axis Scripture. As a result, the Mantra Treasured Axis behind him began to revolve, while all of the Time Dao Runes on its surface lit up in unison.
Situated within the river of time, a burst of golden light appeared over Han Li's hand as he reached out again, and this time, he was able to grab onto one of those golden threads, which was none other than a time law thread.
Han Li was ecstatic, and he immediately reached out toward another golden thread.
As soon as a second time law thread fell into his grasp, the entire river of time instantly became extremely fast-flowing and turbulent, making Han Li feel as if he were drowning, and even breathing had become a struggle.
He began to struggle with all his might, but was unable to free himself from the powerful current.
Right at this moment, a massive golden wave came sweeping directly toward him, and all of a sudden, Han Li arrived at a decision.
A steely look appeared in his eyes as he charged directly at the oncoming wave while reaching out with both hands toward two more golden threads within the wave.
With that, two more time law threads fell into his grasp, and the entire river of time completely fell apart with an earth-shattering boom.
Almost at the exact same moment, Han Li's eyes abruptly sprang open, and he was gasping for air.
He looked down at his hands to find that they were completely empty, and a hint of disappointment appeared in his eyes.
However, he then suddenly detected something, and he immediately turned to his Mantra Treasured Axis to find that there were now 10 time law threads wrapped around it!
As it turned out, that illusion hadn't been an illusion at all, and he had obtained four additional time law threads in the blink of an eye!
Han Li was naturally ecstatic, and he returned his attention to the stone platform.
At this point, the Extreme Yin Sundial had already returned to the slot inside the stone platform, and the black needle at its center was still rapidly revolving, but the markings around the sundial that indicated the 24 hours of the day had become extremely blurry and were completely indistinguishable.
Han Li made a hand seal once again, and another beam of golden light shot out of the Eye of Truth, releasing formidable time law power fluctuations as it surged into the indentation on the stone platform.
This time, the Extreme Yin Sundial displayed no reaction. Instead, a series of golden patterns lit up on the stone platform, then began to spread like a system of cobwebs, instantly filling the entire ground in the hall before extending to every single corner of the underground palace.
Before long, golden patterns began to spread over the ruined city outside of the underground palace as well, basking the entire secret area in a golden glow.
All of a sudden, Han Li reached out with both hands to grab onto the edge of the stone platform, then injected his time law power into it in a frenzy. At the same time, the Time Dao Runes on his Mantra Treasured Axis began to fade one after another.
A faint crack rang out, and a series of thin cracks began to appear over the surface of the stone platform, spreading outward in all directions alongside the golden patterns.
At the same time, countless tiny black lines began to appear in the space around Han Li, and they intertwined with one another in a chaotic fashion. As the Time Dao Runes on Han Li's Mantra Treasured Axis faded one after another, these black lines continued to grow thicker and more concentrated.
A solemn look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he immediately began holding his breath while his True Extreme Film appeared over his body.
Right at this moment, the 60th Time Dao Rune on his Mantra Treasured Axis faded, and an earth-shattering boom rang out as the entire secret area began to tremble violently.
Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly as a radiant golden sun with a diameter of around 10 feet emerged up ahead, releasing blinding golden radiance before exploding violently.
Amid the eruption of golden light, all of the surrounding black lines instantly became warped and misshapen, then converged toward the center incessantly to form an enormous black vortex that was releasing boundless suction force, sucking in everything within the secret area.
Before Han Li had a chance to do anything, he was also wrenched into the vortex like a tiny raft in a turbulent sea.
......
The entire world spun around him for a moment, following which he stumbled out into the open, and he quickly inspected his surroundings, upon which a stunned look appeared on his face.
He discovered that he was standing in front of a golden palace, and the gates of the palace were behind him, while none other than Lu Yuqing was standing nearby, staring at him with her mouth slightly agape in shock.
In the distance, a girl with golden hair who appeared to be around eight or nine years of age was locked in a standoff against a barefoot silver-robed woman.
Around the woman was a ring of gray light that was several hundred feet in size, while above her was a massive dragon head projection with its cavernous mouth wide open. A pillar of three-colored light was blasting out of its maw, while the girl's arms had exploded to form a pair of translucent threads that swept toward the oncoming pillar of three-colored light.
The two combatants were none other than Jin Tong and Qu Ling, and this was the exact same scene that Han Li had left behind prior to entering the golden palace over 2,000 years ago!
The only thing that was different was that the layer of golden light around the golden pattern had become a little dim and was no longer as radiant as before.
What's going on...
He had spent over 2,000 years inside that palace, yet it seemed nothing had changed in the outside world.
At this point, everyone else had also already noticed Han Li, and they were also very surprised to see him.
Lu Yuqing was just about to say something when the two translucent golden threads finally clashed against the pillar of three-colored light in the distance with an earth-shattering boom.
A burst of blinding light erupted forth as the entire sky was split in half, with one half filled with radiant three-colored light, while the other half was inundated by dazzling golden radiance.
The two halves of the sky clashed violently against one another, and the entire space rumbled violently. In particular, the space where the two intersected was warping violently, looking as if it could shatter at any moment.
Everything on the ground below instantly melted away like snow under the scorching sun under the vast expanse of light, and the ground was also rapidly melting.
An alarmed look appeared on Lu Yuqing's face upon seeing this, and she hurriedly flew to a safe distance away as a streak of azure light.
In contrast, Han Li remained still on the spot as he conjured up his True Extreme Film, and at the same time, 36 specks of bright starlight emerged over his body.
Beams of light fell upon his True Extreme Film to produce an ear-splitting grating noise, and the True Extreme Film began to tremble slightly, but it displayed no signs of breaking or being worn down.
Han Li looked up at the sky with an intense, unblinking gaze as the pillar of three-colored light became brighter and brighter, rapidly overwhelming the opposing translucent threads.
A grim look appeared on Jin Tong's face upon seeing this, and she let loose a delicate roar as a new pair of arms emerged to replace the ones that had just exploded, but these new arms were semi-transparent.
She thrust the palms of her hands through the air, and two bursts of translucent golden light shot forth before transforming into another pair of translucent golden threads.
The pair of translucent threads crossed over one another to oppose the pillar of three-colored light, but the latter was still advancing forward with unstoppable force, and the situation was quickly turning dire for Jin Tong.
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