A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm

Chapter 1142: Miao Fa’s Arrival

Inside his cave abode in the Oasis Mountain Range, Han Li was still attempting to reach the Great Encompassment Stage.

Three years flew by in a flash.

The golden light in Han Li's secret chamber was glowing brighter and brighter, and it was beginning to seep out even with all of the restrictions that he had set up.

Bursts of formidable time law power fluctuations were surging throughout the cave abode, making it impossible for Lan Yan to cultivate, so all she was doing now was waiting for Han Li to come out of seclusion.

She had already guessed Han Li's objective for going into seclusion, and she didn't know how to feel about this. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

She didn't know what Han Li was plotting, but if he were to reach the Great Encompassment Stage, then that would surely be bad news for the Nine Origins Temple.

However, on the flip side, a breakthrough to the Great Encompassment Stage for Han Li would grant both of them a far higher degree of safety.

On top of that, once he reached the Great Encompassment Stage, she would become far less useful to him, and given his personality, there was a chance that he would let her go.

If Han Li were to fail to make his breakthrough, then she would have to continue leading this unpredictable and perilous life on the run, and she didn't know when she would be granted her freedom again.

With all that in mind, she didn't know if she wanted Han Li to succeed or fail.

Right at this moment, a resounding boom rang out from within Han Li's secret chamber.

A burst of immense law power fluctuations swept through the entire cave abode like a turbulent wave, damaging close to half of the restrictions inside.

Lan Yan was also knocked by this burst of time law power fluctuations, only drawing to a halt after crashing into a wall.

She cast her gaze toward Han Li's secret chamber to discover that the golden light there had already faded, indicating that he had failed in his breakthrough attempt, and she couldn't help but heave a forlorn sigh.

Looks like deep down, I'm hoping for him to succeed, after all...

Inside the secret chamber, Han Li's brows were tightly furrowed with frustration.

Just as Lan Yan had guessed, his breakthrough attempt had concluded in failure.

There weren't any negative consequences to arise from this, but he couldn't find a reason for his failure.

At the moment, he had over two hundred time law threads, which was roughly on par with the number of law threads attained by the average Great Encompassment cultivator, so that shouldn't have been a problem.

He had also opened 395 immortal acupoints, and his physical constitution was incredibly formidable, while his soul was also far more powerful than that of the average peak-High Zenith cultivator thanks to his cultivation of the Spirit Refinement Technique.

On paper, he satisfied all of the prerequisites, so the breakthrough should've been quite smooth and effortless.

As Han Li carefully mulled over his failed breakthrough, he decided that the problem had most likely arisen from his time law threads.

Initially, everything had been going quite well, but at some point in his breakthrough attempt, his time law threads had suddenly been thrown into a state of disarray, thereby scrambling the immortal spiritual power in his body to spoil his breakthrough attempt.

Could it be that I still don't have enough time law threads?

If his time law threads were indeed the problem, then he couldn't think of any other possible factor holding him back aside from an insufficient number of time law threads.

The quickest way for him to attain more time law threads would be to use the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra to refine treasures that contained time law powers, but such treasures were extremely precious and rare.

Furthermore, he already had over two hundred time law threads, and he had no idea how many more he would have to attain in order to facilitate a successful breakthrough..

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to Han Li, and he slapped himself on the forehead for not thinking of this earlier.

How could I have forgotten about the Eon Divine Lamp? If I can refine that into time law threads, then that would surely be enough.

At the moment, the lamp was still in an unlit state.

Since leaving the Tai Sui Immortal Manor, Han Li had made many attempts to reignite the flame, but to no avail.

Even though the Eon Divine Lamp was unlit, it was still giving off bursts of formidable time law power fluctuations.

Han Li immediately channeled his Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra, and his five time-attribute law treasures appeared around him one after another.

The five bursts of time law powers released by the five treasures quickly intertwined, then compressed toward a single spot to form a thick, golden ring of light.

The ring of light was compressed even further at Han Li's behest, and it began to release a burst of powerful suction force while approaching the Eon Divine Lamp.

The golden ring encompassed the Eon Divine Lamp while revolving rapidly, releasing a burst of tremendous suction force in an attempt to draw the time law powers out of the lamp.

However, despite the golden ring's best efforts, the time law powers within the Eon Divine Lamp remained completely unmoved.

Could it be that the Eon Divine Lamp is an immortal treasure of too high a caliber to be refined?

After persevering for a while longer, Han Li withdrew the golden ring, and he wasn't particularly surprised to see this as something like this had happened once before.

That golden plate that he had obtained from the ruins of the True Mantra Sect was something that he had also been unable to refine using his Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra.

With that in mind, it seemed like the Eon Divine Lamp and the golden plate were treasures of a similar caliber.

In fact, perhaps the golden plate was a treasure of an even higher caliber as at the very least, Han Li was able to somewhat control the Eon Divine Lamp, while the golden plate was like an immovable object as far as he was concerned.

A wry smile appeared on Han Li's face as he stowed the Eon Divine Lamp away.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he pulled out a Reincarnation Palace mask, then released a mission, seeking to purchase time-attribute immortal treasures.

At this point, Han Li had already accumulated an astronomical sum of Immortal Origin Stones, so this wasn't a problem for him.

Aside from the Reincarnation Palace, he couldn't think of any other avenues that he could turn to for this cause, so all he could do was wait.

After doing all of that, Han Li began channeling his Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra once again, trying to see if there had been any other problems resulting in his failed breakthrough.

Close to half a year flew by in the blink of an eye.

Inside the secret chamber, Han Li was seated with his legs crossed, and his entire body was enshrouded in a layer of golden light. Manifestations of his five time-attribute law treasures were hovering in the air around him, and the entire secret chamber was rippling with time law power fluctuations.

Right at this moment, Han Li's eyes suddenly sprang open in alarm, and the manifestations of his five time-attribute law treasures vanished into his body, following which he also vanished from the spot.

In the next instant, he had already arrived outside the secret chamber directly behind Lan Yan.

Before she had a chance to react in surprise, Han Li grabbed onto her by the throat, and a string of golden runes wrapped itself around her body like a spirit snake, instantly immobilizing her.

"My apologies, Fellow Daoist Lan."

As soon as Han Li's voice trailed off, a resounding boom rang out as the mountain that the cave abode was situated in exploded violently, exposing the entire cave abode to the light of day.

Han Li looked up with one hand still locked firmly around Lan Yan's throat, and high up in the sky was a crystalline throne that was shaped like a lotus flower, seated atop which was none other than Immortal Lord Miao Fa.

Her head was cocked to the side, and she was resting her cheek on her hand as she looked down at Han Li with a disdainful expression.

Han Li's pupils instantly contracted slightly upon sensing her mid-Great Encompassment Stage aura. Despite the fact that she was seated on her throne in a lackadaisical manner, Han Li was feeling more pressure from her than he did even from the likes of Qi Mozi.

Behind her were the two identical twin maidservants, both of whom were at the early-High Zenith Stage, and one of them was holding an ornate, embroidered umbrella, while the other was holding a peacock feather fan.

"I had thought that it must've taken a very remarkable man to have defeated both She Chan and Qi Mozi, but you're just a piece of cowardly scum who would stoop as low as to use a frail and defenseless woman as a shield. How disappointing," Immortal Lord Miao Fa scoffed.

"That's not exactly a fair statement, is it? Fellow Daoist Lan is far from a frail and defenseless woman. No matter how I tried to coerce her, she refused to submit to me and even attempted suicide on multiple occasions, so I was forced to plant restrictions upon her. While it's true that I'm using her as a shield now, what else am I supposed to do in the face of an assailant far more powerful than myself?" Han Li asked in a resigned manner.

Lan Yan knew that Han Li was lying in order to paint her in a positive light, and a hint of guilt and gratitude welled up in her heart upon hearing this.

"If she's incompetent enough to have been captured, then she deserves to die," Immortal Lord Miao Fa said as she took an expressionless glance at Lan Yan, and a layer of white frost instantly appeared over her face.

Before long, her entire body had been encased in a layer of blue ice crystals.

A burst of silver flames erupted out of the tip of Han Li's finger to contend against the spreading frost as he flew back in retreat, yet he had only managed to retreat no more than a thousand feet when a huge shadow appeared over him, and the embroidered umbrella came descending upon him from above.

Han Li immediately darted away to the side to take evasive measures, but the umbrella-wielding maidservant was dancing elegantly on top of the umbrella, and it was constantly changing directions in accordance with her movements to ensure that it remained above Han Li's head.

Meanwhile, the fan-wielding maidservant flew over to Lan Yan's side, then swept a sleeve over her, and the layer of frost clinging to her body instantly melted away, following which she was casually tossed over to Immortal Lord Miao Fa.

"Lan Yan pays her respects to Immortal Lord Miao Fa," Lan Yan greeted as she fell to her knees.

"Where's Lan Yuanzi? Is he dead or alive?" Immortal Lord Miao Fa asked.

A grief-stricken look instantly appeared on Lan Yan's face at the mention of Lan Yuanzi.