Chapter 1147: Return to the True Mantra Sect

As Immortal Lord Miao Fa stormed onto the scene, an ecstatic look suddenly appeared on her face as she spotted something within the shrinking ball of green light.

It's the Heaven Controlling Vial!

She immediately accelerated, swooping downward as quickly as she could, but right at this moment, a golden ring emerged within the ball of green light, and thirty time law threads split off from it before disintegrating into a cloud of translucent powder that flew into the green light.

The green light instantly shrank down to form a small, green vial, which vanished into the wall of the translucent light along with the golden ring.

"No!" Immortal Lord Miao Fa roared in a furious voice as the Heaven Controlling Vial slipped away right before her eyes.

Chi Meng withdrew the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Dome with a dark expression, but before the two of them had a chance to approach the translucent wall of light, it had already vanished into thin air, leaving only a burst of faint time law power fluctuations in its wake.

Immortal Lord Miao Fa was barely able to contain her own fury as she turned to glower at Chi Meng.

If it wasn't for Chi Meng's meddling, she would've already returned to the Nine Origins Temple with Han Li and the Heaven Controlling Vial, and that would've been the biggest accomplishment anyone in the temple had made in the past tens of millions of years.

Chi Meng's brows furrowed slightly at the sight of Immortal Lord Miao Fa's enraged expression, and she said, "The target is already gone, so there's no point in continuing this senseless battle..."

Before she had a chance to finish, a volley of bone-chilling ice arrows had already come hurtling toward her.

A cold look flashed through Chi Meng's face upon seeing this, and she sprang directly toward Immortal Lord Miao Fa as she harrumphed, "Fine! I tried to settle this peacefully, but you clearly insist on a fight!"

Thus, their battle recommenced, while Lan Yan and Immortal Lord Miao Fa's maidservants were all watching from tens of thousands of kilometers away, with none of them daring to approach the scene.

I wonder how Fellow Daoist Han is doing...

As soon as this thought sprang up in Lan Yan's mind, she was immediately struck by a pang of guilt toward her sect, and she could only heave a forlorn, internal sigh.

......

Meanwhile, Han Li was already beside the vast river of time.

Countless water-droplet-shaped balls of light were flowing through the river, stretching as far as the eyes could see.

Right at this moment, two streaks of light, one golden and one green, sped toward him from afar.

Within the streak of golden light was a golden ring that slid itself onto his finger, while the ball of green light landed in his grasp before transforming into the Heaven Controlling Vial.

"What are you just standing here for? Now that you've brought the Heaven Controlling Vial into this place, your Time Dao Runes will be expended far faster than normal, so hurry and choose a destination for your transmigration," the vial spirit urged.

With no opportunity to plan in advance, Han Li was a little hesitant, unsure of where to go.

After some thought, he suddenly recalled that there were some questions that he had about the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra, as well as his recent, failed breakthrough.

Seeing as he was able to physically transmigrate this time, was this not a perfect opportunity to make a trip to the True Mantra Sect to visit Patriarch Miro?

"Senior Vial Spirit, would you be able to take me back to the True Mantra Sect prior to its destruction?" Han Li asked.

"Of course, but you'll have to expend even more time law threads in order to take the Heaven Controlling Vial with you," the vial spirit replied.

"I still need to sacrifice more law threads?" Han Li asked with a pained expression.

The loss of thirty time law threads was already a very steep price to pay, and he certainly didn't want to have to sacrifice any more.

"It depends on the time period that you wish to transmigrate to. The further away it is from the present, the more time law powers must be expended. If you wish to return to the True Mantra Sect prior to its destruction, that's going to cost you at least twenty more time law threads," the vial spirit explained.

After a brief hesitation, Han Li made up his mind and decided, "Alright, I'll go there."

"Hold on a second," the vial spirit said, and as soon as its voice trailed off, twenty time law threads split off from the golden ring on Han Li's finger, then disintegrated into a cloud of translucent dust that vanished into the Heaven Controlling Vial.

Layers of green ripples began to emanate from the Heaven Controlling Vial, and it didn't take long before a particular ball of light came drifting toward Han Li from the river of time.

"This is the one you want," the vial spirit said, and Han Li immediately extended a tendril of spiritual sense toward the ball of light upon hearing this.

However, before he was even able to catch a clear glimpse of the scene contained within the ball of light, it abruptly released a burst of tremendous suction force that drew him in in the blink of an eye, and his vision instantly turned to black as his consciousness faded away.

......

After an indeterminate period of time, Han Li's eyes sprang open, and he found himself standing in an unremarkable room.

The room wasn't very large, and it only had two windows, while the furnishings were also quite bare and simple. There was a pine wood set of table and chairs situated near one of the windows, while the other half of the room was taken up by three beds with neatly folded blankets on top of them.

Hanging on the wall directly across from the beds was a portrait of none other than Patriarch Miro.

This seemed to be a room shared by several True Mantra Sect disciples, and to Han Li's relief, there didn't appear to be any danger afoot.

A golden ring that was riddled with over one thousand six hundred Time Dao Runes was hovering above his head, and the Heaven Controlling Vial was hovering at its center.

However, the vial spirit had disappeared, and the vial itself was also looking rather blurry, perhaps due to the impact of the golden ring.

Han Li made his way out of the room to discover a small courtyard outside, and there appeared to be hundreds of similar courtyards nearby.

These courtyards had all been constructed along a huge, white mountain, and standing beside these courtyards was a series of white jade palaces that stretched as far as the eyes could see.

There were also some mountains hovering in mid-air that were laden with palaces as well.

Having already come to this place once through spiritual transmigration, Han Li knew that this was the True Mantra Sect.

However, the last time that he was here, the sect was being attacked by the Heavenly Court, and it was already in a severely war-torn state, whereas at this point in time, it was still as pristine and tidy as ever.

White-robed True Mantra Sect disciples were flying through the sky above, and Han Li hurriedly concealed himself in order to avoid detection, then carefully released his spiritual sense to scour the surrounding area.

Moments later, an elated look appeared on his face as he flew toward the summit of the giant, white mountain, while simultaneously channeling his Myriad Acupoint Tranquility Technique to conceal his own aura.

Before long, he had already arrived in front of a two-story pavilion on the mountain summit, and beside the pavilion stood a stone plaque that read "Merit Pavilion".

There was barely anyone here, and an elderly man was seated at the entrance of the pavilion, seemingly acting as a supervisor of sorts.

The man was a mid-High Zenith cultivator, and upon Han Li's arrival, he seemed to have detected something as his eyes abruptly sprang open.

However, a perplexed look then appeared on his face as he discovered that there was nothing to be seen.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as he pointed a finger at the elderly man, and several translucent chains shot out of his fingertip before racing toward the man's head.

As soon as those chains left Han Li's body, he was immediately revealed, and the elderly man's expression changed drastically as he sprang to his feet while summoning a white badge in an attempt to activate the restrictions on the Merit Pavilion behind him.

However, the translucent chains were far too fast, and they had already vanished into his glabella before he had a chance to react.

The elderly man was instantly immobilized, locked in a strange, half-seated, half-standing posture.

After immobilizing the elderly man, Han Li took a moment to inspect his surroundings, and only after verifying that no one had detected what he had just done did he allow himself an internal sigh of relief.

He took a white badge from the elderly man, and after inspecting it momentarily with his spiritual sense, he immediately understood how it worked.

He strode over to the Merit Pavilion, then swept the badge through the air, releasing a burst of white light that vanished into the doors of the pavilion.

A translucent, white light barrier instantly appeared over the doors, with countless runes flashing over its surface.

Han Li released another streak of white light using the badge, and this time, the runes on the light barrier quickly receded, following which the light barrier itself vanished as the doors of the pavilion slowly swung open.

A faint smile appeared on his face, and he was just about to step inside the pavilion when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, then pointed a finger at the elderly man.

Five thin strands of black light shot out of his fingertip before vanishing into the elderly man's body, and his wooden expression instantly became much more natural as he sat back down again.

This was a puppetry secret technique that he had learned from Daoist Xie during his time in the Scalptia Spatial Domain, and he was using it to control the elderly man to make him appear more natural so that he didn't draw any attention to himself.

After that, Han Li made his way into the pavilion before closing the doors, and a white light barrier instantly reappeared over their surface.