Chapter 1148: A Familiar Scene

Han Li cast his gaze into the pavilion to discover that the first floor wasn't all that spacious, and it was filled with around twenty to thirty antiquated wooden bookshelves, all of which were laden with books, jade slips, and other types of scriptures that were clearly all cultivation arts and secret techniques.

Just like the doors of the pavilion, these scriptures were also enshrouded in a white light barrier.

Just as Han Li had guessed, this was the True Mantra Sect's scripture library.

This was a rare opportunity to return to the True Mantra Sect, and he didn't want to squander it.

His fate seemed to have been somehow intertwined with the True Mantra Sect, and he had frequently explored different avenues to learn more about the sect's history. The more he learned, the more astonished he became.

Even though the True Mantra Sect was situated in the Black Soil Immortal Region, which was not a very large immortal region, it was a sect of a very lofty status in the True Immortal Realm due to its expertise in the laws of time and of course, Patriarch Miro.

He had already expended fifty time law threads to get here. While it was true that he had come here in order to flee from Immortal Lord Miao Fa and Chi Meng, now that he was here, he fully intended to take full advantage of this opportunity.

He had always been cultivating the laws of time on his own, and even though he was able to make rapid progress in the endeavor, there were many gaps in his knowledge that he wanted to fill, so he was eager to find some journals containing cultivation insights from some powerful True Mantra Sect cultivators.

The laws of time were extremely difficult to comprehend and master, but they were also an integral part to the very fabric that this realm was woven from.

Nothing could escape from the effects of time, and every single living being seemed to be able to come into contact with it, but was unable to truly grasp it. It was like a reflection in a pond of water, something that could only be seen, but not grasped.

Hence, regardless of whether someone had made much progress in their cultivation of the laws of time, written records of their cultivation experiences and insights could perhaps be of some help to Han Li.

With that in mind, he began to quickly make his way through the bookshelves, stopping occasionally to use the white badge in his hand to withdraw the restrictions around the bookshelves in order to access the scriptures inside. However, the more he read, the less enthused he became.

The scriptures on these bookshelves were all quite profound, but they were all cultivation arts and secret techniques aimed at Golden Immortals and even True Immortals. Some of them contained some cultivation insights, but all of those sections were very brief and vague, providing no benefit to Han Li.

It looks like all of the scriptures here are of a rather lowly caliber. The higher grade scriptures must be kept somewhere more secretive.

With that in mind, Han Li made his way up to the second floor of the pavilion.

There were only around a dozen bookshelves on the second floor, and they were also laden with scriptures.

Time was of the essence, so Han Li immediately began reading through the scriptures.

The scriptures here were indeed of a higher level than the ones on the first floor, but not by much, and they weren't of much use to him.

It didn't take long before Han Li read through all of these scriptures in futility, and he heaved a forlorn sigh before turning to depart.

At this point, a good chunk of the Time Dao Runes on the golden ring had already been snuffed out, so he couldn't afford to waste any more time here.

All of a sudden, he stopped in his tracks and cast his gaze toward a nearby bookshelf that was placed against a wall.

He had only hurriedly examined the scriptures on the bookshelves earlier, so he had failed to notice that the positioning of this bookshelf was a little strange in that it seemed to have been intentionally moved around a foot out of line with the other bookshelves.

Han Li raised an eyebrow as he pushed the bookshelf back, then swept his spiritual sense over the surrounding area, upon which an elated look suddenly appeared on his face.

He placed a hand against the section of the wall that had previously been blocked by the bookshelf, and a loud click rang out as the wall caved inward to reveal an opening, inside of which was a palm-sized, golden jade box.

He was just about to open the box when a layer of golden light appeared over its surface to repel his hand.

Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this, then reached out with both hands for the jade box, while a layer of golden light surfaced over each of his hands.

The jade box released another layer of golden light to contend against the golden light emanating from Han Li's hands, but it was quickly overwhelmed and torn apart, following which the jade box sprang open to reveal a golden jade slip inside.

Han Li picked up the jade slip before injecting his spiritual sense into it to discover that it contained a secret technique called the "Immortal Golden Cloud".

According to the jade slip, this was a defensive secret technique that used time law powers as a foundation.

On top of that, this wasn't just any defensive ability. Instead, it was proclaimed to be the True Mantra Sect's premium defensive secret technique.

However, the prerequisites that had to be fulfilled in order to cultivate this ability were extremely stringent. Firstly, one had to possess tremendous time law powers and a very high understanding of the laws of time. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to bear the overwhelming power of the Immortal Golden Cloud, nor would they be able to comprehend the complexities of the secret technique.

In addition to that, the cultivator had to possess at least three hundred time law threads, and only then would they have sufficient time law powers to support the ability.

A wry smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.

The Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra was a time-attribute cultivation art of the highest caliber, and he had already developed a very deep understanding of the laws of time, but the problem was naturally the requirement of three hundred time law threads.

At the moment, he only had around a hundred and fifty time law threads left, which fulfilled only half of the minimum requirement.

Even so, he was still very pleased to have found this secret technique.

He stowed the jade slip and the golden box away, then returned the wall and the bookshelf to their original state so no one would notice that anything was amiss.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

After doing all of that, Han Li made his way downstairs, yet right as he was about to exit the pavilion, a streak of golden light came flying over from afar, then descended outside the Merit Pavilion to reveal an imposing man who was at the mid-High Zenith Stage.

"Your Merit Pavilion is still as deserted as ever, Fellow Daoist Jiang," the man chuckled.

Han Li hurriedly channeled his puppetry secret technique to control the elderly man, who looked up at the visitor as he replied in an indifferent manner, "Barely anyone ever comes here anyway."

The man didn't seem to have noticed anything amiss about the elderly man, and he lowered his voice as he said, "I don't mean to make a joke at your expense, Fellow Daoist Jiang. Our sect is receiving more and more pressure from the Heavenly Court, and my Heavenly Star Palace has also been largely deserted of late.

“It may be a rather wearisome task, overseeing these places for ten thousand years, but at the very least, we're in a much better situation than those elders who were sent on missions out of the sect. I've heard that many of them have already met their demise."

To Han Li's relief, it appeared that the two of them were on good terms with each other, and under his control, the elderly man asked, "Can I help you with something?"

"I heard that our patriarch is going to be giving a lecture on the Sun View Peak, and I came here to invite you to attend the lecture with me," the man replied with a smile, and Han Li's eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this.

There was a very good chance that this patriarch in question was Patriarch Miro, who was also a cultivator of the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra. There was no guarantee that he would specifically speak about the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra during his lecture, but the cultivation insights that he divulged had to be related to the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra, so this lecture was not to be missed.

With that in mind, a hint of excitement welled up in his heart, and the elderly man replied at his behest, "Thank you for the kind offer, Fellow Daoist Chen, but I still have some matters to attend to right now, so I'll have to go a little later."

The man faltered slightly upon hearing this, then nodded in response.

"In that case, I'll be going ahead on my own. You should also come as soon as you can, Fellow Daoist Jiang. We may be using different cultivation arts from our patriarch, but I'm sure his cultivation insights will still be invaluable for us to hear."

The man then promptly departed, flying away as a streak of golden light.

The doors of the Merit Pavilion swung open, and Han Li emerged from within, then made a beckoning motion, upon which the elderly man stood up and made his way into the pavilion.

He then flicked a finger through the air, sending a strand of translucent light flying into the elderly man's glabella, and he shuddered violently before falling to the ground in an unconscious state.

Han Li tossed the white badge onto the floor beside the elderly man, then closed the doors of the pavilion behind him.

The elderly man was going to be unconscious for at least four or five days, so he wouldn't be able to interfere with anything that Han Li did from here onward.

From there, Han Li set off in the same direction that the man from earlier had departed in, and it didn't take long before he arrived near a lush mountain that was teeming with trees and riddled with strange-looking rocks.

This was not an unfamiliar mountain to Han Li. Instead, he had already seen it three times, and the first of those occasions was when he first used the Heaven Controlling Vial to witness Patriarch Miro's lecture on the mountain summit.

He had also been to this mountain during his time in the True Mantra Sect ruins, and on this day, he found himself here once again.

The mountain extended all the way up into the clouds, making it impossible to see its summit, and there was a long stone staircase leading all the way from the summit to the foot of the mountain.

At this moment, the staircase was packed with seated True Mantra Sect disciples, all of whom were listening intently to the lecture, which had already commenced.

Despite the fact that he was all the up on the mountain summit, Patriarch Miro's voice was clearly audible to everyone, and every single syllable that he enunciated had a profound and ethereal quality to it.

The nearby world's origin qi was trembling incessantly in the face of Patriarch Miro's voice, and at this moment, there were countless streaks of light flashing through the air, transforming into all types of phenomena, including gusts of fierce wind, vortexes of scorching fire, and storms of glacial ice.

After observing these phenomena for a moment, Han Li began to fly his way up toward the mountain summit in secret.

However, instead of flying all the way to the mountain summit, he sat down partway up the mountain for fear that Patriarch Miro would notice him if he were to get any closer.

From here, he could already make out the scene on the mountain summit. Patriarch Miro was seated at the center, surrounded by his five disciples, and standing upright on its hindlegs beside Mu Yan was a fat rat that was also looking at Patriarch Miro.