Chapter 1196: Stumped

Han Li waited patiently for the Twin Birth Tree to completely fuse with his Eastern Vicissitudes Divine Tree, but right at this moment, the Celestial Time Array suddenly shuddered violently, and the light that it was radiating filled the entire Flower Branch domain, completely outshining his spirit domain.

Han Li's brows instantly furrowed slightly upon seeing this.

Have I run out of Immortal Origin Stones?

Right at this moment, a burst of radiant, golden light rose up from the center of the array, then began racing toward Han Li.

Enveloped within the golden light was none other than the Heavenly Wheel Sundial.

He was worried that the sundial would interfere with the evolution of his spirit domain, so he made a grabbing motion toward it, attempting to intercept it in its tracks, but the sundial abruptly veered away from its original course, flying up toward the Mantra Treasured Axis hanging in the sky.

A resounding boom rang out as the Heavenly Wheel Sundial exploded upon making contact with the Mantra Treasured Axis, but strangely enough, the sundial only disintegrated in physical form following its explosion, while the metal-attribute time law powers within it transformed into a burst of golden light that fused with the Mantra Treasured Axis.

The golden light began to wrap itself around the Mantra Treasured Axis, and the latter began to take on a more substantial form while glowing brighter and brighter.

Given what had just happened with the Twin Birth Tree, Han Li was already somewhat prepared for this outcome, but he was still ecstatic, nonetheless.

Never he had he imagined that this stint of seclusion would be so bountiful.

However, what was rather perplexing to him was the fusion of the Twin Birth Tree had been facilitated on the basis of the successful creation of the forest formed by the Eastern Vicissitudes Divine Tree, while the Mantra Treasured Axis hadn't reached the Creation Tier yet, so how was it fusing with the Heavenly Wheel Sundial?

Could it be that his spirit domain had skipped the Creation Tier altogether?

All of a sudden, Han Li noticed that his spirit domain had begun rippling very minutely.

Immediately thereafter, a dull thump rang out, and the Mantra Treasured Axis above him shuddered violently before giving off a burst of tremendous suction force.

Han Li hurriedly raised a hand to interrupt the fusion between his Mantra Treasured Axis and the Heavenly Wheel Sundial, but the process had reached a critical juncture, so if he were to intervene now, it was sure to cause severe damage to both objects involved.

However, he had no other choice.

The fusion between the two objects was undoubtedly going to require an immense amount of time law powers, something that his Mantra Treasured Axis wouldn't be able to provide in its current state.

The time law powers in his body had already been exhausted to support the fusion between the Twin Birth Tree and the Eastern Vicissitudes Divine Tree, so he was unable to provide any support to the Mantra Treasured Axis.

His concern was that the Mantra Treasured Axis would forcibly absorb the power of his time spirit domain to reciprocate itself.

Sure enough, the suction force coming from the Mantra Treasured Axis was becoming stronger and stronger, while his spirit domain had begun trembling violently, and rays of golden light were splitting off from it before rising up toward the Mantra Treasured Axis.

Han Li immediately reached out with both hands, forming a pair of massive hand projections that grabbed up toward the Mantra Treasured Axis.

The space up above began to ripple from the force exerted by the pair of hand projections, compressing toward the Mantra Treasured Axis in an attempt to sever its connection to his spirit domain, but his efforts proved to be completely futile.

Before the hand projections could close themselves around the Mantra Treasured Axis, they were kept at bay by the rays of golden light emanating from it.

These rays of light contained extremely pure time law powers that even Han Li wasn't able to overcome, and he could only watch as his spirit domain began to disintegrate bit by bit.

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Of course, he wasn't just going to passively allow everything to unfold. The Eastern Vicissitudes Divine Tree down below began to sway violently at his behest, releasing a burst of immense time law powers that rose up into the air.

At the same time, a layer of golden sand rose up from the ground, while the winding river down below also ascended into the heavens.

Simultaneously, a fiery meteor shower came raining down from above, and the entire spirit domain was plunged into a state of chaos as the four bursts of time law powers clashed against the full moon formed by the Mantra Treasured Axis.

A resounding boom rang out, accompanied by an explosion of golden light as waves of golden ripples swept through the entire spirit domain.

A burst of time law power fluctuations surged out of the Celestial Time Array as well, but not only did the two not clash against one another, they fused together to enshroud the entire spirit domain in a burst of peculiar power.

Immediately thereafter, his spirit domain rapidly shrank down until it was only encompassing an area with a radius of several hundred feet around Han Li.

He felt as if the space outside the spirit domain had completely fallen still. The forest was no longer swaying, the mist was no longer rising, and even the seemed to have stopped blowing.

At the same time, the suction force released by the Mantra Treasured Axis and the Heavenly Wheel Sundial overhead had also faded away, and it seemed that the two were beginning to fuse in a far more placid and stable manner.

Han Li was rather perplexed by this, and he couldn't make sense of what had just happened.

He made a hand seal to try and withdraw his spirit domain, only to discover that it refused to heed his command.

An alarmed look appeared on his face as he rose up into the air, attempting to leave the Flower Branch domain, only to find himself trapped within the confines of his own spirit domain.

This is certainly troublesome...

Clearly, the fusion of the Heavenly Wheel Sundial and the Mantra Treasured Axis had triggered some type of change in the Celestial Time Array and his spirit domain, resulting in his entrapment.

After taking a moment to compose himself, he quickly thought of a way out. Seeing as he was trapped here due to his loss of control over his spirit domain, he should be able to get out of this predicament by regaining control of the spirit domain.

However, that was not going to be a simple process. His Mantra Treasured Axis was currently in the process of evolving to the Oneness Tier, and if he wanted his spirit domain to return to normal, that was an issue that he would have to address.

The problem was that he didn't have sufficient time law powers to support the Mantra Treasured Axis through this process.

Thankfully, this space had stabilized itself for now, so as long as he continued to cultivate the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra to accumulate more time law powers, he would eventually be able to complete the process.

With that in mind, a dismayed look appeared on his face. Assuming that the Celestial Time Array was still operating as normal, he only had around six thousand years left, but he could easily be trapped in his spirit domain for tens of thousands of years.

In any case, he had no choice but to embark on this path.

Having made up his mind, he immediately sat down with his legs crossed and continued to cultivate.

......

Several thousand years flew by in a flash.

Han Li's spirit domain was filled with a vast abundance of time law powers, but at the moment, Han Li was looking up at the golden moon in the sky with a perplexed expression.

Even the Mantra Treasured Axis has already reached the Oneness Tier, so why...

At this point, the fusion between the Heavenly Wheel Sundial and the Mantra Treasured Axis was already complete, yet he was still unable to leave his spirit domain.

Is it still not enough?

......

Several thousand more years passed by in the blink of an eye.

The Immortal Origin Stones in the Celestial Time Array should've already been used up long ago, and the Mantra Treasured Axis had also reached the Oneness Tier, so the spirit domain should've returned to normal, but Han Li was still trapped here.

Over the past several thousand years, he had been cultivating diligently, and more and more changes had appeared in his spirit domain.

Outlines of mountain ranges had already begun to appear on the ground below, and they were also looking more substantial, not as much as the lush forest that grew upon them, but they had clearly also reached the Creation Tier.

However, the river of time remained illusory and hollow, clearly yet to reach the Creation Tier like the mountains.

"Why?!" Han Li roared in a frustrated manner as he leaped up and threw a punch at his own spirit domain.

A massive, golden fist projection erupted out of his fist, crashing into the spirit domain with an earth-shattering boom.

However, the golden light barrier above only rippled violently for a moment before settling down again.

After venting his frustrations through his fist, Han Li was feeling a little less agitated, and he sat back down again. There was no point in wallowing in frustration, so he may as well take this time to continue cultivating.

Perhaps I'll be freed once all of my other time-attribute law treasures also reach the Creation Tier,

Han Li thought to himself.