Chapter 1345: Decisive Move

Han Li's mind was racing as he scrambled to think of a way out of this predicament while maintaining his spirit domain.

He was perfectly capable of eradicating the restrictive time law powers in the surrounding area, but his top priority at the moment was to find out how Gu Huojin was able to track him. Otherwise, he would never be able to truly get away.

Given his cautious nature, he was confident that he hadn't left behind anything for Gu Huojin to track him by, and as long as that wasn't the case, then he wasn't the problem.

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to him as he turned to Jin Tong and yelled, "Jin Tong, force out the law powers in your body that belong to Xuanyuan Jie!"

Jin Tong faltered slightly upon hearing this, following which a look of realization flashed through her eyes, and she immediately did as she was told, sitting down with her legs crossed to focus on expelling Xuanyuan Jie's law powers from her body.

Without Jin Tong's help, Han Li was forced to face the full brunt of Gu Huojin's power on his own, and dozens of Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords flew out of his body before scattering themselves all over his spirit domain.

The flying swords transformed into dozens of giant pillars of lightning that propped up the golden hand, and only then was Han Li able to stop it in its descent.

Gu Huojin's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, yet before he had a chance to do anything, the palace behind him suddenly began trembling and swaying.

A dismayed look appeared on his face as he swept both sleeves through the air, and streaks of golden light appeared around the palace before rapidly intertwining with one another, instantly forming a golden yin yang diagram that encompassed the entire palace.

The tremors running through the palace instantly began to subside, but at the same time, Han Li was also given a brief window of respite.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, he turned his gaze to Jin Tong, and a concerned look quickly appeared in his eyes.

Even though Jin Tong was currently also a Dao Ancestor, her law powers were still inferior to those of a long-established Dao Ancestor like Xuanyuan Jie, so his law powers were proving rather difficult to expel for her.

In order to assist her, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air, and numerous streaks of golden light shot out of his spirit domain before landing on the ground near Jin Tong to form a golden array that was very similar to the Celestial Time Array.

As soon as the array commenced operation, it began resonating with the spirit domain around it, instantly accelerating the flow of time within the array by close to ten thousandfold.

In the Heavenly Court, Gu Huojin continued to make hand seals with one hand to suppress the unrest in the palace while extending the index finger of his other hand to draw a circle, and a massive, golden ring instantly appeared around Han Li's spirit domain.

At the same time, a restrictive band of golden light also appeared around Han Li's waist, and he felt as if an incredibly heavy mountain had fallen upon him, making it almost impossible to move his limbs.

A hint of fury and indignation surfaced in his eyes as he looked up into the sky, and a series of black patterns spread rapidly over his entire body.

In the blink of an eye, he transformed into an almighty devilish deity that stood over a hundred thousand feet tall, with twelve heads and thirty-six arms.

However, the band of golden light refused to relent, and it remained intact as it released bursts of tremendous restrictive force in an attempt to keep the devilish deity contained.

The devilish deity let loose a low roar as the black spirit patterns on its body began to glow with blinding radiance, and bursts of tremendous physical power erupted out of its body alongside incredibly fearsome time law powers.

The golden ring instantly began trembling, and Han Li was able to force it away until a small gap appeared between it and his body.

He immediately pounced on this opportunity as he grabbed onto the ring with all thirty-six of his hands before wrenching it apart forcefully, and the ring was finally overwhelmed as it exploded into countless specks of golden light.

The golden ring around the time spirit domain also quickly dissipated, while Han Li sprang up toward the golden palm above.

A series of golden patterns appeared over his thirty-six arms, and they began glowing intently as all of his time law treasures converged toward him before vanishing into his back, forming five golden designs that were arranged in a circle.

The golden spirit patterns on his arms lit up even further as he lashed out at the golden palm, unleashing thirty-six Great Five Elemental Annihilation Fists at once.

Thirty-six radiant, golden suns appeared beneath the giant palm before exploding violently, sending countless waves of golden light sweeping in all directions as the entire sky collapsed and buckled.

The waves of golden light quickly swept over the entire immortal region, causing several continents to collapse, while boundless volumes of molten lava and dirt erupted into the heavens.

The nearby space also became severely fractured, while Gu Huojin's restrictive time law powers were eradicated.

Han Li immediately prepared to channel his lightning sword teleportation ability upon seeing this, but right at this moment, a massive, golden hand suddenly descended from above, and it was the same one from before, except it had been slightly reduced in size.

A stunned look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this. He had retaliated with all his might just now, yet the golden hand had remained largely unaffected.

There was no time for him to teleport himself and Jin Tong away, so he had to abandon his plans and turn his attention back to warding off the golden palm.

Right at this moment, Jin Tong's eyes abruptly sprang open, and she opened her mouth to release a ball of yellow light that contained earth law powers of an unimaginable degree of purity.

The ball of yellow light rose up into the heavens, then dissipated before fusing into the surrounding space, and the golden hand that was swooping down upon Han Li stopped in its tracks, then hesitated momentarily before making a grab for the dissipating yellow light instead.

Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this, then immediately returned to the task at hand, and he and Jin Tong vanished amid a flash of lighting.

As the two of them reappeared above a lush forest, Han Li could sense that some type of intangible pressure had been lifted from his shoulders when it had previously followed them everywhere they went.

However, as a safety precaution, he teleported several times in succession before finally coming to a rest.

"Looks like we've finally shaken him off," Jin Tong said in a relieved manner, and her relief was very much mirrored by Han Li.

Following that brief clash from earlier, he had come to realize just how massive the gulf in power between him and Gu Huojin was, and he felt very fortunate to have been able to escape safely on this occasion.

"Master, I still need to consolidate my cultivation base, so I want to find a place to cultivate in seclusion before going after Gu Huojin. What about you?" Jin Tong asked.

"There's no need to refer to me as master now that you're a Dao Ancestor. Just refer to me as fellow daoist," Han Li said.

A hesitant look appeared on Jin Tong's face upon hearing this.

"At our cultivation base, what's the point in obsessing over names and titles? Besides, when have I ever truly treated you like a spirit pet?" Han Li asked with a faint smile.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"In that case, please pardon me. What are your plans from here onward, Fellow Daoist Han?" Jin Tong asked with a smile.

"I also plan to go into a bout of seclusion," Han Li replied.

Now that his self corpse soul had emerged, it had to be addressed, and on top of that, Gu Huojin had already set his sights on him, so he had to attain more power in order to better protect himself.

"That's perfect! In that case, we can go into seclusion together, and I'll be able to benefit from your space of accelerated time again," Jin Tong said in an elated manner.

"Sure thing," Han Li replied with a nod.

A hesitant look then appeared on Jin Tong's face as she asked, "If I'm not mistaken, you're planning to go into seclusion in order to sever your self corpse soul so you can elevate your cultivation base to become a pseudo-Dao Ancestor, right?"

"That is indeed my plan. Is there something wrong?" Han Li asked.

"That will certainly grant you more power, but it'll also mean that there's no chance Gu Huojin will allow you to live," Jin Tong warned in a grim manner.

"At this point, that ship has already sailed. Even if I abandon my cultivation now, it's not like he would be willing to spare me," Han Li replied in a nonchalant manner.

"That's true," Jin Tong mused with a wry smile.

"It's only a matter of time before I have to face Gu Huojin in a battle of life and death, and with his and the Heavenly Court preoccupied with the Reincarnation Palace, this is the perfect time for me to hone my powers," Han Li said with a faint smile.

Jin Tong could see that his mind was already made up, and she didn't speak any further on the subject.

Han Li took a glance at his surroundings, and he discovered that they were in quite a large immortal region, one that even his spiritual sense wasn't able to fully encompass.

The immortal region primarily consisted of a desert environment, but the world's origin qi here was quite abundant, particularly energy of the earth attribute.

Furthermore, the deserts in the immortal region were dotted with fortress-like cities that were very unique and distinctive.

"Looks like we've arrived in the Yellow Sand Immortal Region," Han Li remarked with a hint of surprise on his face.

The Yellow Sand Immortal Region was one of the five hundred medium-sized immortal regions, and it was renowned for being home to many earth-attribute materials.

Coincidentally, the Yellow Sand Immortal Region was also very close to the Black Soil Immortal Region and the Northern Glacial Immortal Region.