Chapter 266: 5,000 Reward

With one final flash of golden light, the Mantra Treasured Axis vanished into Han Li's body, and Han Li gave a muffled groan as he threw up a mouthful of black blood.

He opened his eyes, and the protective azure light around him was trembling violently, looking as if it could shatter any moment.

All of his joints and meridians were also shuddering, and he hurriedly made a string of hand seals to stabilize the layer of protective azure light.

After that, he took another restorative pill as a contemplative look appeared on his face.

Just now, he felt as if he had gotten closer to grasping the power of time than ever before, and it had been so tantalizingly close that he could almost reach out and grab it, but in the end, he had failed once again.

He was infinitely approaching his target, but there was always this barrier that stood in his way, and it seemed impossible to bypass.

According to the Mantra Axis Scripture, those who had mastered the first level of the cultivation art could begin attempting to master the laws of time. Of course, whether the endeavor would be successful or not was a different matter entirely.

However, with the spirit liquid produced by the Heaven Controlling Vial to assist him, he should've been able to succeed more easily than others.

A month later, the Heaven Controlling Vial produced another drop of spirit liquid, and this time, Han Li immediately devoured the drop of spirit liquid without any hesitation.

In the next instant, his Mantra Treasured Axis appeared behind him amid a flash of golden light, releasing dazzling golden radiance alongside powerful time law fluctuations.

Yet again, he was holding an Immortal Origin Stone in each hand, and the golden light radiating from his body was becoming brighter and brighter as the laws of time began to converge around him.

Right at this moment, the golden light on the Mantra Treasured Axis suddenly began to flash, and a series of cracks appeared on its surface.

All of the time law powers that had gathered around Han Li instantly faded, as did the Mantra Treasured Axis.

Han Li opened his eyes with a frustrated look on his face.

Perhaps the first time could be attributed to a chance occurrence, but this had happened twice in a row now, and the only explanation that he could think of for this was that he simply wasn't ready to master the laws of time yet.

Thus, he would have to turn his attention to securing the second level of the Mantra Axis Scripture.

With that in mind, he flipped a hand over to produce another pill before promptly swallowing it.

Several months later.

A prolonged snowstorm had fallen upon the eastern region of the Bell Toll Mountain Range, covering that entire area in a thick layer of snow. With the fire miasma gone, the Crimson Dawn Peak was also covered in snow.

At this moment, Meng Yungui was wearing a silver robe, and he was crouched down in front of a plot of spirit farmland in which several dozen spirit plants were growing, examining the nurturing array around the plot of land.

This type of spirit plant was one that grew naturally on the Crimson Dawn Peak, and it could only survive in warm conditions. Hence, without the natural protection of the fire miasma, a nurturing array was required to shield it from the elements.

Meng Qianqian was wearing a long green dress, and she was standing beside Meng Yungui with a rather absentminded look in her eyes as she asked, "When do you think Elder is going to come back, Brother?"

Meng Yungui feigned an angry expression as he turned to her and grumbled, "Are you really my sister? You didn't miss me anywhere near this much back when I was out searching for spirit seeds for Elder Li!"

Meng Qianqian giggled in amusement, then replied, "Of course I'm your sister, I'm just really eager to tell Elder Li that I've already progressed to the Deity Transformation Stage. You have to work hard as well, Brother."

Meng Yungui could only shake his head with a resigned expression. Ever since Meng Qianqian successfully manifested a nascent soul, her cultivation base had been rapidly progressing, and not only had she caught up to her brother, she had recently outstripped him, reaching the Deity Transformation Stage not long ago.

Of course, Meng Yungui was genuinely happy for his sister, but he didn't want to give her excessive praise in case she became too full of herself.

After all, even though she had already been cultivating for hundreds of years, she still had a very simple and naive personality, and he was worried that excessive praise would negatively affect her mindset when it came to cultivation.

Not far away from the plot of spirit farmland was Han Li's massive mountain guardian beast. It raised its two heads as it yawned in a lazy manner, then rested its heads back onto the ground with a bored expression.

However, just a few moments later, it suddenly raised its heads up high again to look up at the sky.

A streak of azure light was hurtling rapidly toward the Crimson Dawn Peak from the distant horizon, and the array that encompassed the entire mountain quickly faded away, following which the azure figure descended onto the Crimson Dawn Peak.

Meng Yungui and Meng Qianqian exchanged a glance, and each of them could see their own elation mirrored in one another's eyes as they hurriedly rushed toward the Crimson Dawn Peak.

By the time they arrived in Han Li's cave abode, Sun Buzheng had already summoned everyone else as well, and all of the servants were gathered in the main hall, awaiting instructions from Han Li.

In the end, he only briefly enquired about the situation on the Crimson Dawn Peak, then bestowed upon everyone some pills and treasures before quickly departing once again, and much to Meng Qianqian's dismay, she didn't even get a chance to tell Han Li about her latest breakthrough.

After leaving the Crimson Dawn Peak, Han Li flew to the nearby teleportation hall and went straight to the Cloud Piercing Peak.

In a side hall of the High Profound Palace, there was a portly elderly seated behind the table, and he accepted the elder badge that Han Li was offering to him with a smile on his face as he said, "Thank you for your hard work, Elder Li. The two elders sent to the floating mountain secret area to replace you have already reported back, and the situation is identical to what was described in your earlier report.

“The sect has deemed that you've made a significant contribution in protecting the spirit plants on the floating mountains during the crisis, and as a result, you'll be rewarded 500 additional merit points on top of your standard reward."

After that, Han Li exchanged some small talk with the portly elder before his elder badge was returned to him, and he departed from the hall.

After leaving the side hall, a contemplative look appeared on Han Li's face. He had already accumulated a sizable number of merit points from the missions that he had completed, and so far, he had saved up a total of over 4,000 merit points.

This appeared to have been quite a significant number, but it was still very far away from the 9,000 merit points required to exchange for the second level of the Mantra Treasured Axis.

Han Li was slowly making his way toward the main hall of the High Profound Palace while contemplating how he was going to earn 5,000 more merit points.

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to him.

On the golden stone wall in the High Profound Palace was a mission that granted a reward of exactly 5,000 merit points for cultivating the Mantra Axis Scripture to the second level.

With that in mind, Han Li immediately sped up in his footsteps, arriving in the main hall of the High Profound Palace before making his way over to the golden stone wall.

The main hall was still as lively and bustling as usual, and even the golden stone wall had around a dozen inner sect elders gathered in front of it, all of whom were looking up at the missions on the wall.

Han Li ignored the other missions as he cast his gaze directly toward the missions on the top of the wall that were inscribed in red. Sure enough, the mission that he was looking for was still there, and it was extremely concise, but Han Li stood and stared at it for close to an hour.

His concern was that if others were to see him accepting this mission, then the progress that he had made in the Mantra Axis Scripture would be exposed.

After all, even though there were many people who had attempted to use this cultivation art, barely anyone had ever succeeded, and the progress that he had made was nothing short of outrageous. The average True Immortal could've easily spent hundreds of thousands of years toiling away without making even a tenth of the progress that he had made.

Hence, if it were to be revealed that he had mastered the first level of the cultivation art, then that would be sure to create a massive stir in the Blaze Dragon Dao, and he would most definitely become the center of attention of the entire sect.

The thought of these complications was giving Han Li a real headache. Even if he were somehow able to accept this mission and earn the 5,000 merit point reward without alerting anyone else, he would inevitably be exposed anyway once he went to the Merit Conveyance Palace to exchange for the second level of the Mantra Axis Arts.

That would be no different from telling everyone that he had mastered the first level of the Mantra Axis Scripture. After all, who would spend 9,000 merit points on the second part of the cultivation art if they hadn't mastered the first part?

Will I have to steal it?

As soon as this idea sprang into his mind, Han Li immediately shook his head to rid himself of the thought.

The Blaze Dragon Dao wasn't the Cold Flame Sect of the Spirit Domain Realm. Not only was it home to a whole host of formidable Golden Immortals, the Merit Conveyance Palace was clearly no ordinary place, so there had to have been powerful restrictions set up there, and attempting to steal teh sect's most prized cultivation art from there would've been no different from committing suicide.

However, he couldn't just give up on the cultivation art, either. After all, the main reason he had joined the Blaze Dragon Dao was for the sake of this Mantra Axis Scripture.

After contemplating the matter for a long while, Han Li turned and began to make his way out of the palace.

Half a day later, a man dressed in a scholarly robe made his way into the High Profound Palace.

He casually strode over to the golden stone wall, and the other inner sect elders nearby turned to look at him in unison before quickly directing their attention back to the stone wall.

The scholarly-robed man stood on the spot for a long while, and after making sure that no one was paying any attention to him, he flipped a hand over to summon his elder badge before pointing it at a certain spot on the golden stone wall.

A burst of light immediately flew out of the wall before landing on his elder badge.

The scholarly-robed man was none other than Han Li, who had disguised himself using his Transient Guild mask.

After extensive consideration, he decided that he was going to claim the reward for this mission. The reward was a hefty 5,000 merit points, and there was no reason for him not to claim it.

He could sense that the number of merit points in his elder badge had increased to 9,132.

The top section of missions inscribed in red on the stone wall were ones that didn't garner much attention anyway, and at this moment, the elders gathered in front of the wall were either conversing with one another or searching for missions that were suitable for themselves, so no one had noticed exactly which mission Han Li had claimed.

Furthermore, given his current disguise, no one would be able to identify him anyway.

With that in mind, Han Li casually stowed his elder badge away, then heaved an internal sigh of relief as he turned to depart from the High Profound Palace.

However, right as he did so, his entire body suddenly stiffened. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the line of red text on the stone wall had changed...