Chapter 371: Illusion or Reality

The transparent figure was naturally none other than Han Li in Ling Yunzi's body, and after following the middle-aged man through the light barrier, he didn't immediately pursue him.

Instead, he remained on the spot and looked up at the pavilion before him. At the same time, he released his spiritual sense to examine the surrounding area, upon which his eyes immediately lit up.

Meanwhile, the middle-aged man quickly made his way over to the entrance of the pavilion, and he was just about to enter the building when Han Li abruptly directed his gaze toward him.

At the same time, a layer of translucent light appeared on Han Li's glabella, and a tiny translucent sword projection shot forth, covering a distance of thousands of feet in the blink of an eye before piercing straight into the middle-aged man's mind.

The entire process lasted no more than a second, and it was extremely silent and discreet.

All of a sudden, the middle-aged man stopped cold in his tracks, following which his eyes bulged, and he tipped forward without any warning before falling to the ground.

"Administrator Wang! Are you alright?"

The gray-robed elderly man hurriedly approached the middle-aged man before lifting him up from the ground, only to discover that his breathing had ceased, and there was no longer any hint of vitality left in his body.

After taking a moment to compose himself, the gray-robed man swept his gaze through the surrounding area while also releasing his spiritual sense to examine the entire area encompassed within the restriction.

However, with his cultivation base, it was naturally impossible for him to see through Han Li's concealment technique, and after a brief moment of hesitation, he suddenly yelled, "Help!"

A burst of commotion instantly rang out within the scripture library, and several cultivators emerged from the building. Upon spotting the gray-robed elderly man and the lifeless middle-aged man, they immediately had a rough idea of what had happened, and everyone erupted into a blind panic.

Han Li paid no heed to these people as he drifted calmly through them before entering the scripture library and releasing his spiritual sense once again.

The scripture library was split up into three floors, with the bottom two floors containing some miscellaneous books, including things like travel journals and illustrated handbooks.

None of these things were particularly valuable, so the bottom two floors were unguarded, and there were no restrictions set up there, either.

As for the third floor, it contained some cultivation arts, and the entire level was enshrouded within an intricate restriction.

Han Li naturally had no interest in those cultivation arts, and he began reading through the scriptures on the first and second floors.

At this point, everyone in the scripture library had already rushed outside, so Han Li didn't have to worry about being noticed.

He had intentionally chosen to kill the middle-aged man at the entrance of the scripture library to draw everyone outside, and he quickly read through one scripture after another, learning a great deal about the Bramble Wood Continent in the process, but this information wasn't very useful to him.

He turned to the left to find that fewer than a quarter of the Time Dao Runes on the Mantra Treasured Axis projection remained lit.

He didn't know what was going to happen once all of the Time Dao Runes were snuffed out, but he had a rough idea of what was going to transpire.

However, he had no time to worry about things like this, and he quickly withdrew his gaze before continuing in his reading.

A short while later, he suddenly stopped what he was doing, then cast his gaze toward a book that was slightly yellow with age.

This was a travel journal written by a cultivator who enjoyed exploring the continent, and an image on one of the book's pages had caught Han Li's attention.

The image depicted a bald and browless golden figure with a pair of long golden feelers on its head, as well as some golden hooked spikes on its body, presenting a fearsome sight to behold.

This was quite similar to a Gold Devouring Beetle Monarch.

After the illustration came a passage of text.

"Today, I traveled to the Golden Flame Mountain Range and encountered an almighty battle that shook the heavens and laid waste to the earth. I presume this was a battle between immortals, but thankfully, I was able to get away in time to avoid a terrible fate. This creature was one of the two immortals in the battle, but I wasn't able to identify it..."

Han Li's eyes lit up slightly upon seeing this.

This clearly wasn't the same Gold Devouring Beetle Monarch as the one that he had before, so perhaps it was another one.

Up to this point, he still hadn't managed to recover his Gold Devouring Beetle Monarch, and he had invested a great deal of effort into trying to recover it, but hadn't been able to gather any useful leads thus far.

After committing this snippet of information to memory, Han Li didn't delay any further as he continued to read through the book, but there was no further information about the Gold Devouring Beetle Monarch.

This left him feeling a little disappointed, but time was of the essence, and he quickly picked up another scripture about spirit plants.

After flipping through a few pages, he stopped once again.

On the page that he had stopped on was a vibrant purple flower, the very same type as the one that he had seen in that mountain range earlier.

"The Spirit Devouring Flower attracts living beings with its aroma before devouring them for sustenance. The flower can be used as an ingredient for body refinement pills, but it contains a type of corpse poison that must be expelled through the use of a secret technique before it can be used as a medicinal ingredient, and the secret technique is one that's quite difficult to execute."

An enlightened look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.

It was no wonder that the purple flowers appeared to have been quite abundant in spiritual qi, but they were left alone without anyone willing to pick them.

Right as he was about to keep reading, a burst of buzzing suddenly rang out nearby, and Han Li turned to discover that all of the Time Dao Runes on the Mantra Treasured Axis projection had already faded.

Immediately thereafter, the projection began to glow brightly while quickly taking on a more substantial form, and it was also rapidly revolving and giving off a loud buzzing sound.

Han Li cast his gaze outside, upon which a hint of intrigue appeared in his eyes.

The buzzing sound was extremely loud in his ears, but it seemed that none of the people outside were able to hear it at all.

Despite how rapidly the Mantra Treasured Axis was revolving, it didn't cause any harm to its surroundings, and it seemed to have been somehow detached from this reality.

All of a sudden, a speck of black light appeared at the center of the vortex, and it rapidly expanded, staining the entire axis black in the blink of an eye.

As the Mantra Treasured Axis continued to revolve, a black vortex that was very similar in appearance to the green vortex on the wall of light emerged, and all of this had taken place in an instant.

Before Han Li had a chance to react, a burst of enormous suction force erupted out of the vortex, latching onto his soul and sucking it out of Ling Yunzi's body. All the while, he was completely powerless to resist.

The final thing that he saw was a glimpse of Ling Yunzi's body, which abruptly shuddered before disintegrating to countless specks of light that dissipated into nothingness.

Immediately thereafter, Han Li felt his vision go black, and his consciousness began to fade.

After an indeterminate period of time, he gradually awakened and opened his eyes.

Once again, he was greeted by the sight of the wall of light, and the black vortex on its surface flashed a few times before vanishing into thin air.

The wall of light itself also quickly disintegrated, and everything returned to normal.

Looking at the familiar cave abode around him, a mixture of elation and disappointment flashed through Han Li's eyes.

He was very glad to be back, but at the same time, he felt rather disappointed that he hadn't been able to reap any substantial benefits from this phenomenon generated by the Heaven Controlling Vial.

He immediately closed his eyes and quickly thought back over the entirety of the strange out-of-body experience that had just transpired, trying to find something useful from it, but ultimately, his efforts proved to be futile.

He heaved a faint sigh, then made a hand seal, and his Mantra Treasured Axis appeared behind him amid a flash of golden light.

As expected, the 360 Time Dao Runes on the surface of the axis had all been snuffed out, just like last time that wall of light had been conjured up.

The golden time law thread was wound around the Mantra Treasured Axis, but it had also become very dim.

Han Li made a beckoning motion with one hand, stowing the time law thread into his own body, and right at this moment, a loud thunderclap rang out in front of him, following which Daoist Xie emerged amid a flurry of golden lightning.

"Congratulations on finally mastering the laws of time, Fellow Daoist Han," Daoist Xie congratulated.

"Even with the assistance of a second-tier dao pill, I was still very fortunate to have been able to master the laws of time. As one of the three paramount laws, the laws of time are truly profound. By the way, you saw everything that happened here just now, right?" Han Li asked.

"What are you referring to?" Daoist Xie asked in a puzzled voice. "All I saw is that you seemed to have spaced out for a moment after conjuring up that wall of light. Is there something wrong?"

Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, but instead of offering an explanation, he remained silent as a contemplative look appeared on his face.

Judging from Daoist Xie's answer, the 360 seconds that his soul had spent in the Golden Origin Immortal Region seemed to have only been the equivalent of an instant in the real world.

In that case, did this so-called Golden Origin Immortal Region truly exist? And was there actually such a sect as the Iron Beast Sect?

On top of that, were Ling Yunzi and Li Yuanjiu real people, or were they just figments of his imagination?

If all of that had been just an illusion, then why was it that it felt so incredibly real?

Han Li's brows became slightly furrowed, and he was unable to make sense of what had just transpired.

A long while later, he shook his head with a wry smile.

What had just happened had been extremely peculiar, and he couldn't wrap his head around it at the moment, so he would just have to think about it at a later date.