Chapter 550: Past Secrets

According to the host body's memories, this immortal region was called the Black Soil Immortal Region, and it was countless times larger than the Northern Glacial Immortal Region. As for the True Mantra Sect, it was the undisputed number one sect of the immortal region, and it had been in existence for countless years with innumerable disciples within its boundaries.

As for the body that Han Li possessed, it belonged to a man called Mu Yan, who was one of the True Mantra Sect's five grand elders.

The red-robed monk was Sect Master Miro of the True Mantra Sect and also Mu Yan's master. He was a Great Encompassment cultivator who stood at the pinnacle of the Black Soil Immortal Region and was reverently referred to as Immortal Lord Miro.

Aside from Mu Yan, Immortal Lord Miro had four other direct disciples, and they were the four other grand elders of the True Mantra Sect, as well as the four other people listening to Immortal Lord Miro's lecture from Han Li's vision.

As direct disciples of Immortal Lord Miro, all five of them were High Zenith cultivators.

Despite Immortal Lord Miro's unfathomable powers, he had been killed in an instant, so it was clear that the owner of the giant hand was an extraordinary figure. However, the only thing that Mu Yan seemed to be aware of was that this was a significant figure in the Heavenly Court.

As far as Han Li was aware, only a select group of people could kill a Great Encompassment cultivator with such ease.

Could it be the Time Dao Ancestor?

It was clear that the True Mantra Sect had been attacked by the Heavenly Court, it seemed that the sect had ultimately fallen to its demise after Immortal Lord Miro was slain by the Time Dao Lord.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Han Li couldn't help but wonder why the Heavenly Court had been so determined to stamp out the True Mantra Sect, to the point that even the Time Dao Ancestor had been personally involved in the sect's eradication.

As one of the three paramount laws, the laws of time were fundamentally superior to all other laws with the exception of its two counterparts. If it really was the Time Dao Ancestor who had slain Immortal Lord Miro, then he was most likely one of a handful of the most powerful beings in the entire True Immortal Realm.

Han Li took a deep breath to compose himself, then continued to browse through Mu Yan's memories, trying to find out more information about the Heavenly Court.

After killing Gongshu Jiu in the Infernal Frost Immortal Manor, Han Li had well and truly become an enemy of the Heavenly Court. Even though he currently didn't possess the power to oppose the Heavenly Court, it certainly couldn't hurt to know more about the enemy.

Before long, Han Li's heart was pounding with excitement.

As a High Zenith cultivator, Mu Yan possessed a vast wealth of knowledge and experience, and his memories contained a great deal of information pertaining to the Heavenly Court.

In the past, Han Li had attempted to gather information on the Heavenly Court, and he was able to uncover some things, but most of the information was publicly available anyway, so it wasn't very useful.

Right as Han Li was about to take a closer look at Mu Yan's memories, he was suddenly struck by a rush of dizziness.

Alarmed by this sudden onset of dizziness, Han Li hurriedly stopped what he was doing, and only then did the dizziness subside.

Could it be because the person I've possessed on this occasion is far superior to me when it comes to cultivation base?

Even though he had possessed Mu Yan's deceased body, its memories didn't belong to him, and forcibly scouring through those memories was very similar to performing a soul search technique.

Mu Yan had been a High Zenith cultivator at his time of death, thereby possessing a far superior cultivation base to Han Li, and even though Han Li's spiritual sense was far superior to that of other mid-Golden Immortal cultivators, it was still too much of a stretch for a Golden Immortal to search a High Zenith cultivators soul.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Mu Yan was already dead, then Han Li wouldn't have been able to get away with only such minor consequences.

With that in mind, Han Li could only give up on trying to glean more of Mu Yan's memories, and he began inspecting his surroundings while waiting for his soul to recover.

At this moment, he was deep underground, and it wasn't very comfortable having so much soil clinging so tightly to his body.

He swept a hand through the soil, and a burst of yellow light instantly spread outward, forming a space that was around 50 to 60 feet in size, forcing out all of the surrounding soil.

After that, he sat down with his legs crossed and began to rest and recuperate.

The Time Dao Runes on his Mantra Treasured Axis faded one after another, and only after over 30 of them had been snuffed out did his soul gradually return to its original condition.

After that, he continued to search through Mu Yan's memories, attempting to connect the fragmented memories, and he was quickly able to uncover more information about the Heavenly Court.

As the most powerful official organization of the entire True Immortal Realm, the Heavenly Court exerted its control upon all of the immortal regions through Immortal Palaces, while the Heavenly Court itself was situated in a place known as the Middle Earth Immortal Region.

There was indeed a Time Dao Ancestor in the Heavenly Court, and he was the most prestigious and long-standing Dao Ancestor.

Once again, Han Li's soul began to waver, and he was forced to stop for a second time.

Who exactly is this Time Dao Ancestor?

Han Li thought to himself as he took some time to recuperate.

Time slowly passed by, and several dozen more of the Mantra Treasured Axis's Time Dao Runes faded before Han Li was fully recovered once again, and he began to search through Mu Yan's memories for a third time.

This time, a grim look gradually appeared on his face, and his expression only darkened further and further.

He had finally found some information pertaining to this battle.

Theoretically speaking, with a Great Encompassment cultivator like Immortal Lord Miro at the helm, the True Mantra Sect should've been able to thrive for the foreseeable future. After all, no one aside from Dao Ancestors could reliably defeat Great Encompassment cultivators.

However, unfortunately, Immortal Lord Miro was also the root cause behind the True Mantra Sect's demise.

As it turned out, the Time Dao Ancestor had begun to regard Immortal Lord Miro as a threat, and the former had decided to strike before things could get out of hand.

As for why Immortal Lord Miro was viewed as a threat, that concerned a secret that very few were aware of.

All of the 3,000 Great Dao laws were derived from the Great Dao of heaven and earth. Just as two tigers couldn't reside on the same mountain, each law could only have a single Dao Ancestor, and if a Great Encompassment Stage Immortal Lord's mastery over a certain type of laws exceeded that of the corresponding Dao Ancestor, then the Dao Ancestor would be replaced.

As for exactly what happened during this process, that was naturally something that wasn't known to a High Zenith cultivator like Mu Yan.

However, it seemed that all Dao Ancestors paid a great deal of attention to cultivators who had mastered the same type of law powers as themselves, particularly when it came to cultivators at or above the High Zenith Stage. Unless those cultivators were willing to pledge their subordination to the Dao Ancestor, they would be eliminated before they could develop their powers any further.

Even so, some Dao Ancestors had still been replaced in the past, and it could be said that all Dao Ancestors had risen to the top by treading upon the bodies of other prospective Dao Ancestors as stepping stones.

Having already cultivated the laws of time to the Great Encompassment Stage, Immortal Lord Miro posed a significant threat to the Time Dao Ancestor, and even though he had done everything in his power to conceal his cultivation base, he was still eventually exposed, thereby leading to the demise of the True Mantra Sect.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this.

At the moment, he was still quite far away from the High Zenith Stage, but wouldn't he eventually also have to worry about being targeted by the Time Dao Ancestor?

Cultivators really do constantly have the odds stacked against them...

For all cultivators who had mastered a type of law powers, the corresponding Dao Ancestor was essentially the heavens, and only by overcoming the heavens could one truly reach the pinnacle.

However, there was no way that he could currently contend against the Heavenly Court, so Han Li only considered this subject briefly before casting aside this train of thought to continue searching through Mu Yan's memories.

At this point, only a small portion of Mu Yan's fragmented memories were still yet to be inspected, and all of a sudden, an elated look appeared on his face.

As it turned out, these remaining memories contained aspects of Mu Yan's cultivation. Just like his master, he had also been cultivating the laws of time, and even though these memories didn't contain the cultivation arts used by Mu Yan, they did contain much of his cultivation experiences and insights.

Han Li had never had anyone that he could turn to for mentorship in his progression in mastering the laws of time, so this was exactly what he needed, and he immediately began poring over these memories.

A short while later, an intrigued look appeared on his face.

He discovered that these cultivation experiences were all very much related to the Mantra Axis Scripture, the Illusory Dawn Treasured Scripture, and the Water Divination Time Arts.

Han Li had always felt like these three cultivation arts were somehow connected, but he had never been able to find the connection.

However, through these memories, he seemed to have found some ways to integrate the three cultivation arts into one.

Could it be that some type of connection really does exist between the three cultivation arts?

After quickly browsing through Mu Yan's remaining memories, Han Li raised his head to look up at the projection of the Mantra Treasured Axis.

At this point, most of the Time Dao Runes on its surface had already faded, and there were only several dozen that were still lit, indicating that he didn't have much time left.

With that in mind, Han Li began to search Mu Yan's body for his storage tools.

Presumably, Mu Yan's storage tools had to contain the cultivation arts that he had been using, and if he could find them, then he should be able to uncover the connection between the three aforementioned cultivation arts.

However, he quickly discovered that Mu Yan's storage tools were nowhere to be found.

They must've been taken by whoever killed him...

With that in mind, a disappointed look appeared on Han Li's face.

All of a sudden, a burst of intense resentment rose up from within the remnants of Mu Yan's soul at the thought of his killer, and it seemed that there had been some treachery involved.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he sensed this burst of fury, and only after some words of consolation from him did the disembodied burst of anger begin to subside.