Chapter 992: Past Events

The space up ahead disintegrated as countless rays of translucent light surged out from within, forming a translucent wall with countless scenes flashing rapidly over its surface.

All of a sudden, a giant vortex appeared on the translucent wall, releasing a burst of tremendous suction force that encompassed Han Li's entire body.

At this point, Han Li was already accustomed to this process, and he merely allowed the suction force to lift him up from the ground.

However, right at this moment, the ball of golden light in his dantian was suddenly snuffed out, and his immortal spiritual power circulation instantly stagnated.

The suction force released by the vortex was also significantly diminished as a result, and Han Li's body drew to a halt before falling back down onto the ground.

However, his soul was sucked into the vortex, and he immediately lost consciousness.

By the time he returned to his senses, he found himself beside the vast river of time.

As usual, the river was formed by countless balls of light, and it didn't appear any different from before.

At this moment, Han Li was hovering beside the river in a spiritual form.

I wonder exactly what this place is...

Instead of approaching the river to enter any of the balls of light, Han Li began to fly in the upstream direction, determined to find out what this place was all about.

In his spiritual form, he was like a cloud floating in the sky, so he wasn't able to pick up much speed.

The scenery in this place was very barren and monotonous, and there was no day-night cycle, either, so the passage of time was rather difficult to track.

By Han Li's estimates, he had already been flying for around seven to eight days, but there was still no observable change in the river beside him.

A hint of impatience was beginning to set in, and he persevered for two more days, but the river still wasn't displaying any change at all.

Forget it. There's no way to tell just how massive this area is, and perhaps this place is nothing more than an illusion, so continuing onward from here would most likely won't be a waste of time.

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

With that in mind, Han Li stopped in his tracks before turning to the river of time, yet right as he was about to approach it, a small, yellow cloud that was several feet in size suddenly appeared above him.

Within the cloud was a pair of pea-sized black eyes that were fixed on him, and Han Li immediately identified the cloud to be the vial spirit.

The eyes within the yellow cloud blinked a few times, as if they were observing him.

"Do you need something from me?" Han Li asked as his brows furrowed slightly.

As soon as his voice trailed off, the yellow cloud abruptly lit up, following which a streak of translucent yellow light shot out from within.

The streak of light was far too fast for Han Li to evade, and it fused into his soul as a burst of warmth in the blink of an eye.

Han Li was naturally very alarmed by this, yet before he could raise any questions, the yellow cloud vanished into thin air.

After staring for a while up at the spot where the vial spirit had been just a moment ago, Han Li carefully examined his soul's internal condition, but didn't discover anything amiss, nor was he feeling any discomfort.

Hence, he could only put this matter out of his mind for now and make his way over to the river to peer into the countless balls of light inside.

Having already experienced so many transmigrations, it had become clear to him that each ball of light represented a different point in time in the past, and that he could return to a certain point in time by entering the corresponding ball of light.

The Heaven Controlling Vial's transmigratory ability was something that was completely unheard of, and if he could completely control it, then the benefits would be immeasurable.

At the very least, with this ability at his disposal, it would be far easier to examine past events.

However, there were far too many balls of light in the river, and there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason about them, so there was a significant factor of luck involved in which point in time he would transmigrate back to.

If only I can control which point in time I can travel back to. That way, I'll be able to verify the validity behind Daoist Xie's story.

Now that Daoist Xie had become a Dao Ancestor, some barriers had appeared between them, and they weren't as close as before.

Daoist Xie's story was logically sound and didn't have any holes, but Han Li couldn't help but feel as if some things were being hidden from him.

Right at this moment, the river of time began to ripple violently, immediately following which around a dozen balls of light flew out from all parts of the river before drawing to a halt near Han Li.

An intrigued look appeared on Han Li's face as he carefully examined these balls of light, upon which he discovered that all of them seemed to be depicting the same setting, namely a grandiose palace.

This palace looks a little familiar...

All of a sudden, a flash of realization appeared in Han Li's eyes, and it occurred to him that this palace was a building near the Myriad Opportunity Palace, and judging from the scenes displayed in the ball of light, a fierce battle was taking place in that setting at that point in time.

After some contemplation, Han Li's gaze settled on the largest of the balls of light, and he took a few steps toward it.

A burst of tremendous suction force instantly erupted out of the ball of light, and he lost consciousness once again.

......

After an indeterminate period of time, Han Li slowly awakened to discover that he had possessed a young man in a suit of black armor. He was laying in a semi-collapsed palace, and there was a hole in his dantian that was bleeding profusely.

A semi-transparent wheel of golden light was hovering above his head, with over a thousand Time Dao Runes flashing upon it.

A loud commotion was ringing out incessantly from nearby, indicating that there was a fierce battle taking place.

Instead of immediately rising to his feet, Han Li used his spiritual sense to draw upon the residual memories of his host.

A huge volume of memories instantly flooded into his mind, taking him quite some time to completely absorb.

The man's name was Wu Xuan, and he was a fugitive that had been cast into the Scalptia Spatial Domain. From there, he became Shi Kongjie's subordinate, and thanks to his impressive powers, he was made a personal guard of Daoist Xie.

Daoist Xie had begun cultivating in seclusion over a century ago in order to sever his final corpse soul, and ever since the commencement of his seclusion, the Scalptia Spatial Domain had been placed under a state of lockdown.

However, a large horde of enemies had suddenly infiltrated the Scalptia Spatial Domain on this day, and they stormed all the way to the Myriad Opportunity Palace.

A curious look appeared in Han Li's eyes as he examined Wu Xuan's memories.

He had been wanting to see the sequence of events that had led to Daoist Xie's previous failed breakthrough to become a Dao Ancestor, and it seemed that the river of time had duly obliged. Did this mean that he could already control the destination of his own transmigration?

The more Han Li thought about this, the more he felt like this wasn't just a coincidence. He didn't know how it had happened, but he really had attained an element of control over the river of time.

Perhaps this was the vial spirit's doing, or perhaps it was due to some other reason. In any case, this was certainly great news for him.

Han Li quickly rose to his feet before making his way over to the entrance of the palace, and he could see a series of puppets and cultivators locked in a ferocious battle high up in the sky.

One side consisted of cultivators clad in suits of black armor just like Wu Xuan's, while the cultivators of the opposing camp were all clad in suits of dark purple armor.

These suits of dark purple armor were quite familiar to Han Li as they were assigned to the troops of the Night Sun Empire.

The Night Sun Empire's cultivators were very tall and imposing, and their skin was a dark green color. On top of that, there were tusks protruding out of their mouths, giving them a very fearsome appearance.

There weren't many of them, but they were extremely powerful, possessing extraordinary strength and speed.

The Scalptia Spatial Domain cultivators had the numbers advantage, but they were firmly on the back foot.

Those are Nightmare Dragon Guards. It looks like it really was Shi Kongyu that attacked all those years ago.

During a past conversation, Shi Chuankong had mentioned various secret legions of the Night Sun Empire to Han Li, and one of them was the Night Sun Guards, which consisted solely of bodily refinement cultivators and were directly under the Devilish Monarch's command.

Looking at them now, Han Li could see that these Nightmare Dragon Guards were indeed quite formidable, with each of them comparable in power to a bodily refinement cultivator with a hundred and fifty profound acupoints opened.

Han Li watched the ongoing battle for a moment, then cast his gaze into the distance.

He could see four nine-story pagodas from here, each of which was situated on a corner of a white jade plaza.

At the center of the plaza was none other than the Myriad Opportunity Palace, and the battles were becoming more and more intense closer to the palace.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li adjusted his own armor to conceal the hole in his lower abdomen, then channeled his Myriad Acupoint Tranquility Technique before rushing toward the Myriad Opportunity Palace.

Initially, he was able to remain undetected thanks to his Myriad Acupoint Tranquility Technique, but the closer he drew to the Myriad Opportunity Palace, the more people that he encountered, and ultimately, his cover was blown.

A saber-wielding Nightmare Dragon Guard rushed at him at an astonishing speed while swinging their saber viciously at his head.

Wu Xuan had only opened fewer than two hundred profound acupoints, so he was roughly on par with the Nightmare Dragon Guard in terms of power, but Han Li naturally possessed far superior battle experience and judgment than he did.

Han Li swayed from side to side, conjuring up nine identical afterimages of himself to evade the attack, following which the nine afterimages combined as one again behind the Nightmare Dragon Guard before continuing onward.

The Nightmare Dragon Guard was just about to give chase when they were stopped in their tracks by another cultivator from the Scalptia Spatial Domain.

Now that Han Li's cover had already been blown, he made no further effort to conceal his own presence, tapping into every last ounce of power in this body to rush onward as quickly as he could.

The battle raging at the Myriad Opportunity Palace was even more intense than the battles elsewhere, and Han Li ducked behind a semi-collapsed wall nearby before casting his gaze toward the entrance of the palace.

The Scalptia Spatial Domain cultivators were led by none other than Sha Xin, and there were five puppets under her command as she fought against E Kuai, who was clad in a suit of azure armor.

At this point in time, E Kuai only had around six hundred to seven hundred profound acupoints, and the two of them hadn't changed much in terms of appearance over the years.

"How dare you collude with Shi Kongyu to plot against our master! I won't let you leave this place alive!" Sha Xin yelled in a furious voice.

"It's time to face reality, Sha Xin. Shi Kongjie's death is already sealed, so I suggest you pledge your subordination to His Majesty. Given your powers, I'm sure His Majesty would welcome you with open arms," E Kuai said with a smile.

"Preposterous!" Sha Xin harrumphed coldly as her five puppets unleashed a ferocious barrage of attacks at her behest.