Chapter 1027: Stubborn Pursuit
Weeping Soul's eyes had been shut while she clung to Han Li, and upon opening her eyes, she immediately asked in a concerned voice, "Are you alright, Master?"
"I'm fine. He's coming again," Han Li said in a grim manner as he cast his gaze toward a certain direction.
"It looks like you do have some tricks up your sleeve. No wonder you were able to kill Dongfang Bai," Qi Mozi remarked with a smile as he flew out of a ball of golden fire in the distance.
At this moment, he was holding a glowing, black hatchet, and it seemed that the ribbon of black light had been unleashed by this hatchet.
For some reason, Han Li felt as if his entire body were being laid bare under Qi Mozi's scrutiny, and only after channeling his time law powers was he able to just barely ward off this sensation.
"Who are you? I don't recall ever meeting you before this."
Even though Han Li was well aware of who Qi Mozi was, he still decided to try and employ some stalling tactics.
"Did neither of my two disciples show you an image of me? I am Qi Mozi. I'm sure you've already heard of that name. I don't want to waste any more time here, hand over the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra, and I'll spare you your life," Qi Mozi said as he began to approach Han Li.
Han Li's heart jolted slightly upon hearing this, but his expression remained completely unchanged as he asked, "The Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra? What's that? A cultivation art?"
"You really are just as sly and uncooperative as Chi Rong told me you were! It doesn't matter whether you admit it or not, I'll just have to use a soul search technique on you," Qi Mozi sneered as he launched himself at Han Li, who hurriedly flew back in retreat.
"Leave me behind, Master. Focus on dealing with him, I can look after myself," Weeping Soul said, but Han Li paid no heed to her.
"What a chivalrous gentleman you are! Rest assured, I never kill women. All I want is your soul!" Qi Mozi chortled as he swung his hatchet through the air, releasing a ribbon of black light that was several times brighter and wider than before, and it was also almost twice as fast as the previous one, reaching Han Li in the blink of an eye.
The space around the ribbon of black light was shattered like a mirror, forming countless spatial rifts that converged toward the center from all sides.
A grim look appeared on Han Li's face as he hurriedly released his Mantra Treasured Axis, sending countless golden ripples surging through the air to encompass the ribbon of black light.
The black ribbon was instantly stopped in its tracks, but the golden ripples also shuddered violently, seemingly struggling to hold themselves together.
"Oh? How remarkable that you've managed to cultivate the Mantra Axis Scripture to this extent," Qi Mozi mused with a surprised expression, but he remained unfazed as he raised his hatchet once again.
Right at this moment, a golden spirit domain erupted out of Han Li's body, encompassing the entire surrounding area within a radius of several kilometers.
Enshrouded within the spirit domain, Qi Mozi's movements were instantly slowed down to a crawl.
Simultaneously using both his Mantra Treasured Axis and his time spirit domain was extremely taxing on Han Li's immortal spiritual power, but he paid no heed to this as he swept both sleeves through the air, releasing around a dozen lengths of Lightning Restraining Wood, which immediately formed a circle around him.
A dark look appeared on Qi Mozi's face as he stowed his black hatchet away, following which he closed his eyes to try and track Han Li.
Around fifteen minutes later, he reopened his eyes, and his expression had darkened even further.
However, a fervent look then appeared in his eyes as he chuckled to himself, "So you really are in possession of the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra. This cultivation art allows the user to absorb all other time law powers. As expected of the most powerful time-attribute cultivation art of them all!"
As soon as his voice trailed off, he flew back in the direction of the Golden Origin Immortal Palace as a streak of golden light.
......
Deep within the Golden Origin Mountain Range, countless kilometers away from the Golden Origin Immortal Palace.
There was a stone chamber that was several dozen feet in size dug out inside an enormous golden mountain.
The walls of the stone chamber were riddled with spirit patterns that were giving off lights of different colors, and there was a golden lightning array arranged on the ground.
Around a dozen lengths of Lightning Restraining Wood were standing around the array, and all of them were flashing with golden lightning.
All of a sudden, the golden lightning array lit up as an enormous pillar of golden light erupted into the heavens.
All of the spirit patterns in the stone chamber instantly lit up, conjuring up several layers of light barriers that contained all of the law power fluctuations and pillars of golden light released by the array.
The pillar of golden light only lingered for a few seconds before fading away to reveal Han Li and Weeping Soul, the latter of which was looking around with an intrigued expression.
"As a safety precaution, I set up this Lightning Restraining Wood Array here prior to going to the Golden Origin Immortal Palace, and I'm glad I made that decision. This place is extremely far away from the Golden Origin Immortal Palace, so Qi Mozi won't be able to track us here," Han Li said as he withdrew the five time-attribute law treasures around him.
As soon as his voice trailed off, he swayed unsteadily before falling to one knee, and blood began to trickle down from the corner of his lips.
"Master, are you injured?" Weeping Soul exclaimed as she hurriedly grabbed onto Han Li to support him.
"While I was activating the lightning array, I sustained some internal injuries from the law power fluctuations released by Qi Mozi's ax projection," Han Li explained as he summoned a green pill before devouring it.
"Thank heavens you prepared this lightning array in advance. Otherwise, we would've been in major trouble. Should we stay here for a while so that you can rest and recover?" Weeping Soul asked.
"The Lightning Restraining Wood Array caused a massive commotion just now, and even with the restrictions I set up, there's no guarantee that it wouldn't have attracted any attention, so let's leave this place first," Han Li said as he swept a sleeve through the air, releasing a burst of azure light that disassembled the lightning array on the ground, while a series of array flags also flew out of the surrounding stone chamber before falling into his grasp.
After stowing these items away, Han Li conjured up another golden lightning array, and the two of them vanished amid a flash of golden lightning.