A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm

Chapter 1066: Inevitable Battle

Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to close the door of light, then flew over to the archway that was all that remained of the temple.

At the center of the archway was a pair of dilapidated wooden doors that looked as if they were only just barely hanging on for dear life, and on each door was a pixiu-shaped brass knocker, which bore some resemblance to Xiao Bai.

Judging from the array patterns on the doors, the restriction on them didn't appear to be particularly profound, but they were giving off the same type of energy fluctuations as the entrance to the third level, so it was clear that the fourth level was also going to be easy to enter, but almost impossible to leave.

After observing the archway for a short while, Han Li began working on unraveling the restriction.

Before long, two streaks of light arrived on the scene, and they were none other than Jin Liu and Su Anqian.

After a brief hesitation, Jin Liu cupped his fist in a salute toward Han Li with a complex look on his face, while Su Anqian was observing Han Li with a wary look in her eyes, clearly unsure of what to make of him.

"Did you catch them?" Han Li asked in a casual manner as he continued what he was doing.

"Those two ghostly generals took the lives of two of our sect's elders, so we weren't going to let them get away," Jin Liu replied.

"I'll go bury their remains," Su Anqian said to Jin Liu before promptly departing, and Jin Liu looked on at her departing figure for a moment before turning his gaze back to Han Li.

After a long hesitation, he asked, "Fellow Daoist Shi, why is it that you've hidden your true power all this time? Are you facing some difficult circumstances?"

"No, I'm just used to proceeding with caution as an itinerant cultivator. There's no need to be overly wary of me, Fellow Daoist Jin. I am nor your enemy, and I don't plan to change that," Han Li replied.

"My apologies for the rudeness that I displayed to you earlier, Fellow Daoist Shi. The fact that you were willing to help Valley Master Fu and the others tells that you're definitely not the type to hold grudges. Hence, I'm not worried that you could be a potential enemy of mine. Instead, I would like to propose an alliance," Jin Liu said.

"I'm used to working on my own, so I'll have to pass. On top of that, there's no foundation of trust between us, so how can we expect one another to truly commit to an alliance?" Han Li replied with a smile, and a hesitant look appeared on Jin Liu's face upon hearing this.

"We've come all this way together, so I'll be sure to lend you my assistance in your time of need, as long as it's within reason, but don't expect anything more out of me. Once the time is right, we can all part ways and go off on our own," Han Li continued.

Right as his voice trailed off, the restriction was unraveled, and he took a step back as he clapped his hands together.

A burst of clanging rang out from within the archway, and the two wooden doors slowly opened outward to reveal a door of dark red light.

Before long, Su Anqian had also returned, and the three of them conversed briefly with each other before stepping into the door of light together.

......

Elsewhere in the Eon Pagoda.

There was a lonesome black and white archway standing in a barren area that was littered with loose rocks.

Leaning against the foot of one of the archway's pillars was none other than Qi Mozi, who had just fled from his battle against Han Li.

His palms were joined in front of his chest, and he was hovering slightly in mid-air while waves of rippling golden light were constantly emanating from his body.

Moments later, his eyes sprang open as an enraged look appeared on his face, and he spat through gritted teeth, "Even if I cultivate the Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome for ten million more years, it still won't amount to anything! Who did you pass your Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra down to, Patriarch Miro? Could it be that Han Li really was your final disciple?"

He then fell silent for a moment before speculating to himself, "Alternatively, could it be that he also eavesdropped on your lecture like that rat did?"

However, he then immediately shook his head to deny the idea.

If one could glean the secrets of the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra just by eavesdropping on Patriarch Miro's lectures, then he and his martial brothers would have to be complete idiots to have not been able to glean those same secrets.

The good thing is that he only seems to have just begun mastering the cultivation art. The effects caused by the Five Elemental Illusory World won't linger for too long, and once my cultivation base is restored, I won't let him get away again! Even if I can't secure the cultivation art from him, I have to at least kill him. Otherwise, he's going to develop into a major threat in the future.

With that in mind, he joined his palms again and continued to cultivate.

......

Meanwhile, Han Li's trio had arrived in a vast icescape.

At this moment, the three of them were standing on an extremely thick block of ice, and there were many mountains of ice in the distance in all directions, giving off vibrant rays of light.

Fierce glacial winds were howling over the icescape, sending shards and chunks of ice flying in all directions.

Several thousand feet behind the three of them was an enormous mountain of ice, embedded into which was a spatial door that was flashing with crimson light.

Beside the spatial door stood a stone plaque with the character for "four" engraved upon it.

At the moment, the three of them were carefully inspecting the surrounding environment with wary expressions.

The first thing that Han Li noticed was that the time-attribute restriction on this level was more formidable than on the previous one, and spiritual sense was also even more severely restricted here, with his spiritual sensory range reduced to roughly half of what he had been able to muster up on the third level.

"Let's do some exploring," Su Anqian proposed as she rose up into the air, and Han Li and Jin Liu did the same, following which each of them flew away in a different direction.

As Han Li flew through the air, he discovered that his speed was significantly hampered, also reduced to only around half of what he had been able to reach on the third level.

Of course, the three of them weren't flying at full speed. Instead, they were proceeding with great caution, making sure to constantly survey their surroundings as they went.

Han Li appeared quite calm and relaxed on the surface, but in reality, he was treading very carefully while releasing his spiritual sense as far as it would go.

Even though he had already predicted that Qi Mozi would've already entered the Eon Pagoda, he was still stunned by their latest run-in.

He had thought that with the large strides he had made in his own cultivation base, he should've at least been able to ensure self-preservation against Qi Mozi, but that was not the case.

What was even more troublesome now was that he was currently unable to use any of his time-attribute law treasures, thereby making him very vulnerable, and he didn't know if or when Qi Mozi was going to suddenly show up again.

As he continued deeper into the Eon Pagoda, the two of them were eventually going to have another encounter, and that would most likely be a fight to the death.

It seemed that he had unwittingly used some type of secret technique in the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra to save himself, but now that Qi Mozi knew what to expect, Han Li didn't know if he was going to be so lucky in their next run-in.

With that in mind, Han Li heaved a faint sigh as he promptly devoured a pair of pills to replenish his immortal spiritual power reserves.

In the wake of the recent string of intense battles, he had been forced to expend a great deal of immortal spiritual power.

To his surprise, as the pills began to replenish his immortal spiritual power reserves, all of his time-attribute law treasures also began to stir and display signs of awakening.

This was naturally a very encouraging sign for Han Li, and he felt a lot more reassured as he focused on digesting the pills that he had just taken.

Close to a day flew by in the blink of an eye.

To the surprise of Han Li's trio, the three of them didn't encounter anything during this time. There were no treasures, nor were they attacked by any metal beasts or Fire Age Fireflies.

Everything on the fourth level had been very peaceful thus far, almost eerily so.

"I'm starting to become a little unsettled by how quiet it is here," Jin Liu murmured to himself.

Han Li's brows were also slightly furrowed in apprehension. Even after traveling for such a long time on the fourth level, they had encountered nothing but the same monotonous icescapes.

"This place is indeed rather strange. Having said that, it's definitely not a bad thing that we haven't encountered any danger thus far. Hopefully, we can find the spatial entrance to the next level without encountering any conflict," Su Anqian mused.

With that, the three of them fell silent as they continued to advance while scouring their surroundings with their spiritual sense.

The trio continued onward for half a day without making any discoveries, and it was only upon arriving before an enormous mountain of ice that they finally came upon something different.

At the bottom of the mountain of ice was a cluster of palaces that had been constructed from some type of blue, jade-like material, and they were laid out in a similar fashion to the buildings in the ancient temple on the third level, except they were far less ominous in appearance.

However, most of the palaces had already collapsed, and many places had been frozen solid.

Han Li's trio exchanged a few glances with one another upon seeing this.

"The layout of these buildings is very similar to the ones on the third level. According to Ghost King Wu Chao, there's a fugitive being held captive on each level of the Eon Pagoda, so we can most likely expect some type of formidable being to be residing here as well. With that in mind, let's be a bit more careful," Su Anqian said with a solemn expression.