A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm
Chapter 795: Time is Ever-present

"Ever since we arrived in the Devil Realm, memories pertaining to my former owner have begun appearing in my mind. It seems like my former owner came from the Devil Realm, and this Scalptia Spatial Domain seems to be somehow related to him, but I'm not sure exactly what the nature of the correlation is," Daoist Xie replied.

"Are you saying that your former owner was a devilish being?" Han Li asked.

This made sense, considering he first met Daoist Xie in the Devilish Origin Sea, which was the equivalent of the Devil Realm, but as a lower realm. [1]

"That's right. However, at some point in his life, he traveled to the Immortal Realm for some reason, and he once served as a puppet refinement master in the Hundred Creation Mountain," Daoist Xie replied with a nod.

"I'll try to do some digging into this Scaptia Spatial Domain. Seeing as the term only began appearing in your mind after our arrival in the Devil Realm, it most likely has something to do with the Devil Realm. If you recover any other memories, make sure to tell me. I agreed to fulfill the dying wishes of your former owner, and I fully intend to keep that promise," Han Li said.

Daoist Xie nodded in response before departing, leaving Han Li to sit in the bamboo building on his own with a contemplative look on his face.

Ever since he set foot into the True Mantra Sect ruins, things had become very hectic for him, and it seemed like he was being swept from place to place without any control over his own fate.

Back in the Baleful Cleansing Ponds, he had broken through a bottleneck in the fifth level of the Spirit Refinement Technique, but he never had a chance to consolidate on the breakthrough, so he still hadn't achieved full mastery of the fifth level.

As for the five time-attribute cultivation arts from the True Mantra Sect, his progress in them was still rather lackluster with the exception of the Mantra Axis Scripture.

Even back in the Northern Glacial Immortal Region, he had sensed that there was some type of connection between the Mantra Axis Scripture, the Illusory Dawn Treasured Scripture, and the Water Divination Time Arts.

After that, he had obtained the Eastern Vicissitudes Scripture and the Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome, and he was confident that these two cultivation arts also had to be connected to the aforementioned three.

If I'm going to be staying here for some time anyway, I may as well take this time to work on these cultivation arts and consolidate my cultivation base.

With that in mind, Han Li closed his eyes and sat down to meditate.

The Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome left to him by Immortal Lord Hot Flame surfaced in his mind, and this was the first time that he was going to truly closely examine the cultivation art.

Just like the other time-attribute cultivation arts, the Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome also had nine levels, and it was most similar to the Illusory Dawn Treasured Scripture.

Similar to the Illusory Dawn Treasured Scripture's Illusory Dawn Sand Domain, the Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome had a Time Severing Fire Domain, within which all time would come to a standstill.

As opposed to a time-slowing effect, the flow of time within the domain was brought to a complete halt. However, its effective area of influence was rather limited, but the area could be gradually expanded as one progressed through the levels of the cultivation art.

After some contemplation, Han Li decided against pursuing the cultivation art right away.

Instead, the Eastern Vicissitudes Scripture surfaced in his mind.

Back when he first obtained the cultivation art, he had only roughly examined it, and he didn't get a chance to go through it in detail.

After some close examination, Han Li discovered that this cultivation art was quite different from the other ones. Even though it was also a time-attribute cultivation art, it wasn't on with much offensive application in battle. Instead, the objective was to manifest an Eastern Divine Tree.

The seasonal changes within a certain area around the location where the tree was planted would be entirely under the control of the cultivator, and it was also very potent in suppressing the powers of plant spirits.

However, Han Li wasn't very interested in its suppressive effects. After all, his Essence Fire Raven was already the natural bane of all plant spirits. Hence, he was much more interested in the cultivation art's primary effect.

If he could control the passage of the four seasons within a certain area, then didn't that mean that he would be able to accelerate the passage of the four seasons, thereby speeding up the growth of spirit plants?

If that were the case, then if he could plant an Eastern Divine Tree in his spirit medicine garden, then he would be able to mature all of the spirit plants in a large area. The effect definitely wouldn't be as pronounced as that of the spirit liquid from the Heaven Controlling Vial, but the effective area would be much larger.

All of a sudden, Han Li recalled that there was one part of the Illusory Dawn Treasured Scripture that had perpetually stumped him, despite his best efforts. After carefully reading through the Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome, he discovered that there was a section of the cultivation art that seemed to offer a solution to the bottleneck that he was facing in the Illusory Dawn Treasured Scripture.

With that in mind, he hurriedly put his theory to the test, and several hours later, his eyes sprang open as an ecstatic look appeared on his face.

Sure enough, he was right!

At the same time, a hint of befuddlement welled up in his heart. These five cultivation arts were all time-attribute cultivation arts, yet they specialized in different areas, and each of them also corresponded with the five elements. Could it be that the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra was a combination of all five cultivation arts?

As soon as this thought sprang into his mind, he immediately closed his eyes again and began examining the five cultivation arts one by one, starting from the Mantra Axis Scripture, which was the one that he was most familiar with.

Time slowly passed by, and day transitioned into night before turning into day once again.

Han Li had remained seated in meditation the entire night, and right at this moment, he slowly opened his eyes as a wry smile appeared on his face.

None of the five cultivation arts were easy to understand, and trying to connect them was like trying to connect loose ends in a tangled ball of yarn. Seeing as he wasn't able to make any progress in this endeavor, he decided to set it aside for now and turn his attention to cultivating the Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome and the Eastern Vicissitudes Scripture in the hope that this would yield some positive outcomes.

After making up his mind, Han Li didn't hesitate any longer, and he promptly took a pill before channeling the mantra of the Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome, upon which layers of red ripples instantly began to spread from his body.

……

Over three months flew by in a flash.

Inside the bamboo building in the Flower Branch domain, Han Li had already awakened from his state of cultivation, and he was pacing back and forth with his hands clasped behind his back.

Moments later, he emerged from the bamboo building with tightly furrowed brows and stepped out into the courtyard outside.

The courtyard was teeming with spiritual qi, striking him with a sense of blissful comfort, and he made his way onto the bridge before resting a hand on the railing and looking out at the lotus leaves on the surface of the pond in an absentminded manner.

Over the past three months, he had made some initial forays into both the Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome and the Eastern Vicissitudes Scripture, only to replace that he was having a much harder time making progress in the two cultivation arts compared with the Water Divination Time Arts.

This wasn't because his mastery over the laws of time was insufficient. Instead, what he had noticed was that while the five cultivation arts were connected in many ways, there were also many conflicting elements to them as well.

In particular, the immortal spiritual power circulation method that complied with the Time Severing Flowing Fire Tome and the Illusory Dawn Treasured Scripture conflicted with that of the Water Divination Time Arts, and similarly, what worked for the Mantra Axis Scripture and the Water Divination Time Arts came in direct conflict with the Eastern Vicissitudes Scripture.

In summary, if he couldn't replace some type of balance, then there would be no way to pursue all five cultivation arts at once.

Han Li was feeling rather frustrated, like he had walked into a dead-end, and he was wondering if he should abandon his current pursuit. If worse came to worst, he would just have to pursue the five cultivation arts independently, and at the very least, he wanted to achieve full mastery of the Mantra Axis Scripture first.

With that in mind, he suddenly recalled that the bamboo slip that contained the nine levels of the Mantra Axis Scripture also included a very strange text titled "Sumeru Insights".

"How could I have forgotten about that?" Han Li exclaimed as he slapped a hand to his own forehead.

He then immediately flipped a hand over to summon a bamboo slip, and a faint smile appeared on his face as he hurriedly made his way back into the bamboo building before closing the door.

……

Several more months passed by in seclusion, and during this time, Shi Chuankong had come to visit him once, but departed after learning that Han Li was in seclusion.

However, prior to his departure, he had requested Daoist Xie to inform Han Li to come and see him as soon as he came out of seclusion.

Han Li had been staying in the bamboo building over the entire duration of his time his seclusion, and on this day, he finally emerged.

This time, he was looking in far higher spirits than last time, and he performed some stretches as a faint smile appeared on his face.

He had spent most of the past few months examining Sumeru Insights, and even though it was only a text that consisted of several thousand characters, it had stumped him for quite some time.

Thankfully, his persistence had paid off, and he was finally able to glean some of the text's secrets two months ago.

Sumeru Insights was initially so difficult to understand because he had gone into it with the wrong mindset, thinking that it had to have something to do with the laws of time or time-attribute cultivation arts.

As it turned out, it was actually more like a general outline, and it was not something to be cultivated. Instead, it laid out the sequence in which one should pursue the five time-attribute cultivation arts.

Of course, it didn't just lay out a simple order for the cultivation arts. Instead, it subtly displayed the relationship between the five cultivation arts, and that was the basis upon which the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra was to be cultivated.

The five cultivation arts required one to glean the laws of time from the perspective of the five elements. After all, time affected everything in this world, and as one of the three paramount laws, the influence of the laws of time was ever-present in all things.

However, this also made the laws of time very abstract and difficult to grasp, thereby making it one of the most difficult law powers to understand and cultivate.

However, it was possible to glean the secrets of the laws of time by observing the cycle of birth and destruction of the five elements.

1. For more information on the Devilish Origin Sea, please refer to RMJI Chapter 2086: Devilish Origin Sea. ☜