Chapter 1146: The Bottle Spirit Appears

Han Li's eyes narrowed. After taking a deep breath, he raised his hand and slapped the bottom of the gourd. The gourd rumbled, and green light swirled at its mouth, condensing into a vortex of green radiance. A dark green beam shot out from within.

With a thunderous boom, the dark green beam, containing a trace of the law of destruction, shot out and struck the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover, exploding into a small cloud of dark green mist.

The Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover trembled violently, and the runes on its surface blazed with red light, but it remained completely undamaged.

Worse still, among the nine red crystal dragons circling the top of the fire cover, five of them had golden light flickering in their eyes, as if they had all come to life. They opened their massive jaws and sprayed fiercely downward onto the cover.

Whoosh!

Streams of viscous fire, as if mixed with some kind of grease, flew out from their mouths, instantly flooding the entire space within the fire cover.

The moment the flames touched Han Li, an unprecedented intense pain swept through his entire body. Even with his formidable physique, he couldn't help but let out a heart-wrenching scream.

Without needing his mental summons, the Essence Fire Bird flew out on its own, forming a silver flame coat that covered his entire body, shielding him from the thick streams of fire.

But even so, waves of indescribable scorching heat continuously assailed his body, making Han Li's ordeal even more unbearable.

While protecting Han Li's body, the Essence Fire Bird also condensed a huge bird head, from whose sharp beak silver flames continuously spewed, countering the flames falling from above.

The silver and red flames collided, forming a two-colored curtain of fire above Han Li's head, where they clashed against each other.

Seeing this, Han Li grew even more anxious. In the past, whenever the Essence Fire Bird encountered various fire attribute attacks, hadn't it always used its innate divine ability to devour the foreign flames?

How many times had it been in a situation like this, where it didn't devour the flames but instead had to resist them with its own fire?

His mind racing, he quickly communicated with the fire bird through his spiritual connection and learned that the flames before him were truly extraordinary. They contained a special fire attribute law power, which the Essence Fire Bird's divine ability could not only fail to devour but would also be suppressed by.

Just as Han Li was growing anxious, the rune light around the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover blazed again. The remaining four fire dragons seemed provoked by the Essence Fire Bird as well. They spiraled down along the cover, occupying the four cardinal directions, and sprayed toward the center of the fire cover.

Rolling red flames surged forth, turning into a tidal wave of fire that instantly engulfed Han Li's body.

Seeing this, the Essence Fire Bird let out a sharp cry. Its body blazed with silver light, and the bird head it had formed melted away. It abandoned its resistance against the flames above and concentrated all its power on Han Li, doing its utmost to protect him.

But the power of all nine dragons together was far beyond that of the previous four. Even with the Essence Fire Bird's full strength, it could not withstand them.

What worried Han Li even more was that the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover seemed to have the ability to absorb fire attribute power. While the Essence Fire Bird was resisting the red flames, most of the power it consumed was actually being absorbed by the fire cover.

While the Essence Fire Bird was locked in a stalemate with the nine fire dragons, Han Li was not idle. He summoned all thirty-six Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords and continuously chiseled at the fire cover, sending sparks flying and lightning surging.

However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not break through the fire cover.

As time passed drop by drop, the silver flames on the Essence Fire Bird diminished considerably, while the power of the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover grew stronger. Han Li found it increasingly unbearable inside, feeling as if his very soul was being scorched and about to dissipate.

At this moment, the Essence Fire Bird suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a white fire bead radiating fire attribute law power. It hung above Han Li's head like a bright lamp, emitting dazzling white light.

With the support of the white light, the Essence Fire Bird's silver flames immediately surged, and streams of fire shot upward, forcing back the sea of red flames.

Han Li recognized at a glance that this was the fire attribute treasure he had obtained earlier in the Time Tower. He had thought it had been devoured and absorbed by the Essence Fire Bird, but it turned out it was still there.

However, before he could relax, he found that the red flames, which had been pushed back slightly, were pressing down again. The nine red crystal dragons also leaned in, surrounding the white fire bead with their massive jaws wide open, as if they were about to devour it.

This bead had already been heavily depleted in the Five Elements Annihilation Grand Array, and later the Essence Fire Bird had absorbed much of its power. Although it was also a fire attribute immortal artifact, its power was now far inferior to that of the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover. Under the pressure of the nine crystal dragons, the light on the white fire bead immediately dimmed.

At the same time, the flames within the entire fire cover seemed to be compressed by some force, suddenly contracting into a red fire cocoon that completely enveloped Han Li.

The temperature inside the fire cocoon had reached an alarming level. Han Li's skin had already turned red, and now cracks began to appear on it, like a long-dried riverbed, as if it were about to split open.

Seeing this, the Essence Fire Bird's seven-colored flame crest blazed brightly. The red and orange flames separated from it, flew up into the white fire bead, and merged with it.

The white fire bead immediately shone with renewed brilliance, also forming a layer of white fire cocoon that isolated the Nine Dragon flames.

Han Li caught his breath, seeing that the Essence Fire Bird had sacrificed two clusters of Seven-Colored Cinnabar Fire, its aura greatly diminished. He felt deeply guilty, his thoughts in turmoil, unsure how to break the current deadlock.

Just then, an angry voice suddenly sounded from his chest:

"Are you stupid? If you can't win, can't you run? Wasting such a supreme ability as time-space travel like this really pisses me off..."

"Who's speaking?" Han Li was startled.

The voice just now seemed both near and far, somewhat hazy, yet he vaguely felt it was familiar.

After a moment's thought, Han Li's face showed sudden realization. He quickly reached into his chest robe and took out the Celestial Bottle.

He looked it over and saw that the small bottle was still as before, showing no signs of abnormality.

But at that moment, the bottle's surface suddenly flashed with dark green light, and two black eyes the size of beans emerged, looking at him with a very human-like expression.

Han Li instinctively held the bottle a bit farther away, but when he saw the two bean-sized eyes glaring at him angrily, he quickly brought it back to his chest.

"Senior Bottle Spirit, was that you speaking just now?" Han Li said hastily.

"If not me, then who? A Great Luo cultivator and a mere fourth-grade immortal artifact have driven you to this state—how disgraceful." The bottle spirit's two eyes moved, and a hazy voice came out.

"Senior mentioned escaping through time-space travel. I did think of that, but if I flee with my physical body, wouldn't the Celestial Bottle be left here and fall into others' hands?" Han Li opened his mouth, not knowing how to refute, and could only say.

"Which is more important, your life or the Celestial Bottle?" the bottle spirit asked.

"Life is certainly important, but the Celestial Bottle has accompanied me for many years and is equally important. I absolutely cannot abandon it. Moreover, even if I briefly escape with my physical body, I would still have to return here later. I simply cannot escape." Han Li said without hesitation.

Hearing this, the bottle spirit was silent for a moment, then said with apparent satisfaction:

"Very well. With those words, it's not in vain that I appear to save you this once. In the past, when you traveled through time-space with your physical body, the Celestial Bottle was ownerless and would remain in place as a coordinate for your return. I can make the Celestial Bottle travel with you, but the time experienced during the travel will then synchronize with the outside world. And without a coordinate, you won't be able to return to the original location afterward."

"If that is the case, I beg you to cast the spell immediately, Senior." Han Li was overjoyed and said at once.

"Don't be too happy. Although this method is feasible, the cost is not small. Just bringing the small bottle into the River of Time will consume thirty Time Law Crystal Threads. Remember—consumed, meaning they will be gone after use." said the Bottle Spirit.

Acquiring Time Crystal Threads was extremely difficult. Consuming thirty threads at once, and unlike Time Dao Patterns which could recover, would make anyone hesitate and feel pained in making such a decision.

But Han Li glanced at the Essence Fire Bird still struggling to fend off the nine dragons' attacks, and without much hesitation, immediately spoke:

"Please instruct me, Senior."

"There's nothing to teach. Just summon the Crystal Wall yourself; leave the rest to me." said the Bottle Spirit.

Han Li nodded, then immediately formed hand seals and activated the Grand Five Elements Illusion World Art.

A flash of golden light surrounded him, and a ripple of Time Law power spread out. Five manifestations of Time Law materialized one after another, hovering around him.

As Dao Patterns on the surfaces of these five objects flickered frequently, the Time Crystal Threads entwined around them connected end to end, absorbing the surrounding Time Law power and coalescing into a giant golden ring—the Ring of Time.

As soon as the Ring of Time appeared, clusters of Time Dao Patterns flew out from the True Word Treasure Wheel and other objects, spinning onto the golden ring.

Waves of immensely powerful Time Law fluctuations continuously emanated from it.

Miao Fa Celestial Venerable and Chi Meng, who were locked in fierce battle high in the sky, sensed the fluctuations from below and immediately realized something was wrong. They stopped fighting and flew down to the ground.

From afar, they saw a mass of dark green light suddenly flare up within the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover, like a green sun, radiating a dazzling green glow.

Immediately after, the void near the green light began to tremble violently, rippling with visible strange waves, from which a huge vortex of light emerged.

Then, a giant crystal wall appeared in the void.

Standing before the crystal wall, Han Li withdrew the Essence Fire Bird into his body, endured the surging crimson flames, glanced back at Miao Fa Celestial Venerable and the other woman who were rapidly approaching, and with a flicker, directly plunged into the vortex on the crystal wall.

Miao Fa Celestial Venerable and Chi Meng could only watch as the vortex rolled and swallowed Han Li completely.