Chapter 1197: An Instant, Ten Thousand Years

The years rolled on, and another ninety thousand years passed.

Everything within the Flower Branch space seemed frozen, without the slightest change.

Han Li still sat cross-legged in his spirit domain space. At this moment, his face was covered in black stubble, and his eyes were calm as an ancient well, exuding an air of profound vicissitude.

The confinement of the spirit domain space was far more severe than he had imagined. As early as twenty thousand years ago, his five concrete manifestations of the laws of time had all completed creation, and his spirit domain had fully entered the Creation realm.

Among them, the True Word Treasure Wheel and the Eastern Yi Divine Tree were directly materialized, reaching the level of the Heavenly Human Realm.

However, this unbalanced state has been difficult to break so far, and the abnormal state of his spiritual domain space cannot be resolved.

"Success or failure hinges on this one move. It's all up to you now." Han Li raised his head slightly, his eyes凝凝, and murmured softly.

As soon as his words fell, he raised one hand, and a golden light lit up before him. A lotus treasure lamp shot out, directly passing the True Word Wheel and arriving at the top of the spiritual domain space.

This lamp was none other than the Time Lamp, a treasure that Han Li had obtained from the Time Tower after enduring countless hardships.

There, countless broken time-flow sparks like stars were scattered across it, flickering with points of light, brightening and dimming.

As the Lamp of Time hung high in the sky, countless sparks seemed to ignite in an instant, and the light of countless stars began to contract rapidly, finally coalescing into a single mass, transforming into a ball of golden flame that danced down and landed within the lamp's bowl.

A soft "whoosh" sounded.

The Lamp of Time instantly blazed with dazzling golden light; countless runes on its body lit up, flying out one after another, soaring into the high sky, and vanishing into the light curtain of the spirit domain.

Immediately after, the entire lamp began to turn ethereal, its whole body suddenly brightening, directly transforming into countless firefly-like points of light, rising toward the high sky, following those runes into the light curtain.

Han Li looked up and saw a full moon hanging alone above, adorned with myriad stars, so beautiful it dazzled the eyes.

His mind stirred, and he fully activated the Great Five Elements Illusion World Technique within him, dividing his consciousness into a thousand threads to communicate with his spirit domain, attentively sensing every change within it.

The peaks formed by condensed yellow sand undulated unevenly, now covered with a layer of verdant green beneath the Eastern Yi Divine Wood Forest, exuding vitality everywhere.

That river of time still had only illusory light, so as it flowed among the mountains, it always seemed to float above them, appearing not quite real, yet gradually acquiring an aura of leaning on and merging with the mountains.

Han Li knew that once he found water-attribute and earth-attribute time law objects and refined them into the spirit domain space, the five elements within the entire spirit domain space would intercommunicate, reaching a state of mutual generation and integration.

At that time, his domain space was truly the Heavenly Human stage in the real sense.

"Come on, let me see just how stubborn you are." Han Li roared inwardly, and with a sudden wave of both hands,

the bright moon above his head immediately blazed with golden light, casting down myriad beams, while the earth beneath trembled incessantly. Countless branches and vines in the Eastern Yi Divine Wood Forest grew wildly, extending deep into the ground.

However, the range covered by the golden light was limited to within the domain; beyond that, it could not maintain its power and automatically dissipated into strands of golden threads drifting in the world.

Similarly, the roots of the Twin-Life Tree could only reach the boundary of the domain. Once they slightly crossed into the real earth, they seemed to lose spiritual power and began to wither and shrink.

Han Li had long grown accustomed to these two situations, as he had attempted them many times before.

He thought that if he could break through to the outside of the domain and destroy the Time-Space Heavenly Axis Formation that caused the anomalies in this space, he might be able to break the current deadlock.

Only attacks imbued with powerful time law force could penetrate the domain's spatial封锁, but Han Li's five time law manifestations had already merged with the domain, so he could only rely on the domain's own power.

However, the True Word Wheel and the Eastern Yi Divine Wood were not known for their offensive capabilities, so Han Li spent a great deal of time completing the creation of the Time-Breaking Torch, and then integrated the immensely powerful Time Lamp of Ages into it.

"Fall for me..." Han Li bellowed.

A flash of blazing fire filled the sky, and countless sparks broke away from the curtain of light, falling downward.

Amidst a series of howling sounds, the sparks transformed from the fleeting flames continuously swelled, turning into enormous fireballs that fell like a rain of meteors.

"Boom, rumble..."

A violent burst of explosions rang out, and Han Li's spirit domain space instantly fell into chaos.

The mountain range formed by Illusory Time Sand immediately cracked and shattered, crumbling into a cloud of golden dust that spread out.

The boundary light curtain of the spirit domain space was breached in an instant, and the ground below was also shattered by this powerful force, with large tracts of earth churning up and surging toward the bamboo building.

One of the array hubs originally set up there was immediately destroyed. The entire Glazed Time Sky Rotation Grand Array flickered once and then ceased to operate.

Next, Han Li saw that on the moon-like Truth Dharma Wheel above his head, a rune belonging to the Jun Tian Sundial flickered and then went out, and the power of the law of time it released rapidly diminished.

The spirit domain space flickered abruptly, expanding its range once more, and re-encompassed the entire Flower Branch Space.

Han Li felt his body relax, and the strange restriction fluctuations that had enveloped the surroundings finally disappeared.

His heart first rejoiced, then he felt a trace of regret.

If not for his earlier greed during seclusion, which spurred the creation process of the Spirit Domain space and left him trapped there uncontrollably, he would not have missed the chance to rescue the Golden Boy.

"I'm afraid Little Bai has already been summoned back by Bai Ze by now," Han Li sighed and said.

With that, he waved his hand to retract the Spirit Domain and walked toward the bamboo building, beginning to recollect the items arranged for the Time Sky-rotation Grand Formation.

Arriving before the bamboo grove, his gaze suddenly flickered, and he bent down to pick up a Celestial Origin Stone placed at the formation's pivot.

"How can this be?" After a careful inspection, Han Li couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Though the spiritual light on the Celestial Origin Stone was dim, it had not turned grayish-white, indicating that some celestial spiritual power still remained on it.

Just as Han Li was puzzled, the bamboo building's door suddenly opened, and Little Bai rushed out from inside.

"Master, what's going on with you? Staying inside the Flower Branch Space without coming out, and even closing the door—I wanted to enter but couldn't!" Little Bai complained in a flurry as soon as he saw Han Li.

But when he saw Han Li's weathered, stubbly beard, his brow couldn't help but furrow tightly.

"You... why haven't you returned to the Wildnerness yet?" Han Li asked, puzzled.

"It's only been a few years, why would I go back to the Wildnerness? Master, are you alright... What exactly happened? Why did you even lock the door to the Flower Branch Space?" Xiao Bai also sensed something amiss and said.

His eyes were filled with caution, suspecting that Han Li had suffered a qi deviation during seclusion and damaged his mind.

Hearing Xiao Bai's words, Han Li frowned deeply, forming a vague guess in his mind. He then roughly recounted the circumstances of his seclusion to Xiao Bai.

"Two thousand years, then another two thousand, and then over ninety thousand more—that should be around a hundred thousand years. Based on the time difference of the Time-Twisting Grand Formation you mentioned earlier, it doesn't add up..." Xiao Bai counted on his fingers.

"How many years have passed outside?" Han Li frowned and asked.

"Less than fifty years in total." Xiao Bai stretched out a palm and replied.

"Fifty years..." Upon hearing this, Han Li stood frozen in place, long unable to believe it.

Seeing this, Xiao Bai became even more convinced of his judgment, thinking that Han Li must have burned his brain from qi deviation.

But just then, he suddenly noticed the change in Han Li's aura. His eyes lit up, and he exclaimed in surprise,

"Master, have you reached the Great Luo Realm?"

"No wonder the Immortal Origin Stones still contain immortal spiritual power; that explains it..." Han Li was startled by his sudden shout, came to his senses, nodded, and muttered to himself.

"What are you talking about? You're making me more and more confused," Xiao Bai said doubtfully.

"The time difference conversion of the Time Spiral Grand Formation is only a hundredfold, so in the four thousand years before the anomaly in the Spirit Domain, forty years passed outside. But after the anomaly occurred, for some reason, the conversion efficiency of the formation greatly increased, directly becoming ten thousandfold. So in those last ten years, I spent nearly a hundred thousand years within the formation." Han Li's gaze sharpened as he explained.

Xiao Bai's head spun from the conversion of these numbers Han Li mentioned, but he also understood one thing: that Han Li had actually cultivated for a hundred thousand years in the previous ten years, and he was naturally shocked.

"Does the Time Spiral Grand Formation have such power?" Xiao Bai exclaimed.

"This time it was achieved by sheer coincidence, and I myself was trapped inside, almost unable to get out." Han Li said slowly, both surprised and somewhat fearful.

"Fortune and misfortune depend on each other; as long as the outcome is good, that's what matters." Xiao Bai said with a smile.

Han Li nodded upon hearing this and said nothing more, but in his heart, he was calculating that if he could replicate this coincidence in the future, it would be a tremendous boon for cultivation.

"By the way, where is the Blaze Child?" Han Li asked.

"Still on alert outside. I saw that the restriction on the Flower Branch Space had been lifted, so I came in to take a look first," Xiao Bai said.

"I've caused you worry." Han Li sighed lightly and smiled.

"Hehe, how does it feel to advance to the Great Luo stage?" Xiao Bai asked with a smile.

"There were some issues with my previous cultivation, and my spiritual domain is still unstable. Since there's still time, please act as my护法 for a while longer, so I can stabilize my cultivation," Han Li said.

"No problem! Then I'll go out and tell that little guy. He's been worried about you too," Xiao Bai said.

"Alright." Han Li smiled and nodded.

After Xiao Bai left, Han Li moved his mind, and a layer of pale golden light expanded, enveloping the entire Flower Branch Space.

As he twisted his wrist and snapped his fingers, the scenery within the domain shifted: the moon rose and stars fell, mountains and rivers converged and sank, tree shadows swayed—the aura of the Law of Time within the entire domain instantly became extremely dense.

Walking within it, Han Li could shift mountains and rivers or teleport instantly with a single thought, almost without any time.

He made a few other attempts, becoming more familiar with his spiritual domain, and gained more confidence for the upcoming trip to the Nine Yuan Temple.