Chapter 639: Rehek Flame in Distress

Han Li withdrew his gaze from Rehek Flame's cave dwelling, his brow slightly furrowed. Then, with a flash of遁光, he transformed into a green rainbow and flew out of the valley.

Midair, he glanced toward Jukun City, hesitated briefly, then flew south instead of heading there.

Although Jukun City had teleportation arrays to other cities, the situation there was complicated, and using the arrays required the elder identity token of the Fire Leaf Sect. With Rehek Flame's warning in mind, Han Li decided not to take the risk.

He had no definite destination for now; his plan was to first avoid the turmoil in the Floating Cloud Mountains, then find a secluded place to set up a temporary cave dwelling and continue finding ways to expel the baleful aura from his body, striving to advance to the Taiyi realm as soon as possible.

Given the current situation, the True Immortal Realm was in turmoil everywhere, with dark currents swirling. The grudges between the Heavenly Court and the Reincarnation Palace—one in the open, the other in the shadows—though unknown in origin, had clearly persisted for countless millennia and were now intensifying.

He was merely a minor Golden Immortal. Even if his strength could dominate peers and allow him to hold his own against ordinary Taiyi cultivators, once caught in this vast storm, he might not even know how he died.

For now, the only course was to avoid the sharp edge, enhance his own strength, and strive to break through to the Taiyi realm to increase his ability to protect himself in this chaotic world.

No matter when or where, only by surviving first could one talk about anything else.

According to the markings on the nearby map, heading south, the nearest large city where True Immortals gathered was Jiayun City, about two to three months away.

As he flew forward, he used his divine sense to monitor his surroundings and soon left the Floating Cloud Mountains.

Fortunately, no incidents occurred along the way.

Han Li breathed a slight sigh of relief. After flying a bit further to completely distance himself from the Floating Cloud Mountains, he finally summoned the green flying chariot, which transformed into a green rainbow streaking forward like lightning.

…

In the blink of an eye, over half a month had passed.

At this moment, Han Li was sitting cross-legged on the flying chariot. Before him floated a small golden lock, spinning rapidly, surrounded by golden light that emitted fluctuations of the law of time.

He continuously formed hand seals, sending out streams of incantations that merged into the small lock. While refining it, he carefully comprehended the law of time contained within.

After a long while, a glimmer of understanding flashed in his eyes. With a wave of his hand, the small lock responded and fell back into his palm.

Although he had not finished refining it, he had basically grasped the law of time within—a law leaning toward confinement, quite similar to the ability of the Truthful Speech Wheel. Moreover, the law power contained in this lock seemed far greater than that of the previous three immortal artifacts combined.

Han Li estimated that absorbing this treasure might yield many more time law crystal threads, but he was somewhat reluctant to part with it due to its considerable power.

“Let’s wait and see; there’s no hurry anyway,” Han Li thought to himself. He opened his mouth and expelled a stream of golden light that enveloped the small lock, then absorbed it back into his body to continue refining.

Afterward, he flipped his hand and produced a jade slip containing a map of the Black Mountain Immortal Domain.

It had been nearly half a month since he left the Floating Cloud Mountains, and no one had followed him during that time, which reassured him enough to focus on comprehending the small golden lock.

Below the flying chariot stretched a continuous range of mountains, all pitch-black like charcoal, with a faint black mist swirling among them, appearing quite peculiar.

In fact, most of the mountains he had seen along the way were this color. This was likely why this immortal domain was called the Black Mountain Immortal Domain.

Han Li withdrew his gaze from the strange black mountains below and pressed the jade slip to his forehead, his mind beginning to churn with thoughts.

The earlier Xianyun Mountains and Jukun City were located in the far north of the Black Mountain Immortal Domain, near the Barbarian Wilderness. According to some, the latter was established after the Heavenly Court seized a large area of land following a great battle with barbarian beasts tens of millions of years ago.

Other immortal domains were similar: whenever human cultivators expanded into the barbarian wilderness, they would build a huge city like Jukun City, then use it as a base to continue expanding and form an immortal domain, while also establishing large cultivator cities and protected mortal kingdoms to thrive.

Although few barbarian beasts were seen near Jukun City, it was not exactly peaceful. However, further south from Jukun City, despite the appearance of various mountain ranges and wild forests that seemed desolate, it was much safer than near Jukun City, with many mortal cities and kingdoms gradually emerging.

The flying chariot was extremely fast, soon passing over the black mountains below, and a massive river appeared ahead.

The river was nearly a thousand miles wide, with vast waves crashing against the shores, rumbling as it flowed, as if a giant flood dragon lurked beneath the surface—a truly magnificent sight.

Han Li checked the map; this river should be the Black Pine River. Beyond it lay a mortal kingdom called Yuanfeng. His route had not deviated.

Just then, his expression suddenly froze. He turned his head to look in one direction, purple light flickering in his eyes, and soon a look of surprise appeared on his face.

In the distance, spiritual energy fluctuations were intense, mixed with traces of law power. Clearly, cultivators of considerable strength were engaged in fierce combat, at least at the Golden Immortal level.

This area had sparse spiritual energy, with only a few sects at the Combined Aperture level built among the mountains within tens of thousands of miles. How could Golden Immortal cultivators be fighting here?

Han Li made hand seals to suppress the light emitted by the flying chariot, then extended his divine sense to stealthily probe in that direction.

“Eh!”

His expression suddenly changed, his face turning uncertain.

After hesitating for a moment, he still put away the flying chariot. With a faint green flash, his entire form turned into a blurry shadow and flew toward that area.

After a short while, Han Li arrived at a black mountain range and landed near a huge mountain hollow.

In the mountain hollow hundreds of miles ahead, multicolored light shot into the sky, and the sound of explosions roared like a mountain tsunami, indicating a fierce battle.

Three cultivators in golden robes—two men and one woman—were besieging an old man with white hair.

The three, judging by their attire, were all from the Heavenly Court. The leader was a burly man with yellow hair and a fierce face. From the aura he emitted, he was clearly a Taiyi initial stage supervisory immortal envoy. The other two were a veiled young woman and a somewhat plump young scholar, both at the Golden Immortal late stage.

The white-haired old man was none other than Rehek Flame.

“Why is Rehek Flame here, fighting with the Heavenly Court?” Han Li’s eyes flickered as thoughts raced through his mind.

The burly man was surrounded by a thick layer of yellow mist that covered an area tens of miles in radius, emitting powerful fluctuations of the earth law.

As the man formed hand seals, the yellow mist surged like angry waves, crashing down on Rehek Flame wave after wave.

The other two each drove a purple giant sword crackling with lightning, attacking from the sides opportunistically. The swords appeared to be a paired set of immortal artifacts, also of extraordinary power.

Thick purple lightning bolts occasionally shot out from the two giant swords, striking at Rehek Flame.

The three attacked in perfect coordination, their combined might formidable.

However, Rehek Flame, though at a disadvantage fighting one against three, was not in dire straits.

Above his head floated a large red banner embroidered with a silver peacock pattern, looking quite majestic.

Thick pillars of fire continuously shot out from the banner, forming a rolling sea of fire around him to fend off the attacks.

But what truly allowed Rehek Flame to withstand the combined assault was not the red banner, but a dazzling golden light shining at his waist.

It was a foot-sized, oval-shaped ancient golden mirror, exuding a very archaic feel, as if it had been沉淀 in the river of time for a long time.

Golden light waves radiated from the ancient mirror, spreading over an area of several hundred feet. Once the attacks of the three entered the light wave range, they immediately slowed down tenfold, posing no threat to Rehek Flame, who easily dodged or blocked them.

Han Li’s pupils contracted. The golden light waves emitted a strong law fluctuation—it was the law of time.

That ancient golden mirror was clearly also a time immortal artifact, and its grade was not inferior to the small golden lock in his possession.

“Huozhizi, you’d better surrender and reveal that place. The Heavenly Court will not treat you unfairly!” the burly man shouted as he waved his hands, not at all frustrated despite being unable to subdue Rehek Flame.

Waves of yellow mist rolled out from his sleeves, crashing down on Rehek Flame from all directions, firmly entangling him.

The other two also swiftly circled around Rehek Flame, sending thick lightning bolts down from various directions, sealing off all his escape routes.

Seeing this, Han Li’s eyes flickered slightly, as if he had realized something.

“What Huozhizi? I am Rehek Flame, an elder of the Fire Leaf Sect. Your Heavenly Court is utterly unreasonable! Today, I’ll fight you to the death!”

Rehek Flame roared in anger, suddenly spat out a mass of red essence energy, which flashed and merged into the red banner. At the same time, he rapidly chanted incantations.

The red banner suddenly expanded again by half, and pillars of fire several times thicker than before erupted wildly.

These pillars of fire merged into one, forming a giant red sword the size of a mountain peak. With a roar like a volcanic eruption, it slashed heavily into the thick yellow mist around.

With a tearing sound, the yellow mist was ripped open into a large gash. The yellow mist at the tear was evaporated by the flames on the giant sword.

Although the flaming giant sword had cut open a large opening, its speed had greatly decreased. However, flames rolled on the sword, emitting a sound like a beast’s roar, as it continued to slash outward.

“Heh, with your Golden Immortal late stage cultivation, you think you can break my Ten Thousand Miles Yellow Sand Barrier?” The burly man was completely unperturbed, sneering as he made hand seals and pointed.

The nearby yellow mist immediately churned. In front of the flaming giant sword, yellow light flashed, and the nearby yellow mist condensed into a thousand-foot-tall earthen yellow mountain peak, lifelike, like a colossal mountain.

The flaming giant sword struck the mountain peak with a loud boom and was immediately blocked.

Not only that, but tendrils of earthen yellow light shot out from the surrounding yellow mist, wrapping around the flaming giant sword layer upon layer, rendering it completely immobile.