<h4>Chapter 1090: Retreat</h4>


    The devilish man was astonished to see this.


    He had gauged Han Li to be a very formidable opponent, and his time-attributew abilities were particrly troublesome to deal with. Hence, he had gone all-out from the get-go, using his spirit domain to suppress Han Li''s power before using a secret technique that forcibly elevated his speed at the expense ofw threads, and finally, he had unleashed an all-out attack with all of the remainingw threads in his body.


    He had thought that even if he couldn''t kill Han Li, he would at least be able to severely wound him, but things had not gone ording to n at all.


    The devilish man had a very violent and ruthless personality to begin with, and these personality traits had been even further exacerbated during all this time that he had been trapped here. Hence, after being freed, he was eager to exact vengeance on any Immortal Realm cultivators that he encountered.


    However, even his most powerful attack had failed to defeat Han Li, and his rational thinking began to win out over the vengeful fury in his heart, telling him that the best course of action was perhaps to flee.


    Han Li heaved an internal sigh of relief after containing the ck lightning dragon, but at the same time, he was reprimanding himself for being toocent. If he had unleashed his time spirit domain from the get-go, then he definitely wouldn''t have fallen into such a perilous situation.


    At the same time, he flipped a hand over to produce the Profound Heavenly Gourd, but before he had a chance to do anything, the golden me from the altar suddenly began to glow radiantly beside him.


    In the wake of the recent sequence of events, he had forgotten all about the golden me.


    At this moment, the golden me seemed to be resonating with the time spirit domain around it, and it swelled to several times its original size. On top of that, it seemed to bepletely unaffected by the Mantra Treasured Axis and the Time Severing Fire Domain.


    A burst of formidable timew power fluctuations erupted out of the golden me, causing the surrounding time spirit domain to shudder violently.


    Han Li turned to the golden me with a surprised expression, then swept a sleeve through the air to release two streams of incantation seals, which surged into the golden me and his Profound Heavenly Gourd.


    Some of Han Li''s timew threads were still inside the golden me, and they instantly lit up before directing the me toward the lightning dragon, sending it flying through the air as a golden shadow.


    At the same time, a burst of green light erupted out of the Profound Heavenly Gourd before also sweeping toward the lightning dragon.


    The green light released by the Profound Heavenly Gourd was faster than the golden me, and it wrapped itself around the lightning dragon before tugging forcefully downward.


    The lightning dragon shuddered violently before slowly slumping down in a limp fashion.


    However, the lightning dragon was formed by over a hundred of the devilish man''sw threads, so the volume ofw power that it contained was too tremendous for even the Profound Heavenly Gourd to be able to capture it in a short time.


    Right at this moment, the golden me also struck the ck lightning dragon, and thetter instantly began to rapidly wither away upon contact.


    Its body was split into two in the blink of an eye, much to Han Li''s tion and the devilish man''s shock and horror.


    However, in the next instant, the golden me suddenly began to sh erratically. The timew power within it was churning violently, destabilizing the Mantra Treasured Axis and the Time Severing Fire Domain to loosen their hold on the lightning dragon.


    The devilish man''s eyes lit up upon seeing this, and he fell to his haunches, then transformed into a giant lion devil beast that was several hundred feet in size.


    The lion''s entire body had a bronze coloration, as if it had been forged from copper, and its skin was riddled with ck lightning patterns. Furthermore, it had a pair of curved, ck horns on the top of its head with arcs of ck lightning shing over them.


    All of a sudden, the lightning surging over the lion''s horns brightened significantly until they resembled a pair of miniature, ck suns.


    The two halves of the lightning dragon''s body instantly shrank down rapidly into a pair of ck lightning rings, onerger than the other.


    The two lightning rings were giving off incredibly fearsome lightningw powers that weren''t necessarily more formidable than those of the lightning dragon, but were far more condensed and focused. On top of that, thesew powers were also sharper, allowing the two lightning rings to struggle free from the green light while also somewhat forcing back the surrounding Mantra Treasured Axis and Time Severing Fire Domain.


    In the blink of an eye, the two lightning rings had flown out of the Mantra Treasured Axis and the Time Severing Fire Domain, but Han Li certainly wasn''t going to allow them to get away so easily, and he immediately opened his mouth to release two streaks of light, one azure and one golden.


    The streaks of azure light vanished into the Profound Heavenly Gourd, causing it to light up while releasing numerous translucent, green threads.


    These glowing, green threads shot forth through the air at an incredible speed, instantly catching up to the pair of ck lightning rings to ensnare them once again.


    There were as many as three or four dozen of these green threads, and as soon as they wrapped themselves around the lightning rings, thetter were instantly stopped in their tracks.


    Meanwhile, the streak of golden light flew over to the golden me, and it contained close to thirty timew threads, all of which intertwined to form arge, golden that epassed the golden me within it.


    The unstable timew power fluctuations surging out of the golden me were instantly contained, restoring stability to the Mantra Treasured Axis and the Time Severing Fire Domain.


    Immediately thereafter, Han Li made a rapid string of hand seals, and the golden ripples released by the Mantra Treasured Axis instantly began to expand outward, rapidly spreading toward the pair of ck lightning rings.


    An rmed look appeared in the eyes of the lion devil beast upon seeing this, and it let loose a thunderous roar as all of the ck lightning patterns on its body lit up, following which all of the light converged toward the pair of horns on its head.


    The horns instantly took on a translucent appearance, and the lightning shing over them brightened even further, to the point that they were virtually impossible to directly behold.


    Therger one of the two ck lightning rings lit up and struggled free from the threads of green light before vanishing into the lion devil beast''s mouth in a sh.


    The smaller lightning ring was also struggling with all its might, but it didn''t seem to possess enough power to free itself from the green threads, and as soon as the golden ripples emanating from the Mantra Treasured Axis washed over it, it was instantly rooted to the spot.


    Immediately thereafter, the threads of green light dragged the lightning into the Profound Heavenly Gourd.


    The lion devil beast was so furious to see this that a deranged look had appeared in its eyes, and it let loose an almighty roar that shook the entire cave.


    A cold sneer appeared on Han Li''s face as he rushed toward the lion devil beast as a golden shadow, and his time spirit domain also expanded toward his opponent.


    At this point, the devilish lion was already aware that it had bitten off far more than it could chew, and it immediately fled the scene as an arc of ck lightning, leaving behind only a furious roar of: "You''ll pay for this!"


    The morale of all of the other devilish beings in the cavepletely copsed upon seeing this, and all of them immediately fled for their lives as well.


    Han Li chose not to give chase as he withdrew his time spirit domain and time-attributew treasures.


    With the time spirit domain gone, the golden me also reverted back to its original state.


    However, it had shrunk down to only just over half its original size, and the timew powers within it had also diminished significantly, indicating that it had expended much of its power while attacking the ck lightning dragon.


    The golden me had a simr effect to the innate ability of Fire Age Fireflies, but at a far higher level of potency.


    However, it seemed that he would only be able to use it one more time at most, and that was quite a pity.


    With that in mind, he heaved a forlorn, internal sigh, and the timew threads surrounding the golden me formed a lotus-flower-shaped seal around it at his behest, following which he stowed the golden flower away up his sleeve.


    Lei Yuce and the others didn''t give chase, either. All of them were already carrying injuries, so they had constantly been on the back foot against their devilish assants, and it would''ve been very foolish to go after them.


    After all of the devilish beings fled the scene, everyone hurriedly descended onto the ground to rest and recuperate.


    Han Li hadn''t sustained any injuries, but he had expended a great deal of energy during the battle, so he also took some time to rest.


    Close to two hourster, everyone rose to their feet one after another, and Lei Yuce turned to Han Li with mixed emotions on his face as he said, "It appears we must thank you once again, Fellow Daoist Han. If it wasn''t for you, all of us would''ve most likely perished here."


    "You''re far too kind, Fellow Daoist Lei. What was the deal with those devilish beings? It seemed like you knew something about them in advance," Han Li said in a meaningful voice, and everyone else also turned their attention to Lei Yuce upon hearing this.


    However, instead of immediately answering Han Li''s question, Lei Yuce flew over to the wreckage of the golden altar, where the door of ck light was already nowhere to be seen.


    After sweeping a sleeve through the air to scatter some of the rubble on the ground, a circr, golden stone b was revealed with aplex array engraved upon it, and eight golden stone pirs were standing on the corners of the array.


    Not only were there several cracks on the array, many sections of it had been damaged, and the entire array had be dull andpletely devoid of luster.


    A grim look instantly appeared on Lei Yuce''s face upon seeing this, and he turned to Xiong Shan as he reprimanded, "Fellow Daoist Xiong, this is all because of your reckless actions!"


    "My apologies, I didn''t know that pulling out the sword would free so many devilish beings. I''ll make sure to be more careful from now on," Xiong Shan replied.


    Despite his apology, he wasn''t looking apologetic at all. Instead, his eyes were filled with unbridled joy as he stole asional nces at the Primordial Ancient Sword in his hand.


    At this moment, there were twenty to thirty goldenw threads circling around the sword, and it seemed that he was in the process of refining the sword.


    Lan Yuanzi and the others couldn''t help but gaze upon the Primordial Ancient Sword with envious looks in their eyes, and Lei Yuce''s brows furrowed slightly at Xiong Shan''s insincere apology, but he didn''t say anything further.


    Xiong Shan was previously the weakest member of the group, but with this Primordial Ancient Sword in his possession, no one else in the group aside from Han Li could say with any degree of certainty that they would be able to defeat him.