Chapter 2286: Prior to the Battle
The green-robed woman"s expression changed drastically, and she immediately exclaimed, "You"re referring to Ying"er? Absolutely not! She"s in a critical stage of her cultivation, and whether we succeed or not in our plan will depend on her, so we can"t disrupt her now."
"I"m aware of the importance of Fairy Ying"er"s cultivation, but if we can"t keep those foreign Grand Ascension Stage beings at bay, she"ll be forced to come out of seclusion anyway; all I"m saying is that we should notify her of the situation. If we can take care of those Grand Ascension Stage beings on our own, then there will be no need for her to come out of seclusion," the black-robed man said.
"Prior to going into seclusion, Ying"er told me not to disrupt her no matter what or all of her efforts could go to naught, so I"ll have to think about this more carefully before I make a decision. Even if we only notify her of the situation, it could affect her mental state," the green-robed woman replied with a hesitant expression.
The black-robed man was rather displeased to hear this, but he was also aware of how important this Ying"er"s cultivation was, so he moved on to another topic. "Alright, I"m only proposing this as a last resort as well. Also, you"re going to have to activate all of the restrictions in the city, then use the levitation restriction to move the city elsewhere. We won"t be able to move the city too far away, but perhaps it could buy us some time."
Around two hours later, layers of light suddenly appeared over various parts of the stone city, quickly enveloping the entire city.
Immediately thereafter, the ground in a radius of several hundred kilometers began to tremor violently, following which the stone city rose up from the earth before slowly flying away into the distance.
Shortly thereafter, the entire city had disappeared, leaving only a gigantic crater on the ground.
Azure light suddenly flashed from behind a nondescript-looking tree not far away from the crater, and a green-skinned azure-robed young man suddenly appeared.
This young man was none other than Han Li"s spirit body, and it cast its gaze toward the direction that the stone city had disappeared in as a peculiar smile appeared on its face.
It then made a hand seal and vanished into the soil amid a flash of azure light.
Meanwhile, a white flying boat was traveling over a gra.s.sland countless kilometers away from the stone city"s former site.
Han Li and Mo Jianli were seated in meditation at the front of the boat, while Xue Ran and Hei Lin were standing at the back, communicating through voice transmission.
All of a sudden, Han Li"s expression changed slightly, and he reopened his eyes.
Mo Jianli immediately sensed this, and he also opened his eyes as he asked, "Is there something wrong, Fellow Daoist Han?"
"No, it"s just that we"re going to have to make a slight change in direction," Han Li replied in a nonchalant manner.
Mo Jianli faltered slightly upon hearing this before a knowing smile appeared on his face. "It looks like you"ve set up some surveillance measures."
Han Li nodded in response. "I left a clone near the stone city, and it"s just informed me that the stone city has moved away, but it won"t be able to go far. We"re already traveling at full speed, and we"ll get there in a day at most."
"I can see you"re very confident; looks like there"s nothing for me to worry about," Mo Jianli replied with a nod.
Han Li smiled, and said, "I wouldn"t say I"m confident, but there should be a very good chance that we"ll be able to take down those Asura Spiders. Once we obtain the Threads of Time, you and Brother Ao should have an easier time transcending your upcoming tribulations."
"Hehe, I certainly hope so. However, there"s definitely going to be a stern battle up ahead. Even if those Asura Spiders are no match for us, it most likely wouldn"t be easy to stop them if they were to try and escape," Mo Jianli said with a wry smile.
"In that case, things really will be rather troublesome. However, I have a few expendable Body Integration Stage puppets that should be somewhat useful against the Asura Spiders that haven"t reached full maturity yet," Han Li said.
Mo Jianli was ecstatic to hear this. "Body Integration Stage puppets? Perhaps we really will be able to slay one or two mature Asura Spiders then. If we really do manage to succeed on this trip, then I"ll be sure to repay you handsomely."
"There"s no need for that; those puppets aren"t all that important to me anyway," Han Li said with a smile, then flipped a hand over to produce a black bracelet, which he handed over to Mo Jianli.
Within the bracelet contained several Body Integration Stage Devil Crystal Puppets that he had obtained from the Elder Devil Realm.
Half of those puppets were on the Inkspirit Holy Ark, while half of them were being carried by Han Li in case their services were required.
Mo Jianli accepted the storage bracelet with an elated expression, then offered his grat.i.tude to Han Li again after injecting his spiritual sense into it.
With these puppets to a.s.sist him, he would have enough time to unleash some of his most powerful trump cards.
Thus, Mo Jianli began to study the puppet manipulation technique enclosed in the storage bracelet, while Han Li closed his eyes and continued to meditate.
A day later, white light flashed from the edge of the mountain range that the stone city had once been situated at, and Han Li and the others emerged in their flying boat.
However, the flying boat didn"t even pause for a moment before continuing onward.
A short while later, the boat pa.s.sed through the center of the mountain range, then vanished into the distance again.
An indistinct figure was watching the flying boat from a secretive tree hollow down below.
Only after the flying boat completely disappeared from view did the figure emerge from the tree hollow, revealing him to be a silver-robed young man.
He looked up into the sky with a grim expression for a long while, then vanished as a gentle breeze.
Meanwhile, the flying boat pa.s.sed over a lake and several forests, upon which it arrived at a plateau with no end in sight.
Only then did Han Li reopen his eyes, and he said, "We"re about to reach our destination, so get ready, fellow daoists."
He rose to his feet as he spoke, and everyone else on the boat also followed suit before casting their eyes up ahead.
However, there was no city to be seen.
"Where is the Asura Spiders" lair, Fellow Daoist Han?" Xue Ran asked with furrowed brows.
"Rest a.s.sured, Brother Xue, you"ll see it after we travel a few more thousand kilometers," Han Li replied.
Hei Lin immediately released his enormous spiritual sense upon hearing this, and moments later, his eyes abruptly lit up.
"There is indeed a city hidden beneath a patch of sand up ahead!"
"Alright, then let"s do this!" Xue Ran nodded in response before opening his mouth to expel a ball of black light, within which was a fist-sized black incense burner with a thin stick of incense protruding out of it.
The stick of incense was as red as blood and around a foot in length.
Xue Ran made a hand seal, then pointed a finger forward, and the incense burner instantly swelled to around 10 feet tall.
He then opened his mouth to expel a burst of crimson flames that ignited the stick of incense, and a rank odor immediately began to waft through the air.
Immediately thereafter, Xue Ran began to chant something, and a string of ghostly wails suddenly rang out from within the incense burner.
At the same time, eight b.a.l.l.s of crimson light flew out of Xue Ran"s body, each of which sat an infant with crimson patterns all over their delicate skin and extremely unsettling smiles on their faces.
Meanwhile, Hei Lin laid a hand onto a leather pouch hanging from his waist, and a burst of black Qi immediately flew out of the pouch before forming a black cloud that was around an acre in size high up in the sky.
Incessant hissing could be heard within the black cloud, indicating that there was something lurking in there.
Immediately thereafter, Hei Lin swept his sleeves through the air, releasing around a dozen black flags that vanished into thin air in a flash.
At the same time, Mo Jianli had also summoned a pair of spirit beast bracelets, which released a snowy white flying tiger, and a crimson fiery bird, both of which were giving off Body Integration Stage auras.
Mo Jianli then made a hand seal, and several treasures flew out of his body.
Han Li appraised all of this in silence, but didn"t do anything himself.
A distance of several thousand kilometers was covered in mere moments, and all of a sudden, Han Li tapped a foot down onto a formation plate beneath him, upon which the flying boat drew to an abrupt halt.
Xue Ran looked down at the vast expanse of sand below, and a cold smile appeared on his face as he uttered the word "break"!
The infants hovering in the b.a.l.l.s of crimson light around him immediately opened their mouths in unison at his behest, releasing eight pillars of crimson light that descended from above.