Chapter 2301: Spirit Heaven Fortress

Sword light blazed wildly!

A silver lightning flash, over a thousand feet long, lit up the area. Several sky-reaching pillars of wind were instantly severed into multiple segments, scattering into bursts of strong gales.

A punch landed silently.

Golden light flickered in the center of some wind pillars, revealing enormous vortices, each about an acre in size, which spun rapidly. With a tremor and a tug, these wind pillars were forcibly sucked into the golden vortices that had appeared within them, dissipating into invisible forces and vanishing.

Under the combined efforts of two Mahayana stage cultivators, such astonishing divine power was forcefully dispersed and driven back.

After leaving this sea of storms, the Black Spirit Holy Ark immediately accelerated and flew directly out of the canyon. During the rest of their journey, Han Li and his companions encountered no further significant dangers. Finally, half a year later, they flew into the Spirit Race's domain.

Standing high on the great ark, Han Li and the others could already see a distant natural wall formed by continuous low-lying mountain peaks. Beyond these massive walls, a colossal peak, tens of thousands of feet high, was faintly visible, piercing straight into the clouds. On the mist-shrouded mountainside, numerous triangular, prismatic towers were faintly visible, densely built, seemingly covering the entire giant mountain.

"Ahead lies the Spirit Race's renowned Spirit Heaven Fortress!" Mo Jianli explained to Han Li from the great ark. "Though called a fortress, it's more accurately described as a city. Its purpose is similar to our two races' Heavenly Abyss City: to specifically block invasions by foreign races into the Spirit Race's territory. However, unlike us, who use super-formations to envelop our entire domain, leaving only one exit like Heavenly Abyss, the Spirit Race's region is mostly surrounded by treacherous terrain, unsuitable for large armies. As long as they guard a few key locations, the Spirit Race can remain safe. Therefore, the Spirit Race doesn't have just one such fortress; they have seven in total."

"Even if this fortress is incredibly well-defended, with our abilities, bypassing it directly should be an easy feat, shouldn't it? Or does Brother Mo believe it would be better to enter the Spirit Heaven Fortress openly?"

"We haven't arranged a meeting with the Spirit King beforehand," Mo Jianli replied without hesitation, clearly having considered this long ago. "Furthermore, the Lightning Roar Talisman is no trivial matter, so it's not advisable to draw much attention. We just need to find the Spirit King discreetly."

"Brother Mo's words make sense. Then we shall bypass this fortress and quietly infiltrate the Spirit Race's domain," Han Li nodded, offering no differing opinion.

The others naturally deferred to them and dared not raise any objections. Consequently, the great ark changed course and shot off to one side.

Almost simultaneously, in a prismatic building on the colossal mountain behind the "giant wall," a beautiful woman appearing to be around thirty years old stood before a white wall inscribed with an astonishing number of spell formations, her delicate brows slightly furrowed. Under her observation, a ripple in one of the formations on the white wall had suddenly flickered. Although extremely faint, it indicated that an artifact containing a startling spiritual pressure had indeed appeared in the area in front of the fortress; otherwise, it would not have been displayed on this 'Divination Map.'

Thinking of this, the beautiful woman immediately issued an order towards the door. Immediately, a Spirit Race guard, clad in full armor, entered and bowed to the beautiful woman, saying:

"Greetings, Lord Heavenly Supervisor!"

"Go check the Fire-Departure Area Number Three," the beautiful woman commanded without hesitation. "There are some unusual fluctuations there!"

"Understood!" The armored Spirit Race guard immediately replied respectfully, then bowed his head and exited the room.

A short while later, a team of over a hundred Spirit Race guards departed from the Spirit Heaven Fortress, heading directly to investigate the area where the Black Spirit Holy Ark had previously been. By this time, the Black Spirit Holy Ark had already carried Han Li and his group a million li away, so naturally, these guards returned without success.

After finally hearing the results, the beautiful woman's delicate brows furrowed once more. For some reason, although the detected fluctuation wasn't very noticeable, and it was even highly possible it was just a false detection, she felt a subtle unease in her heart, unable to calm her mind. Perhaps she truly needed a good rest. After careful consideration, the beautiful woman attributed the incident to fatigue from her long-term supervisory work. With a hint of self-mockery, she finally put it out of her mind.

On the other side, Han Li and his companions were quietly flying over a stretch of dark water. For some reason, Han Li had put away the Black Spirit Holy Ark. Instead, he activated his protective spiritual light to its maximum, forming a light barrier roughly an acre in size, enveloping Yin Yue and the others. Mo Jianli, alone, also maintained a smaller light barrier for his own flight.

Outside the light barriers, wisps of pale yellow mist lingered and swirled, and strange, faint sounds continuously emanated directly from the black water's surface, affecting the light barriers. Amidst the strange sounds, the two light barriers occasionally twisted and deformed, or shook violently, as if constantly resisting the sustained influence of some massive force field.

Suddenly, a sharp shriek rang out from below. The black water parted, and a dark shadow shot skyward with incredible speed, directly towards the light barrier supported by Han Li. Han Li's eyebrow twitched slightly. He expressionlessly raised a finger and flicked it downwards.

There was a loud "bang."

The dark shadow seemed to have been struck hard by a giant hammer, halting its movement and shooting back at a speed a third faster than before. It was a small beast, neither truly a turtle nor truly a toad. It had a pointed carapace on its back, a thick, short neck, and was black and yellow all over. Han Li's seemingly casual flick contained terrifying power; even a top-tier treasure, if struck head-on, would likely explode and shatter instantly. The small beast crashed hard onto the black water, immediately righted itself with a roll, seemingly unharmed. However, after a pained cry, it leaped directly into the water and vanished, no longer daring to approach the airborne light barriers.

In this black water, these small beasts were quite numerous. Almost every now and then, one or two would leap out to directly attack the high-altitude light barriers, but they were all forcefully struck down by Han Li and Mo Jianli using their respective divine abilities.

However, Han Li and his group's escape speed wasn't particularly slow. After three or four hours, they finally flew out of this black water region, and ahead of them appeared continuous verdant green mountains.

"We've finally truly infiltrated the Spirit Domain," Yin Yue said with a smile after a long exhale. "The natural peculiar poison of that black water lake was secondary; some unique treasures can directly block it. But those Profound Toad Beasts were truly troublesome! Their attacks aren't strong, but each one is incredibly tough-skinned and thick-fleshed, with astonishing endurance. Once entangled, even a Body Integration stage cultivator would find it hard to easily shake them off."

"If Fellow Daoist Han's Holy Ark could still be used over the black water, we wouldn't have to worry about the harassment from these Profound Toad Beasts," Mo Jianli replied with a light chuckle. "Unfortunately, this ark is precisely restricted by the black water's prohibition. If we were to force its use, it would become incredibly slow, making it faster to fly by physical means."

"It's not just my Black Spirit Holy Ark; I fear that most flying treasures in this world would also see their speed greatly reduced when over this black water. Coupled with the harassment from the Profound Toad Beasts, it truly lives up to its name as a perilous place. No wonder the Spirit Race hasn't set up any surveillance points in this direction."

"However, this situation has greatly eased our journey, allowing us to covertly infiltrate the Spirit Domain in such a short time. It's a bit of a pity about those Profound Toad Beasts; despite their strong abilities, they possess no value whatsoever. If they were other similar exotic beasts of the same cultivation level, we would likely have gained considerable benefits by now," Mo Jianli said with a chuckle, stroking his beard.

"The Profound Toad Beasts themselves don't have demon cores, and their flesh and skin cannot be refined into artifacts or used in medicine, so they naturally don't attract the attention of interested parties. I believe if this weren't the case, these rare exotic beasts would have long since been hunted to extinction before we even encountered them. Well, now that we've reached this point, this journey can be considered partially successful. Next, we just need to head to the central region of the Spirit Race and find the Spirit King. Our subsequent travels, of course, must primarily focus on secrecy. Unless absolutely necessary, it's best not to easily reveal our identities," Han Li stated confidently.

Old Ancestor Huashi and the others naturally respectfully assented, and Mo Jianli also nodded in agreement.

For the remainder of their journey, Han Li released the Demonic Spirit Holy Ark once more. However, he first cast a spell on it with one hand, shrinking the artifact by dozens of times until it was only about ten-odd feet long. Its external appearance also changed drastically, making it resemble an ordinary flying boat. Next, Han Li flicked his sleeve, and several demon crystal puppets, roughly at the Void Refinement stage, appeared before him. After a shimmer of crystalline light on their bodies, their aura suddenly became remarkably similar to that of the Artifact Spirit Race.

"As long as we don't encounter too much trouble on the way, these puppets of mine can handle everything first," Han Li said with a faint smile to the others. "We just need to stay in the Holy Ark and rest, recuperating our strength!"

"Excellent! This method is truly ingenious," Mo Jianli exclaimed, clapping his hands and laughing heartily upon seeing this. He then moved, floating into the Holy Ark first. Yin Yue, Zhu Guo'er, and the others, their faces brightening with delight, then followed suit and flew aboard. Han Li, the last one remaining, blurred into a phantom image and merged into the flying boat.

A moment later, the black flying boat shuddered, then roared through the air and vanished into the distance.

Almost simultaneously, in a certain location in the central part of the Spirit Race's territory, two dark-skinned, strikingly similar foreign Mahayana stage cultivators were whispering mysteriously in a secluded pavilion isolated by prohibitions. Among their occasional revealed remarks, startling terms like "Spirit King" and "Lightning Roar Talisman" could be distinctly heard.

At the same time, within the Spirit Race's heavily guarded mysterious forbidden area, a towering white pagoda, pure as jade, stood prominently. On a sacrificial altar on the top floor of this pagoda, five crystalline jade tablets, each about a foot long, floated silently in the void. Golden electric threads spiraled across their surfaces, occasionally emitting low, crackling roars.