Chapter 159: Heading East All the Way

The more Han Li thought about it, the more he felt that the anomaly in the Star Shift Mother-Child Disk was related to distance.

This disk and the teleportation formation should be quite similar in principle—the longer the distance, the more difficult the teleportation.

Thinking of this, his expression turned serious.

He had just arrived in the Huanglan Continent, far from the Candle Dragon Dao, and already it was this difficult to teleport the heavy water. By the time he reached the Candle Dragon Dao, this Star Shift Mother-Child Disk would probably be useless.

But he couldn't very well abandon his journey to the Candle Dragon Dao just because the Star Shift Mother-Child Disk couldn't teleport heavy water.

Han Li shook his head. He would have to figure out a solution once he reached the Candle Dragon Dao.

He formed hand seals with both hands and fully activated the Star Shift Mother-Child Disk.

Since it could still barely teleport for now, he would quickly send over the heavy water.

The heavy water condensed by the Earthly Immortal Avatar in one month could be teleported over in just a moment back in the Black Wind Sea.

But here, it took a full three days to teleport it all over.

Han Li looked at the Star Shift Mother-Child Disk in his hand.

The eight Star Shift Stones had become translucent, clearly having consumed most of their spiritual power.

The spiritual power consumed in all the previous teleportations combined didn't seem to be as much as this one time.

He gave a wry smile, put away the disk, and with a single hand gesture, a mass of heavy water flew out from the True Water Bag. Silver arcs of electricity shot out from his palm, and he began refining Heavy Water Ripple Thunder again.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and it was time for the shift change again.

Han Li walked out of his room and casually glanced around, finding that the flying boat was still passing over a lush forest.

Not far away, the woman in the red dress also walked out with light, graceful steps.

They merely exchanged a glance and then walked silently toward the bow deck.

"We're now gradually entering the depths of the Mi Zang Forest. There are many high-level avian demon beasts here. You two must be careful," said the two Combined Essence cultivators from the merchant guild, their faces showing some fatigue as they cautioned Han Li and the woman.

"We'll leave it to you two seniors from now on," said the man surnamed Kou, who had also come to the deck, cupping his hands toward Han Li and the woman.

This man seemed to have not rested properly the entire journey, often coming to the deck to observe the surroundings. He now looked more haggard than before, with visible bloodshot eyes.

"Rest assured, sir. Since I have accepted this task, I will naturally do my best," Han Li said, nodding to the man. With a flicker of his form, he sat down on the left side of the bow.

The woman in the red dress said nothing, only nodding slightly before drifting gracefully to the right side.

The white flying boat continued steadily forward, but not long after, a rustling sound came from the forest below. A patch of red clouds rapidly surged toward the flying boat, completely unfooled by the white clouds surrounding it.

"This is..."

A blue light flashed in Han Li's eyes, and he immediately saw what was inside the red clouds—a flock of strange red giant birds.

These strange birds resembled eagles, each several tens of feet in size. They had sparse feathers, revealing large patches of red wrinkled skin. On their heads grew a cockscomb-like red fleshy crest, and their claws were thick and large, extremely disproportionate to their bodies, making them look very ugly.

"Not good, Cockscomb Vultures!" exclaimed the man surnamed Kou, who had not gone to rest.

These red strange birds flew extremely fast, reaching the vicinity in just a few breaths. There were nearly a thousand of them, each exuding an aura no weaker than that of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

"Gah gah!"

The red strange birds let out excited screeches, opening their mouths to spit out streams of red fireballs that swept toward the flying boat in a sky-covering manner.

At the same time, a bright red light flared on their claws, and sickle-shaped red claw beams shot out, grabbing at the white flying boat with dense, piercing sounds of air being torn.

"Quick, activate the protective barrier!" shouted the man surnamed Kou.

Hum!

The spiritual patterns around the white flying boat suddenly brightened, and white crystalline light emerged, coalescing into a thick white protective shield.

Crackle!

The red flames and red claw beams struck the protective shield, producing a rumbling roar.

The white protective shield was quite sturdy, only flickering continuously without showing any signs of breaking.

Han Li had already soared into the air, waving his hand.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Nine beams of white light shot out from his body, revealing nine white flying swords, identical in appearance, clearly a set.

Each flying sword shimmered with white light and emanated auspicious vapors; all were at the spiritual treasure level.

This set of flying swords was found in Da Sha's storage pouch. Since he currently had no suitable magic treasures, and this set of nine swords was somewhat similar to the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, he kept them.

Han Li then formed a sword seal with his hand.

The nine flying swords burst with brilliant light, and with a flash, they transformed into hundreds of white sword threads, crisscrossing and flying swiftly, forming a huge white sword net that covered an area several hundred feet in front of him.

Those crimson strange birds that swarmed in were instantly cut in two upon touching the white sword net, scattering down as a shower of blood rain.

Amid the hissing sword cries, in the blink of an eye, dozens of strange birds were killed on the spot.

On the other side, the woman in the red dress was not idle either. Before her appeared a fire dragon formed of crimson flames, nearly a hundred zhang in size, lifelike, spewing thick pillars of blazing light from its mouth. Wherever they passed, even those fire-attributed crimson birds could not withstand and were turned to ashes.

Although these crimson birds were numerous, their strength was ultimately not great. Soon, Han Li and the others had killed most of them, and the rest flapped their wings and fled, vanishing in an instant.

Han Li waved his hand and formed a hand seal, and the nine flying swords shot back.

The white flying boat continued forward, but before it had gone far, another buzzing sound came from ahead—a swarm of black strange bees attacked.

Han Li quickly roused his spirits, waved his hand, and released the nine flying swords again.

After venturing deep into the Maze Burial Forest, there were many flying beast-type monsters. Although the flying boat had concealment abilities, it was still seen through by many beasts.

Sometimes, within a single day, they were attacked more than ten times.

Fortunately, the man surnamed Kou was fairly familiar with the terrain of the forest and deliberately detoured around areas where high-level beasts laired. Thus, the attacking beasts were not very powerful. With Han Li and the red-dressed woman, whose cultivation was far beyond the Combined Body stage, they naturally resolved each encounter safely.

Seeing this, the man surnamed Kou gradually let go of his anxious heart.

However, the waves of beast attacks caused the flying boat to stop and go, so its forward speed was not fast.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten days had passed.

Streams of white sword threads spun and flew, forming a huge white vortex that enveloped a mountain-sized cyan monster, trapping it tightly inside.

The cyan monster roared repeatedly, its body surface emitting a metallic cyan-black light that covered its entire form, resisting the slashes of countless sword lights.

At the same time, it spewed gusts of cyan strange wind from its mouth, trying to break the sword-light vortex.

But the white sword threads were truly formidable. As they spun and cut, they soon shattered the cyan-black light on the monster's body and pierced into its flesh.

Puchi!

The cyan monster didn't even have time to let out a scream before it was sliced into a pile of minced flesh by countless sword threads.

Han Li waved his hand and beckoned, and the countless white sword threads converged into nine white flying swords, which flew into his sleeve.

Near the flying boat, several other cyan monsters were also quickly killed.

The flying boat, which had been hovering in midair, continued to fly forward.

At this moment, the lush forest below gradually became sparse, revealing large patches of land, as if they had finally flown out of the Maze Burial Forest.

After flying forward for nearly half a day, the lush forest below had almost completely disappeared.

The ground ahead began to turn black, with some black gravel scattered about, and a desolate Gobi region appeared before their eyes.

The white flying boat suddenly slowed to a halt. The man surnamed Kou and the two Integration cultivators flew over and gave instructions:

"Ahead lies the Black Rock Gobi. It is already late, unsuitable for continuing. Let us rest here for the night and resume travel at dawn. You two seniors have worked hard!"

Upon hearing the name Black Rock Gobi, Han Li immediately recalled having seen it mentioned in a classic text he had read before.

This Gobi was also a dangerous place. It was said that due to underground mineral veins, the geomagnetic forces of the earth were affected, making gravity here several times heavier than elsewhere.

Moreover, deep within the Black Rock Gobi lived some extremely formidable dark beasts that lurked underground during the day and came out at night.

Fortunately, the Gobi was not too vast, so those passing through would choose to fly across at full speed during the day.

The white flying boat slowly descended toward the ground. Everyone on board was somewhat tired. Except for the two Integration cultivators standing on either side of the boat, the others soon returned to their quarters to rest.

As night fell, the deep blue sky gradually turned pitch black, and a full, bright moon hung alone high in the sky.

Above the entire Gobi, there was not a single wisp of cloud, only countless brilliant stars scattered across, twinkling with bright light.

The flying boat, parked beside a giant rock, was pitch black, with only a few scattered lights still on in some rooms, casting patches of soft glow in the night.

At that moment, a door on the boat silently opened, and a tall figure drifted out. With a light tap of the toes on the hull, the figure flickered several times and landed on the Gobi desert outside.

It was Han Li.

He darted swiftly among the rocks of the desert like a swallow, and after a few quick leaps, having distanced himself from the flying boat, he activated his遁光 and flew off into the distance.

After flying over a hundred thousand li, Han Li retracted his遁光 and descended toward a patch of oasis below.

This oasis in the Gobi desert spanned only a few hundred li, mostly covered with cold- and drought-resistant sand poplars and胡柳, which were usually no more than a few zhang tall, their sparse leaves and crooked shapes battered by the scorching sun and fierce winds.

At the edge of the oasis lay a crescent-shaped small lake, shimmering under the moonlight, which brought him a measure of delight at first sight.

Han Li walked slowly to the lake's edge, scooped up a handful of water, and drank. A cool, sweet taste immediately filled his mouth and teeth.

He sat down on the ground, a faint glint flashing in his eyes, and suddenly released his spiritual sense, enveloping a range of tens of thousands of li.

After a moment, he reached into the front of his robe, pulled out the small dark green bottle, and carefully placed it before him.

As a beam of moonlight fell upon it, the bottle began to glow, and leaf-like patterns lit up one after another. The entire bottle became translucent, and white specks of light formed around it, coalescing into a huge white halo that shone with dazzling brilliance.

The white light reflected in the nearby lake, instantly dyeing it entirely snowy white.

From a distance, it looked as if winter had suddenly arrived and the lake had frozen into ice.