Chapter 26: The Enemy Reappears

Above a desert tens of thousands of miles from the border of Feng State, a spirit boat wrapped in white light streaked across the sky, racing toward a certain direction.

At this moment, the sky was clear and vast, with clouds like cotton and floss, a sight that would lift one's spirits and truly be a feast for the eyes. However, the four people on the flying boat clearly had no mood to appreciate it.

Han Li sat cross-legged at the stern, his eyes tightly shut, with a faint layer of golden light flowing up and down on his skin.

Liu Le'er sat close to Han Li, her body surrounded by green light, clearly also in cultivation.

Gu Yunyue and Yu Menghan stood at the bow. The latter occasionally looked back toward the stern, her expression seemingly somewhat complex. The former, while controlling the flying boat, had a faint smile at the corner of her mouth, as if in a fairly good mood.

Two days had passed since the last attack. During this time, they had traveled day and night without encountering any further danger. As they drew closer to the mountain gate of the Cold Flame Sect, safety naturally increased.

After an unknown amount of time, Han Li frowned and opened his eyes. The golden light on his body flickered for a moment and then faded away.

In the past two days, he had tried several more methods to break through the seal on his Nascent Soul, but unfortunately, there was still no progress, and instead, he had consumed a considerable amount of mana.

Although he had found two more pills of similar grade to the 'Wangxi Pill' in the horse-faced youth's storage pouch, for some reason, after taking them, they were completely useless to him.

It seemed that the condition of his body was far more complicated than he had anticipated.

He shook his head, put these thoughts aside, and glanced at Liu Le'er beside him.

The fluctuations in the aura of this woman had greatly improved compared to before, showing signs of breaking through to the late Foundation Establishment stage. This was largely thanks to a bottle of pills obtained from the horse-faced youth's storage pouch.

Han Li nodded slightly, not disturbing her cultivation, stood up and walked to one side of the flying boat, looking outward.

'Fellow Daoist Han, heading west from here, we can reach the sect in less than half a month. Once there, the sect will arrange a suitable cave dwelling for you to recover from your injuries,' Gu Yunyue said with a smile as she walked over from the stern.

Yu Menghan followed silently behind her master.

'Then I'll trouble you, Fellow Daoist,' Han Li nodded and said.

Gu Yunyue was about to say something more when a faint rumbling sound suddenly came from ahead.

Han Li and the other two followed the sound and looked, only to see the boundary between heaven and earth ahead suddenly turn into a pitch-black expanse. Several enormous tornado pillars connected the sky to the ground, sweeping back and forth, with thunderous roars occasionally emanating from them, and a yellow sand curtain blotting out the sun.

Gu Yunyue frowned slightly, waved her hand to cast a spell, and the Spirit Moon Flying Boat came to a halt.

At this moment, Liu Le'er also awoke from her cultivation, walked over to Han Li with a bewildered expression.

“It looks like a sandstorm. Is there something wrong?” Han Li glanced into the distance and asked indifferently.

“Fellow Daoist Han may not know, but this desert we are in is called the Yellow Ripple Ancient Desert. Sandstorms rarely occur here, but once they do, they quickly spread across the entire desert and last for over a month,” Gu Yunyue said seriously.

“Oh, then we can just cross straight through. Although this sandstorm is considerable, it shouldn’t affect us much,” Han Li frowned and said.

“There’s no need to worry about the sandstorm, but this place has an ancient strange insect called the ‘Yin Nie Flying Ant.’ It usually lies dormant deep beneath the desert, but once a sandstorm arises, it emerges to wreak havoc. A single flying ant is no threat, but these insects often appear in swarms of tens of thousands and are extremely fast. Once entangled, unless a magic tool is refined using demonic methods, the filthy mist they spray will corrode it, causing it to lose much of its spiritual nature. Thus, even high-level cultivators find them quite troublesome,” Gu Yunyue explained gravely.

“What about taking a detour?” Han Li asked after a moment of thought.

His mana was now diminishing with each use, and he didn’t want to waste it in such a place.

“It would probably take over a month more,” Gu Yunyue replied after thinking it over.

Han Li stroked his chin and fell silent.

Gu Yunyue looked at Han Li and also said nothing, clearly waiting for him to decide the next course of action.

“Fellow Daoist Han, you need not worry about these flying ants. Leave them to me,” a voice suddenly sounded in Han Li’s mind, none other than Mo Guang.

“Oh, you are confident in dealing with them?” Han Li’s mind stirred and asked through his spiritual sense.

“The Yin Nie Ant is an ancient strange insect born from the mixture of underground yin-sha energy and the resentment of the dead. It is quite similar to us heavenly demons. I didn’t expect this Linghuan Realm to have them as well. Although these ants are troublesome, they are very afraid of attacks like soul-charming demon sounds. Though my divine powers have diminished by ninety percent, handling a few mere flying ants is no problem,” Mo Guang chuckled and said.

“Alright, if we encounter the Yin Nie Ants, I’ll leave them to you, fellow Daoist,” Han Li said after some deliberation.

“We are in the same boat now, so I will naturally do my part,” Mo Guang said emotionlessly, and his voice gradually faded away.

“The detour is too far. We’ll cross the sandstorm directly. If we encounter the Yin Nie Ants, I have my own ways to deal with them,” Han Li said, turning to Gu Yunyue with an unchanged expression.

"Fellow Daoist Han, are you confident?" Gu Yunyue was taken aback.

"What, does Fellow Daoist Gu not trust me?" Han Li smiled faintly.

"I would never mean that. Since you say so, you must be fully prepared." Gu Yunyue quickly laughed it off and said no more, forming a hand seal.

The Spirit Moon Flying Boat radiated brilliant light, coalescing into a white shield as it plunged into the sandstorm ahead.

In the next moment, everyone felt the surrounding light dim, and all they could see were howling gales mixed with swirling sand, violently battering the flying boat's shield.

The Spirit Moon Flying Boat immediately began to shake slightly.

Gu Yunyue changed her hand seal and shot out a white light, which vanished into a spot at the bow of the boat in a flash.

With a crackling sound, the spirit patterns inscribed on the flying boat all lit up, and the white shield brightened several times, stabilizing as it sped forward.

Liu Le'er and Yu Menghan were initially worried when they saw the raging wind and sand outside, but as time passed and they saw that the sandstorm could not breach the flying boat's shield, they gradually relaxed and began to admire the rare and strange scenery through the white shield.

Gu Yunyue focused on piloting the flying boat, carefully avoiding the tornado pillars, and their forward speed was not much slower.

In the blink of an eye, they had flown through the sandstorm for one or two hours. Fortunately, they did not encounter the Yin Nian Ants.

Han Li stood at the bow with his hands behind his back, his expression calm, but suddenly a blue light flickered in his eyes as he glanced in a certain direction ahead.

"Fellow Daoist Han, what's wrong?" Gu Yunyue noticed the change in Han Li's expression and was startled.

"Fellow Daoist Gu, it seems trouble is coming," Han Li said with a light chuckle, glancing at Gu Yunyue.

Gu Yunyue was puzzled, momentarily unable to grasp Han Li's meaning.

Rumble!

At that moment, a tornado pillar spun and rumbled directly toward the flying boat.

This tornado pillar was exceptionally thick, almost reaching the sky. Before it arrived, a massive gale swept in, nearly lifting the Spirit Moon Flying Boat.

Gu Yunyue's expression changed. Without time to ponder Han Li's words, she stomped her foot.

The flying boat radiated light and shot forward, darting nearly a hundred zhang in an instant, narrowly dodging the tornado pillar.

But before Gu Yunyue could breathe a sigh of relief, the ground around them suddenly cracked open, and yellow light pillars shot up with a roar.

These yellow light pillars immediately interwove, forming a large yellow formation in the blink of an eye.

In particular, a massive array diagram emerged on the ground, a hundred zhang in size and extremely complex.

"A formation!" Gu Yunyue's face turned pale.

She felt a blur before her eyes, and the surroundings changed dramatically. She found herself in a crystalline world, surrounded by mountains, while the sky and ground shimmered with a dazzling yellow light.

An indescribably vast spiritual pressure surged from all directions, crushing toward the Spirit Moon Flying Boat.

The white shield on the flying boat immediately creaked and cracked, on the verge of shattering.

Seeing this, Liu Le'er and Yu Menghan cried out in alarm.

Han Li, however, remained unruffled. He extended his hand and offered up a brass bell treasure, which expanded to several zhang in size and landed firmly on the flying boat, covering Liu Le'er and Yu Menghan beneath it.

This brass bell was a defensive treasure found in the horse-faced youth's storage pouch, and it came in handy at this moment.

Almost at the same time, the white light shield on the flying boat burst with a bang, and the immense pressure crashed down.

A flash of spiritual light flickered around Han Li and Gu Yunyue as they withstood it.

The brass bell hummed, its surface spiritual light flashing wildly, but it remained unharmed.

"Could it be that the Heavenly Ghost Sect has come looking for us again?"

Although Gu Yunyue managed to maintain some composure, the astonishing momentum displayed by the formation was clearly beyond what an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator could achieve, and she couldn't help but feel a bit flustered.

"The Heavenly Ghost Sect? They really are persistent." Han Li chuckled lightly upon hearing this.