Chapter 652: Repair

Upon hearing this, Han Li and the others quickly looked toward the Flame Immortal's hands.

They saw that the “Truth Pearl” in his hand was now shimmering with a faint glow, and the golden inscriptions carved on its surface were also emitting bursts of golden light.

“Is it a teleportation array?” Hu San stopped the flying boat and asked joyfully.

The Flame Immortal glanced at him and nodded.

“Fellow Daoist Shi, it's up to you now…” Han Li looked at Shi Chuankong and said.

Shi Chuankong did not speak, but slowly closed his eyes, brought his hands together in front of his chest, and silently chanted a spell. A brilliant silver light bloomed from his palms, and waves of spatial fluctuations rippled around him.

Then he suddenly opened his eyes, abruptly parted his hands, raised them palms upward toward the sky in a gesture of opening the heavenly gate. The mass of brilliant silver light rapidly expanded from his palms, turning into a pale silver light screen that spread outward.

As the pale silver light screen slowly expanded, the surrounding lotus leaves and shimmering water dispersed like morning mist, and the illusory smoke was also pushed back layer by layer, surging outward.

The silver light screen continued to expand until it covered over a thousand yards, then finally stopped. Within this thousand-yard radius, the space revealed its original swamp appearance.

Han Li's eyes flashed with a bright purple light. After a quick scan, he immediately noticed that a thousand yards ahead, on a muddy bank overgrown with water plants, stood a pile of white rubble.

“Over there.”

Following Han Li's direction, Hu San immediately steered the spirit boat and flew over to the pile of rubble.

They saw that the stone pile on the muddy bank was only a few yards wide, seemingly the remains of a shattered stone pillar.

“Alas, this is one of the array-marked stone pillars of the teleportation formation. The entire formation is already beyond recognition and useless.” The Flame Immortal sighed, somewhat regretfully.

“No matter, how could the ruins of the Truth Sect be so easy to find?” Hu San said nonchalantly.

Han Li and the others nodded and continued onward into the depths of the mist.

…

Time passed, and more than a month had gone by.

Han Li and his companions drifted and searched through the misty smoke of the Illusory Smoke Swamp. Although they occasionally found some ruins, most were just broken walls and tiles, shattered doors and pillars. They were fortunate to encounter a few teleportation arrays, but all were severely damaged and beyond use.

“Fellow Daoist Li, now that we are far from the Youfu Island area, should we consider changing direction and searching elsewhere?” Hu San asked as he slowly piloted the silver flying boat.

“Mm, we can try heading toward Illusory Smoke City.” Han Li pondered briefly and then nodded in agreement.

Just then, the Flame Immortal suddenly spoke: “Everyone, hold on. There is another teleportation array nearby.”

“Alright, it's worth a look.” Hu San said expressionlessly.

Regarding the teleportation arrays, not only had Hu San lost his initial enthusiasm, but Han Li and Shi Chuankong also held little hope.

However, when Shi Chuankong broke through the miasma, the scene before them surprised everyone.

On a white sandbar a thousand yards away stood seven or eight huge white stone pillars, engraved with complex runes, yet no spiritual power fluctuations emanated from them.

They quickly drove the boat to the sandbar and got a full view of the teleportation array.

It was composed of eleven white stone pillars, of which only seven remained intact, one was half-standing, and the rest had completely collapsed.

After examining it for a moment, the Flame Immortal frowned and said, “This is one of the eight teleportation arrays outside the mountain gate. It's too badly damaged and cannot be used.”

Ignoring his words, Han Li walked around the entire stone pillar formation, then carefully examined the array patterns at the center of the teleportation array, showing a thoughtful expression.

“Fellow Daoist Shi, do you have any items containing the power of the Laws of Space on you?” After a moment, he stood up and asked Shi Chuankong.

“Fellow Daoist Li, do you mean to use spatial items to replace the pillars and repair the array? Forgive my bluntness, but it won't work.” Shi Chuankong hesitated slightly and said.

“Whether it works or not, it's best to give it a try first.” Han Li grinned and said.

“Brother Shi, don't you have a pair of stone lions? Don't be stingy; take them out and use them. If they break, I'll compensate you.” Hu San put an arm around his shoulder and said with a laugh.

“Can you really repair it?” Shi Chuankong ignored Hu San, looked at Han Li, and asked skeptically.

“Thirty percent chance. Dare to take a gamble?” Han Li held up three fingers and said.

“My recent luck in gambling hasn't been good. I'm afraid I'll lose again this time.” Shi Chuankong hesitated and said somewhat helplessly.

With that, he flipped his palm, and a pair of gray stone lions, about three feet tall, appeared and landed on the ground.

Han Li smiled and waved his hand, and the gray stone lions were wrapped in a wisp of green light and floated over, landing on the teleportation array.

Then, with a twist of his wrist, he took out several array plates and array flags and began to arrange them on the ground.

Several hours later.

"It's done." Han Li straightened up after placing the last array plate.

"That's... done?" Hu San looked skeptical.

"The spatial object replaces the stone pillar; the spatial power within it can sustain the entire grand formation. However, the other array plates and flags aren't as sturdy—they'll likely last only a moment before breaking." Han Li explained.

"Only a moment... is that enough to teleport us across?" Re Huo Zun Zhe asked doubtfully.

"Fortunately, this formation was originally designed to teleport hundreds at once; sending a few of us is no problem. Now everything is ready, all we need is the east wind." Han Li clapped his hands and looked at Hu San.

"What else is needed?" Hu San asked, puzzled.

"Immortal Origin Stones... from the look of it, mid-grade or above." Han Li pointed at several grooves on the ground and smiled.

"Brother Li, Brother Li, just a few Immortal Origin Stones—why couldn't you set them all up at once?" Hu San said helplessly.

"As a mere rogue cultivator, it's not easy to save up some wealth. Especially mid-grade Immortal Origin Stones—they're not like low-grade ones; I don't have many on me." Han Li said with a smile.

Hu San exchanged a glance with Shi Chuan Kong, and they both laughed.

They hadn't believed Han Li was a rogue cultivator with no backing, especially after witnessing his many skills. But seeing his stingy attitude now, they were somewhat convinced.

After the group stood at the center of the grand formation, Hu San took out several mid-grade Immortal Origin Stones and embedded them one by one into the formation.

Han Li then formed hand seals, and the entire formation blazed with light, swallowing the four figures.

After their figures vanished, the light on the formation dimmed. The two stone lions were indeed intact, and most of the array plates and flags had also survived.

…

Moments later, Han Li and the others appeared before a massive mountain gate.

The majestic mountain gate, along with a vast white stone square, floated in the void, surrounded by clouds and mist. Within seemed to be a spatial barrier that even divine sense could not penetrate.

Before the gate stood several towering stone pillars, their tops lost in thick clouds, while the gate was covered by a thick white light barrier, clearly a powerful restriction.

Re Huo Zun Zhe stood before the mountain gate, looking up. A crystalline light flickered in his eyes, and he was lost in recollection.

A loud "boom" startled him from his memories.

Turning around, he saw Shi Chuan Kong attempting to blast the white light barrier.

But no matter what methods he used, the barrier only trembled violently without showing any sign of breaking.

"Let me try."

Hu San's figure flickered, his entire body swelling a hundredfold. He raised a hand, forming a claw, and struck fiercely at the white light barrier.

Five colossal claw marks, each a hundred zhang long, materialized and tore into the white light barrier.

"Crackle..."

A dazzling burst of five-colored lightning erupted from the white light barrier, causing the surrounding void to rumble.

Yet when the lightning faded, the white light barrier remained unchanged.

"Don't waste your strength. This restriction contains spatial law power, and even some time law power mixed in. Ordinary methods can't break it." Shi Chuan Kong said.

Han Li, though he hadn't acted, had reached the same conclusion by observing their attacks.

Hu San retracted his form, returning to normal size, and asked, "That tricky? Since you can see the trick, do you have a way to break it?"

"To counter the spatial power, I can set up a formation to weaken the spatial force within the restriction. Then, if we all attack together, we might be able to break it." Shi Chuan Kong said after a moment's thought.

"No time to waste, start setting up." Hu San said, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

…

Meanwhile, at the edge of the Illusion Smoke Marsh, hundreds of li from Illusion Smoke City, a man of towering stature, thick as an iron tower, stood with his hands behind his back, facing the marsh. His fiery red hair was tied high, giving him a majestic appearance.

His face was angular, resembling a human's by half, but his nose was dark and coarse like a rhinoceros horn, and his ears were long and pointed, with large golden rings hanging from them.

The man stared at the boundless illusion smoke in the marsh, his expression cold and somewhat angry.

At that moment, a green light shot from the distant horizon. Still hundreds of li away, it was caught by a fiery red spirit domain, then wrapped in a ball of red flames and instantly brought before the alien man.

With a loud "boom!"

Where the green light landed, a green jade flying chariot suddenly appeared and crashed heavily to the ground.

A red-haired giant, a bamboo-thin man, and a handsome man in red leaped off the chariot simultaneously. With awkward expressions, they bowed to the alien man and said, "Greetings, Lord Chi Rong..."

These three were none other than Gong Shu Tian, his senior brother Wang Xiao Sen, and his personal disciple Feng Qing Yuan.

"You are a full half-month late from the time I informed you..." the alien man said coldly.