Chapter 159: Eastbound Journey
The more Han Li thought about it, the more convinced he became that this problem had to have something to do with distance.
It stood to reason that this array plate would function similarly to a teleportation array, so the longer the distance, the more difficult the transmission.
A concerned look appeared on his face as he arrived at this conclusion.
He had only just arrived on the Primordial Wave Continent, so he was still quite far away from the Blaze Dragon Dao, yet it was already becoming extremely difficult to have heavy water transmitted to him. By the time he reached the Blaze Dragon Dao, the Twin Starshift Plates would most likely be rendered completely useless.i
However, he couldn't just abandon his journey to the Blaze Dragon Dao for this reason, so this was just a problem that he would have to find a solution to after reaching the Blaze Dragon Dao.
With that in mind, he refocused his attention on the Twin Starshift Plate. Seeing as it was still able to transmit heavy water to him for the moment, he had to capitalize on this window of opportunity before it passed him by.
Back when he was in the Black Wind Sea, it would've only taken mere moments for his Earthly Deity Avatar to transmit all of the heavy water that it had refined in a month to him, but on this occasion, the same process took a full three days.
Han Li turned his gaze to the Twin Starshift Plate in his hand to find that the eight Starshift Stones had become semi-transparent, clearly having had most of their spiritual power exhausted.
The spiritual power used up in all of the past transmissions combined was less than what had been used for this single transmission.
A wry smile appeared on his face as he stowed the array plate away, then drew another ball of heavy water out of his True Water Pouch to continue refining more Heavy Water Veined Lightning.
Half a month passed by in the blink of an eye, and Han Li was on lookout duty once again.
He made his way out of his room, and he discovered the flying ark was traveling over a lush forest.
The woman in the red dress also emerged from her room not far away, and the two of them exchanged a glance before making their way to the opposite ends of the ark.
Both of the Body Integration Stage elders of the trading house were looking rather weary, and they cautioned, "We're beginning to get quite deep into the Lost Grave Forest, and more and more high-grade flying demon beasts are appearing, so make sure to be on your guard."
The man with the Kou surname had also arrived on the deck, and he cupped his fist in a salute toward Han Li and the woman in the red dress. "I'll be counting on you."
It seemed that he had been quite on-edge during this trip, and he would regularly come out to the deck to oversee proceedings. At this moment, he was looking quite weary, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot.
"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist Kou. I accept the mission, and I'll do my best to complete it," Han Li replied with a nod, then flew over to the left hand side of the ark's bow.
The woman in the red dress offered no response, merely giving a slight nod before flying toward the stern.
The flying ark continued onward, but a short while later, a burst of rustling suddenly rang out from the forest down below. As it turned out, there was a red cloud flying rapidly toward the ark, and it hadn't been fooled by the white cloud around the ark at all.
Blue light flashed within Han Li's eyes, and he was able to identify the red cloud as a flock of giant red birds.
These birds resembled eagles, and each of them was several dozen feet in size. They didn't have many feathers, and large sections of wrinkly red skin was bared, while each of them had a fleshy crest on its head. Their talons were disproportionately thick and large compared with the rest of their bodies, and they were extremely hideous in appearance.
The man with the Kou surname hadn't gone back to rest yet, and upon spotting the flock of birds, he exclaimed, "Those are Chicken Crest Eagles!"
The birds were closing in on the ark extremely quickly, and there were close to 1,000 of them, with each of them giving off an aura that wasn't inferior to that of a Nascent Soul cultivator.
The birds began to squawk with excitement as they opened their beaks to blast a series of crimson fireballs toward the flying ark.
At the same time, bright red light began to glow from their talons, and a flurry of sickle-shaped crimson claw projections were unleashed, howling through the air as they hurtled toward the ark.
"Activate the protective barrier!" the man with the Kou surname yelled.
The spirit patterns around the ark instantly lit up, and streaks of white light emerged to form a thick white protective barrier.
The crimson flames and claws projections struck the protective barrier with tremendous force, but the barrier remained resolute, displaying no signs of breaking.
At this point, Han Li had already risen up into the air, and with a sweep of his sleeve, nine streaks of white light flew out, revealing themselves to be a set of nine identical white flying swords.
Each flying sword was glowing with white radiance, and they were all spirit treasures.
Han Li had found this set of flying swords in the First Scourge's storage pouch, and they were a little similar to his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, so he decided to keep them, seeing as he had no suitable treasures to use at the moment.
Han Li made a hand seal with one hand, and the nine flying swords began to glow brightly ,transforming into hundreds of white sword threads in a flash.
The sword threads intertwined to form a massive white sword net, which encompassed the entire area of several thousand feet up ahead.
All of the crimson birds that came into contact with the white sword net were instantly sliced into pieces, falling into the forest down below as chunks of flesh and blood.
In the blink of an eye, dozens of the birds had been slain.
Meanwhile, the woman in the red dress had also sprung into action. A dragon formed by crimson flames had appeared before her, and it was extremely life-like. The dragon was close to 1,000 feet in length, and it blasted an enormous pillar of flames out of its mouth, incinerating all of the crimson birds in its path into ashes.
There was a huge number of these birds, but they were lacking in individual power, and it didn't take long before most of them had been slain by Han Li and the woman, following which the rest fled for their lives.
The nine flying swords flew back to Han Li at his behest, and the flying ark continued onward, but it didn't take long before more disturbance appeared up ahead, and the ark was attacked by a swarm of black hornets.
Han Li immediately released his set of nine flying swords once again...
At this point in the Lost Grave Forest, there was a huge number of flying demon beasts in the area, and even though the ark was concealed, many of the demon beasts were able to see through the concealment.
There were certain days when the ark was attacked more than 10 times in a day, but thankfully, the man with the Kou surname was quite familiar with the layout of the forest, intentionally steering the ark so that it avoided all of the dwelling places of powerful demon beasts.
As a result, they were only attacked by demon beasts that weren't all that formidable, and given how Han Li and the woman in red were both actually True Immortal cultivators disguised as Body Integration cultivators, they naturally had no trouble dealing with these attacks.
The man with the Kou surname was feeling much more reassured upon seeing this.
However, as a result of all these attacks, the flying ark was frequently forced to slow down, so progress wasn't ideal.
Around a dozen more days passed by in the blink of an eye.
A giant white vortex formed by countless rapidly revolving white sword threads had completely enveloped a mountainous azure beast, trapping it inside.
The azure beast roared as a layer of metallic azure light surfaced over its entire body, keeping the countless surrounding sword threads at bay.
At the same time, it was blasting gusts of fierce azure wind out of its mouth in an attempt to shatter the vortex around it.
However, the white sword threads were extremely formidable, and they were able to quickly slice the dark azure light around the giant beast into shreds before piercing into its body.
The azure beast didn't even get a chance to cry out before it was sliced into a pile of meat by the countless sword threads.
With a wave of his hand, the countless sword threads converged to reform the nine flying swords at his behest, then flew back up his sleeve.
There were still several other azure beasts near the flying ark, and they were all quickly slain as well, following which the ark continued onward.
At this point, the vegetation of the forest down below was gradually becoming more sparse, exposing large sections of earth, and it seemed that they were finally about to fly out of the Lost Grave Forest.
After close to another half-day passed by, the forest down below had completely vanished.
The landscape up ahead was beginning to turn black, and there were some black rocks on the ground as a bleak desert appeared up ahead.
The ark suddenly began to slow down here, and the man with the Kou surname arrived along with the two Body Integration Stage elders.
"Up ahead is the Black Rock desert. It's already quite late now, so it won't be wise to keep going. We'll rest here for the night, then continue our journey tomorrow. Thank you for your hard work, seniors!"
Han Li immediately recalled that he had previously read about the Black Rock Desert in one of the books that he had purchased in Seaside City.
vIt was a perilous place where gravity was several times heavier than it was elsewhere, apparently because there were underground ore veins that were affecting the origin magnetic force in the region.
Furthermore, there were some extremely formidable dark beasts residing deep in the Black Wind Desert that lurked underground during the day, then came out at night.
Thankfully, the desert wasn't very large, so all of the people crossing this area would choose to do so as quickly as possible during the day.
The ark slowly descended toward the ground, and everyone on the ark was feeling rather weary. Aside from the two Body Integration Stage elders, who were on lookout duty, everyone retired to their rooms to rest.
Dusk slowly transitioned into night, and a bright full moon appeared in the sky.
There was not a single cloud to be seen in the sky above the entire desert, only countless dazzling stars that were flashing radiantly.
The ark was resting beside a giant rock, and it was completely enshrouded in darkness, with the only light on the ark coming from some lit lamps in the rooms.
Right at this moment, the door of one of the rooms on the ark swung open, and a figure emerged from within, silently treading over the ark quickly arriving on the desert outside.
It was none other than Han Li, and he was traveling along the desert in leaps and bounds. Once he was sufficiently far away from the ark, azure light emerged over his body, and he flew away into the distance.
Only after flying for close to 100,000 kilometers did he draw to a halt, then descended toward an oasis down below.
This desert oasis was only several hundred kilometers in area, and most of the plants here were sand poplar trees and hardy willow trees, which were capable of growing in dry, desert conditions. The trunks of these trees were generally only several dozen feet tall, and due to their constant exposure to the scorching sun and the fierce desert winds, their branches and leaves were all growing in a rather lopsided manner.
On the edge of this oasis was a miniature crescent-shaped lake, which was shimmering under the moonlight, presenting an alluring sight in the desert landscape.
Han Li made his way to the edge of the lake, then scooped up some water before drinking it out of his cupped hands, instantly filling his mouth with a cool and refreshing sensation.
He sat down onto the ground, then released his spiritual sense to encompass the entire surrounding area in a radius of tens of thousands of feet.
Shortly thereafter, he reached into the front for his robe and pulled out the Heaven Controlling Vial, which he carefully set down before himself.
As a ray of moonlight shone down upon the vial, it immediately began to glow, and all of the leaf patterns on its surface lit up, giving the entire vial a glittering and translucent appearance. A series of specks of white light took shape around the vial, transforming into giant halos of white light that were glowing radiantly.
The small lake was also instantly illuminated by the white light, and looking at it from afar, it was as if the lake had suddenly been frozen solid.
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