Chapter 432: Realm Traversing Plaque
"That's incredible! Neither of us detected any spatial fluctuations before we stepped through the archway!" Lu Yuqing said with an amazed expression.
"I have a feeling that perhaps this is a one-way passageway, and the triggering mechanism is on this side, so it was previously only possible to go from here to the garden. However, it seems like it's since become a two-way passageway, perhaps due to the damage to the archway," Han Li speculated.
Lu Yuqing immediately began to inspect the archway upon hearing this, and sure enough, there were indeed some faint spatial fluctuations emanating from it.
"Now that we're in this hidden space, it should be very difficult for them to find us," Lu Yuqing said.
"Even so, we can't get complacent. After all, they managed to track us down earlier, did they not?"
Lu Yuqing fell silent upon hearing this.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li suddenly swept a sleeve through the air to release a streak of golden light, which transformed into Daoist Xie.
Daoist Xie took a glance at Lu Yuqing, then said to Han Li through voice transmission, "Fellow Daoist Han, while it's true that you're my current owner, haven't you been summoning me a bit too frequently these past few days?"
"My apologies, but we're in a very perilous situation right now, so I have no choice but to call upon you," Han Li replied with a wry smile as he flipped a hand over to produce a storage pouch. "Here are some Immortal Origin Stones in case I need to call upon you for battle. Will that be enough?"
Daoist Xie accepted the storage pouch, then inspected its contents briefly before replying, "That should be enough unless I'm required to use certain special secret techniques."
"Good. In that case, you can go back and rest. The next time I summon you will most likely be in the heat of battle," Han Li said with a nod.
Daoist Xie flew back up Han Li's sleeve as a streak of golden light upon hearing this.
Lu Yuqing was watching in silence, and she was rather curious about Daoist Xie's identity, but knew not to ask unnecessary questions.
"Let's try and figure out what this place is before we do anything else," Han Li said as he inspected the mountain range with his eyes and his spiritual sense.
Moments later, he withdrew his spiritual sense, and his brows furrowed slightly as he said, "This place is rather strange. It seems to be an independent space. Whenever I try to release my spiritual sense beyond the boundaries of the mountain range, it hits an invisible wall."
"Then what should we do now? Should we explore the mountain range?" Lu Yuqing asked.
Han Li pondered the question for a moment, then replied, "If this is an isolated area, then there's definitely going to be more than one entrance and exit, so let's go and search the mountain range. Perhaps we'll be able to find a way out."
Lu Yuqing naturally raised no objections to this, and the two of them immediately set off, flying deep into the mountain range as two streaks of light.
Only while in mid-air did Han Li discover that the mountain range wasn't actually in the shape of a straight line. Instead, it split apart down the middle at some point to produce two different branches.
"Which way should we go, Brother Han?" Lu Yuqing asked as she looked at the crossroads down below.
Han Li released his spiritual sense once again to try and detect something, but the results were rather dissatisfactory.
"I can't tell any difference between the two branches at the moment, so we'll just have to explore them one by one and..."
Before Han Li had a chance to finish his sentence, he suddenly discovered that the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords in his body had become rather restless for no apparent reason, and they were expressing some type of emotion to him through their spiritual connection.
It was a mixture of excitement, surprise, and agitation...
Han Li immediately flipped a hand over to summon one of his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords,and it instantly shot forth toward the right branch of the mountain range.
If Han Li hadn't forced it to a halt through their spiritual connection, the sword would have flown away without him.
"For some reason, my bonded flying sword seems to be attracted to that branch of the mountain range," Han Li said as he caught the flying sword in his grasp.
"That must mean that there's something noteworthy there. We don't know which branch to choose anyway, so why don't we let the sword decide for us?" Lu Yuqing suggested with a smile.
Han Li considered this proposal momentarily, then nodded in response.
Thus, the two of them flew toward the right branch of the mountain range, but upon arriving at the point where the two branches intersected, Han Li suddenly stopped in his tracks, then cast his gaze in the direction of the stone archway as he asked, "Can I have a piece of fabric from your dress, Fellow Daoist Lu?"
Lu Yuqing was rather puzzled by this request, but she duly obliged, lifting the skirt of her dress before tearing off a piece and handing it to Han Li.
After accepting the piece of fabric from her, Han Li summoned a pair of giant ape puppets, then tied the strip of fabric around the finger of one of the puppets.
After that, he injected a wisp of his spiritual sense into the body of the other puppet, then instructed them to fly toward the left branch of the mountain range.
Lu Yuqing's eyes immediately lit up upon seeing this, and she praised, "That's so smart of you, Brother Han! Even if you those people manage to track us up to this point, they'll surely be fooled."
"If we're lucky and they really do end up going the wrong way, regardless of whether they trigger any restrictions or engage my puppets in battle, as long as they make some noise, we'll be alerted to their presence in advance," Han Li said.
Lu Yuqing nodded in response, and at the same time, she couldn't help but wonder exactly what Han Li had to have gone through to make him so vigilant and resourceful.
"Alright, let's go," Han Li said, then flew toward the right branch of the mountain range, and Lu Yuqing hurriedly followed along.
The two of them had only just arrived above that branch of the mountain range when the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword in Han Li's hand suddenly began to tremble violently, and it flew down with tremendous force, dragging Han Li downward.
At the same time, a burst of azure light suddenly appeared within Han Li's sleeve, and immediately thereafter, his sleeve abruptly burst open as one azure flying sword emerged after another, all of which were desperately trying to fly down as quickly as they could.
Han Li was quite startled by this turn of events, and he hurriedly closed his sleeve to prevent the rest of the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords from flying out. At the same time, he tried to summon the dozens of flying swords that had already flown away back to himself, but they refused to heed his call, and it was as if they had gone completely out of his control.
Han Li took a deep breath, then flew down after his flying swords, while Lu Yuqing also followed along without much hesitation.
Upon landing on the ground, Han Li was alarmed to discover that his spiritual connection with the Azure Cloudswarm Bamboo Swords that had already flown away had suddenly been severed, so he was unable to sense them at all.
He forcibly suppressed the agitation that was rising up in his heart as he inspected his surroundings, and he found himself standing in an abandoned garden that was overrun with weeds and shrubs.
There seemed to be a small brick path beneath his feet, but it was barely visible at all underneath all of the soil and dead leaves and branches.
Han Li wore a grim expression as he scoured the surroundings with his spiritual sense, but to no avail.
At the same time, all of his remaining flying swords were still desperately trying to fly out of his sleeve.
Han Li took a glance down at his own bulging sleeve, then suddenly let go, releasing the flying sword in his grasp.
The flying sword instantly flew out of his grasp before hurtling deeper into the garden in a flash.
Han Li immediately focused his gaze intently on the flying sword as he set off in pursuit.
The flying sword flew straight to the deepest part of the garden, then plunged itself completely into a black tombstone that was around half the height of a grown man.
The black tombstone had clearly been weathered by the passage of time, and aside from a layer of dark and slick moss on its surface, there wasn't any text inscribed upon it.
Behind the tombstone was a bulging mound that appeared to be no different from an ordinary grave.
Han Li swept his gaze over the black tombstone with his Brightsight Spirit Eyes, and he was immediately greeted by the sight of a burst of spatial ripples that were invisible to the naked eye.
His brows furrowed slightly as he approached the tombstone, then laid a hand down upon it, and a layer of black light instantly surged over the tombstone, then flashed a few times before fading away.
Han Li's brows were tightly furrowed as he pressed down on different parts of the tombstone with the palm of his hand, but it displayed no reaction other than that brief flash of black light.
At this point, Lu Yuqing had also arrived on the scene, and she landed beside Han Li before turning her attention to the tombstone, upon which a hint of recognition flashed through her eyes.
"Do you recognize this thing?" Han Li asked.
"If I'm not mistaken, this should be a Realm Traversing Plaque. We have one in the island master's manor," Lu Yuqing replied.
"Realm Traversing Plaque? What's that?" Han Li asked.
"It's a type of spatial treasure that's similar to a teleportation array, except it only facilitates one-way teleportation," Lu Yuqing explained.
"Do you know of any way to activate this plaque?" Han Li hurriedly asked.
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