"Everyone, don't let your guard down, maybe we'll run into something else later …"
Just as Shi Chuankong finished speaking, a huge double-headed crocodile covered in mud rushed out of the swamp at the side. It opened its mouth which was big enough to swallow the entire flying boat and bit down on the ground.
"Brother Shi, isn't that a jinx?" Hu San asked with a smile.
Shi Chuankong didn't pay any attention to him. He made a hand seal, and an extremely thin silver light barrier appeared to block the side of the flying boat.
There was a muffled "bang".
The two-headed crocodile slammed into the silver light curtain, and as if it was hit by a ten-thousand-ton hammer, its two huge heads were shattered at the same time. Its jaws and teeth were shattered, and its flesh was badly mutilated.
"Tsk tsk, this guy doesn't seem to have high intelligence, but his strength is not weak," Hot Flame Immortal Venerable said upon seeing this.
"There's another big guy in front …" Han Li suddenly reminded.
As soon as he finished speaking, a green light flashed in his hand and an Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword appeared in his hand. He flew up and slashed forward with one arm.
A streak of cyan sword light shot out and landed in the swamp in front of it in a flash, instantly exploding.
"Roar …"
Along with a mournful roar, a large amount of blood emerged from the swamp like boiling oil.
Immediately after, a big guy with the same appearance as the previous strange fish, but it was ten times bigger than it, also floated up from the swamp. Its body was split into two and fell to the side.
Then, with a "whoosh" sound, the silver flying boat rushed straight through the middle, disappearing in a flash.
"Haha … With the two of you escorting me, my spirit boat only needs to fly faster, and I won't have to worry about the rear!" Hu San said with a smile while driving the silver flying boat.
The few of them ran straight towards the smoke, and the pink smoke also surged towards them.
Not long after, the two met a thousand miles away from the Floating Island.
As soon as the silver flying boat entered the pink smoke, its speed immediately slowed down.
Han Li and the others focused and released their divine sense in all directions.
"Sure enough … the power of the divine sense inside the Bewildering Illusory Dust is greatly suppressed, so it's impossible for me to probe far. Now, I can't even tell which direction I'm in," Fox Three said.
"In that case, let's be more careful and each take a direction," Shi Chuang Kong looked back and said solemnly.
Han Li frowned slightly, and was also a little surprised. Even with his powerful divine sense, it could only cover a radius of a few dozen miles in this fog.
"No worries, if any sect ruins appear, I will be able to sense it," Hot Flame Immortal Venerable said.
As he spoke, he flipped his palm, and a pink bead the size of a longan appeared in his palm. It looked like an ordinary clam bead, but what was different was that there was a circle of tiny golden inscriptions around the bead that were flashing intermittently.
"What is this?" Shi Chuang Kong glanced at it and asked.
"This is called the 'Truth Bead', a magic treasure given to me by a master in the sect.
It originally didn't have much use, but my master gave me a certificate to use any teleportation formation in the sect for convenience.
However, after the sect was destroyed, this bead is probably the only one left in the outside world, "Hot Flame Immortal Venerable said slowly with a reminiscing expression.
"Daoist Hot Flame means that this Truth Bead can help us find the ruins?" Han Li raised his brows and asked.
"This bead can form a connection with more than three hundred teleportation formations in the sect. Once there are remnants of a teleportation formation near us, this bead will sense it.
However, because of the smoke, I estimate that its sensing range will be greatly reduced, and it won't exceed a hundred miles at most. "Hot Flame Immortal Venerable didn't answer Han Li's question directly and said in a noncommittal manner.
Hu San nodded thoughtfully and said, "This is already very good. If we can really find a complete teleportation formation, we might be able to directly enter the Truth Sect."
As Han Li listened to their conversation, he cast his gaze into the distance. At the end of his line of sight was a dark red cornice that pierced through the mist.
Soon after, a three story brick archway over a hundred meters tall appeared from the mist. The red paint on it was mottled, the bricks were broken, and the eaves had collapsed. It looked as if it had experienced the vicissitudes of time and had become extremely dilapidated.
Hot Flame Immortal Venerable looked at the plaque on the archway and said, "This is … Black Beam Archway, one of the ten archways outside the merchant street."
"Our luck is pretty good… Fellow Daoist Hot Fire is visiting an old haunt," Hu San's face lit up with happiness, and he shouted. Then, he steered the spirit boat and flew towards that direction.
At this moment, Han Li suddenly reminded, "Daoist Hu San, wait … That is just an illusion."
The silver flying boat suddenly stopped and hovered over a hundred meters away from the archway.
The other three were surprised. When they turned around to look at Han Li, they found that his eyes were flashing with a deep purple light. It looked very strange.
Shi Chuankong frowned and asked, "Eh, could this be … Ninth Secret Magic Eyes? Daoist Li, why do you know our demon race's spirit eye ability?"
"I'm just a vagrant cultivator. My knowledge is a bit miscellaneous, please excuse me." Han Li didn't explain too much and said with a laugh.
Hearing this, Shi Chuankong's eyes flashed with a hint of doubt, but he didn't pursue the matter. On the other hand, Hot Flame Immortal Monarch's eyes flickered. He felt that Li Han was becoming more and more unfathomable.
"Haha, it seems that inviting Daoist Li this time is really a treasure." Hu San laughed loudly.
After saying that, he raised his sleeve and suddenly waved it. A bright light shot out from his body and hit the archway.
The moment the light struck the archway, a ball of silver light suddenly lit up, turning into a huge silver vortex of light with a radius of a hundred feet. A terrifying spatial power came out of it, twisting and tearing the archway into a ball and swallowing it.
In the end, only a fist-sized black hole was left, tearing the surrounding space until it slowly closed.
Hu San's smile suddenly froze when he saw this.
"Fortunately, Daoist Li warned us in advance. If we rushed over without thinking, I'm afraid we would have been pulled into the spatial rift." Shi Chuankong said with some lingering fear.
As soon as his voice fell, they heard a burst of extravagant celestial music from all directions. A somewhat intoxicating fragrance spread out. When everyone looked around, they were surprised to find that a large number of palaces had appeared in the smoke.
Their silver flying boat was no longer traveling over the swamp. Instead, it was squeezing through a dense sea of flowers, causing countless flower petals to scatter in all directions.
Around the sea of flowers, there were also corridors and pavilions built with carved balustrades and made of jade. They were connected to the various palaces in the distance.
On the bridges, there were beautiful immortals dressed in palace dresses of various colors. Some were holding immortal vegetables and spirit fruits, some were holding jade bottles, and some were carrying palace lanterns. Their figures were graceful as they flew toward the pavilions.
In the pavilions, there were many immortals sitting opposite each other, drinking wine, reciting poems, or playing chess. It looked like a harmonious banquet.
When Hu San saw this, he hurriedly made a hand seal to stop the flying boat. He didn't dare to move forward rashly. He asked, "Brother Shi, your Divine Spirit Pill doesn't seem to have any effect. Why is this illusion becoming more and more powerful?"
"Fellow Daoist Hu San, you're wrong about Fellow Daoist Shi. This illusion is too powerful. If we didn't take the Divine Spirit Pill, our minds would have fallen into the illusion. We wouldn't even know that we're in an illusion," Han Li explained for Shi Chuankong.
He hadn't taken the Divine Spirit Pill, so he knew how powerful this illusion was. If he hadn't activated the Spirit Refinement Art to protect his sea of consciousness, even he would have fallen for it.
"Fellow Daoist Li, can your Spirit Eye Ability break this illusion?" Hot Fire Immortal Monarch asked.
"My Spirit Eye Ability can only help everyone avoid danger, but it can't break the illusion.
If Fellow Daoist Shi uses the power of the Law of Space, he might be able to repel the dust and smoke nearby and break a part of the illusion. "Han Li shook his head and changed the topic.
"This method is indeed feasible in theory, but the consumption is too great. It can't break a large area of the illusion, so it's just a cup of water on a burning cart of firewood." Shi Chuankong had a troubled expression.
"How about this?
Fellow Daoist Li will use his Spirit Eye Ability to help us avoid danger, while Fellow Daoist Hot Fire will use the Truth Bead to sense the teleportation formation. When he finds something, Brother Shi will find a way to break the illusion.
As for me, how about I be everyone's boatman? "Fox San suggested after thinking for a moment.
"This method is feasible." Han Li and Shi Chuankong looked at each other and nodded at the same time.
"Good, let's do that." Hot Fire Immortal Monarch also agreed.
After reaching an agreement, the group set off again and slowly flew forward.
"Don't continue forward after passing through the flowering shrubs. Turn left." Han Li's eyes flickered with a purple light as he commanded.
"Are we going to crash into that covered bridge?" Fox Three asked hesitantly.
"Trust me," Han Li said.
Fox San's lips curled into a smile. He didn't say anything else and controlled the flying boat to slowly move forward.
After the silver flying boat swept through a cluster of flowers, it turned straight to the left and crashed straight into a covered bridge.
The white jade railings on the covered bridge were torn apart like paper. Han Li and the others collided with the Immortal's body on the bridge and directly passed through it.
"After going out, go forward for about seven hundred feet, then turn right …" Under Han Li's command, the silver flying boat passed through layers of illusions.
About an hour later, when the silver flying boat passed through an illusory lotus pond, Hot Fire Immortal Monarch suddenly shouted in surprise.
"Found it!"