Reappearance of the Enemy

Above a desert tens of thousands of kilometers away from Feng Nation, a spiritual flying boat covered in white light tore through the horizon and moved towards a certain direction.

The skies were clear and the clouds white like cotton candy, it was so breathtaking that one could not help but admire the vista in front of them. However, the four people on the flying boat were clearly not in the mood to do so.

Han Li sat with his legs crossed at the end of the boat and his eyes shut tight as a thin layer of golden light swirled over his skin.

Liu Le'er sat beside Han Li and was similarly cultivating with a green hue ensconcing her.

Gu Yunyue and Yu Menghan, on the other hand, were standing by the bow of the boat. The latter turned around to glance at the back of the boat from time to time, her expression a little complex. The former continued to steer the flying boat with a faint smile on her lips as if she was in a pretty good mood.

It had been two days since the last attack. In these past two days, they had continued on their journey without stopping and had yet to meet with any further dangers. As the distance between them and the mountain where the Cold Fire Sect was located shortened, the happier Gu Yunyue became.

Some time passed before Han Li furrowed his eyebrows and opened his eyes. The golden hue around him sparkled for a moment before it dissipated.

In the past two days, he had tried various ways to break through the seal on his Nascent Soul, but to no avail. Instead, he wasted quite a bit of his magic. Even though he found two pills of similar level to the Rhyhope pill in that horse-faced young man's storage pouch, they had no effect on his magic reserves. This left Han Li dumbfounded.

Apparently, his condition was a lot more complicated than he had thought.

He shook his head, not wanting to think about it anymore and glanced at Liu Le'er instead.

The girl's aura was a lot better than before and it looked a lot like she was going to break through to advance to the late-stage of Foundation Establishment anytime now. This was also thanks to the bottles of pills found in the horse-faced young man's storage pouch.

Han Li nodded in his mind and he got up carefully to minimize any disturbance on the girl's cultivation. He then walked to a corner of the flying boat and glanced outside.

"Daoist Han, we just have to head west from here and we should be able to reach the sect within two weeks. When we do, the sect will naturally arrange for a better cave for you to heal from your injuries," Gu Yunyue said with a smile as she walked over.

Yu Menghan followed behind her master without a word.

"I'll be troubling you then," Han Li said with a nod.

Gu Yunyue was about to say something when a faint rustle sounded from ahead.

The three of them turned towards the sound, only to see the horizon suddenly turn into a large patch of darkness. Several giant tornadoes tearing through the skies were swirling about and a thunder-like boom rang from within as yellow dust filled the area.

Gu Yunyue furrowed her eyebrows, waving her hand to make a seal and the flying boat stopped.

At this moment, Liu Le'er had woken up from her cultivation and had walked over to Han Li with a shocked expression.

"It seems like a sandstorm. Is there something wrong?" Han Li asked softly after glancing into the distance.

"Daoist Han might not know, but we're at a desert called Huanglan Ancient Desert. Sandstorms are rare here, but once they appear, they will spread to the entire desert and will continue for the entire month," Gu Yunyue said seriously.

"Oh. Then we can just fly through it. Although the sandstorm isn't too weak, it shouldn't pose a problem to us," Han Li said with a furrow of his eyebrows.

"We naturally don't have to worry about the sandstorm. However, there are ancient mysterious bugs called Baneful Yin Flying Ants that are present here. They will appear once a sandstorm appears. Normal flying ants are not a threat, but this species of ants only appear in groups of millions and are extremely quick. Once they find something, they spray out a corrosive and poisonous mist and as long as it's not a magical treasure made by devil magic, one will find their spiritual power decreased significantly. Meeting them is a headache even for a high-leveled cultivator," Gu Yunyue explained seriously.

"How about we go around it?" Hearing this, Han Li pondered before asking.

His magic now decreased with every use, so he did not want to waste it on such a place.

After some contemplation, Gu Yunyue replied, "I'm afraid it will take at least a month."

Han Li caressed his chin, falling silent.

Gu Yunyue stared at Han Li, remaining quiet as well. Clearly, she wanted him to decide what they should do next.

"Daoist Han, you don't have to worry about these flying ants. You can leave them to me." A voice suddenly rang in Han Li's mind. It was Devil Light.

"Oh, you're confident that you can deal with them?" Han Li was enticed, as he asked Devil Light in his mind.

"Baneful Yin Ants are an ancient special species created by baneful Yin underground and the grievances of undead spirits. It is somewhat similar to us devils. I didn't think that they existed in this Spirit Imperial World as well. Although the ants may be hard to deal with, they are extremely afraid of attacks such as Summoning Devil Aural Tones. Although I lost about 90% of my power, it shouldn't be a problem to deal with these ants," Devil Light said with a chuckle.

"Alright, if we meet those Baneful Yin Ants, I'll have to trouble you," Han Li finally said after thinking for a while.

"Now that we're on the same boat, I will naturally do my best," Devil Light said indifferently, his voice slowly trailing off.

"It's too far to go around it. Let's pass through the sandstorm. If we bump into those ants, I have a way to deal with them," Han Li said to Gu Yunyue with an unchanging expression.

"Are you confident?" Gu Yunyue froze.

"Why? Do you not trust me?" Han Li smirked slightly.

"I didn't mean it that way. Since you have said so, you can probably handle it." Gu Yunyue hurriedly laughed as she stopped saying anything and made a hand seal instead.

The glow around the flying boat grew and morphed into a white protective barrier as the boat moved straight into the sandstorm.

In the next moment, everyone felt the light around them darken. All they saw was sand flying around everywhere and the wind howling like crazy as the sand particles ruthlessly hit the boat's protective barrier.

The flying boat immediately shook a little.

Gu Yunyue's hand gestures changed and she emitted a white ray instead that shone into the bow of the boat.

With a loud clang, the runes carved on the flying boat sparkled. The white protective barrier around the boat brightened even more and after stabilizing, it continued to fly forward.

When Liu Le'er and Yu Menghan first saw the raging sandstorm outside, they were still a little worried. However, as time passed by and they saw that the sandstorm was unable to break through the protective barrier of the flying boat, their worries slowly faded away and they started to admire the unique view around them through the white protective barrier.

Gu Yunyue focused on steering the flying boat, carefully avoiding the tornadoes as the speed the boat traveled at decreased significantly.

In the blink of an eye, they had flown about four hours through the sandstorm. They were rather lucky and had yet to meet those Baneful Yin Ants.

Han Li had his palms faced up as he stood by the bow of the boat calmly. However, there was a sudden blue glow and he looked in front of him.

"Daoist Han, what's wrong?" Noticing the change in Han Li's expression, Gu Yunyue was immediately alarmed.

"Daoist Gu, it seems like trouble has found us once more." Han Li glanced at Gu Yunyue, chuckling.

Gu Yunyue froze, not understanding what Han Li meant.

All of a sudden, a tornado changed directions and happened to fly towards the flying boat.

This tornado was extremely huge and barely ended at the top of the skies. A crazy gust of wind immediately swarmed the area and almost sucked the flying boat into its currents.

Gu Yunyue's expression changed and ignored what Han Li said as she immediately stamped her feet crazily.

The glow around the flying boat grew and it rushed forward, flying almost a thousand feet in that second and barely avoided that tornado.

However, before Gu Yunyue could let out a sigh of relief, the ground around them suddenly split apart and rays of golden light broke through to the skies.

The yellow rays immediately interlaced with each other, immediately forming a yellow circle.

A large prominent circle emblem appeared on the ground, its size about a thousand feet wide and looked extremely complex.

"An array formation!" Gu Yunyue's expression changed immediately.

All she felt was her sight blurring and the view around them changed completely. Their surroundings became a sparkling world, mountains all around them, yet the sky and earth were dazzling with a yellow color.

An indescribable strong pressure surged and surrounded them all over and immediately pulled the flying boat over. The white protective barrier around the flying boat immediately crackled and countless cracks appeared over the runes. It looked as if it would shatter any time now.

Seeing this, Liu Le'er and Yu Menghan could not help but cry out. Han Li reached out calmly and revealed a small yellow-copper clock treasure. It grew in size before it landed on the flying boat and covered Liu Le'er and Yu Menghan.

This small yellow-copper clock was a protective treasure found in the horse-faced young man's storage pouch and happened to be of use now.

Almost at the same time, with a bang, the white protective barrier around the flying boat cracked and the strong pressure overwhelmed it.

A flash sparked from the bodies of Han Li and Gu Yunyue, and the two of them withstood it.

The yellow-copper clock buzzed, its surface flashing non stop as it pushed back against the immense pressure..

"Could it be someone from the Sky Ghost Sect again?"

Although Gu Yunyue was able to force herself to stay calm, the crazy strength the array formation showed was not something normal Nascent Soul cultivators could do, so she started to panic a little.

Han Li laughed softly and scoffed, "Sky Ghost Sect? They're really persistent!".