"Naturally, I have a fair amount of confidence in doing this. Besides, for the sake of the Spirit Fruit, would Miss Zi Ling not dare to take even this small risk?" Han Li's lips curled upward slightly, his expression caught somewhere between a smile and not.
"Judging from what I know of Brother Han — if he isn't completely certain about something dangerous, he would never take the risk. It seems Fellow Daoist Han must have some secret technique that can bypass those invisible spatial rifts. In that case, this little woman would be rude to refuse." Zi Ling was taken aback for a moment, then her bright eyes flickered briefly before she broke into a charming, light smile.
Then her white silhouette flickered, and she alighted gracefully upon the Wind Chariot.
Han Li glanced at her with some surprise, but said nothing as he flew aboard himself.
In an instant, with Han Li's urging, the Wind Chariot transformed into a streak of white radiance and tore through the sky.
Han Li's deduction proved correct. After pursuing for just over half a day, near a stretch of desolate and barren terrain, the two of them finally caught up to the Ghost Spirit Gate group.
Elder Zhong and his companions were frantically struggling to extricate themselves — a Ghost Spirit Gate disciple's momentary lapse had triggered an ancient minor restriction nearby.
With his cautious nature and spiritual sense fully deployed, Han Li naturally went undetected by the old man surnamed Zhong. Instead, relying on his powerful spiritual sense, he quietly scanned the group from afar. He clearly sensed the spiritual fluctuations of the ancient restriction — they weren't particularly strong. At most, it could keep the Ghost Spirit Gate people occupied for a while, but it wouldn't be able to truly trap someone with mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivation like Elder Zhong for very long.
However, this brief delay was a rare opportunity for Han Li. It was more than enough to shake them off.
Han Li piloted the Wind Chariot, steeled his resolve, and boldly deviated from the original course, taking a wide detour.
Before long, having navigated around several spatial rifts along the way, Han Li had finally left the Ghost Spirit Gate cultivators far behind and guided Zi Ling toward a range of mountains so lush they seemed to drip with emerald.
Upon seeing the mountain range, Han Li sent forth a thought, and the Wind Chariot slowly came to a halt.
"That's right — this is the place. Look at that peak shaped like a flying bird. That's the mark, alright." Zi Ling recognized at a glance one of the peaks among the range that resembled a great bird. She spoke with some excitement, and couldn't help stealing a glance at Han Li.
In truth, though Zi Ling had spoken with great confidence earlier and seemed to trust Han Li completely, actually watching him drive the Wind Chariot at breakneck speed had kept her heart lodged in her throat the entire time.
She hadn't expected that the route under Han Li's guidance would prove to be perfectly safe. Not only had every spatial rift been avoided, but not a single hidden ancient restriction had been triggered — they had flown all the way here without a hitch.
Zi Ling naturally didn't know that Han Li himself was secretly sighing with relief.
While the avoidance of spatial rifts was thanks to the miraculous power of his Clear Bright Spirit Eye, that they hadn't triggered any hidden ancient restrictions after deviating from the course was genuinely just good fortune.
Han Li thought this to himself, but his face betrayed nothing. He merely narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at the peculiar peak in the distance, silent.
The direction the bird's beak was pointing should be where the final marker lay.
"Brother Han, aren't we going to head out? Or should we destroy this peak first?" After waiting for a while and seeing that Han Li remained lost in thought, Zi Ling suggested with a touch of anxiety.
"According to the jade slip, the last marker should be in a desert region, within a thousand li of this peak — I'm not wrong, am I?" Han Li suddenly asked.
"That's right. Brother Han, you mean..." Zi Ling seemed to catch on.
"It's simple. If we destroy this peak, the other party only needs to see the freshly ruined summit, and they'll know immediately that this is where the next marker is. Moreover, the last marker is in a desert — such a conspicuous location. If they spend a little more time searching the surrounding area, they'll find it. The same way we followed the markers all the way here. The only way to buy some extra time is to set up an illusion formation to conceal the peak and see if we can mislead them into missing this marker." Han Li said calmly.
"What you say has merit, Brother Han. But this mountain is so large — what kind of illusion formation could cover the entire peak and deceive a Nascent Soul cultivator's spiritual sense? Could it be that you also cultivate illusion techniques?" Zi Ling said, her voice wavering with uncertainty.
"Heh. I'm not particularly well-versed in illusion techniques, but someone else is." Han Li smiled and spoke calmly.
Then he flicked his sleeve, and a beam of white light shot out. When it struck the ground and blazed with brilliance, a graceful and beautiful young woman in white emerged from the spiritual radiance.
"Greetings, Master!" The woman performed a curtsy toward Han Li — it was Silver Moon.
"Who is she?" Zi Ling was shocked upon seeing Silver Moon and couldn't help but cry out.
"This is Silver Moon. You can think of her as a servant of mine, I suppose. Silver Moon — can you set up an illusion formation within a short time to conceal that peak?" Han Li offered a casual, abbreviated explanation before pointing toward the mountain not far away and asking about the illusion formation.