Chapter 1379

The last spirit fruit unexpectedly fell into the hands of the white-robed maiden.

This girl was also straightforward, pulling out a surprising amount of rare materials from her person in one breath, dividing them into four portions by value, and letting everyone choose freely.

The maiden's generosity was such that even the young 'wife' of Longdong and the Black Phoenix Clan could not help but feel inadequate, and reluctantly yielded the spirit fruit to her.

This small section of ten-thousand-year-old jade spirit wood was one of the materials Han Li selected.

This wood is light as nothing, unaffected by water or fire, and is one of the best materials for inscribing magic formations upon; moreover, with increasing age, it can possess a certain degree of five-element protection.

Therefore, this wood is generally used for refining large magical artifacts, and is the best material for crafting spirit vessels, flying shuttles, beast carts, and similar artifacts.

Han Li played with the spirit wood in his hand for a while, then put it away and raised his head to glance around.

This flying cart was still produced by Longdong; although its comfort and concealment were not as good as the previous Spirit Cloud Boat, its flight speed was superior.

Speaking of which, when encountering a powerful ancient beast, even the concealment formation of the Spirit Cloud Boat would probably be of little use; in that case, it would be more suitable to use this faster flying cart.

If we encounter minor troubles, we can simply use this cart's speed to shake them off.

At this moment, the flying cart had turned into a faint blue shadow in the high sky, advancing at an astonishing escape speed.

The remaining few people, aside from Longdong who was actively 'maneuvering' the flying cart, all sat silently in the corners of the cart.

Han Li's gaze retracted, and suddenly fell upon the nearby white-robed maiden, his eyes unconsciously narrowing slightly.

To say the least, among our group, the person he most feared and could not 'fathom' was this maiden who appeared to have cultivation similar to his own.

This maiden seemed somewhat young in age, and her speech and manner also appeared unusually simple, but Han Li, who had cultivated the Dayan Technique to its extreme, had his spiritual sense and intuition sharpened to an incredible degree, and he always felt that this maiden exerted the greatest pressure on him among the four; even compared to the so-called true spirit clan's blood-mark youth, she seemed several degrees more mysterious.

As Han Li was secretly pondering, the maiden sitting cross-legged in another corner, who had been closing her eyes, suddenly opened them, and her gaze met Han Li's exactly.

Han Li's heart jolted; before he could react, the maiden pursed her lips and let out a soft laugh.

Han Li felt somewhat embarrassed and gave an awkward laugh, immediately turning his face away.

In this way, he did not see a hint of playful 'color' suddenly flash in the maiden's eyes.

In the following half month, their journey became extraordinarily smooth, and they encountered no further troubles at all.

This made Longdong and the young 'wife' secretly breathe a sigh of relief, hoping only that the journey ahead would remain as smooth as it was now.

After a few more days, the surrounding scenery 'color' changed, and ahead appeared a vast expanse of yellow desert, with a scorching wind blowing straight toward them.

"Desert, could we have already reached the Southern Gen One-Line Heaven?" The white-browed youth's eyes flashed with surprise 'color'.

"Not bad, this is indeed the Southern Gen Great Desert, and also the easiest route to the Wood Clan." Longdong's voice became solemn.

"I've long heard people speak of this place. Could it really be as the rumors say, impossible to bypass this desert? This place is often frequented by Wood Clan and Shadow Clan members, and it's still too dangerous." The young 'wife' glanced around, her dark brows knitting together.

"Miss Xianzi, although this environment is somewhat harsh, it is still much more stable than the other two routes. As for going around, it is utterly impossible; on both sides of this desert, one side is the famous Tai Beast Mountain Range, filled with countless high-ranking ancient beasts, where even Void Refinement cultivators entering it are mostly doomed to never return; the other side is the even more perilous Flood Dragon Grand Canyon, where hundreds of Flood Dragons above Void Refinement level lie in ambush, and even Harmonious Body Flood Dragon kings number in the dozens, not to mention those of lower cultivation. Whether we of our two clans or other foreign races, none wish to lightly provoke this pack of evil flood dragons. How dare we, a few Soul Transformation cultivators, venture through? These three regions are vast, and even farther places would require us to waste years to detour around. Now, with war possibly breaking out at any moment, Tian Yuan City cannot let Wo En delay for such a long time." Longdong explained with a bitter smile.

"I see. However, I have also heard that this desert seems to be a trial ground for the two clans." The white-robed maiden suddenly 'interjected'.

"Before I set out, the elders in my clan likewise gave me such instructions." The white-browed youth similarly became cautious.

"If that is the case, then we should not continue riding this flying cart. It is too conspicuous, really too eye-catching. We should instead advance while concealing our forms. Even if everything goes smoothly, it would likely take months to truly pass through this desert." Longdong pondered briefly, then said thus.

"Then we shall follow the Dao friend's words." The young 'wife' thought for a moment, exchanged a glance with the white-browed youth, and then agreed.

"I also have no objection. However, riding this flying cart is indeed too conspicuous." Han Li also said with a smile.

Only the white-robed maiden 'revealed' an indifferent expression.

Thus, after the few people reached an agreement, they all escaped from the flying cart, had the blood-mark youth put away the artifact, and the group concealed their forms with magic, cautiously entering the desert.

Not long after penetrating the desert, Han Li felt that this desert was abnormal.

The temperature was indeed extremely high, far surpassing any desert Han Li had previously seen.

Even while flying at low altitude, he could still feel waves of heat radiating from the ground, as if he were not above the desert but within a great volcanic crater.

Han Li looked up at the seven shining suns in the high sky, then looked down at the ground, and with one hand raised downward, an ice cone instantly shot 'forth'.

The result was that this ice cone had not yet 'shot' to the ground when, in the high heat, it turned into a mass of white vapor and dissipated.

Seeing this, Han Li let out a light sigh.

"Han Daoist, you may not know this yet. Beneath this Southern Gen Great Desert, there originally was a vast expanse of volcanic craters!" As white light flashed beside him, the white-robed maiden actually manifested her true form beside him, saying with a soft 'yin' 'yin' laugh.

"Is that so?" I truly am not clear about this." Han Li replied without changing his 'color'.

"It is said that long ago, a heavenly phoenix possessing both wind and earth attributes 'nature' battled for over a month with a true spirit-level fire crocodile living beneath this volcanic region, using divine powers to summon endless wind and sand, which submerged this volcanic area entirely, thus forming this great desert." The maiden seemed very knowledgeable about this, speaking leisurely.

"I said, how could this desert be so strange? Now I understand! However, the divine powers of true spirit-level beings are truly hard to believe." Han Li murmured, as if answering the maiden's question and also talking to himself.

"Yes, even if we human cultivators have cultivated to the Mahayana realm, we might be able to contend somewhat with ordinary true beings, but when encountering powerful true spirit-level existences like true dragons and heavenly phoenixes, we can still only look up in awe. Who knows what it would feel like for a person to master true spirit-level divine powers?" The maiden laughed lightly, actually uttering such a sentence, then ceased paying attention to Han Li, and with a flash of escape light, arrived ahead.

Han Li gazed at the maiden's retreating back, a strange flicker crossing his face, but immediately his 'color' returned to normal, and he merely lowered his head and hurried on.

More than ten days later, Han Li and the others continued flying at low altitude; even though they were all Soul Transformation cultivators, enduring such high temperatures for such a long time while traveling left them all somewhat fatigued.

"Let's travel another half day, then find a place to rest." Longdong, who was walking at the most 'change', turned his head and said this to everyone.

"Yes, we indeed need to rest a bit and recover our magic power." The young 'wife' nodded, her words likewise carrying a hint of weariness.

"Eh, what is that?" A sudden low cry came from one side, full of surprise 'color'.

The sound was exactly that of the white-browed youth.

Upon hearing this, Han Li instinctively looked in that direction.

The result was that in the distant empty 'space' 'space', there was not the slightest thing.

With a twitch of his brow, a vast divine sense immediately swept over, and his face immediately 'revealed' a strange 'color'.

At this moment, Longdong and the others also extended their divine sense to probe, and everyone's expression turned out to be much like Han Li's, similarly becoming strange.

"There actually is a town here, and even our human race. We must not have been mistaken, have we?" Han Li's voice sounded somewhat strange.

Just after everyone's divine sense swept over, in a place dozens of miles away from them, there suddenly appeared a not-small oasis, and within the oasis was actually a half-village, half-town small city, inside which there were not a few people and cultivators' appearances.

"This place is so remote, so close to the foreign races. How could there truly be our human race? There must be something wrong." The young 'wife' moved her eyeballs, suspicion arising.

Longdong heard this, his brow twitched, his 'color' became uncertain, and he did not immediately intervene.

"Let me use my incarnation to hide and go take a look first." The white-browed youth gazed toward the oasis's direction and suddenly said this.

Subsequently, the youth moved one hand to the back of his head with a 'grasp', a phantom flashed, and a small hawk about a foot in size burst forth from the air, its entire body black and shiny-feathered; after one circle, it flew straight toward the distant small city.

The white-browed youth closed his eyes, his spiritual sense fully linked with the little hawk, just in case anything unexpected happened.

After exchanging a glance, the 'young wife' and Long Dong also seemed to think it would be better to clarify things, and did not speak to stop the white-browed youth's action.

Han Li raised his head to look toward the small town, feeling equally puzzled in his heart.

The white-robed maiden also gazed with great interest at the distance, silent.

The little hawk's escape speed was astonishingly fast—there and back took only the time to finish a cup of tea.

When the hawk flickered and disappeared once more into the white-browed youth's skull, the youth opened his eyes:

"There's no mistake—there really are humans in that small town, and there are quite a few high-level cultivators inside, seven or eight at the Spirit Transformation stage alone, though I didn't see any Void Refinement cultivators outside." The white-browed youth said firmly.

Upon hearing this, everyone else naturally wore expressions of surprise.

"No need to worry about the city—we'll just proceed according to the original plan. No need to complicate things unnecessarily." Han Li spoke calmly.

"That wouldn't be right! This matter is indeed suspicious—perhaps something major happened in the desert. We should inquire carefully before moving on, otherwise we might rush headlong into danger." Long Dong, however, shook his head and said.

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