Thus, the four young women accompanied them out of the carriage before closing the door again.
At this moment, Han Li had sat down in a chair with his eyes closed, seemingly experiencing the effect of the talismans within his body.
The four young women glanced at one another after returning to the carriage before Liu'er suddenly smiled, and asked, "Brother Han, have you really mastered the third layer of the Vajra Arts?"
"I was merely lucky," Han Li replied in an ambiguous manner.
Chapter 1270: Sandbug Beasts
"You appear to be no more than 30 years of age, yet you've already reached such a high level of mastery in the Vajra Arts. It's no wonder that Leader Zhang holds you in such high regard, Brother Han," Liu'er praised with a hint of a smile on her face.
"You're far too kind, Sister Liu'er. By the way, I've already signed a blood curse contract, but I don't actually know much at all about the Heavenly East Enterprise. Would you be able to tell me about it?" Han Li asked with a smile.
"Looks like you're not from our Heavenly Origin Region, Brother Han. Otherwise, you wouldn't be asking such a question," Liu'er chuckled with a hint of amusement in her eyes.
"Why do you say that? Is the Heavenly East Enterprise quite renowned in these parts?" Han Li was rather intrigued to hear this.
"Renowned? That we certainly are, Brother Han. Ours is one of the three largest enterprises in the entire Heavenly Origin Region, and we have branches in several hundred cities. Our main branch has even been set up in the Heavenly Origin Sacred City," Liu'er replied with a slightly smug expression.
Unfortunately, none of that meant anything to Han Li, who had just ascended to the Spirit Realm.
In his mind, several hundred cities wasn't a lot; any small country in the human world could easily consist of several hundred cities. However, it appeared from Liu'er's boastful tone that this was already quite an achievement. Han Li didn't know whether that was because she simply hadn't seen any truly powerful organizations or if cities here were a lot larger than they were in the human world.
In any case, he pretended to put on a mildly impressed expression as he nodded, and said, "I see, our enterprise is indeed quite large in that case. I heard from your discussion earlier that we were traveling to An Yuan City; may I ask where that is and how long it'll take for us to get there?"
"You sly man, you were eavesdropping on our conversation!" a young woman in a red dress chuckled.
Han Li cleared his throat in a rather speechless manner. They had been conversing in such a loud voice that it would’ve been quite difficult not to "eavesdrop" on their conversation.
"Don't be rude, Sheng'er. Please don't take her words to heart, Brother Han. Sheng'er is quite young and she bears no ill will." Liu'er scolded the girl in red before turning to Han Li with an apologetic look.
In her eyes, even though Han Li was only a new member of their Heavenly East Enterprise, he was a man with immeasurable potential and would surely become an integral member of their enterprise in the future. As such, she naturally wanted to avoid irking Han Li.
Han Li smiled upon hearing this, and he was just about to respond when the carriage tremored slightly as the giant tortoise came to an abrupt halt.
Liu'er's expression faltered before she immediately yelled, "What happened, Uncle Wang?"
"Our Crimson Spirit Sparrow up ahead discovered a group of Sandbug Beasts, and they seem to be onto us," the elderly coach driver outside replied.
"It's just a group of Sandbug Beast, just deploy some people to chase them away. We're already going to be late, so we have to make haste." Liu'er seemed to be rather displeased.
"The problem is, one of those Sandbug Beasts has evolved into a low-grade insect beast and attained intelligence, so it could spell trouble for us if we don't kill them," the elderly man replied with a wry smile.
"A low-grade insect beast? That is indeed a little troublesome, but Leader Zhang has already mastered the fifth layer of the Tyrant Tiger Arts, hasn't he? In that case, it shouldn't be an issue for him to slay that insect beast with the Golden Luster Sword that the mistress bestowed upon him," Liu'er analyzed.
"You're indeed correct, Liu'er, but this insect beast has a few mutated insects beast guarding it, so it would be quite risky even for Leader Zhang to face them," the elderly coach driver replied in a hesitant voice.
"Mutated insect bests! That really is a little dangerous, but don't we have Daoist Priest Nan Qizi and the other cultivators? Just get them to take care of this matter," Liu'er instructed after a brief pause.
"Leader Zhang has already requested for their assistance, but was turned down. The cultivators are all from the Goulou Mountains, and they're unwilling to attack unless the insect beasts attack them first," the elderly man sighed.
"We really are in some trouble, then. I said from the various beginning not to hire those cultivators from Goulou Mountains. They're always restricted by this rule or that regulation," Sheng'er scoffed as she wrinkled her nose with disdain.
"Daoist Priest Nan Qizi and the others are not to blame. Most of the cultivators on the Goulou Mountains practice insect-manipulation arts, so it's simply bad luck that we encountered insect beasts rather than other types of beasts. I'll release the thing that the mistress left with me before she departed so we can give Leader Zhang a hand. You go an inform him of this, and I'll go to see him soon." A grim look appeared on Liu'er's face.
"With that thing, we'll definitely have no problems dealing with the insect beasts." The elderly coach driver seemed to have been greatly relieved upon hearing this arrangement.
"Big Sister Liu'er, are you really going to release that thing? The mistress will punish you if something goes wrong." Xiang'er was rather concerned in contrast.
"Don't worry, that thing has already been tamed by the mistress, and possesses a certain degree of intelligence. Its power is comparable even to that of low-grade demon beasts, let alone a few mutated insect beasts." Liu'er gave her a confident smile before striding out of the carriage.
"I have a bad feeling about this. I'm going to have a look." Sheng'er bit down on her lower lip before also departing from the carriage.
Xiang'er and the last girl glanced at one another before wry smiles appeared on their faces. Neither of them said anything, but they seemed to have a tacit understanding with one another as they also exited the carriage.
As such, Han Li was the only one left in the carriage.
He sat in his chair and narrowed his eyes with a contemplative look on his face.
A few moments later, the thunderous roar of a tiger that was filled with a sense of violence and bloodlust erupted from nearby.
Han Li stirred slightly upon seeing this before slowly rising to his feet and making his way toward the carriage door.
After pushing open the door, Han Li strode out of the carriage in an unhurried manner, standing on the edge of the giant tortoise's shell as he looked into the distance.
The light of all seven moons in the sky was illuminating their surroundings, so Han Li was able to see everything around him with great clarity.
He could see that their band of carriages stretched for around 500 meters, and there were over 30 of these giant tortoise beasts situated at regular intervals down the line.
Most of them were carrying massive cargo crates that were no smaller than the tortoises themselves, and all of them also had four or five armored guards standing on their backs. At the same time, there were also knights riding atop giant wolf steeds traveling on either side of them, making sure that they were very well guarded.
However, none of those giant tortoises caught Han Li's interest.
Instead, he was more intrigued by a cuboid object that was around 20 feet tall enshrouded under a glistening black cloth. At this moment, the middle-aged man, the four young women, and Nan Qizi were all standing around this object.
Low beastly snarls could be heard coming from beneath the back cloth.
Furthermor
e, there were runes shimmering over the surface of the cloth, indicating that it was a low-grade treasure.
At this moment, Liu'er was holding a badge in her hand, from within which swaths of blue light were radiating forth.
Even though they were situated quite far away, Han Li could see everything they were doing with perfect clarity through the use of his Brighsight Spirit Eyes. As such, he was able to catch a glimpse of a green bracelet on Liu'er's hand, which had tiny shimmering spirit stones embedded onto its surface.
A contemplative look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.
It appeared that these so-called spirit tools could only be used by mortals if they had an external power source. Seeing as they had spirit stones embedded into them, it was clearly the case that they would lose their efficacy once the spiritual Qi within those spirit stones was exhausted.
Just as Han Li was pondering this notion, the black cloth seemed to have absorbed sufficient blue light, and it suddenly disappeared as a vast expanse of black smoke, revealing an intricately crafted silvery beast cage within.
Inside this cage was a crimson tiger beast.
From its outward appearance, this beast appeared to be no different from an ordinary tiger, aside from the fact that its fur was as crimson as blood. However, all of the bystanders were struck by an involuntary sense of fear as they cast their eyes toward this beast.
At the sight of so many people standing around its cage, a vicious light abruptly flashed through the beast's eyes. All of a sudden, it pounced violently without any warning, crashing heavily into the cage, causing the entire structure to tremor violently.
Everyone's expressions changed as they retreated involuntarily.
Liu'er took a deep breath before raising her badge again, upon which crimson light began to surface over the badge.
Strangely enough, as soon as the tiger beast caught sight of this red light, the ferocious gleam in its eyes immediately disappeared, and it lay down at the center of the cage like a tame kitten.
Zhang Kui and the others were all greatly relieved to see this.
Right at this moment, the clear cry of a bird suddenly rang out from afar, and it was as if it were trying to transmit some kind of message.
A grim expression appeared on Zhang Kui's face as he yelled, "Those insect beasts have sped up and have already surrounded us. Everyone, prepare for battle, but don't stray far away from the carriages; let them come to us. I'll lead a group to slay that low-grade insect demon. None of these other insects have any intelligence, so once that thing dies, all of the insects will disperse on their own."
His words sent a stir throughout the entire squad.
All of them began to converge toward the giant tortoises that were carrying cargo, and all of the knights had drawn their blades as they sat atop their massive wolf steeds with wary expressions.
Meanwhile, Liu'er issued a command, and someone opened the cage to release the tiger beast.
The elderly coach driver turned to Han Li with a smile, and said, "Brother Han, you're yet to recover from your injuries, so it's best if you return to the carriage for your own safety. These Sandbug Beasts can't jump and the carriage is constructed from Heavy Iron Wood, so you'll be safe in there."
"Thank you for your words of caution. I haven't ever seen Sandbug Beasts before, so I want to see them for myself. If it gets dangerous here, I'll be sure to return to the carriage," Han Li replied with a nonchalant smile.
Chapter 1271: Attack of the Insects
“Hehe, in that case, this old man won’t dissuade you any further, Brother Han.” The elderly coach driver chuckled and kept quiet.
Han Li smiled and looked around him once before. Then he stood up from the tortoise without another word.
Because the giant tortoise was at the center of the caravan, it had stopped in place. The other tortoise carriages also quickly gathered around it.
Not long after, over thirty tortoise carriages circled around one another.
The soldiers mounting large wolves gathered together in a group numbering over fifty, creating a defensive perimeter around them. A large man with a scarred face was leading them, and strangely enough, the young blue-robed woman was mixed among them with a crimson tiger crouched at her side.
Bird cries sounded from a distance and seemed to be growing closer and more fervent as time passed by. Several small crimson birds soon appeared and continuously circled in the air. The scarred man harshly shouted, “Prepare to fight! Have the tortoises lay down in full defensive positions!”
With that said, the tortoise drivers cracked a whip above the tortoises’ heads, and the tortoises each slowly crouched down, then withdrawing their head and legs into their huge shells. They appeared the same as large azure boulders.
The sound of quaking earth sounded from far away with large clouds of dust spitting out from the ground and surging towards them.
The scarred man’s face turned icy and he wordlessly waved his hand. The cavalrymen raised their wolf tooth clubs in a trained manner.
When Han Li saw this, a trace of surprise appeared from his face, but before he could think more of the matter, he saw something that left him surprised.
The scarred man suddenly tossed a green medicine pill into his mouth, soon letting out a large yell after. Yellow light circulated through his body and thin yellow fur spouted forth from his skin, turning his irises into a deep green.
Afterwards, he knocked his feet against the wolf he mounted, and the wolf immediately shot forward with a roar.
The other cavalrymen hadn’t undergone such a strange transformation, but by circulating their own techniques, light shined from their bodies and they followed after their leader in a fearless charge.
Several tens of cavalrymen swept up a dust cloud as they charged forward.
‘What’s going on? Could it be this person is a metamorphosed demon beast? Impossible, he would have to be a demon beast at a metamorphosed stage. He can’t be such a high-grade demon cultivator.
And from the soldiers’ lack of reaction, this sight is common in the spirit realm. It appears that I’ll need to spend more time in the spirit realm to understand it. Regardless, the scarred man’s transformation and those so-called spirit bodies are something I’ve never heard of in the mortal realm.”
In his surprise, his thoughts quickly churned, quickly discovering there were quite a few differences in this world compared to the mortal realm.
At that moment, the scarred man let the troops over a kilometer away from the caravan to meet the roiling dust clouds. Soon after, sounds of battle and shouts followed, but only the central part of the dust clouds was stopped. The sides split off and continued to charge in the direction of the caravan.
In the blink of an eye, dust drifted over the soldiers and concealed them.
“Attack!”
It was unknown who let out the first shout, but following that, the guards that remained at the caravan raised their bows and began to release their arrows.
A rain of arrows launched from the caravan.
Muffled thuds sounded as the arrows landed and the dust cloud’s momentum was greatly slowed. But soon after, the clouds rolled away as several black silhouettes pounced from the dust to reveal yellow worms that were three meters long.
They each appeared quite flat and had massive mouths on their heads. They also had a pair of antennae waving around from the top of their heads,
These were the so-called Sandbug Beasts.
When Han Li saw them, this face faintly changed. He exterminated countless such demon beasts during his time in the Scattered Star Seas, but they were far more deadly and powerful than the current worms before him.
As soon as the worms appeared, the sound of tearing winds sounded, followed by the glint of a dozen arrows piercing into the worms. But apart from one arrow striking at one of their mouths, the rest of the injuries didn’t seem to be lethal. Rather, they only further incited the worms. Regardless of the blood leaking from
their bodies, they pounced onto the nearest tortoise.
The four guards on the tortoise remained calm and brandished their blades to meet the attack.
It was clear they cultivated a peculiar technique. Although they weren’t able to defeat the worms in one fell sweep, each of their strikes left long gashes on the worms’ bodies, forcing them to the ground.
For a time, the huge worms twitched on the ground, suffering from their heavy injuries.
But then, more giant worms emerged from the dust clouds, slowly trickling out in an unending streak. In the blink of an eye, the caravan found themselves surrounded.
Naturally, a huge battle erupted.
Shouts and dancing blades were abruptly mixed together, scattering blood in the air.
At the center of the tortoise carriage, Han Li was in the most defended position, but apart from him and the carriage driver, there was no one else present. The three young women with him had disappeared at an unknown time.
Having no need to worry about his safety for the time being, Han Li looked at the surrounding battle at his leisure.
But a while later, he unconsciously frowned.
It was as the old carriage driver said. Because of the worm’s giant size, there was a limit to how high they could jump. Most of them could only jump at the side of the tortoise shells, not over them, granting the guards a prime opportunity to strike.
As a result, the guards have had a massive advantage since the beginning.
But due to the overwhelming number of worms, the yellow clouds have yet to disappear. It was impossible to see through their true numbers, but in such a short amount of time, over three hundred worms have attacked the caravan.
Although the worms’ movements were clumsy, they each had rough hides and thick flesh. Even with a dozen slashes, the worms could continue to attack so long as none of their vitals were struck.
The increasing numbers of worms meant that it was impossible to maintain a tight defense. Eventually, a few of them managed to jump over the tortoises and injure the guards.
If one wasn’t able to dodge out of the way, a guard would lose an arm to a huge worm’s mouth. If a worm came from behind, it was possible to lose one’s head. And when they managed to jump on top of the tortoises, they were also able to use their thick antennae as ferocious weapons.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 705