The waves rose up into the air to form a blue water barrier that encompassed the stone platform, as well as the eight wooden dolls.
Only then did Hei'e cups his fist in a salute, and said in a respectful voice, "The altar is ready, Mistress."
The woman nodded in response before descending into the water barrier in an unhurried manner.
She then made a hand seal and began to chant something, upon which the water barrier began to shimmer with blue light.
The nearby space warped, and the entire water barrier gradually became transparent before vanishing into nothingness.
At the same time, the eight wooden dolls drifted forward to appear on the stone platform with two wooden dolls standing right next to one another on each corner.
Chapter 2019: Silenced
The woman then tossed the purple copper coin from before high up into the air, and it transformed into a large copper bowl in a flash before descending right onto the center of the stone platform.
The bowl's surface was covered in layers of complex runes, and there was a ball of purple light within it that seemed to be concealing something, but was impossible to see into.
The woman's expression remained unchanged as she pointed a finger toward the puppets one after another, and layers of black Qi suddenly appeared over the surfaces of the wooden dolls, following which eight different sinister ghostly faces were manifested.
They roared and struggled violently from behind the wooden dolls, but seemed to be bound to the dolls and were unable to get stray far away from them.
The woman paid no heed to this, and calmly instructed, "Prepare the sacrifices!"
"Yes, Mistress!" Hei'e replied before immediately rushing into the air directly above the stone platform, then abruptly laid a hand onto his own waist.
A palm-sized black leather pouch instantly flew out of his body, then swelled to around 10 feet in size before tipping itself over above the purple copper bowl.
The pouch was opened, and crimson liquid gushed out of it toward the purple ball of light.
The crimson liquid was flowing out of the pouch like an endless waterfall, but the bowl showed no sign of being filled, as if it were a bottomless pit.
Hei-e wasn't surprised at all to see this, and he merely continued to oversee the proceedings.
After a long while, more than a ton of liquid had gushed out of the leather pouch, yet it was still flowing without any signs of subsiding.
"Alright, that should be enough. It wasn't easy to collect all this blood essence from Body Integration Stage ancient beasts, so we should conserve it where possible," the woman suddenly said.
Hei'e immediately made a grabbing motion toward the leather pouch upon seeing this, and the stream of blood immediately ceased before the pouch flew back to him in a flash.
The woman took a deep breath and made a hand seal, upon which a massive pink floral tree suddenly appeared behind her.
The tree was glittering and translucent with fist-sized pink flowers growing all over its branches, all of which were giving off an intoxicating aroma.
The woman's body blurred, and she suddenly vanished before appearing directly above the tree. Her pristine bare foot was treading light upon the flower growing at the very top of the tree, and she flipped a hand over to produce a white bone blade that was very thin and extremely sharp.
She then slowly raised an arm and extended her wrist out of her sleeve before slashing the bone blade across her wrist.
A stream of viscous silver liquid immediately trickled down from her wrist and dripped onto the top of the floral tree before vanishing into it.
A loud buzzing sound rang out, and the pink tree instantly turned silver, creating a spectacular sight to behold.
After waiting for a short while, the woman withdrew her wrist before blowing onto the self-inflicted gash, which immediately disappeared amid a flash of white light.
Only then did she cast her gaze toward the purple bowl down below, and she stowed away the bone blade before producing a black handkerchief, which she tossed up into the air.
The surrounding water barrier instantly turned inky-black to keep out all of the external light, and it was as if night had suddenly fallen.
The woman raised her foot before gently stepping down onto the top of the floral tree, and the massive tree instantly exploded into specks of silver light that shot forth through the air.
Thus, silver stars were instantly added to the "night sky", and they began to slowly revolve in a profound rhythmic manner at her behest.
It was as if another world had been established within the water barrier.
Silver light flashed through the woman's eyes, and her body blurred before expanding into a giant white projection that was several hundred feet tall. An extremely delightful voice rang out, chanting an incantation, and the surrounding stars began to accelerate in their rotation around the giant white projection, forming a series of profound starry diagrams.
At the same time, the ball of light within the copper bowl suddenly began to rise up, then take on a series of different shapes under the starry night sky.
Meanwhile, a shimmering golden disk had appeared before the woman, and she was flicking her fingers toward it at different speeds, causing balls of rainbow light to come flying out of the disk.
Her movements appeared to be very relaxed and nonchalant, but with each flick of her finger, her face would pale slightly, but the silver light in her eyes was gradually becoming brighter.
Around an hour later, a group of several tens of devilish beings began to fly toward the water barrier while riding atop devilish beasts that resembled sharks with wings.
These devilish beasts appeared to be quite clumsy and maladroit, but they were actually extremely fast and reached the water barrier in the blink of an eye.
However, these devilish beings clearly hadn't noticed the concealed water barrier at all, and they were just about to fly right past it when a loud rumbling boom rang out as the water barrier suddenly reappeared before exploding on the spot.
Powerful blue light swept forth in all directions to form a giant blue vortex, and all of the devilish guards were naturally quite alarmed by this as they hurriedly took evasive measures.
At the same time, their devilish beast steeds roared as they expelled balls of azure light, which formed azure light barriers around themselves and their riders.
Enormous waves swept past, only to be parted by these light barriers, and even though none of the devilish guards were harmed, they had naturally been greatly startled. All of them immediately drew their weapons and cast their eyes toward the vortex in a bewildered manner.
The blue vortex rapidly shrank amid an insistent rumbling noise, then vanished to reveal the woman in the white dress and the black-armored man.
The woman was currently holding the golden disk, and her face was deathly pale, but the silver light in her eyes was extremely piercing and bright. She currently wore an expression that seemed to be a mixture of incredulity, elation, and hesitation, while the black-armored man was inspecting the surrounding area in a slightly surprised manner.
The Deity Transformation Stage leader of the devilish guards swept his spiritual sense toward the duo and was immediately given a massive fright. Both the woman in white and the black-armored man possessed magic power that was completely unfathomable to him.
Thus, the leader of the guards immediately jumped off his steed with astonishment in his heart, and carefully asked, "I am Shi Shuo of the Violent Devil Race; may I ask which race you are from and whether you require my assistance with anything?"
The black-armored man appraised the group of devilish guards with a cold expression before turning to the woman with a respectful look in his eyes. "Mistress, what do you want me to do with them?"
"Seeing as they've discovered us, they can't be allowed to live," the woman replied without even looking up from her disk.
Her voice was completely emotionless, as if this group of d
evilish guards were only ants in her eyes.
A ruthless light appeared in the black-armored man's eyes as he gave an affirmative reply, then turned toward the Violent Devils with a bloodthirsty expression.
"Run!"
The leader of the devilish guards immediately knew that something was wrong upon hearing the conversation between the duo, and he instantly shot back while raising a hand to release a fist-sized bead. At the same time, a giant black blade appeared beneath his feet, and he combined as one with the blade before fleeing toward the cluster of coral islands as a streak of black light.
The other devilish guards were naturally very alarmed to see this, and they also immediately fled the scene.
The black-armored man cackled as he swept both arms through the air, releasing two bursts of black Qi that swept through the surrounding area.
All types of demonic insects could be seen within the black Qi, and they immediately inundated the fleeing devilish guards, following which a string of bloodcurdling howls rang out in quick succession.
He then cast his gaze toward the streak of black light, which had fled to several thousand feet away at this point, and set off in pursuit as a gust of black wind.
Moments later, a howl of anguish rang out, and he returned carrying a bloody head in one hand.
He tossed the head into the black Qi, then returned to the woman's side as a respectful expression reappeared on his face.
At this point, the bloodcurdling cries ringing out from within the black Qi had also subsided, and the black Qi flew back into the black-armored man's body.
Throughout this entire process, the woman's eyes had remained completely glued to the golden disk in her hand, and there was a hesitant look on her face.
Chapter 2020: Barging Through by Force
"Let's go. You acted quite quickly just now, but there's still a chance that someone could've been alerted," the woman said as she stowed her disk away.
She then swept a sleeve through the air, and a burst of pink light emerged to sweep up the duo, then rose up into the air before flying away as a ball of light, heading directly toward the cluster of coral islands.
As she flew along, the woman peered into the distance through narrowed eyes in an expressionless manner.
The black-armored man cast a few furtive glances at her, and after a while, he finally couldn't help but ask, "Mistress, why did the altar suddenly explode at the end there? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. It's just that the backlash was more powerful than I anticipated, so I was unable to control it in the end. I haven't suffered any injuries, but those eight substitute puppets have all been destroyed; I won't be able to conduct divination until I refine a new set," the woman replied.
The black-armored man's heart stirred upon hearing this. "I see. Then the divination..."
"I wasn't able to complete the divination, but I did derive signs from it. The signs are quite ambiguous and even self-contradicting in some areas, but one thing's for sure: this group of people possesses something that can help me make a full recovery. Follow them closely, but make sure not to tip them off; I need some time to think so I can truly grasp what the signs are telling me," the woman said.
"Yes, Mistress, then let's give chase right away. Not only did they gather so many Body Integration Stage beings, they also traveled all the way here; they must have a massive objective," the black-armored man speculated.
"Regardless of what their objective is, we'll find out eventually if we keep following them," the woman said.
"You've already planted a tracking mark on that human woman, and we're in the shadows while they're completely out in the open; there's no way they'll be able to escape from us," the black-armored man chuckled.
The woman merely nodded and offered no reply, and the black-armored man also fell silent.
Several hours later, Han Li and the others had already stopped in the air above a massive coral island that was several hundred kilometers in size. They were hovering at an altitude of tens of thousands of feet, appraising a devilish stronghold from afar.
The devilish stronghold occupied close to half of the area of the entire island, and it was surrounded by grey walls that were over 1,000 feet tall. On top of that, there were layers of restrictions set up near it, and it was encompassed within several black light barriers.
There were devilish guards wielding all types of weapons on the stronghold's walls, as well as two-headed devilish birds flying over the stronghold.
In the air above the stronghold, there was a gargantuan black cloud that was several hundred acres in size. The cloud was churning incessantly, and arcs of silver lightning could be seen flashing within it alongside rumbling thunderclaps, giving off a very eerie and formidable appearance.
"Is this the right stronghold? Didn't you say that there weren't supposed to be many devilish beings guarding this place?" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns asked with a dark expression, and the other Holy Spirits were also clearly very displeased.
Han Li and the other human cultivators didn't say anything, but they also turned to the Long Family patriarch with skeptical looks in their eyes.
"Please don't misunderstand, fellow daoists; I sent scouts to this place not long ago, and at the time, this had only been a very small stronghold. This has also come as quite a surprise to me; it seems that more devilish beings must've been deployed to this place," the Long Family patriarch hurriedly explained with a wry smile.
"I'm sure you wouldn't lie about something like this, Brother Long, but what do you plan to do now? Should we change to a different node? With so many devilish beings present, there are most likely devilish lords among their ranks; there's a good chance that our original plan will fail here," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said as her expression eased slightly.
"There's not enough time for us to scout for another node. We've already ascertained the properties of this node, and it's the most suitable one for us. If we were to go through any node, even if we could arrive in the Elder Devilish Realm, we'd immediately be plunged into very perilous situations. It is indeed true that our original plan most likely won't work here; Devilfeign Beads are able to fool even high-grade devilish beings, but they're lacking in resistance against the power of restrictions. With so many restrictions, here, we could easily have our covers blown and be surrounded by the devilish army. As such, I suggest we simply conceal ourselves and fly toward the node. If we're exposed, then we'll just have to barge through by force. With our combined powers, even if one or two devilish lords were to stand against us, we'd be able to kill them right away. Once we enter the Elder Devil Realm, there will be no way for them to track us down," the Long Family Patriarch said as a cold look flashed through his eyes.
"I agree. With our combined powers, there really isn't all that much for us to fear, and forcing our way to the node is the simplest and most efficient way," the man from the Lin Family agreed with a nod.
"But if we do that, the devilish beings in the Elder Devil Realm will immediately receive news of what we're doing; that'll be very detrimental to our journey through the realm," the woman from the Ye Family said with her brows slightly furrowed.
"The Elder Devil Realm is an extremely massive place, and we won't be going to the cities with large gatherings of devilish beings, so even if they're made aware that foreign beings have entered their realm, there's no way for them to effectively hunt us down. Besides, it's not exactly an uncommon occurrence for foreign beings to enter the Elder Devil Realm. From what I've heard, many powerful beings from the races of our Spirit Realm would venture into the Elder Devil Realm from time to time; the devilish beings may not pay our group much heed," the black-robed elder from the Long Family countered.
Han Li merely remained silent as he stroked his chin with a calm expression, while the Holy Spirits were discussing the matter with one another through voice transmission.
Moments later, a verdict was reached, and the Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns turned to the Long Family patriar
ch as she said, "It will indeed be too much of a delay if we were to switch to a different node, so we'll do as you say, Brother Long. If our cover is blown, then we'll just have to force our way into the node, but I hope there won't be any further errors on your part once we enter the Elder Devil Realm."
The Long Family patriarch's eyelids twitched slightly, but he replied in a confident manner, "Rest assured, fellow daoists."
"In that case, let's begin right away. I'll unleash the full power of this Smokecloud Flag and do my best to get us as close as possible to the node without setting off any of the restrictions here," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said in a serious voice.
She then made a hand seal, and several streaks of light shot forth into the surrounding air, then vanished in a flash.
Blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes as he cast his gaze around him to discover that a layer of cloud and mist had appeared in the surrounding area. After just a few flashes, the cloud and mist became extremely thin, and it was barely visible even to his spirit eyes.
Han Li's heart stirred upon seeing this, and he immediately withdrew his spirit eye ability. However, Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns seemed to have sensed something, and she turned to Han Li with a meaningful look in her eyes. However, she didn't say anything and merely led the way toward the node above the devilish stronghold.
Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly, but his expression remained unchanged as he flew slowly toward the node in the distance with everyone else.
They were only several tens of kilometers away from the node above the stronghold, but during their flight, they encountered seven or eight groups of patrolling devilish guards. However, the cloud and mist that Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns had conjured up managed to conceal them flawlessly. There were some occasions where they were practically brushing shoulders with the devilish guards, yet they weren't able to sense anything.
However, when they were less than 10 kilometers away from the devilish stronghold, they finally set off an extremely profound restriction.
A dull thump rang out without any warning, following which countless black spikes shot forth out of thin air, hurtling directly toward them from all directions.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 1165