“Everyone, don't let your guard down. Who knows what kind of ghosts we'll run into next...”

No sooner had Shi Chuan Kong spoken than a huge, two-headed crocodile, covered in rotten mud, burst out of the nearby swamp. It opened its mouth wide enough to swallow the entire flying boat and snapped its jaws along the ground.

“Brother Shi, wouldn't you say you have a bit of a black tongue?” Hu San asked with a smile.

Shi Chuan Kong ignored him, made a hand gesture, and a layer of seemingly thin silver light appeared, blocking the side of the flying boat.

With a muffled "bang,"

The two-headed crocodile crashed into the silver light barrier. It was as if it had been struck by a giant hammer weighing ten thousand tons. Both of its massive heads shattered simultaneously, its jaws and teeth splintering, and its flesh became a bloody mess.

"Tsk, tsk, this fellow doesn't seem to have much intelligence, but it certainly has strength," said Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ upon seeing this.

"There's an even bigger one up ahead..." Han Li suddenly reminded.

As soon as he finished speaking, a flash of green light appeared in his hand, and a Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Sword was already in his grasp. He soared into the air, and with a horizontal sweep of his arm, slashed forward.

A streak of green sword light shot out, disappearing into the swamp ahead in a flash, instantly exploding.

“Aow…”

Along with a shrill roar, large patches of blood, like boiling oil, bubbled up from the swamp.

Immediately afterward, a massive creature, identical in appearance to the previous monster but ten times larger, floated up from the swamp, its corpse split into two sections, falling to either side.

Then, with a "whoosh," the silver flying boat charged straight through the middle, vanishing in a flash.

"Haha... With the two of you escorting us, my spirit boat can fly even faster, without any worries! Splendid!" Hu San said with a laugh while urging the silver flying boat onward.

They headed straight for the Mí Chén smoke, and the pink mist surged towards them.

Before long, the two met less than a thousand miles from You Fu Island.

As soon as the silver flying boat entered the pink mist, its forward speed immediately slowed down.

Han Li and the others focused their minds and released their divine senses, scanning in all directions.

"As expected... the divine sense within this Mí Chén Illusionary Smoke is greatly suppressed. You can't probe very far at all, making it impossible to distinguish east, west, south, or north," Hu San said.

"In that case, we must be even more careful, each responsible for one direction," Shi Chuan Kong said solemnly, glancing back.

Han Li frowned slightly, also somewhat surprised. With the strength of his divine sense, he could only cover an area of a few dozen miles in this mist.

"It doesn't matter. If there are any mountain gate ruins, I will sense them," said Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ.

As he spoke, he flipped his palm, and a pink round bead the size of a longan appeared in his palm. It looked like an ordinary clam pearl, but with a circle of tiny golden inscriptions around it, emitting flashes of light.

"What is this?" Shi Chuan Kong glanced at it and asked.

"This thing is called the 'True Word Pearl.' It's a magic treasure given to me by my sect elders. Originally, it wasn't very useful. It was just a token for me to freely use the teleportation arrays within the sect for convenience. However, after the sect was destroyed, this pearl is probably the only one left in the outside world," Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ said slowly, a look of reminiscence appearing on his face.

"Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ means that this True Word Pearl can help us find the ruins?" Han Li asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"This pearl can connect with more than three hundred teleportation arrays within the sect. Once there are any remaining teleportation arrays nearby, this pearl will sense them. However, because of the Mí Chén Illusionary Smoke, I estimate that its sensing distance will be greatly reduced, at most not exceeding a hundred miles," Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ said, neither confirming nor denying Han Li's question.

"Being able to do that much is already excellent. If we can really find a complete teleportation array, we might be able to directly enter the True Word Sect," Hu San nodded thoughtfully, saying.

Han Li listened to their words, his gaze falling into the distance. At the end of his line of sight, a section of dark red roof corner and eaves emerged from the mist.

Immediately afterward, a three-story brick and stone archway, hundreds of feet tall, appeared from the mist. The red paint on it was mottled, the bricks and stones were broken, and the eaves had collapsed, as if it had experienced the vicissitudes of time and become dilapidated.

"This is... Wū Liáng Ward, one of the ten archways outside the sect's merchant street," Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ suddenly said, seeing the vaguely discernible characters on the plaque of the archway.

"Good luck... Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ is revisiting his old haunts this time," Hu San said with a look of joy, urging the spirit boat to fly towards it.

"Friend Hu San, hold on... that's just an illusion," Han Li suddenly reminded.

The silver flying boat came to a sudden stop, hovering more than a hundred feet away from the archway.

The other three were surprised and looked back at Han Li, discovering that his eyes were flashing with a deep purple light, looking very strange and peculiar.

"Eh, could this be... Nine Netherworld Demon Eyes? Fellow Daoist Li, why do you have our demon race's spiritual eye power?" Shi Chuan Kong asked with a frown.

"Li is just a rogue cultivator, with a somewhat mixed bag of skills. I've made you all laugh," Han Li said with a laugh, without explaining further.

Shi Chuan Kong's eyes flashed with a hint of doubt upon hearing this, but he didn't pursue the matter. Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ, on the other hand, had a flicker in his eyes, feeling that this Fellow Daoist Li Han was becoming more and more unfathomable.

"Haha, it seems that bringing Fellow Daoist Li this time was truly a lucky find," Hu San said with a hearty laugh.

With that, he raised his sleeve and waved it violently, and a beam of light shot out from in front of him, striking the archway.

The moment the light hit the archway, a ball of silver light suddenly lit up, transforming into a huge silver light vortex with a radius of hundreds of feet. A terrifying spatial force came from within, tearing and twisting the entire archway into a ball, swallowing it.

In the end, only a fist-sized black hole remained, tearing at the surrounding space until it slowly closed.

Hu San's smile immediately stiffened upon seeing this.

"Fortunately, Fellow Daoist Li informed us in advance. If we had rushed over so blindly, we would probably have been pulled into the spatial rift by now," Shi Chuan Kong said with some lingering fear.

As soon as he finished speaking, a burst of enchanting celestial music sounded from all directions, and a slightly intoxicating fragrance spread out. When everyone looked around again, they were surprised to find that large expanses of palace buildings had appeared in the mist.

Their silver flying boat was no longer traveling over the swamp, but was squeezing through a dense sea of flowers, scattering countless petals in all directions.

Surrounding the sea of flowers were carved balustrades and jade steps, as well as closely arranged pavilions and towers, interconnected with various palaces in the distance.

On the corridors were beautiful celestial maidens dressed in various colorful palace attire, some holding celestial fruits and spiritual fruits, some carrying jade bottles of nectar, and some carrying palace lanterns, gracefully heading towards the pavilions.

In those pavilions, many immortals sat facing each other, either drinking wine together, reciting poems aloud, or playing chess, creating a harmonious banquet scene.

Upon seeing this, Hu San hurriedly stopped the flying boat, not daring to advance rashly, and asked, "Brother Shi, your Godly Spirit Pill doesn't seem to be working. How is this illusion getting stronger and stronger?"

"Fellow Daoist Hu San, you've wronged Fellow Daoist Shi. It's just that this illusion is too powerful. If we hadn't taken the Godly Spirit Pill, our minds would probably have been trapped in the illusion by now, and we wouldn't even know that we were in an illusion," Han Li explained for Shi Chuan Kong.

He hadn't taken the Godly Spirit Pill, so he knew even better how truly powerful this illusion was. If he hadn't already activated the Refining God Art to protect his sea of consciousness, he might have been caught as well.

"Fellow Daoist Li, does your spiritual eye power have a way to break this illusion?" Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ asked.

"My spiritual eyes can only help everyone avoid danger, but they can't break the illusion. However, if Fellow Daoist Shi were to use the power of spatial laws, perhaps he could dispel the nearby Mí Chén Illusionary Smoke, which could break a portion of the illusion," Han Li shook his head and said, changing the topic.

"This method is theoretically feasible, but the consumption is too great, and it can't break too large an area of the illusion. For our situation, it's just a drop in the bucket," Shi Chuan Kong said with a troubled expression.

"How about this? Let Fellow Daoist Li use his spiritual eye power to help us avoid danger, Fellow Daoist Rè Huǒ use the True Word Pearl to sense the teleportation array, and when something is discovered, let Brother Shi find a way to break the illusion. As for me, how about I be the boatman for everyone?" Hu San thought for a moment and said.

"This method is feasible," Han Li and Shi Chuan Kong exchanged a glance and nodded at the same time.

"Alright, let's do it that way," Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ also agreed.

After agreeing on the plan, they set off again, flying slowly forward.

"After leaving the flower bushes ahead, don't continue forward. Turn to the left," Han Li directed, his purple light flickering slightly in his eyes.

"Directly crashing into that corridor bridge?" Hu San asked hesitantly.

"Trust me," Han Li said.

Hu San grinned, then stopped speaking and controlled the flying boat to move slowly.

After the silver flying boat rushed out of a patch of flower bushes, it turned sharply to the left and crashed straight into a corridor bridge.

The white jade railings on the corridor bridge seemed to be made of paper. They were torn apart in an instant, and the bodies of Han Li and the others collided with the bodies of the celestial maidens on the bridge, directly passing through them.

"After going out, go forward about seventy feet, then turn right again..." Under Han Li's guidance, the silver flying boat passed through layers of illusions and continued inward.

About half an hour later, as the silver flying boat passed through an illusory lotus pond, Immortal Venerable Rè Huǒ suddenly exclaimed in surprise:

"Found it!"