The Spirit Race had a far smaller population compared to the neighboring races, and Han Li and the others had specifically chosen a more secluded route, so they naturally encountered very few Spirit beings.
Of the few Spirit beings that they did encounter, none of them suspected the Devil Crystal Puppets standing on the Inkspirit Holy Ark, and some of the Artifact Spirit beings even extended greetings toward their "brethren".
The puppets responded to those greetings at Han Li's behest, and no suspicions were raised.
Two months later, the ark finally arrived in Jade Smoke City, the largest city in the Spirit Race territory.
Close to 100,000 kilometers away from this city was the sacred land of the entire Spirit Race, Concealed Spirit Mountain.
The Spirit Monarch resided on this mountain alongside some holy guards that had sworn vows to stay on the mountain for as long as they lived.
According to the rules of the Spirit Race, the area within a radius of 15,000 kilometers of this mountain was a restricted region that couldn't be accessed by any Spirit beings below the Body Integration Stage.
Even those at or above the Body Integration Stage couldn't enter the top half of the mountain without an invitation from the Spirit Monarch; they would only be able to linger on the bottom half of the mountain for a short time.
A few years ago, the Spirit Monarch had suddenly declared that he was going into seclusion to cultivate a mysterious secret technique, and he passed down the duty of overseeing the Spirit Race to several of his most trusted Holy Spirits before completely isolating himself on the mountain, refusing to meet anyone.
Something like this had never happened in the past, and it naturally created a massive stir in the Spirit Race. However, the Holy Spirits were also very authoritative figures, and under their combined efforts, any major unrest was circumvented, but there were naturally many rumors that had arisen.
A tense atmosphere had settled over the entire Spirit Race during this period of time, and Han Li and the others learned about all of this on the way here.
They were quite surprised by this unexpected change in the Spirit Race, but that didn't change their objective of meeting the Spirit Monarch.
After all, the Spirit Monarch had made a deal with a foreign Grand Ascension Stage being not long, so he was clearly plotting something in secret rather than actually cultivating in seclusion.
Regardless of what the Spirit Monarch was planning, Han Li and Mo Jianli were determined to obtain the Sanqing Lightning Talismans.
After a brief discussion, they decided to park the Inkspirit Holy Ark near Jade Smoke City, leaving Silvermoon and the others behind, along with all of the Devil Crystal Puppets.
After that, the two of them traveled toward Concealed Spirit Mountain together. Even if something were to happen during their meeting with the Spirit Monarch, the two of them would be able to look after one another.
Half a day later, Han Li and Mo Jianli arrived at Concealed Spirit Mountain in a stealthy manner.
Han Li looked up and was greeted by the sight of a lush mountain that was over 100,000 feet tall with a series of five-colored rainbows above it.
Han Li's pupils immediately contracted slightly upon seeing this.
He could sense extremely formidable spiritual pressure emanating from this Concealed Spirit Mountain, indicating that it was an immensely powerful treasure not inferior to his extreme mountains.
"Interesting! The Spirit Monarch has completely sealed this place at the expense of revealing the holy mountain's true form; looks like there really is something fishy going on," Mo Jianli mused in an intrigued voice.
It was clear that he had also made the same observations as Han Li.
"Looks like the Spirit Monarch has set up some extremely powerful restrictions here; should we scale this mountain?" Han Li asked in a calm manner.
"Why not? The restrictions here are indeed quite powerful, but they're not powerful enough to stop us. Besides, if we don't display some of our power, the Spirit Monarch may not even be willing to grant us an audience. You're not having cold feet now, are you, Fellow Daoist Han?" Mo Jianli chuckled.
"Of course not; I'm more than willing to see this through to the end," Han Li replied with a calm smile, and after a brief discussion, the two of them decided to split up.
Mo Jianli made a hand seal as he began to chant something, and a white halo appeared around his body.
Immediately thereafter, his body melted away into a puddle of unremarkable transparent liquid, which quickly seeped into the ground.
A hint of surprise flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, and he immediately swept a sleeve through the air, releasing a talisman that exploded into countless purple runes, which inundated his body before disintegrating into clouds of purple mist.
Once the mist faded, Han Li had also vanished on the spot.
That talisman was none other than a High Zenith Invisibility Talisman that Han Li had refined not long ago.
He very rarely used this talisman after reaching the Body Integration Stage, but that didn't mean that the talisman was no longer of much use to him.
On the contrary, due to the fact that the talisman was refined using a secret technique from the True Immortal Realm, its efficacy would increase alongside Han Li'S cultivation base. Unfortunately, the materials required to refine this talisman were extremely rare, and he had completely exhausted his supply in the past.
Even after making such rapid progress in his cultivation base, he was only able to refine a few more of these talismans, so he naturally wasn't going to use them lightly.
With his current abilities, it was extremely rare for him to have to conceal himself, but it was required for him to sneak into this Concealed Spirit Mountain to meet the Spirit Monarch in secret.
After attaining an insubstantial body, Han Li rose up into the air and drifted toward the mountain up ahead.
As soon as he entered Concealed Spirit Mountain, he could clearly sense several layers of restriction fluctuations wash over his body, but they were completely unable to detect him.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.
It was clear that after reaching the Grand Ascension Stage, his High Zenith Invisibility Talismans had become even more efficacious.
Thus, he didn't hesitate any longer as he drifted straight up toward the mountain peak.
Through a spiritual sense connection, he could clearly sense that Mo Jianli had also traveled into the mountain somehow, and he was silently passing through the mountain's rocky terrain without any impediment.
Thus, the two of them scaled the mountain in a completely stealthy manner.
Along the way, they would occasionally encounter some Spirit guards, all of whom wore suits of armor of different colors and possessed powerful auras.
Most of them were at the Deity Transformation Stage and Spatial Tempering Stage, which made them high-grade beings among the Spirit Race, but on this mountain, they were merely ordinary guards.
It seemed that this holy mountain really was guarded very securely, but that certainly wasn't going to stop a pair of Grand Ascension Stage beings like Han Li and Mo Jianli.
Han Li drifted up the mountain without any inhibitions, and he quickly reached the halfway point, upon which he caught sight of a massive purple building in the distance.
There was a white-robed middle-aged man seated on each side of the building's entrance, and among the two men, one of them was completely bald, but had a pair of graceful and refined features.
As for his companion, this was an extremely hideous man with pits and bumps all over his face and a ball of crimson flames burning on his head.
However, what drew Han Li's attention naturally wasn't their appearance. Instead, it was the fact that one of them was at the mid-Body Integration Stage, while the other was a late-Body Integration Stage being.
Could it be that these were two of the holy spirits responsible for overseeing all matters on the holy mountain?
Even as he was contemplating all of this, Han Li didn't pause for even a moment and quickly passed by the building.
The eyes of the two Body Integration Stage Spirit beings remained tightly shut, seemingly having completely failed to detect Han Li.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he was just about to continue onward when the building suddenly began to buzz loudly and flash with purple light.
"Who goes there?"
The two Spirit beings immediately opened their eyes before lashing out one after another.
A four-armored Buddha projection that was around 10 feet tall appeared behind the bald Spirit being amid a flash of radiant light, and the projection was holding a seven-colored badge that it immediately swept downward.
A pillar of rainbow light erupted forth, piercing directly into the ground, while the other Sprit being released a crimson net of flames from the ball of flames above his head, which descended right behind the pillar of rainbow light.
The pillar of light plunged several thousand feet into the ground in the blink of an eye, striking a transparent figure and immediately forcing him to reveal his true form; it was none other than Mo Jianli.
Before had a chance to react, the crimson net was already upon him, and it exploded into scorching flames that swept down from above.
Mo Jianli's expression darkened slightly upon seeing this, and he harrumphed coldly as he swept a sleeve upward to release a burst of white Qi.
The oncoming flames were instantly drawn into the white Qi upon making contact, yet just as a cold smile appeared on Mo Jianli's face, a crimson talisman suddenly shot out of the flames before exploding into countless crimson threads.
In the next instant, red light flashed from Mo Jianli's body without any warning, and a fiery crimson chain appeared around him before instantly binding him tightly.
