"The Green Spirit Race? Are these green-skinned beings with semi-transparent wings?" Han Li asked as his eyes narrowed slightly.
Zhu Guo'er's expression changed slightly upon hearing this. "How did you know, Senior Han?"
"It seems that the entrance of our Inkspirit Holy Ark into this realm has caused too much of a disturbance, and there are many Green Spirit beings converging toward us as we speak," Han Li replied.
"I see. Be careful, Senior Han; no Grand Ascension Stage beings exist in the Small Spirit Sky due to insufficient spiritual Qi, but the Green Spirit Race is still the most powerful race in this entire realm. They can communicate with true-spirit-like beings known as Ancient Ancestral Tree Spirits through possession, and their power is not inferior to that of the average Grand Ascension Stage being," Zhu Guo'er hurriedly cautioned.
"Ancient Ancestral Tree Spirits? That sounds interesting. However, this isn't the time to be getting involved in pointless conflicts. If those Green Spirit beings know what's good for them, then they’ll stay out of my way, then I'll leave them be. However, if they dare to try and get in my way, then I wouldn't mind teaching them a lesson. No one can know about the entrance to this passageway, so I'll set up a restriction to conceal it," Han Li said as a cold light flashed through his eyes.
Immediately thereafter he raised a sleeve to release a series of formation flags, which transformed into balls of light of different colors before vanishing into the surrounding space in a flash.
Han Li then made a hand seal before pointing a finger at the ball of rainbow light, releasing a burst of five-colored runes that transformed into a light barrier to conceal the entire ball of light.
In the blink of an eye, the ball of rainbow light and the light barrier had both disappeared, and the faint spatial fluctuations emanating from the ball of light were also cut off.
After that, Han Li chanted an incantation before switching to a different hand seal, then swept his sleeve through the air again, releasing a burst of green light that transformed into a huge rune before exploding amid a dull thump.
Countless green threads dispersed through the surrounding area, and the giant pine tree, which had already been reduced to scraps of wood, began to rapidly reform itself at a rate discernible to the naked eye, as if by some kind of miracle.
Even the crater on the ground was beginning to become filled again, and within the span of just a few breaths, both the tree and the ground had returned to normal.
After sweeping his spiritual sense through the area to ensure that he hadn't missed anything, a pleased look appeared on Han Li's face.
He then thrust a palm toward the distance, and a small mountain close to 10 kilometers away was instantly razed to the ground amid an earth-shattering boom.
A giant handprint had appeared on the ground within a radius of half a kilometer around the spot where the mountain had once stood, and the handprint was over 100 feet deep; even all of the fingerprints on the hand were clearly visible.
"Let's go," Han Li instructed with a faint smile, following which the giant ark quickly flew away into the distance.
A short while later, several streaks of light arrived on the scene from another direction, then stopped above the giant handprint that had been left behind by Han Li, revealing three humanoid figures with semi-transparent cicada-like wings on their backs.
The three of them were comprised of a woman and two men, all of whom had green skin and were tall and gangly.
The three of them looked down at the giant handprint with grim expressions, and the slightly more well-built man asked, "What do you think of this, Cu Ying?"
The woman's brows were tightly furrowed as she replied, "Whoever did this must be extremely powerful. At the very least, the three of us wouldn't be able to do this."
"Hmph, that's a massive understatement; whoever did this is most definitely far more powerful than the three of us," the other man harrumphed coldly.
"Judging from the shape of this handprint, it was clearly left behind by a human. Is there someone this powerful among the human race?" Cu Ying asked with a hint of befuddlement in her eyes.
"In the past, the most powerful being in the human race was Layman Tie Jun of the Heavenly Gate Mountain, and he's only slightly more powerful than us. Could this have been left behind by a new powerful being of the human race?" the first man speculated.
"The Small Spirit Sky isn't exactly a massive place; how could we not have heard anything if such a powerful being had appeared in the human race? Also, why did this person appear right at the center of our Green Sea?" the second man mused.
"That is indeed rather strange. It looks like we'll have to ask the culprit for an answer," the woman said as a cold look flashed through her eyes.
"What do you two think could be the meaning of this?" the first man asked as he stroked his own chin in a contemplative manner.
"What else could it mean? This handprint was obviously left here to intimidate us, but whoever did this is sorely mistaken if they think they can just get away with this. Even if they're a Grand Ascension Stage being of the human race, they have to provide an explanation for this," the second man said with a cold smile.
"Of course. Otherwise, if word of this were to spread, the other races would all think that they could enter and exit our Green Sea as they pleased. By the way, what were those spatial fluctuations that appeared at the beginning? Could it be that that human unleashed some type of spatial secret technique that allowed them to ignore the restrictions we set up and teleport into the Green Sea?" the woman speculated.
"I also sensed those spatial fluctuations, but I couldn't find anything nearby giving off residual spatial fluctuations, so it looks like that human must've erased it," the second man replied.
"Regardless of what their objective is, we'll just have to catch them and interrogate them. Hehe, this might be a good thing for our Green Spirit Race. After all, we might not be able to successfully summon the Ancient Ancestral Tree Spirits outside of the Green Sea," the first man said with a smile.
"Indeed. What are we waiting for then? Let's give chase right away. With that human's powers, our brethren won't be able to stall him for long even with the power of the Green Sea to aid them," the woman said.
The two men naturally had no objections to this, and thus, they set off once again as streaks of light, flying toward the same direction as the giant ark.
……
Meanwhile, the Inkspirit Holy Ark was still flying through the air, but thousands of Green Spirit beings had appeared nearby, and they were wielding different types of treasures to attack the ark from afar.
Countless Devil Crystal Puppets had also emerged on the ark, releasing pillars of light and bolts of lightning to oppose the Green Spirit beings in a fierce battle. However, even the most powerful of these Green Spirit beings were only at the Spatial Tempering Stage, so their attacks were kept at bay with ease by the black light barrier around the giant ark.
As for the attacks being unleashed by the puppets, they were all being kept at bay by a series of leaf projections being summoned by the Green Spirit beings.
The battle seemed to be extremely fierce, but there weren't actually many casualties, and the giant ark wasn't slowed down in the slightest, either.
All of a sudden, close to half of the Green Spirit beings arranged themselves into a strange formation before making hand seals and chanting incantations.
Green light flashed within the countless giant trees down below, and each of them released a leaf projection, which quickly converged to form a giant leaf projection that was several acres in size.
The projection then instantly appeared above the black ark before descending from the heavens, as if it were attempting to sweep up the entire ark.
Right at this moment, spatial fluctuations erupted above the giant ark, and a huge azure hand appeared before swooping upward like lightning.
The azure hand immediately grabbed onto the giant leaf projection, which began to struggle with all its might as if it were a living creature, but the massive hand's grip was far too firm for the leaf projection to escape.
The Green Spirit beings in the formation were stunned to see this, and they hurriedly poured their magic power into the projection above the ark in a frenzy.
The giant leaf projection was originally slightly blurry and indistinct, but with that influx of energy, it became a lot clearer and more substantial, and it also began to release a powerful aura as its struggle intensified.
A cold harrumph suddenly rang out from the giant ark, following which the massive azure hand tightened its grip, and exerted a burst of tremendous force upon the leaf projection that instantly tore the projection apart.
As a result, all of the Green Spirit beings in the formation were struck by backlash, and their faces paled significantly as they began to throw up mouthfuls of blood.
Some of the weaker individuals even plummeted straight out of the sky.
Right at this moment, Han Li emerged at the front of the ark, then cast a cold gaze toward the surrounding Green Spirit beings.
"I had intended to spare all of you, but seeing as you insist on irking me, I'll send you all on your way."
As soon as his voice trailed off, Han Li rubbed his hands together, conjuring up a ball of golden lightning that swelled drastically in size while rising up higher into the air.
Scintillating golden light radiated in all directions, while rumbling thunderclaps shook the entire heavens.
In the blink of an eye, the ball of lightning had swelled to the size of a pavilion with countless arcs of golden lightning flashing over its surface, releasing a devastatingly destructive aura.
The nearby Green Spirit beings were all extremely alarmed to see this, and one of their leaders immediately issued an order to retreat, upon which all of them fled into the distance.
However, Han Li wasn't going to let them get away so easily.
A cold look flashed through his eyes as he flicked an incantation seal into the giant ball of lightning, and it instantly exploded, sending countless arcs of golden lightning shooting in all directions.
