The giant azure ark and the three streaks of light appeared in the air above the valley almost at the exact same time, and both sides were slightly taken aback to see one another.
The three streaks of light halted, and the Long Family patriarch was revealed before greeting with a smile, "What a coincidence! Greetings, fellow daoists of the Spirit Race."
"I had thought that you'd already be in a valley; it's rather surprising to see that you've only just made as well, Brother Long." Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns' voice rang out in response, immediately following which she appeared at the front of the ark.
Behind her were four other humanoid figures, three of which were the other Holy Spirits she had been conversing with earlier, while the fourth person was a young man with a very pale face. There was a faint layer of blue mist drifting around his body, and he was displaying no expression at all.
"Haha, I had indeed planned to arrive earlier, but I encountered some trouble along the way and was delayed for some time. I'm very impressed by your punctuality even though you had to travel far further than I did to get here," the Long Family patriarch said with a smile, and as he swept his gaze over the Five Spirit beings, a peculiar look flashed through his eyes as his gaze lingered momentarily on the pale-faced young man.
"You encountered some trouble? It's not going to affect our journey, is it?" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns asked in a cautious manner.
"Rest assured, Fairy Thousand Autumns, we encountered a few high-grade devilish beings on the way here, but they've all been taken care of, so there's no way that information surrounding our journey will be leaked," the Long Family patriarch replied with a smile.
"Good. It seems that some fellow daoists have already arrived here before us; let's go down to meet them," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said as her expression eased slightly.
The Long Family patriarch swept his spiritual sense toward the valley down below, and said, "Those auras belong to Fellow Daoist Han and Fairy Ye; looks like they got here quite early."
Thus, both sides descended toward the valley while the giant azure ark lingered in mid-air. The elderly scholar among the Spirit beings then pointed a finger at it, and it instantly concealed itself into space.
The Holy Spirits and the Long Family patriarch's group landed at the center of the valley, following which a male voice immediately rang out to greet them. "Greetings, fellow daoists; Fairy Ye and I have been waiting for quite some time."
As soon as the voice trailed off, two streaks of light emerged from the other end of the valley, then faded to reveal Han Li and the patriarch of the Ye Family.
"Looks like everyone's all here!" the Long Family patriarch said with a smile at the sight of Han Li's duo.
"I don't seem to recognize any of our fellow daoists from the Spirit Race aside from Fellow Daoist Thousand Autumns; I believe an introduction would be appropriate," Han Li said.
"Fellow Daoist Han, you've already reached the late-Body Integration Stage!" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns exclaimed as soon as she swept her spiritual sense toward Han Li.
Back when they had first met, he had only been at the early-Body Integration Stage, yet he had since progressed to the late-Body Integration Stage in just a few centuries; how could she not be stunned by this?
"I was indeed fortunate enough to have reached the late-Body Integration Stage," Han Li replied with a smile.
At his current level of power, he was unable to conceal his true cultivation base in the face of other late-Body Integration Stage beings unless he used a secret technique to do so.
The other Holy Spirits instantly turned to appraise Han Li upon hearing this, and stunned expressions also appeared on their faces.
Prior to setting off, the Holy Spirits had all familiarized themselves with the human cultivators that they were going to be collaborating with, so they were naturally able to recognize Han Li right away.
"Hehe, Brother Han is a truly phenomenal cultivation prodigy of our human race. With the incredible progress that he's made, we'll have a far greater chance of success in this journey," the Long Family Patriarch chuckled.
"I had heard some rumors about Fellow Daoist Han's exceptional cultivation aptitude, but I didn't think that his rate of progression would still be so extraordinary even after reaching the Body Integration Stage. Just as you say, Brother Long; this is indeed good news for all of us. Now then, allow me to introduce my brethren here. These are all cultivators of our Spirit Race who have constantly been in seclusion, so very few foreign races know of them. This is Elder Jin Gu of our Spirit Race's Metal Faction. He's adept at using soundwave abilities, and his forte lies in dealing with large numbers of enemies at once…" Thus, the Thousand Autumns began to introduce the Spirit beings one by one, and all of the human cultivators listened intently while appraising these Holy Spirits.
According to Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns' introduction, the thin grey-robed man was Elder Jin Gu, the elderly scholar was Zang Xing, and he was well-versed in the art of restrictions; the man enshrouded within white light was known was Bai Qi, and he possessed several types of powerful abilities that were particularly effective against devilish beings; the final pale-faced young man was introduced to everyone by Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns as Zhi Shui, and apparently, he was very adept in spatial abilities.
Among these Holy Spirits, Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns and the figure enshrouded within white light were both at the late-Body Integration Stage, while the elderly scholar and the thin grey-robed man were at the mid-Body Integration Stage, and the young man known as Zhi Shui was only at the early-Body Integration Stage.
If Han Li hadn't become a late-Body Integration Stage, the overall power of the Spirit Race representatives would've outstripped that of the human representatives, on paper at least.
The Long Family patriarch couldn't detect anything amiss with the Holy Spirits, and he greeted them one by one.
The elderly scholar and thin grey-robed man both responded with a smile, while Bai Qi and Zhi Shui remained silent and expressionless.
The Long Family patriarch naturally didn't take this to heart and introduce Han Li and the others to the Spirit beings as well.
Due to the fact that this Bai Qi was giving off spiritual pressure that was even more powerful than that of Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns, the human cultivators had reflexively focused most of their attention on him.
However, the white light shimmering around his body seemed to possess some profound properties, and even Han Li was struck by a sense of dizziness after looking at it for too long.
After that, both sides didn't waste any more time and sat down beside a large tree nearby to discuss their journey into the Elder Devil Realm.
The preparations for this journey had commenced many years ago, so the general plan was already settled; all they had to do now was to make some minor adjustments.
As such, their discussion was complete in no more than four hours, and they all rose up into the air again before flying into the giant azure ark that had reappeared up above.
A buzzing sound rang out from the ark as rainbow light flashed over its surface, and it sped away as a streak of azure light.
Moments later, the streak of azure light had vanished into the distance.
Unbeknownst to everyone, there was a barely visible ball of white light that was trailing them in hot pursuit less than 100 kilometers away. Within the ball of white light, a hideous black-armored man was currently appraising a woman with pink light shimmering around her body in a stunned manner. "You're saying that there's someone among them that even you have to be wary of? Surely you're overestimating them, Mistress! Due to your injuries, you're nowhere near the height of your powers, it shouldn't be any issue for you to take care of these Body Integration Stage beings."
The woman was holding a purplish-golden copper coin and stroking it with her finger, and only after a long while did she reply in an indifferent manner, "It's not that I'm wary of those Body Integration Stage beings; it's this Destiny Copper Coin that suddenly displayed a reaction. This indicates that one of those Body Integration Stage beings possesses a treasure that is powerful enough to pose a threat to me; I don't want to further compound my own injuries in a moment of complacency."
On one side of the copper coin that she was holding was a benevolent smiling human face, while a malicious ghostly face was emblazoned on the other side, creating quite an unsettling contrast.
"What treasure could possibly pose a threat to you?" the black-armored man asked in a stunned voice.
"At the height of my powers, there are very few treasures aside from Profound Heavenly Treasures that can pose a true threat to me. However, in my current state, it's hard to say; even some special Divine Spirit Treasures could pose a threat to me," the woman replied.
The black-armored man's expression changed slightly before he asked in a careful manner, "Did you sense the spirit medicine you're searching for from one of these people?"
"I'm getting a vague sense of it from one of them, but it's a rather strange feeling," the woman replied with her brows furrowed slightly, seemingly rather hesitant about something.
The black-armored man was naturally very curious, but didn't dare to ask any further questions.
The giant azure ark flew for three entire months, carefully concealing itself along the way and carefully skirting around many devilish settlements before arriving at the boundless ocean.
