"The violent lightning power here clearly has something to do with that massive Devil Crystal Puppet; I'm concerned that we could trigger some type of restriction in the puppet if we were to try and pass through this sea of lightning. This puppet's aura suggests that it's no less powerful than a true spirit being; if the restrictions set up on it have retained even a small amount of their power, we'd be incurring a lot of risk," Han Li said.

"Looks like the perils that the senior of the Spirit Race was referring to are none other than this sea of lightning and that puppet. If there were a way to bypass all this, then I'm sure the senior would've mentioned it, so it seems we have no choice but to take a risk and force our way through this. With our combined powers, we should be able to force our way through, but we'll most likely have to expend a lot of energy to do so," the Long Family patriarch said with a grim expression.

"We've already made it all the way here; we can't back down now. Everyone make some preparations; let's make it through this together," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said with a determined look in her eyes.

Thus, everyone immediately sprang into action on the giant ark, activating formations or releasing treasures.

Several layers of light barriers of different colors soon appeared over the giant ark, and around a dozen treasure projections flew out of the light barriers, then swelled drastically in size to envelop the entire ark.

Shortly thereafter, a ball of piercing azure light erupted from both the front end and the rear end of the ark, and two azure stone giants appeared.

The two puppets were each around 100 feet tall with yellow runes all over their bodies, and they had no facial features aside from a pair of huge deep-set eyes.

The two puppets appeared to be slightly damaged, but they were giving off a primordial aura that struck one with a sense of oppression and asphyxiation.

These were none other than the Long Family patriarch's ancient puppets.

"These two puppets do indeed appear to be no less powerful than the average Body Integration Stage being. Aren't you concerned that they'll be damaged in the midst of that sea of lightning?" the woman from the Ye Family asked as she appraised the pair of stone giants.

"These two puppets are indeed very powerful, but they were damaged even when I first obtained them, so they'll only be able to last one more battle at most before they break. On top of that, it requires close to half a month to refine them before each usage, so they're not as practical and valuable as you imagine, Fairy Ye," the Long Family patriarch replied in a slightly forlorn manner.

The woman from the Ye Family was enlightened upon hearing this. "I see, that's quite a pity."

Meanwhile, Han Li had activated the devilish flags that he had set up on the ark, and a burst of black Qi surged out of the flags in a frenzy, forming a series of thick black chains that intertwined to form a giant net over the entire ark.

At the front of the ark, Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns was raising a silver jade badge high up into the air while chanting something toward the eight Glacial Water Rhinoceroses.

All of a sudden, eight balls of silver light emerged out of the jade badge before vanishing into the bodies of the devilish beasts in a flash.

The seawater ahead of the giant ark churned violently, and suits of shimmering golden armor appeared over the bodies of the eight rhinoceroses. The suits of armor were a perfect fit, as if they were natural exoskeletons for the rhinoceroses.

As soon as the Glacial Water Rhinoceroses donned these suits of armor, they let loose elated roars, and their auras also became significantly more powerful.

"Beastly armor?" Elder Hui exclaimed in amazement upon seeing this.

As the name suggested, beastly armor was armor refined for spirit beasts. In contrast with human armor, not only did beastly armor possess powerful defensive properties, they could also significantly enhance a spirit beast's power for a short time.

However, this type of beastly armor could only be refined for certain types of special spirit beasts, and only Spirit beings were familiar with the refinement techniques, so they were quite a rare sight.

This was the first time that Elder Hui had seen this type of armor, and he was naturally very intrigued by it upon seeing just how much it was enhancing the auras of these Glacial Water Rhinoceroses.

Meanwhile, the Long Family patriarch summoned a small red umbrella and tossed it forward, then cast a string of incantation seals toward it. The umbrella then transformed into a ball of red light that was giving off a nauseating odor before rising up into the air.

Shortly thereafter, all of the preparations were complete, and Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns spurred on the Glacial Water Rhinoceroses to tow the giant ark toward the sea of lightning like a speeding arrow.

Han Li was standing on one side of the ark, peering into the sea of lightning with a calm expression.

Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns was standing at the front of the ark with Zhi Shui situated right beside her, and in the instant before the giant ark entered the sea of lightning, an unknown golden rune suddenly surfaced on one of his palms, which was concealed up his sleeve.

At the same time, one of the massive lower limbs of the golden crab within the dark clouds tremored slightly, and an identical golden rune appeared on its surface before vanishing in a flash.

Of course, everyone else was completely oblivious to this.

......

On the island within the sea of lightning, there was a woman in a white dress seated beside a green pond. A pink floral symbol appeared on her glabella, and she opened her eyes as a faint smile appeared on her face.

There was a burly black-armored man standing behind her, and he couldn't help but be momentarily entranced by her gorgeous smile. By the time he returned to his senses, the woman had already disappeared.

"Hehe, looks like that guy's finally here," the black-armored man murmured to himself as he quickly strode toward a certain direction with a ferocious look in his eyes.

......

On a giant island that was constantly enshrouded under black Qi countless kilometers away from the Devilish Origin Sea, there was a black-robed young man standing in front of a small field at the pinnacle of a massive mountain. He was currently appraising a translucent reddish-purple spirit medicine with an extremely focused look in his eyes.

The field was only several tens of feet in size with a short wall constructed from purplish-golden crystals around it. The soil within the field consisted of fine translucent grains, which were exuding a strong fragrance.

There were some unknown spirit medicines planted in the neighboring few fields as well, and a series of strange plants that were each around 10 feet tall were planted near these fields.

Each of these strange plants was as straight as a sword, and there were thin and long sharp crimson fruits growing on the tops of these plants.

These were none other than Bloodtooth Rice, which Han Li had once seen before.

However, the one that he had seen was only around half a foot in length and was far inferior in size, fragrance, and suppleness compared to these ones.

Bloodtooth Rice was extremely precious in the eyes of normal devilish beings, yet they had been planted haphazardly around this place like ordinary spirit medicines.

All of the other segmented fields had over 10 types of spirit medicines planted together, but in this small field that the black-robed young man was situated in, there was only a single reddish-purple spirit medicine.

This spirit medicine was only around five to six feet tall, and it didn't bear any flowers or fruits. There were only several thin leaves growing on the plant, and it didn't appear to be remarkable in any way.

However, the black-robed young man was appraising this spirit medicine with an unblinking gaze, as if he had been completely enraptured by it.

All of a sudden, a ball of black light emerged from his wrist, following which a black rune surfaced on his skin.

However, the young man completely ignored this and continued to scrutinize the spirit medicine before him.

After a long while, a layer of golden light suddenly appeared over the surface of the spirit medicine, and its leaves turned a silver color at a rapid rate that was discernible to the naked eye.

A hint of elation flashed through the young man's eyes upon seeing this, but in the next instant, the spirit medicine abruptly shuddered, then instantly wilted before disintegrating into a burst of grey Qi.

"How did it fail again? Where am I going wrong? Am I not nurturing it for a long enough time?"

The black-robed young man's face became twisted with fury as he abruptly rose to his feet, then swung an arm through the air, sending a ball of inky-black light hurtling toward the field before him.

A resounding boom rang out, and the entire mountain tremored violently as the field was completely destroyed by the ball of light, creating a massive black hole in the ground.

The edge of the hole was extremely smooth, and its bottom was nowhere in sight.

After a long while, he finally composed himself, and only then did he glance down at the black rune that had appeared on his wrist.

"Hmph, someone's infiltrating the Bitter Spirit Island again; it's most likely more of those foolish beings from the Spirit Realm. They'll act as a good punching bag for me," the young man chuckled coldly before sweeping a sleeve through the air, summoning a burst of black light that transformed into a three-headed black wyrm that was over 1,000 feet tall.

The young man flew onto the three-headed wyrm before instructing in a cold voice, "Go to the Bitter Spirit Island!"

The three-headed wyrm let loose a low roar, and black clouds suddenly emerged beneath its four feet as it rose up into the air before carrying the young man toward the sea of lightning.

......

In an underground palace beneath a boundless mountain range in the Elder Devil Realm, there was a transparent crystal coffin, within which lay a golden-robed middle-aged man. A golden rune was shimmering on the side of the middle-aged man’s neck, but he was completely still with his eyes shut, and it was unclear whether he was dead or alive.