"That's a good idea, I'll contact them right away," Shi Chuankong said, and he was just about to make a hand seal when Han Li interrupted him.

"Allow me, Fellow Daoist Shi. There are some things that I have to tell them about what's happening inside the puppet refinement fortresses. We have to make sure that they can create a sufficient disturbance while ensuring that Gui Mu doesn't detect any signs of foul play."

Shi Chuankong nodded in response, and Han Li contacted Mo Guang through their spiritual connection, then informed him of their current situation and the plan that they had devised.

"A puppet refinement facility? No wonder the area was tightly guarded. It won't be difficult to stir up some unrest there, and I can definitely do so without leaving any traceable signs behind, but the restrictions there are quite advanced, and it'll be quite difficult to sneak into the facility," Mo Guang replied.

"That's not a problem, I have a secret technique to bypass the restrictions," Han Li said, then relayed Shi Qinghou's secret technique to Mo Guang.

"Alright, in that case, there shouldn't be any problems," Mo Guang replied.

"As soon as Gui Mu leaves, I'll get Shi Chuankong to teleport the two of you to us. Make sure to be extra careful and don't leave behind any aura fluctuations for Gui Mu to detect," Han Li cautioned in a serious voice.

Mo Guang gave an affirmative response before cutting off the voice transmission, and Han Li opened his eyes before giving Shi Chuankong and Fox 3 a brief recount of his conversation with Mo Guang.

"Alright, let's make some preparations here as well to ensure that the plan is successful," Shi Chuankong said, then made a hand seal, and four black talismans flew out of his sleeves, carrying the words East, West, South, and North in ancient text.

The four talismans adhered themselves to the walls of the side hall at his behest, following which he strode over to the entrance of the side hall to observe what was happening outside.

Han Li and Fox 3 were also waiting anxiously, and several minutes passed by without anything happening.

"What's going on? Has something gone wrong on Mo Guang's end?" Fox 3 asked in an urgent voice.

The concealment effect of their talismans was about to wear off.

After some contemplation, Han Li decided not to contact Mo Guang through voice transmission for fear of distracting him, and he said, "It'll take some time for the two of them to get to the puppet refinement facility, so let's wait a little longer."

As soon as his voice trailed off, a faint thump rang out in the distance, as if something had exploded, and this was immediately followed by another dull thump.

Han Li's trio faltered slightly upon hearing this, following which ecstatic looks appeared on their faces.

A thick column of black smoke was rising up from the puppet refinement fortresses, accompanied by the sound of rumbling explosions, and the Infernal Servants near the city gates immediately erupted into a panicked frenzy upon seeing this.

"Something's happening at the puppet refinement fortresses! We have to report to Master Gui Mu!" one of the Infernal Servants yelled.

Right at this moment, Gui Mu appeared out of thin air outside of the palace, and he was holding the same white beast as before with an alarmed look on his face.

Immediately thereafter, he stomped a foot down onto the ground and began flying toward the puppet refinement fortresses as a streak of black light.

Shi Chuankong was ecstatic to see this, and he immediately made a hand seal, upon which the four talismans adhered to the walls of the side hall began to radiate dazzling black light, forming a black light barrier in the blink of an eye.

Immediately thereafter, he flipped a hand over to produce an octagonal silver jade plate identical to the one that he had given to Mo Guang, then opened his mouth to release a burst of silver light into it.

The jade plate instantly began to glow brightly while revolving rapidly and releasing countless silver runes to form a silver array that was around ten feet in size.

In the next instant, Mo Guang and Baili Yan appeared within the array with elated looks on their faces, but their elation quickly turned to befuddlement as they were unable to see Han Li's trio at all.

"We've concealed ourselves using a secret technique," Shi Chuankong explained in a concise fashion as he cast a pair of incantation seals into their bodies, thereby allowing them to just barely make out the outlines of Han Li's trio.

"How did it go?" Han Li asked.

"It went very smoothly. I used my heavenly devil secret technique to drive a Golden Immortal Stage gray beast wild, and it went on a rampage, destroying several of the arrays in the facility. I left no traces behind, and I can guarantee that even a Great Encompassment cultivator wouldn't be able to detect anything," Mo Guang replied.

"Good. We don't have much time left, let's go to the core of the spatial restriction!"

Shi Chuankong stowed the pair of jade plates away as he spoke, then peeled the four talismans off the walls before flying up toward the second floor.

In the blink of an eye, the entire group arrived on the second floor before rushing over to the entrance of the side hall on the left.

The doors of the side hall were tightly shut, and not only was Fox 3 unable to push them open, a layer of black light appeared over their surface as soon as an attempt to open them was made.

"There's another restriction here!" Fox 3 exclaimed, and everyone's expressions darkened slightly upon seeing this.

"I'll take care of it," Han Li stepped forward as he activated his Infernal Devilish Eyes while also releasing his spiritual sense toward the black restriction.

The restriction was quite similar to the Infernal Great Concealment Restriction placed upon the puppet refinement facility, so Han Li had a rough idea of how to bypass it.

Mo Guang raised a hand to conjure up a black light barrier that encompassed both Han Li and the entrance of the side hall, ensuring that no aura fluctuations escaped.

At the same time, Han Li made a rapid string of hand seals, casting a stream of incantation seals into the black restriction, which began to flash erratically as countless black runes emerged onto its surface.

Han Li carefully scrutinized all of the changes in the restriction with his Infernal Devilish Eyes, and all of a sudden, his eyes lit up as he thrust the palms of both of his hands into the restriction.

The black restriction flashed one final time before its light quickly faded, and the doors swung open.

Shi Chuankong and the others were ecstatic, and they immediately flew into the side hall.

Han Li gently closed the doors, and much to his relief, the black restriction on them immediately began to make a rapid recovery.

The side hall was quite large, more so than the two side halls on the first floor, and there were eight stone platforms arranged in a certain formation within it. Each platform was laden with array tools, and they formed the cores of different restrictions.

Thick pillars of light were rising up out of the stone platforms into the ceiling of the side hall, where a series of extremely complex array patterns had been engraved, all of which were flashing incessantly.

At this moment, Shi Chuankong and the others were standing beside the stone platform that was at the very back of the room. All of the array tools on this platform were silver in color, and rising up from it was a thick pillar of silver light that was giving off formidable spatial fluctuations.

All of a sudden, Shi Qinghou's voice rang out in Han Li's mind.

"So there are now as many as eight restrictions in these city walls. That's quite an improvement."

"Why have you suddenly popped up now? Where were you when I had those questions for you?" Han Li asked through voice transmission as he flew over to Shi Chuankong's side.

Shi Qinghou offered no response to this.

"Did you teach me the method to bypass the Infernal Great Concealment Restriction because you already predicted that I was going to cause trouble there to lure Gui Mu away?" Han Li asked.

Once again, there was no response.

"I don't know what your intentions are, but you better not try any funny business here. If we're discovered, all of us will have to die here, and that includes you," Han Li warned in a cold voice.

"There's no need to be so wary of me. Right now, our fates are tightly intertwined, and the last thing I want to do is put you in harm's way," Shi Qinghou sighed.

"How am I supposed to trust you when you don't tell me anything?" Han Li harrumphed coldly.

"You'll understand in the future," Shi Qinghou replied in an ambiguous fashion before falling silent again.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, but he had no time to dwell on this frustrating interaction as he turned his attention to the stone platform.

There were countless silver patterns on the stone platform, forming an extremely complex array that was littered with silver array flags and around forty to fifty fist-sized silver crystals.

These silver crystals were rather similar to spirit stones, but they had strange corkscrew patterns on them and were releasing bright silver light and spatial fluctuations.

"These are Silver Embryo Stones," Han Li remarked with a surprised expression.

This was a type of spirit material that contained spatial power, and even in the True Immortal Realm, it was quite rare, so he wasn't expecting to see it in the Gray Realm.

Shi Chuankong was standing beside the stone platform, and he flipped a hand over to summon a silver jade vial, then chanted an incantation while making a hand seal.

The jade vial shuddered slightly, following which a fist-sized ball of silver liquid flew out of it before splitting up into dozens of drops at Shi Chuankong's behest, each of fused into one of the Silver Embryo Stones.

A layer of silver light instantly appeared over the Silver Embryo Stones, following which all of them became dull and devoid of luster, as if the spatial power within them had been frozen, and the pillar of silver light also instantly vanished.

"It's done! Gather around, everyone, we don't have much time!" Shi Chuankong urged as he made a rapid string of hands seals, releasing bursts of silver light that fell onto the surrounding ground to form a silver array.

Han Li the others immediately stepped into the array, and Mo Guang released plumes of baleful qi out of his sleeves to inundate the entire array.

With a flash of silver light, everyone instantly vanished from within the array, and the residual baleful qi in the side hall quickly faded away.

Immediately thereafter, the Silver Embryo Stones began to function again, and in just a few moments, the entire array was back up and running, looking as if nothing had ever happened.