Chapter 1422: Black Mist Sea

From a distance, the mountain range appeared endless, packed with towering, perilous, and steep peaks, one after another.

Although he hadn't entered yet, a faint malevolent aura emanated from the mountains themselves, surprising Han Li slightly.

Nevertheless, the spiritual energy within the mountain range was far denser than outside. This alone was enough for Han Li to make up his mind. He activated his flight once more and instantly entered the range.

To avoid drawing attention, Han Li kept his flight low and slowed his pace. He swept past the mountainsides, constantly surveying everything within a few miles with his divine sense while his eyes diligently scanned the surroundings.

After flying only about a thousand miles into the mountain range, Han Li could no longer hide the look of pleasant surprise on his face.

Spiritual herbs and trees were abundant throughout this mountain range. Although most were found in treacherous locations and were primarily low-grade spirit medicines, their sheer quantity overjoyed Han Li.

Given that he was merely passing through, a thorough search would undoubtedly yield significant gains within these mountains.

It was likely that many high-grade spirit medicines were also present.

Besides the spirit medicines, the sheer number of beast herds in the mountains also far exceeded Han Li's expectations.

Han Li even unexpectedly witnessed a brutal battle between two beast herds.

As he flew over a relatively flat mountain depression between two colossal peaks, the sudden cries of apes and roars of ferocious beasts erupted from within them.

Suddenly, numerous two-zhang-tall white-furred giant apes emerged from one of the colossal peaks. Led by a giant ape with shimmering golden fur all over its body, they wielded wooden sticks and stone clubs as they charged directly towards the other colossal peak opposite them.

From the other mountain, some ox-headed, lion-bodied ferocious beasts burst forth, led by a colossal beast whose size far surpassed its kin.

The two groups met head-on in a relatively flat mountain depression and immediately engaged in a fierce, no-holds-barred battle.

The giant apes leaped with incredible agility and possessed immense strength, while the ox-headed beasts had sharp teeth and claws, and thick, tough hides. The two sides fought to a standstill.

What caught Han Li's attention was that the leading giant ape and the ferocious beasts seemed to possess some intelligence and had become formidable. One could hurl rocks with its hands, while the other could breathe yellow light from its mouth, both appearing to be at the level of a third or fourth-grade demonic beast.

The golden-furred giant ape, relying on its agility, held a slight advantage, but the leader of the ox-headed beasts was by no means inferior.

After battling for about half an hour, both beast herds, feeling weary, ultimately retreated to their respective mountain territories following long roars and low growls from their leaders.

They left behind many carcasses from both beast herds in the mountain depression, which soon attracted another kind of ugly, two-headed monstrous bird that swiftly devoured all the bodies.

Han Li, observing from high above, watched the beast battle with great interest. When he noticed the giant apes' surprisingly methodical movements, as if they were conducting a military campaign, a thought stirred within him, and he began to form some ideas.

As he continued to delve deeper into the mountain range, Han Li naturally encountered other strange beasts intermittently appearing throughout. On some of the mountains with the densest spiritual energy, there were even a few demonic beasts hidden, seemingly at the sixth or seventh-grade level.

Han Li didn't bother to pay any mind to these creatures, as they posed no threat to him. He simply continued flying deeper into the mountain range with his escaping light.

The sheer size of this mountain range far exceeded Han Li's expectations.

He flew for a full two months, yet was still unable to exit the mountain range.

This greatly surprised Han Li.

Just as he was hesitating whether to turn back, an endless sea of black mist appeared before him, engulfing countless mountain peaks and colossal summits.

A few miles from the sea of mist, Han Li halted his flight. Using his Spirit Eye ability, he gazed at the situation within the mist, his expression uncertain. At the edge of the mist, he clearly saw that no vegetation grew under the black shroud; even the ground and rocks were blackened and unusually cracked.

Faced with such an eerie situation, Han Li naturally wouldn't rush in blindly. Instead, he made a grasping motion towards a small, bowl-sized sapling beneath him.

Instantly, the tree was uprooted and caught by Han Li's single hand, gripping its main trunk.

With a burst of golden light radiating from his entire body, and countless golden scales appearing on his arm, Han Li forcefully swung it.

With a sharp whoosh, an incredibly violent sound of tearing air, the sapling shot straight into the black mist a few miles away, like a crossbow bolt.

A blue light flared in Han Li's eyes as he intently watched the sapling without a word.

A scene that made his heart pound suddenly unfolded.

The instant the tree shot into the black mist, it immediately withered and crumbled into dust.

Han Li's expression turned grim.

He looked around, then after a moment of contemplation, suddenly activated his flight and shot off to one side.

He intended to search along the edge of the sea of mist to see if he could find a way out.

About half a day later, Han Li appeared near a small mountain adjacent to the sea of mist, his expression grave as he gazed at the mountain wall on its side.

This mountain was only a few hundred zhang tall, but the side facing Han Li was incredibly flat, as if someone had smoothed it over with immense magical power.

And on this unusually smooth mountain wall, three blood-red characters, several zhang in size, were strikingly inscribed.

During his time in Tiance City, Han Li had diligently studied the ancient scripts of both human and demonic races, as well as several foreign scripts from nearby areas. However, these three strange characters were not among them, clearly belonging to an unknown race that neither humans nor demons had yet encountered.

Although he couldn't understand their meaning, each stroke of these characters was like a sword, giving him an astonishing feeling of overwhelming malevolence.

He believed that a cultivator with weaker cultivation would be forced to retreat immediately upon seeing these characters, unable to gaze at the mountain wall for long.

Of course, with Han Li's current abilities, he was unaffected by this malevolence. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the characters seemed incredibly ancient; much of the surrounding rock had weathered away, and even parts of these three characters themselves were blurred and indistinct.

Han Li stood silently, contemplating for a while, then resumed flying along the edge of the black mist sea. After several days of flight, he finally flew out of the mountain range.

However, before he could fully rejoice, he froze in stunned silence as he clearly saw the situation before him.

Before him lay another coastal beach, with distant, reddish seawater continuously washing against the nearby rocks.

Han Li stroked his chin, hovering in the nearby air, gazing silently at the sea.

After a long moment, he suddenly activated his flight, transforming into a startling rainbow that shot back the way he came, heading towards the other end of the black mist's edge.

This time, Han Li unleashed his full flight speed. Over ten days later, he reappeared atop another coastal cliff.

Han Li finally confirmed that the place he was in seemed to be an extraordinarily vast island.

The island was undoubtedly the largest he had ever seen. It appeared to be elongated, with half of it being the area he was currently in, and the other half enveloped by the black sea of mist.

Han Li had initially considered circling the island from the outside to bypass the black sea of mist and see what lay on the other end of the island.

However, he spent a full month circling the island's edge and still hadn't reached its end; the interior of the island remained dominated by the black sea of mist.

Appalled, Han Li turned around and simply returned the way he came.

It seemed he might be on a giant peninsula rather than a true island. Otherwise, an island of this magnitude could be considered a small continent in itself. Regardless, whether it was a peninsula or an island made no difference to him.

Aside from the peculiar black sea of mist, the rest of the island seemed to harbor no excessively powerful beings.

The mountain range on the island also boasted an unusually rich concentration of spiritual energy, making it an ideal place for cultivation.

However, Han Li found it rather strange that such a vast island wasn't occupied by powerful demonic beasts of his caliber, especially recalling the one he had encountered near the sea.

Furthermore, that squid demon had already reached the eighth level of transformation. Its immediate flight upon seeing him, without a word, made Han Li even more suspicious.

Han Li pondered for a long time but came to no conclusion. However, to be safe, he decided to spend more time exploring the area around the island to see if there were other islands or powerful beings that might pose a threat.

Thus, for the next month, Han Li centered his search on this half of the island, meticulously scanning the sea surface within a radius of over a hundred thousand miles.

Other than a few worthless desolate islands, he found nothing else.

There were indeed some formidable sea beasts on the nearby seafloor, but the strongest among them were comparable to the sea monster he had encountered previously, possessing little intelligence and posing no cause for concern.

With that, Han Li finally felt completely at ease. He returned to the mountain range on the colossal island, prepared to resume his diligent cultivation for a period.

After careful selection, he chose a colossal mountain with the best spiritual energy, hollowed out a large portion of its interior, and carved out a massive cave dwelling. After setting up protective restrictions, he moved in.

The cave dwelling was relatively close to the edge of the mountain range, yet still more than ten days' journey from the black sea of mist. Even if the sea of mist harbored any true danger, it wouldn't be able to affect him suddenly, allowing him enough time to react and prepare.

After planting all the spirit herbs he carried in the cave dwelling's medicinal garden, Han Li immediately entered his secret chamber and began to busy himself.

Immediately, the storage bracelet on his wrist shot off. After twirling in the air, a swirl of azure light revealed nine Azure-eyed True Toad Beast carcasses – two large and seven small – which appeared on the ground, almost filling half the secret chamber.

Several talismans of various colors were affixed to each carcass to prevent decay and the weakening of their spiritual blood's potency.

Han Li took a deep breath. With another tap on his storage bracelet, a pristine white jade bottle flashed into existence. With his other hand, he pointed at one of the young toad carcasses, and it immediately floated up into the air.

With a flick of his finger, a flash of azure light, a sword qi instantly pierced a thumb-sized hole in the young toad's carcass.

A moment later, a thick, gleaming, silvery-white liquid began to flow out from the hole.