Chapter 1539: Foggy

"No, this is our Ephemera Clan's Sacred Nest. It’s essentially inexhaustible. How could a mere Golden Ephemera possess such an item? We must break through immediately!” A roar of extreme shock and anger erupted from the mouth of the gigantic insect formed by Six-Legs.

In that instant, hundreds more strange insects were pierced through by the black light emanating from its body, dying instantly.

“Where can we flee? These strange insects are not much slower than us. If they keep pestering us, we’ll eventually run out of magic power,” the Blood-Robed man said gravely, standing on the shoulder of the Purple Blood Puppet.

“We’ll escape back through the entrance passage. As long as we can reach the entrance, we can return to the Netherworld and avoid the sea of insects created by the Sacred Nest,” Six-Legs replied without hesitation.

“Fellow Daoist Six-Legs, are you insane? Even if we escape with all our might, it would take two or three months to return the way we came. Are we supposed to keep fighting these insects all that time? Besides, what about the Demon Tomb? What about our demonic artifacts?” The white-haired beauty suddenly emitted a piercingly sharp voice.

“Hmph, Fellow Daoist Lan, if you lose your life, what good are even the best demonic artifacts? At worst, I’ll provide some compensation to you and Fellow Daoist Earth Blood after we get back. The current Sacred Nest is only manifesting the lowest-grade sacred insects; we can still barely fight our way out of this insect sea. Once it starts manifesting higher-grade sacred insects, it’ll be too late for us to escape,” Six-Legs shouted angrily.

If the current situation didn't absolutely require the combined strength of all three to escape, it would probably have long since fled with the Netherworld Divine Milk.

After all, no one knew better than it the power of a clan-annihilating weapon like the Ephemera Clan's Sacred Nest.

However, Six-Legs naturally didn’t know that what he encountered wasn’t the true Sacred Nest, but merely a replica. Yet, even so, its power was beyond what the three of them could withstand. Coupled with the awe inspired by the Sacred Nest’s might, he immediately conceived the idea of leaving the Netherworld upon first contact.

Hearing Six-Legs’ words, the white-haired beauty, despite her great reluctance, could only remain silent.

As for the Blood-Robed man, he had no objections, clearly agreeing with Six-Legs.

Thus, the three unleashed their divine abilities simultaneously.

The gigantic insect formed by Six-Legs, whose body was originally extremely smooth, suddenly erupted with black light, revealing countless massive, ten-foot-long bone spurs. Each was as dark as ink and exceptionally sharp.

The gigantic insect’s body abruptly contracted and expanded, then opened its mouth and spewed out numerous black rings visible to the naked eye.

Upon emerging, these rings immediately expanded countless times, furiously rushing into the insect swarm and sweeping past countless strange insects.

An astonishing scene unfolded: wherever these rings passed, all the strange insects seemed to instantly lose their balance, tumbling erratically and plummeting straight down from the sky.

A large area in the air ahead was immediately cleared.

The Purple Blood Puppet, resembling a small mountain, opened its mouth wide towards the insect swarm, spewing out a purplish-red beam of light more than ten times thicker than the light pillar from its eyes.

Wherever the beam passed, all the strange insects disintegrated and dissolved into ashes.

With a swing of the Purple Blood Puppet’s head, this incredibly thick beam also swept across, instantly annihilating even more strange insects.

The area cleared by this attack in an instant seemed significantly larger than Six-Legs’ attack.

The last to make a move was the white-haired beauty.

Seeing that the other two had ceased holding back and unleashed their respective techniques, she no longer hesitated, hurling the strange hammer in her hand towards another section of the insect swarm. She then formed hand seals and activated it.

Immediately, the strange hammer exploded in a shroud of green flame, revealing eight white skeletal heads. They spun rapidly, simultaneously expanding to the size of wagon wheels, then opened their gaping mouths with grotesque howls.

These skeletal heads no longer spewed green ghost flames, but rather gushes of intensely cold white wind. Wherever this wind passed, all the strange insects first became covered in frost, then, with a crisp “sizzle,” they disintegrated into white ice crystals of varying sizes, silently raining down from the sky.

With three Soul Transformation stage cultivators attacking simultaneously, even though the surrounding strange insects were endless, their offensive was momentarily halted, clearing a vast empty area nearby.

The human-faced mantis, over ten miles away, saw this and snorted coldly. One of its giant blade-like arms pointed at the silver object in the air.

Immediately, the hemispherical object spun, and the strange insects swarming out of it increased by more than half.

But at that very moment, Six-Legs, the white-haired beauty, and the others converged. Their magical powers united, suddenly transforming into a massive orb of light. With a tremor, it shot towards the newly opened path, reaching the edge of the insect sea in just a few flashes.

As the light orb dissolved once more, the three, amidst continuous explosions, transformed into three streaks of astonishing light and truly broke out of the insect sea.

They then hastily fled towards the horizon.

The human-faced mantis clearly hadn’t expected its opponents to flee without a fight. A furious expression appeared on its face, and it let out an unusually shrill cry, whereupon the insect swarm pursued them in a frenzy.

The green strange insects, as they flew, flapped their wings rapidly, displaying astonishing flight speed. They seemed like streaks of green light piercing through the air, barely any slower than Six-Legs and the others.

Meanwhile, the human-faced mantis blurred slightly and vanished from its spot. The next moment, it reappeared on the hemispherical object in the air, then, amidst flashing firelight, it plunged inside and disappeared from sight.

The “Sacred Nest” emitted a loud hum. The ghostly insect figures it sprayed out paused momentarily, and then the object itself transformed into a ball of silver light and shot away.

Countless strange insects swarmed around this object.

In a short while, the sea of insects and Six-Legs and the others, in their chase and escape, vanished without a trace from the nearby area.

On the other side, above the waters where Han Li was swept away that day, Mu Qing floated, enveloped by a large expanse of green light dots.

She was gazing at a patch of black mist below, her expression fluctuating uncertainly.

“This place seems to be…” In another patch of black mist, a figure, surrounded by a gray glow, looked around, murmuring to himself.

This person, dressed in green robes and in his early twenties with a slight frown, was precisely Han Li, who had just left the Netherworld.

As soon as he awoke from his dizziness, he immediately found himself in this black mist.

Fortunately, his Primordial Magnetic Divine Light had long been cultivated to respond to his will. Without him consciously activating it, it automatically spread out, enveloping him in protection.

Now, Han Li couldn’t help but look upwards.

He saw that in the blurry sky above, the spatial rift that had expelled him had already closed into a fine seam, and the moment he looked, it finally vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.

Although it was only for an instant, Han Li noticed that in the brief moment the spatial rift disappeared, wisps of black qi leaked out from it, immediately dissolving into the local black mist, making them indistinguishable.

“Could it be that all the mist here flows out from this spatial rift?” Han Li mused to himself, then his gaze swept around, preparing to first understand his current location.

However, as soon as his divine sense extended beyond a hundred zhang, it immediately dissipated and retracted, unable to probe any further.

Han Li’s eyebrow twitched. He stroked his chin, and a strange expression appeared on his face as if he had suddenly remembered something.

He brought his hands together, then separated them. Suddenly, with a flash of green light from his palm, a spirit herb several inches long appeared in his hand.

With a single raise of his hand, the herb immediately flew out from the luminous glow.

An incredible phenomenon occurred: the moment the herb touched the black mist, it instantly withered and turned yellow. The instant it fell to the ground, it disintegrated into a pile of ash, disappearing without a trace.

“Black Nether Mist!” Han Li gasped, finally confirming his location.

He had actually been teleported back to the giant island of the Black Hidden Mountain Range, located in the Flying Spirit Banner region, where he had first arrived. This black mist was precisely the Black Nether Mist Sea that he hadn’t ventured into that day.

He had tested this black mist that day and found that it contained extremely heavy Yin energy and could absorb the spiritual energy from plants and other living things. On one hand, he was eager to break through his bottleneck at the time, and on the other, he was wary of the mist sea’s strangeness, which was why he hadn’t truly risked venturing in to explore it.

Now, having just left the Netherworld, he had been teleported to this place. Considering the black qi that had just flowed out of the spatial rift, it seemed the formation of this mist sea should have some connection to the Netherworld.

However, even the Yin energy of the Netherworld was nowhere near as terrifying as the black mist here.

These mists must contain other mixed substances.

Han Li’s eyes flickered, and in an instant, he made his judgment.

In any case, this was not a safe place, and it would be best for him to leave quickly.

Thinking this, Han Li’s body flashed with green light, and he immediately rose into the air.

However, the moment his feet left the ground by a mere zhang, the surrounding mist surged towards him. His escape light dissipated, and his body’s center of gravity shifted, causing him to fall back down.

“Flight-restricting formation!” Han Li’s heart tightened.

He now somewhat understood why the Sky Roc clan seemed so wary of this mist sea, to the point of not even stationing anyone on this island.

For the Sky Roc people, who worshipped the Kunpeng as their deity, flight-restricting formations were naturally extremely dangerous. After all, a large portion of the Flying Spirit race’s cultivation techniques and divine abilities relied on their wings. Once they couldn’t fly, most of their techniques and abilities would likely become useless.

Of course, this might only be one reason.

It’s also possible that the aura leaking from the spatial rift, originating from the Netherworld, was what the Sky Roc people found utterly repugnant. After all, the Netherworld was most likely formed from the body of Luo Kun, and its emanating aura would naturally be repulsive to the Sky Roc people, who rarely possessed the Kunpeng bloodline.

However, all of this was merely Han Li’s speculation. What other strangeness and reasons existed, perhaps only the elders of the Sky Roc clan would know.

Although he had once served as a Saint Son of the Sky Roc clan, he had not been privy to these matters and thus remained ignorant of the true reasons.

However, being unable to fly, while significantly affecting Han Li, wouldn’t truly trap him.

With his formidable physical body, he could quickly run out of this mist sea even by traversing on the ground. The only thing to be wary of was strange creatures or unforeseen restrictions within this black mist.

Han Li, of course, wouldn’t simply wait there. After completing his analysis, he immediately released his full divine sense and began walking with rapid strides in a chosen direction.