Looking at the mountain ranges from afar, Han Li could see that it was filled with countless tall and steep mountains that were clumped together in a dense bunch.

Even prior to entering the mountain ranges, Han Li could sense a vicious aura emanating from it, and that was rather surprising to him.

However, the spiritual Qi within the mountain ranges was also far more abundant than outside. Just this factor alone prompted Han Li to enter the mountain ranges without much further hesitation.

In order to draw as little attention as possible, Han Li intentionally slowed down and flew at a very low alt.i.tude. One mountain after another flashed past and throughout this entire process, Han Li was constantly surveying his surroundings as well as unleas.h.i.+ng his spiritual sense to encompa.s.s an area of several kilometers.

Having flown just over 500 kilometers into the mountain ranges, an expression of surprise and elation suddenly appeared on Han Li"s face.

He discovered that this stretch of mountain ranges was riddled with spirit herbs and spirit trees. Even though most of them were low-grade spirit medicines and situated in steep and perilous locations, the sheer quant.i.ty present was still very encouraging to Han Li.

After all, he was only pa.s.sing by in a brisk manner; if he were to stop and conduct a thorough search, he would definitely reap some worthwhile rewards.

There were presumably many high-grade spirit medicines that could be procured from these mountain ranges. Aside from spirit medicines, the number of beast packs within the mountains also exceeded Han Li"s expectations.

During his travels, Han Li had even witnessed a grueling battle between two beast packs.

Just as he was flying over a rather flat col between two ma.s.sive mountains, he was suddenly greeted by raucous ape cries and thunderous beastly roars.

Immediately thereafter, many white-furred giant apes that were over 20 feet tall suddenly emerged from one mountain, led by a giant ape with s.h.i.+mmering golden fur. They were wielding wooden sticks, stone clubs, and other crude weapons of that nature as they charged directly toward the neighboring mountain.

From the other mountain, a pack of ferocious beasts with cow heads and lion bodies emerged, and they were led by a giant beast of the same species that was around twice as large as its brethren.

The two packs of beasts clashed, and a ferocious battle immediately ensued.

All of the giant apes had extraordinary jumping power and immense strength while their beastly opponents possessed sharp fangs and claws, as well as thick skin and robust bodies. The two armies were evenly matched.

What caught Han Li"s attention was that the leaders of the respective armies seemed to have attained intelligence, thereby allowing them to gain influence among their packs. Both of them seemed to be third or fourth grade demon beasts, and the golden ape was able to gain a slight advantage with its superior agility, but the leader of the opposing beast pack was no slouch, either.

After battling for over an hour, both beast packs were growing quite exhausted. In the end, their respective leaders let loose long howls, upon which the armies retreated back to the mountains where they had come from.

However, there were many bodies strewn all over the col in the aftermath of the battle, and those bodies attracted a flock of hideous twin-headed scavenging birds that enjoyed a grand feast.

Han Li hid high up in the sky, surveying the battle that had unfolded down below with a hint of intrigue in his eyes. The giant apes fought in a rather strategic and organized manner, and a thought occurred to Han Li upon seeing this.

Aside from that, as Han Li continued deeper into the mountain ranges, he discovered some other strange beasts along the way. Atop the mountains with the most abundant spiritual Qi, there were even sixth or seventh grade demon beasts lurking. Han Li paid no heed to these demon beasts as they posed no threat to him anyway, and he continued to fly deeper into the mountain ranges.

This set of mountain ranges was far larger than Han Li had antic.i.p.ated. After flying for two full months, he still hadn"t emerged on the other side, and that was very surprising to him. Just as he was hesitating about whether he should return the way he had come, he suddenly caught sight of a boundless black sea of mist up ahead that enshrouded countless mountain peaks.

Han Li stopped near the edge of the sea of mist and unleashed his spirit eyes to a.s.sess the scenes within the mist with an indecisive look on his face. He could clearly see that there wasn"t even a single blade of gra.s.s growing on the area enshrouded under this black mist, and even the rocks and soil on the ground were extremely dry and cracked.

In the face of such a bizarre situation, Han Li naturally wasn"t going to recklessly barge in. Instead, he made a grabbing motion toward the small tree down below.

The tree was plucked up from the ground, and its trunk fell into Han Li"s grasp. Brilliant golden light erupted all over Han Li"s body as he hurled the tree through the air in a violent manner.

The tree shot forth like an arrow, speeding toward the black mist that was situated several kilometers away.

Bright blue light erupted from Han Li"s eyes as he stared at the small tree with rapt focus.

The scenes that unfolded next immediately made Han Li"s expression darken slightly. In the instant that the small tree flew into the black mist, the entire tree wilted before instantly being reduced to dust.

Han Li surveyed his surroundings, and after a brief pause to contemplate the situation, he suddenly flew off to the side. He was planning to try and skirt around the border of the black mist in search of a way out.

After around half a day, Han Li appeared near a small mountain situated on the border of the sea of black mist, and he was appraising one of the faces of the mountain with a grim expression.

This mountain was only several thousand feet tall, but the side that was facing Han Li was extraordinarily flat and smooth, as if it had been flattened by some kind of powerful technique.

On the smooth surface of the mountain face, there were three ma.s.sive crimson characters inscribed, each of which was several tens of feet in size.

During his time in Deep Heaven City, Han Li had diligently researched the ancient texts of both the human and demon races, as well as even the text used by several of the nearby foreign races. However, he had never seen these three characters before, so this was most likely the foreign text that the human and demon races had never come into contact with.

Even though he couldn"t understand what had been inscribed, the strokes of the characters were extremely sharp and were emanating a vastly intimidating baleful aura.

A cultivator with an inferior cultivation base would most likely be forced into retreat at the mere sight of this mountain face.

Of course, at Han Li"s current power level, this amount of baleful aura was naturally not enough to faze him. Upon closer examination, he discovered that large sections of the mountain showed signs of erosion, and even some sections of the three characters had become rather blurry and indistinct.

Han Li silently pondered the situation for a while before continuing to fly along the border of the black sea of mist. After flying for several days, he finally emerged from the mountain ranges. However, before he had a chance to exult, he was completely stumped by the new terrain that he found himself in.

This was another beach with crimson seawater cras.h.i.+ng relentlessly into the nearby rocks.

Han Li stroked his chin and stood in mid-air, appraising the sea in silence.

After a long while, he suddenly flew back the way that he had come, skirting around the border of the sea of black mist toward the opposite direction.

On this occasion, Han Li arrived at another seaside cliff after over 10 days of flight. Han Li could finally confirm that he was situated on a colossal island. This was most definitely the largest island he had ever seen.

Furthermore, this island was most likely rectangular in shape. One side was the side that Han Li was situated at, while the other side was enshrouded under that black mist.

Initially, Han Li had attempted to fly around the sea of black mist to see what lay on the other end of the island. However, there was no sign that the sea of black mist was drawing to a conclusion even after an entire month of travel, and Han Li could only give up before doubling back.

It appeared that this wasn"t a truly isolated island. Otherwise, this island was large enough to be considered as an independent small continent. However, regardless of whether this was truly an island or not, it made no difference to him.

Aside from the sea of black mist that was rather peculiar, there seemed to be no excessively powerful beings on the entire island. Furthermore, spiritual Qi was very abundant in these mountain ranges, so it was definitely an ideal venue for cultivation.

However, what was really perplexing to Han Li was that there were Deity Transformation Stage demon beasts in the ocean surrounding the island, yet there were no powerful demon beasts that had actually taken over the island.

Furthermore, that octopus demon was already an eighth grade metamorphosis stage demon beast, but it had fled in sheer horror at the sight of Han Li, leaving him quite confused and searching for answers.

Han Li pondered this notion for a long time, but couldn"t arrive at any concrete conclusions. However, in order to ensure his safety, he decided to spend some time to scour the area surrounding the island in search of powerful beings that could potentially pose a threat to him.

Thus, during the next month, Han Li searched carefully through the close to 10,000 kilometers of the ocean around the half of the island that he was situated on.

In the end, he discovered nothing else aside from a few completely worthless barren islands.

There were a few powerful demon beasts in the ocean, but even the most powerful ones among them were only comparable to that octopus monster that Han Li had encountered on the previous occasion. Most of them didn"t possess much intelligence, either, so there was no need for him to worry about them at all.

As such, Han Li was feeling quite rea.s.sured as he returned to the mountain ranges on the gargantuan island, preparing to enter a period of peaceful cultivation.

He carefully selected a mountain with the most abundant spiritual Qi to carve out a ma.s.sive cave abode for himself, and set up many restrictions before moving in.

This cave abode was quite close to the border of the mountain ranges and over 10 days of flight away from the sea of black mist. As such, even if the sea of black mist did present any dangers, they would be unable to affect him, and he would have ample time to react.

Han Li planted all of the spirit medicines he had taken with him in the medicine garden of his cave abode, then set to work within his secret chamber.

Han Li"s storage bracelet slipped off his wrist before circling around in the air. Azure light flashed as nine Green-Eyed True Toad Beast corpses appeared on the ground before him. Two of the bodies were quite large while the other seven were relatively small, and they almost took up the entire secret chamber.

All of the carca.s.ses had talismans of various colors plastered onto them in order to prevent decomposition as well as to greatly nullify the effect of the spirit blood.

Han Li took a deep breath before pointing at the storage bracelet to produce a pristine white jade bottle, which was instantly caught in his grasp. He then pointed at one of the smaller carca.s.ses on the ground with his other hand, and it immediately hovered into the air.

He flicked a finger gently toward it and azure light flashed as a streak of sword Qi punctured a thumb-sized hole into its body.

Moments later, a viscous s.h.i.+mmering liquid began to flow out from that hole, and it was silvery-white in color.