The beasts could see that Han Li bore no ill will, but they still slowly retreated into the distance while guarding their young. Not long after that, the beasts raced away into and disappeared from view.
Han Li sat beside the creek for a while longer and only rose up into the air after the mist had completely dissipated.
At this point, both his magic power and spiritual sense had completely recovered. However, he was only able to expel his spiritual sense from his body to a distance of under 10 kilometers, clearly indicating that he was being severely restricted.
As such, he decided to continue to fly higher into the air, then use his Brightsight Spirit Eyes to survey his surroundings rather than relying on his spiritual sense.
In doing so, he would be able to examine a much larger area.
After rising up to an altitude of over 10,000, blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes as he quickly cast his gaze around him.
The same greyish-white rocks stretched for as far as his eyes could see in the eastern and western directions, but there was a smudge of green around 15 kilometers to the south; it appeared that there was a set of mountain ranges there. To the north, there was a vast expanse of water-attribute spiritual Qi, which suggested that there was a large river or ocean situated in that direction.
After a brief hesitation, Han Li flew toward the north as a streak of azure light.
With Han Li's current speed of flight, he naturally covered this distance in a very short time.
His eyes lit up as a boundless ocean appeared before him, but the seawater was slightly strange in that it was crimson in color. On the shore, there were around 1,000 massive turtles of different sizes resting on the beach. The largest of these turtles were around 30 to 40 feet in size while the smallest were only around half a foot. All of them were half-buried in the sand, resting in a lazy manner.
In the air above the ocean, there was a flock of strange crimson birds with sharp long beaks circling around. One of them would occasionally dive into the ocean to grab large fish from the seawater with their beaks and talons, then hurl the fish high up into the air, where they would instantly be devoured by the flock of birds up above.
Han Li look on expressionlessly, and after a while, a thought suddenly occurred to him as he abruptly looked up into the sky.
There were still seven scorching suns hanging up there, but they seemed to be slightly smaller than before and were a little blurry.
It appeared that he had been teleported somewhere extremely far away from the three human regions. Otherwise, the suns in the sky wouldn't be exhibiting such a noticeable change.
Thankfully, Han Li had already guessed this from the level of discomfort he had experienced as a result of the bout of teleportation. As such, he wasn't all that surprised, and he turned his attention to the turtles down below.
Aside from the turtles on the beach, there was also a large number of vacant turtle shells spread all over the nearby beach, and there appeared to be several thousands of them.
Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly as he flipped over his palm to summon the azure turtle shell that the pig demon had been wearing.
He compared this shell to the turtle shells down below, and a hint of surprise quickly appeared in his eyes.
At first glance, the turtle shells down below seemed to be extremely similar to the one in Han Li's hand, and there were many that were even larger than the one that Han Li was holding.
However, Han Li was able to immediately glean the difference between the turtle shells.
Even though the shell in his hand wasn't very large, every single line on the shell was a faint silver in color while the lines on the turtle shells down below were all white and completely mundane.
Han Li cocked his head to the side and contemplated this momentarily before making a grabbing motion toward one of the turtle shells down below, upon which it flew directly up toward him.
Han Li unleashed a casual strike toward it, and the shell exploded into powder amid a resounding boom.
A stir ran through the turtles down below, and many of them stuck out their heads to look up into the air. However, it seemed that they didn't regard Han Li as much of a threat as most of them withdrew their heads into their shells again and continue to lie around in leisure.
"This really is no ordinary turtle shell! However, this turtle shell most likely did come from this place," Han Li murmured to himself.
Azure light flashed as Han Li slowly descended toward the ground. At the same time, he forcibly released his spiritual sense to enshroud an area with a radius of several kilometers, carefully searching for something.
After a while, Han Li abruptly opened his eyes and shot forth through the air as a streak of azure light, quickly covering a distance of several kilometers along the beach before returning. However, there were three more giant turtle shells hovering behind him, one of which was around 40 to 50 feet in size, one of which was around 10 feet, and the final one was only around several feet.
All of these turtle shells also silver lines on them, but the shades of silver were a little different.
On the smallest shell, the lines appeared to be constructed from pure silver and were shimmering with light. The shade of silver on the shell that was around 10 feet in size was around the same as one that Han Li already had, and as for the largest of the turtle shells, the lines on that one were barely silver at all.
All three of these turtle shells were buried quite deep into the ground, and if it weren't for the fact that Han Li's spiritual sense was able to penetrate directly into the sand, he most likely wouldn’t have been able to find these three shells.
At this moment, Han Li paused in mid-air and waved a hand toward the turtle shells, upon which all three of them organized themselves into a row in front of him.
Han Li flicked his fingers, and several streaks of azure sword Qi flashed through the air, striking the three turtle shells and leaving indentations of different depths.
The largest turtle shell was completely punctured, whereas the hole on the smallest one was only around half an inch deep, and the hole on the one that was around 10 feet in size was around three to four inches deep.
Han Li nodded upon seeing this before rustling his sleeve to send forth a burst of azure light.
All three turtle shells rotated within the azure light and instantly shrank drastically before being drawn into Han Li's grasp.
Spiritual light flashed from his hand, and all three shells were stowed away into his storage bracelet.
Right at this moment, the birds flying over the ocean suddenly began to let loose cries of alarm. Han Li immediately raised his head to assess the situation, upon which his heart jolted with shock.
On the surface of the ocean, a massive demonic creature that was around 100 feet in length had appeared. It had the upper body of a dark-skinned male human with a bone trident in each hand. It had a set of sinister facial features, and its lower body was identical to that of a giant octopus. The massive tentacles connected to its torso peeked out of the surface of the ocean from time to time.
This demonic creature opened its mouth to blast forth bursts of inky-black light, sweeping up hundreds of those strange crimson birds before drawing them into its mouth as if it were enjoying a delicious meal.
The birds struggled with all their might within the black light but were completely powerless to resist, and most of them were devoured in the blink of an eye.
Strangely enough, the turtled on the beach remained completely unflustered as they continued to lie in the sand, and the massive demonic creature showed no intention of attacking the turtles, either.
Han Li was rather surprised to see this. The massive demonic creature seemed to be comparable in power to an eighth grade demon beast, so Han Li naturally wasn't fearful toward it. He merely looked on with furrowed brows, attempting to identify this creature.
In reality, the difference between the terms "demon beast" and "ancient beast" was rather vague in the Spirit Realm. To the humans of the Spirit Realm, ancient beasts usually referred to the native beast-type beings of the Spirit Realm, whereas demon beasts referred to the demonic cultivators that had ascended from lower realms, as well as their descendants that continued to live in the Spirit Realm.
Most ancient beasts were unable to attain high levels of intelligence, but all of them had one or more abilities that they were endowed with from birth without requiring cultivation to attain, and they were all extremely powerful. In contrast, all demon beasts were generally capable of attaining intelligence unless they had special inheritances or were one of the rare species that were unable to attain intelligence. However, the abilities that they possessed were usually far inferior in power to that of ancient beasts.
Of course, there was no strict difference between ancient beasts and demon beasts. On the occasions when some of the ancient beasts dwelling near the human and demon territories attained intelligence, they would often lead their brethren to join the demon race voluntarily join the demon race.
There were also ancient beasts that caught the eyes of human and demonic cultivators, in which they would be forcibly tamed and domesticated.
As such, Han Li wasn't all that surprised to see this monster, and he merely hovered in the air in silence.
After a while, all of the birds in the sky had been devoured by the massive demonic creature, and it slapped the surface of the ocean with its massive tentacles in excitement before suddenly twisting around and catching sight of Han Li.
Han Li had withdrawn his aura this entire time, and the demon beast had failed to notice his presence.
However, the events that unfolded next came as quite a surprise to Han Li. As soon as the demonic creature caught sight of Han Li, an expression of shock and horror appeared on its face. After letting loose a low roar, it transformed into a streak of black Qi and immediately disappeared into the ocean.
Immediately thereafter, countless bursts of inky-black mist erupted from the seabed, making the seawater in an area of several kilometers extremely murky and opaque, thereby bringing visibility down to zero.
However, that wasn't enough to stop Han Li. Blue light flashed in his eyes and his gaze instantly pierced through the black mist, allowing him to glean the situation down below.
The massive demonic creature had already plunged deep into the ocean and was fleeing with all its might.
Han Li harrumphed coldly, and he was just about to flap his Thunderstorm Wings to give chase when a long roar suddenly rang out from the ocean's depths. The sound was like a prolonged rumbling thunderclap that was quite dull and menacing.
Immediately thereafter, a burst of powerful demonic Qi suddenly emerged in the ocean close to 10 kilometers away, and its power seemed to be comparable to that of a Deity Transformation cultivator.
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this roar. He cast his gaze into the distance in the direction where the roar had originated from, and a hint of hesitation appeared on his face.
Moments later, the burst of astonishing demonic Qi within the ocean joined together with the octopus demon before the two continued further into the ocean without any hesitation.
Han Li shook his head as the Thunderstorm Wings on his back vanished.
He didn't fear any Deity Transformation Stage demon beasts, but he didn't want to enter a reckless feud with such a powerful creature having just arrived in this unfamiliar place.
After staring out at the ocean for a while longer, Han Li abruptly turned around and flew toward the south.
A short while later, a streak of azure light appeared over a massive set of lush mountain ranges that stretched as far as the eyes could see.
The azure light receded, and Han Li was revealed.
