A short white later, the silver streak of light reached the location where the ghost mist had appeared earlier before plunging downward without any hesitation. The humanoid puppet immediately disappeared deep into the ocean.
Han Li sat in mid-air with his legs folded in front of him, using his spiritual sense to form a connection with the humanoid puppet, thereby allowing him to manipulate it as if it were an avatar of his.
The seabed nearby was far deeper than the seabed in the surrounding ocean. Only after plunging down to a depth of around 40,000 to 50,000 feet did the humanoid puppet reach the bottom.
However, there was absolutely nothing there. Not only were there no demon beasts around, there wasn't even any coral or seaweed around. Furthermore, the terrain was far too flat to be normal without any undulation in the topography at all.
The humanoid puppet searched through the surrounding area before suddenly rushing toward a certain direction.
After a short while, it discovered a ball of azure light hovering in the water several kilometers away.
The ball of light was rising and sinking erratically, as if it possessed a spiritual nature.
Golden light suddenly shot forth from the humanoid puppet's eyes as the speed at which it was traveling increased severalfold. After just a few flashes, it was only just over 100 feet away from the ball of light.
At this point, it was finally able to identify that there was a feather roughly 10 feet in length within the ball of light. The feather was shimmering with faint spiritual light, as if it were a living creature.
Silver light flashed from the humanoid puppet's body once again, taking it directly above the feather. It immediately reached down for the feather without any hesitation in an attempt to grab it.
However, a surprising turn of events unfolded!
The puppet's fingertip was flashing with silver light and as soon as it came into contact with the azure light, the light around the feather suddenly intensified as it blurred into nonexistence, seemingly as if it had disappeared into thin air.
As a result, the puppet only managed to grab ahold of empty space!
The humanoid puppet faltered slightly, seemingly also a little shocked by this development.
However, in the next instant, azure light flashed over 300 feet away, and the feather reappeared, as if it had always been there.
This time, the puppet chose to observe the azure feather as opposed to acting recklessly. However, the feather began to drift into the distance again.
The puppet didn't let it drift far, however, as it sprang into action again when the azure feather had drifted just over 1,000 feet away.
Silver light flashed as the puppet transformed into a silver streak of light before appearing above the feather. However, on this occasion, it didn't make a grab for it with its hand. Instead, it waved its hand through the air.
A shimmering silver hand of light appeared before reaching for the feather in its stead.
The same thing happened again; the azure light shuddered slightly before the feather teleported away again.
However, when it reappeared again this time, loud thunderclaps suddenly erupted above it as golden lightning came crashing down from above, instantly ensnaring it in a net of golden lightning.
The feather flashed violently and teleported several times in quick succession, but it would always be rebounded mercilessly by the golden light as soon as it reappeared, rendering its teleportation ability completely useless.
At this moment, a humanoid figure appeared in the water above the golden net of lightning. This was none other than Han Li himself, who had also ventured down into the bottom of the ocean.
Han Li looked at the azure feather trapped in the golden net and clicked his tongue in wonder.
This item appeared to be simply extraordinary!
Not only was it emanating azure spiritual light, upon closer inspection, Han Li discovered that the patterns on its surface were constructed from all types of mysterious runes that were layered on top of one another and only faintly discernible.
However, a small section of the feather's tip had been charred black and there were a few crimson marks on its end, within which wisps of golden light were flashing.
Han Li was naturally aware of the fact that this was definitely some sort of rare treasure! Thus, an elated expression appeared on his face as he patted his storage pouch, instantly producing several talismans in the process.
He raised a hand and one of the talismans shot forth toward the net. However, azure light flashed and the feather seemed to have adopted an insubstantial state of being, allowing the talismans to pass directly through it.
Han Li's expression faltered upon seeing this, and rather than being enraged by this development, he was ecstatic.
This item possessed an extremely potent spiritual nature, thereby lending further support to the notion that it was an extraordinary treasure.
Thus, he immediately made a hand seal and began to chant something.
The golden lightning net contracted drastically to a radius of around 10 feet at his behest, affording the azure feather no avenue for retreat or evasion.
He then opened his mouth to expel a mouthful of blood essence onto the talisman in his hand. At the same time, he cast a series of incantation seals in quick succession, all of which disappeared into the talisman.
After releasing that talisman, the azure feather in the golden net attempted to evade it again, but the talisman stuck to it like glue.
The azure light receded and the feather took on a much more mundane appearance.
Only then did Han Li withdraw his Divine Devilbane Lightning and feigned a grabbing motion, upon which the hovering azure feather was drawn to his hand.
Upon careful inspection, he abruptly raised his eyebrows as he gently tapped the feather with his finger.
An incredible scene ensued!
Faint spiritual light began to shimmer around the azure feather and it rapidly shrank to around a foot in length in the blink of an eye.
Furthermore, the talisman that was stuck to the feather had also shrunk along with it. That was quite an interesting observation.
Han Li's stirred slightly as he held onto the shaft of the feather and waved it gently.
Azure light instantly erupted from the feather, sweeping up an extremely powerful gust of wind-attribute spiritual power.
The spiritual power was extremely pure and Han Li was delighted to make this discovery!
However, this wasn't the time to be contemplating how to use this treasure. As such, Han Li stored it into a jade box before putting it into his storage pouch. He then deployed the humanoid puppet again to search for any other noteworthy items in the surrounding area.
However, Han Li was already very satisfied. As such, he didn't linger any longer in this area. He withdrew the humanoid puppet and flew away from this place as a streak of azure light.
During the rest of his journey to Green Spirit Island, Han Li began to carefully contemplate the incident surrounding the giant beast and the ghost mist.
It was quite clear that the battle he had just witnessed was far beyond something that any cultivator in the human world could interfere with. That giant beast seemed to be a powerful demon from the Spirit Realm or some other alternate realm. Furthermore, that ghost mist seemed to be alive and also appeared to be more powerful than the giant beast.
That was quite a shocking revelation to Han Li at the time.
The only living beings in the human world that could be so astonishing had to those legendary devils.
Back when he had been trapped in the Umbra Realm, he had suspected that the Umbra Realm had somehow been related to Devil Luo Mian. After all, only half-spirit half-demon beings like them would possess the incredible ability to easily tear through space and travel throughout the realms.
That unfathomably massive beast appeared to also possess power that defied the natural order. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to forcibly attack t
he ghost mist through the boundary between realms.
With Han Li's vast reserves of experience, in conjunction with the knowledge he had gleaned from reading the many ancient tomes that he had, he could roughly make sense of what he had just witnessed.
However, no matter how spot-on he was with his speculation, fearsome beings like Luo Mian were far too powerful for him to do anything against. As such, he could only treat that as a bizarre experience.
Two months and a day later, Han Li was just flying over the ocean when his expression suddenly changed, and he shot forth in a certain direction.
He had only traveled a few kilometers when bursts of explosive booms erupted up ahead.
In the distance, not too far away from his current location, spiritual light was flashing incessantly as three cultivators were fighting for their lives, trying to ward off a high-grade demon beast. Among the three of them, one was an early-Core Formation cultivator, while the other two were only at the late-Foundation Establishment Stage. Unfortunately for them, that demon was at the sixth grade. Even after the three of them combined their powers, they could only just barely ensure self-preservation.
Han Li stopped in mid-air and began to carefully appraise this battle.
The Core Formation cultivator was a middle-aged man wearing a conical bamboo hat that obscured most of his face. His skin appeared to be quite dark and he was manipulating a yellow flying sword, with which he was taking on most of the demon beast's attacks. As for the other two late-Foundation Establishment cultivators, one of them was an elderly man with white hair while the other was a young woman who appeared to be around 17 or 18 years of age. They were wielding an azure flying trident and a fiery crimson wheel, respectively, and they seemed to be rather powerful as well.
The sixth grade demon beast before them had white mist enshrouding its entire body, and the sound of a crying infant could be heard coming from its mouth. Furthermore, balls of blue lightning were shooting forth from within the white mist. This was the first high-grade demon beast he had encountered in the Scattered Star Seas, an "Infant Carp Beast".
However, this beast was significantly larger than the one he had seen before. Furthermore, it had four fair and tender arms, and the four treasures that it was wielding were also quite remarkable.
They consisted of a saber, a sword, a drum, and a flag.
Among the four treasures, the saber, sword, and flag were only relatively rare top-grade treasure. However, that small yellow drum was a powerful ancient treasure that was able to summon silver ripples, which appeared to be quite powerful.
Han Li's arrival had clearly attracted the attention of both parties. Upon identifying the fact that Han Li was a human, the man wearing the conical bamboo hat was overjoyed, and he yelled, "I am Chen Jing of Lightning Sky Island! If you're willing to lend us your assistance, I'll be sure to reward you handsomely following this battle!"
Due to the fact that most of his attention was focused on handling the demon beast, the man didn't even have the spare capacity to use his spiritual sense to detect Han Li's cultivation base. As such, he merely assumed that Han Li was just another Core Formation cultivator who just so happened to be passing by.
After all, the speed at which Han Li had been traveling was similar to that of a Core Formation cultivator.
However, the sixth grade Infant Carp Beast had already developed some level of intelligence. After using its spiritual sense to detect Han Li's cultivation base, a horrified expression immediately appeared on its face.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face and before he had even given a response to those cultivators, the beast suddenly let loose a ghastly cry. All of a sudden, over 100 balls of blue lightning shot forth from its white mist in unison, flying toward the three cultivators. At the same time, it had already emerged from the mist and was plummeting like a shooting star toward the ocean down below as quickly as possible.
Chapter 1142: Lightning Sky Island
The three cultivators were thrown into a slight panic in the face of so many balls of lightning, and they were completely unable to pay any heed to the escaping Infant Carp Beast.
However, Han Li's expression darkened upon seeing this, and he swept his sleeve through the air in the demon beast's direction.
A flying sword that was around a foot in length shot forth from his sleeve, shuddering slightly before transforming into a streak of golden light over 100 feet long, which flew through the air.
The sword was so fast that the Infant Carp Beast only saw a flash of golden light, followed by a split second of excruciating pain, before it was unable to feel nor see anything ever again.
The golden light sped around the demon beast a few times and large clouds of blood mist erupted into the sky, slicing the beast into seven or eight pieces. Even its soul didn't have a chance to escape before it, too, was destroyed.
The segments of its body came plummeting down from above.
At this moment, Han Li reached out and feigned a grabbing motion.
One section of the demon beast's body suddenly exploded and a blue bead shot forth from within its flesh and blood, flying toward Han Li as a streak of blue light.
Han Li closed his five finger's and the Infant Carp Beast's demon core had already ended up in his hand.
He looked at the demon core in a nonchalant manner without any hint of emotion in his eyes.
A demon core of this caliber naturally wasn't going to catch his eyes.
Following the death of the demon beast, the balls of lightning frantically attacking the three cultivators also disappeared in the flash.
The three of them heaved a collective sigh of relief before turning to Han Li with awe and veneration in their eyes.
They were unable to chase down the Infant Carp Beast earlier, but they had clearly witnessed the scenes in which Han Li destroyed that sixth grade demon beast with ease.
It was not difficult to imagine their astonishment.
They had thought that at most, Han Li would only be a Core Formation cultivator who just so happened to be passing by, but who would have thought that he would be a Nascent Soul cultivator?
However, this place was already quite far into the outer seas. Cultivators of Han Li's caliber were still rare here, but three of them had encountered a few in the past, so they weren't overly flustered. Thus, the three cultivators hurriedly stowed away their treasures before drifting over to Han Li.
Before they had even reached the Han Li, the man in the conical bamboo hat extended a deep bow toward him.
"Chen Jing of the Azure Yang Sect pays his respects to Senior. Thank you for your assistance, Senior. We've been tangled up in a battle with this demon beast for a long time and it would've been very difficult for us to escape on our own. May I have the honor of knowing your name, Senior?" The man was surreptitiously sizing up Han Li as he spoke. His expression was quite respectful, but he spoke in a manner that was neither haughty nor humble.
"Azure Yang Sect? You're Lord Three Yang's disciple?" Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this before a hint of surprise appeared on his face.
"Lord Three Yang is indeed my master. Do you recognize him, Senior?"
The man scanned over Han Li's body with his spiritual sense, but was unable to detect his cultivation base. He was most likely a Nascent Soul Stage powerful being. He found it slightly perplexing that he was unable to ascertain Han Li's cultivation base, but automatically assumed him to be an early-Nascent Soul cultivator.
After all, mid-Nascent Soul and late-Nascent Soul cultivators were all extremely renowned.
"Hehe, I've heard of your master, yet never seen him!" Han Li chuckled.
At the mention of the Azure Yang Sect and Lord Three Yang, he naturally thought back to Yuan Yao's experiences with them. She had slain the young master of the Azure Yang Sect, which led to her being hunted by the entire sect. Even though Lord Three Yang was quite a renowned figure in the Scattered Star Seas, in Han Li's eyes, he was merely a mid-Nascent Soul cult
ivator who wasn't worthy of his attention.
Aside from that, he had no vendetta against the Azure Yang Sect, so he certainly wasn't going to kill these three in cold blood. Next, he began to ask them some questions.
"The three of you must be quite familiar with this area, right? Do you know the specific location of the Green Spirit Island?" Han Li's sea charts were very detailed, but it was no easy task trying to find an island in this boundless ocean.
As such, he certainly wasn't going to give up on the opportunity to make an inquiry to these three cultivators.
At the mention of Green Spirit Island, smiles appeared on the faces of the Azure Yang Sect cultivators.
"Senior, you're trying to get to Green Spirit Island to obtain high-grade spirit stones, right? If that's the case, then there's no need for you to travel all the way to Green Spirit Island. You can purchase spirit stones from the markets nearby. Of course, if you're familiar with the mine guards from the Starfall Coalition or the Star Palace, you'll naturally be able to get a better price."
"Markets? How many high-grade spirit stones can be found there? I require more than just one or two," Han Li replied in a skeptical manner.
"I'm sure the markets will be able to satisfy your needs, Senior. High-grade spirit stones are technically equivalent to over 10,000 spirit stones but in reality, the price at which they're sold is over twice that amount. As long as you're not looking for more than 30 or 40 high-grade spirit stones at once, those markets will be able to provide them," Chen Jing replied with a smile.
"In that case, then take me to the markets first. If there aren't enough spirit stones there, then I'll make a trip to Green Spirit Island. You can take this demon core as remuneration for leading the way." Han Li tossed the Infant Carp Beast's demon core toward them as he spoke.
Chen Jing caught the demon core and was immediately ecstatic.
"Don't worry, Senior, we've been residing around this area for over 10 years so we know everything there is to know about these markets. We'll be sure not to disappoint you." The Azure Yang Sect cultivators were still rather confused about Han Li's identity, but a sixth grade demon core would rake in a large sum of spirit stones for a Core Formation cultivator, particularly when all they had to do in exchange for it was to lead the way to the market. They were naturally overjoyed.
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