Han Li had chosen to conceal himself as best as he could, whereas Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er were clearly just trying to get as far away as possible before they were detected by the high-grade Dark Beasts.
It was hard to say which method was superior.
If the high-grade Dark Beasts were unable to see through their concealment techniques, then it was naturally best to take advantage of that and get away from this place as quickly as possible.
However, if traveling too quickly hampered the effect of their concealment techniques, thereby resulting in their covers being blown, then they'd be in grave danger.
The reason why Han Li had chosen to conceal himself while remaining on the spot was because he was confident in the concealment abilities of his High Zenith Invisibility Talisman and the black veil.
The third demonic eyes of the high-grade Dark Beasts scanned through the surrounding area, passing over Han Li, as well as Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er.
However, none of their eyes locked onto the trio, so it was quite clear that they hadn't been discovered.
Han Li and the others all heaved a long sigh of relief upon seeing this.
Right at this moment, Han Li suddenly caught sight of something in the beast pack, and he immediately drew a sharp breath as his expression changed drastically.
He had discovered an extremely eye-catching shimmering golden shadow among the beast pack; it was another Dark Beast Monarch!
However, this one was clearly different from the one they'd just seen. Now only was its body slightly larger, it had seven or eight Three-eyed Dark Beasts following closely behind it.
On top of that, the third eyes of these high-grade Dark Beasts weren't grey. Instead, they were shimmering with faint silver light.
Aside from the few silver-eyed Dark Beasts accompanying it, all of the nearby Dark Beasts immediately retreated to over 100 feet away, clearing out a large area as a gesture of respect for the Dark Beast Monarch.
Thus, the entire beast pack stopped cold in their tracks as all of them either perched on tree branches or stood still on the ground, and all of them were appraising the golden Dark Beast with awe and veneration in their eyes.
The Dark Beast Monarch cast a cold gaze through the surrounding area, following an astonishing aura erupted from its body, crushing the spiritual sense fluctuations of all of the other high-grade Dark Beasts before sweeping forth in all directions.
Han Li's heart sank slightly upon seeing this, and he stopped flying altogether as he hid himself inside a large tree in a completely stationary manner.
In the distance, Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun could also sense a massive fluctuation surging toward them, and they immediately tried to withdraw their auras, hoping to be able to escape detection.
However, that was clearly overly wishful thinking.
Han Li managed to remain undetected even in the face of the Dark Beast Monarch's powerful spiritual sense, but Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er were instantly locked on to.
Shi Kun could sense that a cold aura had crept into the spiritual sense around him, and his expression changed drastically as he yelled, "Run!"
Yellow light flashed from his body, and he shot forth as a streak of yellow light, making no further attempt to disguise himself.
Liu Shui'er was also aware that their situation was far from ideal, and the white jade mouse beneath her appeared in a flash, then formed a ball of light that swept her up and carried her away at an astonishing speed.
As such, not only did the golden Dark Beast notice them, all of the other Dark Beasts also detected their presence, and a stir immediately ran through the entire beast pack.
A cold light flashed through the golden Dark Beast's inky-black eyes, and a baleful aura erupted from its body. It opened its mouth as if it were about to give an order, but all of a sudden, its expression abruptly changed, and it turned toward the direction that the other golden Dark Beast had fled toward before letting loose a long howl that pierced through the heavens.
Not only was the roar extremely loud, it also seemed to possess some kind of incredible power, forcing all of the nearby normal Dark Beasts to sprawl onto the ground, while even the high-grade Dark Beasts were swaying unsteadily.
Almost right after this howl erupted, a similar cry also rang out in the distance up ahead.
The two howls seemed to be quite similar, but if one were to listen closely, they'd discover that the second howl was filled with unbridled fury.
As soon as the golden Dark Beast in the beast pack heard this reciprocating howl, an extremely humanized sinister expression appeared on its face, and at the same time, it abruptly let loose a thunderous low snarl.
The entire beast pack immediately sprang into action at its behest, rushing onward again like a massive black wave, and it appeared that they were heading directly toward where the other golden Dark Beast was.
However, the golden Dark Beast in the beast pack wasn't planning on simply leaving Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er, either. It turned around before letting loose a few roars toward the silver-eyed Dark Beasts around it, and all of them immediately replied with low respectful roars.
Immediately thereafter, they hurtled toward Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er as streaks of silver light, while the golden Dark Beast joined the beast pack in pursuit of the other Dark Beast Monarch.
In the blink of an eye, the beast pack vanished into the distance, and the silver-eyed Dark Beasts also disappeared in pursuit of their targets.
Meanwhile, Han Li remained within the giant tree this entire time, and he only emerged from it after two hours had passed, and he'd ascertained that there were no other Dark Beasts nearby.
After that, he deactivated his High Zenith Invisibility Talisman and removed the black veil from his body. Among them, the talisman had a time limit that it was effective for, and even though the black veil appeared to be quite light, it was very draining on his magic power.
Hence, he naturally couldn't use these two things all the time.
After emerging from within the giant tree, Han Li cast his gaze toward the direction that Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun had fled in, and he contemplated the situation momentarily before heaving a faint sigh.
Immediately thereafter, he opened his mouth, and a small azure flying sword flew out from within before transforming into a burst of azure light that enshrouded Han Li's entire body.
Thus, Han Li transformed into a streak of azure light that was around 10 feet in length and set off in pursuit of his two companions.
Initially, the azure streak of light was quite dazzling to behold, but it quickly dimmed until it became nothing more than a barely visible azure shadow in the end.
Han Li was flying through the forest extremely quickly, but he still hadn't caught sight of his targets even after flying for close to half a day.
If it weren't for the fact that the three of them had used a secret technique to refine treasures that could allow them to keep track of one another's locations, Han Li would've most likely been drawn into thinking that he'd already lost them.
It appeared that Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun were seriously escaping as quickly as they could to get away from their pursuers; even at Han Li's current speed, he was still unable to close the gap at all.
The fact that the silver-eyed Dark Beasts were able to keep up with them despite this indicated that they were certainly not to be scoffed at, either.
These thoughts quickly raced through his mind, and he suddenly gritted his teeth before he reverted back to his human form amid a flash of silver light.
He stowed the Dark Beast hide away, then made a hand seal, and a pair of translucent wings appeared on his back following a dull thunderclap.
Chapter 1691: New Divine Essencefused Mountain
After summoning his Thunderstorm Wings, Han Li flapped them gently, and his body shot forth as an azure and white thread of light.
The light thread covered a distance of 700 to 800 feet in just a single flash, then appeared on the other side of the horizon aft
er just a few more flashes.
Such an astonishing speed would allow Han Li to outrun all beings below the holy race, and he was finally beginning to slowly catch up to Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun.
Thankfully, all of the Dark Beats nearby seemed to have been summoned away by the Dark Beast Monarch, thereby allowing him to fly through the forest without any inhibitions.
After more than two hours, he finally caught up to his target, and caught sight of Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun in the distance.
In reality, he hadn't really caught up. At this point, Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun had already been forced to stop, and were currently engaged in a heated battle against the silver-eyed Dark Beasts.
Han Li narrowed his eyes and surveyed the situation from several kilometers away.
Thus, he discovered that Shi Kun had donned a suit of shimmering yellow armor, and was standing still on the spot in mid-air.
A pair of crimson war hammers had appeared in his hands, and as he swung them through the air, countless fist-sized balls of fire revolved around him, conjuring up a sinister-looking crimson fire wyrm.
in the air above his head, a red jade vial spinning on the spot incessantly, blasting forth pillars of crimson light that were attacking the enemies around him in a frenzy.
It turned out that Shi Kun's most powerful abilities were fire-attribute ones, rather than earth-attribute abilities. This came as quite a surprise to Han Li.
Meanwhile, the three silver-eyed Dark Beasts that were attacking him had conjured up a dozen or so black projections that had surrounded him from all sides.
Countless streaks of black and red light clashed amid resounding booms, and despite the immense power of Shi Kun's war hammers, he was unable to strike the silver projections around him due to their fast and unpredictable movement techniques, so he was only able to ensure self-preservation without being able to gain any advantage.
On top of that, even though the three silver-eyed Dark Beasts weren't actually attacking him themselves, the silver beams of light they were unleashing from their third eyes were extremely dangerous.
Shi Kun naturally didn't dare to allow these beams of light to pierce through his defenses and strike his body, so he was going out of his way to block them with his war hammers.
Han Li could clearly see that as soon as those silver beams of light struck Shi Kun's crimson hammers, those areas on the hammers would instantly take on a black hue. Despite the fact that the crimson light around those areas would then scramble to sweep over those spots, it would still take a long while before the war hammers returned to normal.
Thankfully, the three silver-eyed Dark Beasts were unable to continuously blast forth those beams of light, and even with three of them joining forces to attack Shi Kun, they were still unable to break through his defenses. Thus, an impasse ensued.
Meanwhile, Liu Shui'er was facing four other silver-eyed Dark Beasts on her own, and her situation was vastly different.
She had summoned a set of dazzling silver short spears, each of which was only around a foot in length. There were eight of them in total, and as they flew through the air, they left specks of silver light in their wake, making it appear as if countless silver stars had lit up in the dark night.
Aside from those treasures, a strange silver projection had also appeared behind her. The projection appeared to be of a beautiful silver-armored woman, yet as its arms flashed through the air, they conjured up countless blurry arm projections, making it appear as if it possessed hundreds of arms.
Each and every one of those arms projections was holding a silver longsword that was just as blurry and indistinct, and these longswords were sending streaks of white sword Qi hurtling through the air.
As such, countless streaks of sword Qi were being unleashed by the projection, while the set of short silver spears were releasing countless specks of silver light, and these attacks encompassed an area with a radius of over 1,000 feet.
The four silver-eyed Dark Beasts had flown into a thunderous rage, and the projections they were conjuring up were rushing relentlessly toward Liu Shui'er, only to be kept firmly at bay.
As such, she appeared to be well on top in her battle.
Han Li heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing this, and at the same time, a wry smile appeared on his face.
These two had proclaimed that they'd have very little chances of securing victory if they were to face more than three normal Dark Beasts, yet right now, they were facing multiple Three-eyed Dark Beasts, which were of a higher caliber than their normal brethren, yet one was able to hold their own while the other clearly had the upper hand. It was quite apparent that they had both intentionally been overly modest in their own assessment of their powers.
However, that came as no surprise to Han Li. After all, no one would reveal the full extent of their powers to some people they'd only just met.
The Dark Beast Monarch had to have identified their cultivation bases, but never would it have thought that these two weren't ordinary late-Spatial Tempering Stage beings at all. Otherwise, it wouldn't have sent only these seven silver-eyed Dark Beasts after them.
If they were only comparable in power to normal late-Spatial Tempering Stage beings, there was no way that they'd be able to withstand the combined attacks from these silver-eyed Dark Beasts for so long.
In this current situation, it was impossible to say whether Liu Shui'er was truly more powerful than Shi Kun, or whether the seven silver-eyed Dark Beasts were truly inferior in power compared to the two of them.
Neither side had unleashed their full power, and the battles appeared to be quite fierce, but all of them were merely throwing figurative jabs, trying to provoke an opening that they could exploit to land a killing blow.
Only in those moments of life and death would they reveal the extent of their abilities.
However, through the use of his spirit eye ability, Han Li could see that both Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er wore concerned expressions on their faces.
It was no wonder that they were feeling rather uneasy. After all, this was the central region of the Dark Beast Forest. Even though all of the Dark Beasts had seemingly been taken away by the Dark Beast Monarch, who was to say that the beast pack wouldn't suddenly turn around? If they were to be inundated by so many Dark Beasts at once, their fates were essentially sealed.
However, if they were to try and end these battles quickly, that could easily result in unfavorable consequences as well. These seven silver-eyed Dark Beasts were comparable to them in power, so even if they were to unleash all of their trump cards to kill these beasts, they'd expend a lot of magic power in the process, and most likely end up with severe injuries as well.
In that case, there was almost no way they'd be able to traverse through the rest of the Dark Beast Forest without being killed along the way.
As such, both Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun were growing quite anxious, and they could only hope that Han Li would catch up to them as quickly as possible. Only with their combined powers would they be able to secure victory without having to overexert themselves.
These thoughts quickly raced through Han Li's mind, and he immediately understood the nature of the situation.
He knew that these battles had to be concluded quickly as the longer they delayed, the more risk they'd be incurring.
As such, he immediately swept a sleeve through the air, and he turned over his hand to summon an object.
He then flicked his wrist, and a black bracelet shot forth, then disappeared into thin air in a flash.
At the same time, his other hand turned inky-black, and wisps of grey light began to emerge from his fingertips. Simultaneously, golden light flashed, and golden scales appeared all over his body as he immediately activated his Provenance True Devil Arts to their maximal extent.
After doing all that, he raised a hand, and a black veil emerged before draping itself over his entire body, upon which he immediately vanished on the spot.
Moments later, one of the Dark Beasts t
hat was attacking Shi Kun suddenly faltered as a hint of bewilderment flashed through its eyes.
Right at this moment, spatial fluctuations erupted behind it, and a white object hurtled directly toward the beast.
The silver-eyed Dark Beast reacted extremely quickly, swiping a paw behind itself without even turning around.
Black light flashed, and several black claw projections flashed through the air, crashing into the white object with a resounding boom.
The Dark Beast took advantage of this opportunity to abruptly twist around, and it finally managed to identify what it had just been attacked by.
This was a pristine white python that was several tens of feet long, and astonishing glacial Qi was emanating from its entire body as it appraised the beast in a completely expressionless manner.
The Dark Beast was naturally furious to see this, yet before it had a chance to do anything, a small mountain that was around an inch tall suddenly appeared above its head. The miniature mountain then swelled drastically to over 1,000 feet in size in the blink of an eye before crashing down in a soundless manner.
There were several large silver runes inscribed onto the surface of the mountain, and those characters were none other than beveled silver text.
Due to the abrupt and silent emergence of the mountain, the Dark Beast only detected its presence after it had begun its descent.
At this moment, a blue jade fan shot forth from within the giant white python's mouth, and the fan waved itself through the air, sending a burst of blue glacial light hurtling directly toward the Dark Beast.
The silver-eyed Dark Beast was quite alarmed by these sudden developments, and the other two Dark Beasts immediately let loose roars of fury upon seeing this, turning away from Shi Kun as they charged toward their companion.
Shi Kun immediately let loose a burst of raucous laughter as both of his war hammers flew out of his hands, then swelled to around 10 feet in size each before crashing down toward the two Dark Beasts with devastating might.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 968