Chapter 851: Without a Trace
Shi Chuankong nodded in response, then sat down with his legs crossed, and he swallowed the beast core after rubbing it clean before closing his eyes.
Moments later, he reopened his eyes as he asked with slightly furrowed brows, "Did I do something wrong just now, Brother Li? Why can't I sense anything happening in my body?"
"The beast core that you just swallowed was far smaller than the other two. It appears that the fearsome a beast is, the larger its beast core would be," Han Li analyzed.
"That's probably a reasonable guess. However, looking at the creatures on this island, it appears that the lizard and the centipede that we killed may be the two most powerful beasts here," Shi Chuankong remarked.
"It's fine. Right now, our priority is to cover more ground, and we can just try again when another opportunity arises in the future," Han Li replied with a nod.
"If any powerful beasts try to get in our way from here onward, then I'm not going to spare it!" Shi Chuankong chuckled as he eagerly rubbed his hands together.
The two of them chatted for a while longer before returning to seated meditation.
The next morning.
Han Li was riding the Hover Flight Bird on the edge of the island, and it was rushing toward the area filled with black mist with a run-up of roughly a hundred meters.
With each step the bid took, a loud explosion would ring out beneath its talons, sending dust erupting in all directions.The more it accelerated, the larger its strides became, and upon reaching the edge of the island, it abruptly sprang up into the air, launching itself into the air above the black mist, where it spread its massive wings.
The surrounding space was filled with a burst of spatial pressure that was far more pronounced than before, and it seemed to only be growing stronger.
Blasts of air were constantly erupting out of the holes on the underside of the bird's feet, and it was also flapping its wings incessantly as it galloped forward with much difficulty.
Flying over this area was quite difficult to begin with, and with the added burden of Han Li on its back, the bird was clearly flying at a lower altitude than before, only just barely staying above the black mist.
Han Li pressed his own body tightly against the bird's back, doing his best to hide himself beneath its wings, and at the same time, his entire body was tensed up as he looked forward in a wary fashion.
Thankfully, the distance between the two islands was very short, and the Hover Flight Bird was very familiar with this trip, clearly having already made it countless times before, so it quickly arrived on the opposing island with Han Li.
Han Li jumped down from the bird's back upon reaching the island, and as soon as he landed on the ground, he could immediately sense that the spatial pressure here was stronger than before.
After taking a moment to acclimate himself to these new conditions, he patted the Hover Flight Bird, sending it back to the other side to transport Shi Chuankong and Daoist Xie across as well.
After reaching the island, the two of them also detected this increase in spatial pressure, much to their dismay.
"This island is a lot larger than the previous one, and the spatial pressure on the island also seems to be a lot stronger," Shi Chuankong remarked.
"Indeed. I presume the creatures on the island will only be more formidable, so we're going to have to proceed with caution from here onward," Han Li said in a grim voice as he gently stroked the Hover Flight Bird's head.
"It's all thanks to this little guy that we were able to make it here at all. We should find out where these birds come from and capture two more. We'll be able to travel faster with these birds as our steeds, and that'll allow us to find any potential settlements of residents faster," Shi Chuankong suggested.
"I've already scoured the area with my spiritual sense, and there's a canyon a few dozen kilometers away from here. The Hover Flight Birds from last night are residing there," Han Li said.
Around half a day later, the three of them flew out of the canyon, with each of them rising atop a Hover Flight Bird, pursued by hundreds of other furious Hover Flight Birds.
……
Over two months flew by in a flash.
Three Hover Flight Birds were gathered together in a hilly area, pecking incessantly at the ground.
Under a giant rock not far away laid the carcasses of two scaled sawtooth mammoths that were each over a thousand feet tall, and there was blood still trickling out of their mouths.
Each of them had a large hole on the top of its head, and the beast cores inside their bodies had already been dug out.
Han Li and Shi Chuankong were seated on the giant rock several meters apart with their backs facing each other, and all of their profound acupoints were glowing faintly.
Meanwhile, Daoist Xie was standing off to the side, looking into the distance in an expressionless manner.
Shortly thereafter, Han Li and Shi Chuankong opened their eyes, and the former exhaled as he said, "It seems like these beast cores really can increase the amount of starpower in our bodies and enhance our physical constitutions, but they're not enough on their own to open up new profound acupoints."
"Indeed. Even so, after devouring so many beast cores up to this point, both of us have benefitted immensely. At the very least, we're far more resistant to the spatial pressure in this domain than before. I must say, devouring beast cores here is a far faster form of physical cultivation than any physical cultivation methods that I can think of in the outside world," Shi Chuankong said with a smile.
"If we can devour some more beast cores, we'll be better equipped to deal with the spatial pressure once we reach even larger landmasses," Han Li said.
"Fellow Daoist Li, those giant scorpions are catching up to us again. It looks like they'll reach us in more than thirty seconds," Daoist Xie suddenly called out.
"What a pain in the backside! If it isn't for the fact that their beast cores have no value, we should've eradicated all of them long ago," Shi Chuankong spat through gritted teeth.
"Just ignore them. We're about to reach the landmass soon, and they won't be able to get to us there," Han Li said with a smile.
With that, the three of them got on their Hover Flight Birds and continued onward.
……
One morning, several months later.
A scaled panther-like beast was prowling along the edge of a barren desert, tearing at the flesh of a giant lizard that was already long dead.
All of a sudden, its ears perked up as it raised its head in a wary fashion and began peering into the mist on the edge of the wilderness.
A huge shadow was currently making its way through the mist.
The panther-like beast hurriedly ran back close to a thousand feet upon seeing this, then turned back to see what was happening.
Right at this moment, a giant dark green turtle that was over a hundred feet tall flew out of the black mist, then slowly descended onto the edge of the desert.
The turtle's shell had some very peculiar patterns, and it was also giving off a faint sheen, reflecting specks of green light under the morning sun.
There were three men standing on the giant turtle's back, and they were none other than Han Li's trio.
Daoist Xie was scouring the surrounding area with an indifferent gaze, and as soon as he caught sight of the panther-like beast, the latter immediately fled into the distance, abandoning the giant lizard carcass.
After several months of travel, Han Li's trio had finally left the Gray Scale Islands and arrived on the Brown Valley Continent.
During their travels, they had done their best to avoid powerful creatures, but they were still attacked no fewer than a hundred times. On the majority of occasions, they were able to get away and avoid a battle thanks to the Hover Flight Birds' speed, but there had been some unavoidable confrontations that they had no choice but to engage in.
Among them, there had been two particularly grueling battles, one of which was a battle against a pair of giant armadillo-like creatures, which they were able to slay to procure a pair of beast cores the size of an infant's fist.
During the other battle, they were attacked by an earthworm that was over a thousand feet in length, which had suddenly sprung up out of the ground to devour all three Hover Flight Birds.
Not only did the earthworm possess a tremendously powerful body, it was also extremely cunning, immediately burrowing into the ground at the first sign of danger.
In the end, Han Li's trio was finally able to leave its territory after close to half a month of cautious travel.
After that, the three of them had traveled for over a month before encountering this creature, which Han Li had named the "Space Walking Turtle".
Just like Hover Flight Birds, this turtle was somehow able to resist the spatial pressure in this domain thanks to certain special properties of its shell, and it was able to traverse through even the areas enshrouded in black mist.
It was thanks to this Space Walking Turtle that they were able to traverse through the misty area between the final island and this continent, an area that spanned close to ten thousand feet.
At this moment, the three of them were all seated on the turtle's back in silence, not because there was nothing to say, but instead because they were all silently withstanding the spatial pressure on this continent, which was over ten times more potent than before.
Under such immense pressure, Han Li felt as if all of his internal organs had been squished together, and his ears were also ringing every time he took a strained breath.
Scales had already appeared over Shi Chuankong's body as he revealed part of his true devilish form to help him withstand the pressure.
In contrast, Daoist Xie was faring much better than the two of them thanks to his puppet body.
On this continent, Han Li's spiritual sense was being suppressed even further, to the point that his spiritual sensory range was only around thirty to forty kilometers in radius.
Up to this point, they hadn't encountered any residents of this domain, nor any signs left behind by Violet Spirit, and he was beginning to grow a little concerned.
This domain was far more massive than he anticipated, and it also had a terrible environment tha rendered one's cultivation base completely useless, so one could only deal with the hazards present in this place with their physical prowess.
It had already been over a century since Violet Spirit was cast into this place, and he couldn't help but fear for her safety.
Right at this moment, he suddenly detected something, and the Space Walking Turtle beneath him also drew to a halt at his behest.