Chapter 1136: The Giant Bird

Han Li heard the beast's roar and, startled, opened his eyes, a look of surprise on his face. WM Net

He knew that with his current powerful divine sense, even without deliberately releasing it, he could take in everything within several hundred zhang around him as easily as breathing. Moreover, when he had landed on this island earlier, he had specifically scanned the sea surface within a hundred li of the area, and had not detected any demon beasts roaming nearby.

Since an unexpected situation had arisen, Han Li naturally would not ignore it. He immediately sent his divine sense sweeping outward, probing toward the seabed beneath the small island.

The beast's roar was coming from below!

In just a moment, Han Li's expression changed. He suddenly transformed into a brilliant azure rainbow and shot up into the high sky, stopping after a single circuit at several hundred zhang up, his face grave as he looked down.

Almost at the same moment, gusts of sea wind carrying a foul stench rose violently. Countless vortices of varying sizes formed on the nearby sea surface. Rows of massive waves over ten zhang high surged up one after another, then crashed into each other with thunderous booms, sending spray scattering through the lower air.

For a time, the entire region seemed to be tearing apart, enough to make one's heart tremble with fear.

Han Li swept his gaze around and was horrified to discover that the sea within a hundred li was in the same state, all of it swept by fierce winds and towering waves.

Just now, when his divine sense probed toward the seabed, once it passed a thousand zhang into the deep sea, it was forcibly drawn away by something.

Although he reacted quickly enough to pull it back in haste, a wisp of his divine sense was still forcibly sucked away, costing him a small loss.

Only then did he, alarmed, hurriedly fly into the air, treating the strange object that had appeared on the seabed with the utmost caution.

Could there be some powerful demon beast below? But even if a tenth-tier demon beast appeared, it shouldn't cause such terrifying commotion. Or perhaps a Spirit Transformation stage demon beast, as rumored—but it didn't quite seem like that either.

If he remembered correctly, once a demon beast transcended the tenth-tier realm, it would likewise be constrained by the thin spiritual energy of the human realm. How would it dare act so recklessly, stirring up wind and waves like this? That would be equivalent to depleting its own essence!

Han Li began to feel a little uneasy in his heart.

The fact was, once a demon beast surpassed the tenth tier, it could be classified using the same realm divisions as human cultivators. Of course, continuing to distinguish them with eleventh-tier, twelfth-tier, and so on was also possible. It was just that human cultivators generally did not adopt such terminology.

After all, once a demon beast passed the tenth tier, it was a top-tier existence in the human realm. How would human cultivators dare still regard such a terrifying being as an ordinary demon?

But the commotion below was simply too great! Even Han Li, a late-stage cultivator who had weathered countless grand scenes, felt his heart grow uneasy.

Yet the thing beneath the sea simply refused to surface, only causing the wind and waves to grow ever fiercer, even beginning to raise towering waves over a hundred zhang high.

Han Li's expression shifted, and he finally made up his mind. Whatever was causing trouble down there, he shouldn't take the risk—better to leave quickly.

Having decided, he turned around, about to transform into a beam of escape light and fly away from above the small island.

But just then, a piercing shriek rang in his ears, sharp beyond compare.

Caught off guard, Han Li felt his mind buzz, the world spin, and he fell straight down from the air.

His protective azure light barrier proved utterly unable to block the shriek in the slightest.

But Han Li had only fallen some ten-odd zhang when a rumbling boom sounded from his body. Purple flames suddenly surged up several chi high, and at the same time streaks of golden arcs crackled and leapt wildly within the flames, completely shielding him within.

Only then did the dizziness in Han Li's mind vanish instantly. His figure steadied, he stopped falling, and once again hovered in the air.

Naturally, his face was exceedingly ugly, and he raised his head to look up at the high sky—the shriek had clearly come from above.

The originally gray, hazy sky had, at some unknown moment, been covered over by a vast expanse of black shadow. This black shadow stretched boundlessly in every direction, yet was strangely blurred, giving one the feeling of a moon in water or a flower in a mirror—utterly bizarre!

The piercing shriek was coming from deep within the black shadow!

Han Li stared at the dark clouds that had appeared overhead, his expression dark.

Despite his vigilance, he had failed to notice this strange phenomenon appearing in the sky—that alone was already extremely odd.

Without time to think further, he likewise carefully swept his divine sense toward the high sky. But before his divine sense even touched the black shadow, it was blocked by a rebounding force, utterly unable to penetrate it in the slightest.

This made his heart sink even further.

Drawing in a breath of cool air, Han Li's figure flickered, and he instantly transformed into a dazzling azure rainbow that shot toward the distant horizon.

Although he didn't know what had actually happened here, it was naturally still best to make a clean getaway in one go.

With his current abilities, flying at full speed, in just a few flickers the azure rainbow had already reached over ten li away.

Just then, the shriek in the sky abruptly ceased. Then, above the small island Han Li had originally fled from, the space twisted violently.

With a "zi-la" sound, within a certain region of the black shadow, a great expanse of Bai Guang flashed, and a dazzling, blinding spatial rift appeared out of thin air.

Then a colossal object slowly emerged from the Bai Guang, pressing down toward the sea surface below.

Han Li, who happened to have turned his head back in the distance, saw this scene. He was first startled, then upon focusing his gaze, his face changed drastically.

The unknown giant object was clearly the claw of some kind of demon bird. Not only was it entirely dark green, but the exposed portion alone was several hundred zhang across, as if a massive mountain were emerging from the void.

However, the claw's emergence from the Bai Guang was extraordinarily laborious, its movements extremely slow.

But even so, before the giant claw had fully emerged, the immense spiritual power upon it had already stirred the sea waves below into even greater frenzy. Columns of hurricane-force wind shot skyward from the sea surface, and towering waves over a hundred zhang high could be seen everywhere.

Hidden within the black shadow in the sky was a demon bird of inconceivable size, and it seemed to be attempting a cross-realm attack directly through the barrier of space.

Judging by the proportion of this giant claw, wouldn't that demon bird be at least several thousand zhang long? Such a colossal beast seemed to be something only heard of occasionally from the primeval era of antiquity.

In the present human realm, there was absolutely no such terrifying giant beast!

Han Li dry-swallowed, then dared not hesitate any longer. The Wind-Thunder Wings on his back unfurled, a thunderous rumble sounded, and he vanished from the spot in a flash of silver arc.

After flickering more than a dozen times in succession, Han Li finally caught sight of a thread of gray haze at the edge of the black shadow's coverage, and his heart relaxed slightly.

But before he could turn his head back, the beast's roar from the seabed suddenly rose Gao Ang, the cry seemingly filled with furious rage.

Han Li's heart sank, and he turned his head to look.

He saw that amid a series of thunderous booms, the small island where he had originally been staying was rapidly sinking into the seabed. At the same time, a massive vortex over ten li in diameter appeared on the sea surface.

Then, at the center of the vortex, pitch-black mist suddenly surged forth.

At first only a few wisps, the mist rapidly thickened and swelled wildly. In the space of a moment it had grown incomprehensibly vast, filling the entire vortex.

Within the dark, gloomy mist, not only could the faint sounds of wailing ghosts and howling wolves be heard, but strange black lightning also leapt and flashed ceaselessly within the fog.

Even more bizarrely, things like fish and shrimp near the vortex, as if drawn by something, all flew toward the mist like moths to a flame, and in an instant were swallowed up completely.

"Ghost Mist!"

The moment Han Li clearly saw the pitch-black mist within the vortex, the words escaped him involuntarily.

The strange object that had surfaced from the seabed was actually the Ghost Mist that had devoured him once before. Even though Han Li was now a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, his heart turned cold.

The feeling of losing all his magic power back in the Yinming Land was still fresh in his memory!.

Fortunately, this Ghost Mist was not quite the same as last time. The inky mist merely churned and surged within the vortex, showing no tendency to spread outward. This temporarily allowed Han Li to set aside his thoughts of fleeing.

With his current abilities, even if this Ghost Mist spread again, the distance between them was so great that it absolutely could not catch up to him.

Now he stared at the enormous vortex without a word; the tremendous beast roar had indeed come from within the ghost mist.

Han Li could not help but look utterly astonished and uncertain!

At this moment the giant azure claw fully emerged from the Bai Guang, exactly as Han Li had anticipated — truly the claw of some avian demon beast. Azure spiritual light flickered unceasingly across its surface, and its size was more than double what it had been before.

Watching it, Han Li's heart leapt even more wildly.

Suddenly the piercing shriek that had stopped earlier rang out once more from the black shadow. Then the giant azure claw trembled, and five thick pillars of light shot down from its tips — an oddly emerald green, like five heaven-supporting pillars — plunging straight into the ghost mist below. The giant claw then shook, and the five emerald pillars churned ceaselessly within the fog, as though they meant to overturn rivers and seas.

The beast roar within the vortex faltered for a beat, then grew even more furious.

The mist churned and coalesced, and suddenly it conjured a great pitch-black maw, fangs bristling, filling the entire vortex.

The five azure pillars of light were instantly swallowed whole by that enormous mouth.

Han Li could only stare, dumbstruck.

Just then, the black maw snapped shut, and with uncanny force bit the five pillars of light clean in two, then gaped wide once more.

A thunderous boom erupted from within, and a bolt of lightning, black as ink, flashed out. After a series of crackling peals of thunder, the five pillars of light were smashed apart in a single strike.

Then that thick bolt of lightning transformed into a pitch-black giant flood-drake a hundred zhang long, vanished with a whoosh, and was gone without a trace.

But the next instant, the giant lightning flood-drake appeared beneath the black shadow and plunged headlong into the void.

After a heaven-shaking thunderclap, a pale white rift was forcibly torn open by the flood-drake, which then flashed into it and vanished.

Within the rift, black arcs of electricity flashed and shot wildly; a rumbling thunderclap roared out. Then a piercing shriek rang forth, and a green feather a zhang or so across dropped from the Bai Guang. The giant azure claw that had poked out from the other rift also abruptly withdrew.

Amid the shrieking, both spatial rifts sealed themselves within the Bai Guang. The black shadow that had covered the entire sky suddenly flashed and vanished into thin air.

The grey, hazy sky revealed itself once more.

Almost at the same moment, the enormous vortex below began to spin wildly, compressing the black fog together and drawing it down into the depths of the sea with tremendous suction. At the same time, the vortex rapidly shrank, and in the blink of an eye it was gone.

Before long, the sea lay calm. Apart from the complete disappearance of the small island Han Li had originally been on, it was as if that astonishing battle just now had been nothing but an extraordinarily vivid, staggering hallucination!

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