Chapter 1140: The Giant Beast
Han Li's eyes immediately sprang open upon hearing this roar, and a surprised look appeared on his face.
With the power of his current spiritual sense, even without intentionally releasing it, he could gauge the situation in a radius of several thousand feet around him as if it were second nature. Furthermore, prior to landing on this island, he had made sure to scan through the surrounding area in a radius of close to 50 kilometers, but was unable to find any demon beasts.
However, now was not the time to consider these things. He immediately unleashed his spiritual sense with all his might toward the seabed around the small island.
The roar had come from directly down below!
Mere moments later, Han Li's expression changed and he suddenly shot forth into the sky as a streak of azure light. He reached an altitude of several thousand feet in the blink of an eye before stopping there, looking down below with a grave expression.
Almost at the exact same moment, gusts of sea wind intermingled with a foul odor were swept up. Countless vortexes of different sizes appeared on the face of the nearby ocean and rows of massive waves, each over 100 feet tall, emerged one after the other. Loud rumbling booms erupted as the gargantuan waves crashed into each other, sending vast amounts of seawater spraying into the air above.
A horrifying doomsday-like scenario ensued.
Han Li spread his spiritual sense even further and to his astonishment, he discovered that the sea in a radius of roughly 50 kilometers had all been plunged into the same state of turmoil.
As his spiritual sense descended toward the seabed, it was forcibly sucked away by something after reaching depths of over 10,000 feet.
Even though he reacted just in time to withdraw his spiritual sense, a small wisp of it had still been forcibly taken.
A wave of shock surged through his heart as he hurriedly flew higher up into the air, awaiting the emergence of the creature in the ocean in a solemn manner.
Could it be that there was some almighty demon beast down there? But even a tenth grade demon beast seemed to be unable to stir up such a terrifying commotion. Perhaps this was a legendary Deity Transformation Stage demon beast, but that didn't seem to be the case either.
If he wasn't mistaken, once a demon beast exceeded the tenth grade, they would also be negatively affected by the lack of the world's origin Qi in the human world, so how could it display its might with such reckless abandon?
In doing so, it would be inflicting self-harm!
As such, Han Li was rather perplexed.
Theoretically speaking, once a demon beast exceeded the tenth grade, they would be assigned the same cultivation base titles as human cultivators. Of course, it was also acceptable to continue to refer to them as eleventh grade of twelfth grade beasts. It was just that human cultivators normally wouldn't refer to them as such.
After all, once a demon beast exceeded the tenth tier, they would become one of the most powerful beings in the human world. How would a human cultivator dare to regard such a fearsome being as just an ordinary demon beast?
In any case, the commotion raging down below was simply far too intense! Even as a late-Nascent Soul cultivator who had been through countless ordeals, Han Li was starting to get a little uneasy.
However, whatever it was that was lurking in the depths of the ocean simply refused to reveal itself. Instead, it was only sweeping up winds and waves of greater intensity, to the extent that there were even colossal waves over 1,000 feet tall rising out of the water.
Han Li's expression changed slightly as he finally made a decision. Regardless of what it was that was stirring up such terrifying phenomena, the best course of action for him was to refrain from taking any risks and getting away from this place as quickly as possible.
With that in mind, he turned around and prepared to fly away from the small island down below.
However, right at this moment, an extremely sharp screech suddenly erupted in his ear.
He was caught completely off guard and his head began to ring as a result. He was struck by a sense of dizziness and vertigo, causing him to plummet straight down from the air above.
The protective barrier of azure light around his body was completely unable to keep out this ghastly noise.
However, Han Li only plummeted down over 100 feet before a resounding boom erupted from his body. Purple flames exploded forth for several feet around him and at the same time, arcs of golden lightning danced through the flames, completely shielding him within.
Only then did the sense of dizziness disappear and Han Li was able to arrest his downward momentum before hovering in the air again.
However, his expression was extremely dark. He raised his head to look up into the sky as he could clearly detect that the sharp screeching noise had come from up above.
A massive black shadow had obscured the murky grey sky completely without him noticing. There was no end in sight to this black shadow, but it was extremely blurry, giving one the sense that it was a mere illusion, thus creating an immensely unsettling sight to behold.
That sharp screech had erupted from deep within that black shadow!
Han Li looked up at the cloud and mist that had appeared overhead with a dark expression.
He had been extremely careful and alert, yet such a massive phenomenon in the sky had completely escaped his notice. That was very strange in itself.
He didn't have time to think too much about this matter as he carefully swept his spiritual sense upward. However, before his spiritual sense had even come into contact with the black shadow, it was rebounded by an invisible force, preventing it from being able to infiltrate so much as a single inch.
That made him even more wary of what lay up above.
After drawing a sharp breath, Han Li's body instantly transformed into a streak of azure light as hurtled into the distance.
He didn't know what was going on, but it was naturally a good idea to get away from this place.
At his current power level, he was able to travel close to 10 kilometers in just a few flashes when flying at full speed.
Right at this moment, the sharp screeching noise coming from above suddenly came to an abrupt halt, and a burst of violent spatial twisting took place in the air above the island on which Han Li had previously been resting.
In a certain section of the massive black shadow, a vast expanse of white light flashed and a dazzling spatial rift emerged from thin air.
A gargantuan creature then slowly emerged from the white light before descending toward the ocean.
Han Li just so happened to catch sight of this when he turned back in the distance, and his heart immediately jolted with shock. He then carefully assessed the situation, upon which his expression changed drastically.
That unidentifiable gargantuan object was clearly the claw of a certain demon beast. Not only was it entirely green in color, just the section that was revealed was several thousand feet in length. It was as if a huge mountain had appeared out of thin air.
However, the claw seemed to be making extremely arduous progress as it was emerging from the white light in a very slow manner.
Even so, before the gargantuan claw had fully emerged, the vast spiritual power emanating from it was already making the waves down below clash more violently. Fearsome hurricanes were swept up on the surface of the ocean and colossal waves over 1,000 feet in height had become a common sight.
The black shadow in the sky was definitely obscuring a demon beast that was unfathomably huge. Furthermore, it seemed to be attempting to attack this world through a layer of space.
Using the gargantuan claw as reference, this demon was at least tens of thousands of feet in length. Such an insanely gargantuan beast had only been heard of occasionally during the primordial desolate era.
There was definitely no beast of such a mind-numbingly fearsome size residing in the human world at present!
Han Li gulped nervously before immediately spreading open his Thunderstorm Wings. A loud thunderclap erupted as he transformed into a silver arc of lightning and disappeared on the spot.
After flashing about a dozen times in rapid succession, Han Li finally caught sight of a hint of murky greyness at the edge of the black shadow, upon which a slight sense of relief welled up in his heart.
However, before he had a chance to turn around, the beast at the bottom of the ocean suddenly let loose a loud roar that was filled with violent rage.
Han Li's heart sank as he twisted around to look behind him.
A resounding boom erupted as the small island that he had been situated on not long ago rapidly sank into the ocean. At the same time, a massive vortex with a radius of over five kilometers appeared on the surface of the ocean.
Immediately thereafter, inky-black mist began to waft out from the center of the vortex.
There were initially only a few wisps of this mist, but it instantly began to expand drastically, turning gargantuan in size in what seemed like mere moments. The entire vortex had been filled by pitch-black mist before long, and not only could ghostly wails be indistinctly heard croming from within, there were also peculiar arcs of black lightning that were flashing incessantly within the mist.
What was even stranger was that all of the fish, shrimp, and other living creatures near the vortex were being sucked into it! All of them rapidly traveled toward the mist like moths to a flame before being engulfed into nothingness in the blink of an eye.
"That's ghost mist!" Han Li exclaimed after identifying the black mist in the vortex.
The substance that had surfaced from the bottom of the ocean was none other than the ghost mist, which had engulfed him once before. Even as a late-Nascent Soul cultivator now, the sight of it still sent chills running down his spine.
Even to this day, he still had a clear recollection of the sense of complete powerlessness he had been afflicted by in the Umbra Realm!
Thankfully, the ghost mist on this occasion seemed to be slightly different compared to last time in that it was only tumbling and churning within the vortex instead of spreading in all directions. Han Li temporarily set aside his plan to flee the scene upon seeing that.
At his current power level, even if the ghost mist were to spread once again, he would be fast enough to outrun it from such a far distance away.
Thus, he stared silently into the massive vortex. He was certain that the beastly roar he had heard earlier had come from the ghost mist, which struck him with a sense of bewilderment.
At this moment, the gargantuan azure claw had completely emerged from the white light and just as Han Li had thought, it really was the claw of a certain beast. Azure spiritual light was flashing incessantly over the claw and it had expanded to more than twice its original size, creating quite a harrowing sight for Han Li to behold.
The sharp screeching that had cut off earlier erupted from within the black shadow again, immediately following which the colossal azure claw shuddered before five thick pillars of light shot forth from the tips of the claws, hurtling down below. The pillars of light were remarkably green and immediately disappeared into the ghost mist down below. As the giant claws began to move, the five pillars of green light began to stir up the ghost mist, causing the beastly roar erupting from within the vortex to falter momentarily before becoming even more thunderously enraged.
The mist tumbled before converging to form a massive inky-black mouth filled with sharp fangs, which took up the entire vortex.
The five pillars of azure light were immediately swallowed by the massive mouth.
Han Li was dumbstruck by what he was witnessing.
Right at this moment, the huge black mouth closed, biting the five pillars of light in half before abruptly opening again.
A thunderous boom erupted from within the massive mouth as an inky-black bolt of lightning shot forth, vanquishing the five pillars of light with its fearsome might.
The huge bolt of lightning then transformed into a pitch-black flood dragon before disappearing without a trace.
In the next instant, the gargantuan lightning flood dragon appeared beneath the black shadow before plunging into the air above.
An earthshattering thunderclap erupted, following which the flood dragon forcibly tore open a white spatial rift before disappearing into it.
Arcs of black lightning flashed wildly through the rift amid explosive claps of thunder. A howl of anguish then erupted as an azure feather that was over 10 feet in length fluttered down from the white light. The huge azure claws that had extended from the other side of the rift also abruptly withdrew themselves.
Both spatial rifts began to seal over following that agonized howl. The black shadow that seemed to have obscured the entire heavens had also disappeared.
The murky grey sky was revealed once again as a result.
Almost at the exact same moment, the colossal vortex down below began to tumble violently, compressing all of the black mist together before absorbing it into the bottom of the ocean through an immense suction force. At the same time, the vortex rapidly shrank and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Not long after that, peace and tranquility resumed over the surface of the ocean. Aside from the fact that the island Han Li had been resting on had disappeared, there was no evidence to support the fact that such an ethereal earthshattering battle had just taken place!