Chapter 1523: Within the Mist
"We can't keep going like this! That's our Mayfly Race's holy nest; there's no end to the creatures coming out of it! How could a Golden Mayfly Tier being possibly possess such an item? We have to get out of her right away!" Liu Zu roared.
During that split second alone, hundreds of insects were punctured and killed by the black light erupting from his body.
"Where can we run? These things aren't much slower than we are; if things continue like this, our magic power will be exhausted eventually," the crimson-robed figure said with a grim expression as he stood atop the Purpleblood Puppet.
"Let's head straight to the passageway that led into this place. After we get there, we'll be able to return to the infernal river and evade the insect sea manifested by the holy nest," Liu Zu replied without any hesitation.
"Have you gone mad, Fellow Daoist Liu Zu? Even if we fly as quickly as we're capable of, it'd still take two to three months to get there; are we just going to keep fighting these things during that time? On top of that, what about the devilish tomb and the devilish artifacts?" the white-haired beauty screeched in a sharp voice.
"Hmph, what good will those devilish artifacts do us if we die here? I'll give you and Fellow Daoist Di Xue some treasures out of my personal collection to make up for this. The holy insects being manifested by the holy nest at the moment are only those of the lowest caliber; once more powerful holy insects are manifested, we won't be able to get away from here even if wanted to," Liu Zu bellowed with fury.
If it weren't for the fact that the three of them had to work together just for a chance to get away, he would've most likely fled the scene with the Divine Infernal River Elixir already.
After all, no one was more aware that he was of just how destructive the holy nests of the Mayfly Race were.
Of course, Liu Zu was naturally unaware of the fact that this was only a replica rather than an actual holy nest. Even so, its devastating power was not something that the three demon monarchs could oppose. Hence, as soon as he witnessed this item, he was immediately struck by the urge to flee.
The white-haired beauty was still quite reluctant to give up on the devilish tomb, but she knew that Liu Zu was right.
The crimson-robed figure also remained silent, clearly in agreement with Liu Zu's proposal as well.
Thus, all three of them unleashed powerful abilities in unison.
Scintillating black light suddenly erupted from Liu Zu's body, following which countless massive black bone spikes appeared all over his body, all of which were around 10 feet in length and extremely sharp.
He then opened his mouth to blast forth bursts of visible black halos.
As soon as these halos appeared, they instantly swelled countless times in size before surging into the swarm of insects.
An astonishing scene ensued!
All of the insects that came into contact with these black halos instantly lost their sense of balance as they plummeted straight out of the sky, instantly opening up a vast area before Liu Zu.
Meanwhile, the mountainous Purpleblood Puppet opened its massive mouth and blasted forth a pillar of purple light that was over 10 times thicker than those erupting from its eyes.
All of the insects in the path of this pillar of light were instantly reduced to ashes.
As the Purpleblood Puppet swiveled its head, the pillar of light fanned out, instantly destroying a vast number of insects.
The area cleared out by this attack was even larger than that created by Liu Zu's attack.
The final one to spring into action was the white-haired beauty.
Seeing as the other two demon monarchs weren't holding back any longer, the white-haired woman also cast aside her qualms as she quickly made a hand seal.
Her war hammer then immediately exploded within a swath of green flames, and the eight white skulls emerged before swelling to the size of wagon wheels, then opening their mouths to unleash sharp unsettling screeches.
However, these skulls were no longer blasting green ghostly flames out of their mouths. Instead, they produced gusts of white glacial winds that flew all of the insects in their path.
Countless insects were reduced to white ice sculptures of different sizes before raining down from above.
With three Body Integration cultivators attacking at once, even the relentless barrage of insects was unable to keep up, and a massive empty area was created.
The praying mantis creatures in the distance harrumphed coldly upon seeing this before pointing up at the silver object with one of its giant scythe-like arms.
The semi-spherical object immediately began to rotate even more quickly, and the number of insects flooding out from within increased significantly.
However, right at this moment, the three demon monarchs combined their magic powers to conjure up a massive ball of light around them, which allowed them to crash through the countless insects around them, thereby opening up a path that took them to the edge of the insect sea in just a few flashes.
The ball of light then separated into three streaks of light again, all of which hurriedly fled into the distance.
The praying mantis creature was clearly not expecting these demon monarchs to flee, and a furious expression appeared on its face before it let loose a sharp screen, sending the swarm of insects flying toward the demon monarchs in hot pursuit.
All of these insects flew at a phenomenal speed, seemingly able to match the pace being set by the demon monarchs.
Meanwhile, the praying mantis creature's body blurred, and he disappeared on the spot.
In the next instant, he appeared above the semi-spherical object, then disappeared into it.
A loud buzzing sound erupted from the holy nest, and the stream of insect projections pouring forth from it was cut off before it also flew through the air as a streak of silver light, surrounded by countless insects.
Thus, the insect sea and the demon monarchs vanished into the distance in the blink of an eye.
Elsewhere, Mu Qing was hovering in the air above the body of water that Han Li had been situated at several days ago, looking down with a dark expression on her face.
...
"This place seems to be..." Within another vast expanse of black mist, a humanoid figure was inspecting his surroundings within a swath of grey light.
This man wore a set of azure robes and appeared to be in his twenties with his brows slightly furrowed. He was none other than Han Li, who'd just left the infernal river.
As soon as he recovered from his rush of dizziness, he'd immediately found himself situated within this vast expanse of black mist.
Thankfully, he had cultivated his Divine Essencefused Light for so long that using it was second nature to him now, and it was automatically released to protect him.
Han Li looked up into the air to find that the spatial rift that had just ejected him was already sealing over, and in the instant that he cast his gaze toward it, it finally disappeared without a trace, as if it had never even existed in the first place.
Even though it was only for an instant, Han Li had caught sight of wisps of black Qi escaping from the spatial rift right before it disappeared, then blended into the black mist around him.
"Could it be that all of the mist here seeped out of that spatial rift?" Han Li murmured to himself before inspecting his surroundings again, trying to ascertain his current location.
However, he was only able to release his spiritual sense for around 1,000 before it immediately recoiled, thereby limiting his sensory range.
Han Li raised an eyebrow and stroked his chin as a thought suddenly occurred to him.
He brought his hands together before separating them, and azure light flashed between his palms, following which a spirit herb that was several inches in length appeared within his grasp.
He raised a hand to hurl the spirit herb into the black mist, and it immediately wilted before being reduced to dust in the instant before it drifted onto the ground below.
"Black Infernal Mist!" Han Li drew a sharp breath, and he could finally confirm his current location.
He had been teleported back to the massive island in the Flying Spirit Race territory, and this vast expanse of black mist was the sea of Black Infernal Mist that he'd refrained from entering when he was last on this island.
He had conducted some tests on this black mist to find that the Yin Qi within it was extremely severe, and that it was able to absorb the spiritual Qi within plant life and other living beings.
At the time, he was in a hurry to break through his bottleneck, and he was also quite wary of this mist's strange properties, so he never ventured into it.
Now, he had no choice as he had been teleported here right after leaving the infernal river. Thinking back to the black Qi that had seeped out of the spatial rift, it seemed that the formation of this sea of mist most likely had something to do with the infernal river.
However, the Yin Qi in the infernal river was definitely not as fearsome as that present in this black mist, so there had to be some other constituents that made up this mist.
Han Li's eyes flashed as he made his judgment in the blink of an eye.
In any case, this was most definitely not the place for a picnic, and it was best to get away from here as quickly as possible.
With that in mind, azure light flashed from Han Li's body, and he immediately rose up into the air.
However, after rising to altitudes of only several tens of feet, the mist around him suddenly converged toward his body, snuffing out the azure light around and forcing him to plummet toward the ground.
"There's a flight restriction here!" Han Li's heart stirred upon making this observation.
He finally understood why the Tian Peng beings were so wary of this sea of mist, to the extent that no one was stationed on this island.
To the Tian Peng beings who revered the Kun Peng as a divine deity, a flight restriction was naturally extremely dangerous. After all, most of the abilities of Flying Spirit Race beings hinged on their wings. If they were unable to fly, then they would immediately be severely debilitated.
That was, of course, only one of the reasons. It was most likely the case that the Tian Peng beings avoided this place like the plague also due to the aura of the infernal river that seeped out of the spatial rift here.
After all, the infernal river was most likely the internal space of the body of a Rahu Beast, so the Tian Peng beings, who possessed the Kun Peng bloodline, would most definitely find this place to be absolutely abhorrent.
However, these were all merely assumptions being made by Han Li. As for whether these reasons were valid or if there were other factors behind all this, that was something that perhaps on the elders of the Tian Peng Race knew.
Even though he was technically a holy disciple of the Tian Peng Race, he hadn't come into contact with such matters, so he naturally didn't know the true reasons behind everything.
The flight restriction in this place was quite bothersome to Han Li, but that certainly wasn't going to trap him.
With his powerful body, even if he had to travel on foot, he would most likely be able to leave this place quite quickly.
The only things that he had to be wary of were strange creatures potentially attacking him or other unforeseen restrictions.
However, Han Li naturally wasn't going to keep waiting here. After making up his mind, his unleashed his spiritual sense to its maximal extent, then sped toward a certain direction.