Chapter 1276: The Tide of Beasts

Han Li left the alley and continued to wander around the vicinity.

Not long after, on another street, he discovered the true purpose of his departure from the Tian Dong Trading Company—a bookstore specializing in various texts.

Without showing any expression, he walked in.

The bookstore was sizable, with a wide variety of books covering astronomy, geography, and miscellaneous scholarly works, all quite extensive.

Since it was just an ordinary mortal bookstore, there was naturally no hope of finding jade slips or cultivation-related texts.

Han Li had no interest in useless books, so his gaze settled solely on texts that introduced the environment and societal customs of the Spirit Realm.

Only through these could he gain a preliminary understanding of the Spirit Realm, no longer remaining completely ignorant.

Without hesitation, he selected several thick books and also purchased a map of the nearby region.

Han Li didn’t carry any gold or silver, but Spirit Stones were equally precious to ordinary mortals. After paying with a low-grade Spirit Stone, the bookstore owner, overjoyed, even returned some silver coins to him.

Carrying the books in one hand, he found a tavern and sat in an inconspicuous corner. After ordering a few simple dishes, he quietly began flipping through the books.

Though Han Li’s divine sense could not extend beyond his body, his ability to retain everything he read remained intact. Despite the books being exceptionally thick, his reading speed was astonishingly fast, and every word was firmly imprinted in his mind.

His expression remained calm, but inwardly, his thoughts churned as he absorbed the contents of the books.

Just the detailed descriptions of the Spirit Realm’s geography alone left him deeply shocked.

The Tian Yuan Territory, frequently mentioned by the Tian Dong Trading Company members, turned out to be a human region ruled by the Tian Yuan Sage Emperor, one of the Three Human Sovereigns.

In addition, human territories included the Xuan Wu Territory, controlled by the Xuan Wu Tyrant Emperor, and the Tian Ling Territory, governed by the Tian Miao Spirit Emperor. The latter two were often referred to simply as the “Tyrant Emperor” and the “Spirit Emperor.” The Tian Yuan Sage Emperor, originally a human body cultivator who later turned to Confucian methods, was also known as the “Confucian Emperor.” The customs of the Tian Yuan Territory were the closest to those of Han Li’s original human world.

This could be considered a stroke of luck for him.

These three human territories were vast, each containing anywhere from hundreds to thousands of human cities.

According to the book’s classification, a city like Anyuan City, which housed nearly a hundred million people, was considered small in the Spirit Realm. Other medium and large cities far surpassed Anyuan in both size and population. The Tian Yuan City, where the Tian Yuan Sage Emperor resided, was so large it could rival a small country from the human world.

However, compared to the main cities of the other two territories, Tian Yuan City was still the most conventional.

The Xuan Wu City, where the Tyrant Emperor lived, was built on the back of an ancient giant tortoise called “Can Ling,” making it a massive floating city on the sea. The Tian Ling City, ruled by the Spirit Emperor, was even more extraordinary—constructed atop a colossal spiritual tree with a diameter of a hundred miles, said to reach directly into the Immortal Realm.

Han Li’s astonishment upon reading this was understandable.

But what followed was even more shocking.

According to the texts, beyond the three human territories, there were seven regions ruled by the Seven Demon Kings. The relationship between demons and humans was one of both enmity and alliance.

The reason for this was that, even combined, the territories of the three human realms and the seven demon lands were but a drop in the vast ocean of the Spirit Realm.

Beyond these regions lay the domains of other exotic races.

Most of these beings were native to the Spirit Realm, such as countless ancient beasts and primordial giants, while others were races that, like humans, had forcibly broken into this realm. Though contact with these races was limited, the few known were no less formidable than humans and demons, each possessing unique abilities rivaling those of the two dominant races.

Moreover, the Spirit Realm also housed individuals as powerful as true Immortals, such as the known entities like Rahu, Kun Peng, and True Dragons—beings capable of partially disregarding the laws of dimensional boundaries.

Amid such dangers, despite the emergence of many powerful figures among humans and demons, the two races could barely maintain their foothold in the Spirit Realm. Though they were often hostile and occasionally engaged in minor conflicts, they were forced to unite against stronger enemies.

This situation only improved after the formal establishment of the Three Sovereign Territories and the Seven Demon Lands.

The first-generation Three Sovereigns, the Seven Demon Kings, and numerous other powerful figures from both races jointly set up an enormous formation that enveloped all three human territories and seven demon lands.

This formation, said to be an ancient Immortal Array passed down from the True Immortal Realm, was specifically designed to repel powerful exotic beings—the stronger the individual, the more they were hindered from entering the protected zones. Only those with strength equivalent to low or mid-tier demon beasts were unaffected.

The formation had ten key nodes, distributed across the three human territories and seven demon lands.

The book did not mention the nodes in the demon lands, but the human nodes were the Tian Yuan Sacred Mountain (where Tian Yuan City stood), the ancient tortoise “Can Ling” in the Xuan Wu Territory, and the colossal spiritual tree supporting Tian Ling City. Unless these three were destroyed, the human-controlled formation would remain intact.

Given how extraordinary the human nodes were, the demon nodes were surely no less formidable.

For powerful beings to invade human or demon territories, they would have to simultaneously overcome the power of all ten nodes—an impossible feat.

Thanks to this super Immortal Array, humans and demons thrived in the vast Spirit Realm, securing their place.

As for the true size of the Spirit Realm, no one had ever fully explored it since humans first appeared there. It could only be described as boundless and endless.

At this point, Han Li felt a flicker of doubt. If the human-controlled regions were so small, how could they ensure that ascendants from the lower realms landed within their territories? If someone appeared outside the formation, wouldn’t they be in extreme danger?

The books did not address this question, so Han Li had to set it aside for the time being.

From the descriptions, Han Li also noticed that, overall, the demon race was slightly stronger than humans, but human high-level cultivators seemed to have a slight edge over their demon counterparts.

This created a strange balance, leading to the initial agreements between the first-generation Three Sovereigns and the Seven Demon Kings to protect the interests of both races.

These agreements included prohibitions on high-level human cultivators wantonly exterminating low or mid-tier demon beasts in remote areas, as well as restrictions on participating in the periodic beast tides that besieged human cities. Similarly, demons were forbidden from indiscriminately capturing or slaughtering humans and were required to establish protected human settlements within their territories.

These agreements arose because, during the initial division of territories, human and demon populations were highly intermixed. Though efforts were made to allocate the most densely populated regions to each race, significant numbers of the other race remained in each territory.

For high-level human cultivators and demon elites, relocation was simple, but for ordinary, unintelligent demon beasts and mortal humans, moving such vast distances was impossible. They had no choice but to remain under the rule of the other race.

Initially, this led to bloody massacres, sparking several wars between humans and demons. After much turmoil, the current agreements were finally established.

Of course, the books Han Li held only mentioned the most critical agreements, leaving many details unclear. However, he specifically selected a book on beast tides and gained a thorough understanding.

The so-called “beast tides” were simply periods when ordinary beasts, due to their excessive reproductive rates and the protection of the agreements, forced humans to engage in territorial battles to maintain their survival.

If human cities were nearby, the low-tier demon beasts born among these creatures would instinctively guide their uncivilized kin in semi-suicidal attacks on the settlements.

Thus, aside from a few exceptionally large cities, most human settlements suffered periodic beast tide assaults. The more remote the city, the more frequent the attacks.

Though few cities had ever been overrun, each tide inevitably caused heavy casualties among low-level humans.

However, it was also under such life-and-death pressures that many low-level body cultivators and cultivators broke through their bottlenecks, making these breakthroughs far more valuable than the losses incurred.

Given this balance of risk and reward, the high-level figures of the Three Sovereign Territories tacitly allowed the beast tides to continue, with no intention of altering the agreements with the demons.

The timing of beast tides varied by city, but the most common were two types: the wolf tide (from the grasslands) and the snake tide (found in various regions). Both were notorious for their rapid reproduction, triggering a tide roughly every century.

If a city faced simultaneous tides from two or more beast groups, it became a “great beast tide,” with catastrophic consequences. Most past city breaches were caused by such events.

Thus, if a city detected an impending great beast tide, its leaders would panic, desperately gathering nearby body cultivators and low-level cultivators, tightening defenses for a life-or-death struggle.

Han Li sighed softly as he closed the last book.

Without a doubt, the city he was in was about to experience a beast tide—likely the infamous wolf tide, given its proximity to the grasslands. Given the city’s tense atmosphere, he hoped he wasn’t about to encounter a great beast tide.

Silently, he took a sip of wine, narrowing his eyes in contemplation.