“So it seems that the current state of Yue is truly chaotic enough!” Han Li suddenly chuckled lightly.
This inexplicable remark gave the other four a sense of profound mystery, and they could only offer dry, awkward laughs in response.
“Fellow Daoists, please continue your chat. I’ll take a stroll elsewhere,” Han Li said amiably as he stood up.
“Senior, feel free to go!”
“Take care, Senior!”
…
The four of them hurriedly watched Han Li depart with respectful gazes.
Han Li casually waved his hand and called out to Qu Hun, who had been standing outside all along, before heading toward other stone pavilions.
…
Two hours later, Han Li stood in a corner of the mountain peak, lost in thought.
He had just inquired about the situation in the Yue Kingdom’s cultivation world from several groups of cultivators, and the result was that the current state of Yue could only be described with one word: “chaos.”
In such circumstances, he now had two paths to choose from.
The first was to fly far away from Yue and other nearby countries on his magical tools and find another suitable place to continue his cultivation.
The second was to find a way to repair the ancient teleportation formation and take a gamble on where it might send him. After all, such an astronomically expensive ancient teleportation formation couldn’t have been built underground for no reason—it must lead to another extremely distant location.
At first glance, the first option seemed far more secure. But upon careful consideration, Han Li felt this decision wasn’t much better either.
To the east and west of Yue were the Demon Faction’s stronghold, Tian Luo Country, and the Righteous Alliance’s Feng Du Country, respectively. So, the only directions he could go were north or south.
If he fled north through the Yuan Wu Kingdom, there would still be more than a dozen small to medium-sized countries ahead. However, it was clear that the cultivation worlds of these nations could not withstand the attacks of either the Demon Faction or the Righteous Alliance. Some of these countries had long been affiliated with one of the two major powers, acting as their puppets while engaging in both overt and covert struggles for an extended period. Otherwise, given the minimal border between Tian Luo and Feng Du, large-scale conflicts would have been difficult to avoid in the past.
These countries could become battlefields between the Demon Faction and the Righteous Alliance at any moment, so Han Li naturally couldn’t stay there.
But if he risked passing through several countries and continued north, he would reach the extreme northern lands of the Tian Nan region, where he would encounter the so-called “Boundless Sea,” which was said to be impassable even for immortals.
This sea was not only incredibly turbid and boundless but also scarcely inhabited by fish. The few species that could survive were extremely ferocious, no less dangerous than high-level land demon beasts. Even a Core Formation cultivator would be in grave danger if they fell into these waters.
Attempting to fly across this sea was even more of a delusion! There was once a mighty expert who had reached the Nascent Soul stage and grew immensely curious about what lay beyond this sea. After thorough preparations, he flew along the sea for over a year, yet all he saw was endless seawater, without even a single place to land.
By then, his elixirs and spirit stones were nearly depleted. Under such circumstances, the expert had no choice but to return in frustration. Otherwise, without spiritual energy replenishment, even a Nascent Soul cultivator would eventually perish trapped at sea.
Han Li naturally wouldn’t entertain such a fanciful idea of crossing the sea. Thus, he could only consider heading south.
South of Yue, after passing through Zi Jin Country and five or six other nations, lay the so-called “Nine Nations Alliance,” a tight-knit alliance of nine large and small countries.
This alliance was formed under the leadership of the cultivation worlds of these nine countries to deal with a powerful and insane opponent—an invading army composed of the “Fa Shi” (Masters of Law) of the Mu Lan Tribe.
To speak of the Mu Lan Tribe and their Fa Shi, one must mention the Mu Lan Grasslands adjacent to the nine countries and the Mu Lan people who lived there.
The Mu Lan people were entirely different from the Yan people of Yue, Yuan Wu, and other countries. They were pure nomads, not only incredibly fierce in temperament, with everyone fond of wielding swords and spears, but also organized into thousands of large and small tribes across the Mu Lan Grasslands. These tribes varied greatly in size, with the smallest having only a few hundred thousand people and the largest boasting tens of millions.
Among these nomadic tribes, there were also cultivators, though the Mu Lan people did not refer to them as “cultivators” but revered them as “Fa Shi” (Masters of the Law). Broadly speaking, these Fa Shi were quite similar to ordinary cultivators, with nearly identical realm divisions and fundamental cultivation techniques. The only difference was that, before forming their Golden Cores, these Fa Shi did not place much emphasis on external aids such as magical tools or talismans. Instead, they mastered the Five Elements Dao techniques to an astonishing degree, even integrating them with some native secret arts of the grasslands to develop more powerful and peculiar new spells. This formed their own unique school of magic, which they called—”Ling Shu” (Spiritual Arts).
Relying on these incredibly sharp “Ling Shu,” the Fa Shi of the Mu Lan Tribe could not only compete with cultivators of the same level but even gain a slight upper hand.
Later, as the number of Mu Lan “Fa Shi” grew, their demand for spiritual vein sites and spirit stones increased dramatically, gradually becoming insufficient for their normal cultivation. After all, the Mu Lan Grasslands were an area extremely poor in cultivation resources.
Thus, at some point, the Mu Lan Fa Shi turned their attention to the nine countries, which had richer spiritual energy and more abundant resources. They began frequently invading these nations to seize spiritual veins, spirit mines, and other resources that cultivators regarded as vital.
Naturally, the cultivation worlds of the nine countries were unwilling to yield these resources to what they considered “wild cultivators,” leading to an outright outbreak of bloody conflicts.
Initially, the nine countries resisted independently, but they were soundly defeated by the united Mu Lan tribal alliance, even losing a significant portion of their territory and resources.
Later, realizing the strength of their opponent, the cultivation worlds of the nine countries quickly learned their lesson and formed the “Nine Nations Alliance.” They began frequently employing underhanded tactics and schemes, gradually defeating the Mu Lan Fa Shi and reclaiming their lost lands.
However, having just tasted the benefits, the Mu Lan Fa Shi were naturally unwilling to give up. Over the ensuing endless years, they continuously entangled themselves with the cultivation worlds of the nine countries. The hatred between the two sides deepened exponentially as the death toll rose, eventually spilling over into the mortal world and turning the Yan people and the Mu Lan people into sworn enemies.
Nowadays, the Mu Lan people naturally didn’t dare to set foot within the nine countries’ borders, and likewise, no Yan people could survive within a hundred li of the Mu Lan Grasslands.
Come to think of it, no one really knew how many Mu Lan people there were. The Mu Lan Grasslands were vast, and the tribes entangled with the Nine Nations Alliance were only a small part of them.
Although the Mu Lan Grasslands weren’t as endlessly unfathomable as the Black Demon Sea, according to Mu Lan folklore, it would take an entire tribe five full years to nomadicly travel from one end of the grasslands to the other. Moreover, “Mu Lan Grasslands” was a name the Mu Lan people gave themselves. On the other end of the grasslands lived their true ancestral enemies, the “Tu Ran people.”
These similarly nomadic people referred to this immense grassland as the “Tian Lan Grasslands” because they generationally worshipped the legendary “Tian Lan Beast” as their guardian deity.
Being nomadic peoples living on the same grassland, no reason was needed for the two ethnic groups to naturally become mortal enemies. For this, the warriors and cultivators of the two races had fought countless generations of battles.
Every hundred years, without fail, the two sides would engage in a massive battle at the very center of the grasslands. Millions of mortal warriors would clash on the ground, while thousands of cultivators fought in the skies. Of course, the outcome was ultimately decided by the battle in the air.
Han Li learned all this from various texts and rumors.
It was said that on the other side of the Mu Lan Grasslands lay an unbelievably vast empire. Rumor had it that even if the entire Tian Nan region were combined, it would still be less than one-tenth the size of this empire.
Han Li found such rumors hard to believe. He simply couldn’t imagine how large a country ten times the size of the entire Tian Nan region would actually be!
Of course, this had nothing to do with his current plans; it was merely idle thoughts surfacing in his mind involuntarily.
After dismissing these miscellaneous thoughts and carefully considering, he still believed that the Six Sects, after their retreat, wouldn’t linger in nearby countries. They would definitely make their way to the Nine Nations Alliance. After all, given the situation where the cultivation world of the nine countries and the Mu Lan Fa Shi fought small battles every few years and major wars every decade, they would certainly welcome the addition of the Six Sects as a significant force.
Naturally, which specific country within the nine they would settle in and what kind of spiritual vein land they would obtain would depend on the capabilities of the Six Sects themselves.
Thus, it seemed that unless he returned to the Yellow Maple Valley and continued being cannon fodder, the southern part of the Tian Nan region was definitely not an option either.
Although he had long been clearly aware of these problems, thinking them over again still gave him a headache! It seemed the only option was to first repair the ancient teleportation formation. If it could truly be fixed, then he could consider whether to actually use it.
At worst, if the destination wasn’t satisfactory, he could always teleport back. Of course, some risk was inevitable! Han Li thought with a bitter smile.
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