Chapter 1140: The Giant Bird Beast

Han Li was startled by the beast’s roar and abruptly opened his eyes, his face revealing a look of astonishment.

Given the current strength of his spiritual sense, even without actively releasing it, he could effortlessly perceive everything within a radius of several hundred feet as naturally as breathing. Moreover, when he had first landed on this island, he had deliberately scanned the surrounding hundred miles of sea and found no trace of any demonic beasts.

Now that an unexpected situation had arisen, Han Li naturally wouldn’t ignore it. He immediately unleashed his divine sense, probing deep into the seabed beneath the island.

The beast’s roar had indeed come from below!

In just a few moments, Han Li’s expression changed. He suddenly transformed into a dazzling green streak of light, shooting straight into the sky. In the blink of an eye, he had ascended several hundred feet before stopping mid-air, his face grave as he looked downward.

Almost simultaneously, a foul-smelling sea wind surged violently, and the nearby waters churned into countless whirlpools of varying sizes. Towering waves, each over a hundred feet high, rose and crashed against each other with thunderous roars, sending vast amounts of seawater spraying into the lower sky.

For a moment, the entire area seemed to be in the throes of an apocalyptic upheaval, striking terror into the heart of any witness.

Han Li quickly scanned his surroundings and was horrified to discover that the sea within a hundred-mile radius was in the same chaotic state, engulfed in violent winds and towering waves.

Earlier, when his divine sense had probed the seabed, it had been forcibly sucked away as soon as it passed a depth of a thousand feet. Though he had reacted swiftly and withdrawn most of it, a sliver of his divine sense had been irreversibly absorbed, leaving him at a minor disadvantage.

Alarmed, he had immediately taken to the air, treating the anomaly beneath the sea with utmost caution.

Could there be a powerful demonic beast below? But even the emergence of a tenth-level demonic beast shouldn’t cause such terrifying disturbances. Could it be a legendary Spirit Transformation-stage beast? Yet that didn’t seem quite right either.

If he recalled correctly, once a demonic beast surpassed the tenth level, it would also be constrained by the sparse spiritual energy of the human world. How could it dare to wreak such havoc so recklessly? Such actions would be tantamount to self-inflicted damage to its own essence!

Han Li couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

It was said that once a demonic beast surpassed the tenth level, it could be classified using the same cultivation stages as human cultivators. Of course, one could still refer to them as eleventh-level, twelfth-level, and so on, but human cultivators generally avoided such terms.

After all, a demonic beast beyond the tenth level was a supreme existence in the human world. How could human cultivators dare to regard such a terrifying being as a mere beast?

Yet the commotion below was simply too overwhelming! Even Han Li, a late-stage cultivator who had weathered countless storms, felt his heart waver.

Strangely, whatever lurked beneath the sea refused to surface, instead intensifying the winds and waves until they reached staggering heights of over a hundred feet.

Han Li’s expression shifted, and he finally made up his mind. Whatever was causing this chaos below, it was better not to take risks. He should leave immediately.

Resolved, he turned and prepared to transform into a streak of light to flee the island’s airspace.

But just then, a piercing screech tore through his ears, sharp enough to shatter eardrums.

Caught off guard, Han Li felt his head buzz violently, and the world spun around him. He plummeted from the sky like a stone.

His protective green barrier offered no resistance against the screech!

However, after falling only a few dozen feet, a thunderous roar erupted from his body. Purple flames surged several feet high, intertwined with crackling golden arcs, completely enveloping him.

Instantly, the dizziness in Han Li’s mind vanished. He steadied himself mid-air, halting his fall and floating once more.

Yet his face was grim as he looked upward—the screech had clearly come from above.

The previously gray sky was now obscured by an immense shadow, vast and boundless yet strangely indistinct, like a reflection in water or a flower in a mirror, exuding an eerie, surreal aura.

The screech had originated from deep within that shadow!

Han Li stared at the ominous clouds above, his expression dark.

Despite his vigilance, he had failed to detect this anomaly in the sky—an unsettling realization in itself.

Without further hesitation, he cautiously extended his divine sense upward. Yet before it could even touch the shadow, it was repelled by an unseen force, unable to penetrate even slightly.

This sent a chill down his spine!

Taking a deep breath, Han Li’s figure blurred as he transformed into a blinding green streak, shooting toward the distant horizon.

Whatever was happening here, it was best to escape without delay.

With his current abilities, a few flashes were all it took for him to cover over ten miles.

Just then, the screech from above abruptly ceased. Over the island he had just fled, space violently twisted.

With a tearing sound, a blinding white light flashed within the shadow, and a dazzling spatial rift abruptly appeared.

From within the rift, a colossal entity slowly emerged, pressing downward toward the sea.

Han Li, glancing back from afar, was first startled, then horrified upon closer inspection.

The unknown object was unmistakably the claw of some monstrous avian creature. Its entire body was a deep jade-green, and the visible portion alone spanned hundreds of feet, resembling a mountain emerging from the void.

Yet the claw’s emergence was laborious, its movements agonizingly slow.

Even so, before it had fully extended, its immense spiritual energy had already whipped the sea into a frenzy. Cyclones erupted from the surface, and waves over a hundred feet high became commonplace.

Hidden within the shadow in the sky was an unimaginably enormous avian demon, seemingly attempting to launch a cross-dimensional attack.

Judging by the claw’s proportions, this creature’s body must have been thousands of feet long. Such a behemoth was unheard of in the current era, existing only in ancient legends.

The human world today had no such terrifying monstrosities!

Han Li swallowed hard, then wasted no more time. With a flap of his Wind Thunder Wings, thunder roared, and he vanished in a silver arc.

After a dozen more flashes, he finally glimpsed the edge of the shadow’s reach, where the gray sky peeked through. His heart eased slightly.

But before he could relax, the beast’s roar from the seabed suddenly intensified, filled with unmistakable fury.

Han Li’s heart sank as he turned to look.

Amid thunderous rumbling, the island he had stood on moments ago rapidly sank into the sea. Simultaneously, a massive whirlpool, over ten miles in diameter, formed on the surface.

From its center, pitch-black mist began to rise.

At first, it was just a few tendrils, but they quickly thickened and expanded, soon filling the entire whirlpool. Within the eerie mist, ghostly wails and strange black lightning flickered incessantly.

Even more bizarrely, nearby fish and shrimp were inexplicably drawn toward the mist, flying into it like moths to a flame, only to be devoured instantly.

“Ghost Mist!”

Han Li blurted out in shock upon recognizing the black mist.

This anomaly emerging from the seabed was the same Ghost Mist that had once swallowed him whole! Even as a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, a chill ran down his spine.

The memory of losing all his spiritual power in the Yin Netherworld was still fresh in his mind!

Fortunately, this Ghost Mist seemed different from before. The dark fog churned violently within the whirlpool but showed no signs of spreading outward, allowing Han Li to momentarily set aside thoughts of immediate escape.

With his current abilities, even if the Ghost Mist expanded again, it wouldn’t catch him at this distance.

Now, he silently observed the massive whirlpool. The beast’s roar undoubtedly originated from within the Ghost Mist.

Han Li’s face twisted with bewilderment.

Meanwhile, the jade-green claw had fully emerged from the spatial rift. As Han Li had guessed, it belonged to an avian demonic beast, its surface shimmering with green spiritual light and now even larger than before.

The sight sent Han Li’s heart racing.

Suddenly, the screech resumed from the shadow above. The giant claw trembled, and five thick beams of emerald light shot from its talons like colossal pillars, plunging into the Ghost Mist below. The claw then twisted, stirring the mist as if to overturn the sea itself.

The beast’s roar from the whirlpool paused, then erupted with even greater fury.

The mist churned and condensed, suddenly forming a massive black maw lined with jagged fangs, filling the entire whirlpool.

The five green beams were instantly swallowed by the gaping mouth.

Han Li stared, dumbfounded.

Then, with a snap, the black maw cleanly severed the five beams before opening wide again.

A thunderous roar erupted from within, and a pitch-black lightning bolt shot out, shattering the remnants of the green beams with a series of deafening cracks.

The lightning then morphed into a hundred-foot-long black flood dragon, vanishing with a sizzle.

In the next instant, the electric flood dragon reappeared beneath the shadow, plunging into the void.

A world-shaking thunderclap later, the beast tore open a white spatial rift and disappeared inside.

Black lightning arced wildly within the rift, accompanied by deafening thunder. A shrill cry echoed, and a ten-foot-long green feather drifted down from the light. The jade claw, which had extended from another rift, abruptly retracted.

As the cries faded, both spatial rifts sealed themselves. The shadow that had blotted out the sky vanished without a trace, revealing the gray sky once more.

Simultaneously, the massive whirlpool below began to churn violently, compressing the black mist and dragging it into the depths. The whirlpool shrank rapidly, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Soon, the sea returned to calm. Apart from the vanished island, it was as if the terrifying battle had been nothing more than an extraordinarily vivid illusion.