Han Li had just appeared in a small general store near the Inch Gold Pavilion. After purchasing a local sea chart and information on the movements of demonic beasts, he leisurely exited the shop, found a secluded spot, and began carefully examining the materials.
After just a brief look, Han Li couldn’t help but furrow his brows. The number of danger zones marked near the Abyssal Island was simply too many! Could these all be areas frequently haunted by high-level demonic beasts?
As for the famous abyss, it wasn’t too far from here. If Han Li flew south at full speed for half a month, he would reach it. However, the abyss was unbelievably vast, spanning tens of millions of miles in all directions. Moreover, according to the records, this sea area was bottomless, and no one had ever determined its exact depth.
After reviewing the information, Han Li quickly stored the jade slip containing the data and stood still, lost in deep thought with a grave expression.
After an unknown amount of time, he raised his head, his face returning to its usual calm. Without visiting any other places in Blackstone City, he left the stone city without hesitation.
Once outside the small city, Han Li immediately soared into the sky, transforming into a cyan streak that shot through the air.
The entire Abyssal Island wasn’t very large—just a medium-sized island. As Xu Yun had said, aside from Blackstone City, there were no other cities on the island. The rest of the place was extremely desolate, without even a single village in sight.
It seemed that, for some unknown reason, mortals and cultivators were forbidden from residing in other parts of the island.
Han Li soon flew out of Abyssal Island. He looked up at the sky above the sea, identified his direction, and flew northward.
For now, finding an island with few cultivators to reestablish his cave dwelling was his top priority. Naturally, the area near the abyss was undoubtedly crowded with cultivators’ caves, and Han Li had no intention of squeezing in among them and drawing attention. Thus, he deliberately flew in the opposite direction of the abyss.
There weren’t many large islands in the sea near Abyssal Island, and most were already occupied by cultivators and mortals. Han Li didn’t stop at any of these islands, ignoring them as he flew past.
As expected, the northern sea area had far fewer cultivators. After flying for over ten days, he rarely encountered any other cultivators. When he did, low-level cultivators would cautiously avoid him upon seeing his aura, while high-level cultivators would watch him with extreme vigilance. It seemed that killing and plundering were as common here as on other demon beast islands.
Han Li himself became more cautious.
After two more days of flight, with no signs of other cultivators, Han Li changed direction and headed west.
According to the sea chart, the west should have some islands of varying sizes with minor spirit veins. Due to their poor spirit veins, distance from Abyssal Island, lack of safety, or other reasons, few cultivators settled on these islands.
As for mortals, they only lived on islands near Abyssal Island, where safety was somewhat guaranteed.
Han Li, of course, didn’t care about these conditions and planned to see if any island suited his preferences.
Hovering over a small island about fifty or sixty li in size, he gazed down intently. This was the fourth uninhabited island with a spirit vein he had found so far.
The island wasn’t large, but its environment was incredibly diverse. It had barren, desolate land devoid of grass, dense forests of unknown trees, lush green and vibrant flower-filled plains, and small hills dotting miniature mountain ranges.
Han Li had scanned the entire island with his spiritual sense and found no traces of any cultivators having stayed there.
This wasn’t because the island’s spirit vein was too poor for other cultivators to consider. On the contrary, although the spirit vein was small, it provided quite abundant spiritual energy—not top-tier, but certainly above average.
The reason no cultivators had settled here was entirely due to the island’s peculiar surroundings.
And this was exactly what Han Li found most appealing about the island.
The island was nestled within a vast expanse of milky white sea fog, which wasn’t naturally formed but emanated from nearby turbulent whirlpools. Even more peculiar was that the white fog only spread around the island, leaving the sky above completely clear.
When Han Li first saw this, he was utterly astonished. But after diving below the water near the island, he finally understood.
The bottom of the island was densely covered with countless finger-sized holes, through which thousands of slender silver fish darted in and out. At first glance, these silver fish seemed no different from ordinary small fish. But when Han Li enveloped his hands in spiritual energy and caught one for a closer look, he noticed these fish had no scales—their bodies were covered in extremely sharp silver bone spikes. If an ordinary person tried to grab one, their hands would undoubtedly be left bleeding.
“Devouring Sea Fish!” The name immediately came to Han Li’s mind.
Despite their amusing name, these small fish were a type of low-level, group-dwelling demonic beasts. Besides having iron-hard bone spikes, they loved to surface, spitting seawater to create white mist for play—a common sight near some islands.
But it was extremely rare to find so many Devouring Sea Fish around one island that their mist could completely obscure it.
Had Han Li not encountered a fourth-level demonic beast, the Silverwing Bird, and pursued it into the sea of fog on a whim, he would never have noticed the island hidden within the mist and would have flown past without a second thought. From a distance, this patch of sea fog looked like the most common oceanic phenomenon—countless such patches existed at sea, utterly unremarkable!
After circling the island several times, Han Li quickly made up his mind: this would be the island where he would establish his cave dwelling.
What other island could be more to his liking than such a hidden one?
The island’s spirit vein was located in a miniature mountain range only about ten li long and thirty to forty zhang high, with just a few small peaks. Given their low height, it was impossible for Han Li to build his cave on a mountainside. Instead, he found a narrow, concave valley and began digging into the base of the mountain range.
With Han Li’s current cultivation level, carving out a cave dwelling identical to his previous one was effortless. In just half a day, the basic structure of the cave was complete.
Rather than refining the cave further, Han Li first used several sets of self-made array tools to envelop both the cave and the mountain range, activating illusionary restrictions.
From a distance, the mountain range seemed to vanish, replaced by a lush green forest seamlessly connected to the real woods nearby, without a single flaw.
But after hovering in the air and scrutinizing the area for a while, Han Li still felt uneasy. If someone else happened to fly into the sea fog like he had, these restrictions might not deceive high-level cultivators.
He pondered for a moment, then an idea struck him.
Without a word, Han Li flew back into his new cave, sorted through his materials, and began refining something in a secluded room.
Six or seven days later, when he emerged from the cave, he carried over a dozen identical sets of array tools.
These array flags and disks looked crude and unsophisticated, far from advanced formations. But after burying a set in various locations around the island and activating them one by one, thick mist surged from these formations, enveloping the entire island in fog. Soon, the mist from the formations merged with the sea fog surrounding the island, completely obscuring it. Now, even if someone stumbled into the area, unless they flew at a low altitude, it would be difficult to detect the island below.
After surveying the area from the air, Han Li finally felt at ease.
Although activating so many formations simultaneously would consume a significant amount of spirit stones, he didn’t mind. He would rather spend wealth to avoid disaster!
Han Li transformed back into a cyan light and descended.
Now, it was time to properly arrange his cave, set up insect rooms, plant spirit grasses…
Two days later, Han Li stood in a stone room, holding the pale yellow jade slip given to him by the Inch Gold Pavilion’s Gu Yu. He focused his spiritual sense intently on its contents, his expression grave.
His expression shifted as he withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade slip, then fell into deep thought once more.
After a while, he stood up and paced around the stone room several times, his face growing even more solemn.
Suddenly, he reached into his storage pouch and pulled out a white jade box. After gazing at it for a moment, he slowly opened the lid, revealing several small, colorful beads inside.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage