High above the Northern Land.
A Grand Void Sky Whale nearly ninety thousand li long swam slowly through the sea of clouds.
With every sweep of his enormous dark-gold fins, the clouds for thousands of li around surged to either side, forming a spectacular sight like rolling ocean tides.
Lu Yuan had gradually grown accustomed to swimming through the void.
Compared to lying on the ground, the sky was clearly a better fit for him.
At his size, if he stayed close to the ground as he traveled, the mountains and rivers along his path would suffer.
A slight turn could crush who knew how many mountain ranges.
Once he entered the high sky, things became much easier.
The clouds were thick enough.
And there was plenty of room.
As long as Lu Yuan restrained his presence a little, traveling would not have much effect on the land below.
As for the little creatures on his back, after their initial panic, they too had gradually adjusted under the protection of the dark-gold curtain of light.
Some of the bolder birds had even begun flying along the edge of the curtain.
They looked out through the faint light and found it wonderfully novel to see the sea of clouds and the mountains and rivers around them rushing backward.
Lu Yuan paid them little attention.
His attention was fixed on the north.
As he traveled deeper, the baleful Sha Qi in the air did indeed grow denser.
The change was unmistakable.
At first, he could only occasionally detect a trace of it.
After several days, the clouds around him had turned gray-black again.
With every breath Lu Yuan took, he absorbed some of the Sha Qi drifting between heaven and earth.
The amount was small.
But it was constant.
He traveled and ate along the way.
It was quite comfortable.
"At this concentration, if I keep going, I should be nearly there."
Lu Yuan murmured to himself.
His enormous body passed through another bank of Sha clouds.
Just then.
A powerful fluctuation suddenly came from below.
Rumble!
Then came a series of ferocious beast roars.
Lu Yuan lowered his head slightly.
His Divine Sense swept down with the motion.
Below lay an immense black wasteland.
In the middle of the wasteland, tens of thousands of ferocious beasts faced one another.
On the left were mostly black-armored behemoths with four legs and two horns.
On the right was a vast gathering of ferocious birds with gray wings.
There were plenty on both sides.
The two strongest ferocious beasts had already reached the Golden Immortal level.
From the look of things.
They were clearly preparing to fight over territory.
The black-armored behemoth stood at the front, its thick forelimbs constantly pawing at the ground, each strike leaving a huge, deep pit.
Across from it, the gray-winged ferocious bird spread its wings.
Vast amounts of gray-black Sha Qi gathered around its wings.
The tension between the two sides had reached its peak.
"Roar!"
The black-armored behemoth roared first.
The great horde of ferocious beasts behind it stirred at once.
The gray-winged ferocious bird showed no weakness, throwing back its head and shrieking.
A volley of gray feather blades immediately rained down from the sky.
Just as the two sides were about to tear into each other.
The sky suddenly darkened.
At first.
Neither side paid it any mind.
Sha clouds shrouded the Northern Land's sky all year round.
The sky turning dark was nothing unusual.
But after a few breaths.
More and more ferocious beasts noticed something was wrong.
No new Sha clouds had gathered overhead.
Yet the shadow kept growing.
The black-armored behemoth stopped pawing at the ground and slowly raised its head.
Across from it, the gray-winged ferocious bird also folded the wings it had readied to attack.
All the ferocious beasts looked up into the sky at once.
Then.
The atmosphere on the wasteland changed entirely.
A gray-winged ferocious bird's beak slowly fell open, its once-fierce gaze gradually turning blank.
The wings of several birds beside it trembled slightly.
The black-armored ferocious beasts on the ground reacted even more dramatically.
A ferocious beast several hundred zhang in size had been roaring nonstop moments ago, but now its throat seemed to be blocked by something, and it could not make a sound.
High in the sky.
A dark-gold body stretching tens of thousands of li was slowly passing between the clouds.
The enormous head at the front had already passed over the center of the wasteland.
There was still no end to its body in sight.
Several enormous fins passed through the sea of clouds, and the air currents they stirred up even sent continuous gales sweeping across the wasteland below.
The black-armored behemoth's blood-red eyes widened further and further.
It had already reached the Golden Immortal realm.
Its Divine Sense covered a far greater range than that of an ordinary ferocious beast.
So it could see more clearly.
This was a living creature.
And its body was so enormous that it could hardly comprehend it!
"Whimper..."
A low sound came from the black-armored behemoth's throat.
The ferocious bird leader, which had been ready to fight it to the death just moments ago, had likewise forgotten about the battle.
The two sides glanced at each other.
The next moment.
Both sides actually began to retreat at the same time.
Lu Yuan noticed this as well.
He had been thinking of asking for directions while he was at it.
After all, he only knew that the Myriad Sha Abyss was somewhere deep in the north.
He really did not know its exact location.
With so many ferocious beasts down there, surely one of them had to know.
Lu Yuan slowed down.
His enormous head slowly descended a little from the sea of clouds.
To the ferocious beasts below, this action had an immediate effect.
When the black-armored behemoth saw the enormous head, like a celestial body, gradually lowering toward it, its entire body tensed.
"Roar!"
It suddenly let out a short, urgent roar.
The tens of thousands of ferocious beasts behind it instantly erupted into chaos.
Run!
They completely forgot about their plans to fight for territory.
The great horde of black-armored ferocious beasts fled madly toward the west.
The gray-winged ferocious birds reacted just as quickly.
Boom!
Tens of thousands of pairs of wings beat at once.
The gray ferocious birds rushed east like a black cloud.
The two sides even fled in completely opposite directions, as if they had agreed on it.
Lu Yuan had just lowered his head.
And was about to speak.
But all that remained below was a cloud of dust.
Lu Yuan was silent for a while.
He had not even said a word.
Why had they all run away?
He lowered his head and looked at himself.
Dark-gold scales.
Flowing star patterns.
He looked quite normal.
At least by the standards of the Grand Void Sky Whale race, he should have looked fairly good.
"Do I look that frightening?"
Lu Yuan was somewhat puzzled.
Some of the spirit beasts on his back heard his voice and drew in their necks.
By now, they understood that the great being beneath their feet would not hurt them.
But to say they were not afraid at all.
That was clearly impossible.
Lu Yuan waited for a while.
Not a single one of those ferocious beasts came back.
He could not be bothered to chase them.
Since the Myriad Sha Abyss was known as the Northern Land's central land of baleful Sha, he would find it eventually if he continued following the increasing concentration of Sha Qi.
Lu Yuan rose higher again.
His enormous fins swept through the air.
He continued north.
And after he had completely disappeared into the distance.
Tens of thousands of li away.
The black-armored behemoth finally poked its head out from behind a mountain range.
It watched the enormous figure growing smaller and smaller in the distance, the terror in its eyes still not entirely gone.
"It's gone..."
Several other Golden Immortal ferocious beasts appeared beside it one after another.
The gray-winged ferocious birds from the opposite side also flew back from another direction.
The two sides saw each other again across the wasteland.
Much of their earlier killing intent had faded.
The gray-winged ferocious bird leader turned toward the direction in which Lu Yuan had disappeared, its voice clearly trembling. "What was that thing?"
The black-armored behemoth's expression was grim. "I don't know."
An older ferocious beast seemed to recall something and suddenly widened its eyes.
"The outskirts of the Northern Land... wasn't there some news going around recently?"
The ferocious beasts around it all looked at it.
The old ferocious beast swallowed and said quietly, "I heard that a strange beast bigger than a mountain range woke up. The Heaven-Splitting Hou King went to find it and ended up getting sent flying with one swipe of its tail."
The black-armored behemoth's eyelid twitched violently.
The gray-winged ferocious bird also suddenly spread its wings.
"Was that the one just now?"
The old ferocious beast slowly nodded.
The wasteland fell silent once more.
After a long while.
The black-armored behemoth turned straight around.
"I'm done fighting."
The leader of the gray-winged vicious birds folded its wings as well.
"Let's take a breather first."
Both sides had just come close to thinking that the colossal beast was about to swallow them in passing.
Now, looking at the other side again.
They suddenly felt it wasn't so worthwhile to fight to the death.
Lu Yuan, who had already gone far away, naturally had no idea.
He had merely been passing through.
And, in passing, had brought about a temporary truce between two groups of vicious beasts preparing to slaughter each other.
All he felt now was that the Sha Qi around him smelled more and more enticing.
Ahead.
It was already very close.