Great Jin's Northern Territory, Sunset Forest.
This place was utterly unlike the green hills and clear waters of the Heavenly South. A gray haze shrouded the sky year-round, and the air carried a strange blend of rotting leaves and faint blood. Towering ancient trees blotted out the sun, allowing only a few sickly white flecks of light through their dense crowns to fall grudgingly upon ground covered in moss and unknown fungi.
A streak of azure light slipped silently from south to north into the edge of this forbidden land. The light faded, revealing Han Li's youthful yet profound face. Rather than the Star Palace's distinctive black robes, he wore a plain azure robe. His aura was restrained to the utmost; only his eyes occasionally flashed with a glimmer of chaos like a river of stars.
"So this is Great Jin..." Han Li murmured, his lightning-sharp gaze sweeping across the untamed forest. He had just infiltrated through the extremely unstable Spatial Node between the Heavenly South and Great Jin. Strangely, he had encountered no high-tier demonic beasts along the way. Instead, torn beast bones and bloodstains that had yet to dry lay everywhere, while traces of several demonic power fluctuations of varying strength lingered in the air.
It seems Great Jin's cultivation world is far more dangerous than the Heavenly South's, Han Li thought. The Heavenly South had its own mountain ranges inhabited by demonic beasts, but scenes of bloody slaughter scattered everywhere like this were uncommon.
A light sweep of his spiritual sense brought everything within dozens of miles into view. Suddenly, his brows drew together. His figure flickered, and he slipped like a phantom into the shadow of a massive tree, his aura instantly blending into his surroundings.
Only a few breaths later, two streaks of blood-red light