If I had been a rogue cultivator back then, I would surely have fled far away at the first opportunity too.
Listening to the deep helplessness beneath Zhuo Lingfeng's calm words, Li Yan thought to himself.
"You were certainly bold, Fellow Daoist Zhuo. With your cultivation back then, you actually dared enter such a deadly place!"
A strange gleam flickered through Li Yan's eyes, while a faint, bitter smile appeared on Zhuo Lingfeng's face.
"With my strength back then, my combat prowess was only average among cultivators of the same realm. I had neither magical treasures nor pills. Outside, I faced ten deaths and no chance of survival. Going there might at least have offered a thread of hope!
"Only... I still underestimated the dangers of the Land of the Setting Sun. I had been inside for just half a day when an unknown beam of intense light struck me.
"Although I had surrounded myself with my best defensive talismans before entering, they turned to ash in an instant. My body was almost completely torn apart, and I lost consciousness on the spot..."
Zhuo Lingfeng paused here, his face twitching slightly. Clearly, even now, he dreaded recalling that incident.
Li Yan said nothing more and simply listened quietly.
"When I woke again, I found myself lying on a flying magical treasure, above a sea devoid of spiritual energy. Only later did I learn that it was the legendary Northern Nether Sea.
"The man who saved me became my master afterward: the divine monk Konghai, one of the guardian monks of Shamen Temple on the Wind God Continent.
"He had been traveling through the Desolate Moon Continent. After hearing about several of its dangerous regions, he decided to explore them. As it happened, he found me barely clinging to life in