"So the Yue Kingdom really is in quite the state of chaos right now!" Han Li suddenly remarked with a light laugh.
This cryptic remark gave the other four a vague sense of unfathomable depth. All they could do was offer dry, polite smiles.
"Please, gentlemen, continue your conversation. I'm going to look around elsewhere." Han Li stood up and spoke in a genial tone.
"Please, Senior, go as you will!"
"Senior, take care!"
…
The four of them hurriedly watched Han Li depart with respectful gazes.
Han Li gave a casual wave, then called out to Qu Hun, who had been standing outside the entire time, and headed toward the other stone pavilions.
…
Two hours later, Han Li stood in a corner of the mountain peak, his head bowed in thought.
He had just spent a long while questioning several groups of cultivators about the current state of the Yue Kingdom's cultivation world. The result was that the only word to describe the present Yue Kingdom was "chaos."
Under these circumstances, he now had two paths he could choose from.
The first was to fly on his flying sword, traveling far away from the Yue Kingdom and neighboring countries to find a suitable location to continue his cultivation.
The second was to find a way to repair that ancient teleportation array and simply gamble on his luck to see where it might transport him. After all, an ancient teleportation array of such extraordinary value could not have been built underground for no reason — it must lead somewhere extremely distant.
At first glance, the first option was clearly the more prudent choice.
But once Han Li considered it more carefully, he felt that decision was not so favorable either.
Because to the east and west of the Yue Kingdom lay the Heavenly Luo Kingdom, the demonic faction's stronghold, and the Fengdu Kingdom, the righteous alliance's base. That meant he could only head north or south.
If he fled north through the Yuanwu Kingdom, there were still over a dozen small and medium-sized countries, but it was obvious that none of their cultivation worlds could withstand an assault from the demonic faction or the righteous alliance. Some of those countries had long since pledged allegiance to one of the two major powers, becoming their puppets, and open and covert struggles had been going on for a long time.
Otherwise, with so few border clashes between Heavenly Luo and Fengdu, large-scale battles would never have erupted in the past.
These countries could become battlegrounds for the demonic faction and the righteous alliance at any time. Han Li naturally could not stay.
But if he ventured through several more countries and continued further north, he would reach the extreme northern edge of the Tiannan region, where he would encounter the legendary "Boundless Sea" — a place said to be impassable even for immortals.
This sea was not only utterly murky and boundless, but scarcely any fish could survive within it. The few species that could live there were ferocious beyond measure, no less formidable than high-level land-dwelling demon beasts. Even a Core Formation cultivator who fell into these waters would be in extreme danger.
As for flying over this sea from above — that was nothing but a pipe dream!
An expert whose cultivation had reached the Nascent Soul stage had once been greatly curious about what lay at the sea's far end.
With thorough preparations, he had flown along this sea for over a year, yet all he could see was endless ocean without a single place to set foot on.
By that point, his pills and spirit stones had dwindled to less than half. Under those circumstances, this expert had no choice but to return in frustration.
Otherwise, with no way to replenish his spiritual energy, even a Nascent Soul cultivator would simply perish trapped at sea.
Han Li naturally would not entertain such a far-fetched notion of crossing the sea.
That left him with only the southern direction to consider.
And south of the Yue Kingdom, past five or six countries such as the Zijin Kingdom, lay the tight-knit alliance known as the "Nine Kingdoms Alliance," composed of nine large and small nations.
This alliance had been formed under the guidance of the nine countries' cultivation worlds.
Its purpose was to deal with a powerful and mad adversary: an invading army composed of the Mulan people's Law Masters.
When it came to the Mulan people and their Law Masters, one had to speak of the Mulan Great Grassland neighboring the nine nations and the Mulan people who lived upon it.
The Mulan people were entirely different from the Yan people of the Yue Kingdom, Yuanwu Kingdom, and other nations. They were a purely nomadic people — not only was their culture fierce and martial, with everyone fond of wielding blades and practicing combat, but they had organized into thousands of tribes of all sizes across the Mulan grassland.