Han Li naturally didn't know that a crisis which might have arisen had been averted just like that.
But ever cautious, he continued flying day and night toward the northeast.
Since he was now wanted, the southwestern sea regions were no longer safe. If he wanted to go elsewhere, he needed a complete map of the entire Chaotic Star Sea.
But Han Li only had a map of the southwest.
Therefore, a month later, Han Li stopped temporarily on a small island.
Although the island wasn't large, situated as it was at the border between the southwestern and other sea regions, it boasted a very bustling small market town.
Out of caution, Han Li had Qu Hun use some kind of secret technique to simultaneously obscure both their appearances. They then each put on a wide-brimmed hat.
This way, unless the cultivator was of a higher level than Qu Hun, even if they tried to use spiritual sense to peek at their faces, all they would see was a blurry red glow.
In the half-day that followed, Han Li stocked up on a large pile of raw materials and similar items at the island's market town, and purchased many books and relevant sea charts introducing various aspects of the Chaotic Star Sea, spending quite a tidy sum.
And the numerous small shopkeepers in the market town were delighted beyond measure by the arrival of such a big customer as Han Li!
Once he had gathered everything, Han Li didn't dare linger and left the island that very day.
Sitting in his Divine Wind Skiff, Han Li took out jade slip after jade slip to study carefully.
After an unknown amount of time, he let out a long breath, tossed the jade slips in his hand into his storage pouch, and fell into deep thought.
After a thorough examination, Han Li finally gained a rough understanding of the situation in the entire Chaotic Star Sea.
The Chaotic Star Sea was vast! But exactly how vast, no one knew, and no one was foolish enough to try and measure it.
The sea charts to date only covered a small fraction of the true expanse of the Chaotic Star Sea—this was something all cultivators of the sea acknowledged.
The explored sea regions were usually referred to as the "Inner Star Sea," while the unexplored outer regions were the "Outer Star Sea."
And the "Chaotic Star Sea" that most people spoke of actually referred only to the "Inner Star Sea."
The "Outer Star Sea," on the other hand, had an even more terrifying name: the "Monster Sea." Because many inconceivably powerful monster beasts were said to live there, some reportedly capable of rivaling Nascent Soul stage cultivators without giving an inch. This revelation left many low-level cultivators who had never ventured to the Outer Star Sea tongue-tied for quite a while.
The texts also said that in ancient times, whether it was the "Inner Star Sea" or the "Outer Star Sea," it was the domain of the sea's monster beasts, and cultivators could only hold out on a few isolated small islands.
Later, after an immeasurably long passage of time, the numerous predecessors of the Chaotic Star Sea gradually eliminated the powerful monster beasts and opened up what was now the Inner Star Sea region.
Today, the entire Chaotic Star Sea was governed by a vast organization called the "Star Palace."
How long this organization had existed, even the texts did not give an exact date.
The original reason for its founding was a matter of much speculation. Some said it was established by the batch of senior masters who had eradicated the monster beasts, others claimed it was built by some former great tyrant after unifying the Chaotic Star Sea of that era, and so on.
The current Heavenly Star Palace had converted a huge island in the central part of the Inner Star Sea into a super city, "Heavenly Star City." Ruling over the entire "Star Palace" organization were two city lords known as the "Heavenly Star Twin Sages."
These two city lords were exceptionally mysterious. They never left Heavenly Star City and never appeared in public, so no one had ever seen their true faces.
However, cultivators of the Chaotic Star Sea all whispered that these two Holy Lords were either late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators or legendary Deity Transformation stage beings.
After all, the title "Heavenly Star Twin Sages" had been circulating for nearly a thousand years. How could ordinary cultivators possibly have such longevity?
Besides "Heavenly Star City," the "Star Palace" also had direct-ruled subsidiary islands in eight regions along the outer edge of the Inner Star Sea and in four regions in the center—three of the largest islands in each.
These were known as the Outer Twenty-Four Star Islands and Inner Twelve Star Islands, positioned around Heavenly Star City in a supportive arc.
The Kui Star Island where Han Li had stayed was one of these outer islands under the "Star Palace's" jurisdiction.
In this way, these Star Islands, along with the numerous smaller islands subordinate to them, meant saying that the "Star Palace" was the official governing force of the Chaotic Star Sea was no exaggeration at all.
Even more remarkable was that the appointment of the lords for these Star Islands was carried out in two different ways.