The sea beast before him was a good three or four zhang in length, covered in cyan-blue armored scales with tiny razor-sharp teeth. A pair of enormous, bulbous eye-sockets bulged from its head, giving it an extremely vicious appearance. Most notable of all was a pair of curved, horn-like bone spurs that grew from beneath its gills, making it look all the more hideous.
Han Li lowered himself through the water and studied the corpse several times over. With a flash of cyan light, a streak of sword qi slashed across its midsection, splitting the body cleanly in two.
He beckoned with one hand, and a dark clump flew into his palm. Without hesitation, he brought it close to his nose and gave it a light sniff. A strange, pungent aroma reached him, mingled faintly with a subtle fragrance.
"It really is a Fragrant Fang Beast." Han Li tossed the clump aside, a peculiar expression flickering across his face as he murmured to himself.
"A Fragrant Fang Beast?" Zi Ling started at the name and exchanged a glance with Mei Ning.
A hint of puzzlement crossed both women's lovely faces. Neither of them had ever heard the name before.
"Of course you two wouldn't know this sea beast. It's a unique deep-sea creature found only here — you won't find any in the Chaotic Star Sea." Han Li seemed to read their surprise and offered a mild smile as he explained.
"From the way Brother Han puts it, this place really isn't the Chaotic Star Sea anymore?" Zi Ling's slender brows knitted together, her tone turning serious.
"That's right. This definitely isn't the Chaotic Star Sea. I've never set foot in these waters myself, but I've heard them spoken of. If I'm not mistaken, this should be the Boundless Sea." Han Li swept his gaze over the murky ocean surface, nodding with a bitter smile. Then he lifted his gaze toward the sky and fell silent, lost in thought as though dredging up something long buried in his memory.
"The Boundless Sea!" Neither of them had ever encountered the name.
"Brother Han seems to know a fair bit about this sea. Could you tell us a little about this place?" Zi Ling asked after a moment's deliberation, a gentle smile returning to her face.
"Of course." Han Li pulled himself from his absent reverie and nodded calmly.
"The Boundless Sea — that's actually what the Tian Nan people call it colloquially. As the name suggests, virtually no one has ever been able to find its limits. It..." Han Li proceeded to recount the legends of the Boundless Sea in meticulous detail. As he spoke, however, he was simultaneously mulling over questions that had lain buried in the depths of his heart for a very long time.
"From what you've described, this Boundless Sea should lie at the northern end of the so-called Tian Nan region. And not only are fish and shrimp scarce here — even islands are virtually nonexistent?" Zi Ling asked, startled.
"That's right. And the worst part is, without any islands, there's no way to pinpoint our exact position, let alone figure out how far we are from the Tian Nan mainland." Han Li rubbed his nose and spoke evenly.
At these words, the two women exchanged uneasy glances.
"Be that as it may, we won't be short on spirit stones anytime soon. Our best option is to fly south. Hopefully the mainland won't be too far." Han Li thought for a moment, then declared decisively.
"There's nothing else we can do. Let's hope fortune favors us!" A trace of helplessness crossed Zi Ling's porcelain-white features as she voiced her agreement. Mei Ning, naturally, had no objections.
The three of them oriented themselves, then set off flying due south.
Several days later, both Mei Ning and Zi Ling were completely convinced of Han Li's assessment.
Exactly as he had described, not a single island appeared along the way. The sea below was lifeless and dreary in every direction — aside from a few aggressive sea beasts, they did not encounter a single demon beast.
Both women found this exceedingly strange, as neither had ever seen anything like it before.
Perhaps because they had endured so many hardships together, the three of them got along remarkably well, chatting and laughing as they traveled. Even Han Li, surrounded by two such stunningly beautiful women, could not help but feel his heart stir on occasion.
Yet now that they had entered the Boundless Sea, another face began to surface in his mind — that of a woman as cold as frost.
Nangong Wan. He wondered what had become of this woman of the Concealed Moon Sect, the one with whom he had once shared the most intimate of unions. Whenever her name crossed his thoughts, a complicated mix of feelings welled up inside him — infatuation, tenderness, perhaps even a touch of resentment, all tangled together in a knot he himself could not entirely unravel.
And so the three of them flew on for three or four full months, until one day at last, a sliver of green appeared on the distant horizon.
All three were overjoyed. The tension that had clung to them for so long finally dissolved, and with soaring spirits, they streaked toward the mainland.