abcnovels
Chapter 542: Deadly Swamp
Chapter 542: Deadly Swamp
Chapter 542: Deadly Swamp
All of this had taken place so abruptly and was so unexpected that Han Li was left feeling quite surprised, and he finally realized why he hadn't detected these blue apes earlier.
As soon as the blue apes burrowed into the ground, they immediately fled into the distance at an astonishing speed.
Han Li was looking on with a contemplative expression, but made no effort to pursue them.
These blue apes' concealment ability was quite profound, but he could still just barely detect their presence. However, he had no intention of hunting them down.
Jin Tong's senses weren't as sharp as Han Li's, and she immediately turned to him with a furious expression, clearly awaiting directions from him.
"Let them go," Han Li said with a shake of his head.
"Why aren't we chasing after them?" Jin Tong asked in an indignant manner.
"Those things aren't normal primordial beasts. Instead, I have a feeling that they come from a nearby primordial tribe, so it won't be wise to blindly pursue them," Han Li explained.
"So what? I can take on 1,000 of these blue monkeys at once!" Jin Tong grumbled as she raised her little fist.
"Don't underestimate these primordial beings. This is their home turf, and there's often great strength to be found in numbers. I'm sure there's no lack of formidable beings among them, just like that Sand Beast we encountered earlier. Our objective is to pass through the primordial land, so it would be unwise to seek out trouble," Han Li said.
Jin Tong's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, and she didn't raise any further argument.
"It seems like you know quite a bit about the state of the primordial world, Master," the Pixiu remarked.
"We're going to be traversing through the primordial land for quite some time, so I naturally had to do some homework," Han Li replied with a smile.
In reality, he hadn't actually managed to find much information about the primordial land while in Primordial Origin City. In the end, he was only able to gather some valuable information from the Transient Guild at quite a high cost.
"Let's go. The primordial tribes here sorely detest primordial hunters, so I'm sure those things will be bringing back reinforcements soon," Han Li continued.
"This is so boring. I'm a little sleepy, Uncle. Call on me again when there's something fun happening!"
Jin Tong gave an unenthusiastic yawn as she spoke, then transformed into a golden ring that fitted itself around Han Li's finger.
Han Li then made a hand seal, and the flying carriage continued onward.
In order to avoid the reinforcements from the blue ape-like beings from earlier, they temporarily refrained from continuing their treasure-hunting endeavors. Instead, they traveled onward at full speed, and it didn't take long before they left the misty mountain range.
After leaving the mountain range, the terrain up ahead instantly became a lot more level, and it didn't take long before a slightly dark forest appeared up ahead.
From a distance, the trees in the forest appeared to be dark gray in color, and the foliage was very dense, so even though it was daytime, there was still a dark and foreboding aura about the forest.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, but he still spurred the flying carriage onward to fly into the forest.
"Something's not quite right here... The world's origin qi in this forest is quite abundant, but I can't sense any spirit materials," the Pixiu suddenly said after they had been flying for some time.
At this point, Han Li had also developed a sense that there was something strange about this forest.
Not only were there very few spirit plants in the forest, his spiritual sense told him that there were any primordial beasts around, either.
However, Han Li didn't pay this much heed. The lack of primordial beasts was something that he was happy to see as it would allow him to travel through the forest faster.
After flying for close to half a day, the Pixiu abruptly stood up as it declared in an excited voice, "I can sense extremely powerful spiritual qi fluctuations coming from the left! There must be something incredibly precious there!"
A hesitant look appeared on Han Li's face upon hearing this, but after a brief moment of contemplation, he still redirected the flying carriage to set off in that direction.
Before long, a dead black swamp had appeared up ahead.
The swamp was filled with decaying black mud, and it was completely desolate and devoid of life. Occasionally, a large bubble would rise up from the mud, then pop loudly to release plumes of dark purple miasma.
"Didn't you say there was something of value here?" Han Li asked with slightly furrowed brows.
His spiritual sense was telling him that the world's origin qi here was much sparser than it was in the rest of the forest, and he couldn't even sense any living beings here, let alone any precious natural treasures.
"I'm certain that there's something deep in the swamp! If we find something good this time, don't forget that I was the one who led us here!" the Pixiu declared in a confident manner.
Han Li was still rather skeptical upon hearing this, but spurred on the flying carriage to continue onward, nonetheless.
After flying for a while, his expression suddenly changed slightly as he brought the flying carriage to a halt.
In this area, the dark purple miasma over the swamp had become extremely dense, making this place as dark as if it were nighttime.
Han Li was unbothered by this miasma, and the flying carriage descended out of the sky at his behest, then stopped over 100 feet above the swamp.
There were countless carcasses in the swamp down below, most of which were already severely decayed, but he could still tell that they belonged to various types of demon beasts.
These carcasses all varied in size from just over 100 feet to in excess of 1,000 feet in size, and there were countless more of these carcasses up ahead, stretching as far as the eyes could see.
The Pixiu seemed to be quite startled by this, and it didn't dare to say anything as it snuck a furtive glance at Han Li out of the corner of its eye.
Han Li's expression remained unchanged, and after a brief pause, the flying carriage continued onward.
The further they ventured into the swamp, the more demon beasts carcasses that they saw until eventually, the entire swamp was completely filled with them, and the air temperature was also dropping sharply.
"Is it still further up ahead?" Han Li asked.
"Well... Yes, but this place is a little scary, so maybe we should turn back..." the Pixiu replied in an uneasy voice.
"I hope you're right," Han Li said.
Having already come this far, he was naturally unwilling to turn back. According to past experience, all precious natural treasures were guarded by powerful beasts. However, whatever guardian beast was here seemed to be quite formidable and was also very adept at concealing itself, to the point that Han Li still hadn't managed to detect it.
However, at this point in the primordial land, he had a feeling that he possessed sufficient power to at least ensure self-preservation, and if he encountered a foe too powerful for him to defeat, then he would just have to run away.
With that in mind, Han Li continued onward atop his flying carriage, but he had slowed down quite a bit and was also proceeding with caution.
Some time later, the flying carriage drew to a halt at his behest.
They had already ventured very deep into the swamp at this point, and there was an astonishing number of demon beasts carcasses here, forming a series of massive mountains of bones.
Additionally, the carcasses here were also far more massive than the ones from before, and the area was littered with giant skeletons the size of mountains.
Even Han Li was beginning to get a little spooked.
"Master, the treasure is right there!" the Pixiu suddenly declared as it pointed forward.
Between two massive mountains of bones several kilometers up ahead was a green pond that was several dozen feet in size, and the water in the pond was so clear that one could see all the way to the bottom.
At the center of the pond was a shimmering golden lotus flower with nine petals, all of which were also golden in color, but in different shades. Despite this, they somehow didn't appear to conflict with each other at all.
There were also nine golden rainbows of different shades hanging in the air above the lotus flower, and the flying carriage immediately began to approach it at Han Li's behest.
Even as they were still several thousand feet away, Han Li could already catch a whiff of an incredibly fragrant aroma from the golden lotus flower, and just this aroma alone was enough to loosen several of the immortal acupoints in his body ever so slightly.
He had no idea what this golden lotus flower was, but its aroma alone told him that it was definitely an exceptional spirit plant.
Right as he was about to get even closer, a piercing screech suddenly rang out from the distant sky.
As soon as he heard this screech, his soul abruptly shuddered, while his body began to sway unsteadily.
However, with his tremendous spiritual sense, he was immediable able to steady himself, following which he looked up to find that a giant blac beast had appeared up above.
The black beast had an enormous body that wasn't inferior in size compared with the giant Sand Beast in the sea of sand, and it resembled a wyrm with a layer of huge black scales all over its body, each of which was over 100 feet in size. There were also several huge black bone spikes that were thousands of feet in length on its head, and its four sets of claws were astonishingly enormous.
The black wyrm was staring intently at the golden lotus flower with a greedy look on its face, but its gaze then immediately fell upon Han Li as a ferocious gleam surfaced in its eyes.
"Oh, I'm also feeling a little sleepy, Master!" the Pixiu exclaimed in alarm, then instantly flew back to Han Li's waist as a jade pendant.
Before Han Li had a chance to do anything, a gust of scorching wind swept toward him as the black wyrm whipped its tail at him with astonishing power.
Han Li felt the air constrict around him, and the giant draconic tail arrived before him in the blink of an eye, sweeping toward him with devastating power.
His expression changed drastically as he hurriedly swept a sleeve through the air, releasing three Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords that transformed into a trio of giant azure swords to form a protective barrier in front of him.
Before he had a chance to do anything else, the draconic tail struck the giant swords with an earth-shattering boom, and the three swords shuddered violently before they were flying in three different directions.
However, thankfully, they had managed to defend Han Li from the attack.
In the meantime, Han Li hurriedly made a hand seal, and the flying carriage shot back in retreat as he made a beckoning motion to summon his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords back to himself.
This black wyrm was even more formidable than that giant Sand Beast!