Chapter 1279: Exploring the Underworld

Han Li immediately channeled his cultivation arts and time law powers with all his might to try and stabilize himself, but the surrounding forces were simply far too immense, and he felt like a fallen leaf racing through a raging river, completely at the mercy of the turbulent waves.

Initially, the burst of power acted solely in a downward direction, but it quickly began wrenching his body from side to side, making him feel as if the entire world were spinning around him.

In the end, he stopped resisting altogether, only making an effort to protect the vital regions of his body while releasing his spiritual sense to try and get a bearing on his surroundings and lock onto Jin Tong and Weeping Soul.

Thankfully, he was still able to sense Jin Tong and Weeping Soul, but it seemed as if the distance between him and the two of them was fluctuating wildly.

After what seemed like an eternity, Han Li crashed down onto what felt like the ground, immediately following which Jin Tong and Weeping Soul fell onto him with a pair of dull thuds.

The impact from Weeping Soul wasn't too bad, but Jin Tong's body was as hard as a metal statue, and it almost knocked the wind out of his lungs.

"Are you alright, Mater?" Weeping Soul asked as she hurriedly scrambled to her feet.

An apologetic look had also appeared in Jin Tong's eyes as she stood up and said, "I didn't mean to do that, Uncle."

"It's fine. Thank heavens I'm relatively sturdy," Han Li said with a wave of his hand, then rose to his feet to inspect his surroundings. "What is this place?"

At this moment, the three of them were standing on a barren desert, and the sky above was pitch-black. Visibility was limited to only less than ten kilometers, and anything beyond that was completely enshrouded in darkness.

Gusts of yin wind were howling through the surrounding area, and they carried glacial qi that was several times more potent than that of the Soul Stirring Winds.

Han Li and Jin Tong's brows furrowed slightly as they channeled their law powers to ward off the glacial qi, while Weeping Soul felt very much at home here, joyfully basking in the immense ghostly qi in the surrounding environment.

"Looks like this should be the underworld. We've finally arrived," Weeping Soul said in a confident manner as she rubbed her own belly.

"So this really is the underworld," Han Li mused with a contemplative nod.

He wasn't of the opinion that Weeping Soul had been to the underworld before, but for some reason, he trusted her judgment on this matter.

"The commotion caused by our landing has most likely already attracted some attention, so it's probably a good idea to get away from this place for now," Jin Tong cautioned, and neither Han Li nor Weeping Soul raised any objections to this.

None of the directions appeared distinguishable from the others, so the three of them quickly chose a direction to depart in.

Mere minutes following their departure, around a dozen black shadows flew onto the scene from afar. It was a group of half-human, half-beast ghostly creatures, and they were different in appearance from both the soul harvesting envoys and the ghostly soldiers under the black-robed man's command.

The group of ghostly creatures descended to the spot where Han Li's trio had been standing not long ago, and they began sniffing vigorously at the air with excited looks on their faces.

After that, the majority of them rose up into the air to set off in pursuit of Han Li's trio, leaving only one of them behind, and it let loose a sharp screech to the heavens.

Moments later, a vast black cloud appeared on the distant horizon before quickly drifting onto the scene.

Within the black cloud was a horde of countless ghostly beings, all of which also set off after Han Li's trio.

......

At this moment, Han Li's trio was flying through the air, and they were proceeding rather slowly, given that they were in a completely unfamiliar environment.

Han Li was scouring his surroundings with his spiritual sense and his Infernal Devilish Eyes as he flew along, but the excessive abundance of glacial qi in the air was significantly hampering his spiritual sensory range.

In contrast, his Infernal Devilish Eyes were much more effective, but even then, visibility was limited to only around three hundred kilometers.

Three hundred kilometers sounded like quite a large distance, but it was a distance that cultivators of their caliber could cover in the blink of an eye, so this really wasn't particularly helpful.

"Master, I can sense a river over five hundred kilometers ahead of us, and it seems to be rather strange," Weeping Soul suddenly said.

"Over five hundred kilometers away? Weeping Soul, what is your spiritual sensory range right now?" Han Li asked.

"There's too much ghostly qi here, so my spiritual sensory range is severely restricted, and it's been reduced to only around a thousand kilometers," Weeping Soul replied.

"What about you, Jin Tong?" Han Li asked.

"My spiritual sensory range is only around forty kilometers. You know me, this has never been my strong suit. Aren't you usually the one with the best spiritual sensory range out of all of us, Uncle?" Jin Tong replied.

"That's usually the case, but in this place, my spiritual sensory range is only around three hundred kilometers, so we'll be counting on you, Weeping Soul," Han Li said.

"Leave it to me, Master," Weeping Soul replied in a confident manner. "I'm not sure why, but this place feels familiar to me, like it was once my home..."

Before long, the three of them reached the river that Weeping Soul had mentioned earlier.

It was a river so vast that even Han Li wasn't able to see its borders, and turbulent black waves were rolling over its surface.

What was strange and rather unsettling about the river was that it was completely silent, despite the immense turbulence, and wisps of black mist were constantly rising up from its depths.

Several thousand feet above the river was a dense blanket of black clouds that appeared to have been formed by the mist rising up from the river, and arcs of black lightning could be seen flashing within them.

Han Li's trio drew to a halt by the river in a cautious manner, following which Han Li asked, "Weeping Soul, can you detect what's on the other side of this river?"

Weeping Soul closed her eyes momentarily to focus, then quickly reopened them and shook her head as she replied, "It's too far away."

"How could such a turbulent river be so silent? Let me try something!" Jin Tong said as she swept a sleeve through the air, releasing a streak of golden light that was over a thousand feet in length, and it plunged into the river in complete silence with not even the tiniest of splashes.

Han Li's trio were all slightly alarmed and concerned to see this.

The streak of golden light released by Jin Tong had appeared all that remarkable, but it had been imbued with immense power, enough to easily slice a mountain into two, yet the river had devoured it like it was nothing.

"There's tremendous ghostly qi in this river, and it has a very potent corrosive effect, so it would be best not to make contact with it," Weeping Soul said.

"What should we do, Uncle? Should we cross the river or try to go around it?" Jin Tong asked.

Han Li pondered the matter for a moment, then swept a sleeve through the air to release a golden bean, which transformed into a golden Dao Warrior that was around ten feet in size in the blink of an eye.

He then cast an arc of golden lightning into the Dao Warrior's body with a flick of his finger, and a series of golden lightning runes instantly appeared over its body.

At the same time, its aura had also become roughly twice as powerful as before, and it set off toward the other side of the black river.

However, it wasn't able to get very far before a thick bolt of black lightning came crashing down upon it from the dark clouds above at an incredible speed.

The Dao Warrior's entire body instantly turned black, and all of the spiritual power fluctuations emanating from it vanished without a trace, following which it plunged down into the river below like a black rock.

The river instantly began churning violently as countless piercing, ghostly shrieks rang out.

Countless terrifying serpentine creatures sprang out of the black river to inundate the Dao Warrior, and it was instantly torn to several pieces before being devoured amid a string of extremely grotesque and disturbing sounds.

The serpentine creatures then turned to Han Li's trio with menacing expressions, as if they were threatening to devour the three of them as well, but ultimately, they quickly disappeared back into the depths, and the black river reverted back to its silent state.

"Looks like crossing this river isn't going to be easy," Jin Tong remarked with a concerned expression.

"The black lightning in those clouds seems to be able to corrode immortal spiritual power, so they'll pose a potent threat even to the three of us. Let's try and follow the riverbank for now and see what happens. By the way, where's the Yama Cauldron pointing right now, Weeping Soul?" Han Li asked.

"Ah, I completely forgot about that!" Weeping Soul exclaimed as she summoned the Yama Cauldron, and it was glowing far brighter than normal.

It seemed to be resonating with the ghostly qi in this place, but it wasn't pointing in any direction.

"It looks like the cauldron was only attracted to the aura of the underworld, but not anyplace in particular," Weeping Soul sighed.

"Judging from its reaction, it most likely arose from this place or has some other deeper connection to this place. In any case, it seems like we've come to the right place," Han Li said.

Given the Yama Cauldron's connection to this place, there was a very good chance that the Yama Manor was also here.

"In that case, let's do some exploring," Weeping Soul replied with a nod, and after a brief discussion, the three of them decided to set off in the upstream direction of the black river.

Right at this moment, Weeping Soul's expression suddenly changed slightly as she exclaimed, "There's a large horde of ghostly beings currently closing in on us!"

As soon as her voice trailed off, a burst of dull rumbling rang out on the horizon, and a vast horde of ghostly beings came storming into view, while a chorus of ghastly howls could be heard amid the thunderous rumbling.

With the inhospitable black river behind them, Han Li's trio had no choice but to stand and fight, and he swept a sleeve through the air to summon thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, all of which were flashing with thick arcs of golden lightning.