On a flat cliff on Stormwind Mountain stood a huge silver ape that was over forty meters tall. It was beating its chest while carrying Han Li, Mei Ning, and Violet Spirit on its back.

Han Li gravely stared at the sky in silence while the two women’s faces were pale, faintly revealing a trace of panic.

There were over a thousand umbra beasts circling above them. There were beasts that were over twenty meters in length along with those that were only a foot long, all with wings that sprouted out from between their ribs. But regardless of size, they all looked fierce and malevolent without exception. However, these flying umbra beasts seemed to fear the overbearing pressure of the transformed Weeping Soul Beast and didn’t dare to draw closer to them. They merely stayed in a deadlock by flying in circles above them.

Han Li felt somewhat uneasy. From the greed revealed inside the umbra beasts’ eyes, it was unclear how long their patience would hold before they started to attack.

At the moment, Han Li was cursing the plump old man who had given him the information regarding the mountain. Although he did say that there were flying umbra beasts, he didn’t say that they existed in such large quantities. It was unknown whether it had been deliberately concealed or if it truly wasn't known.

After passing through the area with the dense fog, they had originally believed that they could have a moment of respite. However, they didn’t expect for these flying beasts to immediately surround them. Helpless, Han Li could only release the Weeping Soul Beast and have it transform.

Han Li was completely confident in the Weeping Soul Beast’s abilities at restraining umbra beasts, but there were truly too many in the sky. Han Li was unsure if the Weeping Soul Beast could deal with so many of them. But having reached this point, Han Li couldn’t afford to think about it much more and could only do his utmost.

Having come to that conclusion, Han Li turned around and whispered something to the scared Mei Ning and Violet Spirit. Afterwards, he handed them a small piece of jade and a soft beast hide shield. He then shook his sleeves and over ten daggers fell onto the ground with a series of clangs.

Each of the daggers had a thin string of beast tendon tied around the hilt, connecting them to each of Han Li’s fingers. However, Han Li had yet to control ten of them at one time, making it an unprecedented display.

With his preparations completed, the umbra beasts above finally lost their patience and attacked.

The largest among them, a three headed umbra beast, suddenly let out a terrifying shriek and swooped down without any regard for the Weeping Soul Beast’s strength.

The battle had finally begun!

At the same moment the demon beasts attacked, the huge ape took a deep breath and shut its mouth before spewing a mist of silver light from its nose, enveloping most of the umbra beasts in the air. These umbra beasts immediately released a miserable shriek as they dropped from the sky.

However, two of the smaller umbra beasts managed to escape the mist’s capture and swept down towards the three humans.

One of the umbra beasts was then smashed away by the huge ape’s first and fell over a cliff. As for the other, it appeared to be a two meter long eagle and took advantage of this opening to swoop down right at Han Li’s head.

Han Li grimly remained in place, but his fingers made a series of swift and nimble movements. Ten daggers then shot into the air and turned into a net of glinting daggers in the umbra beast’s path.

A dismal scream left the umbra beast’s mouth.

Even without the infusion of magic power, the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords were incredibly sharp. In an instant, the small umbra beast was skewered without resistance. As bloody chunks of flesh filled the sky, Han Li quickly dodged in a blur, but some of them still landed on him. After a slight grimace, he paid it no more attention as there were far more pressing matters at hand: another wave of winged umbra beasts was flying towards them.

This wave had twice the number of the previous group of umbra beasts. Additionally, there were more umbra beasts approaching them from behind with an obvious eagerness to attack.

Han Li’s mind grew stern and he instantly waved his arms, forming a net of swords yet again. However, the net now covered a slightly wider range that also protected Mei Ning and Violet Spirit. 

Following the mists of silver light and the azure glints, wretched screams quickly filled the sky.

...

Seven days later, under the scorchingly bright noon sun, an expanse of glimmering sea was deathly calm. There wasn’t even the slightest wave or sea breeze as if the nearby sea was completely void of life.

Suddenly, a series of waves began to roil and suddenly released a cloud of black fog. The pitch-black fog rapidly permeated throughout the air and instantly spread over several hundred meters.

At that moment, thunder began to clap and silver light flashed from the black fog before a sphere of silver radiance appeared from within it. A faint, wide silhouette with a pair of silver wings could be seen within.

Before this figure could be clearly seen, the silver radiance wildly flashed several times before completely disappearing, leaving only echoes of thunder behind. A second later, a person could be seen at the edge of the black mist, but he intermittently disappeared and reappeared, filling the sky with flickers of light and rolls of thunder. It appeared as if they wished to escape from that desolate place as quickly as possible.

The sea then returned to silence. Only the rapidly expanding black fog remained, continuing to silently release bursts of black lightning.

About five hundred kilometers away from the black mist, the silver light faded away to reveal Han Li holding Violet Spirit in one arm and Mei Ning in the other. From how tightly they were holding onto him, it appeared quite intimate.

Han Li appeared somewhat better off than the other two. Despite his overwhelmed senses, he managed to keep a calm face. However, the two women in his embrace were slightly scarlet, revealing a heart-moving tenderness.

Han Li took a glance around and wore an expression of relief. He then relaxed his grasp on the two women in an honorable manner and said, “This should be enough. The ghost mist can’t reach us now.”

“I must truly give my thanks to Fellow Daoist Han. If it weren’t for your miraculous movement technique, it’s quite likely that we wouldn’t have been able to escape.”

“Elder Sister Violet Spirit speaks truly. If it weren't for Brother Han’s amazingly swift actions, we may have been sucked back into the Umbra Realm. We’ve troubled Brother Han greatly.”

As soon as Violet Spirit and Mei Ning left Han Li’s embrace, their bodies began to shine with light as they floated at Han Li’s side.

Several days before, the three had encountered many dangers, but managed to climb up to Stormwind Mountain’s summit by relying on the Weeping Soul Beast’s strength. During the time they waited for the spacial tear to open, the two women found each other’s company extremely agreeable, and not long after, they became sworn sisters, much to Han Li’s surprise.

Several days after reaching the summit, a hundred-meter-wide spacial tear appeared about a kilometer above Stormwind Mountain. Massive amounts of Heaven-Earth spiritual Qi began to flow in from the outside, restoring the trio’s magic power in an instant and allowing them to fly into the air with joy.

However, Han Li truly didn’t expect that in the instant he left the tear that an immense suction force would pull at him from behind. He hadn’t been able to move in the slightest and was slowly being dragged back in.

Fortunately, Han Li quickly came to his senses and immediately unfolded the Thunderstorm Wings as he flickered several times to grab onto the two women, before launching himself out of the black mist. As a result, the two gave him their heartfelt thanks.

When Violet Spirit recovered her bearings, she casually swept her gaze over the ocean and frowned, “Where is this place? How can it be so odd? It’s completely calm!”

Mei Ning’s face appeared puzzled after taking a glance down, “What? It is truly as Elder Sister Violet Spirit says. This is quite amiss, there isn’t the slightest breeze and the seas are completely still.”

Han Li remained silent as he narrowed his eyes and released his spiritual sense. He began to sweep the depths of the nearby seas, and after a short moment, Han Li revealed an expression of shock.

Violet Spirit had also swept her spiritual sense deep into the seas and after a moment, her beautiful eyes were filled with shock, “Could it be Brother Han has discovered something? There are so few fish in the sea and they all seem to be extremely fierce sea beasts. However, none of them appear to be demon beasts.”

“Please wait a moment!” Han Li then took a deep breath and flicked his finger, shooting a ten meter streak of azure swordlight deep into the waters below.

A short moment later, a grotesque sea beast corpse floated to the water’s surface, much to the shock of the two women.