There were a few dangerous places in the north region called Life-Restricted Areas, which were incredibly dangerous. Even if such extremely powerful elite cultivators like Spiritual Infant Tier cultivators entered them, they would be in danger of dying, just like in the Dark Devil Forest. Demonic Qi bubbled furiously in the core area, and it was possible for anyone to be affected and become a zombie that lost all sense of will.
The Eaglewood Valley was one such Life-Restricted Area, but was not as well-known as the Dark Devil Forest, because this valley was filled completely with rocks, and no one had ever heard of Spiritual Herbs growing here, which naturally meant that it had no attraction to cultivators at all.
… Cultivators were naturally willing to risk their lives only because there was something they could get out of it; wasn't risking their lives without any kind of benefits something only an idiot would do?
Ling Han's group stopped outside this valley. From the outside, they could vaguely see random rocks protruding skywards inside the valley, just as if it was covered with spikes. Thick and dense purple fog soared endlessly, forming different scenes which produced the effect of visual obstruction. Even when Ling Han activated the Eye of Truth, he was not able to see too far inside.
"The Dark Devil Forest had Chaos Source Rocks, then what does this place have?" Ling Han mumbled, and turning to Zhu Xuan Er, he asked, "Why did your master come here?"
Zhu Xuan Er pondered for a moment, and replied, "Master loves to travel the world and investigate all kinds of dangerous areas. She said that the formation of every danger zone was not something simple, and there could possibly be extraordinary treasures hidden within."
Ling Han could not help but laugh. "I've never thought that your master is actually a money grubber!"
Zhu Xuan Er rolled her eyes at him in annoyance, but the gesture was still very beautiful, and caused Ling Han's heart to throb madly. She continued, "Master said that the fog here could take various forms and there are some that fit some kind of natural Dao, so there is possibly some universally shocking secret treasure hidden within!"
Ling Han shook his head, and said, "So your master ventured in, and the result was she suffered a calamity!"
"More or less." Zhu Xuan Er sighed softly. To heal her master's Dao injury, she had really been driven haggard by how busy she had been the last few years. Because she had lost her master's protection, there was a considerable number of people in the sect that revealed their desires to take possession of her by force, and she was almost driven to a breakdown by dealing with them.
"Then I would really have to take a look." Ling Han pulled out Gold-seeking Rat, and said, "Fatty, go in and see if there's anything valuable!"
The Gold-seeking Rat hurriedly scrambled back up to his shoulder, and squeaked madly. It was trying to signal that this place, just from the looks of it, looked incredibly dangerous, and it was almost scared to death, so what else was it supposed to see!
Ling Han shook his head, and said, "Hey, when it's time for food, you're always afraid to be the last and fight to get the first bite, but when I need you to do something, you have all kinds of excuses. I've really raised you for nothing!"
The Gold-seeking Rat rolled its eyes. It was a Gold-seeking Rat, not a Treasure-seeking Rat, and was definitely no Battle Rat. There was no way it was going to a dangerous place like that.
"Then we can only go!" Ling Han drew Zhu Xuan Er into the Black Tower. At the time, her master had similarly been in the Spiritual Infant Tier, yet still suffered a Dao injury, so she obviously would not be able to withstand it, either.
The group of three—Ling Han, Hu Niu and Rabbit—walked together into the valley. None of them dared to be careless, and they prepared to duck into the Black Tower at any moment.
"Yi, there's a kind of implicit charm that makes Lord Rabbit feel light and airy as if I were about to fly here!" Rabbit suddenly exclaimed.
Ling Han sensed for a while. Although this purple fog did not contain Spiritual Qi, there really seemed to be some kind of substance that the world outside did not possess in it. He could not identify what it was, but merely felt that this thing seemed to possess a high level.
Just like Level Ten precious metal completely dominated over Level One material, it possessed a natural advantage.
"It's no wonder that Xuan Er's master would come here." Ling Han nodded. There was no cultivation technique above Seventh Tier in the north region. Thus, if Zhu Xuan Er's master wanted to break through to the Deity Transformation Tier, she could only think of some other way.
The purple fog affected visibility and blocked divine sense, causing the group of three to be only capable of seeing about six meters ahead. Their divine sense's range was also the same. If they met with any kind of ambush at this time, they would definitely be caught unawares.
Hong!
They had just been thinking about ambush, and they really did meet with an ambush as a pile of purple fog took the form of a leopard that rapidly pounced towards them. It was astonishingly fast, and was definitely not inferior to the Heaven Tier.
Ling Han gave a humph and formed his hands into seals, clapping down in the direction of the purple leopard.
Earth Overturning Seal!
Both his hands were covered with patterns that exuded golden light, just like the light of the universe, and actually managed to disperse a bit of the purple fog.
… Although he had restored the Earth Overturning Seal's single-handed version, he had not drawn his sword now, so, naturally, it was stronger to use it with two hands.
The purple leopard was unafraid, opening its large mouth to bite him.
It was obviously formed by fog, yet they seemed to be able to see its eerie white fangs and blood-red tongue, which made it look very twisted.
Peng!
The Earth Overturning Seal clapped down on the purple leopard's body. Golden light shot out in all directions, and it instantly exploded from the impact, turning back into purple fog that vanished in the valley.
Although the opponent could not even last a single strike, Ling Han's expression was a little serious as he said, "It had the battle prowess of a single Star of the Deity Transformation Tier. Furthermore… it seems capable of using a sliver of power of regulation!" He raised his hand, and they could see there was actually a wound on his palm, though it was very shallow.
Its battle prowess of merely a single Star of the Deity Transformation Tier was actually capable of tearing his physical defenses. Even if it was just a bit, it was shocking enough.
His current physique was something that could match Level Nine precious metal in toughness. Even if an ordinary Heaven Tier cultivator threw furious blows in his direction, it would be very difficult to injure him unless a considerable number of Heaven Tier cultivators joined forces and refined him like they would Level Nine precious metal—only then would it be possible that he would be refined successfully.
Yet now, he was actually injured by a Demonic Beast formed out of fog!
This was really hard to believe.
"No wonder Xuan Er's master suffered a Dao injury. This place is really not simple, and is not inferior to the Dark Devil Forest in any way!" Ling Han said seriously.
"Then we had better retreat. There's meat to eat outside and carrots to chew, so why must we come here to seek our own discomfort?" Although Rabbit felt a strong curiosity as well, it obviously had a greater fear of death.
Ling Han laughed, and said, "We don't have to do that yet. I have Teleportation Talismans, and even if we were trapped, we could still escape. Our schemes are grand, and these Mystery Realms and danger zones could all possibly be unstable factors, so we have to check them one by one. At the very least, we have to know what dangers lie within!"
For example, the old mine area in the Fire Country. There was no less than about a hundred living dead of the Shattering Void Tier in there, and in the event they came out, they would have a tremendous influence on their attempt to split open the skies.
Since the Purple Moon Empire could snatch away Time Liquid to pass a few millennia, while the living dead in the old mine area died to live and dug their own graves to become entities of the Netherworld, could there be even more such cases in this realm?
They continued onward. The purple fog deepened, and transformed into Demonic Beasts multiple times to attack them. Moreover, it was an ambush every time. In this space where visibility was poor and divine sense was blocked, this was really a headache.
Thankfully, the Demonic Beasts formed by this purple fog all had Deity Transformation Tier battle prowess, and were easily destroyed by Ling Han. However, they still left behind many injuries on Ling Han's hands. With a sliver of power of regulation like theirs, even Body of Diamond would find it very difficult to recover. He would have to enter into the Black Tower and drive out that strange energy using the power of the Black Tower first.
Not much later, a river appeared ahead of them, but the substance rushing in the river channel was not water, but lightning!
It was a burning white river of lightning.