Chapter 2277: Bat Swarm
There were three green suns up in the sky, one of which was larger than the other two.
The largest of the three suns was at the direct center of the sky, while the two smaller suns were situated to the east and to the west, and they were far inferior to the central both in size and radiance.
However, what caught Han Li"s attention and made him quite wary were the b.a.l.l.s of crimson light around the three green suns.
The b.a.l.l.s of light were hovering around the green suns in a still manner, striking one with a sense of captivation when looked at from afar.
After staring at these b.a.l.l.s of red light for a long while, Han Li suddenly caught a whiff of a honey-like scent.
His brows furrowed slightly as he swept a sleeve through the air without any warning, and a streak of azure light that was over 100 feet in length shot forth before quickly vanis.h.i.+ng into the dense forest.
In the next instant, an earth-shattering roar rang out, and the ground tremored violently before everything fell silent again.
Han Li stood on the spot and cast his gaze toward the direction that the roar had come from.
Moments later, the streak of azure light re-emerged from the forest before returning up his sleeve.
Only then did Han Li fly toward that direction.
A distance of several tens of kilometers was covered by Han Li in a flash, and he caught sight of a gargantuan creature that was several thousand feet in length lying amid a cl.u.s.ter of felled trees.
The giant creature resembled a beast-insect hybrid, and even though its body had been sliced into several segments, one could still make out cicada wings and feelers typically found on demonic insects, as well as fur and sharp claws that were only found on beasts.
From a distance, the creature appeared to be a mix between a giant hornet and a rhinoceros.
The same honey-like aroma was being released by its ma.s.sive body, and at such close quarters, the scent was even more p.r.o.nounced.
Han Li swept his gaze through the surrounding area to find that all of the plants nearby were wilting at a rapid rate discernible to the naked eye, and they quickly turned completely withered and yellow.
Around the carca.s.s of the ma.s.sive beast was a series of black watermelon-sized insects that resembled praying mantises, and they were clearly long dead.
"This thing"s poison sure is quite potent; the average person could be killed just by catching a whiff of it from hundreds of kilometers away," Han Li murmured to himself.
He was unable to determine exactly what this beast was, so it was most likely unique to the Small Asura Realm.
With that in mind, Han Li flicked a finger through the air, releasing a silver fire bead that landed on the ma.s.sive carca.s.s in a flash.
Scorching silver flames instantly erupted forth to engulf and incinerate the carca.s.s into nothingness.
After that, Han Li flipped a hand over in an unhurried manner to produce a white egg-sized crystal ball, but his brows immediately furrowed slightly as he cast his gaze toward the crystal ball.
Nothing was registering on its surface, so it was clear that it was unable to sense Mo Jianli as he was too far away.
In that case, there was no need for them to be in a hurry to meet up; they could search for their own opportunities in this foreign realm instead.
After all, a span of half a month was not a very long time.
Having made his decision, Han Li decided on a certain direction before flying away as a streak of azure light.
However, he wasn"t flying very quickly, and he was only at an alt.i.tude of several thousand feet.
He had come to the Small Asura Realm to find treasures, so he didn"t want to miss anything.
During his flight, he released his enormous spiritual sense to encompa.s.s an area with a radius of around 2,000 kilometers down below.
With his enormous spiritual sense, he would be able to easily increase his sensory scope to a radius of close to 100,00 kilometers, but he was trying to focus on minute details and even direct his spiritual sense several thousand feet into the ground, so he could only drastically decrease his sensory range.
After all, most powerful spiders liked to live deep underground.
Even so, it was still a testament to Han Li"s incredibly powerful spiritual sense that he was able to cover such a large area while paying such close attention to detail.
If Mo Jianli or Xue Ran were in his place, they would struggle to even achieve half of his sensory range.
This was why he was so confident about this trip even though he didn"t have any bloodline sensory abilities that could help him seek out Asura Spiders.
As for Mo Jianli, he also seemed to be quite confident, so he most likely had some type of special method to find Asura Spiders as well.
Thus, Han Li gradually flew away into the distance.
Elsewhere, Mo Jianli was in the process of making a grabbing motion to return a translucent jade sword into his own grasp.
There was a pile of rubble just over 1,000 feet ahead of him, atop which sat the dismembered bodies of several creatures with tiger bodies and scorpion stingers.
Mo Jianli took an indifferent glance at these carca.s.ses before stowing his jade sword away, then opened his mouth to expel a ball of purple light.
Within the ball of light was a small purple flag that was several inches tall.
Mo Jianli pointed a finger toward the small flag, then uttered the word "rise".
The small flag immediately began to expand at a rapid rate, surging to around 10 feet tall in the blink of an eye.
In its miniature form, the flag didn"t appear to be all that remarkable, but at this size, it was revealed to be a purple flag with a golden shaft, and on the surface of the flag were countless runes, as well as the image of a two-headed silver spider at its very center.
Mo Jianli began to chant something while flicking a series of incantation seals through the air, all of which vanished into the flag in a flash, and the silver spider image on the flag gradually became clearer and clearer.
A smile appeared on Mo Jianli"s face upon seeing this.
Even though he didn"t possess a bloodline that was related to the Asura Spider, this Coiling Silk Flag that he had obtained by chance had the soul of a Silver Astral Spider as its artifact spirit, which meant that it could detect powerful spiders within a certain range.
The effect was still inferior to Xue Ran and Hei Lin"s bloodline detection, but it shouldn"t be inferior by much.
Having said that, if Asura Spiders really were as fearsome as the rumors suggested, it would most likely be very difficult for him to kill one even if he could track one down.
Mo Jianli continued to cast incantation seals as these thoughts ran through his mind, and all of a sudden, the silver spider image on the flag abruptly disintegrated into specks of spiritual light.
"Looks like there"s nothing here; I"ll have to search elsewhere," Mo Jianli murmured to himself, but he wasn"t disappointed by this.
He had only just been teleported into the Small Asura Realm, and he wasn"t expecting to track down an Asura Spider so quickly anyway.
Thus, Mo Jianli swept a sleeve toward the flag, and it quickly reverted back to its original size before being swallowed by Mo Jianli.
Immediately thereafter, he rose up into the air and flew away as a streak of light.
......
"Looks like we"re in luck; we"ve only just been teleported into this realm, and our bloodlines have already sensed something; we should be in for a fruitful trip," Hei Lin said with an excited expression as he flew over 1,000 feet beneath the ground.
In contrast, Xue Ran wore a calm expression, and replied, "Don"t celebrate too early; our bloodlines are reacting to something, but it could be another type of spider. I"ve heard that there were many species of spiders in the Asura Realm."
"I"m naturally aware of that, but there"s still a chance, isn"t there?" Hei Lin refused to have his enthusiasm dashed.
Xue Ran merely smiled and remained silent.
Moments later, the two of them emerged from the soil and arrived in an inky-black cave.
A short while after that, the two hovered side by side several feet above the ground with a pool of black blood beneath them.
Lying within the pool of blood were four green spiders with sharp spikes all over their bodies.
"You were right; they weren"t Asura Spiders after all," Hei Lin said with a wry smile.
"That"s no surprise; the Small Asura Realm isn"t a huge place, but the chances of finding Asura Spiders as soon as we enter the realm are still quite low. We can obtain a few decent materials here, so our effort wasn"t a complete waste," Xue Ran replied in a calm voice as he made a grabbing motion with one hand.
Two yellow stones immediately flew out of the soil before landing in his grasp.
"At least we ended up with something. We don"t have a lot of time, so let"s get out of here," Hei Lin said.
Xue Ran naturally had no reason to object, and thus, they flew up into the soil overhead as a pair of streaks of light.
......
Han Li hovered expressionlessly above a small mountain, facing a colony of crimson bats.
Each bat was around the size of a human head, and their wingspans stretched to about seven to eight feet.
At the center of this colony of bats was a giant bat that was several times larger than all of its brethren.
Not only did this giant bat have faint golden patterns all over its body, there was a third crimson demonic eye on its forehead.
The bat was currently staring at Han Li with a hint of bewilderment in its three eyes.
Han Li merely hovered in mid-air with his hands clasped behind his back, paying the colony of bats no heed at all as he quickly scanned through the surrounding area with his spiritual sense.
As time pa.s.sed, the bewilderment on the giant bat"s face gradually gave way to bloodthirst.
A short while later, it was finally unable to hold back any longer, and it opened its mouth to release a burst of ultrasonic soundwaves.
All of the surrounding crimson bats were immediately stirred up into a frenzy, and they also opened their mouths to release ultrasonic soundwaves, which converged to form a ma.s.sive invisible wave that surged directly toward Han Li.