Chapter 366: Premature Onset

After a moment, Han Li waved his hand to dispel the restrictions around him, then shot out impatiently, speeding toward his cave dwelling.

"Hmm..."

Midway through his flight, he suddenly shook his head, feeling an inexplicable heaviness in his mind.

"What's going on? Haven't I fully recovered yet?"

He muttered to himself, intending to close his eyes and examine his internal state, but the moment he activated the Spirit Refining Art, the vast divine sense in his mind began to churn violently without warning, surging wildly.

At that instant, he felt as if countless knives were madly stirring within his mind, causing excruciating pain.

The pain struck so suddenly and was so intense that even Han Li, with his strong will, couldn't help but let out a pained cry.

He clutched his head with both hands, his face instantly turning deathly pale.

Then, his flying body abruptly halted, and like a stone, he plummeted from midair, falling straight into the sea.

The icy seawater submerged Han Li's body, but he felt nothing. The pain in his mind grew stronger, gradually overwhelming his consciousness, and his awareness became blurred.

Unconsciously, a faint blood-red light began to glow in his eyes.

...

In a daze, Han Li instinctively tried to open his eyes, but everything before him seemed hazy and indistinct. From all directions, shouts and roars came intermittently, sometimes near, sometimes far.

These chaotic sounds, once they reached his ears, seemed to penetrate deep into his mind, causing the blood in his body to boil. It felt as if a long-suppressed rage was building in his chest, making it almost impossible to breathe. Only by releasing it could he quell this unfamiliar sense of irritability.

His hands began to flail wildly, sometimes punching out, sometimes chopping sideways, as if only this could calm the turmoil within.

He wanted to roar, but he couldn't hear any sound. All he heard was the growing noise around him, which intensified with his wild movements. Yet the rage in his heart seemed to find an outlet, gradually dissipating with each punch and kick.

Han Li seemed to have found a way to make himself feel better. At that moment, his mind was a blank.

After an unknown period, as the surrounding noise grew louder, the anger in his heart slowly subsided. Gradually, a thick, bloody smell filled his nostrils.

Just then, the previously hazy scene before him began to clear, as if the clouds had parted to reveal the sun. But the first thing that met his eyes was a sea of red.

In every direction, as far as the eye could see, everything was blood-red.

It was as if he had fallen into an endless ocean of blood.

Besides that, all around him were shattered bones and mangled, bloody corpses of various sizes, faintly visible in the still somewhat hazy red haze. The air was thick with an overwhelming aura of blood and slaughter.

Just then, with a sharp pain in his mind, the blood-red before him gradually faded, and the surroundings suddenly became clear.

Han Li shook his head vigorously, as if his sluggish consciousness was slowly recovering, and his mind regained clarity.

At that moment, he felt completely weak, with sharp pains all over his body, as if he had just endured a fierce battle.

But when he looked up and scanned his surroundings, he was startled to find himself standing on a sea island, facing the surging ocean.

Han Li was momentarily stunned. His memories seemed chaotic; he only recalled leaving the island where he had refined the Dao Pill, and then everything went blank. He had no memory of how he ended up here.

After taking a deep breath, he slowly closed his eyes, trying to recall what had happened. But the moment he had that thought, a sharp pain shot through his mind again.

He quickly stopped thinking and gently shook his head, which made him feel a bit better.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, he turned to look behind him.

The island he stood on was quite large, spanning about a hundred miles, but it was now riddled with holes and shattered.

In the center of the island, what should have been a large mountain range was now split in two, with a huge lake that nearly cut through the entire island, into which seawater was pouring.

Other peaks in the range were either blasted to pieces or broken in half. Some places were still emitting smoke and dust, and the island's trees and vegetation were almost completely destroyed.

The entire island was barely recognizable.

A look of shock flashed in Han Li's eyes.

By now, the pain in his mind had subsided considerably. With a thought, his vast divine sense spread out normally, extending in all directions.

But as he scanned, he was shocked again.

Not only the island, but the seabed was also riddled with holes.

The originally fairly flat seabed was now gouged in many places, with huge pits blasted into it.

In some areas, even the earth's crust had been cracked open, revealing massive fissures from which magma had once flowed, though it had now solidified.

This was not limited to the immediate area; within the range of Han Li's divine sense, it seemed as if a fierce battle had taken place.

Several islands within ten thousand miles had also been completely destroyed, some collapsing directly into the sea, others left as tattered as a rag, just like the island behind him.

In some parts of the seabed and among the ruins of these islands, there were many demon beast corpses.

Judging from the corpses, these demon beasts were quite powerful, with many at the Combined Movement stage or even the Great Vehicle stage.

The deaths of these demon beasts were extremely gruesome. A Great Vehicle stage flood dragon, a hundred zhang long, had been torn into seven or eight pieces, dyeing a large area of the sea red with blood. The dragon's face was twisted in terror, its pupils filled with fear.

"This..." Han Li was dumbfounded.

Just then, a bolt of golden lightning descended from the sky, landing not far in front of him. It converged to reveal a middle-aged man in a yellow robe, who was none other than Crab Immortal.

"Fellow Daoist Crab, do you know what happened here? What just occurred?" Han Li's heart stirred, and he asked.

"Fellow Daoist Han, do you really not remember at all? Everything you see was caused by your own hands," Crab Immortal said after silently watching Han Li for a long while.

"I..." Han Li was taken aback, a sense of foreboding rising in his heart.

"While you were flying, you suddenly went berserk, sometimes diving into the sea, sometimes emerging, madly destroying everything in sight. It was as if you were possessed by some inner demon, losing your mind. No matter how I called out, you showed no response," Crab Immortal said slowly.

"I... went berserk... How long did it last?" Han Li was stunned, then asked further.

"From the moment your eyes turned blood-red and you fell into the sea, until you suddenly regained consciousness, it lasted about the time it takes to burn an incense stick," Crab Immortal said after a moment's thought.

Han Li's expression shifted between uncertainty and gloom, and he fell silent for a time.

With Crab Immortal's reminder, his mind gradually cleared, and he recalled what had happened before he lost his memory.

During his flight, his mind suddenly ached violently, and then he quickly lost consciousness. After that, he remembered nothing, only that his heart was filled with a desire to kill.

"How could this be? Why did it happen... Could I have been ambushed?" Han Li muttered, his eyes gradually brightening as he looked up.

"It's the Spirit Refining Art..."

Given his current cultivation level, even a Golden Immortal couldn't have ambushed him so subtly.

Recalling the situation earlier, it must have been the Spirit Refining Art.

Han Li's expression darkened. After some hesitation, he slowly activated the Spirit Refining Art.

Immediately, a sharp pain shot through his mind, and he couldn't help but grunt. He quickly stopped, and the pain slowly subsided.

A glint of light flashed in Han Li's eyes, and he suddenly understood.

Clearly, all of this was caused by the Spirit Refining Art.

Thinking this, his face darkened.

According to what the immortal He Kang had said back then, cultivating the third layer of the Spirit Refining Art would ensure his divine sense was safe for thirty to forty thousand years. He had long since cultivated the third layer, but only about ten thousand years had passed. Why had the crisis with his divine sense come so soon?

Had He Kang lied back then? Or was there some other reason that had caused the divine sense crisis to come early?

Han Li slowly exhaled, his expression returning to calm.

Regardless of the reason, now that the problem had arisen, the most important thing was to think of a countermeasure. If not resolved, he would likely end up as the kind of mindless killing monster that He Kang had described.

What happened today might only be the beginning. Fortunately, this place was remote, and his rampage had been brief, attracting no attention. Otherwise, the trouble would have been immense.

Although it had subsided for now, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't suddenly go berserk again. During those unconscious moments, his situation was clearly very dangerous. Moreover, based on the preliminary information, the intervals between these episodes and their duration would likely lengthen, and eventually, he might never wake up.

His eyes flickered. According to what He Kang had said, to solve the problem caused by the Spirit Refining Art, he would have to cultivate the fourth layer.

Back when Han Li was at the Candle Dragon Sect, he had secretly investigated the Spirit Refining Art in the Immortal Realm. But at that time, he thought the divine sense crisis wouldn't occur for at least twenty to thirty thousand years, and he had many other things to do, so he only did a cursory search and didn't put much effort into it.

Based on what he had learned so far, records of the Spirit Refining Art were scarce in the Northern Cold Immortal Domain. Incidents caused by the Spirit Refining Art had not been heard of for a long time, so the cultivation method of the Spirit Refining Art was known to very few.

Although the Candle Dragon Sect's Transmission Hall had the Spirit Refining Art, it was listed as a forbidden text. Except for the sect master, no one was allowed to read it, and it only contained the first three layers of the incomplete manual. Naturally, he hadn't paid much attention to it.

Han Li frowned, his expression heavy.

Even a major sect like the Candle Dragon Sect didn't have the latter part of the Spirit Refining Art. Now that he was in the Black Wind Sea Region, where could he find this secret technique?