Liu Shui'er's expression eased slightly upon hearing his response, and her voice also softened slightly as she said, "Seeing as you've come around as well, we need to work together to pass through this Dark Beast Forest. I'm sure we'll be able to succeed in that endeavor with our combined powers."

"Hehe, I certainly hope so," Shi Kun chuckled in response.

Thus, after a brief discussion, the three of them continued flying toward a certain direction along the seashore.

In the blink of an eye, they'd disappeared into the distance, but not long after they'd left, two streaks of light, one yellow and one red, appeared on the seashore in a flash.

The lights receded to reveal two foreign beings in different attire, and both of them had rather strange appearances.

One was short and portly, wearing an oversized suit of black armor that almost encompassed his entire head.

His companion was tall and thin, giving off the appearance of a dried corpse, but he was also wearing an oversized set of robes, making it appear as if both of them had suffered bizarre wardrobe malfunctions.

These two were among the few Heavenly Cloud beings that had remained at the spot where they'd first entered the realm following the departure of Han Li's trio.

Both of them were quite disheveled and wore extremely dark expressions on their faces.

The short and portly was drenched in sweat, and there was still a hint of lingering fear in his eyes as he said, "What terrible luck! I can't believe we encountered two ancient beasts at once. If it weren't for the fact that they were too busy battling one another to pay any heed to us, there's no way we would've survived that ordeal. Even so, we still had to detonate several treasures just to get away."

The short and portly being was clearly feeling very dejected that he'd had to waste his treasures under such unfortunate circumstances.

"Hmph, we're already immensely lucky to have been able to escape alive from those two ancient beasts. However, this region of the sea really is quite strange. Not only did we get trapped in that strange mist for over 10 days, we encountered those two ancient beasts right after we escaped out of the mist," the tall and thin being said in a grim voice.

"Thank heavens we finally made it out of the sea. This set of mountain ranges up ahead should be safer, right?" The short and portly being cast his gaze toward the mountain ranges up ahead with an indecisive look on his face.

"Our position disk was completely ineffective in the sea; let's see if it can locate us now that we're on land," the short and thin being suggested after a brief pause.

"Alright, I'll check right away." The short and portly being nodded before opening his mouth to expel a smooth jade disk.

The object rotated in mid-air before expanding to around 10 feet in size. At the same time, white light was shimmering all over its surface, and something seemed to be emerging from it.

The short and portly being suddenly expelled a ball of blood essence, which transformed into a cloud of blood mist.

He then made a series of quick hand seals before pointing a finger at the blood mist, and it vanished into the jade disk.

Bright crimson light began to emanate from the disk, and some features seemed to have appeared on its surface.

The two beings immediately began to appraise the disk with rapt focus.

However, their expressions only darkened even further a few moments later.

"What's going on? The disk still isn't able to ascertain our rough location," the tall and thin being murmured.

"Either we're in a special area where the positioning disk can't function or the two ancient beasts nearby have stirred up the world's origin Qi here, thereby impacting the positioning disk. This disk is quite useful, but it still can't compare with those few legendary treasures," the short and portly being said after a moment of contemplation.

"Hmph, if I'd known it was this useless, I wouldn't have paid such a high price to purchase it during that auction. We spent most of the spirit stones we'd saved up on this thing!" The tall and thin being was clearly rather agitated.

"This thing fails to work from time to time, but without it, there would be no way for us to ascertain our location in this realm. Everyone else paid the same price to purchase it as well, didn't they? Only Crystal beings know how to refine this thing, and every time the Vast Glacial Realm opens, they profit greatly from this invention. I've heard that Crystal beings can also refine better positioning treasures, but I'm not sure if that's true." The short and portly being was also rather dejected.

"So be it, there's no use complaining now. Seeing as this thing can't tell us our current location, let's just get out of here first," the thin and tall being suggested after scanning his spiritual sense carefully through the mountain ranges up ahead.

"I guess we have no choice." His companion nodded after a brief hesitation. Thus, the two of them rose up into the air, quickly flying into the distance. Moments later, they vanished into the mountain ranges, and no one ever heard from or saw them again.

...

In the air above a forest, three Heavenly Cloud beings had combined into one streak of three-colored spiritual light while hurtling through the air.

Behind them were a dozen or so beasts with lion bodies and elk heads giving chase in hot pursuit.

Even further away, several strange humanoid beings with long white fur growing all over their bodies were flying less than 100 feet in the air above a certain glacier.

The sharp blade-like snowflakes and the icy winds that could instantly freeze a normal being solid didn't affect these humanoid beings in the slightest, and they quickly vanished into the distance.

...

Deep within a lush forest, two green-robed men with skin that resembled dried yellow tree bark were waving a small red flag each toward a giant tree that was over 100 feet tall up ahead.

The giant tree was remarkably green, but there was a sinister ghoul-like face right at the center of its trunk.

At this moment, the entire tree was enshrouded in scorching flames, and the sinister face let loose shrill shrieks while blasting forth bursts of green liquid to resist the flames.

A dozen or so extremely thick tree roots were also flailing violently from the soil around the base of the tree, slamming into the ground with devastating force, leaving trenches that were several feet deep in their wake.

If these were normal flames, then perhaps these tree roots really would've been enough to douse them. However, these flames were seemingly inextinguishable, and they clung firmly to the tree roots like projections.

Moments later, the amount of green liquid being expelled by the massive tree was starting to dwindle, and it no longer had the power to resist the surrounding flames. Its shrill cries came to an abrupt halt, and it was incinerated into a pile of ashes.

The two green-robed men withdrew their flags upon seeing this, then flew over to the pile of ashes before leaning down and pulling out a green crystal each.

The two men glanced at one another upon seeing this, and both of them could see their own elation mirrored in each other's eyes.

...

In a certain secluded corner of the Vast Glacial Realm, there were a dozen or so male and female horned beings huddled together above a boundless desert. All of them were listening to something that was being said by a young man with three short golden horns growing on his head, and from the stunned expressions on their faces, it seemed that they'd heard something extremely incredible.

However, as the young man swept his gaze across his companions, all of them lowered their heads in a display of awe and veneration.

"All of you are clear about our true objective here, right? In order to ensure our success, our elders have used a Profound Heavenly Treasure to refine five extraordinary treasures for us, and even made use of several spies we'd planted in the Heavenly Cloud Races to draw the attention of their higher-ups. I'm sure all of you are aware of what awaits us when we get back if we can accomplish this, so I won't speak any further about that," the golden-horned young man said in a calm voice.

All of the other horned beings were quite excited to hear this, and they replied in unison, "Rest assured, all of us will do everything in our power to achieve this objective."

"Very good. I've been cultivating in the sacred mountain all along, so I haven't known all of you for very long. However, the future prosperity of our race hinges on this, so I'm sure all of you will be giving it your all. We have more than 10 teams that entered the Vast Glacial Realm this time, but only the five teams that possess one of the five treasures have been assigned this task. All of the other teams are only responsible for assisting us and providing decoys so the other races don't see through what we're doing. For now, let's set off as we'd originally planned," the golden-horned man instructed with a pleased nod.

Thus, the group of Jiao Chi beings followed him deeper into the desert.

...

In the air above a lake, there were two foreign mermaid-like beings standing next to one another.

Before them was a monstrous whale that was over 100 feet in length. There were nine golden eyes on its forehead, and it was appraising the two beings with an extremely astonishing aura emanating from its body.

Among the two foreign beings, the man had a pair of silver eyes, while the woman had a pair of golden eyes that were rather similar to those of the monstrous whale.

The whale was in the process of letting loose a low roar as it appraised the two beings at the same time with its nine eyes, putting on quite an antagonistic display.

Both of the foreign beings wore grim expressions upon seeing this, and after a brief conversation, the woman's golden eyes flashed, and she suddenly let loose a sound that was quite similar to the whale's roar.

The monstrous whale blinked all nine of its eyes in unison, and it seemed to have become rather hesitant upon hearing this sound.

The woman's expression eased upon seeing this, but she didn't stop what she was doing, even for a single instant. Instead, her roar was only growing louder than before.

All of a sudden, the monstrous whale's roar cut off, and golden light flashed in its eyes before its massive body swayed, following which it flew a few laps around the two beings. After returning to its original spot, it let loose another low roar, and on this occasion, and elated look appeared on the woman face upon hearing this. She immediately flew into the air above the monstrous whale, then slowly settled onto its back.

This seemingly extremely powerful whale reacted in quite a benevolent manner, allowing the woman to ride atop its back before flying away as a streak of blue light at her behest.

The woman's male companion naturally followed along closely behind them.