Approximately a quarter of an hour later.

Han Li landed on a protruding mountain cliff platform. With a wave of his sleeve, he swept away dozens of scattered skeletons. Large patches of eerie green phosphorescence immediately danced in the air, slowly drifting down towards the abyss below.

This place was nearly a thousand feet away from the entrance.

He glanced around, then waved his hand. Three beams of light, two gold and one white, flashed simultaneously. Crab Daoren, Jin Tong, and Baiyu Pixiu appeared on the mountain cliff.

"Uncle, where is this..." Jin Tong asked immediately, feeling uncomfortable as soon as he appeared.

"Such heavy baleful aura..." Crab Daoren frowned and said.

"We are already in the abyss. You should be able to adapt to the level of baleful aura here. Going further down will cause you to be tainted by it. So you will stay here for now, and I will go deeper down to cultivate," Han Li said, glancing around.

"Uncle, you can cultivate down below with peace of mind. We'll take care of things up here," Jin Tong said, nodding forcefully.

"Crab Daoren, to be safe, please help me set up a formation," Han Li said to Crab Daoren, stroking Jin Tong's head.

"Alright," Crab Daoren nodded.

"Master, this place feels eerie. Will there be any problems?" Xiaobai asked with some worry.

"The baleful aura in the abyss is so strong that you can't bear it, and the same goes for other savage beasts. Moreover, I have already explored with my divine sense and haven't found any signs of living creatures. I don't expect there to be any major problems," Han Li said after a moment of thought.

Xiaobai heard this and nodded silently, no longer speaking.

"Jin Tong, although that person warned us, you still need to pay attention to the movements of that Gold-Eating Immortal after I go into seclusion. If it makes any unusual movements, tell me immediately," Han Li said, looking at Jin Tong.

"Uncle, don't worry," Jin Tong said, shuddering slightly at the mention of "Gold-Eating Immortal," but still nodding.

Han Li nodded, flipped his hand, and took out a formation plate. After explaining to Crab Daoren, the two of them soared up and flew back and forth on the mountain walls on both sides of the abyss, beginning to set up the formation.

"I used to follow Qu Ling, that old demon woman, and there were times of life and death battles, but most of the time, we were chasing and killing others. I've rarely been chased so miserably. But since returning to Uncle's side, I've had no shortage of worries," Jin Tong said slowly, watching Han Li's back.

"Boss, do you regret it?" Xiaobai asked tentatively.

Jin Tong slapped it on the head and said with a smile, "Following Uncle is so exciting every day, how could I regret it! Besides, what kind of person is Uncle? He must have a way!"

Baiyu Pixiu grinned, a hint of a smile appearing on its face.

...

About half a quarter of an hour later, Han Li and Crab Daoren bid farewell to Jin Tong and left the cliff again, flying down into the abyss.

As his figure continued to descend, the wind whistled past his ears, and the air currents stirred up the phosphorescence in the abyss, scattering it in all directions, flickering in the deep, heavy mist.

At a glance, it was like stars reflected in the night sky, but there was no sense of spaciousness in the starry sky, only a sense of utter gloom and terror.

The further down he went, the more puzzled Han Li became.

He originally thought that the ominous baleful aura in the abyss should be evenly distributed everywhere. However, the further down he went, the more concentrated and dense the surrounding baleful aura became, but the corpses of strange beasts on the mountain walls on both sides clearly decreased.

After descending about fifty or sixty miles, there was no light in the space. Almost everything around him was baleful aura as solid as substance.

Even though Han Li had cultivated Baleful Apertures, he felt short of breath and uncomfortable.

Frowning slightly, he endured the impact of the baleful aura and continued to descend, all the way to the bottom of the abyss.

The further down he fell, the denser the surrounding baleful aura became. The rolling, ominous aura constantly invaded his body, even though his protective spiritual light could not completely isolate it.

After flying nearly a hundred miles along the way, the surrounding baleful aura suddenly rolled, and bursts of wailing yin wind howled out.

Waves of violent, ferocious thoughts suddenly surged out, and the temperature of the nearby void dropped sharply. A layer of black ice crystals appeared on the stones of the surrounding mountain walls, and some places were directly frozen and cracked.

Caught off guard, Han Li was instantly covered in a thick layer of black ice, and the ferocious thoughts instantly invaded his mind.

He only felt his eyes suddenly turn blood red. Looking around, he saw countless demon beast corpses piled up like mountains, and rivers of blood flowing everywhere.

At the same time, his ears were filled with shrill ghost cries, screams, and shouts.

Before he could do anything, thousands of blood-red ghost hands stretched out from the surrounding mountains of corpses and rivers of blood, dancing and grabbing towards him, seemingly to drag him into the depths of this boundless slaughter hell.

Faced with this situation, Han Li frowned slightly, but did not lose consciousness.

He knew that this was a confusion caused by the excessive concentration of surrounding baleful aura eroding his mind, and he had already secretly activated the Refinement Art to protect his mind.

He closed his eyes and activated his cultivation method. A wave of coolness circulated and flowed in his mind, and the surrounding illusion immediately began to dissipate.

However, the yin wind below continued to blow, and the whistling sound continued. This illusion of mountains of corpses and rivers of blood circled persistently in his mind, impossible to dispel.

Han Li snorted and circulated the Refinement Art several times, and the vast divine sense power in his mind surged and agitated.

The illusion in his mind shook and finally slowly dissipated.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and a flash of cyan light shattered the black ice on the surface of his body, but he did not continue to descend. Instead, he leaned down and looked down into the abyss, his eyes flickering.

The strength of the baleful aura here far exceeded his expectations. If he did not have the protective power of nearly four layers of the Refinement Art, another mid-stage Golden Immortal cultivator would probably have been fascinated by the illusion just now, gone mad, and died.

At this time, he was in a piece of darkness. The yin wind howled in the abyss below, and black mist rolled. It was bottomless, obviously far from reaching the bottom.

In addition, the boundless baleful aura and yin wind here greatly hindered his divine sense, and his divine sense could not explore far at all.

He originally thought of relying on his physical strength to endure and see if he could go deep into the bottom of the abyss, using the more concentrated baleful aura to help him break through. However, after arriving here, he found that he had almost reached his limit. If he forced himself to go further down, he would inevitably be damaged.

Not to mention anything else, the killing illusion just now would definitely continue to appear, and its power would probably be stronger. He was not sure that he could deal with it.

Just as he was hesitating, his eyebrows suddenly raised, and a hint of joy flashed in his eyes.

He found that after overcoming the illusion just now by urging the Refinement Art, the previously stagnant Refinement Art had actually improved a bit, almost comparable to several years of hard work in the past.

Han Li's face showed a look of contemplation, and his thoughts moved.

Stimulated by the baleful aura environment, his divine sense was constantly on the verge of collapse, but in this way, it helped the Refinement Art to operate with all its strength.

He originally wanted to use the environment here to condense baleful aura and break through the acupoints, but now he found that this place was also an excellent training ground for the Refinement Art. It was an unexpected joy.

After all, this kind of dense baleful aura was rare in the outside world, and he became more and more curious about what was below.

After a moment, Han Li's eyes narrowed, and his figure continued to dive down.

This time, he only flew down more than ten miles, and the surrounding baleful aura became denser, and the howling yin wind became more ear-piercing and loud, like the shrill screams of dying monsters.

Han Li stopped his figure, and with a thought, he relaxed the Refinement Art that had been running in his mind.

The boundless and ferocious aura immediately poured into his mind, and the scenery in front of him blurred. The illusion of mountains of corpses and rivers of blood reappeared, and it was even more dangerous than before.

Han Li immediately operated the Refinement Art, and the vast power of his divine sense operated, trying to dispel the illusion in his mind.

Time passed little by little, and after a full half day, he opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

As he expected, the Refinement Art had improved a lot again.

Han Li was overjoyed to see this. If the bottleneck of the Refinement Art that had been trapping him before continued in this way, he would soon be able to break through.

He rested in place for a while and continued to fly downwards.

The further down he flew, the more severe the surrounding baleful aura and yin wind became, pouring out endlessly from below, as if the bottom of the abyss was connected to the Yin Sha Hell.

As before, Han Li stopped temporarily every time he landed a certain distance, using the yin wind and baleful aura here to exercise the Refinement Art.

Under the stimulation of the surrounding baleful aura, the Refinement Art cultivation was exceptionally smooth.

After several months, Han Li's Refinement Art had reached the peak of the fourth layer, and only one step remained before he could truly achieve great success.

His figure stopped on a protruding boulder on the cliff of the abyss, and he looked down.

According to his mental calculation, he had fallen nearly a thousand miles again during this time, but the abyss still showed no signs of reaching the bottom.

Han Li then turned his gaze and looked at the surrounding mountain walls. After a moment of contemplation, his figure shot down again.

He hadn't flown far when he let out a soft "Huh."

The abyss had become narrow here. Groups of pitch-black yin wind flew towards him, stirring up the nearby baleful aura and forming strange vortices of varying sizes.

The baleful aura here suddenly intensified several times, and the howling of the yin wind suddenly increased greatly.

Waves of ferocious aura poured into Han Li's mind like a tide. His mind was still shaken by the baleful aura here because the Refinement Art in his mind had not stopped.

His expression changed slightly, and he was about to stop his figure.

"Boom!"

The abyss below suddenly raged with strong winds, and a thick black wind column suddenly rushed out and wrapped Han Li's body.

A tangible ominous aura gushed out from the yin wind column and shattered the Refinement Art defense in his mind like a destructive force.