Han Li's room was quite spacious, about twice the size of a regular room, divided into an inner and outer chamber.

The inner chamber was the bedroom, with a bed for resting, while the outer chamber contained a rosewood desk and a grayish-blue futon.

The desk was laden with spiritual fruits that weren't of the highest quality, but their aroma was quite sweet and inviting.

As soon as he entered the room, a golden light flashed on Han Li's hand, and the ring quickly transformed into a golden beetle. It flapped its wings and flew off his finger, landing on the futon, where it immediately turned into a rosy-cheeked girl in a red short jacket.

The transformed Jin Tong's gaze immediately locked onto the spiritual fruits on the desk. One of her hands shot out like lightning, and when it retracted, it held an oval-shaped fruit covered in golden particles. She took a bite, and a wisp of fruity fragrance immediately spread, filling the entire room.

"Uncle, why... didn't you let me appear... I got along quite well with that Shi guy," she mumbled indistinctly while chewing on the pulp.

"That person's aura is somewhat similar to that of a demon, but it's also different. I couldn't see through him even without using the Eye of Truth. And he already saw that you were a ring on my hand, yet he still asked knowingly, which is quite puzzling," Han Li said thoughtfully.

"Uncle, are you saying that guy has bad intentions?" Jin Tong stopped eating, asking with some confusion.

"I can't tell for sure yet, but when traveling abroad, it's best to avoid trouble if we can," Han Li said with a smile.

"If he really has bad intentions, that would be good, then we could..." Jin Tong said with a chuckle, revealing a sly expression.

Han Li was speechless at the sight.

Just as he was about to say a few words to Jin Tong, telling her not to provoke trouble, he suddenly paused, his expression changing slightly.

"What's wrong, Uncle?" Jin Tong was no stranger to Han Li's actions, knowing that something had happened, and asked quickly.

"Just now, there seemed to be a very powerful aura locking onto this ferry, but it disappeared in an instant. Did you notice it?" Han Li asked, his brow furrowed.

"This..." Jin Tong was interrupted by Han Li before she could finish speaking.

"It's here again," Han Li said, pressing down with his hand in the air.

Hearing this, Jin Tong quickly held her breath and focused, but she only managed to catch a faint trace.

"Bai, did you feel it?" she asked hesitantly.

The white jade pendant hanging from Han Li's waist remained motionless, without a sound.

"If I don't beat you for three days, you'll rebel, won't you? How dare you pretend not to hear when I, the Immortal Maiden, am talking?" Jin Tong immediately put her hands on her hips and said angrily.

"Boss, I didn't intentionally ignore you, I was just afraid of embarrassing you. In fact, I noticed it the first time," the white jade Pixiu said, its body glowing, speaking in human language.

"So, you're saying you're better than me?" Jin Tong raised an eyebrow.

"No, no. I was born in the desolate realm, so I'm naturally more sensitive to the aura of desolate creatures," the white jade Pixiu quickly explained.

"Can you identify the source of this aura?" Han Li asked, a thought flashing through his mind.

"Although I was born in the desolate realm, I was probably captured by wasteland hunters not long after birth, and ended up in various immortal realms. Finally, I ended up in Gongshu Jiu's hands, and he was the one who told me that I was a desolate true spirit. Therefore, I don't know much about the situation in the desolate realm, and can only sense the aura but not identify it," the white jade Pixiu continued to explain.

Just as Han Li was about to speak, the faint aura enveloped the ferry again.

"You stay here," he instructed Jin Tong, then his figure flashed, and he left the room, heading straight for the deck at the bow of the ship.

Arriving on deck, Han Li found that there were few passengers, only twenty or so people gathered in groups of three or five, chatting idly, each with a relaxed expression, obviously not noticing the aura.

At the other end of the deck, he saw a familiar purple figure, Shi Chuankong standing there.

At this moment, his face had a strange expression, and he was looking around.

When he saw Han Li, he was stunned for a moment, then the corners of his mouth twitched, revealing a knowing smile.

Han Li also nodded politely in response, then turned and returned to the cabin.

After three repetitions, the powerful aura finally disappeared, not appearing again.

However, Han Li's tense spirit did not relax in the slightest, and instead, as time passed, his vigilance grew day by day.

...

Time flew by, and more than five months had passed.

Sailing through the sand sea was finally safe, and they were about to arrive at the desolate continent.

Early in the morning, a slightly cold morning breeze blew from the desolate continent. Han Li stood at the bow of the ship with his hands behind his back, his eyes flashing with blue light, looking far away through the light screen covering the ship. At the end of his field of vision, he could vaguely see a touch of green, which seemed to be an oasis.

Nearly a hundred people had already gathered on the deck at the bow, all passengers eager to disembark and set foot on the desolate continent.

"Uncle, are you still worried about that thing?" Jin Tong stood beside Han Li, imitating Han Li's posture with his hands behind his back, and asked.

"No, I'm wondering which way to go after I get to the desolate continent... Comparing the map I bought earlier with the route map Jiao San gave me, there are still many differences. I think it's because I didn't agree to truly join the Samsara Hall, so the route she gave me isn't the truly safe one, at least... it's not the complete one," Han Li smiled at her, shook his head gently, and said.

"Uncle, aren't you tired of thinking so much every day? At worst, we'll just blaze a trail ourselves!" Jin Tong said with a smile, not caring at all.

"Look, what's that?"

At this moment, a cry of surprise suddenly rang out from the crowd.

"Look over there, something's coming..." Then, one exclamation after another came.

Han Li looked up and saw a black line on the distant horizon rapidly expanding like a tide, spreading towards them. In that tide, he could clearly see strange and pale giant human faces.

Behind the giant faces, there was a huge black body, with dense lateral limbs on the sides, and a thick, huge scorpion tail raised high at the end, with a crescent-shaped hook tail hanging at the end, flashing with a ghastly cold light.

"That's... a human-faced scorpion..." Finally, someone recognized the thing and cried out in alarm.

Human-faced scorpions are among the alien beasts living in the sand sea, and their strength is not very strong, but their horror lies in their large numbers. Once a swarm of beasts forms and attacks like a blanket, even true immortal cultivators find it difficult to resist.

"What's the panic..." At this moment, a powerful voice came from the top floor of the ship.

The city lord's mansion cultivator in charge of escorting the ship stood there, holding the railing, with a calm look in his eyes, looking calm in the face of danger, quite imposing, and immediately suppressed the panic on the ship.

"It's just a group of human-faced scorpions, this number is not enough to overturn the ferry. Take care of yourselves, and don't be thrown out. Once you fall out of the ship, my city lord's mansion will not save you," the escort said coldly.

Hearing this, those on the ship who felt that their cultivation was shallow quickly moved away from the railings on both sides of the ferry, fearing that they would accidentally fall out of the ferry. Some simply turned around and went back to the cabin.

Han Li turned a deaf ear to his words, still staring at the black tide.

"Besides the human-faced scorpions, there are other things mixed in," Han Li said, frowning slightly.

Jin Tong also climbed onto the railing of the ship and stood on it, squinting her eyes and looking into the distance.

She saw that under the dense black shadows, the yellow sand rose and fell, constantly undulating, and it was obvious that something was moving fast below.

"It's coming," Han Li pulled Jin Tong down from the railing and said in a low voice.

The black scorpion tide surged overwhelmingly and quickly blocked the ferry's path forward.

One after another, black human-faced scorpions as big as blue oxen climbed on top of each other, stacking on top of each other, and actually piled up a black mountain at an extremely fast speed, blocking in front of the ferry.

"Huh, something's not right..." The escort frowned and muttered to himself.

Such a large-scale scorpion tide was indeed not very common in the past, but it had happened before. But in the past, all the human-faced scorpions would swarm up and attack the ferry like a tide, how could they be so... orderly today?

Before he could figure it out, the ferry had already crashed heavily into the "black mountain".

With a dull sound of "bang".

The ferry shook violently, and the forward momentum suddenly slowed down, and the yellow light screen covering the outside suddenly shone brightly.

Then, the various runes engraved on the ship's body also lit up. After the ferry's momentum slowed down, it suddenly accelerated and directly smashed the black mountain open.

In the void, the sound of "crack" continued, all the sounds of human-faced scorpions breaking bones and cracking shells.

After everyone on the ship tried to stabilize their bodies, they all cheered.

Han Li held Jin Tong in one hand, poked half of his body out of the ferry, and looked towards the sand sea below.

He saw the vast yellow sand undulating, densely packed with strange beasts that were as big as ordinary domestic dogs and looked very much like maggots. Their bodies were earthy yellow, with only a little pink exposed in the layers of flesh.

"Not good, there are sand beasts below, eating the hull..." Han Li quickly recognized these things and immediately shouted loudly.

Hearing the sound, everyone was shocked and leaned on the ship's railings, looking down.

They saw the metal coat covering the ship's body covered with wriggling sand beasts, and the surface was already riddled with holes. Even worse, several sand beasts that were obviously twice as big as ordinary ones were frantically eating away at the keel at the front of the ferry.

These alien beasts had almost no facial features. If it weren't for the round mouth full of sharp teeth growing on the head, it would be difficult to tell which end was the head and which end was the tail.