Yun Jhin looked around as Zula started to panic, she realized where they were after Yun Jhin pointed it out, she might have been able to sail through the region if she was lucky but her strength was now restricted!
She slowly got closer to Yun Jhin and stood behind him as she looked around, Yun Jhin was the only one who could protect her in this situation, she didn't imagine that Yun Jhin would let her restrictions go, he would be a fool in her eyes if he did that.
Yun Jhin didn't move a muscle, the region they were currently in was populated by wind orcas, these relatively small but deadly animals, they live under the wind palace wind walls and they hunted based on the movement of the air around them, Yun Jhin's stealth technique would be useful here as he could erase his aura and life force to the point he would mend with the surroundings but doing that meant he would have to use the technique first.
What if a wind orca would be nearby and sense him? he wouldn't want to bet his life on it, after all, wind orcas were extremely fast and deadly, they would puncture him like a block of swiss cheese.
Wind orcas were around 25 centimeters in height and had a sharp stinger as their nose, they were of transparent color so you wouldn't be able to see them in the wind walls.
Zula knew about the wind orcas as well, she looked around and kept near Yun Jhin but didn't do any sudden movements or that would doom the both of them, Yun Jhin sent a soul strand into her mind palace as he told her:
"I have a stealth technique that could get us out of here but I need to make sure there are no wind orcas nearby or we would become goners."
Zula gritted her teeth as she glared at him under her eyes and responded using his soul strand:
"How can I be of any help with my strength restricted, its everything on you, do you want me to become a decoy so you can run away or what?"
Yun Jhin wouldn't mind that at all, however, in this situation if she died he would be surely blamed and there was a big chance of him being handed to the Bumi Empire as a tribute if he didn't reveal some of his secrets, then the Bumi Empire might just wage war on the Luo Empire if the Luo Empire protected him, there was a high chance the Luo Empire would poach him from their brother the Sumo Empire.
Yun Jhin didn't want that, the Luo Empire had a 9th stage God Realm expert that might be able to see through his memories and secrets forcefully, after all, his soul wasn't recovered to its peak, God Realm experts couldn't see through anyone souls but once they reached the 9th stage a whole new world would appear in front of them, this world gave them the capability of doing things those below the 9th stage couldn't do.
However, if anyone below the 9th stage tried to look into Yun Jhin's soul they would be thrown out, but if they forced his soul it could also explode, but a ninth stage expert would be able to stop his soul from exploding and steal his memories forcefully while alive!
They wouldn't kill him due to his memories but if they had them what use would there be an outsider that could reach the God Realm if they couldn't fully control him?
So for a smooth future, he had to take Zula out of the wind danger zone alive or things wouldn't end up well for him, of course, if the other three would have died along the way he would just be able to escape by himself but it was very unlikely and he wouldn't bet his life and future on such an unstable gamble.
Yun Jhin kept his soul willpower concentrated around the pure white region around him to make sure there were no wind orcas but the stealth of the wind orcas was quite good if they didn't reveal themselves Yun Jhin wouldn't be able to sense them with his current soul willpower.
Zula didn't do much besides staying near Yun Jhin, in her situation she could only be moral support at best.
Suddenly Yun Jhin opened his eyes as he told her using the soul strand he sent in her mind palace:
"I think there might be one or two wind orcas eyeing us, fortunately as long as we don't move they will leave after a while, we aren't deep in their nest at most at the outer fringes or else we might have already become food for them."
Zula didn't say anything as she strained her eyes to look around the white region but she couldn't see anything, she frowned but didn't comment she just kept a tight grip on Yun Jhin's shoulders, she was using him as a human shield, if the wind orcas attacked she thought they would pierce through him first giving her a little time that she could use to escape. However, if Yun Jhin died she would surely die as well, she knew that but she just didn't want to die first, she was scared of death just like all other cultivators.
Yun Jhin made a short move to unleash his stealth technique but suddenly a sharp object entered his thigh and exited on the other part, a pool of blood already appeared down at his feet as the wind orcas started to smell the blood.
They could see through movement and smell blood, however in rest they were practically blind deaf and couldn't smell anything else, but in such a pure white environment any movement would be easily seen by them so in the wind danger zone they could be considered deadly predators that only peak king realm experts could escape from, and that was only from those of the middle or lower packs, the upper packs could even send an Emperor Realm expert running.
Yun Jhin gritted his teeth as he used his inner flame ki to cauterize his wound, the stealth technique unveiled as it covered but him and Zula, he sighed as he started to run away with Zula on his back, the wind orcas were swimming in the air as they looked around and then attacked the pool of blood on the ground, then they started to kill each other and gnaw at their comrade's bodies. They weren't smart creatures, if they would be compared to the Toxic Scorpions in the earth elemental danger zone the comparison would be the Toxic Scorpions intelligence would be 5 and the orcas would be 0.5.
Fortunately, Yun Jhin knew a technique to escape from this situation, or else both of them would have met their maker here.
Yun Jhin gave out a small sigh as he ran away from the deadly region behind him, Zula just gripped his shoulders tightly, or else she would fall at the speed Yun Jhin was using.
After a short while, they were finally out of the wind orcas territory, however, they were still quite deep inside the wind danger zone so they weren't in a safe place yet.
Suddenly a wind arrow launched itself towards Yun Jhin from an unseen place, but Yun Jhin sidestepped it then looked around with narrowed eyes, there was no second arrow but Yun Jhin knew that something or someone launched that arrow, it wouldn't be a formation nor a naturally occurring event, because the wind arrow had elemental energy different from the one around the danger zone.
The danger zone had very pure wind energy but the one that was shot was less refined and had a small degree of purity, that was why Yun Jhin could dodge it rather easily.
There could also be natives living in the wind danger zone but it was unlikely, it must be someone who got stuck around this region and didn't know how to escape, Yun Jhin didn't wait for the other party to reveal itself as he became invisible again and ran away, a curse could be heard behind him but Yun Jhin ignored the raspy voice that he heard behind him and made away from the region at his fastest speed.
Zula frowned as she was interested in the man sounding voice behind them but since Yun Jhin didn't want to investigate she just let it go since her life was in his hands she would just follow along.
After more traveling in the wind danger zone, they finally reached the outer edge of the danger zone then they started to fall.
Since the air didn't support them anymore they fell and fell but Yun Jhin used his ki to create a pseudo-flying state where they fell very slowly so they wouldn't be hurt by the fall.
In the end, they reached the ground and Yun Jhin unceremoniously dropped Zula on the ground and put a timer on the restrictions, after a certain while they would disappear, even though they were near the danger zone, the zone would leave and as long as she didn't get near it she wouldn't be sucked into the zone again if she wasn't dumb she wouldn't court death.
Zula grumbled as she got up from the ground and dusted her clothes, she glared at Yun Jhin but Yun Jhin already left, leaving nothing behind as he used his stealth technique.
Black Blood looked with strange eyes at what happened, who was that young lady and what did Yun Jhin do to her?
Black Blood didn't follow him inside the danger zones but made sure he entered them, the formation core inside him wouldn't let him leave anyway, it had been almost 30 days since Yun Jhin entered the danger zone and Black Blood didn't know what to report, after all, this was the first time Yun Jhin stayed triple the allocated time, but since he finally got out he let his old heart rest, if Yun Jhin died as well the Emperor wouldn't be really happy, Lulu's death already angered the Empress even though on the surface everything was sunshine and rainbows.
The Empress was just grieving in silence, it was partly her fault as well as she threw her daughter at Yun Jhin as she didn't think that the outer edges of the danger zone could be fatal to her talented 6th stage King Realm daughter.
Black Blood sighed as he followed Yun Jhin, he was impressed with the lad's stealth technique as he needed to use some of his ki to track him, it seemed if Yun Jhin broke through the Emperor realm, no even before that, if he became a 9th stage King Realm expert he wouldn't be able to see through his stealth if he didn't use his ocular technique!
Black Blood muttered to himself as he followed Yun Jhin towards the last danger zone:
"It seemed he must have unlocked more memories, who knows what he encountered in that danger zone?"
Yun Jhin knew that Black Blood would think that he unlocked more memories due to his stealth technique, only two people in the Empire knew about it, the ex-soon to be wife Lulu was one of the few that knew, the other would be Kong Luo.
There was only one danger zone left, considerably speaking it was the most perilous one, it was located in the ocean that separated the Luo and Sumo Empire and it was also the most visited for tempering.
It was called the underwater temple and it sat on the ocean floor around 20,000 kilometers away from the shore, the ocean was so long that it couldn't be measured as the Sumo and Luo Empire used teleportation formations to meet and trade with each other, there were very few who traveled the whole ocean and the one who did was the current Emperor of the Luo Empire, Luo Binfeng!
Yun Jhin reached the shore of the ocean around after 30-40 days of traveling, due to the wind danger zone moving randomly he was quite far away from the ocean, and he would still need around 10-15 more days to walk swim 20,000 kilometers.
Black Blood kept tailing him and after the 10-15 more days they both reached the underwater danger zone entrance.
Black Blood sat cross-legged on the ocean floor as he looked at Yun Jhin enter the cave that led to the underwater temple and sighed:
"The last danger zone that we can access currently, hopefully, he would have unlocked enough memories to let him go through what's to come."
Yun Jhin could feel the water pressure around him intensify as he entered the water danger zone, the underwater temple had 10x to 20x the normal water pressure compared to the normal ocean, the benefits were that the water elemental energy here was extremely pure but also deadly, just like the ocean, normal humans couldn't drink salt water, so cultivators couldn't use the elemental energy here. It needed to be purified first before it could be used.
Using a little elemental energy wouldn't kill you but your meridians could be damaged, using more could cripple you and if you were crazy enough to absorb a lot of it you would explode.
Yun Jhin's world stopped spinning as the water pressure stabilized around him, after a while of spinning, Yun Jhin finally landed into the underwater temple, his surroundings were covered with marble and when he looked behind him he could see the exit of the temple.
Pillars supported an immense building, from afar Yun Jhin could see that it was infested with Yakshas and other types of evil fish-men, these type of fish-men were born into this environment and the toxic water energy didn't affect them as much as it did the outsiders, they could cultivate with it in moderation and they had above average intelligence if they were compared with the previous toxic scorpion they would be around a 7.5 of intelligence.
Yun Jhin made sure to not be seen but a shout and a quick figure that ran into him along with a bunch of fish-men made it so he wouldn't be able to start things stealthily as he wanted.
The figure ignored Yun Jhin as he stumbled and ran away leaving Yun Jhin to deal with the fish-men who now put their attention on him, fortunately, their strength was around the 9th stage of the heavenly realm, so with one palm attack he killed all of them.
The figure from before looked behind him then saw Yun Jhin's easy victory against the fish-men and his eyes started to glitter as a plan was made in his mind.
He walked back to Yun Jhin and tried to introduce himself but Yun Jhin's arm was already into his chest as he heard:
"Trying to take advantage of me you damn punk? Let's see what goods you stole, those fish-men wouldn't have followed you for no reason."
The man's eyes started to darken as he saw his own heart being extracted from his chest, Yun Jhin opened his maw like a deadly predator and ate the heart then licked his fingers, the lifeless body dropped to the ground and Yun Jhin took his spatial ring, no one saw him doing the killing so even if the man had some important background how could they pin the blame on him?
Yun Jhin hoped the man had something worth his while in the spatial ring as he opened it and looked inside...