After a moment of silence, Han Li said, “Artifact spirit? You believe yourself to be a common artifact spirit? Common artifact spirits don’t possess any intelligence. Why even ask such a question? Even if I summoned you as an artifact spirit, it would consume too much of your spirit essence. If one relies on using their artifact spirit too often, it may even lead to the spirit's dispersal. And from my point of view, your demon fox body is very useful to me. Unless it is a last resort, I will not be using you as an artifact spirit. Also, if your cultivation suffers as a result, it wouldn’t benefit me either.” Afterwards, Han Li turned around and left the hall.
Silvermoon remained in the hall, her head lowered as she grew lost in thought. A short moment later, she glanced at the jade box in her hand and walked away with a smile.
Once Han Li entered the cave residence, he began to prepare to cultivate the ability for a second Nascent Soul. Since a divine ability this powerful went beyond the realm of normality, Han Li‘s preparations to refine this technique lasted for quite a while.
At the moment, Han Li was sitting cross-legged on the ground. His hands held a faint azure jade slip and he was reading through it with his spiritual sense as if trying to comprehend something. The Profound Nascent Formation Arts were recorded on the jade slip.
A short time later, he withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade slip and closed his eyes. He then formed a hand gesture and began to whisper an incantation. His body froze and azure light flickered from the top of the head, suddenly summoning a Nascent Soul intertwined with azure light — the Nascent Soul that Han Li bitterly cultivated for two hundred years to create.
The Nascent Soul appeared slightly more powerful than when it first appeared several years ago. Its eyes were a shiny jet black and appeared intelligent.
Having only cultivated his Nascent Soul for several years, he only dared to manifest it in an extremely safe area, else it could be weakened if something unexpected happened.
It sat on Han Li’s head for a moment more and glanced around the room before suddenly enveloping itself in a ball of azure light and floating around the hidden room.
At first it was unaccustomed to fly, but as it became more practiced, it was able to do it increasingly faster. In the end, the Nascent Soul was able to fly erratically around the hidden room in a display of vast skill.
After another moment, the Nascent Soul stopped and floated to the corner of the hidden room as if thinking of something. It grasped its small hands in an incantation gesture and in a flash of light, the Nascent Soul suddenly disappeared and then reappeared above Han Li’s head, its complexion slightly pale from having exhausted so much of its vitality. This was the divine ability that only Nascent Souls were capable of, true instantaneous movement.
The Nascent Soul stretched its back and turned into a streak of white light before entering Han Li’s head. Han Li then slowly opened his eyes, his expression appearing grave.
“It appears the Nascent Soul has consolidated after several years of nurturing. Although it cannot compare to the Nascent Souls of those old eccentrics, there shouldn’t be a problem if I refine the second Nascent Soul.” Han Li muttered to himself. Soon after, he slapped his storage pouch and summoned a jade box covered in talismans.
Han Li swept his sleeve with a stern expression and dispersed all the talismans from the box. He then pointed to the corner of the box and had it open by itself. As it slowly opened, it revealed a sparkling golden sphere that sealed the Wood Spirit Nascent within it.
“The Soulfade Technique that I placed on it is almost complete.” Han Li muttered to himself. Then after a moment of thought, his raised his hand and reached out towards the golden sphere.
In a clap of thunder, golden light flickered and countless arcs of lightning shot out from the lightning sphere. The lightning quickly flew into Han Li’s hand and disappeared without a trace. In the blink of an eye, the sphere disappeared to reveal a small green figure several inches tall with a delicate appearance. It was the Wood Spirit Nascent.
But at the moment, the Wood Spirit Nascent was densely covered in jet-black needles and its eyes were shut as if it were sleeping. The fine black needles would occasionally flicker with green light in a rather strange display.
Han Li didn’t dare to be careless as he carefully examined the Wood Spirit Nascent and jet-black needles once through. When it appeared that everything was as expected, he slowly extended his index finger towards the forehead of the Wood Spirit Nascent.
Before he fully extended the finger, a bean-sized ball of green light burst from his fingertip and transformed into a green thread of light. Han Li’s hand remained still as the thread pierced into the Nascent Soul’s forehead, reading the internal circumstances of the Nascent Soul. After the time it took to finish a meal, Han Li sighed and withdrew his finger, recalling the green thread as well.
Han Li stroked his chin as he pondered over his next actions. Suddenly, he waved his hand and the needles surrounding the Wood Spirit Nascent flew into his sleeve. As a result, the Wood Spirit Nascent remained inside the wooden box, still entirely unconscious.
Having already decided what to do, he formed a strange incantation gesture with his hands and struck the Wood Spirit Nascent with a spell seal. The Wood Spirit Nascent floated from the jade box and reached the height of Han Li’s head. It then sat cross-legged across from Han Li who shut his eyes and gave a command. An azure light shined from the top of his head, manifesting his Nascent Soul once more. This time, the Nascent Soul did not appear as happy as it was before. Instead, its expression was taut and solemn.
It raised its head to glance at the Wood Spirit Nascent floating across from it. Its figure then blurred as it approached the Wood Spirit Nascent that sat cross-legged.
The Wood Spirit Nascent was only two inches tall, an inch shorter than Han Li’s Nascent Soul. When the two stood side by side, they appeared at odds.
But at that moment, Han Li’s Nascent Soul began to utter a cryptic incantation before shooting a ball of azure spirit essence directly onto the face of the Wood Spirit Nascent. The spirit Nascent’s expression stirred and it slowly opened its eyes. However, its expression was dull and its eyes were lifeless as if it were a puppet.
Han Li’s Nascent Soul appeared as if it were facing a great enemy. It quickly formed incantation gestures and glared at the Wood Spirit Nascent with wide eyes. In that moment, two beams of azure light shot out of the Nascent Soul’s eyes and directly entered the eyes of the Wood Spirit Nascent across from it.
Suddenly, the two figures shook and the Wood Spirit Nascent screamed in pain before dropping from the sky and rolling on the floor as if suffering from immense pain. At that same moment, Han Li’s Nascent Soul floated in the air and also wore a pained expression on its face, but it was still able to forcefully retain control.
The painful screams from within the room intermittently appeared throughout the entire day before eventually disappearing. Two days later, Han Li walked out from the room with a tired face, but a trace of excitement was betrayed from his eyes.
In the past, he was scared of the potential backlash from invading the Wood Spirit Nascent’s consciousness. As a result, he didn’t immediately cast the techniques to establish a second Nascent Soul and instead used the Soulfade technique from the Profound Yin Arts and the Fading Needles to weaken the Wood Spirit Nascent.
After being weakened for such a long period of time, the Wood Spirit Nascent’s consciousness was now completely weakened. Under such circumstances, Han Li was able to easily erase the last trace of its consciousness with his immensely powerful spiritual sense.
With the Wood Spirit Nascent’s consciousness erased, he poured a fragment of his spiritual sense into it and used the secret technique to assimilate the Nascent Soul as his own.
Although it was said that there was a danger of backlash during assimilation, Han Li had a powerful grasp over his spiritual sense and wasn’t likely to suffer a problem in this regard. And if somethin
g did happen, he would only have to abandon the fragment of his spiritual sense at most. Given how powerful his spiritual sense was, the loss wouldn’t cause him much harm.
As for the duration of the assimilation process, it would take anywhere from three to eight years, or ten if he were unlucky. Han Li didn’t believe that the second Nascent Soul would be usable during his time in Devilfall Valley in the first place, so he wasn’t worried about the delay.
After leaving the sealed room, Han Li rested for a day and went to purchase some tool refinement materials from the market city. Afterwards, he stayed in the tool refinement room for half a month, crafting a dozen variously-sized silver stakes. He then brought them to the mountain next to the swamp where the Snowcloud Foxes dwelled.
When Han Li arrived at the stone room at the center of the mountain, he stared at the Cadaver Demon laying on the stone platform. Although he had expected this, he still felt some relief.
He took out a jade box from his storage pouch that was sealed with a golden talisman and then took out the silver stakes one by one as he watched the reclining Cadaver Demon.
Chapter 794: Sovereign Devil Corpse
The Cadaver Demon didn’t appear any different from when he last saw it. There was green fur on its body and it was completely bound in silver chains, not to mention that it still only had a single arm.
Han Li took the time to carefully examine the entire stone room once through. After recognizing that it was exactly the same as he had left it, he felt at ease and tossed a jade box onto the floor. He then slapped a spirit beast pouch at his waist and summoned a streak of black light before him.
The Weeping Soul Beast had just appeared in its miniature foot-tall form. As soon as the beast appeared, it immediately saw the Cadaver Demon lying down on the stone platform and began to howl. Before Han Li even gave a command, its entire body glowed in black light and it expanded. Fortunately, the beast knew the area was narrow and only grew to a height of three meters, but it still stared at the Cadaver Demon with excitement nevertheless.
Han Li frowned at this, but while he sank into thought, the Weeping Soul Beast soon calmed down and crouched on the ground in an obedient manner.
“Yi!” When Han Li saw the back of the Weeping Soul Beast, a baffled expression appeared on his face.
The image of the blood ghost on the back of the Weeping Soul Beast was far clearer than before. The ghostly image even began to protrude from its back as if it were alive, much to Han Li’s excitement. It seemed that the last two feasts for the Weeping Soul Beast were almost enough for it to undergo another strange transformation.
A trace of anticipation accompanied Han Li’s surprise, but now was not the time to closely examine the Weeping Soul Beast. The only reason he had released it right now was to protect against any surprises from the Cadaver Demon. Han Li slapped his storage pouch and summoned an antique jade stick into his hand with a flash of yellow light.
Han Li glanced at the jade stick with a raised brow. The item was a hair ornament that he had acquired from the black-robed youth’s corpse after searching through his consciousness. The ornament contained over ten different methods for refining corpses. These methods were something the Yin Sifting Sect had acquired after stealthily fighting for them with other sects.
As for this specific Yin Sifting Sect Elder, he turned out to be particularly knowledgeable about the methods for refining corpses. These dozen corpse refinement methods were all things that came from his own understanding. There were even some alterations that he had made that increased the might of a refined corpse.
However, it was a pity that he had never shared these methods with his fellow sect members. He had always wished to refine a few top-grade corpses to run amok with, but he had never found any suitable corpses to refine.
One of the methods he recorded mentioned the Sovereign Devil Corpse, a top-grade corpse the black-robed youth had always wanted to refine. This method required a ferocious corpse that possessed an intelligence of its own as an ingredient. After erasing the consciousness of the corpse, one would use many kinds of secret techniques to refine it, hopefully turning it into a Sovereign Devil Corpse. Naturally, the resulting power would be even greater than that of other intelligent corpses.
According to what was recorded, it was one of the most optimal methods for refining the Cadaver Demon. Once refined, the ferocity of this naturally formed corpse would become even stronger. As a result, Han Li immediately thought of the Cadaver Demon once he read through this technique. This was a prime opportunity that he couldn’t let slip by.
But before Han Li could refine it, he needed to erase the Cadaver Demon’s consciousness just like with the Wood Spirit Nascent. As a result, he had taken out the jade box that contained the Cadaver Demon’s primal soul.
Han Li looked at the silver stakes in front of him and waved at them, causing the stakes to float into the air. Then with an incantation, they began to glow with a faintly silver light. Next, he rolled his hands together, summoning several arcs of golden lightning from between his palms. Thunder roared with the appearance of the astonishing golden light.
Han Li then expressionlessly raised his hands, shooting out over ten fine arcs of lightning, striking each of the dozen stakes. As golden and silver light intertwined, the stakes trembled.
When Han Li saw this, his expression sank before uttering the word, “Go,” and striking the stakes with a spell seal. All of the stakes immediately shot out as streaks of silver, quickly surrounding the Cadaver Demon on the platform. They were all aimed at the vital points and limbs of its body, in preparation to strike.
With all of this done, Han Li took a deep breath and looked at the jade box in front of him that was still sealed with a golden talisman. He then opened his mouth and azure light shot, engulfing the jade box. The golden talisman trembled several times and eventually floated off the surface of the box.
Woosh. The jade box immediately flew ten meters forward as if it was struck. Han Li’s pupils contracted as he watched, his lips tightly closed.
A dense green fog suddenly roiled out from the box and a wild laughter sounded from it. “I am finally freed! Who was the fool that released me? Since you’ve freed me, I’ll be consuming your flesh. Yi, a Nascent Soul cultivator?!”
The green mist condensed to form a woman’s face, exactly the same as Silvermoon’s human form apart from the fearsome green light glowing from her eyes. She appeared stunned upon seeing Han Li.
Han Li was also surprised to see such a familiar face, but soon all emotion disappeared from his face. The transformation of Silvermoon’s demon fox body had been something that the Cadaver Demon originally created, so this appearance was to be expected from the primal soul of the Cadaver Demon.
The green ghost face was stunned for a moment before coldly laughing. She opened her mouth and blew out strong Yin winds. The ghost face soon grew three meters tall and it charged towards Han Li in an attempt to enter his body. However, Han Li had already prepared for this. No matter how powerful the Cadaver Demon had been when it was alive, Han Li had no fear of it since it was now just a primal soul that had been trapped for many years.
As he watched all of this happen, a cold glint flickered in his eye. Without receiving an order, the Weeping Soul Beast snorted and shot out a mist of yellow light. The light swept past half of the ghost face and immediately prevented it from moving.
“What’s this?” In a display of quick wits, the ghost face felt that something was amiss and struggled to break free. But unfortunately for it, the Weeping Soul Beast’s ability was specialized in restraining souls. Not only was the ghost face unable to escape, it was also slowly being absorbed by the mist of yellow light.
The ghost face was now filled with fear, but in a display of decisiveness, the green mist violently swayed and split off the portion of it that was trapped in the yellow mist of light. It then took advantage of this opening to roil and form a smaller ghost face.
At the same time, it
hastily turned around and shot towards the Cadaver Demon at the center of the stone platform. Knowing that Han Li couldn’t be trifled with, it planned to return to its original body and then tear Han Li apart.
Han Li smirked upon seeing this. He calmly pointed to the ten or so stakes revolving around the Cadaver Demon, and they fell upon it as quick as lightning the moment the ghost face entered the Cadaver Demon’s body.
With gusts of wind, the Cadaver Demon suddenly found all of its vitals and limbs had been struck by the silver stakes. Although its limbs were incredibly hard and hadn’t been harmed by the silver stakes, the golden lightning from the stakes attacked without compromise, instantly forming a golden net around the Cadaver Demon.
Suddenly, a fishy scent filled the air from the direction of the Cadaver Demon’s body. Just as the Cadaver Demon’s primal soul had entered its body, the stakes had actually knocked it back out. Green ghost mist then surrounded the body where a large and a small ghost face could be faintly seen inside the mist.
The two ghost faces were doing their utmost to enter the body of the Cadaver Demon’s body. However, the golden arcs of lightning sparking off the silver stakes warded them off, each strike resulting in a pained scream.
“As expected, there was a fragment of consciousness hidden inside the body. It seems these preparations wasn't done in vain.” Han Li appeared delighted at the sight of this. With his last trace of worry now resolved, he promptly commanded the Weeping Soul Beast. It instantly snorted, puffing out two mists of golden lights towards the ghost faces, both far brighter than the one from before.
The two ghost faces weren’t as lucky as they were before. When the mists of yellow light swept over, the two ghost faces released cold screams before being swept into the Weeping Soul Beast’s mouth.
The Weeping Soul Beast swallowed several times and pounded its chest with excitement while appearing quite satisfied.
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