Chapter 520: Metamorphosis Tribulation
Naturally, Han Li had already constructed a tool refining room in his new cave residence. After placing down another concealment restriction, he brought the refined crystal and Myriad Year Spirit Milk into the formation before tightly shutting the door to the room.
The other operations in the cave residence were smoothly taken care of by the huge ape puppets he had left outside while he remained in seclusion.
A year silently passed in this manner before one day, something unexpected occurred.
Without the slightest warning, a huge rumble suddenly reverberated throughout the cave residence, accompanied by a continuous earthquake. In addition, faint rolls of violent thunder could be heard from the outside. The rolls of thunder grew increasingly louder as if the entire island was being covered in a violent storm.
With a muffled thump, the door of the tool refining room opened.
Han Li leapt out of the room with a cold expression, bewilderment clear in his eyes. Upon hearing the huge rumbling outside of his cave residence, he suddenly slapped his hand against a spirit pouch at his waist, causing a yellow streak of light to emerge. It circled around in the air before landing in his palm.
It was a faint-yellow, meter-long formation flag with a few talisman characters embroidered onto it.
Without much thought, Han Li spat out a cloud of azure Qi onto the flag, causing it to shine with yellow light. As a cold glint flickered from Han Li’s eyes, the flag shot into the earth with a flick of his wrist. The formation flag dug into the earth in the blink of an eye and disappeared from sight.
With a muffled incantation of varying tones leaving Han Li’s mouth, yet another astonishing scene occurred.
As Han Li continued his incantation, the ground and walls began to shine with golden light as if they consisted of raw gold. At the same time, the trembling and frightening rolls of thunder suddenly came to a halt, restoring everything back to normal.
When Han Li saw this, his expression relaxed. However, the confusion in his eyes had yet to disappear. He then flew out of his cave residence in a streak of azure light towards the sky.
A moment later, Han Li was floating above the small island. Although it was enveloped in a barrier of mist, his sight wasn’t obstructed at all as the mist was the result of his own formation spells.
The scene before him caused his expression to change several times. Thanks to the formation spells that he had placed on the mountain range and his cave residence, they were left mostly unharmed. However, the areas outside the formation spell were still groaning from ongoing tremors.
Not only were the hills and other tall masses of earth breaking into dust with huge cracks starting to appear throughout the island, but the vegetation had folded into the earth from the violent quaking as well.
But that alone wasn’t enough to cause Han Li to be at a loss! There were also stormy waves that suddenly surged around the island.
Four-hundred-meter tall waves continuously thrashed against the island and washed away the earth, turning nearly half the island into lakes and marshes.
Out past the vast ocean mists in the direction of the huge waves, there were monstrous snarls that were inserted among the rolls of thunder as if a mad beast was furiously thrashing about. Each of its roars was soon followed by thunder and a huge wave.
Looking in the direction of the huge waves, Han Li thought, ‘Could it be that a high grade demon beast is stirring up havoc nearby?’
From the earth shattering scene, it was certain to be a demon beast that possessed a huge body.
With that thought, Han Li’s curiosity was on the rise.
After muttering to himself for a short moment, he enveloped himself in azure radiance and flew straight into the fog towards the directions of the roars.
For fear of being seen, Han Li restrained his Qi and dimmed the radiance of his aura until it was no longer visible. In an instant, there was no longer any trace of him.
After flying into the sea mist, Han Li managed to find his goal with a single glance.
Nearby, there was an enormous demon beast wildly thrashing about! Although he had already anticipated this, Han Li took in a cold breath of fright at its size.
This giant was the first tortoise type demon beast he had ever seen. Its body spanned about three kilometers in area and it seemed as if there was a huge mountain floating in the ocean. Its shell was pitch-black and it had huge pillar-like legs. It also had a three-hundred-meter long silver tail that continuously swept at the nearby sea.
With the head of an azure flood dragon, the tortoise roared towards the sky. With each of its roars, huge waves and demonic white winds spread outward from its body, thoroughly enveloping the sea in its ongoing outbursts.
But what shocked Han Li the most wasn’t this but the dense black clouds that the tortoise was roaring at tens of thousands of miles in the sky. Dense overlapping bolts of lightning struck down from the black skies to form fearsome webs of lightning around the demon tortoise, continuously striking at it.
The tortoise relied on the huge waves and demonic winds to forcibly block the strikes of the heavenly lightning. Although it managed to remain unharmed, it became increasingly violent as the barrage continued, gradually turning its originally emerald green eyes to red.
“Metamorphosis Tribulation!” Han Li muttered to himself with a bewildered expression. He blinked in shock.
The ‘Metamorphosis Tribulation’ is a tribulation of heavenly lightning that all demon beasts experience when they ascend from grade seven to grade eight. After experiencing this tribulation, the demon beast will be able to shed off its beastial form and change into a more human-like form. And as their cultivation grows deeper, so will the intensity of their transformation as well.
It was said that when a demon beast reached grade ten, they were completely indistinguishable from a human.
Although Han Li had encountered this information many times in jade slips, he was now witnessing the scene with his own eyes. He didn’t know whether he should consider himself fortunate or unlucky.
Its appearance could be considered fortunate as it answered Han Li’s doubts about whether or not grade eight demon beasts resided near Wondrous Depths Island. This gave him hope of finding Thousand Leaves Dew later on.
Unfortunately, after its tribulation, the demon beast would likely set up its nest in the nearby water. Han Li had no interest in becoming neighbors with a grade eight demon beast! It may be a grade eight demon beast that had just ascended, but it would still be quite difficult for Han Li to evade its notice.
It was still unable to find his cave residence while it was a grade seven demon beast. But after it reached grade eight, its strengthened spiritual sense would pose a problem.
Perhaps one day, the demon tortoise would arrive at his cave residence. When it came to enforcing their own territory, high grade demon beasts weren’t exactly known to be lenient.
‘Could it be that I will have to discard my cave residence after having only just established it?’ Han Li flusteredly thought. The flying swords contained in his body began to shake with excitement.
By the time he was forced out of seclusion, he had already finished tempering his seventy-two Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords with the refined crystal.
It had been significantly more difficult to process the refined crystal than he had anticipated. His original estimate of half a year had actually stretched into nearly an entire year.
With that done, Han Li decided to take advantage of the continued seclusion to specially temper his flying swords.
Were it not for the disturbance of the demon beast, he would’ve likely spent several more months in seclusion.
‘I should take this opportunity to launch a surprise attack while its Origin Qi is still greatly damaged after it finishes its tribulation. If I am able to kill it, it would be a cause for joy, but if I fail, I will have to leave the island.’ With that thought, Han Li’s heart grew tense. But a moment later, he shook his head in rejection of the idea.
Even when greatly weakened, he still wouldn’t prove to be an opponent of a grade eight demon beast.
Han Li didn’t know just how powerful grade eight demon beasts ere, but he had personally witnessed the strength of the divine abilities of Nascent Soul cultivators.
With such great danger, it would be better to just pack up and leave.
Unfortunately, his Gold Devouring Beetles were laying eggs. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he were to bring them along in his storage pouch, but he didn’t have much choice.
Han Li watched the lightning flicker against the body of the huge tortoise and sighed before returning to his cave residence.
Han Li didn’t want to wait for the demon beast to finish its tribulation and discover him hiding away. That would be utterly disastrous!
But just as Han Li turned around, a series of sharp whistles came from across the horizon, accompanied by flickers of golden light.
Then from the opposite horizon, a melodious sigh of wind spread throughout the sky, making way for a red streak of radiance that flew over.
When Han Li saw this, he unconsciously frowned. But before he could respond, a huge disturbance in the sea rose from near the huge turtle. Several tens of thick pillars of fire shot out of the sea, and the sea water began to quickly rise as if something gigantic was emerging from the sea.
Han Li was greatly shocked by this and hastily shot away to conceal himself before watching the scene with amazement.
With a flash of blue light, a huge red beast emerged from the parted waves. Upon revealing itself, it released a horse-like neigh at a monstrous volume, leaving Ha Li’s ears buzzing.
Alarmed, Han Li nearly fell from the sky. He hastily released magic power to steady himself.
As he quickly circulated his Great Development Arts throughout his body, Han Li stared at the strange demon beast with a pale face full of awe.
