Chapter 57: Body Awakening, Enemy Perishing
Hidden within the depths of his heart, an icy chill slowly appeared and quickly spread throughout Han Li’s body, rousing Han Li from his stupor.
When Han Li became clear headed,the first thing he felt was an immense pressure in his head, followed by waves of pain across his entire body. He felt indescribably weak as one would feel at the onset of a serious illness, and he was unable to open his heavy eyelids no matter how much effort he expended.
Still feeling a bit dazed, Han Li managed to recall the events that occurred right before he passed out.
Han Li was struggling for control over his body when an immediate sense of panic flashed through Han Li’s mind, causing adrenaline to flood through him, sharpening his befuddled mind and allowing him to quickly assess the situation around him.
“Yi!” He exclaimed in shock as he realized that his mind had not been taken over by Doctor Mo. True, he could barely move his eyelids, not to mention the rest of his body, but the waves of pain spreading throughout his body told him clearly that he had regained control over his own body and that Doctor Mo had failed in his plans.
“Why did Doctor Mo’s plan fail? Did he do something wrong?”
Filled with surprise, Han Li was able to think of one plausible explanation for his current situation.
Barely containing the excitement within his heart, Han Li patiently waited for his body to regain some of its energy before he tried once more to open his eyes. After a short but strenuous battle he managed to crack open his eyelids to see the what was going on around him.
The first image he saw when he opened his mind was the sorry state Doctor Mo was in: his hair was all white, his face was thin, wrinkled, and haggard. It seemed like he was at least ten years older than he was before his youthful transformation. With this appearance, it was impossible to imagine him any older. His features seem to embody the meaning of the word “old,” and he was now simply a poor old man.
In front of Han Li, Doctor Mo’s eyes were wide open as he stared at Han Li with a look of unbridled terror.
Han Li himself was equally shocked, and his muscles immediately tensed. All sense of weakness left his body as the only thought that rang out within him was to make the first move and gain the upper hand.
Clearly learning from his previous lesson, Han Li was unwilling to once again fall under someone else’s control.
But afterwards, Han Li realized something strange. His opponent’s face seemed to be frozen in fear and there was no sign of breathing from Doctor Mo. It became apparent that he was dead and may have been dead for quite a while now.
Unwilling to let down his guard, Han Li continued to stare deeply, with eyebrows furrowed, at Doctor Mo’s facial features in search of anything that might give him away.
After a whole thirty minutes of careful scrutiny, Han Li was forced to admit that Doctor Mo was indeed dead for he did not hold any resemblance to that of someone who was still alive.
Hesitating, Han Li carefully crawled up to him and stretched out one hand to grasp Doctor Mo’s wrist while his other hand was placed under the his nose. In this position, he waited for a while, but there was still no reaction.
It was only with this final affirmation of Doctor Mo’s death that Han Li felt his heart settle and relax. The sense of oppression he had felt in his heart was finally discarded.
Until now, Han Li had always carried some doubts within his mind as he did not believe his biggest enemy, the cunning and crafty Doctor Mo, would die so easily from an unknown cause of death.
Han Li scratched his forehead, only to realize that the “Soul-Lock Talisman”, which had been fixed to his forehead, had disappeared without a trace. This made Han Li feel strange. He would later learn about talismans and sealing techniques, and only then would he realize what had happened! It seems that all the power in the yellow talisman had been used up and thus it had disintegrated into dust, so Han Li was unable to find it.
The now relaxed Han Li, decided to continue being cautious and started to scan the area around Doctor Mo to see if there were any traces of life.
Han Li noticed that the candles were still lit, signaling to him that he had not been out for a long time. The jade pieces, on the other hand, had lost all their previous luster and seemed to have been degraded, unable to catch anybody’s eyes.
Shifting his attention towards the left side corner of the stone room, he focused on an object that had previously evade Han Li’s detection.Han Li was not a stranger to this object. This object was the invading green globe from his dream that had managed to escape from his grasp but not before having one third of its mass devoured by Han Li.
At this time, it desperately tried to dig into the corner of the room, apparently afraid of Han Li and trying its very best to hide from his sight.
Amused, Han Li looked at this scene with one hand stroking his chin.
Then, he quickly stood up and strode over to the ball of light.
Only when he was half an inch away from the ball of light did he stop and slowly open his mouth:
“I think we both know each other. You should be Yu Zhitong. Am I correct?”
The green light, which contained Yu Zhitong, started to tremble and flicker at the sound of Han Li calling its name, but after pausing for a moment it started to shine brightly again.
“You guessed correctly. It seems you truly are Doctor Mo’s disciple. You are just like him, tough and hard to deal with,” said the ball of light, accepting its fate. From its voice, Han Li could tell that it really was the young man whom Han Li heard conversing with Doctor Mo.
It did not try to hide its identity and instead confirmed Han Li’s thoughts.
Now knowing what he was dealing with, Han Li asked “Since you were one of the culprits trying to take my life and possess my body, shouldn’t you provide me with an explanation?Han Li did not reveal any anger as he talked to the culprit; instead, he had a rather calm demeanor.
Even so, Yu Zhitong, seeing Han Li’s indifferent attitude, was at a loss regarding what to do, feeling a sense of dread within his heart.
In the recent battle between their two souls, he experienced first hand Han Li’s might and even had a portion of his soul devoured, causing his Internal Qi to drop by half. The remaining half of his Internal Qi could only be used to perform minor incantations that had neither the power to kill Han Li nor the power to protect himself , allowing a sense of fear to ingrain itself within his heart.
“What do you want to know?”
He knew that, Han Li had recently escaped from a life threatening situation and therefore would not be emotionally stable. Although he may look calm and collected, who knows how he was truly feeling. In a sense, he was comparable to a volcano about to erupt as no one is able to accurately predict a dormant volcano’s destructive power.
Caught, Yu Zhitong’s best option for him was to comply with all of Han Li’s demands without testing his patiences with riddles or trickery. The last thing he wanted was to anger Han Li and suffer from his rash actions.
“I want you to honestly tell me everything concerning what you are and exactly how you came to know Doctor Mo. Right now, the only resource I have in my disposal is time, so I will listen to all you have to say.” As he spoke, Han Li seemed to be wearing a mask, his face hiding all emotional fluctuations from Yu Zhitong’s wary perception.
