Chapter 613: Transformation
Recalling the stories about the Cadaver Demon’s incredibly durable body, Han Li felt slight dejection. According to the rumors, he could only use true fire to slowly burn the corpse or extract the soul and seal it.
The Cadaver Demon clearly wasn’t dead. It was merely restrained for the time being by the unknown golden talisman. He reckoned it would take quite a while before the Cadaver Demon would be able to recover its strength.
With that thought, Han Li’s gaze fell onto the jade box at the corpse demon’s side. Since it had suppressed the Cadaver Demon and still hadn’t burned to ash, it must be a seal of sorts.
From how closely related the jade box was to the Cadaver Demon and the golden talisman that sealed it, it stands to reason that the box must’ve contained the Cadaver Demon’s soul.
But in that case, why was the the Cadaver Demon able to control its body? It had also managed to nearly deceive Han Li into opening the jade box with its great intelligence. Could it be that the soul extraction was incomplete and that a remnant of the soul remained inside her body?
Also, why did the Cadaver Demon have a jade spirit well in its possession? Did it acquire it after it was trapped?
As Han Li was puzzling over this, he frowned and sank into deep thought.
After some thought, Han Li bluntly tossed the useless question away and began to look around for a way to leave.
He would need to be at least at the Nascent Soul stage to be able to burn away the Cadaver Demon with true fire. Additionally, it would take several months at the very least. Even if Han Li had the cultivation to do so, he wouldn’t waste the time or effort on such a fruitless task.
He’d rather just get as far away from here as possible and have the Cadaver Demon continue to remain in isolation.
As for any unwitting cultivators in the future that wandered in here? That wasn’t any of his business.
As for whenever the Cadaver Demon escaped from here, the great sects nearby could deal with it instead.
But in the end, Han Li’s gaze fell onto the jade box once more.
After glancing at the jade box with the golden talisman several times, he hesitated for a moment before taking it into his hand. Afterwards, he placed it into his storage pouch with an unchanged expression.
The golden talisman on the jade box had released truly peculiar talisman characters. He planned on giving it a proper examination later on.
As for whether or not he would open the box, that decision would be left for once he finished condensing a Nascent Soul. At that point, he would be completely safe from any harmful spirit it may contain. With the Divine Devilbane Lightning, the Weeping Soul Beast, and a Nascent Soul cultivation, he would have nothing to fear.
Han Li waved the jade scepter in his hand and the light barrier around him suddenly disappeared, revealing the yellow wolf. He intended on having it use the earth movement technique to open a path through the stone room. The Lapis Stone was still stone after all, regardless of how rare and hardy it may be. As such, it should still be affected by the earth movement technique.
With that in mind, Han Li was about to have the wolf press onward when his expression suddenly stirred. He suddenly turned around and looked at the motionless Cadaver Demon.
After tilting his head in thought, he sighed and stepped towards it. He raised the leg of the Cadaver Demon to reveal a pit underneath it. Inside the pit was the Snowcloud Fox that was now staring up at Han Li with pitiful eyes.
Han Li faintly smiled and muttered, “You’re rather intelligent to take refuge here.”
With that said, Han Li waved his arm and an azure light reached towards the small fox.
The white fox knew that things were far from good and hastily jumped in an attempt to flee. However, Han Li’s azure light was remarkably fast and caught it in midair. The azure light quickly wrapped around the fox, before quickly bringing it into Han Li’s grasp.
Han Li grabbed the white fox by its nape and turned around to leave the stone room.
As he walked, he unconsciously muttered, “You are quite persistent. Not only did you manage to preserve your life through that, you even managed to survive until now in the company of the Cadaver Demon. Truly inconceivable!”
“Huh? That’s… inconceivable…” Just as Han Li said that, his steps came to a sudden stop as a thought appeared in his mind.
With a greatly changed expression, he suddenly waved his arm and ruthlessly flung the white fox towards the stone wall.
In that instant, a trace of resentment appeared within the demon fox’s eyes. Those short and small limbs sharply increased in length, and it swiped its snow-white claws at his chest.
A huge clang shook the room.
In the midst of Han Li’s furious alarm, the white silhouette blurred as it was flung towards the wall. Preventing itself from being smashed, the small fox deftly rolled several times in the air and distorted its body to fall down at a corner of the room.
An ice-cold gaze appeared in its eyes, and it stood unscathed as it gazed at Han Li. Its green eyes faintly revealed a trace of disappointment.
Shaken with fear, Han Li glanced at the large hole left behind on his clothes, revealing a sparkle of green light. It was the inner armor that he had looted off of Wen Tianren.
After the Royal Scale Plate had been destroyed, Han Li had decided to replace it with this inner armor instead. Despite not knowing its name, Han Li could tell it wasn’t inferior to the Royal Scale Plate in the slightest.
Although the sly and fierce attack had caught Han Li off guard, it was naturally incapable of piercing through an armor that even common magic treasures couldn’t harm.
With his calm regained, Han Li stared at the white fox and gloomily asked, “Who are you? That morphed attack was something a low grade demon beast isn’t capable of.” At the same moment, he waved the jade scepter and tried to emit a light barrier around him.
However, he was shocked to discover the jade scepter was completely unresponsive. Han Li bewilderedly glanced at the yellow wolf to discover that it was standing in place without any changes.
Facing a powerful enemy, Han Li couldn’t further investigate this and ordered the flying swords above him to form a curtain in front of him.
With the droning flying swords protecting him, Han Li finally felt somewhat more at ease.
In the following moment, Han Li was shocked to hear human words come from the Snowcloud Fox’s mouth.
“Who am I? I’m the one who you just attacked. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about me already?” The familiar woman’s voice revealed a trace of mockery as the fox suddenly stood up on its hind legs.
In that moment, the demon beast began to transform before Han Li’s eyes.
Within a few breath’s time, the white fox grew several times its size and shed the entirety of its fur in an instant. It transformed into a gorgeous young woman with a fox’s tail. Han Li pursed his lips and could no longer keep calm. His entire face was filled with astonishment.
This woman appeared exactly the same as the black-clothed woman except for the fact that she was nude. With her ample chest bared, she glanced at Han Li and flirtatiously said, “Huh? My demon fox incarnation is not bad at all!” However, the depths of her bright eyes didn’t contain the slightest warmth.
After Han Li took a deep breath, he recovered his calm and coldly said, “That was you?” He unconsciously glanced at the stone platform and saw that the corpse demon was completely still.
With his heart relieved, he turned his sights to the newly formed woman.
It would be reasonable to say that any demon beast that could assume human form was grade eight at the very least. However, when he examined the Cadaver Demon’s white fox incarnation, he saw that it only had the cultivation of a seventh grade demon beast. Han Li felt surprise but not fear.
However, he didn’t dare to completely trust the judgement of his spiritual sense. With a solemn expression on his face, he recalled what he had read about high grade demon foxes.
Nearly all demon foxes of this level were able to fully utilize illusion techniques. Many were even capable of toying around with similar grade cultivators without their knowledge. Their gift for concealment was among the best of all demon beasts.
Previously, Han Li had felt somewhat doubtful of those words. He had managed to examine the woman with his immense spiritual sense with ease.
However, since the Cadaver Demon had the ability to transform and retain this cultivation, why wasn’t it able to take off the golden talisman of the jade box? Could it be that the demon still feared the golden talisman. Even in that case, with her cultivation, she would be able to kidnap a low grade cultivator and force them to tear it off.
As Han Li began to expressionlessly ponder, he faintly felt that the demon fox wasn’t so simple as just the Cadaver Demon’s incarnation. There was certain to be something hidden deeper.
With that thought, he regained his calm and glanced at the naked young woman before him with a trace of harsh killing intent.
