Chapter 441: Ghost King (3)

First, I want to thank everyone for their opinions and thoughts on how we should overhaul completed novels. We've reviewed nearly 2000 comments across multiple platforms and forum, and while we haven't responded to everything I can promise I HAVE read it all. First, I'm going to briefly go into some of the things which were discussed which may or may not work, because I don't want people to think I ignored anything. I'm putting those in 'spoiler' tags so people who don't care can skip it. Then, we'll talk...

Chapter 441: Ghost King (3)

When the grey silhouette was about to pierce through the black-robed man’s body, a brilliant white radiance flashed between them. The grey shadow quickly withdrew with a shout as if it were greatly afraid of the white light.

The black-robed man whose life was spared remained stunned for a short moment before feeling delighted surprise. He instantly turned his gaze towards a flashing red light that appeared by Han Li’s side.

Han Li looked at the black-robed man with amazement. He had clearly seen a white light flicker like the blur of a huge diving bird, scaring off the grey shadow. Han Li was quite curious about it.

The black-robed man still appeared unsightly. As he had just narrowly escaped death, he still felt great lingering fear. He felt great regret at having ignored the words of others and so rashly came to the Heavenvoid Hall.

But when he thought of the white light that had just saved him, he seemed to have thought of something and hastily reached into his robes, taking out a copper mirror stained from age.

Han Li glanced at the item with marvel.

The shape of the mirror was peculiar, and its spiritual Qi was concealed, could it be an ancient treasure?

As Han Li pondered this, he heard an abrupt shatter.

The ancient mirror had split into eight pieces without the slightest warning. The spiritual Qi that it contained scattered without a trace, turning it into mere scraps.

When the black-robed man saw this, his eyes were filled with regret. He sighed and put away the shattered copper mirror.

He then raised his head and watched as Han Li approached. He couldn’t help but recall how Han Li had deliberately refused to aid him at the beginning and coldly snorted before turning his gaze once more.

The black-robed man’s actions stunned Han Li. But soon after, he seemed to have realized something and silently smiled with understanding before turning his gaze towards the ghosts.

Fairy Violet Spirit also looked at the black-robed man and revealed a thoughtful expression.

At that moment, the Weeping Soul Beast had already rushed over to them. It climbed up on the black-robed man’s shoulder and motionlessly sat there. It appeared quite clever.

The grey ghost shadow reappeared at the side of the black ghost shadow. With many poofs, eight identically shaped demon ghosts appeared from around the mist.

Han Li recognized these ghosts from a glance. They were fierce ghosts known as Weiwu.

Normally, whenever one appeared, it would cause a great uproar. An unexpected sighting of such a large group of them caused Han Li’s expression to sink.

They were horned and sharply clawed. Although they were far inferior to those ghost shadows, they were still superior to late Foundation Establishment cultivators. They were slowly crouching forward towards them with cold gazes and were surrounding the three cultivators.

From this, Han Li knew that a hard fought battle was unavoidable. He bluntly gave his commands, “You two deal with the Weiwu Ghosts. I will go and deal with the two ghost shadows. Delay them!”

Han Li’s voice was deep and solemn. Although the black-robed man felt resentment towards Han Li, he also knew that the situation was grave and could only begrudgingly follow Han Li’s orders.

After all, he already recognized that he was unable to combat the two ghost shadows. Han Li taking the initiative to confront them was exactly what he had wanted.

The vicious ghosts revealed an ominous gaze. When Han Li saw this, he instantly released the Spirit Beast Pouch that he held in his hand. A glistening cloud of gold and silver light suddenly appeared in midair.

At that moment, the demon ghosts seemed to have received an order and viciously pounced at the three while breathing out wisps of black flame. Without any hesitation, the black-robed man and Fairy Violet Spirit released their magic treasures and tools to block them.

The Weeping Soul Beast was particularly impressive. A glowing light shot from its nose and dragged a nearby demon ghost into his stomach. However, that was all it could do before the two green furred nightfiends used their bone prongs to once again tie it down.

Han Li didn’t pay attention to any of the Weiwu Ghosts. He shot towards the two ghost shadows in the distance as a streak of azure light. The cloud of droning Gold Devouring Beetles were closely following after him.

When the black ghost shadow saw Han Li take the initiative to approach them, its black eyes flashed with green light. It then opened its mouth and released a green sparkling pearl towards him. As for the grey shadow next to it, after several blurs, it disappeared from sight.

Han Li frowned and expressionlessly stopped in place. With a flick of his finger, two Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords flew to intercept the green pearl as azure streaks of light.

Simultaneously, he commanded his droning Gold Devouring Beetles to scatter around him and to float in place.

Bang! The two streaks of azure light were exchanging blows with the green pearl. The ghost pearl released a large cloud of profound Yin Qi in an attempt to bind and seal the two flying swords within it.

Cold light flashed from Han Li’s eyes. Forming a sword incantation gesture with his hands, the two flying swords grew several times in size, transforming into two ten-meter-long azure flood dragons. With a flamboyant flourish, they broke through the black Yin Qi encirclement and fiercely charged towards the green ghost pearl.

The ghost shadow’s originally icy expression revealed a trace of surprise.

Although the green ghost pearl was once the protective magic treasure of a fallen cultivator, it was rather average. But after the demon ghost had acquired it and tempered it for several hundred years with profound Yin Qi, it had long since become marvelously refined into a magic treasure of particularly damaging profound Yin Qi. So long as a magic treasure was bound by its Qi, it would be continuously sealed and incapable of escaping.

But for some unknown reason, Han Li’s flying swords showed no fear towards being entangled by the profound Yin Qi. After transforming into azure flood dragons, the swords tore apart the profound Yin Qi, not allowing it to approach their main bodies.

When the ghost shadow saw this, it couldn’t help but become fearful. During its several hundred years of sentience, it had never come across such a scene.

After a moment of hesitation, it suddenly raised its claw and reached towards the green pearl as if it were grabbing it in the air. The ghost pearl then flourished with brilliance and shot back about ten meters before revolving in place. After a series of sways, the pearl transformed into a black demon tiger.

The tiger was huge and had intelligent eyes. As it roared, it spouted out dark-green wisps with bold and powerful intensity.

But what was most astonishing was that the huge tiger didn’t have a hollow body like his sword’s transformed azure flood dragons. Instead, its body was corporeal and appeared quite fearsome.

After a moment of shock, Han Li couldn’t help but narrow his eyes. “An artifact spirit?”

This so-called “artifact spirit” is something every magic treasure can refine upon sealing the soul essence of a demon beast’s primal soul into it. During an enemy confrontation, the soul essence and magic treasure would fuse, causing the magic treasure to transform into the form of the artifact spirit with greatly increased power. In addition, it would also gain the demon beast soul’s original abilities. It could be said to be a shortcut to quickly raising a magic treasure’s strength.

But for some unknown reason, regardless of whether or not the magic treasure successfully refined the sealed soul, only one attempt could be made to gain an artifact spirit. If a second attempt were to be attempted, the magic treasure would be incapable of absorbing the soul essence of the primal soul.

This was regarded by cultivators with great importance. If they had no urgent need to increase their magic treasure’s power, they would spend as much time as possible to find an appropriate match and deliberate before conducting the sealing ceremony.

During the Trial of Blood and Fire back in the State of Yue, Nangong Wan probably took the primal soul of the inky flood dragon with the intention of sealing it as an artifact spirit.

After all, the inky flood dragon may have been young, but it was still a very rare flood dragon. That must’ve been why Nangong Wan was so excited when she obtained it.

Despite having slaughtered a great number of demon beasts of various ranks, Han Li had yet to see a spiritual flood dragon. This caused Han Li, who had wanted to use a flood dragon as his artifact spirit, to be rather gloomy.

In any case, the odds of success for artifact spirit seals were difficult to predict. It was almost as if there were no predictable patterns. However, there were a few certainties: the stronger the primal soul to be sealed as an artifact spirit, the lower the odds of success; and if the artifact spirit’s strength was too weak, then it would only increase the magic treasure’s power by miniscule amount. As a result of this, a majority of cultivators’ magic treasures do not possess artifact spirits. It wasn’t that they couldn’t find a target to their satisfaction. It was because the sealing of the artifact spirits had been an utter failure.

Thus, when Han Li saw that the ghost pearl contained an artifact spirit, he couldn’t help but be startled. Han Li soon calmed down and licked his dry lips. He pointed to his two Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, ordering his two transformed azure flood dragons to constrict the demon tiger. Before Han Li did anything else, he would first test the might of this demon tiger artifact spirit.

His flying swords didn’t have any artifact spirits. Despite having their appearance transformed to that of flood dragons, they possessed none of their divine abilities.

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