When Han Li saw the young woman’s reaction, his expression immediately became gloomy and a cold glint appeared in his eyes. He wordlessly raised the box as he approached her.
Although he didn’t know why she was so scared of this talisman, he knew she wasn"t harboring any good intentions toward him, and he decided to drop any formalities.
The black-clothed young woman had completely lost her mind to fear as he approached and instantly slapped the stone platform beneath her to launch herself away. However, this action activated some sort of restriction. Just as she reached three meters away, red light enveloped her and brought her back to her original position.
At that moment, the jade box flew out of Han Li’s grasp and released a series of clear rings as it flew towards the woman’s head. The golden talisman on the box flourished with radiance and released countless golden talisman characters that slowly floated down towards the young woman.
“NO!” The black-clothed woman shouted in despair. Her beautiful appearance warped in an instant. She quickly used her sole arm to cover her face and dropped her head down to her chest, desperately trying to keep her face away from the talisman.
As the golden talisman characters finally dropped down to the young woman’s shoulder, golden light sparked and released a wisp of green smoke.
The young woman’s body greatly trembled as she released a monstrous wail of anguish. The wail was deafeningly sharp and inhuman, much to Han Li’s shock. He unconsciously took several steps back and he felt cold sweat line his palm. In one hand he tightly grabbed onto his spirit beast pouch with the Gold Devouring Beetles and tightly clutched onto the jade scepter with the other as he solemnly stared at the stone platform.
As further talisman characters fell onto the black-clothed young woman, even more green smoke began to surge from her body. After a short moment, the green smoke had enveloped her. Her body could no longer be seen, but the flashes of light and wails never ceased. In a moment, the wails became screeching; in another, they became frantically hoa.r.s.e. The sudden and unceasing transformations of the monstrous wails were awful to behold.
As Han Li watched in apprehension, he held his breath and pursed his lips. A fishy scent had filled with room as soon as the green smoke appeared. Each breath of it immediately caused him to feel a wave of dizziness and nausea, much to his surprise. The smoke seemed to be extremely poisonous.
Soon after, cracks began to sound out from within the green smoke.
Han Li was startled. Before he realized what those sounds were, he heard a swish of wind.
A dark green claw that was tangled in silver chains suddenly extended from the mist at the speed of lightning and fiercely swiped towards Han Li at the corner of the room. The claw was as flexible as a snake, suddenly bending and reaching out ten meters towards Han Li trying to grab him.
Han Li trembled and his grip tightened on the jade scepter. Just as he thought to execute a technique, the silver chains suddenly restrained the ghostly claws in a storm of sparks, filling the room with a scorched stench.
A painful moan roared from within the smoke and the sharp claw quickly withdrew.
Han Li stared into the mist with tightly shut lips, his expression continuously fluctuating. After some consideration, Han Li’s expression grew sullen and he drew back with two additional steps. With the Lapis Stone wall close against his back, he poured a great amount of spiritual energy into the jade scepter, thickening the red-yellow light barrier around his body and causing him to feel somewhat more at ease.
After the time it took to brew a cup of tea, yet another monstrous scream left the mist, and the radiance of the jade box’s golden talisman gradually dimmed. The amount of talisman characters it produced had also started to grow spa.r.s.e.
With all that he had seen, Han Li mused, ‘It seems the golden talisman is capable of restraining either ghosts or demons, but it has a rather limited amount of spiritual Qi. It will eventually expire and will no longer be able to restrain her.”
Fortunately, Han Li’s worries were unfounded.
In the following moment, the final scream faded away and the smoke had grown still. However, the golden talisman’s light had yet to fade away.
Han Li glanced at the golden talisman and didn’t immediately approach it. Instead, he waited for a moment more. After the golden light faded away and the jade box fell into the dense smoke, Han Li’s expression began to stir.
He waved his arm and put away the spirit beast pouch for the time being. He then formed an incantation seal with the newly freed hand and began to mutter something in a low voice. In the following instant, a red, egg-sized fireball appear in front of him.
After taking a glance at the fireball, Han Li pointed into the smoke and the fireball flew into the green smoke as a streak of red light. He raised his brows and uttered, “Explode.”
Boom! The smoke was swept up in a gale and was scattered in an instant, only to be replaced with a burnt stench.
As expected, fire attribute techniques were the most effective means of dealing with poisonous Qi.
Han Li stood in place as he felt hot winds blow against him. A strange expression stirred in his eyes as he stared at the stone platform while the smoke cleared away. When he eventually saw what was there, he felt his heart jump and he dryly swallowed as a s.h.i.+ver went down his spine.
There was a human-shaped silhouette on the platform that remained still, and it was unknown whether it was still alive.
Although it could be said to be human-shaped, there was dense green fur covering its body. Additionally, it smelled very much like a rotting corpse.
Although he didn’t see what it truly was, it was absolutely not human.
Like its human form, it had only one arm, but this arm was much longer and had pitch-black claws. This was clearly what had attacked Han Li earlier.
What was even more notable were the many chains that wrapped around its body. Not only did they bind its legs and arm, but it also pierced through its chest and back. It had been entirely restrained.
Without much further thought, Han Li pointed to his flying swords and had them pierce into the monster.
As a result, a series of m.u.f.fled clangs sounded out. The green fur had repelled them without harm.
Han Li wryly smirked, but he didn’t feel particularly surprised. Given what heavy restrictions the monster was subjected to, Han Li would’ve been somewhat astonished if that had actually cleaved off its head. It couldn’t have possibly been that simple.
Han Li waved to the swords and had them fly back towards him. He then took a few steps forward and lightly flung his sleeve towards the green haired monster. At that moment, an azure mist of light shot out form Han Li’s sleeve and gently enveloped the monster, resulting in it dropping to the floor with its true appearance revealed.
With its hair parted, it was revealed to have only skin and bone as if it were a dried up skeleton. Its half open mouth had a pair of inch long fangs emerging from it, making for a frightful appearance.
“This is...” Han Li glanced at the green fur on the body and took another look at its face. It faintly felt familiar as if he had seen it before in a jade slip.
After lowering his head in contemplation, its name suddenly appeared in his head. He couldn’t help but raise his head and frightfully shout, “Cadaver Demon!” He suddenly recalled the fearsome legends of this vicious spirit from times of antiquity.
“Cadaver Demons” were a type of Jiangs.h.i.+. However, it was greatly different from cultivator refined corpses and ordinary Jiangs.h.i.+ that naturally rose from deep within the earth. It only appeared under extremely rare and specific circ.u.mstances.
Although no one knew of the method by which this fearsome spirit took form, there were two main conditions that a Cadaver Corpse required to take form.
First, there must be a corpse of a Nascent Soul cultivator at the very least. Corpses of mortals and inferior cultivators weren’t sufficient for a cadaver demon to form. Secondly, the corpse must have heavenly spirit roots that are either wood or earth attribute. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to draw support from nature to rise once more.
In addition to this, the cultivator must’ve died harboring immense grievances. With the soul unwilling to return to the path of reincarnation, it is retained by the corpse. As time pa.s.sed by with some other unknown conditions fulfilled, the soul and corpse would fuse together to form the monster known as a Cadaver Demon.
The monster could be said to be half human and half Jiangs.h.i.+ as well as half Jiangs.h.i.+ and half ghost.
Not only did it lack the fatal weakness of sunlight that ghost demons and Jiangs.h.i.+ possessed, but it also possessed most of its memories and techniques from when it was alive. And because it died harboring grievances, this fearsome spirit was undoubtedly bloodthirsty. They were particularly fond of hunting down cultivators and slowly torturing their souls with corpsefire for their amus.e.m.e.nt as they feasted on them.
It had been ages since the last Cadaver Demon had appeared in the cultivation world.