Chapter 983: Awakening

Han Li struggled to his feet, then limped over to E Kuai before pulling out the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword lodged in his dantian, following which he decapitated E Kuai with a swing of the sword.

Right at this moment, his Mantra Treasured Axis and Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword returned to his body on their own, lacking the immortal spiritual power required to support them.

His entire body was riddled with wounds, but a smile appeared on his face as he took a glance at Violet Spirit, following which his legs gave out from under him, and he sat heavily down onto the ground.

Meanwhile, Mistress Liu Hua, Gu Qianxun, and Shi Chuankong were all looking on with astonished expressions.

"E Kuai is dead... just like that?" Gu Qianxun murmured to herself, while Mistress Liu Hua and Shi Chuankong remained in a stunned silence.

Han Li forced himself to sit up, then took a deep breath before closing his eyes.

The golden ball in his body was rapidly shrinking, and the flow of immortal spiritual power in his body was quickly stagnating again.

While the immortal spiritual power was still able to circulate, he hurriedly retrieved some recovery pills from his Flower Branch domain.

He had used up almost all of the recovery pills in his possession, and the pills in the Scalptia Spatial Domain couldn't even begin to compare with the pills from the outside.

After retrieving a sufficient supply of pills, a thought suddenly occurred to Han Li, and he reached into the front of his own robe before pulling out a black statue amid a flash of black light.

It was the statue that he had obtained from Daoist Master Bone Shine.

After doing all of this, the golden ball in Han Li's body completely faded away, and his immortal spiritual power circulation became stagnant again.

Han Li took one of the recovery pills, and his injuries quickly began to heal.

"Are you alright, Fellow Daoist Li? I must say, you never fail to astonish and impress," Shi Chuankong said as he strode over to Han Li.

"I'm fine," Han Li replied, then made his way over to Violet Spirit to carefully inspect her condition, upon which he was relieved to discover that her injuries weren't particularly severe.

He then strode over to E Kuai before sweeping his spiritual sense over his body, only to discover that he wasn't carrying anything.

How could this be?

Storage treasures couldn't be used in the Scalptia Spatial Domain, so everyone was carrying many things on their bodies, such as pills and weapons, yet none of those things appeared to be in E Kuai's possession.

Right at this moment, Han Li's gaze fell upon a bone ring that E Kuai was wearing on his left hand.

The ring was giving off a faint white glow, indicating that it was no ordinary ring.

As Han Li removed the ring from E Kuai's finger, Mistress Liu Hua suddenly said, "You've got a keen eye. That ring is a storage treasure that I crafted by incorporating starpower and spatial restrictions, and it can be used with starpower."

Han Li took a glance at Mistress Liu Hua upon hearing this, then injected his starpower and spiritual sense into his ring.

A layer of white light surfaced over the bone ring to keep out his spiritual sense, but he was easily able to break through the layer of white light with his starpower, allowing his spiritual sense to enter the ring.

The space within the ring wasn't very large, only around twenty to thirty feet in size, far smaller than even the most rudimentary storage treasures in the outside world, but this was an extremely precious treasure in the Scalptia Spatial Domain.

The internal space of the ring was laden with all types of items, including pills, weapons, beast cores, and scriptures.

Han Li quickly examined these items with his spiritual sense, and his eyes lit up as he discovered a pair of statues sitting in a corner of the storage space.

These were none other than the two remaining statutes of the Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts, and Han Li was ecstatic to see them, but he refrained from pulling them out of the ring in order to avoid attracting attention.

He withdrew his spiritual sense before placing the bone ring onto his own finger, then transferred his two statues and the pills that he had just retrieved into the ring.

Right at this moment, a burst of crimson light shot out of the nearby lake of blood, and it quickly wrapped itself around E Kuai's body before dragging it into the depths.

Han Li cast his gaze toward the holy remains with a contemplative look on his face, and right at this moment, Sha Xin slowly regained consciousness.

Her body was in shambles, but she was still able to just barely struggle to her feet.

Almost at the exact same moment, Violet Spirit also opened her eyes, and an ecstatic look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.

"Where's E Kuai?" Sha Xin asked in an alarmed voice as she frantically took in her surroundings.

"Rest assured, City Lord Sha, E Kuai has already been slain by Fellow Daoist Li," Mistress Liu Hua said with a smile.

A mix of relief and bewilderment appeared in Sha Xin's eyes as she turned to Han Li, and right as she opened her mouth to say something, Daoist Xie's authoritative voice rang out from the center of the lake.

"Alright, E Kuai is already dead, so none of you need to be here anymore. I'm going to ask all of you to leave with the exception of Fellow Daoist Li."

The blood in the lake was currently still converging toward the holy remains, and at this point, it had already completely regrown a body of flesh and blood.

The body was that of a silver-haired middle-aged man with a square face, and even though his eyes were tightly shut, he was still giving off an aura of regal authority.

The middle-aged man was rather similar in appearance to Daoist Xie, but not completely identical.

"Master! You're alive!" Sha Xin exclaimed as her voice trembled with elation and excitement, and she paid no heed to her own injuries as she fell to her knees and kowtowed to the ground.

"I'm still not completely recovered yet, so I'm going to need to spend some time to rest and recuperate, and Fellow Daoist Li on his own will suffice to protect me," Daoist Xie continued.

"Fellow Daoist Li may have played a vital role in killing E Kuai, but he's still an outsider, so I think it would be best for me to stay and protect you, Master," Sha Xin said in a hesitant manner.

"Fellow Daoist Li and I have been together for many years, so there's no need for you to worry about his character. On top of that, I have another important mission for you..."

Daoist Xie's voice trailed off here, and he continued to communicate to Sha Xin through voice transmission.

After hearing what Daoist Xie had to say, Sha Xin gave a firm nod, then turned to Han Li as she said, "I'll be leaving Master to you then, Fellow Daoist Li."

Immediately thereafter, she turned to depart with Violet Spirit.

"Please wait a moment, City Lord Sha," Han Li hurriedly called out after her. "Violet Spirit is my friend, so please undo the restrictions in her soul so that she can be restored to her normal mental state?"

A series of mixed emotions surfaced in Violet Spirit's eyes upon hearing this.

"Please forgive me, Fellow Daoist Li, I completely forgot all about this," Sha Xin exclaimed as she slapped a hand to her own forehead. "Back when Violet Spirit first arrived in Puppet City, I was worried that she could be a spy sent by Profound City, and that's why I sealed away her memories. I'll undo the seal right away."

With that, she quickly made a string of hand seals, then extended a finger, resting it on Violet Spirit's glabella.

Rays of golden light flowed out of her fingertip and into Violet Spirit's glabella, and a series of golden lines appeared on her forehead to form a rune.

At the same time, a dazed look appeared on her eyes, and she began to slump down in a feeble manner.

As she did so, the golden rune on her forehead disintegrated into countless specks of golden light, and she gave a muffled groan as she fell unconscious.

Han Li immediately sped over to her side, catching her before she could fall, following which he turned to Sha Xin and asked, "What happened to her?"

"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist Li, she's only temporarily lost consciousness, and she'll regain consciousness soon," Sha Xin replied with a faint smile, then extended a parting curtsey toward the middle-aged man at the center of the lake of blood before departing, accompanied by Mistress Liu Hua and Gua Qianxun.

Shi Chuankong turned his gaze to Han Li, and he opened his mouth to say something, but held his tongue in the end before also making his way outside.

Before long, Sha Xin and the others had arrived outside the underground cave.

Sha Xin closed the entrance to the passageway, then sat down with her legs crossed, and a faint layer of white light emerged over her body, while Mistress Liu Hua and the others stood nearby.

After a long hesitation, Mistress Liu Hua gritted his teeth and strode over to Sha Xin with Gu Qianxun by his side, then extended a respectful bow as he declared, "City Lord Sha, I've come with my daughter, Gu Qianxun, to pay our respects."

"There's no need for such formalities, Fellow Daoist Liu Hua. Is there something you would like to speak to me about?" Sha Xin asked as she opened her eyes.

"Now that E Kuai is dead, it's only a matter of time before you establish your rule over the entire Scalptia Spatial Domain. I was a fool to have allied myself with E Kuai, and I'm hoping that you can forgive me for my misguided ways out of the kindness of your heart. I am willing to pledge my subordination to Puppet City from now on, and I implore you to accept me," Mistress Liu Hua said in an earnest manner.

"I am also willing to join Puppet City. Please accept us, City Lord Sha," Gu Qianxun said as she also extended a deep bow.

"You want to join our Puppet City? Setting aside your daughter for now, you've helped E Kuai create countless star artifacts in the past, causing immeasurable damage to our Puppet City. Even if I'm willing to accept you, how can you expect everyone else in our Puppet City to be so gracious?" Sha Xin asked in a cold voice.

"To make amends for my past transgressions, I'm willing to give you a detailed rundown of all of the distributions of forces around Profound City, as well as the weak points in the city's protective array. Will that suffice as atonement?" Mistress Liu Hua asked with a wry smile.

Sha Xin's eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this, and she said, "It would be remiss of me to turn you down after you've displayed such sincerity. From this day forth, both of you are now citizens of our Puppet City."

"Thank you, City Lord Sha," Mistress Liu Hua said in an elated manner as he extended another deep bow with Gu Qianxun.