“Senior Martial Brother’s words are reasonable. But while it is reasonable that Du Dong managed to triumph given his Ice Moon Wheel, what about the one named Han Li? Does he also have a high grade magic tool?” The thin-mustached middle-aged man asked.

“Although I don’t know if Martial Nephew Han possesses any high grade magic tools, his methods are quite costly.”

“What do you mean by costly?” The yellow-faced old man asked with obvious interest.

The Foundation Establishment cultivator explained, “In the first round, Martial Nephew Han Li defeated his opponent by using several tens of fireball talismans to break through his opponent’s barrier before they could react. In the rounds afterwards, he complimented his talismans with the use of mortal martial arts and an ingenious flame manipulation technique to arduously triumph against his opponents.”

The white-haired old man sullenly said, “The martial arts and flame technique aren’t particularly notable. There are many who use them. However, he must possess many spirit stones to be able to use so many talismans. This amount may mean nothing to us, but to a Qi Condensation cultivator it is rather extravagant. Have you investigated this disciple?”

The Foundation Establishment cultivator respectfully replied, “I have. A few of his acquantainted disciples noted that he is skilled in talisman refinement despite being a vagrant cultivator, and he possesses quite a bit of wealth. That is how he is able to so generously use low grade talismans.”

The white-haired old man’s expression relaxed and he muttered, “Oh, so it was like that. It seems there are no problems with the two then. However, since this person is capable of refining talismans, wouldn’t it be better to have him join Firecloud Mountain?”

Cultivator Xin faintly smiled and said, “Senior Martial Brother Feng, that reasoning is a bit amiss. Our Dayspring Mountain also possesses disciples that are skilled in talisman refinement. They will be able to mentor him properly. Senior Martial Brother Duan, don’t tell me you actually want him!”

The red-clothed cultivator waved his hand and grinned, “Hehe! Our Firecloud Mountain already possesses many talisman refining disciples. One more or one less won’t make much difference. I won’t fight Junior Martial Brother Xin over a single disciple.”

Cultivator Xin responded with a silent smile.

In the following moments, the Core Formation cultivators chatted about a few sect matters before bidding their farewells.

...

Han Li had already returned to his cave residence and was standing outside his spirit beast room with a solemn expression. His gaze wandered as he stared into the room.

Not long before when the disciples of Dayspring Mountain were congratulating Han Li over his victory in the final round of placements, the Weeping Soul Pearl began to burn within his body, much to Han Li’s alarm. It was about to finally awaken and complete its evolution.

Han Li was overjoyed and hurriedly took his leave in order to return to his cave residence. But when he arrived outside the spirit beast room, he was greatly shocked by what he saw.

For some unknown reason, the spirit beast room was completely devoid of light and was filled with ghastly wisps of black Ghost Qi, spilling an extremely icy Yin Qi out from the room. 

The Weeping Soul Beast could no longer be seen. Instead, a three meter tall cocoon had taken its place at the corner of the room. It was emitting a jet-black light and faintly released black glimmers as if it were alive.

Han Li instantly knew that the Weeping Soul Beast was within the black cocoon, and he grew immensely excited. However, a trace of worry blossomed within his heart as well.

Han Li wasn’t about to boldly enter the room. After some pondering, he decided to meditate outside the spirit beast room. From what he had previously read in old records, during a spirit beast’s evolution, it was best for its master to stay close and wait by its side. However, the spirit beast must be left alone during its evolution unless it failed in its transformation and suffered a grave injury. 

With apprehension lingering in his heart, Han Li felt time slowly pass by.

Han Li originally assumed that the transformation would take several days at the very least before the cocoon was broken. But on the morning of the second day that he sat outside the spirit beast room, the black cocoon of light began to change.

As Han Li remained cross-legged on the ground, he suddenly heard a clear explosion from the room. Although the sound was muffled, he opened his eyes with delight. He peered into the room and saw that a majority of the ghostly Qi had been absorbed into the black cocoon of light in the corner of the room.

The black light then suddenly grew dazzling, causing Han Li to unconsciously turn his eyes away. In the next moment, Han Li felt a strange but somewhat familiar aura coming from the room.

With raised brows, Han Li stood up without any further thought and lightly pushed open the door to the spirit beast room.

Han Li swept his gaze through the room from the outside and saw that the black cocoon had already broken in two, and was empty as could be. But aside from the broken cocoon in the corner of the room, nothing else could be seen. 

Han Li was startled and thought to release his spiritual sense when black light began to shine from an empty corner of the room. With a low-pitched cry, a black blur shot towards Han Li.

In his alarm, Han Li though to dodge out of the way, but after some thought, he remained in place. As a result, a small, icy object flew into Han Li’s chest, and he grabbed onto it with both hands.

“This is?” Han Li glanced at the small object in his grasp and couldn’t help but appear shocked.

There was currently a tiny, fist-sized monkey in his hands that should undoubtedly be the evolved Weeping Soul Beast. At first glance, there was nothing that had changed about it apart from its silver fur turning pitch-black. But after glancing at it several more times, Han Li eventually discovered two differences from before. The Weeping Soul Beast now had a slim cavity between its two nostrils. After meticulously glancing into it, he discovered nothing out of the ordinary about it.

The Weeping Soul Beast had always relied on the soul swallowing light from its nose to suppress souls and ghosts. Did the appearance of an additional hole in its nose mean that this ability would become more powerful?

Not knowing whether he should laugh of cry, Han Li decided to look forward to testing this in the future!

As for the other difference in the Weeping Soul Beast, for some unknown reason a crimson pattern depicting an evil spirit had appeared on the fur of it’s back. The evil spirit on its back had a single horn and three eyes. Although it appeared rather faint, it also appeared true to life and gave any onlookers a feeling of malicious pressure.

Silvermoon clicked her tongue in astonishment at the Weeping Soul Beast’s evolution, but she couldn’t offer an explanation on what it was.

Because Han Li had refined the Weeping Soul Pearl, the beast had become far more affectionate with Han Li. It appeared delighted as it rubbed its small furry head on Han Li’s jacket.

Han Li couldn’t help but smile at the small black monkey in his hand. However, he faintly felt that the monkey seemed to possess human-like emotions.

He played with the monkey for a moment with great interest before carefully putting it away in his spirit beast pouch once he saw it yawn from fatigue.

Once Han Li departed from the spirit beast room, he took a look at the neighboring insect room and saw that only several tens of gold-silver Gold Devouring Beetles remained. It appeared they had already finished devouring one another and were about to lay eggs.

Han Li was satisfied to see that these beetles were all slightly larger than before. He then left the insect room and returned to his quiet room for routine cultivation.

When he claimed victory in the selection, the judge had already told him that he was able to receive guidance from a Core Formation cultivator. However, they were to continue to bitterly cultivate before their turn came. The guidance would only last for a few sparse days, and he would be notified by voice transmission talisman once it was his turn.

Han Li wasn’t worried in the slightest about receiving guidance from a Core Formation cultivator. He’d deal with it once he was summoned.

Currently, he was holding the jade spirit well in his hands and was cultivating inside his quiet room. As for the artifact spirit Silvermoon, it was cultivating in the neighboring room inside of the demon fox body.

With that being said, it was rather inconceivable that Silvermoon was able to cultivate in a possessed body.

According to what Silvermoon said, although she had the cultivation equivalent to late Core Formation stage, once she entered the fox body, she possessed the cultivation of a low grade demon beast that had only reached grade one.

As a result, although she could display her astonishing cultivation in the demon fox’s body, she could only maintain it for a very short time. Additionally, as an artifact spirit her cultivation was eternally stagnant. Fortunately, Silvermoon was able to slowly increase the cultivation of the demon fox body over time, making the body her future home.

As a result, Han Li fed a few medicinal pills to Silvermoon’s fox body, allowing her cultivation to rise at an astonishing speed.