Thinking of the rumors that the Corpse Xiao's entire body was impervious to gold and iron, and could only be slowly refined by True Fire or sealed using the Soul Extraction Technique, Han Li couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.
The Corpse Xiao before him clearly hadn't truly died—it was merely temporarily restrained by the unknown golden talisman. He estimated that it would absolutely not be a short time before the Corpse Xiao recovered its vitality.
With this thought, Han Li's gaze shifted to the jade box that had fallen beside the Corpse Xiao, and a trace of suspicion flashed through his eyes.
Since the Corpse Xiao had been suppressed here and not refined into ashes, it must have been sealed using the soul extraction method.
Judging by how desperately the Corpse Xiao seemed to want this jade box, and the fact that it was sealed with a golden talisman specifically designed to counter it, this had to be the Corpse Xiao's essence soul.
But if that were the case, why could the Corpse Xiao's physical body still move freely and speak to him, and even demonstrate such high intelligence in trying to trick him into opening the jade box? Could it be that the soul extraction hadn't been thorough, and remnants of its soul still remained in the body?
Furthermore, how did the Corpse Xiao come to possess a treasure like the Spirit Eye Jade? Had it obtained this treasure only after being trapped here?
With these doubts crowding his mind, Han Li furrowed his brow, his head full of unsolvable mysteries.
But after turning the matter over briefly, he simply stopped torturing himself with these unanswerable questions and began scanning his surroundings, intending to find a way to escape.
The True Fire capable of refining the Corpse Xiao required at least Nascent Soul stage cultivation or above, and without months of sustained refinement, it couldn't be done satisfactorily.
Even if Han Li had such cultivation, he wouldn't be fool enough to go about slaying demons and eliminating evil.
All he needed to do was leave this place far behind and let the Corpse Xiao continue to be imprisoned here all alone.
As for whether some other unlucky person might stumble in here in the future and continue to be deceived by it—that was not something he needed to concern himself with.
After all, if the Corpse Xiao ever broke free and showed itself, the experts of the great sects would naturally deal with it.
But after his gaze had swept around the room, it returned once more to the jade box.
After staring at the golden talisman for a few moments and hesitating briefly, he suddenly extended his hand and drew the jade box toward him with a gesture, then calmly stowed it in his storage bag without changing expression.
The runes drawn on the golden talisman were truly extraordinarily peculiar—he planned to take it back and study it carefully first.
As for whether he would actually open the box, naturally he would only do so when his Nascent Soul was fully formed and he felt absolutely certain there was no risk.
If there truly was the Corpse Xiao's essence soul or some other fierce specter inside, he would have the Evil-Repelling Divine Lightning and the Crying Soul Beast to counter it, and with his cultivation at that time, he would have nothing to fear in the slightest.
Han Li shook the jade ruyi in his hand, and the light barrier around his body vanished abruptly as a small yellow wolf leaped out.
He prepared to use the Earth Escape Technique to tunnel directly out of this stone chamber. After all, no matter how hard and rare this Blue-Gold Stone might be, it should still fall under the category of earth and stone, and shouldn't pose an obstacle to the Earth Escape Technique.
With his plan set, he was about to command the small wolf artifact spirit when his expression suddenly changed. He turned his head and looked toward the motionless Corpse Xiao.
After tilting his head to think for a moment, he sighed, walked several steps to the Corpse Xiao, and lifted his foot for a kick.
The Corpse Xiao's body flipped over, revealing an inconspicuous hollow, and in that hollow, the Snow Cloud Fox sat with its jet-black eyes, gazing at Han Li pitifully.
Han Li smiled faintly and murmured: "You're quite clever—you certainly know how to find a hiding spot."
After saying this, Han Li swept his hand, and a wave of cyan light rolled toward the small fox.
The white fox seemed to sense danger and hastily leaped up, trying to flee.
But Han Li's cyan light was incredibly fast—the fox barely managed to leap into the air before it was swept up by the azure glow and quickly drawn into Han Li's hand.
Han Li picked up the white fox by the scruff of its neck with one hand, turned around, and without further hesitation headed toward the stone wall behind him.
As he walked, he muttered unconsciously to himself: "You little thing, you're certainly resilient—not only were you completely unharmed just now, but you somehow managed to survive all this time cooped up with a creature like the Corpse Xiao. Truly unbelievable!"
"Huh!... Unbelievable?" The moment those words left his mouth, Han Li suddenly remembered something and stopped in his tracks.
Then, his expression changing drastically, he waved his hand and violently hurled the white fox in his hand toward the stone wall opposite.
But in that very instant, a flash of venomous hatred passed through the demon fox's eyes.