Chapter 1687: Cross-Dimensional Demonic Thoughts

"Brother Han, please take out the demonic armor," the Crystal Clan woman said solemnly, turning her head towards Han Li.

Han Li naturally had no objection. He immediately flipped his palm, and a jade box, about a foot in size, appeared. Two restriction talismans were affixed to its surface. With a flick of his sleeve over the box, the lid instantly opened, and a surge of black energy billowed out.

Within the black energy, a half-foot-sized purple battle armor became visible. The armor was not only grotesque in design, with several sharp spikes protruding from its shoulders and knees, but its surface was also covered in black patterns, emanating an overwhelming demonic aura. However, there was a conspicuous large hole in its chest, with its edges shattered.

Upon seeing the black energy swirling and rising from the demonic armor's surface, Qianqian's expression subtly changed. With a wave of her delicate hand, a layer of crystal-clear light suddenly enveloped her before she pointed remotely at the box. The purple battle armor seemed to be drawn by an unseen force, lightly floating directly towards the magical formation.

Before it reached the center, the Crystal Clan woman raised one hand, and a light silver incantation flew out. It vanished in a flash, disappearing into the bronze cauldron. Immediately, a bell-like clang resonated. The dark cyan flames on the bronze cauldron's surface surged, instantly engulfing the black demonic armor and drawing it into the cauldron. Following this, a thunderous rumbling sound emanated from within the cauldron, and the intricate patterns on its outer wall glowed with a dark sheen.

At the same time, the entire formation below churned with black energy, and pale silver runes appeared in various places. As soon as they emerged, they surged towards the cauldron, disappearing without a trace within it. Then, Qianqian softly chanted a spell, forming a hand seal with one hand. The ground near the formation shook violently, and suddenly, dazzling yellow lights flashed at the four corners, revealing deep yellow stone platforms. These platforms were only about ten feet tall, but each was incredibly smooth, with a small, dark banner inserted into it. Beneath the banners were various bottles and jars.

Seeing this, Han Li's expression shifted slightly but quickly returned to normal. As the chanting continued, the four banners grew from small to immense, instantly reaching a size of five or six *zhang* (tens of feet). Only then did Qianqian release her hand seal and address Han Li, "Fellow Daoist Han, let's begin. During the repair process, Brother Han only needs to follow my instructions and inject his magical power into those four demonic banners in a timely manner."

"No problem," Han Li nodded without hesitation. The Crystal Clan woman smiled with satisfaction and raised her hand, pointing again at the spell disk suspended high above. Instantly, a long cry emanated from the spell disk, spewing forth countless incantations that dispersed into the air. The howling of dark clouds resumed, pressing down heavily. The surrounding spatial barriers also filled with gray mist. In mere moments, Han Li and Qianqian's figures were completely engulfed by the swirling mist. Only the occasional roar from deep within the mist could be heard.

Time passed, and three days went by in the blink of an eye. The shop door suddenly opened, and a figure with a calm expression walked out. He casually hailed a beast-drawn carriage and unhurriedly departed from the street.

Inside the shop's private space, Qianqian stood at the edge of the formation, gazing blankly at the bronze cauldron before her. The surface of the cauldron was now covered with dense, fine cracks. The formation below was equally desolate, with a significant portion completely destroyed. The black crystals embedded around it had also turned into piles of shattered debris. Above her head, the Kirin phantom had shrunk to only about a foot in size, its eyes flickering as it pondered something.

"This demonic armor likely has quite a background. Such a thing would never happen with the armor of an ordinary extraterrestrial demon," the Kirin phantom finally said with a sigh after a long while.

"Indeed. After this demonic armor was repaired, it actually attracted the distant divine sense of a demon from another realm, almost allowing it to condense a demonic body using the demonic energy here," Qianqian said, a trace of lingering fear flashing across her face.

"However, it's fortunate that this young man, Han, possessed the Evil-Dispelling Divine Lightning. With a single strike, he dispersed the condensed demonic energy; otherwise, we would have been in considerable trouble," the Kirin said solemnly.

"But for that demon to be able to forcibly descend its divine sense across realms, its cultivation must be comparable to that of a true spirit. Does this demonic armor have some other secret? Yet, after repairing it, I didn't discover anything," Qianqian said, frowning.

"The time was too short; I couldn't discern anything immediately. But had I known this, this demonic armor absolutely should not have been given to others. In fact, after repairing it just now, you could have found an excuse to keep it and exchanged it for other treasures," the Azure Kirin suddenly suggested.

"I wanted to do that. However, although that person appeared calm after dispersing the demonic energy, I could sense that if I had uttered a single 'no' at that moment, Fellow Daoist Han would have immediately attacked me without hesitation. His divine abilities are almost on par with those of an early-stage Saint Race being, and most of the life-saving treasures I refined were used up in the Demonic Gold Mountain Range. I had no confidence whatsoever in escaping with my life if he had decided to act ruthlessly," the Crystal Clan woman replied with a bitter smile.

"It's a pity that I also suffered significant vital energy loss in the Demonic Gold Mountain Range. Otherwise, with the spatial restrictions here, our combined efforts might not have truly been unable to keep this item," the Azure Kirin said, somewhat dejectedly.

"Never mind. Even if this demonic armor is incredibly profound and defies heaven, it is still a demonic artifact. Even if I kept it, I couldn't refine or control it. Instead, I would offend such a formidable being with whom I only just managed to establish a good relationship. It would be more trouble than it's worth," the Crystal Clan woman said, her expression shifting between gloom and clarity for a while before she took a deep breath.

"Heh heh, your thinking isn't wrong. Let's just consider it a boon for that young man. As for whether there are other secrets within it, that will depend on his fortune. It's just a bit regrettable; this demonic armor could have originally been a great opportunity for you," the Kirin phantom said with a slight sigh after a moment of silence.

"Opportunities? With you around, would I ever be lacking them?" Qianqian seemed to have truly come to terms with the situation and let out a soft laugh.

"That's true. What you lack now isn't opportunities, but rather the swift improvement of your cultivation and divine abilities. Otherwise, no matter how many opportunities you have, if you can't grasp them, it's all in vain. All right, let's not discuss this matter for now. Have you found what I asked you to investigate?" the Kirin phantom suddenly asked, changing the subject.

"Not yet. The whereabouts of that item are reportedly known only to a few Saint-tier old monsters, making it quite tricky," Qianqian replied, a look of difficulty on her face.

"Then you'll need to put in more effort. Without that item, even if I took you to that ancient ruin, you wouldn't be able to enter it," the Azure Kirin said calmly.

"I know that. I'll find another way, to see if I can buy or borrow this item from the disciples or relatives of those old monsters," Qianqian slowly replied after a moment of thoughtful contemplation, her eyes flickering.

While the Crystal Clan woman and the Kirin phantom were discussing their grand plans, Han Li was on his way back to his cave mansion. Inside the beast-drawn carriage, he appeared to be sitting calmly, but in reality, his heart was a tempest of churning thoughts. He had never imagined that merely repairing a demonic armor could almost lead to such a major incident.

Suddenly, he moved one hand and reached into his other sleeve, feeling something cool and smooth. Tucked away in his sleeve was a small green jade box. Inside it was the repaired extraterrestrial demonic armor. However, the surface of the jade box was covered with over a dozen restriction talismans. Han Li's fingers gently brushed over the jade box's surface, and he couldn't help but recall the events of that time.

The repair process for the demonic armor that day went exceptionally smoothly for the first half. However, during the latter half, various troubles, both large and small, began to appear consecutively. Either the formation would inexplicably stop working, or cracks would appear in the bronze cauldron without reason. Fortunately, with their combined efforts, these issues were eventually resolved smoothly. What they never expected was that just as the demonic armor completed its final repair process and flew out of the cauldron, a cold, powerful divine sense suddenly forced its way through the spatial barrier, instantly descending into this small space and heading straight for the demonic armor without a word.

Because it happened so suddenly, Qianqian was visibly stunned for a moment. Fortunately, Han Li was not seeing such cross-realm divine sense for the first time. He immediately shot out a bolt of Evil-Dispelling Divine Lightning, scattering a significant portion of the divine sense and causing it to recoil. Logically, seeing that it hadn't succeeded, this divine sense should have immediately broken through space and fled. However, whether the owner of the divine sense was absolutely determined to obtain this demonic armor, or if they simply didn't regard mere Void Refinement stage cultivators as worth their attention, it surprisingly did not retreat. Instead, it plunged once more into the pure demonic energy within the formation. All the demonic energy then converged, and a grotesque demonic creature was about to directly condense a demonic body.

But how could Han Li let it succeed? Alarmed, he simply unleashed all the remaining Evil-Dispelling Divine Lightning from his body at once, giving the demon a thousand-bolt strike to the head. Pity this demon: although its true body's divine abilities were unfathomable, and even its nascent demonic body, formed by a fragmented divine sense, could withstand a dozen attacks from the Evil-Dispelling Divine Lightning, when hundreds upon thousands of golden electric arcs surged forth from Han Li's hand, the demon's divine sense and its condensed demonic body were instantly reduced to nothingness by the golden lightning, without even a chance to cry out.

As a result, both Han Li and Qianqian naturally realized that this demonic armor was extraordinary, seemingly possessing a much greater origin than they had anticipated. Han Li, of course, also noticed the Crystal Clan woman's momentary hesitation afterward. His expression remained calm, but he secretly became highly vigilant, watching to see if she would go back on her word. As it turned out, despite Qianqian's clear reluctance, she still allowed Han Li to successfully put the demonic armor into the jade box, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

This naturally increased Han Li's favorable impression of the Crystal Clan woman. However, he didn't linger there. After expressing his gratitude, he left her space and boarded the beast-drawn carriage. Now, as he gently ran his fingers over the jade box in his sleeve, his curiosity about the repaired demonic armor grew even stronger.