Chapter 1798: Awakening

White runes surged from the blood pool, shimmering as they vanished into the crystal coffin.

Immediately, a ball of white light condensed within the coffin, instantly morphing into a vague white figure.

Upon seeing this, Xu Jiao, without a moment's hesitation, flicked his sleeve forward.

In an instant, a small blood-red bottle flew out. After a brief hover, it suspended motionless before the white-robed figure.

Xu Jiao took a deep breath. With a raised hand, his five fingers rapidly moved, forming a series of incantation gestures that vanished into the blood-red bottle.

The bottle's surface immediately glowed with a crystalline blood-red light. After a slight tremor, its lid flew open on its own.

With a 'poof,' a single strand of blood shot out from the bottle's mouth. Propelled by Xu Jiao's incantation, it swiftly darted towards the crystal coffin hovering above the blood pool.

It vanished in a flash!

The blood strand effortlessly entered the crystal coffin.

Then, a bizarre phenomenon occurred.

The white figure inside the blood-red crystal coffin, the instant the blood strand entered, seemed to be stained red and abruptly transformed into a deep crimson hue.

Witnessing this, the surrounding Xu family cultivators seemed to realize the critical moment had arrived. Spiritual light erupted from their bodies, and their chanting grew louder.

As for Xu Yuan and the two other Void Refinement cultivators, they furiously urged the blood-red banners before them.

Within the blood-red aura above the magic array, vivid crimson runes emerged, ceaselessly swirling around the blood-red crystal coffin.

Concurrently, a shrill wailing sound suddenly intensified from the blood-red vortex in the pool!

Dense bundles of individual blood strands shot out from the blood pool, instantly vanishing as they entered the crystal coffin and rapidly coiled around the blood-red figure.

As such a multitude of blood strands simultaneously surged inward, the formerly vague blood-red figure transformed into a human-shaped blood cocoon. With the continuous influx of blood strands from below, it steadily grew larger and more distinct.

In just a moment, the blood cocoon not only attained the size of a true person but also faintly revealed features such as eyes and a nose at its head.

Viewed from a distance, it appeared truly bizarre.

However, a closer spiritual scan would reveal that even as more blood strands continuously surged into the cocoon, the strands that had coiled earlier began to rapidly whiten and wither from the inside out, turning to ash and vanishing.

As time slowly passed, despite the Xu family cultivators furiously urging the magic array, the quantity of blood strands spurting from the blood pool remained largely unchanged.

Under these circumstances, the human-shaped blood cocoon's volume not only failed to increase but began to slowly shrink. With countless blood strands writhing, the cocoon's face even contorted in an expression of pain.

The expressions of Xu Jiao and the other high-ranking Xu family members drastically changed as they desperately channeled their internal magic power.

However, all they could manage was to prevent the blood cocoon within the crystal coffin from deteriorating further.

After a slightly longer period, the Xu family cultivators' faces turned exceptionally pale, appearing as if their magical power had been completely overdrawn.

Seeing this situation, Xu Jiao was filled with anxiety and could no longer resist glancing towards Han Li in the corner of the hall.

He saw Han Li still sitting cross-legged and motionless. With one hand gently supporting his chin, he was observing the others, a thoughtful expression surprisingly on his face.

"Senior Han!" Xu Jiao cried out, his voice tinged with supplication, clearly intending to add more pleas.

However, Han Li seemed to anticipate what the white-robed man intended to say and interrupted him before he could continue.

"Fellow Daoist, there is no need to be anxious. Since I have agreed to assist, I naturally have a plan in mind."

Following this, he unhurriedly rose to his feet, abruptly raised a hand, and patted the top of his head.

With a flash of black aura, a half-foot-tall black figure instantly appeared.

This small figure, clad in black battle armor, bare-fisted, and expressionless, was precisely Han Li's second Nascent Soul.

Next, Han Li lifted his sleeve again, and a ball of golden light shot forth. With a flicker, it transformed into a small golden beast.

This small beast exuded a formidable aura, its eyes unusually cold; it was indeed the Leopard-Scaled Beast.

Upon seeing this Nascent Soul and beast, Xu Jiao and the other cultivators were all inwardly startled.

However, before they could react, Han Li flicked his sleeve and softly gave a command.

Immediately, the demonic Nascent Soul above his head formed hand seals, swayed its body, and abruptly vanished from its original spot.

The next moment, Old Man Xu Huo felt a whooshing sound above his head as the black Nascent Soul eerily flickered out of thin air.

The old man's expression subtly changed. Several treasures within him immediately stirred, and he became exceptionally vigilant.

However, the demonic Nascent Soul completely ignored the old man below. Instead, its two small hands shot out, remotely striking the blood banner before it.

With two 'poofs,' two black beams of light shot forth, instantly merging into the blood banner.

The banner, which had begun to dim due to the old man's flagging magical power, instantly hummed, and its blood-red light surged forth again, becoming far more dazzling than before.

Xu Huo was startled at first, then, overjoyed, he began to change his hand seals to cooperate with the substantial aid above his head.

Concurrently, beside another elder, Xu Yan, a blurry figure flickered, and the Leopard-Scaled Beast's small body also appeared.

As this beast opened its mouth, the pure spiritual energy within it also transformed into a hazy golden beam of light, striking yet another blood banner.

As for Han Li himself, after taking a seemingly ordinary step forward, a flash of bluish-white electrical arcs appeared beneath his feet, and in the next instant, he instantly traversed dozens of zhang, appearing before Xu Yuan, the Xu family's Grand Elder.

Before the other party could even register surprise, Han Li extended a hand from his sleeve and lightly flicked a finger at the third blood banner.

A point of green light erupted from his fingertip, instantly transforming into a fist-sized green light lotus that shot forth after a flash.

The next moment, the green lotus, like a phantom, merged into the blood banner.

The blood banner immediately trembled violently, swelling by more than a full circle amidst surging blood-red light. Vivid crimson runes then poured out from the banner like a tide.

Han Li's other fingers also flicked out in succession.

Green lotuses shot forth, silently merging into the blood banner one after another, transforming into streams of pure spiritual energy.

Xu Yuan, who had originally struggled to activate the banner, suddenly felt the pressure ease considerably.

He was instantly filled with a mix of surprise and joy.

At this moment, the blood-red vortex in the blood pool, which had been rotating, ceased its shrill wailing as the magic array's power significantly increased. However, the vortex instantly expanded by more than double its size, nearly occupying most of the entire pool.

The blood strands spurting from the pool were initially individual threads, but after the immense transformation of the vortex, they unexpectedly turned into dense bundles of blood strands, wildly shooting forth amidst the flickering blood-red light.

The blood cocoon inside the crystal coffin, which had begun to shrink, suddenly seemed to be infused with new vitality. It not only quickly regained its original volume but also, with the blood strands writhing across its surface, increasingly began to resemble the graceful form of a woman.

At this point, Xu Jiao let out a joyous shout:

"Begin solidifying the blood body!"

As this command was uttered, the Xu family cultivators, led by Xu Yuan and the two other Void Refinement cultivators, changed their hand seals.

The blood-red runes that had surrounded the crystal coffin suddenly surged madly into the coffin, then vanished in a flash as they merged into the blood cocoon.

After absorbing these runes, the human-shaped blood cocoon's surface, illuminated by circulating spiritual light, surprisingly became crystalline and smooth, gradually solidifying.

After the time it takes to steep a cup of tea, the human-shaped blood cocoon completely transformed into an exceptionally vivid crimson statue-like object, suspended motionless within the crystal coffin.

"It's complete!"

Seeing this, Xu Jiao let out a long breath, then, taking the lead, ceased his incantation.

The other Xu family cultivators naturally followed suit, ceasing their actions as well.

The entire magic array's spiritual light immediately receded, dimming and ceasing its operation.

Only then did the cultivators rise from the ground, one by one, turning their gazes towards the blood-red crystal coffin suspended in the air.

Xu Jiao and the other high-ranking Xu family members stared fixedly at the object within the coffin, their eyes unblinking.

At this point, Han Li, with a flicker of his spiritual sense, recalled the demonic Nascent Soul and the Leopard-Scaled Beast.

After they silently flew back, they mysteriously vanished into his sleeve with a flash of light.

Only then did Han Li also turn his gaze with great interest towards the space above the blood pool.

He observed the surface of the blood-red statue within the crystal coffin, where crystalline light flowed erratically. Suddenly, two soft 'pop' sounds emanated, and the area where the statue's eyes should have been tightly closed abruptly cracked open inch by inch, revealing two empty sockets.

Beneath these sockets, two vivid crimson eyes were revealed. With a slight turn, they unexpectedly emitted an otherworldly light that captivated the soul.

Han Li's expression subtly shifted as he witnessed this scene, but he quickly became impassive again.

Aside from him, the entire hall fell silent. Every Xu family cultivator watched the transformation within the crystal coffin, not daring to even breathe.

The initial two soft sounds seemed to be merely the beginning.

After that pair of blood-red eyes scanned once and then closed again, in the moments that followed, the entire blood-red statue, like a fragile porcelain object, developed countless fine cracks amidst a continuous series of crisp sounds.

Then, with a pleasant hum, the solidified layer on the statue's surface instantly crumbled into countless fragments that fell away.

Once these fragments transformed into a wisp of blood mist and vanished into thin air, an incomparably beautiful female form emerged within the crystal coffin.

Both the form's slender legs and taut abdomen exuded a fatal attraction to men. Its skin, smooth and flawless as jade, and its pristine face rendered the physique utterly perfect.

The woman herself had her eyes tightly closed and her arms crossed over her chest, concealing much of the even more breathtaking sight. This caused many male cultivators in the hall to involuntarily swallow.

This was only possible because the Xu family cultivators in the hall were at least at the Nascent Soul stage, their self-control far surpassing that of ordinary cultivators. Otherwise, it is highly probable that many would have immediately displayed even more unseemly behavior.

Before Xu Jiao and the others could take any action, a blood-red aura suddenly flashed around the woman's body, and a set of exquisite and elegant crimson palace robes appeared out of thin air upon her form.

Then, with a flutter of her long eyelashes, the woman slowly opened her beautiful eyes. A pair of blood-red pupils appeared before everyone, gleaming with emotionless cold light.