Buzz—

As Li Hai’s thoughts stirred, a message suddenly unfolded in his vision:

“Do you want to upgrade the ‘Northern Du Reversal of Fate Profound Skill’ from Layer Zero to Layer Three—Yes/No?”

“Hmm? It actually works!”

Overjoyed, Li Hai immediately chose “Yes.”

Following this, he vaguely felt as though he had plunged into the deepest part of an boundless ocean, surrounded by cold, salty seawater.

This seawater was almost alive, surging in currents and streams, filled with malice, constantly rushing into Li Hai’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, as if wanting to completely cut off his breathing and suffocate him to death.

But at the same time, hundreds of thousands of clear, icy currents, even colder and more frigid than this deep-sea water, suddenly appeared out of thin air around Li Hai and instantly drilled into all the pores throughout his body.

In an instant, these icy currents permeated and penetrated all of Li Hai’s organs, meridians, bones, and even more minute levels.

While penetrating, these currents also thoroughly and profoundly transformed every part of his body, from the inside out.

Whoosh—

It was as if he had experienced a Reincarnation. Li Hai felt that his body and soul had, in a single breath, completely transformed into a fish, into a great Kun roaming the boundless ocean and soaring through the ten-thousand-fathom abyss.

He no longer feared the cold and darkness of the deep sea; instead, he found the vast ocean to be so intimate, full of endless vitality, and this vitality was constantly nourishing him, strengthening him, making him forever unharmed, uninjured, invincible, and fearless.

However, Li Hai knew that all of this was merely an illusion.

There was no ocean at all, and he had not transformed into a Northern Du Kun.

According to the records in the ‘Northern Du’ Cultivation Technique, this was merely a normal phenomenon that occurred when cultivating demonic Wuxia, caused by the influence of memory fragments within the demonic blood.

Once the Cultivation Technique reached Perfection, it would naturally fade away.

Indeed, the next moment, all these illusions suddenly receded and vanished.

At the same time, Li Hai slowly opened his eyes.

And his pupils had turned a deep blue, like the ocean.

“The stages of Demonic Wuxia, from low to high, are successively divided into Nurturing Demonic Seed, Seed Cultivation into Fetus, Fetus Transformation and Soul Alteration, Soul Movement and Body Reform, and Body Tempering into Demon.”

Li Hai grinned widely, “Hahaha, I’ve directly leaped to the fifth stage of Demonic Martial Arts—Body Tempering into Demon! The System is indeed powerful; no need for any Great Kun Blood or secret medicines at all.”

Currently, his physical appearance had not changed much, only his eyes had turned a deep blue.

However, his internal organs, meridians, bones, and even his blood had all completely transformed, becoming far superior to a Mortal’s.

At the same time, this also added two new entries for him—Self-Healing Level 3 and Aquatic Level 2.

“My physical strength… has increased by several times over!”

Li Hai slowly raised his hand, joined his fingers like a Saber, and suddenly chopped down.

Swish—

Instantly, a visible vacuum Saber Qi was chopped out by him, slicing diagonally ten zhang away.

Bang!

The next moment, a stone sculpture leaning against a broken wall in the ancient sect ruins, more than ten zhang away, was sliced through by the vacuum blade, losing its head.

This Move, like an invisible Saber Qi from a Wuxia novel, actually required neither Technique nor secret to activate; it was purely created by unparalleled strength and speed.

To put it bluntly, it was a basic attack skill created by stacking extremely high stats.

Although Li Hai could achieve this effect before, he couldn’t do it as effortlessly as he did now, as easy as breathing.

However, in the trait column of his personal interface, his 【Strong Soul】, 【Finger Claws】, 【Muscular Strength】, and other traits related to physical strength were still only Level 3, and had not reached Level 4.

This led Li Hai to speculate:

“It seems that the gap between each level of a trait is quite significant, so much so that even though my strength has increased several times, it still hasn't reached Level 4.”

After a moment of contemplation, he turned and called out to Qiu Fangzheng: “The matter here is concluded, let’s go, Fangzheng.”

“No.”

To his surprise, Qiu Fangzheng refused, “My Lord, you go, I… will not.”

“Hmm?” Li Hai asked, puzzled, “Why?”

“My Lord.”

Qiu Fangzheng’s jaw moved, “Just now, while you were reading the book, I don’t know why, but I heard a profound sound. That sound told me… that my hatred is gone, my murderous aura dissipated, and I can… undergo Reincarnation.”

After saying this, his skeletal face suddenly blurred, miraculously transforming into the fleshy face of a normal person.

“Reincarnation?”

Li Hai looked at Qiu Fangzheng’s transformation, his expression stunned.

In fact, he had indeed seen relevant information about the Reincarnation of evil spirits in the warehouse of the Demon Slayer Division outpost in Niujiao Town.

But it stated that the Reincarnation of evil spirits was extremely rare, so rare that not even one would appear in the entire Human Realm in a hundred years.

The reason for this was that the hatred and malevolence of evil spirits were deep and extremely difficult to resolve.

Even as time passed and more killings occurred, their hatred would become increasingly intense, eventually solidifying completely, leaving no possibility of resolving even a trace.

Unless the ghost was naturally kind-hearted in life, and even after a tragic death, despite being filled with resentment, still remained benevolent and never indiscriminately killed.

Otherwise, the so-called Reincarnation of evil spirits would merely be an empty promise.

But now, it seemed this was not an empty promise.

Because Qiu Fangzheng precisely fit the description in the data.

He was a good person in life, so good that even after being tragically killed by Zhou Rui’gen in the deep mountains and transforming into an evil spirit, he never succumbed to the vicious nature of ghosts to harm or eat people. He even kindly protected Zheng Dashan’s family.

And now Li Hai had helped him avenge himself and helped him resolve his longing and worry for his younger sister, Qiu Fanglan. Didn’t this… fulfill all the preconditions for an evil spirit’s Reincarnation?

Having understood this, Li Hai said no more, only sighing, “This is indeed a good thing. You are finally free and can be a person again.”

“Yes.” Qiu Fangzheng nodded, “My Lord, you are right, being a person is better than being a ghost.”

As he spoke, his ghostly form visibly began to blur, and the thick resentment and malice that had always clung to him slowly dissipated and vanished completely.

It was also at this moment that Qiu Fangzheng slightly raised his head as if sensing something, and suddenly said:

“My Lord, in the ethereal realm, I sense… that I might be reborn within the borders of the Jing Dynasty. If you ever need me in the future, you can seek me out. With your Divine Ability, you will surely find me, and at that time, I will serve you with all my heart and soul, even if it means going through fire and water!”

Hearing this, Li Hai fell silent, then raised his voice and said:

“Don’t worry, I will definitely find you, Brother Qiu. You are much older than me, so there’s no need to call me My Lord anymore. Let’s address each other as brothers.”

Qiu Fangzheng was startled by this, then burst into hearty laughter: “Good, good, good! It is truly my great fortune to meet a hero like Brother Li. If there were no wine here, I would have to get drunk with Brother Li for three days straight!”

Li Hai smiled upon hearing this: “No rush. When you grow to be seven or eight years old and can drink, I’ll find you again for a grand drinking session.”

“Hahaha, good.” Qiu Fangzheng laughed heartily, “Then this drinking session, let’s schedule it for my next life. Farewell, Brother Li.”

With that, he vanished like smoke, completely disappearing into the underground cave.

Li Hai alone stood with his hands behind his back, lost in thought.