Chapter 14: Qi Zixie's Wintry Soul
By now, the old man was beyond shocked, but was managing to keep it hidden. If his opponent saw such an expression, it might have emboldened her.
If that happened, it would be entirely possible for her confidence to grow and her power to follow suit. At that point, he did not wish to test whether or not her power could truly rise further.
"You are right," Qi Zixie suddenly spoke. Even she was not certain why she spoke. It was like, for a while, her voice was not her own.
She began paying close attention, temporarily, to her body. She sensed weak vibrations in her core that seemed to match the words being spoken.
"You are not like those cockroaches. At least cockroaches are smart enough to flee in the face of defeat."
While she appeared stone-cold and confident, she was panicking in her mind. She did not know what caused her to say this. She was unsure whether or not she could even defeat the old man.
Her fears worsened when he frowned, his angry expression growing more intense alongside his monstrous aura.
"Insolent brat!"
He was about to attack her, but she suddenly appeared right before him. Cold wind and flakes of ice danced around her body, bathing both her and her sword in blue and white.
Her sword was already making its way to the old man's shoulder. Since he had not been prepared, he took even longer to react.
Still, he was much too fast.
Though it appeared that her icy sword would sever his arm at the shoulder, his palm came from below the blade and slapped it backward.
Still, he kept his other arm inside his robe.
The bane-devil's power was much too great and Qi Zixie was knocked back. She struggled to keep her sword from flying away with both hands above her head, gripping the hilt tightly.
Devilish energy bathed the land as another palm came smashing toward her chest.
She reacted with haste, calling upon a sudden burst of strength to pull her sword back down to meet that palm. This time, she had become even stronger.
The flakes of ice around her had grown into crystals, each of them glowing with bright blue light and releasing bone-chilling coldness.
As they slowly grew in size, her energy became saw an explosive increase in power. The tip of her blade was blanketed in a freezing cold that threatened to freeze all of the natural world.
Once again, sword met palm.
The following clash of force exploded outward, sending terrifying waves that parted the blood lake to their right.
The clouds above cleared, and the earth itself diverged just barely beneath their feet.
Her energy only grew colder and stronger, leaving her at less of a disadvantage than before. The old man withdrew his palm, saw it had become covered in a thin layer of frost, then attacked again.
This time, an almost entirely black blood energy erupted out of his body. He immediately became like an ethereal spirit, fading from existence somewhat.
Still, his attack was all too real. It met her blade again and again, causing tremors that grew in strength as time passed.
With each parry, her a tiny piece of her blade would be broken off. It was now covered in nicks and cracks, ready to shatter at any time.
Noticing that, the old man brought out his other hand from his robes, clapping them together and unleasing even more of his energy.
"Devil-God's Punishment!"
He slammed his hands onto the ground, his spiritual energy filling the sky in an instant.
His intent was clear; she had kept up with him for long enough. He would unleash a powerful move and finally put an end to the stalemate.
Qi Zixie watched as a massive hand materialized in the sky, looking like it was one with the Bane-devil Grotto itself. All the while, her energy grew in power and her soul grew ever colder.
That hand came smashing down onto her, spurred on by the old man's energy. It had appeared a blink and was already headed straight for her.
At some point, she had been able to sense his cultivation. What shocked her was not the question of why such an expert had appeared, but how she was not already dead.
This was because the old man before her emitted the spiritual energy fluctuations of someone in the latter stages of Soul Nourishing.
This was almost an entire realm above her, yet she was still able to fight him evenly.
When she looked at the hand above her, however, she began to feel the pressure once more.
Her energy had finally reached a peak. Her channels began to feel full, as if they were about to burst. The energy was too much for them to handle.
Not because of a problem with the quality of her channels, but because of her level of cultivation.
It was already a miracle that she could withstand energy strong enough to fight against someone in the Soul Nourishing realm.
She snorted coldly, ignoring her growing disadvantage. The giant palm grew increasingly closer with every fraction of a second that passed by.
Qi Zixie summoned all of her power, even the manifestation behind her grew to its full size. The towering illusion of a horn stood behind her, piercing into the sky and, quite possibly, the heavens beyond it.
The hand passed through it, as it was not a corporeal object, and was now a few feet away.
At the last moment, her sword brightened and her aura spiked. She brought the sword to her side, crouched and then slashed upward, all in less than a second.
The power and speed behind that strike was enough to cause a loud boom to echo throughout the Grotto.
Her sword struck the palm, her energy surging and waves of cold energy spreading out. The old man laughed mockingly and sneered at her.
"Die!"
At that instant, her sword was overbearingly powerful. The hand continued on its way down, shattering her sword energy and, ultimately, her sword as well.
Qi Zixie surrendered to her fate, her final thoughts being of how she had failed her Lord.
At that moment, a burst of hot air thawed the land.
The sudden rise in temperature was off-putting and unexpected, briefly disturbing the old man.
A dark violet flame appeared on the large hand before it could slam into Qi Zixie. The illusory hand was instantly consumed and reduced to atoms, leaving the old man in shock.
Qi Zixie had passed out, though her body was still cold and pale. Her energy raged within her, showing that it was still actively strengthening her.
Her soul was also acting strangely, only becoming colder. Her body was even colder than ice.
Yuan Zhen had arrived, holding the unconscious Qi Zixie in his arms. His clothes were torn all over, exposing his rosy skin and muscular body.
As he held her, he had to rely on his energy so as not to suffer frostbite. Her body was bitingly cold, amazing him. He was briefly surprised, but then smiled.
"Well done, Zixie. Your breakthrough into Soul Nourishing will be all but perfect. The only imperfection will remain until I cut down this ignorant bumpkin."
The old man stood up, dusting his clothes.
His eyes darted over to where the massive ghost image had appeared in the sky. Something told him that the young man before him was responsible.
"Ignorant bumpkin? Do you refer to yourself, boy?" The old man's energy once more surged, gathering on the surface of his hands.
"Anyone who dares harm one of Yuan Zhen's people is either unbearably stupid or foolishly courageous. Either way, they are a fool."
The old man's eyes became saucers suddenly. They were opened so widely that even the blood vessels in them were fully exposed.
However, he quickly settled.
"Yuan Zhen is dead; you are not him. You are merely some brat in the Spirit Manifestation realm!"
"How shameful it must be, to be such an idiot." Yuan Zhen's red eyes flashed a violet color, but it was far brighter and more powerful than before.
"Ghost-Devouring Soul Art!"
Surprisingly, it was the old man who cried out in shock. Yuan Zhen had only just activated his strange technique when the old man turned.
He was already attempting to flee.
In truth, because he was a spirit, Yuan Zhen's technique was his bane. Despite his physical appearance, bane-devils were, at their cores, spirits.
Yuan Zhen's technique was one aimed directly at the soul. Where a physical being would have an added layer of protection, bane-devils did not. They were most susceptible to soul arts.
Before the old bane-devil could flee too far, he stopped in place. Once again, a terrifying image of a ghost rose into the sky. However, this one was considerably larger.
This was the bane-devil's soul which, in actuality, was its true self. A bane-devil was just a soul.
"Good. Your soul is more powerful than all nine of those idiots. It will serve me well."
The ghost in the sky wailed. The old man had long faded into nothingness as the bane-devil was forced to reveal itself.
"How could you possess this art!? Only one bane-devil learned it, and he died with the method to use it!"
Yuan Zhen sneered, shaking his head.
"Idiots will be idiots."
The ghost in the sky wailed once more, the despair in its voice even more clear. Yuan Zhen remained entirely indifferent, his eyes still shining that violet color.
"No! Yuan Zhen died! He died, he died, he died, he died!!!"
"There is no way he is alive! I refuse to believe it! That nightmare-- That demon-- That heartless beast that slaughtered my kind for years! He is dead! He deserves to be dead and he is! I do not believe you!!!"
Yuan Zhen frowned, then proceeded to suck that soul into his eyes. The eyes were the windows to the soul, so when he absorbed that bane-devil into his eyes it quickly poured into his core.
Though the bane-devil would have to be refined, Yuan Zhen's soul was still instantly stronger than it had been a few moments ago.
"How odd. Only at Soul Nourishing?"
Yuan Zhen looked around, scrutinizing. "It seems that the Overlords have abandoned their posts. Even the Bane-devil Grotto has undergone such changes in a mere century."
He sighed. Since he arrived, he had not moved. With a single, powerful and mysterious glance, he had ended the existence of a powerful Soul Nourishing expert.
However, that was only as easy as it was because of bane-devils' innate vulnerability to strong soul arts.
When he had been under attack by the merged spirit, the Ghost-Devouring Soul Art showed itself. At a crucial moment, it activated on its own and protected his soul. In doing so, it provided him with a way to properly use the soul art.
It seemed that he had grossly underestimated the capabilities of the Ghost-Devouring Soul Art.
In the past, Yuan Zhen had consumed souls of weak humans, but never the more powerful among them.
This was understandable. It was common knowledge that consuming stronger souls could lead to myriad complications. Now, he realized that the Ghost-Devouring Soul Art could entirely nullify this.
His amazement at the art's mysteriousness was only further solidified the more he studied it.
In his past life, when Yuan Zhen had used the soul art to devour a soul, it would strengthen his own soul by only a little bit. That was because he consciously used that devoured soul to bolster his bloodlust.
He had realized, now, that his innate bloodlust had been transferred to one of his spirit manifestations, leaving his soul 'blank.'
Now, no matter how hard he tried, he could not strengthen his bloodlust by devouring souls with the art. If he tried, the Ghost-Devouring Soul Art would take over and force his soul to be strengthened.
Yuan Zhen could not escape the thought that a prerequisite for 'awakening' the true art was a potent bloodlust.
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