Volume 2, Chapter 102 – Different (1)

【What is this?】

The same thought flashed almost simultaneously through Bai Xiang’s mind and the black shadow’s consciousness.

The instant Bai Xiang saw the shadow, her vision doubled and blurred, and a wave of nausea rose in her chest.

As for the black shadow, he was astonished to find that this “soul avatar” had actually been shredded by that “invisible sword-Qi” to a shocking degree—by his rough estimate, only about one-third of its original mass remained.

And this “soul avatar” was not easy to condense. First, he had to use a soul-suppressing treasure to seal a sliver of his true spirit, carve the corresponding patterns into the vessel, then use that as a base to infiltrate and saturate Marrow-Washing Pills, scatter the pellets in large quantities, and finally gather the remnants of ten thousand souls to refine one.

Once refined, he could use that sliver of true spirit to directly descend his consciousness into it. In terms of combat strength, it was roughly equivalent to the fourth turn of Core Tribulation, but in terms of weirdness, even a Divine Fetus realm cultivator couldn’t compare.

Because if you wanted to harm a “soul avatar”, normal methods simply wouldn’t do. Only arts of great fiend, great evil, or great righteousness could have any effect.

No matter how powerful a Divine Fetus cultivator was, if they couldn’t touch the avatar, it was useless.

This was also why, even at Xiang Xian’s level, she still harbored extreme wariness toward Yaosui that targeted the soul. Any method connected to the soul could be said to contain great peril.

His reaction, at least, was very fast. Realizing the loss to his “soul avatar”, he immediately abandoned any thought of speaking to Bai Xiang, and instead used sword-Qi to shred and scatter the black mist, turning it into a cloud of smoke that rushed to envelop her.

The body he wanted most had delivered itself to his door. How could he not accept it? That would be a crime against heaven and earth.

That strange sword-Qi of hers always took time to deploy. As long as you couldn’t defend against him, everything you had would belong to him…

Even though the black shadow swelled and expanded into formlessness, his consciousness still watched Bai Xiang closely. This was just habitual caution—just like his other subordinates, he didn’t believe a seventeen-year-old girl swordsman could have any other tricks.

Then he saw Bai Xiang lift her longsword upright before her chest, form a familiar sword seal with her left hand, and, in an almost textbook-perfect posture, slash forward.

Boom!!!

In an instant, a purple-blue bolt of lightning as thick as a barrel fell from the sky like a spear that pierced heaven and earth, stabbing straight through a large mass of black mist.

Lightning art!

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The raging current passed through the “soul avatar” and continued to arc and crackle across the cloud of mist. This blast shattered nearly half of the black shadow once again—but it was nothing compared to the shock to his mind.

What is this? Is that the Shangqing Wave-Sweeping Lightning-Drawing Sword Formula?

Damn it… Every step of her life from childhood to now had been recorded. Even if her talent had transformed after Entering the Dao and leapt forward, even if she’d managed to embrace the core at the tender age of seventeen, how could she possibly master such a sword art in just two days, and cultivate it to this degree?

His mind reeled, but he didn’t dare clash with Bai Xiang head-on any longer. He recalled the tattered remnants of his “soul avatar” with a backward rush, intent on getting as far from Bai Xiang as possible.

He had no choice… Because this avatar—or rather, any method driven by the soul, no matter which kind, without exception feared arts of great fiend, great evil, and great righteousness. And “lightning arts” were the foremost among them.

Heaven’s thunder roars; the soul flees in terror.

Lightning arts could be said to embody both great fiend and great righteousness, the most unyielding force in the world, the perfect nemesis of his soul-splitting method.

Bai Xiang naturally saw that he feared Shangqing sword arts, and in that instant she understood why the Prince of Nanling’s Manor had gone to such lengths, using Bolou to plot against Leng Qiu.

Shangqing sword arts were inherently restraining toward this sort of soul-splitting evil technique. To confront a core disciple like Leng Qiu head-on was almost impossible. Before these people could even get close, the lightning aura saturating their bodies would shred and fling them away.

But taking over an ordinary disciple’s body was useless; they’d never be able to get near and ambush Abbess Li Sheng.

So they needed someone like Bolou, whose cultivation and fleshly body were both immensely powerful. He would defeat Leng Qiu in open battle first, wait until she lost the ability to resist, then drive the residual soul into her body.

In that case, there was no need for her to be polite.

The black shadow fled; she gave chase.

Both sides knew methods of flight. The former, heavily wounded twice, had a flagging aura and greatly diminished strength, while Bai Xiang, having devoured quite a lot of soul essence along the way, was at her peak in terms of qi presence.

If not for the fact that she hadn’t truly completed embracing the core and her control over flight was still crude and clumsy, not as nimble as the black shadow’s agile darting, this unusual skirmish in midair would already have been over.

Boom boom boom!!!

During the chase, Bai Xiang tried to draw lightning to block off the black shadow’s routes of escape.

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But the black shadow was simply too nimble. If he encountered any obstacle—with so much as a crack in it—he could dissolve in an instant and slip through. His escape routes were unbelievably weird, and for the moment there was no way to pin him down.

Chasing and fleeing, the two of them plunged into the military camp, leaving chaos in their wake.

Tents and vehicles caught fire or flipped over. Many soldiers, weapons at the ready as though facing a great enemy, rushed out and froze at the sight.

They couldn’t see what Bai Xiang was chasing, but Bai Xiang herself—they knew her.

Back at the Nanshan camp, Bai Xiang had saved many of the Chilong Army’s soldiers. Those had been their brothers and comrades. They remembered that kindness.

Even though there had been rumors early this morning that Bai Xiang and her master Xiang Xian had been reported for cultivating demon arts, as long as no formal order came down, they would not open fire on her.

This was troublesome.

Bai Xiang could clearly sense that these people bore her no hostility, so she couldn’t go on wrecking the camp recklessly.

Tents—she had to avoid them.

Power lines—she couldn’t cut those.

And especially the ammo depot… This damned thing really knew how to pick its spots.

Her soul-arts had many fine subtleties, but they couldn’t read minds, so naturally she couldn’t see what the black shadow was thinking right now.

What filled it was an overwhelming mix of shock, joy, and anticipation. It was as if being hunted down wasn’t shameful at all; the more wildly Bai Xiang behaved, the happier he was.

Whoosh—

At last, he squeezed through the crack of a window into a small building. The next instant, a purple thunder dragon smashed the wall apart with a boom, and Bai Xiang leapt in, sword in hand.

What was this place?

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With a snap of her ponytail, Bai Xiang sensed the qi presence all around.

The lighting was dim, the air dry and cold, with a heavy mix of chemical reagents and preservatives.

A morgue?

With her cultivation improved, and with her having learned the most basic qi-sensing from Zhou Jing’an, darkness was no longer a barrier to her vision. Bai Xiang strode forward, pushed open the morgue door, and saw rows of gurneys in a chill white mist, each one topped with a body bag that had been torn open in disarray.

There had been no battles in Chilong Circuit recently. Where had these corpses come from?

The invisible sword-Qi coiling around her had some effect on the white mist, pushing it back and dispersing it in front of her. This revealed a further row of glass columns deeper in, each one containing a grotesquely mutated corpse.

Lizardmen…

All of these corpses shared the same twisted traits: “growing scales and claws”, “elongated skulls”, “tails protruding out”. They instantly reminded Bai Xiang of the biochemical warriors she’d slain before.

The number of beds and containers didn’t match.

There were messy wheel tracks on the floor.

Had they moved them over only today?

“Welcome, welcome—”

A curly-haired man in a white lab coat gradually emerged from the darkness ahead.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Huang—”

Crack—!

Dr. Huang had been putting on a face one second; the next, his expression suddenly twisted. He dove to the ground as a deafening crash sounded overhead.

Crash!

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When he looked up, all of the containers that had been moved here today had been shattered by a single slash from Bai Xiang. Glass shards and culture fluid flew everywhere, and the mangled remains of the corpses inside spilled across the floor.

“My babies!” Dr. Huang clapped a hand over his mouth and screamed.

“Where did that thing go just now.”

Bai Xiang walked up, sword in hand, grabbed him by the collar, and demanded.

Dr. Huang raised his brows and smiled, his eyes spinning rapidly.

Pfft!

Huh?

His eyes suddenly bulged. He lowered his head to look at the blade piercing his chest, then lifted it again, disbelieving that before he’d said anything at all, Bai Xiang had already killed him.

Seriously—you don’t want the information I know?

Even if you weren’t planning on letting me live, shouldn’t you at least try interrogating me first?

“Ask the other you and it’ll be the same.”

Bai Xiang gazed down at him coldly, releasing all restraints on Feixiang Heaven.

A wave of “cheering” emotion surged from Feixiang Heaven. Cold light flowed along the blade, and in an instant it drained the enemy into a dried husk.

Dr. Huang’s blood essence and soul essence were all absorbed. Since Bai Xiang’s cultivation was temporarily stuck, aside from a portion of the essence that her own soul absorbed, most of it was fed to Feixiang Heaven, to continue strengthening this life-bound treasured sword.

And through Dr. Huang—Huang Tianming’s—soul memories, she also learned the information he possessed.

“If it really doesn’t work, I’ll lure her here…”