Chapter 48 - The Golden Armour

Opposite from Yaan and Ghu Nadda sat Nadda’s great grandfather. He wore a dull expression, his facial muscles were unable to properly express his emotional state right now. Truthfully, even Nadda didn’t expect things to go this far!

“Yaan…I only asked if you had a good plan to sell more corpse puppets at a higher price…” Ghu Nadda forced a smile in Yaan’s direction.

“And this was my plan. Basically all of the Undead Coffin Sect’s corpse puppets were destroyed in the battle. Thanks to the rumours we spread, combined with the Ghu Clan’s actions, the entire city is feeling extreme stress right now. With a higher level of anxiety, people will be more driven to splash out on means of protecting themselves in the inheritance. It will be easy for people to justify using the Yuso Clans’ corpses, since they almost killed us all by attracting a beast horde with the unshielded spirit heart.”

Swoosh…

The trio jumped in fright as a man appeared in the chair besides them almost silently. Examining this man properly didn’t calm them down at all. All three of them jumped to their feet and clasped their hands respectfully.

“Junior greets Clan City Lord!”

“Junior greets Clan City Lord!”

“Greetings, North Ghu City Lord. How was your trip?” Yaan was startled at first, but on recognising this person, his expression brightened.

Although this large and muscular man carried a heavy and imposing aura, Yaan could feel that this person held no ill will towards him, much the opposite in fact. Well, he had become somewhat familiar with this middle aged man over the past month anyway, but there was one other reason that Yaan felt no fear towards the North Ghu City Lord…one month earlier, this Origin Soul realm powerhouse swore in a poison oath that he would bring no harm to Yaan!

“Since I captured that place, which will become the Ghu Clan’s sixth key territory, then naturally it was an excellent trip.” He replied with a savage smile.

Yaan nodded enthusiastically and smiled, doing his best to ignore this man’s imposing aura. Yaan had been subjected to the pressure from powerful and bloody auras on many occasions, but he was still not accustomed to Origin Soul realm beings. These beings were simply on an entirely different level, just standing near such individuals when they were not suppressing their auras would cause lower realm cultivators to feel as if they were being crushed by the weight of the world, even making it difficult to breath normally. However, after enduring trial after trial throughout his life, Yaan had learned to simply ignore it, as if it was just a powerful gust of wind.

“You know junior…no, Yaan. This scheme of yours was a little bit terrifying. Just how long did you plan this out for, how much time did you spend on such a plan to assure that it would succeed?”

Hearing this, Yaan scratched his nose and coughed. Ghu Nadda also looked down and avoided looking the city lord in the eye.

“Hmm?” The savage man raised an eyebrow, feeling slightly confused by their response. His dark hair swayed in the wind wildly as he awaited a response, only settling down as Yaan began speaking.

“Truthfully City Lord, whilst I have been considering using the spirit heart for profit for some time now, it was only when Nadda mentioned the corpse puppet auction that I thought of this. We were chatting in the morning, I went home and wrote out a few plans until I was satisfied, then set it in motion that evening by having Elder Jishi arrange Nadda a meeting with yourself.”

The city lord blinked, then stared disbelievingly at Yaan for a good while.

“You’re saying that…you spent less than a day coming up with this plan? You actually implemented such a crazy idea on the very same day that you first thought of it?”

Ghu Jishi was sweating heavily now. Really, Yaan and Nadda had been extremely rash in his eyes. If this had failed, it could have easily ended in disaster! No…even now, he didn’t feel comfortable at all, knowing that these two had forced the city lord to accept their terms in this deal. He knew that whilst these two had seemingly pulled off something incredible, they were still playing with fire, a fire called the North Ghu City Lord. The fact that the city lord had accepted their terms with barely any resistance made him feel dubious to say the least.

Since when were Ghu Clan Grand Elders so easy to wrap up in your schemes…?

“Well it worked, didn’t it?” Yaan grinned. “And we all benefited from this. I couldn’t have improved this plan even if I’d spent another day, month or years considering things.”

After a moment of silence…

“Pahahaha! To start a war between ten of the strongest cultivation factions in the province, just how much courage does a child need to possess to do something like that? Pahaha!”

Yaan just shrugged and laughed lightly.

“Anyway…I’m just not sure if you realise exactly how valuable such a mountain is, to give it away so easily.” The city lord spoke slowly. For a brief moment, his eyes flashed with a strange light, but nobody present noticed this look that he cast towards Yaan…

“The spirit heart is worthless to me though.” Yaan smiled. “I’d rather have some rare body tempering pills, that way I can improve my cultivation.”

“I see, so it’s like that.” The large man showed an amicable smile, sitting back in his chair and relaxing as he spoke. From his demeanour, it seemed that he really was in a good mood…Elder Jishi sighed, maybe he was just overthinking things.

“There are many types of people in this world, righteous, demonic, somewhere in between…but I don’t care about such arbitrary things. More important, is a man’s ultimate ambition. Some men want sovereignty, whilst others pursue only personal power. I’m glad that you’re the latter, we should be able to work well together.”

Yaan’s eyes lit up for a moment and he pondered the imposing man’s words carefully. After a while, he smiled and nodded. The city lord seemed to be satisfied. He suddenly stood up, waved his hands and created a vortex around them. Yaan was forced to cover his face for half a second, then when he opened his eyes and blinked, he found that they had somehow been transported to an entirely different location!

An involuntary gasp slipped out from Yaan’s mouth and his pupils shrunk. What sort of travel speed was this…and how did he not feel their movement at all?!

“This is my temple in North Ghu City, saved for one on one business meetings with fellow cultivators.”

“Mm, it’s excellent.” Yaan nodded, calming himself down. He also preferred the simple and spacious temple type buildings, since he’d grown up in a poor mortal village, then started his journey of cultivation in the Heavenly Path Sect which also favoured such temples.

“Now then, what is it that you want? What you have given me is extremely valuable, and as per our deal, I must give you compensation of appropriate value. Even though I followed your requests in how we managed this matter, that is far from enough to compensate you for the knowledge of the spirit heart’s location.” The city lord began.

“As I said before, I want all the Yuso Clan corpses aside from the Origin Soul realm powerhouses.” Yaan replied surely.

The North Ghu City Lord nodded. This was part of their deal sworn under the poison oaths, naturally he would comply with this arrangement. He also fulfilled the agreement to slaughter every Yuso Clansman, to the best of his knowledge. Though, given the Ghu Clan’s usual methods, they would have most likely done this anyway.

Destroying the Yuso Clan wasn’t solely so that he could seek revenge, though this was undoubtedly a big bonus for Yaan. Rather than merely satisfying his desire for payback, the Yuso Clan worried him. This clan had already schemed against him once, and it was unknown what they would do, were they to discover that Yaan was still alive. The Yuso Clan concerned Yaan even more than the Heavenly Path Sect in this regard, since they were simply too powerful.

Not to mention that, if the Yuso Clan ever discovered that Yaan was largely responsible for their downfall, they would certainly be filled with hatred and target him to the ends of the earth. It was definitely best to wipe them out completely. Whilst a ruthless move, Yaan couldn’t feel any sympathy for this group that schemed against him and the other eight Northern factions.

After shaking his head and clearing his mind of this matter, Yaan took a deep breath and showed a serious expression. His heart started beating wildly as expectation flooded his being. He knew that he shouldn’t get his hopes up, but what if…

“Are you able to repair my dantian?”

“I am not. Your dantian is totally destroyed….I could try to piece it back together, but it would definitely be all messed up.”

Yaan sighed. In the end, he wasn’t surprised and just nodded, though he was still disappointed. Well, he needed to at least give it a shot when there was such a powerful being right here, offering his assistance.

“Hmm…then I suppose that what I need the most are body tempering resources.”

“You mean slow release vital energy pills?” The old man asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, I mean pills that are specifically designed to enhanced the physical body, not vital energy.” Yaan corrected him.

The city lord’s eyes flashed. It was as if countless thoughts and deductions rushed through his mind in this single instant. As for the end-point of this thought process, Yaan couldn’t possibly guess such a thing.

“So, I take it that you have been learning about the inheritance site?”

“Mm.” Yaan nodded. “Having a powerful body cultivation is good, but this is actually closer to ‘vital energy’ cultivation. Vital energy isn’t suppressed as much as Yuan Qi in the trial, but there can also be trials that completely seal your cultivation. It seems to not affect purely physical attributes though.”

“Indeed…the most common of these pills you’re talking about are the unique body tempering pills. Which do you need of these?”

“Rank 3 organ hardening, Rank 3 tendon tempering, Rank 3 blood refining. And all of the Rank 4 versions. So far, I haven’t heard of other pills like these, that are designed to target the fleshly body rather than vital energy. Are there others?”

“There are, but, there are no other sets like these. Also, using the Rank 4 versions at the 3-Star realm is equivalent to committing suicide. Really, it’s not just a risk, it’s certain death.”

Yaan nodded slowly. He had been somewhat expecting this, but he wanted them anyway. Five Rank 4 pills shouldn’t be too big an asking in exchange for a treasure like the spirit heart, so it was fine.

“I would like something that is able to hide my appearance and aura, making it so that even people who have met me before won’t be able to recognise me.” Yaan stated his next request, thinking about the coming inheritance, where he could potentially encounter some familiar individuals from the Northern mountain range. He would prefer to avoid being identified if possible, though now that he was linked to the Ghu Clan, it wasn’t as big an issue as it was in the past.

“I see, such a thing is indeed possible, but a spiritual treasure that isn’t being maintained by the user’s Yuan Qi needs a power source to maintain…it cannot be used endlessly.” The city lord didn’t question his motives and instead commented on the feasibility.

In the end, Yaan settled for the city lord himself improving upon the bamboo hat that he once borrowed from Ghu Nadda.

When the city lord saw this hat, his eyes narrowed. After carefully examining the hat, he explained something that even Nadda, the original owner, did not know,

As it turned out, this hat was not a spiritual treasure, but a rare item known as a ‘world treasure’! These treasures could be activated without any form of energy, in fact, even mortals could utilise these treasures!

If Rui were to see this treasure here, she would certainly be shocked. World treasures were extremely rare, and yet this was the second world treasure that Yaan had encountered in his short life thus far. This was definitely very strange…

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The Grand Elder personally added a small formation to that hat. Yaan couldn’t begin to understand the formation which would combine with the hat’s own effect and last for 100 days once activated. The city lord explained that, this formation would block even a Spirit Core Qi master’s vision. However, they could easily break through this barrier.

This was a non-issue though, as the city lord infused his aura and signature into the treasure, which would appear should any Spirit Core realm Elder attempt to see past the barrier. On feeling the aura of an Origin Soul realm powerhouse and identifying the signature, they would understand and no longer dare to peer past this simple disguise.

“These things you’ve listed might be valuable to you, but in terms of actual value, it’s not even a fraction of a percent of Yuso Mountain’s worth.” The man continued calmly once this minor matter was settled quickly. He was required by the contract to give Yaan the chance to continually request compensation, until it matched the value of the the information Yaan provided to him.

Yaan’s eyes flashed for a brief moment. He knew that the spirit heart was valuable, but in terms of monetary value, he had absolutely no idea. This was why in the deal, he had the city lord swear to give him ‘compensation of appropriate value within ten years, or compensation until Yaan no longer requests more’. Since this promise was something the city lord was forced to abide as per the poison oath he swore originally, it made it impossible for the city lord to seriously scam Yaan.

When managing poison oaths, it was imperative that the wording was chosen extremely carefully. If you weren’t careful, you could easily back yourself into a corner, whilst the other party could end up finding a loophole to escape from fulfilling their end of the deal.

“For now, could you just take a look at this armour?”

Yaan reached into his bag and pulled out a golden metal, yet somehow flexible piece of upper body armour. This was the armour he won from Shin Jinni, supposedly this armour was his most valuable treasure. However, not even Elder Jishi could fully understand this treasure and warned Yaan not to mess with the red formation carelessly. The Elder should have devoured and replaced that rune, but it still seemed somewhat strange…

The city lord’s eyes narrowed as he took the armour from Yaan.

“Soul treasure!” He exclaimed with a hint of surprise. He turned towards Yaan curiously. “Where did you find something like this? It seems to have ben tampered with twice since its birth. Just where did you get such a variety of treasures…?”

Yaan quickly explained everything about this armour and how he came to possesses it, but he finally couldn’t hold himself back.

“What is a soul treasure?” Yaan was stunned. He felt it inconceivable that not only were there so many different types of treasures he knew nothing about until today, but two such items were in his possession!

Indeed, this was more than just coincidental…if Rui were to see that Yaan had found not just a world treasure but also a soul treasure, she would definitely feel suspicious.

“Soul treasures are living entities, object’s with tethered spirits. They can take on many different forms, from rocks, to plants, to swords…every soul treasure is different in terms of its power, usefulness and effect…most importantly, you can only bind a single soul treasure at any one time. You should think carefully before binding one, since unbinding it is difficult.”

Yaan’s eyes widened, he didn’t expect this little plate armour to be so shocking!

“There is an additional rune here that prevents the treasure from being used properly. First, let me remove this added rune…” The bearded man muttered, then casually waved his hand. Tens of different symbols formed in the air, before they dropped down and shot into the recently added rune perfectly. Yaan couldn’t see it, but these runes broke apart, rearranged, and disassembled the first rune. As it turned out, this first rune was not completely devoured, but merely suppressed temporarily.

Bang!

Like the sound of a firecracker, the red rune exploded mildly, releasing some red gas into the sky.

Vrrrm….

The golden armour suddenly started to shine brilliantly, its aura somehow built up on its own, without even needing a user to activate it. The city lord’s expression was always serious, but it soon turned to shock. He quickly grabbed Yaan and flew back a hundred feet in an instant.

The armour floated there in the air, but it only continued to glow brighter and grow larger, whilst the aura it released was now enough to make mortals kneel in worship. Even Qi masters with weaker willpowers would find themselves trembling or frozen stiff before this seemingly sentient armour.

Finally, the light reached a height of 100 feet and stopped growing. It looked much the same as before, but the golden light gave this armour a sort of holy aura that no living being in this province had ever before seen!

Even the North Ghu City Lord was awestruck. He felt dazed and didn’t even move, he just stayed still, staring up at the armour in shock and wonder.

Yaan also felt this aura wrap around him. He felt his emotions softening, as if he wanted to let this armour into his heart, he wanted to love it, he loved it…

Suddenly, something hidden deep within Yaan seemed to jolt awake. It was as if a hidden pair of eyes that had been slumbering for far too long, shot open, awaking Yaan from his stupor and making him aware of the current crisis he was facing. Even though not half a second had passed, by the time Yaan returned to his senses, that force from within him was nowhere to be seen.

“SCRAM!” Yaan suddenly roared out loud, as loud as he possibly could, loud enough that the city lord awoke from his daze for a moment.

This moment was enough. As Yaan began to fall back into a stupor, the city lord hurried forwards and formed a hand seal, creating a solid white symbol that floated in the air like an ice cloud. He then pulled out an amulet and smashed it on the symbol, causing the symbol to break apart into 99 smaller but otherwise identical symbols.

Whoosh!

These 99 symbols shot towards the armour and collided with it. The city lord was watching with a scrutinising gaze, but his heart dropped when he watched all 99 symbols shatter, not affecting the golden armour in the least!

Just as the lord grit his teeth and was about to try something else, Yaan, who was alerted by the shockwaves from the city lord’s actions, spoke whilst staring at the armour intently.

“You said that soul treasures can be bound, right? How do I bind this thing?”

“If you try to bind such a powerful soul treasure, it will just devour your soul!”

“Then do you have any better ideas?” Yaan asked hurriedly. He also didn’t want to take this risk, but he felt certain that if they continued to stand here whilst doing nothing, only death awaited them. The golden light was continuing to grow brighter and brighter, it felt as if this light would grow endlessly, until it incinerated everything in this world!

Since even the city lord’s attacks had no effect, then Yaan could only try to bind the armour!

The city lord saw the firm resolve on Yaan’s face and sighed.

‘Is it courage or idiocy? Perhaps we really don’t have a better option though…’

“If a soul treasure absorbs a drop of your blood essence, you will enter a ‘spirit domination’ battle. Only your soul will take part in this battle, but your soul is too-”

Before he could finish, Yaan was already running towards the massive golden armour. He bit down hard on his thumb, then once he drew in close, he flicked the drop of blood through the air, onto the golden plate.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Yaan stared up with a rapidly beating heart, then the armour became dead still.

Suddenly…

ZM!

The blood essence drop spread out across the armour, covering it entirely, inside and out. At the same time, a white thread connected from this red coating into Yaan’s body.

‘Oof!’

When Yaan tried to speak, no voice came out. He blinked, realising that he was floating aimlessly within a pitch black void.

‘This must be the spirit domination battle…is this something like my soul fighting against the armour’s soul? How do souls even fight? Where even is this, and where’s the armour?’

Yaan’s mind was hazy, he didn’t feel like himself. It was as if he couldn’t properly process this space, giving him the feeling that he was drifting through a dream.

From the corner of his eye, Yaan realised that there was a light coming from behind him. He quickly turned around, only to find himself staring at a blank, golden, brightly glowing wall.

‘No, hold on, that’s not…’ Yaan couldn’t help but take a step back, a movement that he did naturally, despite never experiencing this form until now. His head slowly tilted backwards, gazing up, and up, and up, towards the golden….toe.

This endlessly tall wall, was one of five toes. Yaan was too stunned to even feel afraid, this sort of massive thing was beyond his ability to comprehend.

A toe that towered thousands of times higher than himself.

“Are you the armour soul?” He finally asked, his voice sounded strangely calm. It was as if this thing was just so much bigger, so much stronger and so far away from him, that he couldn’t begin to comprehend its immensity at all. He couldn’t even feel any fear because the grandeur of this entity before him was too far beyond his understanding.

That, and he still felt like as if all of this was some sort of dream.

Despite now facing the aura of this giant that must have rivalled a planet in size, Yaan somehow urged himself to look up. He couldn’t see very far though, he couldn’t even see the top, or either end of this lone toe.

After a while, he exhaled, stepped forwards, and touched the toe.

WHOOSH!

Instantly, that golden aura flooded into his body. Yaan felt like an ant facing the god of all gods! His heart beat started slamming wildly into his chest, until Yaan realised that he was just a formless soul right now, he had no heart, or chest. All of these sensations were merely illusions, but it felt overwhelming nonetheless.

After a few moments passed by, during which time Yaan remained alert and stared upwards, waiting…nothing happened.

“Could it be that I’m so small that it can’t even see me, or detect me in any way?” Yaan looked down at his hands, arms feet, legs and body, then back to the unmoving giant.

He smiled bitterly. The giant was countless times larger than him, its body so solid that energy was continuously escaping in all directions in the form of golden light. It really did possess an aura akin to that of a god.

Whilst Yaan, or what he assumed to be his soul, was grey and foggy. His form had no clear shape nor boundaries, it was translucent and could easily be mistaken for a spec of dust.

“What am I supposed to-”

“Celestial Demon 3rd General!”

Yaan couldn’t even finish his own thought as a shockwave shook his very soul and almost sent him flying. He felt extremely disorientated and the aura of death shrouded his body. He really thought that he was about to die so miserably, but then…

“Hmm? What are you doing here, little one?”

Yaan blinked and stared straight ahead as he realised that he had recovered from the assault in an instant. Just a few feet in front of him was a woman, but the most jaw droppingly divine woman he had ever seen. He was momentarily stunned and brought into a daze…he didn’t think it possible, but this woman’s aura was simply orders of magnitude more incredible than Rui’s! And unlike Rui, he felt a soft and soothing feeling from this woman, rather than a cold indifference.

Her face and body, and even her movement and mannerisms, all embodied the word ‘perfection’. She wore a sweet caring smile and looked at Yaan kindly, not a trace of malice in her voice.

Yaan coughed after realising that he was staring.

“I was just trying to bind this strange golden armour, then all of a sudden I’m here…”

“I see.” The woman nodded in understanding, but a faint look of surprise flashed through her eyes. She looked back up towards the golden giant. The giant actually took three steps backwards after she arrived. Slowly, she turned back to the child before her.

“You tried to bind that soul? Even if the soul was bound to a treasure, you should have still felt the immense aura of power, did you not?”

Yaan nodded.

“I did, but I didn’t know what else to do. I obviously couldn’t fight or run, so I thought I’d try to bind it. I still don’t really know what that means though…”

Seeing his calm but slightly confused demeanour, the woman covered her charming pink mouth and hid a light laugh. She hadn’t been entertained like this in a long time. After some thought, she glanced up at the giant, causing it to freeze in place.

She turned back to Yaan with a smile.

“Binding the Celestial Demon General with your own power is impossible. I can help you leave this empty place, but I can’t take you back to your world. Unless you’re willing to attempt the binding…"

“Sure, how do I do it?” Yaan’s eyes lit up and he nodded eagerly. “I was told that I just had to throw some essence blood at it, but I have no idea where to go from there! I was really wondering what I was meant to do next.”

The woman paused before laughing freely. She smiled at Yaan, then placed her smooth palm on his upper back.

“Wh-?!” His eyes widened as he felt an immense power flooding into his body. After a few seconds, he realised that the giant was shrinking! No, Yaan turned back, and the woman was getting smaller and smaller…he was the one growing!

“I’m placing the seal needed to bind this treasure spirit in your memory, whether you can comprehend it in time is up to you.”

All of a sudden, a stream of information forced itself into Yaan’s mind. He felt like his very consciousness was on fire and filled with molten lava. This was a bizarre and torturous sensation that he couldn’t have even imagined before feeling it first hand right now! But still, he forced himself to remain lucid, trying to ignore the pain and focussing on the sealing method.

The woman was constantly observing him, and she became shocked every time he did something, or reacted to in some way.

‘A tethered mortal soul should be unable to endure this memory transfer, let alone study it whilst the transfer is still ongoing!’ She remained silent but secretly felt admiration for this small creature. As time passed though, this admiration gradually transformed into shock, and then doubt.

“To bind the Celestial Demon Soul, you will still need to rely on yourself and your own abilities. I’m simply lending you some of my soul force temporarily. The more of my soul force you absorb, the more difficult it will be to retain your sound mind. I advise that you cast the seal the moment you reach your limit.” The woman’s gentle voice swept past his ears like a fresh spring breeze.

Yaan was still concentrating on studying this binding method. The idea was to use ‘soul force’, the power contained within his soul right now, to created a seal and force it into the treasure spirit.

Yaan ignored the agony of having his soul forcefully inflated with an outside power, and continued to study the seal. There were many thousands of intricacies in this seal, even though it would successfully form with the base nine runes.

However, the more perfectly he replicated the runes, the more powerful and stable this seal would be.

As Yaan continued to grow, now reaching as high as the Celestial Demon’s ankle, the woman started to feel uncertain. She felt like he should have reached his limit at half this level of power, yet he showed no signs of struggle. In fact, she could tell that he was still studying the seal!

Suddenly, the woman turned towards the giant and glared. The giant was about to take a step, but immediately stopped in its tracks as it was faced with her gaze.

“If you move again, I’ll throw you into the 9th layer of the abyss!” Hearing that line made the golden giant tremble. It stepped back and stood up straight, now not daring to move an inch.

“You’re going to allow this little one’s seal to enter your body. If his seal can bind you, then that’s that. If not, then he will die and you will return to the material plane, understand?”

The giant didn’t move or say anything, but a golden light flashed once, which seemed to satisfy the woman.

Honestly, neither she nor the giant believed that Yaan’s seal would be effective. For a tethered mortal soul to seal a divine class treasure spirit, how laughable a concept was that! Even if he was borrowing the woman’s overwhelming power, it was irrelevant, because he wouldn’t be able to hold onto or control enough power to succeed.

In truth, the woman found this little mortal soul very interesting, so she planned to quickly catch his fragmented soul once he failed, then she could restore it later. She only wanted to see how well he could do in this little game first.

When Yaan’s blurry grey fog of a soul reached the giant’s knee in height, the woman’s expression changed. She showed doubt and confusion. She checked him over and over again, but this was certainly a mortal soul, and he was most definitely absorbing her power properly!

Time passed by, but in this endless darkness, time lost all meaning. Yaan had no idea how long he had been here, but it felt like he had spent an entire life time devoted entirely to studying this singular seal. He could now feel the strain on his soul, even when he tried to ignore it. The pain was intense and he felt like he might burst at any moment.

He didn’t understand any of this at all, but he understood how to survive. Yaan understood that when his life was in danger, instinct would kick in and point him in the right direction.

Yaan surpassed the giant’s waist, then its stomach, chest, neck, nose, forehead, top of head…until finally, he stood up straight, slightly taller than the very same golden giant that considered him an invisible ant just moments earlier.

Eh, was it moments, or was it much longer? Either way…Yaan was now ready to cast the seal.

The Celestial Demon was still in absolute shock at the size of this ‘mortal’, that it didn’t even think to look at the seal which slammed into its chest. By the time it realised that the seal had already disappearing within its body, it was already too late!

“What?!” The woman suddenly expanded upwards in size, becoming the same height as Yaan and the giant within a single second. She stared as Yaan held his palm against the golden giant’s chest whilst the giant’s eyes turned white. Yaan’s eyes turned black, until a faint white spiral appeared within. Likewise, a black vortex formed in the giant’s eyes.

However, there was a clear difference. The white vortex was unable to grow a spec larger from the moment it appeared in Yaan’s eyes. The black vortex in the giant’s eyes gradually overtook all colour, transforming into a black hole and finally enveloping its golden face.

TWOOOOSH!

The darkness completely shrouded the giant, covering it entirely and lingering for a few seconds, before sinking into its body and vanishing into the depths.

The light returned to the giant’s eyes and it slowly turned to Yaan, who was now rapidly shrinking after using up all of the woman’s soul force.

Yaan lost consciousness entirely as he shrunk, but a black-white orb shot out from the giant’s chest and entered’s Yaan’s soul, before he dissipated entirely. The woman stared for a while at where Yaan had just been, then turned to look at the Celestial Demon, whom’s eyes now contained no emotion. Gradually, the golden giant faded away, until it was no longer present in this strange dark world.

“He actually…he actually not only comprehended the full seal, but filled it with his own desire to make the seal his…and therefore the Celestial Demon 3rd General is his own! This is completely impossible! And just now, I felt something familiar…just who is he…?”