Zhang Cai felt his bones and heart freeze. He felt squeezed under the gaze of the Demon Emperor; his shoulders bent inwards, his spine cracked, and his eyeballs protruded as if they would pop out. The soulstorm washed over him, hundreds of thousands of screams rose in indescribable anguish and hatred.
As his ears rang, Zhang Cai noticed six blobs rush out and merge with the soul storm.
‘’Brat, get inside!’’ The rough voice drowned all the other screams—he seemed stronger than the Demon Emperor in aura. Yet the Emperor stood unfazed, even grinning, and he reached out with a hand.
Three fingers turned into a claw and swept towards the storm. The entire hall quaked, a bang echoed, and a dozen pillars supporting the place were minced into pieces of golden rock. Zhang Cai saw thousands of souls pop and explode, erased from the world.
‘’You dare!?’’
‘’I dare you, motherfucker!’’ The rough voice led the storm and crashed at the emperor. The black form recoiled from the strike and lost its feeting. It flew back and shattered dozens of pillars, then rose among pieces of rubble.
‘’Han Xuefei!’’ The Emperor bellowed. ‘’This is the second time! You think I won’t burn your soul!?’’
‘’Second? My lord is alive and well, you retard! Eat my fist!’’
There was no fist, but again the vortex shot like a whip. They still couldn’t act as one. The Demon Emperor blinked out of existence, then reappeared on top of Zhang Cai. His hands came grasping down at him, crushing the souls around him with constant pops and explosions.
Zhang Cai put both hands in front and thought of the Water Lotus. A thirty-six petal lotus came in front of him, but the Emperor smashed through it with no stop. Zhang Cai’s body was cut in half, and the emperor grabbed each with one hand.
‘’Retard, open the portal home!’’ Han Xuefei led the storm back, visibly slower than Demon Emperor, and struck back.
The Emperor let out an ominous, scarlet aura from its three eyes. Then three thunderbolts flashed, immediately erasing tens of thousands of souls. A wave of steam rose and dispersed with the shockwaves.
Han Xuefei suddenly changed course, twisting the entire storm like a snake, and formed a blade. He cut both hands of the emperor and enveloped Zhang Cai inside the storm. The Demon Emperor let out a roar and his hands grew out, albeit smaller than before.
‘’Get on with it already! Don’t worry about the fight!’’
Other five echoed the order as well, so Zhang Cai closed his eyes. He thought of home, but where was his home? Not Curlan, nor Blue Lotus Sect. Was he supposed to think of a person? No, the last voice had warned him.
Just home...
What was home?
As he delved into a meditative state, Han Xuefei already led him away from the banquet hall to the bronze gates. The souls gathered to a single point, forming an infinitely sharp needle, and struck the bronze gates where their doors met.
A crack spread, then a part of the gates collapsed. The desolate, bleak sky appeared, as well as the demons occupying the gates of the palace.
‘’You cannot run from me!’’ The Demon Emperor was already on them, and the recoil of their strike slowed the storm down. Three pupils of the Emperor flashed, and three thunderbolts appeared above the horde. Han Xuefei rained orders, and parted the storm into two halves.
‘’Rou Rou, be careful’’
The gentle voice, Fairy Rou Rou, ran behind the pillars, evading three bolts by herself, while Han Xuefei struck back at the Demon Emperor. The soul storm took the shape of a fist, and just as the Emperor turned crushed his face.
‘’Bastard!’’ In rage, the emperor clawed again, but Han Xuefei already went back. Rou Rou struck at his blind side, smashing one of his eyes with a hammer, and the pupil turned into a bloody mush full of foul black Qi.
‘’You!’’ All eyes bloodshot, the Demon Emperor lunged forward.
Back and forth, the duo kept wounding the Emperor with many weapons, who recovered in less than a second. His limbs grew back, his bones realigned, though with each regeneration his body seemed to turn smaller.
‘’His soul is wearing down, haha!’’
‘’Xuefei, hallway! Watch out!’’
Han Xuefei noticed, from the darkness of the hallway that led deeper into the halls, that a small demon emerged. It had a pair of wings, and a humanoid body with toned muscles, much unlike the giant sublime form of the Demon Emperor. There was the same, hideous smile on its face, and its two pupils flashed purple.
‘’Take care of the third storm!’’ The Demon Emperor cried. ‘’The Fatemarked is in the gates!’’
‘’’When did he notice?’’ Rou Rou shouted. They had sent away Zhang Cai in a smaller storm, who hid in the cracks of the bronze gate with Chu Jiasu, oldest of them.
‘’It does not matter, old Su can take care of him! I’ll block the new one!’’
As he said, Han Xuefei led his storm and bore upon the newcomer. They formed a fist again, forty meters large, and crashed down.
A bang echoed in the halls, and the shockwave sent the broken thrones and pillars flying in a wild storm. Then an eerie laugh rose under the trembling soul fist. Every soul trembled at the same time, and Zhang Cai was woken from his meditation. His body shivered. His instincts told him of an ancient fear, branded like a mark into all beings.
‘’He is...’’
Chu Jiasu’s voice trembled.
‘’Senior, what is it?’’
‘’That is a real Emperor!’’
‘’Isn’t the other one—’’
‘’This isn’t the time to talk! Focus! You are halfway there!’’
There was a dark portal in front of Zhang Cai, indeed, and it was half the length of his leg. Though it seemed like he could fit, his instincts told him that it was impossible.
‘’Focus! We will handle the rest.’’
Zhang Cai nodded and focused again. The meditation consumed him quickly, as his body shrank at each centimeter growth. Yet when he grew strained, a blob would part from the storm and merge with him, and with them would come memories that his soul would dissipate under a second.
Still, Zhang Cai tried to remember the few he glimpsed.
Once he fell back into the meditation, Han Xuefei’s roar reverberated inside the halls.
‘’Tsk, you are supposed to be ninth-step?’’
The purple-eyed Emperor raised the entire storm with his right hand. Han Xuefei roared again, trying to break apart, but the storm would not move. As if it was stuck in place, and the space around it was squeezed.
The next moment, its purple eyes flashed. The entire storm was cut in half, almost two hundred thousand souls evaporated in an instant.
‘’YOU!’’ The sublime Demon Emperor turned in rage. ‘’Don’t kill them all!’’
‘’There are millions of them outside, why do you care?’’
Rou Rou flashed past the livid Demon Emperor and, turning into a sharp-bladed wing, cut at Han Xuefei.
A spark rose in the air, purplish-scarlet, then an invisible net of foul Qi fell apart. The soul storms merged once more, then separated, reinforced by each other.
‘’Old Chu, how long!?’’
‘’Just a little more!’’
Han Xuefei cast a calm look at Rou Rou, and she cast him a desolate look back. They had no bodies left, for it had been at least centuries since they died. Old Chu was dead for four thousand years, and Rou Rou died six centuries ago. Han Xuefei only passed away a century before. They were already dead in the truest sense. They couldn’t escape with Zhang Cai without a vessel. But they didn’t wish for that. They weren’t afraid—after unimaginable torture and imprisonment, they had nothing to be afraid of in their lives.
Still, there was fear in them, which when they thought quaked the entire storm. Souls, if not in the Demonic Realm, could go back to the river of reincarnation. But what happened when a soul was destroyed? Where would they go? Was that a true death?
In the wake of that fear, however, they stood stronger than ever. If death was needed from them, then they would die. That was all they had in their minds. Not just Han Xuefei, Rou Rou, or Chu Jiasu—that was the common ground of all the souls that made the storms. Some were not even human, but the determination to protect the young man was the same. Theirs was a higher purpose than life and death.
That was the largest motivation for a life to keep going.
‘’I will keep this one busy.’’ Rou Rou said, more confident.
Han Xuefei made an imaginary nod and shot forward to the Sublime Demon Emperor. Rou Rou, still in the form of a bladed wing, slashed at the purple-eyed Emperor.
The latter smirked and took off into the air. From its clawed hands rose a purple light, coalescing into shining spears of scorching flames. He lunged and met the soul blade—hundreds of souls perished, and the Emperor was flung back a dozen meters in the air.
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Gaining his footing near the painting, it crushed the entire wall and shot back into the sky.
‘’Are you all willing to die!?’’ Rou Rou bellowed inside the storm.
‘’WE ARE WILLING!’’
The screams merged into a single voice that sent shudders through everyone in the hall.
‘’Then let us die together!’’
The storm crashed into itself, and all the souls kept flowing into Rou Rou’s soul. In a single moment, she grew sixty meters high, and still kept growing. Her features became visible. She was a beauty out of the world, with long brilliant golden hair, and shining green eyes full of blazing determination. Two transparent wings rose from her back, prismatic.
The purple-eyed Emperor, at the sight, coiled back and flapped his wings right. He rounded dozens of pillars, attempting to reach Zhang Cai as she kept transforming.
‘’Freeze!’’ Rou Rou shouted. From the tip of her finger, a green light burst forth, full of verdant Qi. She was burning the souls of others to create Qi for her arts. Silent screams and grunts rose from the others as they kept merging with her.
The green light expanded, then cut through the purple-eyed Emperor’s wings. He smashed head-first into a pillar, crushing it into smithereens. As he rose from the rubble, Rou Rou was already on him, with a round seal in her palms.
‘’World Tree!’’
The root of an ancient tree sprouted from the seal, then grew hundreds of meters long until it crashed into the purple-eyed Emperor. The latter snorted, brandished both spears, then thrust them forward. A whirlwind picked up at the action, bringing all the rubble across the room and smashing it at the tree. From the spears a shower of light exploded and melted the immediate area. Rou Rou was blasted away and she found herself caved into the walls. Two thirds of the souls were dead.
Han Xuefei, also in his humanoid form, felt the temperature of the palace rise. His soul form— a rough, expressionless man with bulging muscles, and a head of spiky brown hair, started trembling from the heat. The Sublime Demon Emperor across him giggled, then all three pupils flashed golden thunder. Twelve bolts of lightning scorched over the ceiling and hit Han Xuefei.
His fists covered in a rough brown Qi, Han Xuefei punched out, and the ground rose in front of him as a shield. Two forces met even, but another volley followed quickly and smashed the ground into pieces. Han Xuefei bolted across the rising dust and clutter and kicked the Demon Emperor in the head.
The dark shadow caved in, yet Han Xuefei felt no reaction. As if he struck soft tofu, the head bounced and its maws opened. One chomp of the Demon Emperor killed a quarter of the storm, and he did not stop. Its eyes flashed again, and golden bolts of thunder washed over Han Xuefei.
‘’Seniors!’’ Zhang Cai shouted in the midst of combat. He saw the purple-eyed Emperor slash Rou Rou again and again, a dozen thousand souls evaporating at each strike. Han Xuefei had grasped the Sublime Demon Emperor with his four limbs, and pressed down with his Mountain Qi to crush his pupils.
‘’Let’s go!’’ He shouted at them. The portal was now open—he had felt it open a little while ago, yet kept largening it to accommodate more people.
‘’Junior, you go first! We will come after you.’’
Listening Chu Jiasu’s voice, Zhang Cai gave a curt nod and leaped inside. As he passed the dark portal, his vision went black, then blue. He saw himself inside Old Master Jin’s abode, with aquamarine ambience as striking as before.
He cast a look to his left and saw Old Master Jin smiling at him.
The man almost tore his silver goatee off with excitement. ‘’You are back! Good!’’
‘’Master Jin!’’ He found his emotions rising again. There was hope!
‘’Get in your body, quickly!’’ Old Master Jin appeared beside him, and pointed at his body.
Zhang Cai spared himself but a single glance, then he cast a look back, and saw the portal starting to shrink.
‘’Seniors! Come back! Hurry!’’
‘’Child, we can’t come with you.’’
Zhang Cai was stunned in place.
‘’What?’’
‘’We have no bodies left for us.’’ Chu Jiasu said across the portal. Old Master Jin saw the battle raging inside then, and his face went pale at the Demon Emperors. ‘’We have no place to return.’’
‘’That can’t be right. You can return! Just come inside!’’
‘’Child.’’ He heard the distant voice of Rou Rou, and saw the squealing old woman burning her soul as well. There were at most a few dozen thousand souls left in her, and Han Xuefei was no different. ‘’You must go on. ‘’
‘’Why do you need a body? Just come through here, reincarnate, atleast! What is the point of dying there!?’’
‘’We cannot come through. You must go! Your body will crumble if you do not hurry!’’
Zhang Cai’s stomach dropped, and as if in the middle of a blizzard, his entire being shivered. He hadn’t felt this cold in his life.
‘’Just come, please!’’ He couldn’t watch people sacrifice themselves again.
He saw Han Xuefei torn apart by the Sublime Demon Emperor. The latter cast its golden eyes at him across the shrinking portal. A faint red light went between their eyes.
‘’Brat!’’ Old Master Jin grasped him with his Qi. ‘’Get in your body already!’’
Just as he said, Zhang Cai let out a shriek.
His vision blurred, turned purple, and his sight went away into an incomprehensible world of shapes. There were random assortments of color, and as he gazed at the world a searing pain inflicted his being. There was no understanding, nor sensing in that realm. All there was pain. Zhang Cai’s scream rose and rose, and his soul shrank.
‘’LET IT STOP! LET IT STOP! LET IT STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP!’’
When he moved his leg, his lungs breathed. When he heard a word, his arteries stretched. At his each move, which was ingrained deep into his instincts and genetic code, as if defying all order, something else replaced it. As he screamed, his spine folded into each other. As he attempted to grasp his head, his stomach squeezed. Even in soul form, the unbearable pain kept burning his existence.
Then he kept falling down in that realm, incomprehensible seeing more and more, and as he saw more his soul was lit with a golden fire that ate away at him.
Just as Old Master Jin moved to push his soul into the body, a pair of black claws stretched open the portal. Grinding noises echoed inside the chamber, as well as the crashing of the gates. Shu Ligui had come inside, hearing the screams, and saw a terrifying, thirty meter long golden pupil staring into the room from a dark crack in the sky.
‘’What did you do, demon!’’
‘’I showed him my world, shared my gaze!’’ He laughed. ‘’Nothing else!’’
Master Jin went pale. ‘’You are the Demonic Emperor of Perception!?...you abhorring creature!’’
The Demonic Emperor of Perception was one of the weakest, yet also the oldest Demonic Emperors. But this one was too weak for an Emperor—all Emperors were Divine beings at the very least. This had to be a weak clone.
Even as he thought, Old Master Jin pushed Zhang Cai’s soul into the body and gathered his Qi in both hands. All the while, he saw the threshold level souls inside the Demonic Realm and watched them get shredded.
‘’Xuefei! Rourou!’’ Chu Jiasu cried out, and burned his soul as well.
All souls came upon the Demonic Emperor of Perception, whose claws lunged through the portal at Zhang Cai’s unconscious body. But another being pulled them apart, spearing two of the souls through their chest.
Master Jin bellowed, and an illusory white serpent formed behind him. It was twenty-meters tall, with shining scales, and a pair of emerald pupils. Still exhausted from helping Zhang Cai, he could only call out to his bloodline for power. Both of his hands coated in wet venom, enhanced by Qi, he struck forth and blocked the palms.
A shockwave sent the vines and lotuses away, shredded them with whips of air. The cave fell into eerie darkness without any light, and the giggle of the Demonic Emperor of Perception echoed.
‘’His soul is mine!’’
Master Jin took a step back, crushing the earth underneath, and then took another. The Emperor pushed and pushed, while the purple-eyed Emperor blocked the sacrificial souls from stopping him.
Master Jin came one step short of Zhang Cai’s body. He couldn’t afford another step, no matter what. Once he died, his soul would be snatched!
‘’Die!’’
The golden pupil flashed, crackling with lightning, and shot forth a bolt of thunder.
It exploded in Old Master Jin’s face, charring his flesh black. A foul smell rose alongside ash-colored steam. Still, his eyes could be seen over the black smoke, with a ferocious glint inside.
‘’GET LOST!’’
The illusory serpent behind his back hissed, then lunged forth. Mid-way its body condensed and became real, and with all its weight bit into the single eye and pumped its venom into the Demonic Emperor of Perception. The head reeled back against the force and allowed Master Jin to take a few steps forward.
‘’YOU! AAAAAAAAGH!’’
Emperor’s bellow shook the entire mountain, and the remnant force escaped through the open gates to the Blue Lotus Sect. All disciples across kilometers, with cultivation below Rocksmote had their eardrums shatter, and those close enough bled through their seven orifices. From one of the closer peaks, three elders shot into the sky at the noise, dove down the cliff, and blasted through the mountain side to see Shu Ligui raise a shining silver blade. The darkness was swept away by the holy light.
‘’What is that?’’
‘’A heirloom!’’
Old Master Jin cast a look at the young girl. Shu Ligui spat out a mouthful of blood, then slashed down with a sharp cry.
The Demonic Emperor of Perception shot her a glare, recognizing the power.
‘’YOU!’’
‘’All you are capable of saying is you, you retard!’’
Han Xuefei’s voice echoed just as the sword aura fell down.
The glaring light burst forth like a star, blinding to most eyes. A grinding sound echoed as Shu Ligui pushed further down. Veins popped on her throat and face, and a flush rose up her chest. Then with one more shout she cut a centimeter down the arms. The blade was stuck inside the claws. But the holy aura spewed forth a silver light, destructive in nature, and scorched the dark arms white. The Demonic Emperor shrieked in pain, the three elders’ techniques rained upon the portal.
Explosions blasted the limbs clean off its dark structure and caused the emperor to scream further. Now his golden bones could be seen, perfectly humanoid unlike his outer shell. The first shockwave went, and the second came to send Shu Ligui flying out the door. She was blasted out of sight, and Zhang Cai’s body crashed towards the pond. Several gusts of wind rolled the bits of earth down the ceiling.
‘’Again!’’
‘’Again!’’
Old master Jin and Han Xuefei spoke at the same time, and another barrage rained down. At each strike, the mountain trembled, and the arms of the Demonic Emperor were cut apart.
Old Master Jin flew forth and punched the open eye with his Qi. A ring of air came forth, and he was shot back from the recoil. ‘’Close the portal!’’ he shouted.
The three elders, all Early Threshold realm, came before the barrier and pushed with their hands. Their Qi flowed into the space around the portal, compressing the invisible space, and forced it to shrink.
Bit by bit, they made progress, until an enraged voice wrecked the eardrums of the elders.
‘’You cannot escape! You will be mine! YOU WILL BE MINE FOREVER!’’
Master Jin glared back at the golden pupil, and he felt a force attempting to seize his consciousness. With a snort, he waved a hand and cut the loose thread of fate the Demonic Emperor shot at him. The connection went away, and the Emperor roared.
‘’Unknown master!’’ Then he heard the people beyond the portal call out. There were only four centimeters left. They couldn’t see inside anymore. ‘’Tell that kid! Tell him to send my regards to my lord! I am Han Xuefei, child of Han Xiaorong!’’
Old Master Jin felt his heart tremble. He quickly cupped his hands and bowed at the portal. ‘’I will send your wishes! What about the others?’’
‘’I am Rou Rou—’’ came a gentle voice, but it was cut off. He waited and waited, without breaking his position, and listened intently to the voices coming from the portal.
But he heard no more, and the last bit of the crack blinked away.
Old Master Jin rose from his bow and looked at the ravaged space before him. His heart empty, he glanced at the door and rained orders at the elders to survey the mountain. One of the elders retrieved the heirloom blade of Shu Ligui and went out the door to fetch her, while the other two shot out the hole at the ceiling. With his super-human senses, master Jin could hear the disciples’ cries of pain.
Old Master Jin himself turned back and crouched beside Zhang Cai. With one hand he touched the boy’s head.
A thread of Qi went inside, and he woke up.