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Chapter 160 - A Bad Time

I could feel my mouth turn dry, as I try to figure out how I can deal with this situation.

Too bad for me, that true cultivators aren’t known for their patience. Before I can even think about it, I find myself flying across the void. No pain, just movement.

I can just barely hear him say something.

“Hmm… it has weakened me more than I thought. I should finish this quickly.”

Like a DBZ character, I see him appear in front of me and pummeling my face with his fists. Instinctively, I feel my heal activate and start defending myself.

Thrown from place to place, I try to block his attacks and am being knocked around like a pinball in a machine.

This is truly like being slapped around.

However, I realize one important thing during all of this.

It doesn’t hurt.

It’s like the hands of a baby are trying to poke my cheek. Annoying, but not painful.

I focus in on the reason and find myself slowing down.

All the way down… Until he seems to be unable to move me. No matter how hard he hits.

I then realize, that he was only originally throwing me about, because I wasn’t resisting… in a space-like void.

He’s clearly going all out, as well.

Since ‘physical’ attacks aren't working, he switches to complex Qi attacks involving fire, lightning, and many other techniques. My body automatically reacts to his moves, countering them as information flows into my head from the scan based on his moves.

While he does that, I investigate, using my scan on why this is the case.

This is a combination of many factors coming together.

People have a soul. Not just their metaphysical one, which exists, but a cultivator one. The metaphysical one is mortal and can still die, but it's much more difficult to affect. It represents everything that makes a person; Their emotions, personality, and other such things are contained in it. Everything that makes you, you.

Then there is the cultivator soul, which is only a representation of it, is partially physicalized in a soul space. It has a form, but not really. If they damage the cultivator soul enough or destroyed, you could die and your metaphysical soul would die as well or could be damaged, leading to its death.

At the Nascent soul stage, you are able to survive without a physical body, as your core has been changed turned into a tiny person within both the soul space and partially in the real world. Becoming a physicalized form of your cultivator soul.

The best way to think of it is if your body is a vessel for your cultivator soul, you have created a second vessel for it to survive in, once you’ve reached the Nascent Soul stage. This technically means that if you have the right techniques, you could find another body as a Nascent soul and steal it. Alternatively, you could use alternate vessels like puppets or items to temporarily house your soul while you rebuild your body. Which is still no small effort, but better than no chance at all.

Since I’m not even a cultivator, how I’m floating right now in a void is simply a representation of my cultivator soul and soul space within my body. With that said, somehow I am still in a good position against this Nascent Soul cultivator who has clearly lost their body, but still has a damaged nascent soul.

This is because my abilities are an intrinsic part of my metaphysical soul, as they were added in the transference process.

My healing auras and Healing Constitution description are as such:

Healing Aura:

Healing Aura is an ability to heal all conditions, correct negative changes, and optimize/purify the target. Can be used externally, internally, or as an area of effect. More effective at close distances. Cost to use scales according to level and level of severity.

Healing Constitution:

Healing Constitution is a unique constitution that allows the user to heal from any negative conditions, while retaining positive conditions. When learning healing-based cultivation methods, cultivation is 100x quicker than normal. When using healing abilities, cultivation is 100x quicker. This effect is stackable.

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The interesting part about this, is that even if my body and cultivator soul is captured, and my metaphysical soul disconnected from it, then the abilities can’t be used by the body thief. They would have access to the body, memories, Qi cultivation and techniques, but not the special abilities.

However, that still wouldn’t explain why my cultivator soul is so strong.

Since I’ve been constantly using my healing aura and healing constitution on myself, my body and cultivator soul have been getting optimized to where it’s the same, if not better than body cultivation.

In fact, the effect that body cultivators are looking to do on their bodies, using Qi and training to strengthen and improve the different aspects of their body, my healing constitution ability automatically does.

With that said, my healing constitution handles not only the body, but also all other parts of my being.

… such as my cultivator soul.

However, the healing constitution is only similar to removing the impurities from a sword and making it a perfect, solid sword.

The healing aura surpasses that. It optimizes and purifies its target while fixing any conditions.

In addition, it becomes exponentially more effective, the closer it is to me. And my cultivator soul is infinitely close to zero distance from me.

So, in short… I’m invincible in the soul space. In this situation, at least.

To add to that, since both Wang Fei and I are in the soul space my scan can work more effectively on him. There are no barriers to his inner self, as he already has a damaged cultivator soul and my scan also works better at close distances. So, the cost is basically nothing when he hits my cultivator soul.

So with every attack, he’s giving more information to pull from. A repository of information that would cost me an immense amount of energy to learn myself. With him originally being a high Nascent soul cultivator, that’s nothing to scoff at.

It’s too bad most of it is evil and depraved stuff, such as eating 10000 virgins, cultivating in their blood, then killing them to learn the Qi technique to form a disguise over yourself; or using a blood pool of devoured organs formed from a dual cultivation partner you’ve spent 10 years with to summon a particular demon.

And plenty more.

I’d think it would be a morbid joke, if I didn’t see he has already committed half of these.

What is helpful is the basic level stuff. Like how to form a formation or talisman. Things I will still need to use my scan on to get better information on, but gives me a baseline to work off of.

Turning my attention back on the situation at hand, I’m still stuck in a conundrum.

He’s been using all manner of attacks and techniques, including binding ones, to restrict me from movement or to control my body. Despite the fact that I still performed the counter movements and interjections to his technique to stop him from doing so, it still wouldn’t affected my soul anyway. It would be like flimsy webs in front of an elephant.

The issue is, I’m having trouble hurting him.

My cultivator soul is stronger than his is.

But, it doesn’t have Qi techniques, the attack power, or even the speed he has. Additionally, he has vastly more battle experience than I do and I’m not able to land a hit. Even if my scan tells me where his weak spots are, that doesn’t mean I can hit it. When I attempt to follow the path to it, he adjusts to my attacks instantaneously.

While my soul is getting faster and this is giving me great experience both in knowledge and battling… I really don’t want some old evil guy hanging around in my soul space.

Who knows what kind of perverted technique he could come up with to overcome this?

Not only that, but guys like this usually have victims that sustain their being. So, if he brought out someone and started torturing them, I’d have to heal myself to help get over the constant mental trauma.

Wait a second.

If I can get him to release all the people locked away in his cultivator soul, I can heal them to where they can fight him. I may not have attack power, but…

The only issue is, guys like this would only take it out for major attacks. Likely, only for an attack that he sacrificed his own life to commit to.

What could make Cultivator of this strength decide to do such a thing?

… I know just the thing.

Making my face impassive, I fold my arms as if I’m impatient and bored. I also make my body stop moving entirely, just staying in one place as his hits land on me.

I can see his face darken as he redoubled his attacks.

I let this go on for 5 minutes, before saying a short phrase.

“Are you trying to attack me, or is this some kind of weird massage?”

Everything stops.

The fire that was erupting from his Fingers dies on his hand. His mouth gapes open like a fish, his face the picture of anger.

He licks his lips, as he attempts to sputter out rage filled words.

“You D-“

“-Have you ever been mistaken for a small insect? I feel like that’s an apt comparison.”

I cut him off with another insult.

His body and face are red. Pulsing with a malevolent light.

“Don’t push a-“

“Are we actually in the soul space? Your breath is unbearable.”

He goes silent, his body shaking and sputtering.

A non-cultivator is nonchalantly besting him in such a way, while insulting him, someone who’s lived a thousand lifetimes and crushed millions like dust.

I wait for him to say something else, but he goes quiet, with the shivering stopping.

He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and begins meditating.

And he pops. Literally.

In a little red poof of blood-like mist.

And then all hell breaks loose.

Erupting from the mist, comes countless shadows and screaming entities. The ground turns into a bloody swamp, starting from the mist, from which tentacles reach up in a discordant song of pain and sorrow. Everything’s changed.

I’m not in control.

My soul feels mired and slow at every turn, as I desperately try to escape from its growing range. My arms flail toward the darkness, away from the RED in an attempt to get away.

Portals tear open my soul space in every direction, causing me immense pain with every opening, as malevolent demons reach through its gates laughing and ripping wayward souls apart as they spring from the mist. They approach and sing of secrets only I would know and how they will hunt down my family, to devour them all in different ways.

And leading the pack is the blackened void in the shape of the cultivator roaring in anger, clearly mindless, but several times more powerful. His power which was originally damaged to foundation establishment, has now risen to the peak of Core formation. Every yell and scream from him causes me to nearly faint from its power, the pressure of which causes my nonexistent bones to creak.

This is the sacrificial soul attack of what once was a Nascent Soul Cultivator.

Pro-tip.

Don’t antagonize strong, evil cultivators.

Especially in your soul.

It’s a really bad idea.