The door opened, spewing foul air out of its depths and releasing a harsh flash of chi. Whether it was a warning or a beacon wasn’t apparent. Spirit stones fell out of the vault-like guts spilled from some great beast. Jade amulets wrapped in gold mixed in with the spirit stones along with tomes that caught the eyes a little too well. A crystal skull with an extra eye socket in the middle of its forehead tumbled out with the fortune with formations claiming power, ancientness, and knowledge. There were portraits of great immortals that revealed the nature of universal law fragments alien to the world. An egg that radiated ancient majesty promised the regal presence of a thunderbird if only it had enough chi to hatch. Glass crates with bares of nascent soul chi piled hundreds of hands high behind space-expanding formations stuck out of the pile like meat in a dumpling. Further into the depths was a note upon the chi strumming along, only heard when the listener wasn’t paying attention. Still, more treasures filled the vault, begging any treasure hunter to fill their bags and run while they could.

“Don’t touch anything.” Elder Yu said.

“Why,” Lui Fang asked.

“If you don’t focus on the treasure, you’ll hear it. The song of misfortune clings to these treasures. Take them, and the vault will extract ten times what you took. I thought I was being clever when I robbed this place the first time. At least I managed to push the payment onto others.” Elder Yu said.

Lui Fang sucked in a breath of dry air and regretted it immediately. The air felt like sandstone against her parched throat. Tears welled up in her eyes as she gazed upon the magnificent hoard. Only a handful of these treasures would be enough to start a new Lui Clan or join a great clan in a distant land.

“Are you sure about this?” Lui Fang asked.

“Don’t worry. I know all the traps. If we’re fast, we’ll be in and out before any other opportunists arrive,” Elder Yu said.

The water below their feet chose that moment to freeze over. Monstrous scavengers charged for the treasure, and it took all her will to hold herself back from defending it.

A hyena monster grabbed a single spirit stone, and it fell over into agony.

“It seems that it has become more aggressive without the severing experts to control the curse.”

Her eyes glazed over. “Where have they gone?”

Elder Yu snorted. “Where do you think? Any sect would love to have them. They have dispersed to the four winds to seek sects to supplement their cultivation. They all showed themselves to be dogs, not a loyal man among the bunch.”

It felt a little ironic that Elder Yu, of all people, would call them traitors after what he did to the sect. And she, his pawn, would only benefit if he remained interested in her.

“I always wanted to know, why me and not another more talented Dao Seedling?”

Elder Yu, the boy with raven black hair and a beautiful face, smiled gently. He landed on the ice and looked up at her to follow him. When she landed, his grin hadn’t lessened at all.

“It's simple: you said yes when others didn’t.” He saw her expression and spoke again. “Let me rephrase that. You were the most beautiful girl I found with morals that fit my own. While looking for a honey trap, I was also looking for a girl with the right morals to become my partner. I’m quite powerful and intelligent, but it's boring being so amazing without someone who can appreciate it, without something silly like morality getting in the way. You were perfect. It didn’t hurt that your family was in decline.” Elder Yu said.

Lui Fang couldn’t say the first five things she wanted to say.

“I am happy to be of service, Elder Yu.”

“That’s my girl, who is ever obedient and willing to get her hands dirty for the cause. Now, let's get our scrolls and leave before whoever froze the new lake shows up.

…

Elder Yu led Lui Fang through traps that ensnared souls. I didn’t dare leave the safety of Lui Fang’s body. Gluttonous, hungry ghosts waited to devour the nascent souls of those slain by the traps. I didn’t know how well I would fair against them—books possessed by demons covered shelves with spindly black hands ready to drag souls into their pages. Artifacts of torture lay in piles radiating black miasma with their curses alone—great black columns with glowing red writing with half-finished techniques lined sections of the vault-like firewood. Potions capped with bubbling liquids of every color lined the walls, and pill colonies were flying deeper in the air.

I reached out a hair to touch Elder Yu to ask him something through Lui Fang, and my hair fell away without ever touching him. My mind skipped off its track at that. Another weakness of my soul form came to life. It wasn’t hard to figure out, but I should have known.

When I reached for Lui Fang’s soul, my hair bounced off. It was the lightning tribulation. Some charge was upon us and we were like magnets pushing against each other. There was so much I didn’t know, but my soul arrow managed to pierce him. Was it the density of the attack?

My pressure hairs were delicate things that meant more for sensing the world around me than offense. For a while, I pictured passing them through Elder Yu and watching him fall apart.

The dragon didn’t have a soul. It was a charge without a soul, and I felt like it wanted to merge with my soul. Maybe that’s why the 8th lock was needed. It made sense if it also charged the soul to attract chi. It's not like how I generated it, but molding chi around the soul. There was undoubtedly more that I didn’t know the first thing about.

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Elder Yu led us deeper behind the guardian beasts that roamed the halls of the vault, the false hallways, and cursed treasures. Traps and monsters were behind every corner. Without Elder Yu, I might not have managed to get far. So the arrow would have to be used at the last moment after every secret was rung from the man.

“How much further do we need to go?” Lui Fang asked.

“Patients, but we are almost there. I can feel the demonic chi in the air. The true treasure is close. Soon, we will have the techniques denied to us as a tributary of hell,” Elder Yu said.

War Devil Sutra had a nice ring to it, and something that made my soul even more powerful couldn’t be wrong. Knowing it was the only reason I hadn’t made a grand escape. I needed Elder Yu for a while longer.

Curiosity and the desire to watch my soul space grow ever larger were some of the few pleasures I had left as a mere soul. I wasn’t precisely balls-deep in elf pussy in a cultivation world.

It was strange. As a soul, my control over pressure was extreme and growing. The soul arrow formed in minutes, ready to blast out of my soul space with little strain. Vast amounts of spiritual energy flooded my soul continuously from the deaths around here. I was growing at a noticeable rate in density; my pressure had tripled in power. Every moment here fed me more than I ever thought possible, but I couldn’t wait much longer to leave.

As powerful as I was becoming, I was never more vulnerable than I was inside Lui Fang, except maybe if I was outside her.

“That skull from the outside.” Lui Fang said.

“What about it?” Elder Yu asked.

“I know it's dumb, but Atom was obsessed with Psyrens, so I have to ask: After seeing the skull, are they still around?” Lui Fang asked.

I didn’t prompt this. She asked the question on her own.

“Atom was a peasant reaching beyond his station. A weakling like himself who could only make others stronger would be interested in them.” Elder Yu shook his head. They are all dead, at least in this realm and hell. The last living specimen here was Horus Zeus. I’m sure you recognized the beast as the final tribulation. The heavens have a sense of humor and always enjoy tormenting them with opportunities.”

“I thought they were humans with powerful souls.”

“They are powerful souls with human skin, at least at first. As their souls expand, their bodies mutate and change depending on their chosen fragments. They have the rare ability to expand without bursting, unlike the rest of us. It was believed their powerful soul gave them massive advantages over us poor regular Dao Seedlings, and we descendants of hell couldn’t abide it. None can be more talented than us and live. So, my ancestors started their campaign by spreading a rumor that the Psyrens were depleting the heavens. The rest is history.” Elder Yu said.

“Were they?” Lui Fang asked.

“Nope, they were generating chi with their powerful souls, increasing the number of people who could ascend. Those very people were the ones who slew them. After all, being merely talented in cultivation made the armies of mortal severing cultivators feel like sparks before the sun.” Elder Yu said.

We entered a room filled with black sand. The moment we stepped inside, the door behind us closed. A massive lamp in the center of the room had been cracked, and a sky-blue figure hovered in the air with a pointy beard and curled mustache.

Elder Yu froze upon seeing the being hovering above us. The being opened its eyes, revealing shining yellow orbs. It smirked down at us as the crack spread wider in the lamp.

The Elder only took a moment to collect himself and bow deeply. “Azom Mahatma, we greet you in the name of the Thunder Eagle Sect. Please allow us to pass. We have no quarrel with you.”

The lamp’s crack widened further before a piece fell on the floor and cracked into pieces. Chi twisted with strange laws that I couldn’t begin to understand. They were servants and masters of ultimate power, weakness, and chaos. I could feel malice radiate from the being as he looked Lui Fang up and down, and if I had blood, it would have gone cold. This was not a creature we could take lightly. I contemplated using my soul arrow then but held back.

I had a feeling that if I used it while the creature watched us intently, it would simply slap my arrow away.

“What sect, the very mountains, have been ground to sand by the wrath of heaven? Formations placed on me and even my prison have been shattered, all thanks to you. I thank you for freeing me from my prison.” The creature gave a sinister grin. “Ask three wishes, and I shall grant them.”

“I can’t possibly ask for anything from you. Since you’ve just broken free of your imprisonment, why don’t you relax instead of getting to work?”

Azom Mahatma smirked, and when he looked at Lui Fang, I could swear he saw me, and his smirk widened. “I can also grant knowledge that you desperately need.” The djinn licked his lips. “I won’t grant it for free. I will need compensation.”

Lui Fang shivered, and Elder Yu stepped forward. “Don’t you think you’re going too far? I am a child of hell. Do you think I can’t call upon the legions to subdue you as my ancestor did?”

The Djinn scratched his beard. “I don’t like that you brought up that painful memory. So I will put you in time out for, let's say, 1000 years. That should teach you not to act all high and mighty.”

An hourglass filled with black sand appeared in Azom Mahatma’s hands, and Elder Yu appeared inside it. A twisting of laws mixed with spiritual power altered reality to make it so. A balance that had once been observed was undone. There were no more shackles to hold back the beast.

“You are carrying quite the passenger I’ve never seen. It's like in my millennia of life. I want to see what happens when you’re pregnant. Will the new Djinn consume the soul resting inside of you, or will they merge into something new?” The Djinn smirked. There is only one way to find out.”

A mirror appeared in Djinn’s hands, and suddenly, we were reflecting on the room.

Amoz Mahatma gripped the front of Lui Fang’s robe and ripped it away. Her body is displayed before the creature. He grabbed one of her breasts and weighed it in contemplation. I stared at what was happening as the blue humanoid grabbed her hand and placed it between his legs.

“You can’t expect me to do all the work, lazy girl. What good are you if you can’t please a man? Trust me, you’re better off with me than dealing with that Elder. Do you know the number of women he’s chewed up and spat the bones out? Well, by the soul clinging to life inside of you, maybe birds of a feather flock together.”

“Atom is gone, and I don’t sense him anymore.” Lui Fang said.

He was messing up my plan. For the first time since losing my body and becoming a formless soul, I felt rage. White hot heat spread from the edge of my pressure down to the pit of my soul. It rose and fell like the waves against the bedrock of my mind.

“Perhaps you’re right. There is only a speck of something. I sensed maybe there was nothing left. Still, a bed of ashes can make excellent fertilizer. Have you ever been with a man before?” She opened her mouth. “I want the truth, dear.”

“Elder Yu has me pleasure him with my mouth and butt.”

The rage burned brighter and hotter than I ever thought possible—hormones or not, the pressure within lashed out.

“What a dirty whore you did seem a little easy. Do you have a weakness for powerful men?” Amoz Mahatma asked.

I felt her blush, and the sight of the Djinn’s abs and powerful body did things to her that I never managed. Something about my pressure changed, and I saw it within my soul space. On a planetoid, dozens of miles in diameter and growing, the fragment of Atom’s soul, pressure rested. It had ranked up twice since this conversation began. Then it hit rank 4.

My pressure roiled in a storm, and all sense left me as the Djinn lined himself up with Lui Fang’s snatch. The woman was wet and moaning as the Azom planted kisses down her neck.

“There is nothing like a woman fresh out of captivity.”

My blow caught the Djinn across the face as I stood like a newborn fawn with shaky legs. White and black pressure roiled around my makeshift body. A pitch-black eye with a white rim stared at the right side of my face, while a white eye with a black rim stared from the left side of my face. There was no nose, bones, or muscle. I had more in common with a stick figure than a man.

I opened my mouth and screamed. Pressure lashed out in all directions before the mirror trembled and shattered.

A smirking Djinn floated above me in a vast room covered in black sand. In the distance, Elder Yu slowly sank into quicksand as skeletal hands pulled him under.

“This is the hourglass of punishment. Those you wronged will drag you down until the sand chokes your life out.”

I shouted incoherently before decking the man again. My arm stretched and bent at odd angles to deliver another blow.

“Atom,” I turned my back on her.

Curse this Djinn, curse my feelings, and curse that bastard Elder Yu. I was being manipulated again. A blow from the djinn knocked me back a step before I threw a knee into Amoz Mahatma’s chin.

The creature smiled. “Such power for no vessel. Let's see how you react to hungry ghosts.” With a flick of the Djinn’s wrist, two of the largest, most mutated hungry ghosts I’ve ever seen appeared. “Souls without bodies can’t defend against them.” The Djinn laughed. “Do not worry. I mean only to hold you so you can watch me take that woman in front of you.”

I stared back at Lui Fang, hating I was saving her even incidentally. Then I looked up at the towering, hungry ghosts. They were each at least twice my size and covered in fleshy tentacles. They were grey and rotting like corpses, but each of them radiated with fragments of rot, death, and undeath. My current form was a bad matchup.

But I was so angry that I didn’t care. I slammed my fists together, creating a massive shockwave before roaring like a beast. Then, I charged the nearest hungry ghost.