This old woman seemed to be quite well suited to dealing with him. This new form of hers was completely unaffected by physical attacks. While she was no longer surrounded by that vicious aura, Sage saw with Foresight that her attacks still carried the vicious power from before.
She had regained her mobility and was currently chasing after him. He found that without any physical form, she was extremely agile. Just like a ghost she could float about in any direction. There was no need for her to change her footing or push off the ground. No matter what evasive maneuvers he attempted to make, she would easily follow after him in the vision shown by his Foresight. Fortunately, her top speed was limited. If he moved in a straight line, she would never catch up to him.
On the downside, she didn’t just follow him away. After chasing him for a short while she would stop and return to her original position, guarding the giant scorpion like she’d been doing since the beginning. She seemed to know that they cared about the scorpion and also that she couldn’t trap them. Since they couldn’t be contained, she stopped them from escaping by threatening something they cared about.
Looking at her from a distance, they had entered something of a standoff. She couldn’t catch up to him, while he didn’t have any good methods of attacking her. With her transformation into some sort of spirit being, Sage lost most of his options. Usually, he was the one attacking the soul unexpectedly, but now it was like an amateur in front of a master. Even if he had a very powerful soul and strange methods for it, it didn’t change the fact that he didn’t have any guidance in that regard. The innate abilities of the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent were a nightmare to deal with for normal people, but against a true expert of the soul it was nothing more than a little snake. The power of Sage’s soul was impressive, but that just made it into a bigger snake.
The dark ghost that was now Hei Bai floated in the air above the giant scorpion. Xiezi had moved into the distance, and was waiting on a small ridge. She masked her anxiousness with the murderous look on her face, like she was just waiting for the moment to pounce. The ink-like cloud with a glowing red skull on it was staring at Sage and he was staring back. He had no idea what she was thinking, but he was currently running through every option he had to try and come up with a solution. Then, he smiled.
“Trying to bluff, or have you come to terms with your end? Oh, I know. Have you decided to abandon your companion and escape? Won’t that little girly over there never forgive you?”
Hei Bai mocked him, but Sage didn’t respond. It was then she realized his lips were pursed. She thought it was a look of consternation, but now she noticed the air swirling around him upon the ground. She started to move, a lance of liquid shadow shot forward, but it was too late.
Sage finished pressurizing that space in his lungs with air and Qi. His mouth opened wider and met that dark lance moving his way with a gout of brilliant white flames. Did she not realize that her current form was exactly what the First Light was strongest against? She’d just been burned by it earlier, and it seems she hadn’t made the connection between that pain she felt deep down and the nature of the white flames.
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A scream of soul rending pain pierced through the roaring sound of the flames. Brilliant white fire, a completely unnatural sight. The inky darkness was bathed in it, the black light and white fire made a brilliant monochromatic show. With the Divine Breath technique to power it, the fire didn’t just lick against her, it shot forth like a raging blast furnace. A violent blow torch of bleached white flame.
Unfortunately, just like the rays of dawn, the First Light was fleeting. The bright white light and fire could only be sustained for a few moments before it faded away like it was never there. The First Light cleansed the darkness of the night and prepared the world for the day. The area of the ground that the flames had covered was slightly disturbed from the air pressure used with the flames, but there were no burn or scorch marks this time. Instead, all of that power had been directed to the condensed darkness.
That darkness was no longer vaguely humanoid in shape, having been reduced to a little spherical wisp. The sphere shape was solidified blackness, while at its edges there were vague waves of dimness. Like a strange gas that absorbed the light. At the center of the dark sphere was a red skull like before, but it was dimmer than before. The dark sphere was the size of a human heart, and the gaseous energy around it was slowly pulsing and undulating like a heartbeat.
Not one to give the enemy time to recover, Sage opened his mouth again and this time vibrant orange flame erupted forth. It spilled out of his mouth like it had a mind of its own, but it didn’t move towards Hei Bai. Instead, he tilted his head back and the orange flame seemed to gain an impetus, lunging towards the sky in a beautiful arc like a flaming ball of phlegm.
A scream echoed through the air, but far differently this time, it was the screech of a bird. A huge orange and scarlet colored bird swooped down from the sky. It’s dive took it into a direct collision course with the orange flames. The truck sized vulture smashed into the orange fire and it’s whole ignited. The vibrant orange flame covered the huge bird and with its wings tucked into the dive it resembled a flaming meteor.
After suffering the attack from the First Light, the ball of darkness that was Hei Bai seemed unable to resist and the huge vulture smashed against it like a freight train. At the last instant, the vulture snapped out its wings and spun backwards. Its body rotated around and its legs were extended downwards. It was not a move that a vulture was known for, looking like a hawk or falcon with toes spread out to strike. More amazingly, the vulture only extended one leg, pulling the other back up. Its foot angled oddly and only one of its talons pointed at its target.
The orange flames on its body moved like a wave and gathered at the tip of that single talon. All of the force of its diving charge gathered onto that sharp point and stabbed into the eye of the red skull at the center of the dark sphere. The flames were like a sharp knife, stabbed into the darkness yet without coming out again at the other side.
Boom!
The ground beneath the dark sphere was blasted in all directions, absorbing the majority of the force created by the dive bombing vulture. The flames had allowed it to affect a purely spiritual being, but only a portion of its strength was converted. The rest of it was delivered to the ground and also back to its own body. That giant vulture was of course Tujiu. That single talon was his focus as a lancer, putting the entirety of his strength and focus into a single point. A lancer always sought to make the most destructive charge. This was a path that required a very strong body. A portion of the force delivered to a target would always be returned back to him. His early days of training had consisted of him diving head first into the ground from higher and higher altitudes until he no longer suffered any injuries. At this point, the hard ground felt like a bed of sand to him and that impact was equivalent to a hard sneeze. He felt a little sore all over, but he quickly recovered and leaped back into the air. He’d done his job and delivered that orange flame.