I avoided the strike to my face pretty easily. Shen was fast, but not fast enough to be a real threat. All I would have to worry about while fighting Shen was to keep him too busy to summon any constructs.

Those soul constructs could be a lot more potent than there summoner. I would think he would have a few peak core formation Wraiths on his side. So keeping him busy was a must. I had seen many Ghost Devouring Sect members keep their constructs around them at all times, I was lucky Shen wasn’t following that trend. Otherwise, I would be a lot more worried about coming out of this fight with all my treasures intact.

His face turned red as he kept attacking me to no avail. I was always just a little too quick for him. Bin Ji and the others had started summoning some elemental spells of their own to trip up Shen’s feet, helping me in whatever way they could.

Tendrils of yellow power emerged from me constantly, striking into Shen and the building around him, sending chunks of the wall into his face, doing little damage, but making him even more annoyed.

The tendrils that did manage to hit him caused a little more pain—leaving yellow scars on his body that were continuously leeching him of energy, empowering me at the same time.

A supernova of ghostly energy seemed to explode out from around him. The wave of energy sent me smashing into the wall, the team beside me were forced to the ground, blood spilling out from their mouth, experiencing the pain of a soul attack for the first time.

It did little to hurt me, I was quickly back on my feet, only a little too late, he had managed to retrieve one construct from his spatial ring. It screeched out in an unearthly fashion, the ghostly creature, a skinny humanoid, with great claws and a gaping mouth.

The Aura emanating from it gave me some hope. It was only slightly stronger than Shen; it would also be much dumber. It would be easy enough in this enclosed space to set them against each other. It leaped towards me, reaching for my soul.

A yellow tendril quickly got its attention; it did little damage to the creature but allowed me to dodge out of the way. It was incredibly fast, its entire focus was on speed and ferociousness, having no means of defense.

I was met by a fist surrounded by ghostly energy, Shen had positioned himself very well. Knocking me back, I twisted enough to mitigate the blow, returning one of my own clad in a sickly yellow light.

I was getting stronger as the fight went on. Tendrils were constantly attacking both Shen and the construct. Shen had some soul defense for the transfer of energy. The construct, however, had none. It also had none of the protection of the Hair constructs, meaning my energy began taking control of the construct quickly. I was also intimately aware of the workings of the foe, allowing me to steal energy from the focal points, all while corrupting the Wraith.

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Shen’s attacks also began slowing down soon after, the combined energy usage from empowering the construct and the drain from my tendrils was too much for him to handle.

Bin Ji and the others were recovering slowly to the side.

“Assist Shen in his fight against attackers in sector 4A.”

Prots voice came out over the arrays for the first time. He had finally gotten around working out the defense against the stone golem. We would have company very soon. With reinforcements for Shen coming soon, I would have to deal with him quickly.

The construct came bounding over towards me once again. Instead of avoiding it, I let the claw come straight for my body. It ripped through flesh. Pain erupted as the creature roared in ecstasy. Its soul attack was direct and powerful, also easily trumped by me.

Through the direct connections of souls, I could easily take over the construct.

I slumped to the ground. The construct stepped back and let out an unearthly screech. Shen walked over to me, his eyes lit up in triumph, kicking me down further.

“Who would have thought you-”

His victory speech was quickly silenced by an elongated claw appearing from the center of his chest. His face lost all color soon, as the construct repeatedly stabbed into his back. He soon joined me on the ground. Life already lost.

An unholy screech once again rang out throughout the base. Yellow energy coalesced around Shen. It consumed him nearly instantly; all that was left was a yellow crystal.

Sending the construct out to get rid of all the reinforcements, I looked to Bin Ji and the rest, they had yet to recover. Giving me ample opportunity. I grabbed hold of the crystal.

Power rushed through me. I had far greater control over it this time around. The energy flowed in a much more efficient pattern. My cultivation rose with it. I was quickly reaching the Peak of foundation Building. I wasn’t going to break through to Core formation just yet.

That would wait until I was back in the sect. I had no idea what my breakthrough would bring.

I strode over to where Bin Ji and the other were recovering—taking some small soul recovery talismans out of the storage ring that had once belonged to Shen. I applied them to my team.

While doing that, I quickly took a look at how the situation was outside through the arrays.

The stone golem was still going strong. Yurt was a very competent commander.

Prot hadn’t sent out any constructs yet, so the fight was limited between the golem and the cultivators he had at his disposal.

The buxom Demon Hair cultivator was one of the people leading the charge, to little avail; however, the construct was too strong after all.

“What the hell happened?”

Bin Ji was the first to awake, which didn’t surprise me one bit.

“I defeated the cultivator you were fighting.”

Her face spoke to her disbelief. But she quickly moved on from it, figuring it was a question best left to a later time. She went to help out the other team members who were beginning to wake up in turn.

“Onto Phase 2.”