Looking at Li Li with her eyes sprinkled with a faint amount of spiritual essence, she could somewhat see him as a blurry humanoid figure. This gave her quite the shock because spirit beasts didn’t have their souls look human until they’ve reached the Earthly Immortal realm and could transform into humans. But just transforming into a human wasn’t enough to gain a soul that looked human. They also needed to stay human for several decades or even centuries before their souls started to resemble a human’s soul.
Jing didn’t know exactly what to think of this seeing Li Li’s soul similar to a human’s while he’s only at the Qi Consolidation stage. While there were several possibilities flowing through her mind, she couldn’t conclusively decide anything. Li Li’s birth was unusual in itself compared to the millions of spirit beasts she’s seen over 10,000 lives. Including the things that quickly happened after his birth, it was easy to see how easily Li Li differed from other spirit beasts.
It was impossible for Jing to know if being born from an egg made by the system did anything to Li Li. Especially since it was updating right now and mostly unusable. But being made from the system wasn’t the only unnatural thing about Li Li. Jing refined him into the ultimate being, gave him martial arts suited for his species, and had him learn techniques that only beings near the Qi Transformation stage and above should learn.
‘Do I look different?’ Li Li innocently asked. Li Li didn’t know what blowing that stuff into his mom’s eyes did.
“Yeah, just a little bit.” Jing gave a small smile. She had a feeling she already knew what his soul looked like in its completed form.
‘What do I look like?’ He soon asked after, curious to know what he looked like in his mom’s eyes.
“Like my adorable son, of course.” Jing brought him into her chest and hugged him. Her eyes briefly glanced behind her with a playful look in them as she began walking forward. From her waist, a canteen slowly uncapped itself as water began spilling behind her.
This sudden display of playful affection surprised Li Li but he didn’t reject it. It did make him feel a bit embarrassed though. But since no one was around, he figured it wouldn’t be bad to let himself indulge in being treated like this. Jing didn’t hold back in showering Li Li with her love while they were alone.
The sound of a young bird loudly laughing and a young girl making indiscernible noises inside the terrifying forest filled with ghosts and a dense fog caused many of those that heard it to slow their pace and be on their guard.
As the normal person doesn’t know what a laughing bird sounds like, it was easy to imagine that when hearing it, they wouldn’t imagine it being a laughing bird but something more sinister and creepier. Which is exactly what Liu Jiaru, Hu Ya, and Bu Yi did. As they were secretly following behind the sect’s latest prodigy, they stopped dead in their tracks once they heard these strange noises. Liu Jiaru immediately pulled out his sword. Hu Ya and Bu Yi soon did the same after watching Liu.
They used every sense available to them to prepare themselves for whatever threat what heading near them. The threat of evil ghosts frightened them down to their bones. Ghosts were creatures of bedtime stories after all. To scare bad children into listening to adults. It was only now that a majority of the disciples realized that ghosts were actually real!
“Keep an eye out. We can’t let her get too far from us or we’ll lose her in the fog.” Liu ordered.
“Tch, giving me orders? Are you looking for an early death Liu?” Hu Ya threatened, turning his body towards Liu.
“I’d love to kill you where you stand Hu Ya but I have more important things to focus on right now. If you plan to stand in my way, I won’t hold back.” Liu’s left eye was glowing with a blue light.
“You’re lucky my master is also interested in killing this girl. Don’t think that just because you’ve reached another level with that damned eye that you are stronger than me. I too had a breakthrough after dealing with my heart demons.” Hu Ya reminded.
“Didn’t ask.” Liu led the way forward while keeping his eye on a strange medallion in his hand.
The trio of unlikely allies continued to pursue their objective of putting an end to the sect’s latest genius. They followed her for several minutes until they suddenly came across a cave opening. Liu’s spirit tool was telling him that she was inside. For a brief moment, he considered the possibility that they were somehow discovered and she was leading them into a trap. But how would that be possible? Unless the information given by his master wasn’t entirely accurate...
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“What are you scared of a little dark cave?” Hu Ya mocked as his back was turned towards the cave.
‘No one knows much of anything regarding the girl. It is possible that she has martial arts capable of sensing us.’ Liu ignored Hu Ya before he felt a sharp pain coming from his left eye.
“Move!” He shouted as a sense of danger filled his entire body.
In the exact instant that he warned everyone to move, three tendrils of water attempted to pierce through the three of them. As both Hu Ya and Bu Yi understood the power of Liu Jiaru’s left eye, they didn’t hesitate to listen to him. Thanks to that trust in his eye, they were able to avoid being mortally wounded by this sudden attack! The three of them immediately pulled out their weapons once more and readied themselves to face this hidden threat.
The water tendrils began to flow into each other before slowly shaping up into a humanoid figure. It didn’t completely transform into a person but water in the shape of a human. This water being soon created a podao in its hands as it stared at the three would-be-assassins. A mouth began to form on its face as the two sides stood off against each other.
“I’m surprised that you all were able to dodge that. It was the perfect ambush. You wouldn’t mind telling me just how you knew the attack was coming, would you?” The watery figure looked at Liu Jiaru.
“Who are you...?” Blood began leaking from Liu’s left eye as he readied himself for battle.
He understood just how powerful his eye was. Considering that trying to use it twice on this thing was already bringing him to his limit, Liu realized that this was an opponent he couldn’t face as he was now. Even after bringing his Eye of End to the next level, it still strained him to use it against this thing. Just who was this person?!
“No one special.” It giggled, noticing the blood leaking from Liu’s left eye.
“Is it possible, Liu?” Hu Ya asked. He understood very quickly that this was a strong opponent after seeing Liu’s current state.
“Flee!” Liu Jiaru answered in a different way.
Liu Jiaru, Hu Ya, and Bu Yi instantly split off into three different directions. The water clone was quite amused by the sight of this and intrigued. It had a feeling it knew exactly what that eye was and how those three knew that it was best for them to retreat instead of facing it head-on. If it truly was the eye that it was thinking of... Then it absolutely couldn’t let this boy leave its sights.
The clone sped after Liu. Liu felt another spike of pain from his left eye as he forced himself to dash to the left while running through the haunted forest. Doing this allowed him to narrowly avoid the lengthened podao from piercing through his back. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the gigantic tree that would take millions of stabs from his sword before being pierced like that. He saw as the weapon made of water easily slid through the thick tree trunk.
Liu Jiaru soon realized that it was impossible for him to escape unless he used everything he had. The distance between him and the water person wasn’t increasing but slowly decreasing! They were catching up to him and it would only be a matter of seconds before they reach him. His eye could probably only save him one or two more times before forcing itself into hibernation to heal from the damages it suffered so far. He still had a genius to kill along with capturing several ghosts! Having his eye go into hibernation would put his life in risk and possibly cause him to fail this challenge.
Forced into a corner like a wild animal, Liu Jiaru had no choice but to use a teleportation talisman and escape. His left eye felt like it was being crushed as he was teleporting away but along with that pain from his eye, he felt another source of pain. As if someone stabbed him in his stomach before he got away...
As Liu Jiaru arrived in a random part of the Endless Plains of Yin, he felt movement coming from his slightly stabbed stomach. A perfectly clear drop of water fell from his stomach as his left eye began crying tears of blood. However, Liu could feel no pain this time. He didn’t understand what was happening. More and more bloody tears began to fall from his face.
“You almost got away from me... That was close, holder of the Eye of End.” The water droplet from before began to shape itself into a human figure.
Its hand pierced through his chest and gently grabbed onto his beating heart. Despair filled Liu Jiaru’s soul. What kind of inhuman monster did he run into...? Even with the power of future sight... It couldn’t stand against a being of absolute power... How unfair...
His heart was crushed to a pulp before the body fell to the ground. The water clone carefully reached into the eye socket of the corpse and pulled out the entire left eye. As the clone was walking away it began to think about who would this eye work best with.
“Hu Tao already has incredible instincts. Qing has her butterflies. Lei Zhi’s martial arts would make this eye useless. Leaving only Ying and Bing left as the remaining two choices. Bing doesn’t seem like the type to want a gift like this while Ying would accept an additional boost to her own strength. But... Bing's personality would work best with an eye like this.” Jing’s water clone spoke as it headed off into the endless fog in search of more treasures.