As she heard her name, He Liling floated up to the stage. Three light steps coupled with a masterful usage of [Sky Walk]. And she was right where a contestant should be, seventy feet from her opponent.
[Genius], [Hope], [Monster], [Demon], [Princess], [Unaging One], [The Promise of the Yuwen Clan], [Heir of a Great Family], He Liling had been called by a dozen nicknames. And yet the only one she retained, and the only one she truly liked, was the one called to the arena now, [Deep Soul Gaze Princess]. The 3rd spot of the Earthen Lord Ranking Board, Arena Master, and the one who had only lost once.
She was young, having met her twentieth spring this year. And yet, she had lived through enough battles, massacres, and tragedies to discern that her new opponent, one she had selected and organized this challenge for, was similar to her. How and why..? She could not answer, but this Bai Qi was a man that felt like anything but one of her generation. The same as her.
The young cultivator, her opponent, was even younger than He Liling, and he stood with his eyes closed, recuperating from his last battle as if he hadn't noticed her.
As the lower arena manager concluded the introduction and prepared to give start to the combat, He Liling briefly bowed in a silent but respectful greeting towards the one that could be the one they had so long searched.
----------------------------------------
Hearing Yi Bingwen, Bai Qi forced his eyes open. He had sensed someone's arrival on the stage, and the [Princess] was one of the three masters he had met before, so he had allowed himself to continue meditating until the last moment.
Now, faced with the silent greeting, he responded likewise - without allowing himself to say anything. Respect solicits respect, silence solicits silence, and while Bai Qi could find not a few words for the veiled but scarcely clothed young woman in front, from admiration to mock, he always followed the rules of the play, and so, he kept silent.
<3rd in the whole region's ranking while not being a part of any power. Mysterious and powerful, shielded by the [Yi Clan] experts from any approach. And by most of the speakers, she's considered both a beautiful and a worthy opponent. Or a scary one, if I rephrase the latter.> Recalling the few bits of information he overheard about He Liling, the single arena master that had remained unchallenged except once since she appeared, Bai Qi ended his silent salute.
And as Bai Qi rose from his bow, his eyes met with the strangely colored, golden with black irises, ones of the [Soul Gazing Princess].
"Commence." The words of Yi Bingwen sounded as he left the stage, and the bell resounded, giving the official start. At that exact moment, He Liling's aura exploded, and Bai Qi sent his own to meet it midway.
***
Two auras of uncanny strength, with Bai Qi and He Liling releasing them on a level similar to a peak 6th level Warrior Lord, far above their own, made the public comment on it. Most of the words were of surprise, as even if they had sensed or heard about either's combatant prowess, seeing someone who showed the presence of someone three levels above, nine if considering the three-step Earth Realm ones, was still surprising.
It was also a welcome change from the unconventional fighting from before, as the aura clash was supposed to be the first one to happen in any combat between Warrior Lords and Warrior Kings. Only after it finished with an equal ground established, or one of the sides lost, opposing sides would meet in physical or weapon combat.
"Why does Bai Qi's aura feel so strange? As if it weakens with every passing breath?
He hasn't reacted..? So, maybe it's planned?
But it is as if he's giving up! He's strong, but fighting while under suppression isn't something a clear-thinking cultivator would do, would it?"
With every passing breath, He Liling's aura pressed more and more, now nearly surrounding Bai Qi. With the latter failing to react, voices turned doubtful, especially those who awaited Bai Qi's victory or expected his battle with the strongest of the Arena Masters, Yi Lei.
***
The voices from outside didn't reach Bai Qi, but if they did, he could only say that they were both far from the truth as they weren't. Since the start of the combat, he had locked gazes with He Liling, and as their auras fought to overpower each other, neither had broken that eye contact.
At some point, without him noticing and clearly against his will, Bai Qi found his mind far from the stage, in his inner world, his soul space. Since the merging of souls that saved his life and allowed him to reawaken after the battle and from his near-death state back at the [Void Palace], Bai Qi had not risked visiting this part of himself, yet now, he found himself inside it.
Stolen novel; please report.
While the dark, stone-like ground and the black sky remained the same, the entirety of the soul space had whitish light bathing it, breaking the gloomy atmosphere from before. As a small addition to this image, after Bai Qi concentrated, he noticed a faint spot of green, which turned to be something akin to a patch of grass,
At most, it took Bai Qi an instant to understand he had been sent here against his will and not because of anything but a hostile ability. After that, it took him even less to guess what kind of ability it was. Thus, when the white, mist-like light shivered, and Bai Qi felt what was his own, only fear, to lack the ability to learn, he was far less surprised than his opponent, He Liling, could have accounted for in her plan.
***
Using the maintained eye contact as a medium, and with her [Goddess Mask] spiritual veil concealing her face and the words she pronounced, He Liling activated her ability. The same one that had earned her most of the wicked titles and the sole one she didn't detest, [Soul Gazing Princess].
It would turn out, just a moment later, that her previous reluctance, her unwillingness to gaze into Bai Qi's soul, was absolutely accurate.
***
"Soul whisper..? While deceived by the [Gazing] part of her title, I am sure of it now." Bai Qi felt no need to keep silent, being inside his inner world with no one to hear him anyway. And so he thought aloud.
[Soul Whisper], such an ability was horrifying for anyone with cultivation near the user's level. While combat between auras ensued in the physical world, the [Whisperer] would weaken their opponent, sending the latter's soul into disarray, making the deepest fears of one surface. Using that moment of weakness and unresponsiveness, one could do anything against their opponent, from trying to read their soul to destroying their aura and simply approaching for the killing blow.
"But for Bai Qi, the Immortal, what is mere fear? And even if I have weakened the remnants of my soul, merged it with others, restarted my life as a new being, I can still shrug it off, the same as I did as the [White Scroll Immortal]." A smile crossed Bai Qi's face as the shivering subsided, the fear of not being able to comprehend disappearing under the deep feelings of someone who had already learned enough. As it did, he left the inner world, breaking He Liling's ability.
***
Only a few people knew of the genuine ability of the [Soul Gazing Princess], and except for that select group, no one could understand what was happening on stage. Yet, those few ended up with widened eyes as Bai Qi's aura flared, recuperating lost ground and forcing He Liling's one back.
But if the comeback was already surprising, the wavering aura of He Liling, the involuntary few steps she took back, and the notable shaking of her body were even more.
He Liling would never reveal what she saw, and no one except Bai Qi himself could actually explain it even if she did. After all, who but him could know that his soul wasn't an image of his current self as it was for most cultivators or an image of a bloodline's originator as for the cultivators of one. No, his soul was a stitched chaos of three, Immortal, Demon, Human.
"You, just what the Heavens are you?!" He Liling inaudibly asked as she continued shivering from the image she saw.
A white-skinned and white-haired male of unknown race, eyes wisened with hundreds of experiences, masteries, mysteries, and understandings. Almost as if the god of knowledge himself decided to get an incarnation. And this being looked down to the invader of its sanctuary. Not anger filled its dark, void-like eyes, only pity, as if a bug was about to be squashed under its feet.
A black, armored, flame-covered demon that could tower over a house. Its snickering face, if a mix of multi-colored flames with blue-fire eyes and fangs of the purest white-fire, could be called a face, looking as if ready to devour the invader.
A young boy, barely resembling Bai Qi, the only one 'normal' in the trio, standing behind the two giant figures, looking nervous but still facing the invader, as if it had to.
And He Liling, as she gazed inside Bai Qi's soul, saw not one of them but the three!
{I am me, the one who fights here.} Even if He Liling's words went unheard, it wasn't hard for Bai Qi to guess what she could have asked if she did.
{You...} She didn't find words to respond to Bai Qi's transmission, and neither she had the time to do so.
*Swoosh*
His opponent made the first move, so Bai Qi launched forwards without remorse.
Between the shock from glancing at the true soul of Bai Qi and the soul power expense from forcefully ending contact and Bai Qi breaking the other part of her ability, He Liling would have been easy prey for Bai Qi's aura. Yet, he didn't go with such a method. Bai Qi kept his aura at a level just enough to maintain an even ground for the clash, the single one he had decided upon for this combat.
"Come!" Her aura flaring to the maximum, He Liling called for her twin butterfly swords, [The Blessing and Curse of the Veiled Goddess], a pair of true top-tier Spirit Weapons.
*CLANG* *CLANG*
Bai Qi had enough free aura, only some half used for the standstill against He Liling, to even fight barehanded against spirit weapons. Still, that would only show conceit towards one's opponent, so he summoned a pair of sabers, the rose-tinted ones looted in the [Void Palace]. The second pair to the golden ones he had damaged on this day.