Molting the Mortal Coil

The man in white couldn’t help but call out. He followed the same heritage as the woman in white, and knew just how powerful the technique she just used was. It could only be performed by those who’d formed their Inner Core, using the laws of the world to call down a terrifying light beam that brought with it extreme levels of heat. Yet, the enemies they faced were not destroyed. Four of them were only partially showing their skeletons, moving very slowly, the black tar substance already starting to recover and regrow. The two at the center looked destroyed, only a puddle of blue ooze left on the ground where they’d been with a few of those icy metal bones left. Part of a skull was sitting in the ooze and a partially melted skeleton of two legs were remaining.

The only problem was, the ooze was still moving. It was flowing upwards from the ground and slowly taking the shape of a skeleton once more. The sudden revelation could only make the man in white feel terrified. Could the enemy truly be unstoppable? The four of them in black and white started battling with the six tar creatures that were completely intact. The men and women in black and white showing off impressive powers of light and dark. At the same time, their foes didn’t seem to possess any command over laws or even any energies or elements at all. Instead, they fought like the exceedingly rare Body Cultivators. Their strength, speed, and toughness far surpass that of a normal cultivator. Only when the four used their most powerful attacks could they do more than strip off their black flesh, and even then they continued to recover quickly.

They had no idea that all they did only expended Sage’s energy.

Blacksilver Pawn. That was the name Sage gave to them by combining the names of their main elements. Even if they really weren’t all that silver, the name had a nice ring to it. They were actually the end result of his combination of Hei Bai’s techniques and much trial and error experimenting with Ruanfu. That golden egg which he’d hatched Ruanfu from with King’s help, had passed down an exceedingly unusual ancestral technique. Soul Fragment. Ruanfu always had the urge to put it to good use, but Sage had always held her back. When it was used to create a fragment of the soul that division was permanent and extremely painful. If she were to use it without any experience it could greatly impact her future development.

Only after Sage finally ‘tamed’ the Eye of the World was he confident enough to let them both start experimenting with it. After they both tried it for the first time, they no longer wanted to use it again. It just hurt too much. Hours of bone biting pain, it struck to their very core and overwhelmed their senses. Even so, they never passed out. The pain came from their very soul and not even falling unconscious would save them from it. There was also no way to stop it once it had started. The initial fragmentation was quite quick, and they merely had to suffer through a period of adjustment afterwards. Unfortunately, they found it’s benefits too great to ignore and had to make many more fragments in the years to follow.

A Soul Fragment’s main use was to be placed into an object. The object would become more powerful, all of its natural abilities being strengthened while also being controllable. The object would be able to alter its course in mid-air, change the trajectory of a swing, or operate its own moving parts. What they only found out through experience was that they could also send Qi through their bond with the Soul Fragment. They could place a Soul Fragment into a magic tool and operate it from a distance. Or, as Ruanfu had taken to doing; operate the laws of the world. Her favorite technique now was to use her feathers to attack. She placed Soul Fragments into them and launched them like spears. Since they were already a part of her body, she had a higher compatibility with them. That meant the fragments didn’t need to be as large to show a huge effect. The feather spears were sharper and tougher than normal, and she could combine them with Cosmic Traction to move at extremely high speed. Then she channeled her mastery of Snow through them to chill her enemy from the inside.

For the Blacksilver Pawn, Sage created twelve Soul Fragments. After experimentation, he found the ideal size of Soul Fragment that allowed them the strength to act as an independent creature. Unlike Ruanfu, Sage could use the Twin Soul to destroy and consume the Soul Fragments. It was painful, and he lost some Soul Power along the way, but it gave him the leeway to perform a lot more tests. As for the pain, after he’d been Guan Zhenyan’s test subject for a few years, he’d grown quite used to it. The pain of creating a Soul Fragment had become a dull thing that he could tune out. Only the pain of destroying the Soul Fragment could phase him now.

Sage placed the Soul Fragment into some Blue Icesilver and used it to form a skeleton. Then he covered it with the oil like substance the Black Enhydros created to form the muscles and flesh. Lastly, he used the Sovereign Stone, that held dominion over Heavenly Jewels to amplify the Black Enhydros. He took inspiration from Hei Bai’s techniques, but used their patterns to create his own technique. The most terrifying part was that he could transfer Qi to the Soul Fragments. As they fought, he could constantly use the Black Enhydros and Blue Icesilver to restore the damage they sustained. To truly defeat them, an enemy would have to destroy the Soul Fragment hidden in their bones. Without special soul targeting attacks, it would only be stopped if the skeleton was completely destroyed before it could regenerate.

Their only real limitation was the speed of his Qi recovery. Their total regenerating speed was limited, as he had to spread his Qi among the whole group. Even so, they were quite impressive. Sage had been unable to make them perform their own techniques, but the combination of three Heavenly Materials made for a powerful fighting force. The ongoing battle was an example of their might. While the four in black and white were more inventive and creative with their choices of attacks, the Blacksilver Pawns fought a battle of attrition. Despite having their flesh burned away, their bones twisted and snapped, or even being torn apart at the waist, they continually pulled themselves back together again. For the first few minutes, the human’s were completely unharmed, but as they grew tired they started to make mistakes.

Moving a little too slowly to avoid an attack, or lingering a bit too long after their own attacks, the four ended up taking a few glancing blows. Even after blocking the strikes or being barely hit, they were suffering. The Blacksilver Pawn’s just hit too hard. The damage was far from fatal, since they were Core Formation Cultivator’s, but the hits slowed them down. The longer the fight went on, the slower they got and the more injuries they took. They were being slowly ground down by the relentless onslaught of the twelve creepy puppet soldiers. The soldiers on the walls were starting to get worried, and the four on the battlefield were sweating. It looked as if they were well on their way towards defeat. They’d already started to plan their retreat when the sound of loud laughter came out from within the depths of the Fortress, echoing over the battlefield.

“Hahaha, interesting!”