Molting the Mortal Coil

After so many years laboring as a test dummy, Sage developed the technique to ignore pain. Combined with the Blood of Nine Pits, he was ready. As a Poison Master, there was no way he could secretly poison Guan Zhenyan. Instead, he struck when the man would least expect it. Not when Sage visited his home to make a request. Not when Guan Zhenyan was accompanying him into the town for an errand, and definitely not anytime he called the man to the little hovel he was ‘renting’. No, the best time to strike was right after Guan Zhenyan had poisoned him. Sage would appear to be at his weakest and most vulnerable. It was a routine that continued for years, and before administering the poison Guan Zhenyan was at his most wary. The moment of highest alert would always be followed by the most relaxed state. After being on guard, once a person felt safe enough to relax, they would be at their least wary. It was a high that had to be made up for with a low. Nobody could maintain a hyper vigilant state forever, and after so many years of routine, he would be conditioned to feel not a hint of wariness against Sage in his incapacitated state.

Now, this wasn’t completely foolproof. Some of the poisons that Guan Zhenyan tested were not purely harmful. Some of them were powerful stimulants or other body affecting concoctions that made him run around and smash things. Guan Zhenyan would only drop his guard after the poison had already taken effect and put Sage into a weak and helpless state. If Sage wanted to make an attack at that moment, he would have to trick Guan Zhenyan into thinking he was incapacitated. It was no easy task to fool someone so much more powerful, so it took quite a lot of effort to finally find a way.

On that fateful day, Sage was standing before Guan Zhenyan. They were within the courtyard of the man’s manor.

At first, Guan Zhenyan had charged him for the service to have a servant carry Sage’s body back to his shed, but when Sage insisted on Guan Zhenyan having to come to his little shack to perform the test, the man relented and waved the transportation fee. They also previously conducted all the tests indoors, but after Guan Zhenyan’s floors were covered in vomit or blood, Sage was charged for making a mess and the two came to another compromise. In the courtyard he could be abused and make a mess, while Guan Zhenyan could stay on the porch and observe the changes without being at the mercy of the weather. Even if they were within a huge and towering city, it had its own artificial weather systems to please the wealthy.

Guan Zhenyan flicked his finger and a small dart flew out like a flash of lightning. It stuck into Sage’s neck and he felt only a tiny pinch. The dart was light and thin, the strike felt more like a fly landing on his arm than a piece of metal puncturing his neck. He didn’t bother to reach up and take it out, if Guan Zhenyan wanted that to happen he would have pulled the dart back with a bit of Spirit Power telekinesis. Sage just stood there normally and let the poison overtake him. This was their usual routine, Sage merely standing like a dummy and allowing himself to be harmed. His only responsibility was to describe the things happening to him. He wasn’t supposed to resist or take any actions unless told to. Usually, a new poison had him standing helplessly while improvements upon poisons had him performing specific actions to see how they altered the poison’s effects.

The poison this time was overbearing. While it was delayed in its activation time, when it finally kicked in, it was like a bomb went off inside his body, which he immediately relayed. He fell down to one knee, “Argh! It took a while to kick in, but it feels like my insides just exploded! My organs are still intact, but the surrounding tissues are torn up.”

All of his vital organs were bleeding, just like they’d sprung a bunch of holes. He was pretty sure that without his enhanced healing or a few higher ranked healing pills he’d be on the verge of death. He continued to relay the rest of the effects, and by the end, Guan Zhenyan was talking to him directly, using the telepathic bond that he’d established with the small flower he’d planted in Sage’s core.

Unfortunately for him, that was the moment Sage was waiting for.

By using the small flower again, there was a connection between the two of them and Sage used the most crude method he knew of to hijack it. Guan Zhenyan was piggybacking with Sage’s consciousness while he examined the changes inside his body. This was something of a rare occurrence, since Guan Zhenyan didn’t usually need to see within Sage’s body in such detail. Usually, his powerful senses and Sage’s description was enough. Just when Sage fell into his most vulnerable state, Guan Zhenyan relaxed his guard.

At that exact instant was when Sage struck. He put to work his master plan by manipulating the First Light. The bright flame of dawn. His soul manipulated it to completely immolate the flower that Guan Zhenyan had planted inside his very core. The small plant didn’t burn, in fact it didn’t seem hurt at all.

It took only a split second for Guan Zhenyan to notice the change and he roared at Sage’s consciousness while racing back towards the small flower. The flames didn’t hurt the plant, but they stopped Guan Zhenyan from severing the connection and returning his full attention back to his own body. Even the active link he formed to monitor Sage’s body required far less than his full attention, but this move was only a diversion to weaken Guan Zhenyan’s willpower.

The true attack was already plowing into Guan Zhenyan’s body. It had already entered in that split second of lacking concentration. The Twin Soul!

Years of accumulation with the Eye of the World and the Twin Soul devouring the souls of beasts in the wild. All of it went into this singular attack. The Twin Soul was utterly massive, like a giant that touched the sky as it smashed its way into Guan Zhenyan’s body. Unlike other bodies he’d entered, there was no soul to battle within the Spiritual Sea. Guan Zhenyan was of a much higher rank, such that Sage had no idea of how high. He didn’t know what to target, so the Twin Soul simply went on a rampage. Anything that it could affect it attacked. As a type of spirit body, the Twin Soul couldn’t affect the material world, so it merely went wild, swinging at everything it could see inside Guan Zhenyan’s body.

Annoyed, Guan Zhenyan arrayed a mighty Spirit Power against him. The Twin Soul suddenly found itself facing off against an endless bank of fog. The purple fog had a mind of its own, spinning and swirling to build a cage for his Twin Soul.

Sage wasn’t done yet. There was still one more surprise. A shield suddenly appeared on top of Sage’s collapsed body. He was still physically incapacitated, but merely calling out a light object like a shield was no trouble. Guan Zhenyan took it as Sage’s attempt to protect himself while he rebelled, without giving it a second thought he kicked the shield away. Unfortunately, that momentary lack of vigilance caused him endless pain.

Just as Guan Zhenyan’s foot touched the shield, it released a storm of needles. It was not just any shield, it was an Arrow Wall shield, one that Sage had loaded with thousands of needles. Each fired with force enough to break the speed of sound and coated with the most vicious of poisons he had developed so far. He called it ‘Soul Peeler’, the result of taking the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent’s innate poison and combining it with some of Guan Zhenyan’s most potent and powerful brews. It had to enter the bloodstream, but when it did it rapidly corroded Spirit Power. The same energy that Guan Zhenyan was using to power the clouds assaulting Sage’s Twin Soul.

Thousands of needles fired with terrifying force, covering a huge cone and even launching in multiple waves. Even so, only a single needle pierced into the bottom of Guan Zhenyan’s foot. The rest he perfectly dealt with.

One was enough.

The poison entering Guan Zhenyan’s body was not too difficult for him to deal with, but when combined with the Twin Soul he had to pay a terrible price. A fierce battle was fought and after a few hours the Twin Soul was finally destroyed and the poison was completely isolated and expelled.

Guan Zhenyan was panting, his body heavily injured and weakened. The aura of strength he always emitted was greatly reduced. He glared at Sage’s incapacitated form, seemingly planning his revenge. What he didn’t expect was Sage’s final card.

A massive suction force overwhelmed his remaining dregs of strength and the mighty Guan Zhenyan disappeared into the Universe Ring.