Molting the Mortal Coil

Unfortunately, he could only torment her so long. After dropping a half dozen rocks on her, Hei Bai finally seemed to have achieved a breakthrough. She no longer had to scream her lungs out to stop the massive stones falling at her. Instead she just stared up at Sage and the rocks he produced melted almost the instant they entered the outside world. He also felt like he was caught in an intense wave of heat. Everything had grown blurry like a mirage on a hot day.

Seeing that the current harassment wasn’t doing anything, Sage stopped running circles in the air and landed back on top of the pillar he’d created earlier. Hei Bai followed him with her gaze, and the pillar beneath him melted. He’d only intended to stop using Cosmic Traction a while to build back up his Qi reserves, but this also served his purposes. The extent of the pillar that was immediately melted outlined the immediate area of effect of that heat gaze of hers. While it may not be accurate at least it gave him a rough idea.

Sage’s clothing was smoking just as Hei Bai’s had been earlier. The natural energy of their strong bodies extended a degree of protection to their garments. Those who used poison abilities would naturally have some resistance to poisons. It was the same for Hei Bai, since she had a heat ability it was no surprise she could easily resist the lava that spilled upon her. She was likely only injured by those bolt heads because of their arrays and momentum, not their molten state. She seemed to be sneering at Sage, wanting to see him burning alive under her focused stare. Unfortunately for her, Sage didn’t seem uncomfortable. He already possessed two Heavenly Flames. It was easy enough for him to channel their properties into his body to resist the heat of her gaze. It expended a good amount of energy, but he wasn’t going to let her know that. He made sure to put on a good show of seeming completely unaffected.

She was not happy. Sage laughed inwardly when he saw her face twisting with rage.

At this moment, Xiezi had already circled around to the back, putting the giant scorpion between herself and Hei Bai. She took out a few small insects and tossed them towards her Uncle Zhuo. They flew or skittered around for a short while before falling to the ground and dissolving into a black puddle. She kept trying various kinds of bugs out, and backing up further away from the terrible aura. Sage had already warned her of the danger and he was busy at the moment so he couldn’t do much else to help her. The huge Uncle Zhuo continued to be frozen in place, the glossy black eyes of the huge arachnid were still completely unreadable.

He hopped off of the molten earth pillar and down to the ground. Hei Bai continued to follow him with her gaze and he just made a disgusted face, “You can’t beat me, so you’ve just decided to make it feel like I’m constantly walking in crap?”

To demonstrate he kicked some of the molten lava, making it splash and slosh around. While liquid like, it was very heavy and quite annoying to move around in. If she continued to make the ground into this sort of mess it would reduce his mobility greatly unless he maneuvered entirely using Cosmic Traction. Using Cosmic Traction along with the Law of Corruption required the majority of his Qi and that would limit his other options.

“I just wanted to make you feel at home. Is it as good as the sty you have at home?

Sage suddenly ducked to the side, diving out of the area of the molten ground and avoiding a bolt of black light that passed through where he was just standing. It carried the vicious aura that was surrounding her, and he’d seen it happening with Foresight with plenty of time to avoid it. He somersaulted and recovered his footing, just in time to dive aside a second time. Lying on the ground, he rolled to the side and avoided another bolt. Then he casually climbed back onto his feet and tilted to the side, causing a bolt to pass by his shoulder harmlessly.

After attacking four times in rapid succession without having any success at all, Hei Bai frowned. The vicious aura she was spreading into the air seemed to have been weakened quite significantly, becoming quite a bit smaller than it was before. As he’d expected, that power had some rules to it. She still hadn’t moved, but now she showed off that she could attack with it at range. He was still wary of the shrinking area being a trick, but at the moment he assumed that power must be limited in quantity.

Since he still had no idea how to directly confront that strange energy, he’d chosen to skirmish with the woman. Prioritizing his own evasion first and just trying to wear her down. If he committed to a more powerful attack of his own, in the moment he was immobile he might have been hit by one of those bolts that he’d just dodged. Who knew how dreadful the damage might have been. It was a real shame that power was the bane of soul beings, since that completely restrained his Blacksilver Pawns and Soul Clone.

“Pretty scary, but it seems like you can’t move at all. What happens when something comes at you that you can’t block?”

Sage ducked down, avoiding a bolt of energy coming at his head. Then he laughed and started running, increasing his speed to make it harder for her to target him. He circled around her, ducking and hopping over the incoming attacks. He drew in a deep breath and she seemed ready for it. Hei Bai wouldn’t forget how annoying that attack was, the fire that didn’t just burn the outside, but seared her on the inside. A torrent of brilliant white flames came from Sage’s mouth, washing over the necromancer in high volume. Against most foes it wasn’t very powerful, for its forte was cleansing evil. The purifying light of dawn was best at chasing away the terrors of the night.

While it caused her great distress, the white flames didn’t do any significant damage. That fire made her insides itch and her cultivation technique seemed agitated, but the actual heat of the flames were easily resisted by her. That extreme heat attribute she’d gained from the blood ghost protected her quite thoroughly.

It was too bad for her that the white flame from the First Light was only a distraction. The huge cone of flames obscured her vision, and she didn’t see the bright flashes of light coming from all around her. A smile had formed on her lips after experiencing the white flames and knowing that they could only agitate and not injure her. She was just preparing to shout out another taunt when she felt something was wrong.

The flames dissipated and she looked down to see blood pouring onto her black robes. There were many holes punched clean through her, spread out among her limbs and torso. Sage merely smiled at her and the many injuries riddling her body. All around them in the distance there were long cylindrical objects floating in mid-air. She had no idea what those silvery metal staffs pointing at her were, but then they glowed with bright light and more holes were punched straight through her.

The Soul Clone may not have been able to approach her and that terrible aura, but it wasn’t useless. It had its own consciousness, and shared its memories and thoughts with Sage. It was like he had a completely independent second mind and over the last few years it had been dedicated to studying Spirit Power techniques. He’d gained a powerful weapon from that psychic world and Sage wouldn’t waste it. Instead of expending his own Spirit Power to attack directly it was far more efficient to practice a delicate control technique. Sage had thrown down a dozen Shard Rifles while he was running around shooting bolts at Hei Bai and now the Soul Clone used the white flames as a distraction. The Shard Rifles were lifted into the air with Spirit Power and fired at Hei Bai from multiple directions at once.