Molting the Mortal Coil

Sage couldn’t hold back his laughter, mocking Hei Bai’s new condition. There was currently a dark field of stars within each of his pupils. Pushed to the brink, he was pushed to use a technique he’d always been fearful of using. Principle Vision. The third level of the Timeless Eyes, it saw the past and future, letting him find true insight into his target and give him a glimpse of their crux. He’d always tried to be extremely careful of his use of seals, and even then he had been hunted because of them. That fear had led to him neglecting them except for that most vital seal, the Human Seal. Even so many years later, he’d barely dabbled in any of the seals except for the Human Seal. Now that he was on death’s door he’d used it to regain the upper hand.

First, he let Uncle Zhuo sting him over and over again. All the time he was staring at him with his Principle Vision and finding the giant scorpion’s crux. The more time he had, the more refined the crux, and the seals, would be. He held on as long as he could, enough to ensure the Human Seal would be effective. Then he had to form the seal and touch the target to apply it, at which point the giant scorpion turned into a human, which he quickly caught within his coiling body. Then he turned his gaze upon Hei Bai and tried to stall her long enough to do the same to her.

Surprisingly, because of how much they’d fought both in the past and present, he already knew quite a bit about her. Principle Vision was able to quickly fill in the gaps and he misled her in thinking that he was going to poison her so he could get close enough to apply another Human Seal to her.

The terrifying spirit form of the ghostly red skull was now just a normal human. Even in the beginning of the battle she hadn’t been human. She had a physical form but the strange techniques she used to revive had not given her back a purely human body. Now she was suddenly confined to one and in that moment of confusion Sage struck again.

Hei Bai was shocked at her plight, but she wasn’t fast enough to avoid the group of oily black skinned beings pouncing on her from behind. They grabbed her arms and legs, holding her around the waist and shoulders. Then the snake opened its mouth and little fluffy white motes floated out. They looked somewhat like the white tufts launched by a dandelion in the wind, but smaller and far more numerous. She didn’t know what they were and tried to avoid them, but the Blacksilver Pawns held her down and she started to get drowsy. She struggled as hard as she could, and a little red skull appeared in one of her eyes, but then she passed out.

When she lost consciousness, it was all over. Her body, along with the Blacksilver Pawns disappeared, sent into the Universe Ring to be imprisoned. Sage sent the now motionless human body of Uncle Zhuo in as well. Only then did he allow himself to groan from the pain wracking his body. He used the Human Seal to return to his own human form and called out to Tujiu. In a moment the giant vulture swooped down and gingerly swooped down to scoop up Xiezi in his claws. Tujiu flew over and handed her to Sage and then Sage leapt onto the vulture’s wide back and they flew off. After the disturbance their battle caused who knew when someone might stumble upon them and take advantage of their injuries.

After flying for a few minutes, he had Tujiu land on a high peak and the three of them disappeared into the Universe Ring. Where they had been standing, there was only a small rock, one that Sage had crafted to hide the Universe Ring in situations such as this, concealing its unique aura.

Once they entered the ring, he passed Xiezi to some of the Hoplites and Dragoons, “Take care of them, use as many pills as necessary!”

Tujiu went along with them, as he also wasn’t in the greatest shape. Sage on the other hand fled to his room in the manor. He’d been boasting earlier, using the Law of Corruption to completely restrain the poison that the giant scorpion had shot into him dozens of times. He truly was quite immune to poison, but everything had its limit. The Blue Hex Fruit seemed to be beyond his. He was quite sure he was already immune to poison of at least the seventh rank, which meant that this Blue Hex Fruit was truly terrifying.

Something about it seemed to utterly ignore the suppression of the Law of Corruption. He couldn’t tell what was happening, but he felt something was different. The poison coursing through his veins was easily suppressed and then absorbed into his second dantian, becoming raw material for his Blood of Nine Pits. Even so, there was something else affecting him that he couldn’t do anything about.

The Blue Hex Fruit. At the auction it was described as the unluckiest fruit. Wasn’t it the thing that made your luck so bad it eventually turned good? Was this strange feeling the loss of luck? What exactly was luck? The physical toxin had already been dealt with, but somehow he was still being affected. Was luck completely outside of the scope of the Law of Corruption? How was that possible?

He was still only at the first degree of mastery over the Law of Corruption. It was a Primal Law, and that made it quite powerful, but at the same time, he was very new and only knew how to use it in the most rudimentary ways. Secluding himself, Sage tried to get rid of that feeling, but he was helpless against it. He spent a few days healing his wounds, and the rest of his body was in peak condition, but that strange feeling remained.

Giving up, he went to check up on Tujiu and Xiezi. Tujiu was fine, but Xiezi was devastated. She was still recovering from the injuries she’d received. That terrible aura had grazed her a few times and parts of her skin had been corroded off. She’d dealt with them just as viciously as Sage had, but her healing ability was not as fierce as his own. Even so, her physical condition was not what concerned her most. Her Uncle Zhuo was dead. He’d been killed before they’d ever arrived. Hei Bai had killed the Purple Backed Giant Scorpion during the time they were visiting the Zhu Clan. They never even had a chance to save him. Hei Bai had done something to conceal his state from them and made the scorpion merely seem to be paralyzed. They thought they were fighting to free him, when Uncle Zhuo was Hei Bai’s trap all along.

Sage couldn’t do anything for her. It was already enough that he’d taken her into the Universe Ring to recuperate. He had no way to bring back the dead. The only thing they had was the feeble satisfaction of vengeance. They could punish Hei Bai for her actions. Revenge was never very fulfilling for those who had lost, but he wasn’t going to deny Xiezi of it. While she was still recovering he went to where Hei Bai was being held.