Molting the Mortal Coil

Unfortunately, the enemy wasn’t foolish enough to let the Soul Clone run rampant. They quickly moved to protect their weakened friends. Various consumable items were used up. Crystals smashed, Talisman ripped, Formation Plates deployed, and Magical Armor glowed. The Cultivators of this world were not as helpless against the Shard Rifles as the psychics of that other world had been. The shards the rifles shot moved very fast and their points could punch through many things, but like all projectile weapons they still had limits to their penetration ability.

Worse yet, the Nascent Souls among the enemy force were too powerful for him to pin down. Thankfully, the rank 6 among the Fu Clan stayed at the perimeter and the old man from the Violet Light Sect stayed back, using his Law power to protect the group of drummers. It wasn’t a good thing to leave that team untouched while they ‘buffed’ their team, but they had their hands full right now holding off the attack. The two Nascent Souls moved directly to confront Ruanfu and the birds. Four swordsmen and three from the Yincha Sect, the seven of them went head on against the group of seven winged Demonic Beasts. Unfortunately, Sage’s side was at a disadvantage. Even with the seven enemies blindfolded or with closed eyes, they moved with purpose and agility, not showing any of the clumsiness that might be expected from a person being without sight.

With only one Nascent Soul against two, Ruanfu’s side was getting knocked around. On the plus side, they all had beast bodies which meant their physical bodies were on a higher level than the enemies they faced. Only a body cultivator could match the physical abilities of a Demonic Beast. Normal cultivators used their greater Qi power and the many thousands of techniques that had been created to come out on top. Demonic Beasts had innately stronger bodies and longer lifespans, but they also matured slower and were never quite as inventive as humans were.

The most powerful and renown monster bloodlines passed down their own special techniques, but even they only used a dozen or so techniques. That was only barely more than the most decrepit sects had access to. Of course, those were their greatest and most refined techniques passed down through the generations, but that didn’t change the fact that humans were constantly innovating and inventing new techniques, while the beasts preferred to rely on their natural instincts and hereditary abilities.

In this situation, the Lei and the Tiankong Siblings had an advantage over others of their kind. They had been trained from a young age with advanced techniques. While they may not have the most powerful abilities around, it still made them far deadlier than the average Demonic Beast that mostly relied upon the strength of their body. It was like facing off against Dual Qi and Body Cultivators. Those who trained two paths of cultivation at the same time were some of the most deadly people there were. They were the top geniuses and elite strengths in the world, the sorts of folk that became the heads of first rate powers, generals for the royal clans, or were just too big for the Kingdoms and left to head to the next level of power.

The powerful bodies of the Demonic Birds required the extra Nascent Soul to pitch in to help hold them off, at least for a time. Juzui, the red toucan, was using his huge beak like a sword. He was fencing with the leader of the four enemy swordsmen. Unfortunately, even with his strong body and the changing of seasons with every sweep of his weapon, he was still constantly losing ground. The Nascent Soul he fought struck his sword blade with a finger tip. The metal started to vibrate, creating a humming sound that struck a fear into those that heard it. The vibrating sword was too much for Juzui to handle. Every time his large beak parried or deflected the vibrating sword, a chunk of it was shaved off.

The woman with a serious face had her hair pulled back into a bun. She led the group from Yincha and even with her eyes closed she was fighting Ruanfu to a standstill. Whenever she struck, there was a loud boom and some sort of powerful sound wave would smash against Ruanfu’s attacks. She was able to easily knock aside the many flying feathers that Ruanfu controlled with Soul Fragments, but she was flung away everytime her attack met with a use of Wave Combustion.

Juzui was already overwhelmed, but Jiyao and Tujiu rushed to join him. All three of the Tiankong boys struck out against the Nascent Soul Swordsman. Juzui used his beak as a sword, but Tujiu and Jiyao used their feet as replacements for their weapons. Tujiu struck with fearsome speed and precision, using his talons as the tip of his spear. He charged forward and interposed himself between the man and Juzui again and again, protecting him while taking hits himself. Jiyao slashed one leg back and forth. His Diamond Eyes Sandpiper body was not as physically impressive as some of the other birds, his body quite petite, without the vicious talons that a bird of prey, like the Vulture Tujiu had. Jiyao used his clawed toes like three small sabers, releasing those invisible swipes that could curve through the air, bombarding the swordsman with cuts from afar.

With three of them focused on one Nascent Soul, while Ruanfu fought the other, that left Songji, Baozhai, and Lei to take on five fifth ranked enemies. Worse yet, this was only the start, double digit numbers of enemies were still approaching from the outside, fighting to break free of Sage’s Hypnotic Eyes. As he thought their chances of victory were extremely small. Sage sent them a quick message while the Blacksilver Pawns and Shard Rifles changed targets. Instead of focusing on thinning the herd, they all turned their attention upon injuring the Nascent Souls.

Two Blacksilver Pawns dove onto each of the five enemies that were fighting with Songji, Baozhai, and Lei. The other two pawns dove onto the swordsman the others were facing. The vibrating sword passed through it easily, but the Pawns were expecting that to happen. One of them seemed happy to get cleaved in half at the waist in exchange for grabbing hold of the swordsman’s hand. The other tilted to the side and lost one of its arms, but it slid in and wrapped its legs around one of the swordsman’s legs and its arm around his waist. With one oily figure hugging one of his arms and the other hugging his thigh, his mobility was hampered. Yet, that didn’t seem to bother him much. He tossed his sword to his free hand and fought back the Tiankong Siblings, but then a dozen crystal shards shot at him from every direction. His sword spun in a quick arc, catching half of them in mid-air, his body ducked to the side and avoided another three, but one of them punctured his chest while two others grazed his arm after passing through the bodies of the Blacksilver Pawns.

With the Blacksilver Pawns occupying him up close, the Tiankong Siblings shifted their focus. Tujiu stayed on the offensive with the swordsman, forcing the man to stay on guard against the explosive and fiery charge attacks. He was hampered by the Blacksilver Pawns and forced to constantly dodge a barrage of fire from the Soul Clone’s Shard Rifles. Lastly, Jiyao flew loops around the man, releasing invisible slash attacks stretching the swordsman’s focus to the limit. The man’s sword contained the full strength of his law power, so as long as he couldn’t bring it to bear upon them, they could hold him down.

On Ruanfu’s side, she suddenly received support from her siblings. Juzui’s focus turned to manipulating the seasons again. The sky darkened and the temperature dropped. The cool stillness of winter settling over them. Snow fell from the sky and Ruanfu’s snow law was empowered. With his injuries, Juzui didn’t go anywhere near the serious woman Ruanfu was facing off, instead using his energy to boost her prowess just as the enemy drummers were doing.