Chapter 115: Devour Everything and Everyone

Hovering inside his inner world, An shook so badly his vision started tripling, though he understood this was just the aftermath of overloading his own mind.

'I-I can't af-afford to relax! I need to c-confirm it! I... Argh!' Losing his balance, he barely managed to catch himself and stay hovering. He understood perfectly well that if he let himself relax, he risked losing himself entirely, because the balance inside his world was proof that his inner world, his soul, and his physical body could still function as one whole. If he lost that balance, it would mark the beginning of the end for him, and no amount of super-regeneration could save him from that.

Holding himself together, he stared intently at the two halves of the body lying at the bottom, slowly starting to melt away.

Checking, again and again, almost obsessively, that her consciousness was completely erased, he finally allowed himself to lift his head. 'Ha-aa... finally!' Raising both hands, he stopped the spread of his Qi and set the CycleSymbol spinning again.

All the Qi began pulling back inward. First, he checked the state of his world's boundaries and shook his head slightly. 'T-too many cr-cracks formed... and they're not even from her a-attacks, they're from the sheer strain on my own m-mind.'

Closing his spiritual body's eyes, he suddenly opened his real ones instead.

Crack!

"Ah!" Feeling his regeneration kick in at full force, new tissue growing straight from the bone, tearing through dried, cracked flesh, he gritted his teeth against agonizing pain, made worse by an unbearable itch running through it. 'Why do I always end up like this at the end... e-every damn time, though... at least I'm still al-alive.'

Once the muscles in his neck had regrown, he managed to lift his head and looked at the object nearby, the one the woman's statuette had emerged from.

In front of him, half-buried in the dirt, lay a stone that looked something like a glass diamond. Perfectly shaped, not a speck of dirt on a single facet.

Studying the stone closely, he could see faint Qi flows still leaking from it, and immediately read them. 'Hm? A small part of her's still left in there... Wait, no, this is just residual energy, the kind that naturally lingers over time and settles inside the stone... Either way, better to destroy this thing.'

Forming a Death Qi Blade, An drove it into the stone.

Melting it down, wiping out every last trace of her Qi, he fell back against the wall of the tunnel and finally let himself relax. 'Phew, that was close... I need to figure out some kind of counter for illusions and mind-affecting techniques... Hm?'

Suddenly, he felt something strange happening inside his inner world, both halves of her spiritual body had dissolved and were being pulled closer to the Cycle Symbol.

The symbol suddenly started spinning even faster, processing every remnant of her body into one massive clump of energy, then splitting that mass right back into two.

Hovering inside his own world, right in front of the CycleSymbol, he watched this strange division unfold. 'It's splitting... but splitting what from what?' The moment the question crossed his mind, his own consciousness answered it. 'Could it be?'

Eyes wide with surprise, he watched the portion that made up more than 80% of the total mass, once fully separated, begin drifting straight toward his own spiritual body.

Without meaning to, An reached out a hand and touched the clump.

As if responding to a signal, the clump immediately began pulling itself into his body, spreading through every part of him.

"A-ah!" Startled by the sensation, he cried out.

He felt cold and heat at once, emptiness and overflow, all together.

Suddenly, everything around him began to shake, the boundaries of his inner world tearing apart, but at the same time, new connections were sprouting right where the tears formed, sealing every hole almost instantly.

Trapped in this strange state, he couldn't orient himself at all, like he'd been caught in a whirlpool with no way out.

Hovering inside his own world, he spent what felt, by his own reckoning, like an eternity in that state.

.

.

Finally coming back to himself, he looked around. His inner world had nearly doubled in area, its boundaries grown far thicker, and the concentration of Qi inside had thickened considerably too.

Sensing something, he turned toward the Cycle Symbol.

'Even the symbol's grown larger... and the power radiating off it feels stronger too.' At the same time, while still inside his inner world, he scanned his dantian, checking for any changes there.

'Oh, thanks to the Qi I absorbed from her, converted into my own, my dantian's now filled with liquid up to 12%...'

Hovering in his world, feeling all these changes, An suddenly smiled. 'This lightness, this sense of peace... I like this!' Closing his eyes, he let himself enjoy the state he was in, specifically, the shift in his own inner feelings.

'The hidden negative emotions I've managed to suppress without much trouble, ever since taking on my Daos... even though I can still feel them, still know they live somewhere deep in my soul... it's become, how do I put it right? They bother me a lot less now?'

'Heh, who would've guessed this wasn't just energy, but fragments of an empty soul too... Through the conversion inside the Cycle Symbol, I managed to absorb the fragments of her soul that had been mixed in with her energy...'

'I never expected an effect like this from absorbing it. Thanks to this, my soul and my mind, their strength, have both grown. My control over Qi has improved and grown sharper. Even my mental strain threshold has gone up... Incredible.'

Opening his eyes, An looked at the Cycle Symbol. 'Even I'm not entirely sure what I've actually created here... this isn't just a new type of Qi. I can absorb energy, and even stray fragments of soul. Even if they carry someone else's signature, all I need to do is create enough chaos and conflict in the Qi, and I can absorb absolutely anything, without any trouble at all...' He suddenly drifted up to the symbol and touched it with one hand.

'Am I really walking down a path that's going to force me to absorb everything and everyone I come across... Hmm, I'm starting to sound more and more like some second-rate villain...'

Opening his eyes in reality, his body now fully healed, An started scanning everything around him. 'Oh. My sensitivity's grown considerably... I can now see and focus on shifts in Qi from several kilometers away... And the farthest Qi traces I can pick up... nearly double what they were before... Wow!'

Turning his head from side to side like a curious toddler, he could see billions of particles and floating Qi flows all around him. Every particle, every flow overlapped with the next, forming a white haze in front of his eyes. For an ordinary person, vision like this would be equivalent to total blindness, a solid, thick wall in front of you, blocking anything beyond a few millimeters.

But for An, it was perfect. Every time his vision improved, every time he began seeing more than he was supposed to, the only thought running through his mind, straight from his own instinct, was: This is how it's supposed to be. Much better and more convenient than before.

Surrounded by this dense white haze of Qi covering everything, he could still see and distinguish every particle, every fleck, for kilometers in any direction he looked. He could spot two identical Qi flows standing right behind each other and immediately tell them apart.

'Hm... judging by these unique flows and particles, my vision's gotten wider, but not deeper. In other words, I'm not seeing some "new layer of Qi"... though this is plenty impressive on its own!' Still turning his head from side to side, studying every Qi flow he could see, an idea suddenly struck him. 'What about running a small experiment?'

Looking around, he sensed a huge number of dead bodies left behind after the millions-strong swarm of mindless bats had gone on their hunt.

Fully relaxing, he entered cultivation mode, and decided to test just how far he could draw in both WoodQi from his surroundings and pure DeathQi, not filtered from neutral energy, but pulled directly from the hundreds of bodies lying dead around him.

Slowly, obeying his commands, Qi from his surroundings began drawing toward him, passing through layers of earth, seeping through his physical body, straight into his inner world, and after filtering, settling into his dantian.

Watching DeathQi being drawn from the bodies above him, he opened his eyes. 'I can pull Qi from about a kilometer out. Beyond that, nothing. Honestly, that's already impressive, I never used to have a radius this wide... and it's all thanks to the strength of my soul!'

'The stronger my soul, the stronger my mind; the better-trained my mind, the more the Cycle Symbol can do; and the stronger my ability to absorb Qi particles from my surroundings during cultivation... In the end, just as I've already realized, the stronger and greater my soul becomes, the higher I can climb in cultivation.'

'Hm... wait, I can actually see individual fragments of their souls now, ones that are hard to distinguish from Qi itself.'

'These soul fragments, drifting up into the sky, but at this distance, I can't pull them in, not even from the nearest body, which sits maybe less than four hundred meters from me, right above me, actually... Maybe I need to be almost right on top of a body to absorb empty soul fragments?' Once he'd finished the experiment, he wrapped himself in Qi and started carving a tunnel toward the surface.

.

.

Once outside, he walked up to the first body and, giving his own mind the command, started drawing in the fragments of empty soul still lingering around and inside the fallen disciple.

'Hm, if a single Qi Condensation cultivator only provides this much, then to absorb something equal to what I got from that three-meter giant... I'd need to collect soul fragments from around a hundred thousand people... Though again, this body's been lying here a while, so most of the soul's already drifted off long ago...'

Looking down at the disciple's mangled body, An lifted his head and glanced around. 'Looks like the next few days are going to be long and busy ones.'

Shaking his head, he walked toward the next corpse. 'Shame the white flying rats don't have souls.' Looking around at the ground littered with the bodies of the white creatures, he headed deeper into the forest with a disappointed look on his face, off to harvest more souls.

….

"We're almost there." Holding an artifact shaped like a golden leaf, Wu Xin led the way, Mo Fan following behind her.

Walking behind, he glanced back over his shoulder a few times.

Turning her head slightly and catching the look on his face, Wu Xin smiled. "No need to worry, they'll be fine."

'I'm more worried about myself. I like this less and less by the minute!' Keeping his expression unshaken, Mo Fan kept following her.

"We're here. They're already close!" Holding a hand out in front of Mo Fan to stop him, she looked toward the horizon, above the treeline.

Looking at the hand before him, Mo Fan frowned, but quickly wiped the expression off his face.

Suddenly he spotted something in the sky and squinted at it. "Is that them?" he asked her.

"Yes. Looks like something delayed them. They should've been here by the time we arrived." Glancing sideways at him, she turned her attention back to the sky.

As they drew closer, four figures leapt down from their flying artifacts. Tucking them away, all four, three young men and one young woman, exchanged glances and walked up to Wu Xin and Mo Fan.

One of them, wide-eyed and a little slow-looking, couldn't hold back and crossed his arms over his chest, bowing his head. "Master Mo Fan! You have no idea what an honor this is, being in your presence!"

The other three, one rolled his eyes, another paid no attention at all, but they all followed suit anyway, crossing their arms and lowering their heads.

"Master Mo Fan!"

"Master Mo Fan!"

"Master Mo Fan!"

The only girl among the newcomers just crossed her arms and looked at Mo Fan with a mix of sorrow and hope in her eyes.

Mo Fan, meanwhile, did his best not to show it, but felt distinctly on edge, looking over all of them with a flicker of distrust in his eyes.

Reading the situation perfectly, Wu Xin smiled, walked up to the first one who'd spoken, and rested a hand on his shoulder, looking at Mo Fan. "This chatty one answers to Gen Lo. A little slow up top, sure, but incredibly loyal!"

Letting go of his shoulder, she gestured toward the rest.

"Master Mo Fan. They call me Silent Adrian. But you can just call me Adrian! Hehehe-!" A massive giant with black hair, red eyes, dressed entirely in black, thumped his own chest with a wide grin and an extremely loud voice.

"I'm Han Kai, a pleasure to see you again, Master Mo Fan." A thin, somewhat short young man in blue robes, brown hair, blue eyes, nodded, sneaking a glance at Wu Xin.

"Saim Isabelle... but for you, Mo Fan, just Isabelle." A young woman with wavy white hair and blue eyes, standing in a pose that showed off her flawless figure to full effect, looked into Mo Fan's eyes with a smile warm enough to thaw the coldest blizzard.

Looking at her figure, her smile, those large blue eyes, Mo Fan swallowed hard, but quickly composed himself and returned the greeting. "A pleasure to meet you all. And yes, there's no need to call me Master, just Mo Fan, or Brother Mo works fine." He waved a hand dismissively and smiled.

Suddenly Wu Xin stepped between Mo Fan and the others.

Looking him straight in the eyes, she said, "Mo Fan, I need to speak with them privately. I hope you won't take this as an insult, and that you'll understand my caution."

"Hm, you said certain information could change the course of events, is this that situation?" Smirking slightly, Mo Fan turned and stepped aside, leaning against a tree trunk, doing his best to look like he was taking this all in stride.

Wu Xin just nodded, pulled an artifact out of her ring, activated it, and raised a barrier around the group, cutting Mo Fan off from them.

'This is really starting to get on my nerves... Who does she think she is? Just because she's got a pretty face, she thinks she can push me around however she likes? Me, Mo Fan? System-!' He watched them with a cold look in his eyes.

….

"Senior Sister Wu, what's happened?" Saim Isabelle spoke up first.

"We've got a serious problem…" Wu Xin pulled a sphere out of her ring and, positioning herself so Mo Fan couldn't see, started up a slideshow on it.

"What's that?" Adrian couldn't hold back his curiosity and stepped closer, asking loudly.

"Just watch!" Wu Xin rolled her eyes and tapped a finger on the sphere.

"Oh! That's Miss Ru Meng!" Recognizing who was in the images, Gen Lo exclaimed.

"Hmm... that demonic cultivator's still trouble." The hulking Adrian grumbled, spotting the group of demonic disciples chasing after Ru Meng's group.

Suddenly the footage reached the moment Ru Meng burst out into the clearing, straight toward the lone cultivator.

"Ho?! That's Hu Yu! I saw him right before the Sacred Land opened! Heh, I even mistook him for-" Recognizing the disciple, Gen Lo suddenly jabbed a finger straight at the image on the sphere.

"No!" Han Kai objected suddenly, his voice startled and uneasy. Stepping closer to the sphere, he said, "Can you show him from a different angle?"

Wu Xin looked at him, a faint trace of sorrow and understanding in her eyes, and scrubbed forward to a frame where the lone disciple's face was much clearer.

"I-is that-?!" Isabelle's eyes went wide, and she covered her mouth in shock.

"But how?! How is he here?! He's supposed to be back at the sect right now!" Han Kai's voice climbed higher, his hands trembling.

"Um, wait, I'm confused? So he's not Hu Yu? Huh! I knew it, you know, I thought right away that he-" Gen Lo crossed his arms, propped his chin on one hand, and looked up at the sky, deep in thought.

"That's Master An-!" Isabelle looked over at Han Kai, who could barely stay standing, staring at the sphere with a lost, hollow look in his eyes.