Chapter 1517: Soul Swap

Chapter 1517: Chapter 1517: Soul Swap

Once Hu Jiu’s soul separates from his body, it will be permanently nailed to the Soul Cross erected by another Holy Mage, Anthony, preventing it from returning to his body, causing the detached soul to undergo purification on the cross until it perishes.

This forbidden spell can be cast by one person, but Aleister divided it into two parts to be released by two people respectively, greatly shortening the casting time. At the same time, Aleister can focus all his energy on forcing Hu Jiu’s soul out of his body, accelerating the soul separation process.

Four people simultaneously launched attacks against Hu Jiu, but the one who suddenly screamed wasn’t Hu Jiu; it was Urban, whose wrist was caught by Hu Jiu.

Almost at the moment Hu Jiu grabbed Urban’s wrist, a surge of death energy gushed out from Hu Jiu’s body, fully invading Urban’s body. Such a vast amount of death energy infiltrated his body in an instant; even Urban struggled to resist. Within an instant, every part of his body and soul disturbed by the death energy began aging, decaying, and even rotting. The death energy quickly spread through his arms to his brain and surrounding areas.

"Holy Light Purification!" At the moment of suffering severe damage, Urban didn’t think about resolving his current state; instead, he infused all his strength into the Holy Sword in his hand.

Now he has reached the point of no retreat! Defending himself might reduce his death, but that would mean missing the best chance to kill Pei Yan. Facing such an overwhelmingly powerful adversary, wanting to kill him without paying any price is impossible. Urban had realized this before entering the battlefield, so when this matter came upon him, he naturally wouldn’t back down. He raised the purification of the Holy Sword to the highest level, continuing to harm Hu Jiu’s soul, leaving Hu Jiu no energy to resist Aleister’s soul attacks. In this way, as long as Hu Jiu’s soul is nailed to the cross, it will be tantamount to declaring the death of Pei Yan, with whom he signed the symbiotic contract.

This is a one-to-one life-and-death fight! If Urban is lucky enough to defeat the opponent before the death energy completely erodes him, he too has a chance to survive.

"Still not finished?" Urban, with veins bulging on his forehead, had death energy spreading through his entire body. Now he could only protect essential parts like his brain and heart from the death energy, looking at Aleister, who also had a sweat-soaked forehead, he squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth.

"He is not Hu Jiu!" Aleister, after raising the number of mental spikes to thirty and stabbing them all into Hu Jiu’s body, just slightly separated Hu Jiu’s soul from the body by a few inches, noticed something amiss and cried out in astonishment.

However, by the time he realized the issue’s existence, it was already too late. In the blink of an eye, Hu Jiu raised his other arm, aiming at the Holy Sword inserted into his chest, and suddenly thrust down fiercely.

Bang!

The formerly indestructible Holy Sword split open under the chop of Hu Jiu’s palm, and seeing this scene, Urban was shocked, and Hu Jiu, the instigator, was even more astonished. The annihilation power, previously infallible, merely caused a crack on this Holy Sword. He hadn’t expected that the Holy Sword contained the essence of the Magic Plane’s Venerable Face, truly underestimating it as a notable Sacred Artifact of the Bright Church.

Even though it was only a crack, it was enough for the originally integral Power of Light Purification to spill out through that crack, and Hu Jiu’s bodily pressure was alleviated significantly. Just then, another scream outside the battle circle rang out.

As Hu Jiu counterattacked, another figure appeared behind the Holy Mage Anthony. In the moment the aura appeared, Anthony instantly identified the aura behind him; it was Pei Yan himself who had returned!

Spatial Teleportation? Impossible, as soon as Pei Yan appeared, the surroundings were locked. Anthony didn’t hesitate for a moment, immediately abandoning the ongoing spell, and activated two wind-type magic spells—one to enhance his speed to quickly escape this place, and another to attack behind him, hoping to resist Pei Yan’s attack and buy himself time to flee.

Anthony’s decision was indeed decisive and correct, but he still fell into Pei Yan’s trap. Just as he was withdrawing, he felt intense pain throughout his body. It was only then that he discovered that somehow, a considerable amount of source energy lines, merged with the ambient source energy, were floating around him. His wind spell disturbed the source energy lines, causing them to whip and strike his body, tearing through Anthony’s outer source energy defenses, leaving numerous scars on his body.

Having repelled Anthony with one attack, Pei Yan didn’t pursue him further, but shifted his position and lifted a foot to kick the Holy Knight who was still arduously attempting to slash off Hu Jiu’s head, embedding the power of the three shocks in the tip of his foot. This kick directly shattered the knight’s armor, sending him flying horizontally along with his person.

After doing all this, Pei Yan grabbed Hu Jiu’s shoulder and pulled him back, while Hu Jiu timely released Urban’s wrist, being pulled backward and flying away. It wasn’t until the Holy Sword exited his chest and escaped the attack range of Aleister’s mental spikes that Hu Jiu’s crisis was truly resolved.

"You two swapped souls!" Aleister stared at Hu Jiu, who was separated, finally realizing the reason, the symbiotic contract making most of the two people’s matters symbiotic—abilities, life, absorbed divine artifacts. What you can use, I can use too, and the only thing in a symbiotic contract that cannot be completely consistent is the soul, because the soul embodies self-awareness. If one person has a strong soul strength, the other might gain some benefits, making their soul slightly stronger than before, but it cannot be like the other.

Hu Jiu’s soul shouldn’t possess the strength to resist such soul attacks! Instead, Pei Yan had previously withstood Flamel’s soul purification at the Sword Discussion Conference, and later he resisted the combined attack of three Round Table Knights summoned by Moira. His soul should have undergone some special training and been strengthened.

Therefore, the result was obvious. Just now, Pei Yan used the symbiotic contract’s characteristic to temporarily swap souls with Hu Jiu, making Pei Yan’s soul occupy Hu Jiu’s body. Then, when Pei Yan arrived to resolve the crisis, Hu Jiu’s soul occupied Pei Yan’s body!

Seeing their trick exposed by the opponent, Pei Yan didn’t conceal anything, patting the body of Hu Jiu beside him. The two souls once again completed the swap, returning to their respective bodies. Hu Jiu’s body went soft, looking at his body still being continuously eroded by the Bone-Eroding Soul-Devouring Acid, he let out a long breath and complained: "Bro! Was it necessary! To go this far for an opponent."

"The opponent is one of the top figures of the three major councils! I have confidence to defeat them but if they join hands completely, advancing and retreating together, wanting to defeat them in a short time will be a troublesome matter. We don’t have that much time to waste."