Gu Mo’s expression was dark when he saw that the Soul Attack was fast approaching, giving him no time to use a Divine Ability to counter it.
However, Gu Mo was still an experienced cultivator at the 9th Stage of the Foundation so he was fast to think of a solution.
With the Soul Attack baring down on him, Gu Mo quickly set up several mental barriers with his Soul Sense and pushed off the ground in retreat.
With this, he had a split second more time to quickly form a single hand seal before he spat out a mouth of essence blood and then pushed his palm forward.
This was done in one fluid motion, almost instinct on Gu Mo’s part. The essence blood he spat out began to glow an ominous dark red color before it started boiling and then exploded.
This strange attack filled with Demonic Qi engulf Xi Shen’s Soul Attack, and absolutely obliterated it.
This should have been impossible as Soul Attacks weren’t supposed to be affected by normal attacks, but Gu Mo’s strange attack had managed to accomplish it.
Xi Shen was thinking to himself that the Demonic Cult indeed had some strange techniques and unorthodox techniques. But as he was thinking that, he realized the blood Gu Mo spat out didn’t disappear from that explosion but spread out to surround him in droplets.
Xi Shen’s expression harden and he quickly plucked his zither once more, the attack this time by Xi Shen was different. Instead of a Soul Attack with no form, he used his Raindrop Sword Sutra to create several dozen red-colored longswords around him.
Xi Shen showed off his perfect control of his Soul Sense as he sent these long-swords slashing out at these blood drops, destroying most of them.
The rest shot towards him at lightning-like speed, but he plucked his zither once again and before they could reach three meters from him they collapsed and evaporated into a ghastly black smoke that smelt very toxic. Signaling that they were some sort of Corruption Art, where it would infiltrate a person’s body and rot their bones and flesh.
Xi Shen was quite fascinated with these different techniques he hadn’t seen till now but was rather disgusted when he thought about how this was blood that came from Gu Mo.
Gu Mo himself was looking at Xi Shen with a serious and solemn expression. Especially when he saw that attack that destroyed his technique.
‘Those were Sword Qi. How was Sword Qi being used by him in a Soul Attack?! This-what type of technique is that? I never heard of Soul Cultivators using Sword Qi to attack before!’
This revelation shocked Gu Mo.
Soul Cultivators were called as such because they cultivate their Soul so it would be strong enough to use powerful “Soul Attacks.”
Soul Attacks were intangible and could cause damage to one’s mind, but it doesn't have the ability to physically hurt someone or damage physical objects directly.
But somehow Xi Shen had combined it with the use of Sword Qi enabling him to attack his technique directly.
Sword Qi was something that Sword Cultivators could develop when they reached a high enough cultivation realm. It was similar to Spiritual Qi since it was technically transforming the Qi in your dantian into Sword Qi, but it was different because it had the ability to deal a lot more damage than normal Qi.
That was knowledge known by any cultivator, so Gu Mo wanted to know how the hell this second prince who couldn’t cultivate Qi managed to create Sword Qi in the first place and had even used the abilities of a Soul Cultivator to manipulate them. Gu Mo couldn’t even imagine the ability to control several dozen Sword Qi when a normal Sword Cultivator in the lower realms should only be able to control one or two, and if they’re using powerful Sword Techniques maybe a dozen.
Gu Mo had multiple thoughts running through his mind at a lightning-fast pace to understand what he has just seen. The prominent thought that surfaced was that this second prince could actually cultivate Qi and had somehow managed to combine Soul Cultivation with Sword Arts.
But one thing made Gu Mo scratch that. The way how those Sword Qi were formed it seemed as if they appeared out of thin air.
Like a light bulb going off in his mind, Gu Mo completely analyzed Xi Shen’s technique. He had used his Soul Sense and manipulated the Qi in the surrounding environment to create Sword Qi and used his Soul Sense to control them. That was why it was red, it was filled with Fire Qi due to the current environment.
But that just makes it even more ridiculous because creating Sword Qi that easily should have been impossible for anyone below the Core Formation Realm!
Gu Mo became considerably more cautious of Xi Shen.
Xi Shen seeing the multiple changes in Gu Mo’s expression could tell he was trying to make sense of his technique early.
It was a product of Xi Shen combining the Sword Dao and the Music Dao, thus using the true ability of the Raindrop Sword Sutra.
Unlike the attack he used on Lin Bei to almost destroy his consciousness, this was how the technique was made to be used. Creating multiple Sword Qi to fill the entire sky and bombard the opponent.
Xi Shen hefted his zither and said to Gu Mo, “I won’t go easy on you next time, so it’s best if you leave your storage ring and get lost.”
Gu Mo’s expression turn ugly when he heard Xi Shen’s words. To think this second prince everyone was looking down on was secretly powerful enough to battle someone like him. He wasn’t an ordinary 9th Stage Foundation Realm Cultivator. He was a Chosen, a title given to people who showed outstanding talent enough to battle above their current cultivation.
“You’re not confident you can kill me without causing the volcano to fully erupt. That’s why you’re so insistent that I leave without fighting.”
Gu Mo said in disdain.
Xi Shen's expression was calm as he nodded and said, “Your right, I have no confidence that I can kill you quick enough so the volcano doesn’t erupt, but if you test my patience any longer then consider me pissed off and I’ll just forget about the Divine Fire Spirit Stones and just kill you out of irritation. After all, I’m from an orthodox institute so people like you should be killed on sight by me.”
Gu Mo's disdain faded and his expression turned even uglier than before. He wasn’t stupid, he knew that Xi Shen was hiding a lot more power than he was showing. Call it his instincts from being in many life and death situations, but he knew how to judge his opponents' abilities.
But he wondered if Xi Shen would really forsake the Divine Fire Spirit Stones and go all out to kill him. If Gu Mo had a Soul protection treasure he wouldn’t have taken Xi Shen’s threat to heart, but he didn’t. Plus who nowadays has an item that protects them from Soul Attacks, when everyone wasn't even taking Soul Cultivators seriously?
Gu Mo stayed silent and stared at Xi Shen to see a look of indifference in his eyes.
‘He’s not even seeing me as a threat.’
Gu Mo gritted his teeth. For a Chosen like him to be in this humiliating position was enough to make his heart explode from anger!
After gritting his teeth, Gu Mo clenched his fist for a bit, and then took off his storage ring and threw it at the feet of Xi Shen.
However, before it could fall to the ground Xi Shen caught it with his Soul Sense and bring it up to him. After examining it for a moment, Xi Shen forcefully and rather easily wiped away Gu Mo’s Soul Signature.
Feeling his Soul Signature being wiped away so easily, Gu Mo’s body shook. His Soul Signature was a representation of how strong his Soul Sense was, so for Xi Shen to destroy it so easily Gu Mo couldn’t help but wonder just how powerful Xi Shen’s Soul Sense actually was.
After seeing the Divine Fire Spirit Stones inside the storage ring, Xi Shen dismissively shooed Gu Mo away.
“You can go now and don’t touch any of my Divine Fire Spirit Stones on your way out.”
Gu Mo almost coughed out a mouth full of blood when he heard Xi Shen’s shameless words.
Before he turned to leave, Gu Mo narrowed his eyes at Xi Shen and said coldly, “Your planning to enter the Hidden Fragmented Realm with these Divine Fire Spirit Stones. Other Chosens will be there and we’ll definitely meet inside. I’ll make you regret humiliating me today.”
When Xi Shen heard the mention of the Hidden Fragmented Realm from Gu Mo, his eyes flickered intensely. But he only sneered at Gu Mo and mockingly said, “Are you threatening me? You want to die so badly, just get lost before I change my mind!”
Gu Mo snorted out loud before his figure rose into the air and shot towards a crevice that led outside of the volcano. However, just before he left, his gaze landed on Yang Su who was blankly staring at the lake of lava, his hair turning a strange red color. Remembering the message his fellow demonic disciple had sent him, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he still chose to leave this place. He was irritated but he still had a small smirk on his lips as he clutched his hidden storage bag in his robes.
It wasn’t as many Divine Fire Spirit Stones as he wanted, but it was a lot more than anyone person could have obtained.
‘We’ll definitely meet inside the Hidden Fragmented Realm, and there’s no way I’ll give up on obtaining that Divine Beast Legacy.’
Gu Mo swore as he completely left the volcano.
After Gu Mo left Xi Shen quickly spun around and dash towards Yang Su in a hurry.
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Word Count: 1694
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢