Chapter 78: Devouring
“Lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub...”
Vale's heart was beating violently. The blood dripping from the wound on his face was dyeing half his face red. “Unexpected! This is really surprising!” He lifted one hand and wiped the blood with his sleeve. Then Vale turned to Zen and said, “Perrin howled like a wounded animal after a blow from you. You must have used the soul attack. No wonder Perrin lost so fast. You, a guy at the marrow refining level have mastered the soul attack cultivation method. It's really unbelievable!”
Vale had experienced a lot of battles so far. Having escaped death, he realized that he had been naive to consider Zen to be a weak opponent.
“Well, I have to admit that I made a big mistake. You are a dangerous killer disguised as a weak opponent. If it weren't for my family-awarded soul protector and my strong soul, your flying knife would have killed me,” said Vale calmly as he raised his hand to rub off the blood that was still oozing from his wound. “This injury is the price I have paid for underestimating you. You've done your best to hurt me. You should be proud. However, you still have to pay for your actions, even though you are Yan's brother!”
As soon as Vale finished speaking, several lotus flowers blazing with pink light floated from his hands. However, these enchanting lotus flowers were powerful, dangerous killing weapons.
“I will pulverize you into powder!”
The lotus flowers shot toward Zen so quickly that he didn't get the chance to escape. In an instant, his body was covered by the lotus flowers.
Every lotus flower carried the weight of ten thousand pounds.
And over a hundred lotus flowers blanketed Zen's body.
Zen's body was desperately absorbing the pressure and producing warm currents to refine itself.
However, the pressure was too terrible. Even though Zen had a body similar to a spiritual weapon, he was unable to endure the pressure!
“Crack!”
The sound of flesh splitting open was heard as a gash appeared on Zen's body. Before Zen could register what was happening, blood sprayed from the wound. Weakness coursed through Zen and he felt as though his body was on the verge of collapsing. It seemed as if he would be crushed by the combined weight of these lotus flowers.
“Brother!”
cried Yan. Tears poured from her eyes like a broken string of pearls.
She looked at the six-pointed star array around her feet in anger. A thought flashed through her mind, and she suddenly stopped crying.
Full of despair and with no other alternative, she decided to use her powers!
A tuft of life vitality condensed in Yan's right hand. With a deep breath, she let it float into the air and watched as it formed six small runes that circled slowly around her right hand.
“I must break through this trap!”
The six tiny runes began to emit flashes of thin purple lightning.
Although the lightning flashes were tiny, the power emitted was terrible.
“Forbidden art — Death Lightning!”
The purple lightning spun faster and faster as it linked the small runes.
Yan's face turned pale in an instant.
Death Lightning was a forbidden art as it was a potent attacking method. Not only was the damage done by the attack method devastating, but at the same time, the user had to endure a super dreadful cost.
If Yan had another alternative, she would not use it.
But at the moment, she could not watch her brother die in front of her eyes.
However powerful the six-pointed star array might be, Yan would try to break through it at any cost.
Just as Yan was about to unleash the power of the Death Lightning, an old voice stopped her.
“No, stop! Stop it! Yan, do not use the forbidden art!” An old man with white hair appeared at Yan's side. He was floating about three meters away from Yan. A worried expression deepened the wrinkles on his old face.
Yan paused, looked at the old man, pointed to the mountainside that had lit up with the white light column, and said, “I will stop if you unravel the six-pointed star array and let me go there. Don't worry. I won't leave Hell Mountain. I just need to solve a problem!”
Upon hearing Yan's request, the old man smiled bitterly and said, “The six-pointed star array was set up by Jone. How can I open it? Besides, other than you, there are five other people jailed on the top of torture Mountain. Even if you don't flee, I can't say the same about them.”
The old man's explanation sounded perfectly reasonable.
A total of six people were trapped on the top of torture Mountain; each more powerful than the next.
The six-pointed star array was quite complicated, and setting it up had been a challenging task for the top-ranked magic array master, Jone. Aside from him, no one could unravel it.
Yan bit her lower lip, looked at Zen's figure that was covered by the lotus flowers, and implored, “Okay, I will not destroy the array, but you must save my brother!”
The old man smiled and said, “I don't need to save him. It seems that someone has come to his aid.”
“Who is it?” asked Yan anxiously.
The old man pointed at a flying chariot that was nearing Hell Mountain.
“Her? Princess Aura?” asked Yan. Her expression conveyed the doubt she felt. Why would Aura come to save her brother?
“Zen is Master Su's disciple,” explained the old man. “Now that Princess Aura has come to save Zen, he will be fine.”
“I hope so.” After hearing his explanation, Yan calmed down slightly. Then she turned her head and quietly observed the incident on the mountainside. If anything bad happened, she was ready to break the six-pointed star array by force!
…
…
If Zen had been an ordinary disciple at the marrow refining level, he would have been crushed into muddy flesh under the total pressure of one hundred thousand pounds.
Even nature creatures could not endure this level of pressure.
Though determinedly resisting the pressure, Zen was on the verge of being destroyed.
Zen felt as though he was carrying a mountain. Even breathing felt like an impossible act.
“It's unbelievable that a cultivator at the Illuminating Soul Realm is so strong. I have no chance to fight back!” Zen could not move at all, but he did not give up trying to find a way out of this situation. Now that he was in the state of forgetting himself, he could keep calm even when on the brink of death.
Zen was concerned about the cracks that continued to appear on his body. Each bled profusely, and he knew that he was running out of time.
However, after entering the state, Zen could ignore the pain. It was as if his body had become someone else's body.
Zen thought, 'What other options do I have?
Broken Flying Knife…
Dragon Scales…
Spiritual Thorn…
Zen figured, 'I have tried all of these and none seemed to work as I had hoped.'
The only cultivation method that Zen had not used yet was Heavenly Ogre Fist.
Heavenly Ogre Fist was a tier-five cultivation method. And Zen was the only disciple at Cloud Sect who had knowledge of that method. Thus, its power could not be underestimated. However, it had proven to be challenging when Zen had tried it. He had spent a long time practicing it, hoping to produce a hint of demonic life energy.
However, even after exhausting efforts, there had been no outcome.
Zen doubted whether he could reproduce this cultivation method successfully.
Getting the tier-five cultivation method but not being able to practice it had indeed distressed Zen.
Therefore, after many failures, Zen had to put Heavenly Ogre Fist to one side.
Now that Zen had come to the edge of life and death, and he had no other alternatives, he needed to try Heavenly Ogre Fist.
The pressure to act multiplied when Zen sensed that perhaps in a few breaths his body would be squeezed into pieces.
“I will not give in! The path of martial arts cultivation is full of obstacles. I have only recently started to climb the mountain, and I want to get to the top to look over the vast, wonderful world!” yelled Zen.
'I will try again and see if I can produce the demonic life energy!' Zen decided.
By now, under the pressure of the lotuses, Zen's spine had bent into a horseshoe shape. Coincidentally, this was the starting posture for the Heavenly Ogre Fist cultivation.
In accordance with this action, Zen began to direct his life energy to flow throughout his body.
'Force comes out from the heart, and then circulates via body energy lines — mysterious tubes for cultivation. Similar to blood vessels, body energy lines help carry life energy, life vitality, and so on throughout body; the energy runs into all the organs and cells, with endless circling...'
Zen was familiar with the force operating method as he had already practiced it many times.
However, he had never succeeded.
This time as well Zen failed.
Despite his disappointment, Zen did not give up. He tried again according to the method described in the book.
There was still no effect the second time he tried.
“Crack!”
Two new cracks appeared on Zen's body.
In this short period, eight cracks had surfaced on Zen's body. As the number of cracks increased, so did the pace of blood oozing from these.
However, Zen had no time to think about his wounds. He tried again.
This time, Zen felt as though something was stirring in his navel!
'That's it? Did I manage? Am I successful?' Zen was surprised.
He felt a new kind of life energy, which was completely different from the purple life energy, emerge from his navel.
This must be the demonic life energy!
At the same time, Zen felt something exceptional happening.
As soon as the thread of demonic life energy was produced, it began to devour the purple life energy in his body.
The demonic life energy must indeed be powerful if it could eat other kinds of life energy!
Zen knew that a cultivator could only have one kind of life energy in his or her body. In general, when one practiced another cultivation method and produced a second life energy, the cultivator had to release the first life energy completely to be successful.
But Zen didn't have to do this as the demonic life energy swallowed the purple life energy.
While the purple life energy in Zen's navel reduced rapidly, the demonic life energy increased sharply. For a second, the demonic life energy filled Zen's navel.
'Heavenly Ogre Fist is a tier-five cultivation method, so the demonic life energy would probably be more powerful than the purple life energy! Let me see how powerful the demonic life energy is!' Zen clenched his fists. It was impossible for him to relax while he produced the demonic life energy.
He knew that his power was still too weak.
Zen had no opportunity to win, especially when confronted by a cultivator at the Illuminating Soul Realm like Vale.
However, Zen had great courage and determination. He would try his best to fight, even when he only had a small chance of survival!
“Hiss...”
Just as Zen drove the demonic life energy to flow in his body, something strange happened.
Threads of demonic life energy gradually emerged on Zen's skin, and upon contact with the lotus flowers, the demonic life energy began to devour them.