He received no response from the surroundings. It's likely they weren't the first ones to arrive here by accident, but if that's the case, why would the person attack them? What good would that do?
"...Yan Zaizen, be careful. It may be a phantasm." Pinaka's voice warned.
Phantasm?!
From the information he received from earlier at the entrance, Phantoms were soul forms that have gained their independence through unusual and unnatural methods. They do not conform to normal soul cultivation methods but follow along a unique path within the Heavenly Law of the Soul. Essentially, they live off soul energy, and they become unable to stay in a physical body or cultivate the heavens! They lose their laws except for their comprehension of soul concepts, and their soul energy is converted to phantom energy.
In the simplest explanation, they no longer exist by conventional standards. They can vastly exceed standard lifespans, but in return, they also lose the ability to ever become a person again. By consuming souls, they can strengthen themselves and extend their soul life. However, consuming souls have issues, often times leading to a distorted personality or multiple personalities!
Phantasms, however, were different. They've cultivated to the peak of what phantoms could reach and were theoretically immortal! Unless they were killed, they were eternal. It was essentially the peak of the law of the soul! By cultivating off other souls instead of their own, they reach a stage similar to the Immortal Soul Realm! However, their strengths were considerably weaker.
The most notable change isn't immortality but the evolution of their phantom energy into phantasm energy. It held many miraculous traits, such as being able to be silent and concealed within the world.
A surge of torrential black phantasm energy shifted through the black space, making it seem invisible. Its target? Yan Zaizen and Ma Xiuren. It continued to approach with a silent momentum. If Yan Zaizen were to be hit by this, his soul would be damaged considerably despite his cultivation base.
"!" He felt his soul tinge with another threat of danger. Grabbing Ma Xiuren again, he dashed away with ghost-like speed. He reappeared several hundred li away, his eyes flickering with a hint of fear. Even with his Dao, that didn't mean he was absent of fear. It just meant he had confidence in himself. However, there was something lurking in the shadows that felt like it could reap your life at a moment of carelessness.
How could anyone not feel fear? Well, unless they had a Dao of Fearlessness!
"There's something attacking us from the shadows, likely a Phantasm." Yan Zaizen calmly explained to Ma Xiuren. However, when he said that, her eyes were filled, for the very first time, with intense fear. Unlike Yan Zaizen, she didn't have a profound soul cultivation base to resist against an attack from a Phantasm. If she's hit once, her entire existence will cease to be.
She clutched Yan Zaizen's hand with both of her small dainty hands, it felt cold. He could feel her fear pulsating through him, and he tightly gripped her hand in return. "Don't worry, I'll get us out of here." Just as he was about to use the spatial compass with no hesitation, Pinaka's voice resounded.
"Don't! If you use the spatial compass, you'll leave her behind!" Her voice was beyond urgent. Normally, if Yan Zaizen dies, so will she, but if Yan Zaizen does this and she didn't tell him, it's likely their trust would be irrevocably shattered. If he makes that choice, it has to be his own with all the information present.
"What?!" Before he could be stunned, he felt another sensation of profound danger. With a single step, he traversed several li, but the danger remained. "Shit!" He took another step, blasting through the space with boundless speed, arriving several tens of li away. Unfortunately, the sensation of danger only became stronger.
Despite traveling from here to there, trying to dodge the danger, the sensation became more potent than the second before. "Shit, I don't know where the attacks are coming from or who's sending it! How am I supposed to fight this?" He felt frustrated, but he didn't stop moving about. This, however, was not a legitimate and long-term strategy.
Sooner or later, he'll be hit. If and when that happens, he could lose his life. Even if he could survive due to the mysteries in his soul form, Ma Xiuren would certainly die!!
Think! Think! Think!
Each step was followed by various plans of action on how to handle the situation. Surprisingly, Pinaka stayed silent. It's unlikely she was ever in a situation similar to this one, after all, she didn't even believe they could enter a collapsed sub-dimensional space in the first place. Without the knowledge of how to escape, she was essentially useless.
She wasn't foolish to think Yan Zaizen, with his current qi cultivation base, could fully utilize her to destroy this sub-dimensional space. With a cultivation at the late-Qi Unification realm, that'll be impossible! He'll only have a slight chance IF he was at the True Essence Realm.
"Wait!" His mind that was spiraling with ideas honed onto one in particular. If he couldn't destroy the sub-dimensional realm, then perhaps...he could siphon it!
With that, he stopped running. He grabbed Ma Xiuren's small body and placed her in his embrace, and rolled up like a ball. His tall, strong body filled with powerful muscles wrapped around her protectively. Despite the suddenness, Ma Xiuren only had her eyes flash with an intrigued light but allowed it. She even curled up and pushed deeper into his body.
It was like a father protecting his daughter from bullets coming from all directions. After all, if she didn't do this, if the attack that they couldn't see hit, she'll die without a doubt. To have someone willing to protect themselves using their own body for her, she felt rather odd, but also calm about it all.
SHAAH!!
Yan Zaizen's curled body started to emit a vast aura of vital energy. It exploded outwards for tens of li, but the area still didn't reveal an ounce of light from its brilliance. However, before anything was said, this vital energy was suffused with the conceptual law of death - Siphoning Shadow of Death! The vital energy turned an inky black that was even blacker than the surroundings itself.
The contrast was odd.
SRVOOM! BOOM!!!
A ray of phantasm energy penetrated the black vital energy, but when it did, it slowed down in its momentum and was whittled down. Before the energy could reach a few meters away from Yan Zaizen, it vanished, all its energy was siphoned. This siphoned energy converted into even more deathly vital energy!
It spread out further.
SRVOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!
The attacks didn't stop, but every time it came, it was whittled down and converted into a vital energy filled with a deathly aura. Yan Zaizen felt physically exhausted. Even though the deathly vital energy was growing in terms of quantity, his own vital energy was being drained at a considerable speed to expand its range.
He was trying to siphon the entire sub-dimensional realm after all!
"Hm?" The old phantasm was shocked by Yan Zaizen's defense. This aura was beyond strange. Typically, vital energy couldn't even come in contact with soul laws, yet this vital energy could withstand his strikes. What he didn't know was that this death-law infused vital energy was the product of a refined Regalia of the Heavens! It contained a concept he couldn't even think to conceive. In truth, he didn't even know his energy was being siphoned.
He simply believed Yan Zaizen was sending out more and more energy to defend. This was why he kept attacking.
BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!
The phantasm black rays shot ceaselessly in the vital energy shroud for several hours, but it only grew larger. By this point, Yan Zaizen felt thoroughly exhausted. His Herculean Avatar Art had already ended at about ten minutes in, but he maintained his control over the deathly aura. As for Ma Xiuren, her eyes were filled with profound fear. She felt like she was surrounded by death and only Yan Zaizen's strong body prevented it from reaching her.
Unfortunately, this was her misunderstanding, but it was incredibly deep. The deathly aura kept increasing with each passing minute, but Yan Zaizen only looked more and more exhausted. He realized that siphoning off the entirety of the sub-dimensional realm was impossible!
It was far too vast!!
"This…" The old phantasm felt odd. How could he survive this? For him, his energy was nearly limitless. The only problem phantasms had were the intensity of their energy, not their reserves, so he could keep this up for a very long time. However, this shroud of deathly vital energy was persistent.
"Let's see if it survives this," his ancient voice resounded as he focused his energy to the maximum. Since this man wanted to maintain his current state under the protection of this weird energy, he'll penetrate it directly with a concentrated blast.
"!" Several hours passed since the last attack, but Yan Zaizen felt an increasing sensation of danger approaching death from every second. He wrapped around Ma Xiuren even further, his heart beating with an increasing degree of fear, but his eyes were suffused with unyielding confidence and relentless pursuit for survival!
A compressed beam of black phantasm energy shot out with an intensity that even Yan Zaizen and Ma Xiuren could sense it. However, the speed of this energy was so quick that before they could even react, it smashed heavily into the shroud of deathly vital energy!
VOSH!! BANG! BOOM!!!!
The shroud nearly collapsed, but the profound concept that the shroud originated from came from a literal piece of the heavens! How could it be defeated by just this? Viciously, as if its very dignity was insulted, the deathly vital energy converged around the beam of phantasm energy. Before long, it whittled the energy away, siphoning it and making itself far, far stronger than ever before!! It reached several hundred li of distance!
"What?!" After several hours preparing an attack, it failed to penetrate?! The old phantasm was shocked beyond belief, and his eyes turned incomparably serious. He realized at that moment that conventional methods wouldn't be able to handle this shroud of energy.
This realization…
However…
WAS TOO LATE!
Within Yan Zaizen's gaze flickered a white flame.
"Flame of Life, BURN!!!" Yan Zaizen shouted!