“Leave now,” they said with crackling lightning bolts. “Leave now, or we will end you.”
But the ghost, who’d broken through by forcefully by consuming so many others, didn’t leave. The powerful soul, much stronger than Cha Ming could have ever imagined, bore down on him like a heavy mountain. It pressed on his soul with tangible weight. He was at a complete disadvantage—how could he not be? His transcendent soul was casually cultivated, a secondary path that the universe barely recognized.
But this man was something else entirely. Just like Gong Lan, he was a pure soul cultivator on a powerful path. Gong Lan had cultivated the Buddhist path, and using it, she could fight evenly with apex cultivators like Cha Ming. This man cultivated the evil spirit path. Evil spirits would never let go of a grudge.
The ghost howled as it became thousands of faces that plunged into his spiritual sea. Cha Ming’s transcendent soul’s eyes opened. He stretched his limbs and summoned an illusory version of the Clear Sky Staff. After all, a transcendent soul was not defenseless. It could move, it could fight. He swung at the invading figures, hacking away at them with Spirit-Banishing Intent while Cha Ming’s own glaring eyes wore away at the soul above them. The burning combat formation had shrunk down to only a few hundred meters, and each flame bore the Spirit-Banishing Intent that wore away at the Shepherd faster than he could consume souls.
Then came the lightning. Unable to bear the fact that the Shepherd hadn’t obeyed its command, the lightning shot down and encapsulated both Cha Ming and the Shepherd in a sea of light. He roared in agony, and so did Cha Ming. Whereas before they’d been fighting, they could now only shudder as the lightning ate away at their spiritual presence.
But the Shepherd didn’t seem to care. In fact, this seemed to have been his goal all along. Cha Ming had destroyed his temple, so he would destroy Cha Ming, whatever the cost. He clung to this plane that hated him so, and Cha Ming could only direct his Spirit-Banishing Intent at the evil spirit. He kept his eyes open, but his eyes bled profusely. Moreover, his vision darkened. He’d activated his eye technique far longer than he’d ever had to since gaining the Demon-Subduing Eyes. Since then, he’d only gained a decent amount of Demon-Subduing Intent.
The Spirit-Banishing Eyes, on the other hand, now had a literal ocean of Spirit-Banishing Intent. The strain these three intents placed on him was great, but unfortunately, it wasn’t just his life on the line, but his very soul.
As Cha Ming struggled, a soft white light leaked out from the Clear Sky Staff, shielding him from the onslaught. It was only a small contribution, but every tiny bit mattered in this war of attrition. Even the Monkey King was doing what he could from the Clear Sky World, siphoning a portion of his transcendent force and sending it to Cha Ming’s fading soul.
One agonizing second passed after another until finally, the Shepherd let out one last wail. He moved to combust, but the keeper of the Underworld, who’d been watching all this time, scoffed. He swept out his scythe, and the blow reached across entire worlds. It nipped the raging Shepherd’s explosion in the bud, dragging him directly into the Yellow River. Cha Ming looked at Yama incredulously, but the man didn’t seem to notice. He simply looked up at the sky and whistled, pretending nothing had ever happened. Cha Ming could only shake his head in bemusement.
With the Shepherd’s death, the remaining souls could no longer exist. They were forced back into the Underworld, leaving only smoldering buildings and cracked stone where Cha Ming lay kneeling down, his eyes bleeding. He closed them and blinked a few times. He tried to deactivate his eye technique but discovered that he couldn’t. But neither could he see. He could open his eyes all he liked, but they were clouded. He was blind.
Sighing, Cha Ming closed his eyes. He didn’t know if he could recover, and if he could, he had no idea how long it would take. For now, he could only use his transcendent force. He coaxed his wounded soul back into its place in his spiritual sea and sent out his transcendent force. Looking around this way was like seeing in black and white. He could see no color, no detail. But at least he could function.
Knowing that time was short, he picked up his Clear Sky Staff and walked over to the center of the temple, eyes closed. Then he transformed the staff into a knife and carved a message just like the one before. These messages, along with the destruction of the Spirit Temple, the Blood Master Monastery, and the defective Breaker, would incriminate the Wang family. The disappearance of their permanent members from the North and their treasury would reinforce that. Even if it was all sabotage, and the karmic trail wasn’t quite clear, their resentment toward the Wang family would cause them a falling out in both the North and the South. As for Pai Xiao, who was to say he hadn’t gone missing along with them? Furthermore, his karma wasn’t traceable like it was for others; Wang Jun had assured him of that.
Cha Ming walked out of the gray shield covering the monastery. He’d barely stepped out when he heard another roar, but this one was a muffled one. It was a roar of triumph, a roar of exultation. He scanned the area to the west and discovered that his transcendent force ended at the city wall. Beyond that was emptiness.
The Taotie had come, and with its arrival, transcendent after transcendent, and hundreds of peak-core-formation cultivators, flew out from important city buildings and began fighting it. To the South, Cha Ming was a pain, a manageable annoyance. The Taotie, however, was a different story entirely. With
