Storage Ring

Back within the ancestral lands, the fight between the elderly scaled woruse and the evil spirit was quickly heading to its conclusion. Neither of them had any leeway to drag out the battle since the scaled woruse knew it would soon disappear while the evil spirit was too far from the progenitor's corpse and any one who it could leech off of. As Shui had suspected, anyone who cultivated the method that the evil spirit gave them, would form a bond with him that gave him access to their energy and vitality. It was through these bonds that the evil spirit was able to live for so long, and since it could only maintain a certain amount of bonds, only geniuses which reached its bare minimum standard were allowed the honour.

In the midst of their fight, it looked down at Shui as he clung to the mountain side.

'Damn it! If only that other boy wasn't so weak I would have helped him win and this wouldn't have happened to me.'

When the evil spirit had saved Nathan, it took advantage of his mentally unstable state to plant a seed inside him. However, that wouldn't do anything to help its current situation. Even so, it wasn't too worried. Though it knew it couldn't defeat the beast before it, it had confidence in outlasting it.

"Foolish mutt. You should have stayed in your hole and died peacefully."

"Hmph, I have no intention of letting you take advantage of my friend's corpse anymore!"

"Hah! What a fool. We are the same person, you yourself should know that."

"No, I shall not acknowledge you, who lacks the virtue of my dear friend, to assume his name and leech off his descendants for your own greed!"

The conversation between them happened through telepathy so no one else could hear them. As Shui and Cin watched the battle, they couldn't stay calm for even a second. Though the two were basically equal in power, the evil spirit obviously had the advantage. Shui considered escaping but the assassins that were lingering about and the mist wall that still existed discouraged him.

'Please, at least seriously injure him.'

The fight continued for about one more hour when the elderly scaled woruse was blasted into the ancient structure at the peak of the mountain.

"Any last words dirty mutt?"

The evil spirit stayed in the sky with a smirk on its face. The scaled woruse knew that it had no other options. It could only sacrifice its life and hope for the best.

"Run!"

When that word suddenly appeared in the minds of Shui and Cin, they knew that they had to retreat. With Cin in his arms, Shui jumped off the mountain and took as many 'Protect' talismans as he could manage at once and used them one at a time to weaken the impact of their fall as they smashed through them.

BOOM!

When the ground was in clear sight, a devastating explosion blew them further towards the ground but luckily with a few more 'Protect' talismans, the two of them got off with minor scratches and injuries. The two of them looked at the dust cloud that surrounded what was left of the mountain and hoped that the evil spirit died in that explosion.

When the evil spirit sensed what the scaled woruse was going to do, it rushed in front of the coffin. Even if its spirit was dispersed, it could eventually piece itself back together, but that was only if what was left of the progenitor's body still remained. The explosion that came from the scaled woruse igniting what was left of its soul, reduced the towering mountain to a pile of rocks, but after exhausting almost all of its source the evil spirit managed to stabilize its form with the items that were by the progenitor's side.

"Damn mutt!!!!"

Though it was still 'alive' for the moment, with the corpse of the progenitor destroyed, it had to find a vessel soon if it didn't want to disappear. Thankfully, there was a good vessel for it nearby.

Shui noticed that the core of the seal on the ancestral lands had been destroyed, but there still seemed to be something holding it together. Nevertheless, that wouldn't last long either.

'So he's not done yet.'

Since this evil spirit had already pierced its fangs into the upper echelon of the three clans, letting him recover would be a recipe for disaster. Furthermore, he could tell that the evil spirit had already locked on to him.

"Little bro, is he...?"

"I think so."

As the two of them waited near the former mountain, they saw the flickering image of the old man with a frown come towards them. Even like this, the aura coming from him made their knees weak. Although he was obviously near his death, Shui didn't think he was weak for even a moment.

"You little brat. Surrender your body now and I'll allow your soul to enter the afterlife."

He left no option of letting him go, but Shui expected that. Instead of wasting time, he took out a couple talismans and got ready to fight. In its current state there were only two ways it could attack him, spells and directly with its spirit. Both were very troublesome but he didn't believe there was no chance for him to win.

When the evil spirit saw the talismans in his hands, it sneered and went closer. It had no time or desire to play around so instead of using any spells, it became intangible and rushed towards him. In this state, all of the 'Burst' talismans that Shui shot at it, slipped out and did no damage. Seeing the devastated expression that Shui had on his face, the evil spirit was even more sure that his body would be its for the taking.

However, when it was five cales away from Shui, lightning shot out his palms that forced it to block with a barrier. Even though it was in intangible state, lightning was still the bane of all evil and souls. Due to this setback, the evil spirit tried to choke Shui from afar with its mental control but Cin stopped it.

"Do it big bro!"

"Rawr!"

The cute sound froze it in place. This annoying technique reminded it of the elderly scaled woruse. Since it required a body to execute, he didn't need to be wary of it when it fought the elderly scaled woruse, but it forgot about the fact that this creature could also use.

'Hmph, a mere trifling act.'

It was only for a short moment that the evil spirit's mental control was interrupted; it was still moving. If it wasn't for its weakened condition it wouldn't have been affected at all, but that short moment was enough for Shui to finish setting up the trap.

When the evil spirit was two cales in front of him, Shui drew the symbol for 'Lightning' in his mind, but the current it produced didn't attack the evil spirit but the talismans that were above and below it.

"Wha-? Ahh!!!"

Despite the large difference between them, Shui was able to sense the range of its spiritual sense since it didn't try to hide it. With the 'Burst' talismans, he lowered its guard and increased its complacency, then when it was preoccupied by the 'Lightning' and Cin's roar, he used his martial intent to place half of all his 'Lightning' talismans in the area higher than its spiritual sense could detect and sent the rest waiting for it on the ground with a larger circle of 'Hide' talismans around it. Luckily, it was too careless to expand its spiritual sense too far from its body so his martial intent could do the job. It didn't know he had martial intent so it didn't think he could place the talismans so high without using his hands so he had an easier time setting up this trap.

"Lightning Prison."

It was a pseudo-array he came up with that was simply about bombarding the enemy with lightning. The moment it realized its position, all of the 'Lightning' talismans activated and formed a pseudo-array that caged the evil spirit in lightning and quickly drained the energy it used to fuel its barrier. From now on, it was a battle of attrition; the one who lasted longer would win.

When the barrier was finally broken by the barrage of lightning, and the screams from the evil spirit eventually stopped, the attack was still ongoing. Only when all of the talismans were exhausted did he wait for the result. When the dust settled, only a jade plaque and a ring could be seen on the scorched ground. Shui walked one cale closer, and fired off 'Lightning' once more.

"Ahh!"

A small piece of the spirit had remained attached to the plaque but in its miserable state, Shui could easily tell that it was there with his eyes.

"Finally..."

Now that the sinister yellow aura was finally gone, Shui picked up the two objects. On the jade plaque were the words 'Four Elements Technique'. It looked like an interesting ability but he knew he couldn't check it at the moment. The ring was something he had seen once before. It was a tesora-rank artifact that he didn't expect to get for a long time but here it was in his hand.

'A storage ring.'