Meeting at last

Although the pain was bearable, it still brought a shock to Xue Chang's mind.

He had never minded injuries nor nor pain since he knew he would always heal from them. Although they hurt, that was all it caused. Pain, but never danger.

This was the second time Xue Chang actually felt this chill crawling down his spine. The chill of death.

The first time was when the level four demonic serpent had dragged him down into the bottom of the lava lake. But this felt much more serious than back then. It was as if he could actually feel his life draining rom his body.

"Soul attack." Yong Heng's voice whispered in the back of his mind, "No wonder why these people were able to do so much without being discovered."

"What is a soul attack?" As Xue Chang asked this, he tightened his grip over his wound. Momentarily closing his eyes, all of his focus was put into forcing the life force in his body to drown out the wound.

Although extremely slow, his healing factor finally started up again.

"Soul attack is simply that, an attack of the soul. The mortal plain is split into two parts, the physical and the spiritual. As you can tell right now, in the early stages many people cultivate their physicality. Whether it is external or internal cultivation, they both have the job of reconfiguring the body in the end. But in later stages, the body is not cared for as much. Instead the soul is the main focus."

Although he wasn't familiar about the later stages of cultivation, Xue Chang began to notice a few things, "It always has something to do with the soul, why are so many people interested in the souls of others?"

Yong Heng's apparition appeared before Xue Chang. Although he had seen this form before in the past, his beautiful appearance was still extremely off putting.

Lightly covering his lips, he said "That is because of how powerful souls are. I have already explained this, but knowing you, you probably never listen. Souls are the origin of all life. Our very identity comes from our souls and if we lost our soul then we would lose everything. Even if one was to die that would not be their end. Instead their spirit would be brought to the reincarnation cycle. This is because the soul is everlasting, a true symbol of eternity. It is hard for a soul to be naturally destroyed. Even in death, one can survive by using their soul. This is why the stronger a person grows the more importance they would put into their soul. And while the soul is slightly empowered in the early stages, it isn't until the late stages when their true worth are shown. But it is extremely difficult to strengthen your soul. There are a variety of methods, but the most efficient one was absorbing the souls of others. As such, many evil sects and cults were formed around the prospect of devouring the souls of others in the past. But these groups were hunted down to extinction due to their brutal and disgusting methods. After all, how could anyone condone the genocide of millions of mortals just for cultivators to devour those souls to strengthen themselves. But research into methods of strengthening one's soul never ended."

Xue Chang couldn't help but think about Yong Heng's words. Clearly the last part of what he said was just hearsay, else if those monstrous groups really were extinct and their methods were destroyed, then what were these murderers currently doing now. The only explanation for their actions was the soul devouring method.

"Why humans though, why can't they just devour souls of demonic beasts."

"Because human souls are unique. Their taste, texture, and most importantly their power all trump the souls of every other living thing in this world. You would need a thousand souls of level ten qi refined demonic beasts to just equal one human mortal! With such a disparity who would waste their time hunting monsters when they could kill one of billions of humans in this world. It is just not worth it."

Yong Heng then explained that Xue Chang's injury was caused by a soul attack. This was a method of training the soul after the devouring trend became forbidden. It was similar to a spell that took the user's soul and used spiritual force to refine it instead of the body.

This way, while their cultivation would have barely any improvements, their soul would become increasingly powerful. Although it could not compare to the effects that absorbing a soul directly could bring, it was the next most efficient method.

Since their cultivation would have little to no improvements, those who trained their soul typically infused their attacks with it. While it wouldn't cause a ton of damage, if one had a soul that was inferior to the attacker, then they'd find the damage received was much worse than expected.

In simple terms to Xue Chang, who had a broken soul, a single knife wound was as if someone had stabbed him several dozen time.

"And if that wasn't annoying enough, those who trained in soul attacks also were gifted in making illusions. That girl in front of you, the flowers on the ground, maybe even the cabin. All of these are part of an illusion. Don't be fooled Xue Chang, watch out."

He didn't have to be told twice. Rather than the initial confusion he had when seeing Wanwan, all he felt now was unbridled rage.

"You slaughter her village and now defile her memory. I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!"

Screaming this out loud, Xue Chang fully recovered and charged forward at blinding speeds. Saber intent surrounded his blade as he swung the weapon over toward the fallen little girl.

And as he expected, a shadowy figure appeared from the cabin that blocked him in his path.

His surroundings began to morph as its original appearance appeared before him. He was not in some random cabin in the wood like he thought, instead he had found himself in another ruined village. And in front of him stood the sky leopard he met so long ago.

Wanwan's skin melted from her face as her height and appearance transformed before his very eyes. And there in her place stood the woman he saw long ago.

Coughing out lightly a few times, the woman gave off a bloodied smile and said, "It is finally nice to speak to you Yong Heng. My name is Succubus, and my friend here is Beast."

Although she stood there smiling bravely, the fear in her eyes could not be hidden.

Xue Chang didn't respond as he was already determined to end it all here.

Pointing his saber forward, Xue Chang said in his high pitched voice," Last time I chose to escape with the pseudo nascent soul and leave you two behind. But now things are different."

"I promise I will kill you two today."

Succubus just smiled faintly and thought to herself, "You will try."

Unbeknownst to Xue Chang, there was a single vial still within her palm containing a pill.

Her last resort.