Seal Unleashed (2)

Both Tian Kai and Tian Bai stood to the side while Xue Chang seated himself onto the ground.

At first he wasn't sure what to do since Yong Heng never told him the process to open the seal, but once he made the decision to start it was as if all the dots finally connected.

He completely understood what had to be done next.

Closing his eyes, Xue Chang stretched his arms out and moved them in a circular motion slowly.

As he did this, several ghostly apparitions of arms began to appear behind his back. Each one had its palm facing toward the sky. Then in a single swift motion, they all clapped their hands together in unison.

Meanwhile within purgatory, Yong Heng was also seated in the void doing a similar motion.

The second Xue Chang clapped his palms together, Yong Heng followed suit brining his own palms to a close.

All of a sudden, Yong Heng's eyes shot wide open. There was a strange clarity within them as well as a dim glow of power. Not like that of a powerful cultivator, but it looked to be the glow of an absolute being. While this light was dim, it was undoubtedly still present.

He threw his arm up and pointed above his head after opening his eyes.

There, where his finger faced, was a crack. It was odd sight in a place that had nothing to crack.

But Yong Heng didn't panic, looking up at the crack he whispered under his breath, "Not yet."

Beyond the crack, a single eye could be seen peering through into the void.

However, Yong Heng knew that this eye couldn't see anything. Not yet anyway.

He began to take in power from the spirit seal within Xue Chang's body.

His face crumpling into an expression of agony and pain, Yong Heng continued to expend energy as the crack began to slowly close.

Sweat trickled down his face onto his collarbone. At a glance one might be entranced by this beautiful creature glowing so sensually from his own sweat.

As the crack finally shut itself, trail of blood trickled down from the corner of Yong Heng's mouth.

"It's up to you now Xue Chang!"

In the real world, Xue Chang was also dealing with his own difficulties.

His eyes also shot opened, but unlike Yong Heng's these eyes were devoid of light or clarity. It was as if Xue Chang was blind.

Yet in his eyes reflected the sight of ten candles. These candles, which seemed so unassuming before, now emanated with a frightening power.

And opening his arms, a small flame sat in his palms.

This flame was his soul.

It was little more than embers now, which was very different from the brilliant glows of others.

But Xue Chang didn't mind it much. Wasn't his goal to change his dying embers into a powerful flame?

Pushing useless thoughts out of his mind, he stretched out his hands and allowed the embers to slowly encompass the candles in front of him.

Meanwhile, to Tian Hai and Tian Kai, they could only see Xue Chang move his arms around in a seemingly random motion.

But they had other worries.

As soon as Xue Chang opened his palms, pressure began to build up around them. The two of them were standing by the sides in preparation for something to go wrong. Yet what they didn't expect was that all of a sudden they'd be trapped in place.

It was like chains were wrapped all over their bodies as Tian Kai felt his arm lock at his sides and his movements become restricted.

While Tian Hai had it even worse. He completely fell to the ground unable to even wiggle his toes, struggling just to suck in a breath of air.

The change was too sudden and random, giving them almost no time to think or counter it.

Slowly Tian Kai felt the chain like sensation tighten around him as the situation escalated. While they were frozen in place, suddenly, shadowy figures began to appear from the ground and stretch out their arms toward the gang.

Without even thinking, Tian Kai used all of his energy to throw his body back away from the figures. Tian Hai tried to do the same but his situation was a lot worse than his brother's.

Because of this, the figures patched onto Tian Hai, who began to shout out in a panic.

"Argh! What. Are. These. Things!" Tian Hai's body trembled and shook while struggling to fight off the shadows.

Tian Kai was doing no better and couldn't answer while focusing on avoiding the creatures assault.

But time wasn't on their side. As more and more shadows quickly appeared, the two became outnumbered.

One by one they clattered and toppled over each other, trying desperately to reach Tian Kai and Tian Hai. And one by one the two became crushed under the seemingly unending numbers.

Xue Chang noticed what was happening but didn't do anything to stop it. Rather than that, it was more like he couldn't.

Once the process began, he couldn't move until the candle was completely lit.

He couldn't even give a word of warning to them.

And as the shadows completely overwhelmed the group, silence ensued within the village ruins as only the low growling of the figures remained.

Tian Kai and Tian Hai were nowhere to be seen.

As if drowned in an ocean's torrent.