Crack On The Mask

"Argh!"

His right front leg cut off, Ye Mu stumbled, struggling to stand on his three remaining legs, the exhaustion weighting on him like a mountain.

"There, are your eyes opened, now, beast?" Xiao Chen, now calm again, said. "There is no path to victory anymore. Your fortune has gotten away when my disciple has decided to courageously sacrifice his life for the common good, it's as simple as that"

"Your disciple… Hanchen told me about him" Ye Mu said, panting. "He's the one who caused this situation, isn't he?" 

"Yes, he is" the elder replied, not denying. "And as hurtful as it sounds, sacrificing himself was indeed nothing more than making up for his mistakes. Rather than feeling sad about his death, I feel honored that in the end, he chose to uphold the values of our clan"

"You're… truly heartless, elder Xiao"

"Heartless? I offered my heart to the clan long ago"

A shadow of regret flashed on her face for a split second, quickly disappearing as she cut off the fox's anterior left leg, leaving him unable to stand. The Spirit Beast still tried to move nonetheless, and she simply froze his remaining front leg before kicking him, watching it explode into frozen shards.

"Argh!" the fox groaned.

Nonetheless, ice spikes surged from the ground, ripping his remaining leg apart, and sending his lacerated, half-frozen body flying back, barely alive.

"As you should know, whether human or beast, a cultivator who has formed a core can only die if either their head or their Core is destroyed, or if they are decapitated. As your attempts at fighting me were commendable, I will grant you a quick death, destroying your head at once so you won't suffer"

After saying this, with a single movement of her hand, three spears of ice started to surge from the ground, about to pierce through the fox's head and kill him. Ye Mu closed his eyes, accepting his end.

However, before they could kill him, the ice spears were all pierced by blood arrows. Seeing this, Xiao Chen's gracious face revealed a frown:

'Zhang Baotian? No, even with a grand perfection Qi Building bow artifact, these arrows were too powerful to come from a mere late stage Qi Building. Has he advanced to the grand perfection stage as well?'

However, as they reported their attention in the direction where the arrow came from, it wasn't the aura of a grand perfection that their spirit senses met.

It was the aura of a genuine Core Formation cultivator!

'No, not just a mere early stage Core Formation'

Both Xiao Chen and Ye Mu, who had encountered their fair share of both Core-level humans and Spirit Beast, could tell: this aura was that of both a Golden Core and Core Formation cultivator mixed together, making it reach the same intensity as that of a mid stage cultivator!

"I see, you were at the peak of the late stage already" Xiao Chen said, mistaking the reason for his advancement. "It's impressive that you managed to advance to the grand perfection stage, face the tribulation, survive and reach the next realm in such a short time, especially when you already seemed to be exhausted. And I supposed this fox here gave you an item allowing you to gain some traits of a Golden Core Spirit Beast when advancing? No, such an item wouldn't be accessible to any Spirit Beast, it must be the reward given to you after the Xuanhe Yaoling Contest"

Baotian, not listening to her theories, picked Ye Mu up with a force control spell and gently deposed him beside Zi Moyan and Hanchen. The elder, frowning, created ice spikes that flew toward them but Baotian just destroyed them with more blood arrows.

"I don't believe that your opponent is anyone but me" Baotian said coldly, before quickly glancing at his companions.

Just now, Ye Mu, after seeing that Baotian had managed to reach the next realm, had finally allowed himself to faint from his injuries. Hanchen, while his life and his pure 'talent' were intact, had suffered unimaginable pain from the extraction of his Shadow Embodying True Physic, fainting as well. 

As for Zi Moyan, Baotian had made sure to advance as close as possible to her: when one advanced, he would recover most of his spiritual energy afterward. He had tried to redirect as much of it as possible toward her and, seeing the frost layer covering her brain melting, and her cranium slowly regenerating, it seemed that it had somehow worked. Even though a part of it had been frozen, no part of her brain had been 'destroyed', as to say.

Yet, she wasn't waking up. Back on Earth, it had been established through science that freezing one's brain and unfreezing it, especially in such a short period of time, would cause irreversible damages. Core Formation cultivators were known to have limited regeneration when it came to the upper dantian, too. Truthfully, there was more chances of her remaining in a coma until the end of her lifespan than of her waking up, and there was nothing to do about it.

So Baotian simply prayed in his heart, as he used a basic wood spell to create a shelter around them, taking out ten more liters of blood essence to reinforce it through a spell:

"Blood Net Assimilation!"

As the frail wood shelter turn into a robust layer of protection, able to handle the aftermath of a Core Formation-level fight for a while, he turned back to his opponent, his eyes full of malice and hatred:

"You wanted to senior Ye Mu's life quickly, right? Well then, allow me to do the same for you" he said coldly. "We have to run away from here quickly, and we don't have any more time to lose with a righteous bitch like you"

Then, saying that, he created a multitude of blood orbs around him, five times as much as before:

"Formation killer move: Blood Red Flame Torrent!"

A devastating deluge of crimson fire lunged at the weakened Xiao Chen who, despite her best efforts, was unable to completely block the attack, ending up being swallowed by the flames.

Meanwhile, in-between the Martial Devouring Mountains, Shen Hui was still fighting Zhenyun, using their thread to counter his sword moves, albeit with some difficulty.

'That's… problematic' they thought.

Though they had successfully anticipated the development of the events that unfolded until now, it seemed that the strength of the young swordsman was still somehow outside of their prediction.

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL SLAUGHTER YOU AND ALL THE INFAMOUS CENTIPEDES AND BEASTS UNDER YOUR COMMANDS? AND RIP YOUR SOUL OFF THE CYCLE OF REINCARNATION"

Zhenyun unleashed another killer move toward his enemy:

Liu Sword Technique, third formation move, Great Annihilation Iron Trait!

A powerful line of sword energy slashed down, that Shen Hui could only avoid by sacrificing their right arm once again. This time, even with access to their spell, they were unable to regrow it.

'My cultivation scripture, the Fate Agencement Writings, allows me to cultivate both the human and Spirit Beast paths at once, and even though maintaining Heaven And Earth Converge To Fortune to avoid being devoured by the mountains stops me from using other killer moves, Liu Zhenyun is currently forced to maintain his talent active and focus every bit of it to resist their attraction, so he should be as handicapped as me, maybe even a bit more.'

Yet, they were still being pushed back. Though it was only Shen Hui's theory, they believed that even among Heavenly Talents, Zhenyun was nothing short of a genius.

"But still…" they said as Zhenyun was once again rushing them. "Don't you think you're underestimating me a bit?"

Pulling with their left hand, threads appeared, connecting its finger to the fingers of his severed right arm. Zhenyun, carried forward by his momentum, could not interrupt his movement in time, and his left hand was severed by the threads.

"We're both civilized early stage Nascent Soul cultivator, so why do you feel the need to rush at me with such bestiality?"

"YOU KILLED MY MASTER FOR YOUR OWN AMUSEMENT! YOU MONSTER!"

Shen Hui once again smirked from behind their mask:

"Then you have even more reason to fight more smartly, don't you?" they replied. "Wouldn't it be a shame if the one who killed your master like a pig escaped because anger made you unable to do anything besides charging in blindly?"

They knew they had struck the right cord as the last sliver of reason disappeared from Zhenyun's eyes, leaving only cold murderous rage behind.

'That should help me find an opening' they thought as the young swordsman, severing with his sword the threads that had cut his hand, rushed at them once again, forcing them to fall down to avoid decapitation.

As the tip of the blade scraped against their golden mask, a small crack appeared in it.