The human skin had moved so suddenly it completely caught Xiang Shaoyun by surprise. Xiang Shaoyun had not expected it at all. Just as the skin was about to wrap itself around him, a green flash streaked through the air.
Swish!
The green sword energy lashed out and slowed the skin's advance, giving Xiang Shaoyun a chance to retreat.
"What the hell is that?" shouted Xiang Shaoyun after he pulled a safe distance between him and the skin. Not far from him, the skin hovered in the air and assumed the form of a face baring its fangs. It drifted in the air at a high speed that made it hard for one to catch.
Dong Zi's attack hadn't damaged the skin at all. Instead, Dong Zi was now the skin's new target. The skin pounced Dong Zi while making an odd, sinister sound that made one's hair stand on end.
Dong Zi waved her sword around repeatedly, sending slash after slash toward the skin. As for Xiang Shaoyun, he stopped blanking out, and he yelled and swung his saber at the skin. Unfortunately, the skin was even faster than him, causing his attack to hit thin air.
Similarly, the skin avoided all of Dong Zi's attacks. It was even able to slip between her attacks and shoot straight toward her like a sharp blade. She immediately released a massive amount of outer energy, thinking she could use it to block the attack. Unfortunately, the skin's attack was sharp enough to penetrate the layer of energy.
Clang!
Fortunately, Dong Zi was wearing king-grade armor that managed to block the attack. Otherwise, that attack would have killed her then and there. Even so, the impact of the collision still sent her flying. The strength behind the attack was evident.
At this time, Xiang Shaoyun had also joined the battle. With the presence of dragon and tiger orbiting his body, a radiant purple energy surged out as he slashed the skin with his saber. The lightning-powered attack was quick and violent, immediately striking the skin.
As the attack was powered by the innate purple lightning, it was incredibly destructive. Not even the skin could resist the attack, and it collapsed weakly to the ground. Xiang Shaoyun thought that the skin would be completely helpless after that, but as soon as the skin landed, it darted straight toward his legs.
Instead of jumping to avoid the attack, Xiang Shaoyun stared at the skin and tightened his hold of the saber before stabbing down. With his remarkable eyesight, he was able to clearly see the trajectory of the skin. Otherwise, he would not have had the guts to make such a risky move.
The skin was thus impaled to the ground. Just as Xiang Shaoyun thought everything was over, something shot toward him from beneath the skin. The thing flying toward him was pitch-black and as small as a fly. It flew at an extremely fast speed and entered Xiang Shaoyun's nostril in the blink of an eye, greatly alarming him.
He instantly gathered all his power to his nose, trying to force the thing out. Unfortunately, the thing seemed to be incredibly familiar with the human body, and it was able to quickly fly into the space in Xiang Shaoyun's head.
Xiang Shaoyun couldn't exactly attack the space in his head as that was where his soul resided. When he looked at the space within his head with his inner gaze, he saw a pitch-black bug trying to bite at the insides of his head. If he allowed the bug to do so, it would be the end of him.
"Freeze!" During this critical moment, Xiang Shaoyun activated the Nether Soul Domain within his head.
Xiang Shaoyun had only heard of the Nether Soul Domain from the white tiger. In truth, he had no idea what it was. The only thing he knew was that it was an extremely extraordinary ability. Once again, the Nether Soul Domain saved his life.
The prison of boundless darkness trapped the bug, stopping it from devouring the insides of Xiang Shaoyun's head. The bug instantly became anxious. It cried repeatedly, biting at the darkness around it. Alas, its struggle was pointless. Seeing that the bug was finally unable to do anything, Xiang Shaoyun heaved a sigh of relief.
"What the hell is this?" Xiang Shaoyun muttered as he started studying the bug.
From his observation, the bug had a sinister appearance. It had two tiny fangs shaped like pincers. It also had four eyes arranged in a row, and its entire body was filled with blisters, looking incredibly disgusting.
"Wait, is this a brain devouring bug?" Xiang Shaoyun shivered.
The so-called brain devouring bug was a horrifying poisonous being. Its favorite food was the human brain and soul. The moment it set its eyes on someone, unless killed, it would not stop until it completely devoured its target's brain. The bug normally resided in places heavy in yin, which generally had a large number of corpses. Since there were so many corpses here, it wasn't surprising that there was such a bug here.
"Die!" Without any hesitation, Xiang Shaoyun immediately crushed the bug to death with his Nether Soul Domain.
The space started closing in on the bug, trying to crush it to death. But as soon as the bug was killed, a strand of dark green energy spread out from the bug. What was odd was the fact that the Nether Soul Domain automatically absorbed it.
After absorbing the dark green energy, the Nether Soul Domain suddenly changed. The space it occupied became even larger. At the same time, it shared the growth with Xiang Shaoyun's soul, causing his soul to grow rapidly as well.
A human had three ethereal souls and seven corporeal souls. The growth of one's soul was equivalent to the growth of one's spirit—the expansion of one's wisdom—which was extremely important for any person.
There was a saying that a person with a big brain was a smart person. There was some sort of truth in that, as the soul resided in a person's head. The stronger the soul was, the clearer a person's mind would be.
Xiang Shaoyun was quite surprised to find that both the Nether Soul Domain and his soul had benefited from this. He also had a vague sensation that he had changed somewhat, although he couldn't pinpoint exactly what that change was. In any case, he could sense that it was a good change.
"Are you ok?" Dong Zi's voice pulled Xiang Shaoyun back to reality.
Xiang Shaoyun smiled. "Hehe, I'm fine. I'm doing very well."
"Oh, good. Come on, let's see what's up with the skin," Dong Zi said.
Xiang Shaoyun nodded and lifted the skin with his saber. Dong Zi noiselessly stepped away from the skin, as she was afraid the skin would suddenly attack again. As Xiang Shaoyun knew that the bug had already been killed, he was aware that the skin would not be attacking anymore.
He held the skin in his hand, sensing how tough it was. He was fascinated to discover that there were some ancient writings on the skin. It was at this time that a group of people had arrived outside the cave.