Dan Ji was startled; the young man under her foot was slowly standing up, just like how he had stubbornly risen from beneath her in the Hundred Flowers Cave, unstoppable like a towering peak.
She would never allow such a thing to happen again. Now that she was in Changqing's Spiritual Realm, she was the queen here!
She stomped her foot, a massive force crushing Changqing fiercely to the ground. Several chains inscribed with complex runes materialized from nothing, binding him tightly.
Changqing spat out fresh blood, yet his Aura showed no signs of weakening.
“It’s useless, Dan Ji. You can’t scare me.”
“Actually, you can’t kill me, can you?”
Dan Ji was enraged. She pulled out the giant bone sword from the Blood Pool beneath the skeletal throne and pressed it against his neck.
“Trying to provoke me? Do you believe I won’t truly kill you?”
“No, no, no, you can’t kill me.”
Changqing turned his face to look at Dan Ji, his eyes like bottomless pools, without a single ripple.
It appeared again. After experiencing profound helplessness, wavering, despair, and anger, Changqing had returned to this expression, devoid of sorrow or joy, instilling fear in Dan Ji's heart.
“Actually, if you think about it, you lost terribly.”
“You taught me Cultivation Technique, tricked me into cultivating with you, all for the sake of leaving yourself a way out.”
“But you never expected that this escape route would leave you in such a sorry state, even forcing you to abandon your Physical Body.”
“What Innate Spiritual Body, Refining Law Saint Body, Hundred Flowers Legacy, can compare to your three hundred years of cultivation? Stop lying to yourself.”
“You want me to despair, to waver? To surrender to you? You lost so completely, and you still need to comfort yourself? How childishly ridiculous.”
At these words, Dan Ji completely erupted in rage. Beneath the throne, the Blood Pool expanded, covering the entire space. She submerged into the Blood Pool, transforming into a colossal, towering phantom.
Wielding a giant sword, she slashed at Changqing, each strike causing this ethereal world to tremble.
“You are nothing but an insect!”
“This venerable one has roamed the world for over three hundred years; how could I capsize in your gutter!”
“Just you! You are not worthy!”
“Today, you will surely die!”
Under strike after strike, the bone sword shattered, and flesh and blood blurred. She then summoned countless Imperial Spirits, and an endless barrage of killing moves assailed Changqing, their might even greater than when she fought the Hundred Flowers Remnant Soul.
In an instant, blood mist permeated, and heaven and earth crumbled.
After an unknown period, Dan Ji's movements slowed.
Her angry roars gradually subsided, finally turning into utter silence.
Because Changqing had already stood up from the ground. He stood firm, his expression calm. The chains that bound him were covered in cracks, emitting a mournful wail as they were about to break.
“Impossible, impossible! Why! Why haven’t you given up yet! How can your Soul be so resolute!”
“This venerable one has endured three hundred years of trials and tribulations; my heart is already as firm as iron. How could I lose to you!”
The colossal phantom she had transformed into roared loudly, and a scarlet slash, tearing through the sky, attacked Changqing.
But Changqing remained expressionless, meeting the attack head-on without flinching.
“I have read every single word of that Soul Exchange and Body Seizure Method carefully, committing it to memory. Besides you, I am the person in this world who understands that technique the most.”
“The truly successful spell is Soul Exchange, swapping the Souls of two individuals. But you no longer have a Physical Body. You occupied my Physical Body but couldn’t drive away my Soul, which is why you pretended to say you couldn’t bear to kill me and wanted to utilize my Innate Spiritual Body.”
Dan Ji's world-destroying slash struck his body, yet left no trace.
“All of this is fake.”
Changqing shook his head.
“All Cultivators can only practice one Cultivation Technique, and you are no exception.”
“Although I don’t know how you managed to perform this Possession technique, you are a Blood Arts cultivator. Your Soul is nothing special. All that talk was just to make me waver, to make me lose my fighting spirit, and to make me submit to you.”
“Stop dreaming!”
With that, he finally took a step forward, and the chains binding him instantly shattered.
“Die! Die for me! Get out of this body!”
Overwhelming attacks converged into a crimson blood mist tornado, like a long river pouring out from Dan Ji, assailing Changqing.
And Changqing just moved against the current, facing her attacks, continuously advancing towards her.
He had no means of attack, only an iron-like will that made his body as solid as a rock.
“Just walk over, walk in front of her, and drive her out of my body.”
A golden phantom emerged from behind him; that was his Soul.
With each step, the phantom behind him grew stronger.
“Get away! Don’t come closer! Don’t come closer!”
Dan Ji hysterically urged countless materialized Imperial Spirits to attack.
But none of this could stop his steps.
Tormented by illness.
Oppressed by the fear of death.
Leaving his homeland, coming to this cruel world, yet he knew the path he had to take.
And the person he absolutely had to see.
He was turned into pus.
Crushed into minced meat.
Refined into a Medicinal Pill.
Abused, tormented, enduring humiliation and suffering.
But none of this could stop his steps.
He grew taller and taller, until he stood shoulder to shoulder with Dan Ji, surpassed Dan Ji, stood shoulder to shoulder with heaven and earth, surpassed heaven and earth, appearing in Dan Ji's eyes like a colossal, world-opening deity.
Dan Ji fell to her knees, feeling so tiny, like an ant.
She quickly waved her hands, unable to complete her words.
“Stop, stop, I have merged with your Spiritual Realm, you will destroy your Spiritual Realm as well...”
“Then let’s do it!”
Changqing suddenly roared, startling Dan Ji like a frightened mouse, trembling.
“And you say whatever you want me to do, I will do...”
A smile finally appeared on his expressionless face.
A cold smile.
“Then you try to make me stop.”
“No!”
Accompanied by Dan Ji's scream, Changqing threw a punch, and the entire Void Realm shattered with a crash. This pure white, empty world, along with Changqing and Dan Ji's colossal phantoms, fragmented like a broken mirror into countless pieces.
Changqing and Dan Ji, together, plummeted endlessly into a deep abyss that was now only pitch black.
“You lunatic! Without the Spiritual Realm! We will both die! Your Physical Body will become a walking corpse!”
Dan Ji frantically gripped Changqing's neck.
“Is that so?”
Changqing, however, smiled faintly.
“It’s enough.”
...
“It’s enough.”
Luo Hongyan watched Changqing, who was squatting on the ground searching for the Hundred Flowers Token, suddenly pause and blurt out these words.
“What did you say, Changqing?”
Luo Hongyan, who was searching on the other side, walked behind him and patted his shoulder.
But he didn’t react at all.
Luo Hongyan felt a hint of surprise, followed by a sense of eeriness. She shook Changqing's shoulder, but he simply fell to the ground.
Blood continuously flowed from his seven orifices.
“Changqing!”
Luo Hongyan was startled and quickly tried to check his breathing, but Changqing suddenly reached out and grabbed Luo Hongyan's wrist.
His face was twisted, his voice hoarse, as if he was enduring immense pain.
“Kill me.”