Another Cliche Cultivation Story

The horrible shrieking fade away into silence as the two foggy beams disappeared into Yahui’s body. The impact didn’t cause any disturbance in the surrounding.

He visibly shook, his expression unchanged and his eyes were still wide from disbelief.

Ji Xian appeared next to Yahui.

He put his face right in front of him, to the point where their faces were almost touching.

“Hey, you alright?” Ji Xian asked happily, his eyes shining with a subtle clear light.

His gleeful tone was a complete contrast to his actions. He meticulously inspected Yahui, even using his finger to touch him everywhere. It passed through Yahui’s body, completely unimpeded. 

Seeing this, Ji Xian became even more intrigued. He touched Yahui’s chest with the tip of his finger but he didn’t stop there, he proceeded to push his arm forward.

From his finger to his wrist, until finally his elbow passed through Yahui’s translucent body.

“This is quite nice. Feels like touching misty air.” 

Then, he used both his arms and pushed them back and forth. 

As he messed around, an idea suddenly came to him. Unable to resist, he took a step forward and walked through Yahui.

He did this three times.

On the side, Yazhu watched with a dumbfounded expression. 

Earlier, his lips were curved upwards as a devious smile appeared on his face after seeing his attack was going to hit Ji Xian, but all of sudden, his brother appeared and received it instead!

He was completely unaware of what just happened!

Yazhu grit his teeth as he watched Ji Xian touching his brother in all kinds of weird manners. For a split second, he thought about retreating to the Chaos Tunnel. The opponent was simply too strong and mysterious. He wasn’t confident in beating him.

But just the thought of leaving his brother behind disgusted him.

A determined expression appeared on his face.

Right now, he has too many questions going through his mind. What he thought was just a simple inspection of the Formatic became something much more.

A human has somehow forcefully bypassed the Three Tongue Gist, entered the Formatic, and arrived at the platform where the Chaos Tunnel lay. 

After spending some time here, he has noticed a slight, delicate fluctuation coming from it. At first, he brushed it aside, but now that he’s thinking about it, this human might have discovered the location of this Formatic from the spatial fluctuation.

He inwardly cursed.

This is all Linghun Daiyu’s fault! She insisted on trying to make modifications to this Chaos Tunnel and it ended up alerting someone instead! All these centuries of waiting and planning, it was going to be for nothing! If this man can solve the Three Tongue Gist at this location, then he can solve it at the other location as well!

No… I can’t allow this to happen! This human… the way he’s acting is just too weird. Too casual. It simply doesn’t make sense, especially after the war between the two races. But now is not the time to dwell on it, all I know is he’s too much of a threat. I can’t allow him to live or he will ruin everything!

Yazhu was completely unaware of the appearance of the Universal Will due to Ji Xian’s pressure heavily weighing down on him at the time. If he knew, perhaps he would’ve made a different choice.

He continued thinking.

Right now, Yahui is trying his best to fight back against the attacks aiming to destroy his soul so he’s currently incapacitated. I can only rely on myself.

With a thought, the movement of the swirling ball of fog located below his stomach suddenly slowed. 

Some of the small glittery specks of lights that are contained within begin to glow even brighter.

Then without a sound, they exploded into smaller particles!

The countless particles turned dark red and begin to spread everywhere.

The swirling fog, as though acting in defense, started to spin even faster but if one looks closely, one will notice it was slowly shrinking in size.

Feeling a change, Ji Xian, who was doing some experiments with the ball of fog on Yahui, stopped and looked over.

He saw Yazhu’s translucent body being colored in, becoming dark red. A line of red smoke emerged from his mouth and like a ring, it wrapped around his neck, wrists, and ankles.

With an eyebrow lifted, Ji Xian said, “That’s… the Corrosive Essence.”

The moment the Corrosive Essence appeared, it eat away at the air! If any mortals were present, they would likely suffocate to death. 

The True Essence of Heaven and Earth in the surroundings also slightly thinned!

Behind the veil covering his face, a terrifying smile appeared on Ji Xian's face as he observed the change in the atmosphere. Completely unperturbed, the subtle clear light in his eyes appeared brighter than usual.

The Corrosive Essence is artificially created? It didn’t come from Heaven and Earth from another Universe. No… I can’t conclude that yet. It’s possible that he absorbed it and is only now unleashing it.

How very interesting.

Looking at Yazhu, he stared at him with a touch of madness and obsessiveness.

What else can you do?

…

Yazhu tightens his grip on the black sword. He slides it across the red ring on his wrist, coating it with the Corrosive Essence.

With a wave of his hand, something disappeared into the void and caused it to warp. Yazhu immediately vanished afterward.

With a loud, ear-piercing screech, a red foggy beam suddenly appeared in front of Ji Xian but the uncomfortable noise didn’t stop as Yazhu had also arrived behind him.

Another deafening screech attacked Ji Xian as a burning red light erupted from Yazhu’s sword.

The attack created a loud explosion, shaking the platform they were standing on. The cracks on it deepened even further.

Yazhu breathed heavily from exhaustion. He had used a Soul Art that damaged his foundation but in exchange, significantly increase his power, but it only last a short time. 

His specter form was flickering on and off, occasionally revealing his appearance, but he can’t help but grinned as he felt his sword make contact with flesh. 

But then he frowned.

“That feeling…”

He looked at Ji Xian, who was still standing in an upright posture, and his pupils narrowed in horror.

Ji Xian’s black robe was ripped to shreds from the attack, revealing his toned body. On his back, was a barely noticeable pink mark that stretched across from his shoulder to his waist.

Yazhu’s attack earlier only left a mark!

Before he can even comprehend this, Ji Xian’s back quickly healed and the pink mark faded away leaving behind his spotless, seemingly untouched skin.

This process was almost instantaneous!

Yazhu’s jaws dropped, but then he remembered that Ji Xian was also hit by the red foggy beam.

“It doesn’t matter how strong your body is if your soul is weak,” He sneered.

However, just as he finished his sentence, his jaws fell once more.

“Ah, so that’s what it feels like. The Corrosive Essence… it's rather itchy.”

Ji Xian stretched his shoulder before taking out another black robe from his spatial ring and dressing himself.

He glanced at Yazhu and chuckled at his expression.

“My soul is weak, but that’s only by my standards. Do you have any idea how many rare herbs and pills I have consumed to nourish my soul? Not to mention the amount of soul-protecting Artifacts I have on me.” Ji Xian shook his head.

“Liar! Soul protecting Artifacts are near impossible to find in the Lower World!” Yazhu exclaimed.

“Near impossible doesn’t mean impossible.” Ji Xian said with a teasing tone.

Yazhu took a couple of steps back as he looked at Ji Xian in fear. He took a reluctant glance at his brother, before leaving behind a harsh screech as he ran towards the Chaos Tunnel.

Just as it was within his reach, a figure appeared in front of him, blocking his way.

“Where do you think you’re going? There are still some things I need to test.” Ji Xian laughed.

By now, Yazhu could no longer remain in his specter form and his true body can finally be seen.

“Oh, so this is what you look like. Your appearance is quite similar to someone I’ve met in the past… how curious.”

“Human! If anything happens to me and my brother, the Graha race will immediately wage another war! 

Ji Xian smiled, “What does your war have to do with me?”

“Y..you… you’re human!”

“Yes, so?”

“…” Yazhu was speechless.

Ji Xian chuckled. He stretched out his index finger and pressed it lightly on Yazhu. 

“I can finally touch you. Can you bleed now, I wonder?”

Hearing this, Yazhu froze.

“You don’t need to worry, I’m not going to kill you or your brother. Just take what happens next as payment for attacking me first.”

Moments later, horrible screams reverberated throughout the area but luckily the sound has been isolated so no one was aware of the events that followed afterward.