128: A tragic brilliance

"Ahhhhh!"

Yun Che let out a miserable shriek; it wasn't physical pain, but a terror stemming from his Divine Soul being torn apart.

The venomous faces on the black chains were not illusions; they were genuinely gnawing at his Soul, each bite stealing a part of his Cultivation and memories.

He could clearly feel his life force rapidly draining away, greedily absorbed by that eerie myriad soul banner.

Ice Lotus, on the other side, was in no better condition than him.

The wound on her severed arm had been temporarily sealed with her cold Qi, but the Divine Soul impact brought by the myriad soul banner made it difficult for her to even stand.

She watched Yun Che's tragic state, entangled by chains and gradually losing his human form, and a bone-chilling coldness rose from the depths of her heart, far colder than the Cultivation Technique she herself Cultivated.

She knew she would be next.

Beg for mercy?

She glanced at the expressionless Demonic Path woman, whose indifferent eyes told her that begging for mercy was the most useless option.

Fighting to the death might still offer a glimmer of hope.

Ice Lotus gritted her teeth fiercely, placing her remaining right hand on her Dantian.

In her originally ice-blue eyes, an eerie blue flame ignited.

"Ice God Disintegration!"

She chose the most extreme method, burning her Origin to gain instantaneous Peak power.

A terrifying cold Qi, far exceeding her Body Integration Middle Stage, erupted, and the entire valley floor instantly crystallized into a thick layer of ice.

She transformed into a towering blue ice sword, thrusting directly towards Luo Ximei.

This strike was the last and most brilliant attack of her life.

However, facing this desperate strike, Luo Ximei merely flicked the myriad soul banner in her hand.

On the banner's surface, tens of thousands of resentful Souls simultaneously let out silent roars.

Dense grey-black mist surged from the banner, forming a vortex of pure resentment before her.

The ice sword, burning with blue flames, pierced into the vortex without making any earth-shattering sound.

That terrifying cold Qi, capable of freezing all things, was slowly eroded the moment it touched the vortex of resentment.

The ice sword's forward speed became slower and slower, and the blue flames on its body rapidly dimmed, finally halting completely about ten feet away from Luo Ximei.

"Burning your Divine Soul? What a pathetic brilliance."

Luo Ximei commented.

"Crack."

A dense sound of shattering echoed, and Ice Lotus's figure fell out from within; the fire of her Divine Soul had extinguished, her eyes had lost all luster, and her body began to turn transparent as she fell.

Before she could land, a black chain shot out from the myriad soul banner, precisely piercing her glabella, firmly locking her nearly dissipated remnant Soul, and dragging her towards the banner's interior.

Having dealt with Ice Lotus, Luo Ximei's gaze turned to the last, and most disheveled, individual.

She glanced at Phoenix Dance, whom she had left near Su Lin.

This woman had now regained a sliver of consciousness from her severe injuries, and had just witnessed the entire process of Ice Lotus burning her Divine Soul only to be easily annihilated.

That bone-deep fear left her without the strength to even twitch a finger.

Luo Ximei wasted no more time; the myriad soul banner shook again, and a third chain shot out, firmly binding the slumped Phoenix Dance, and together with the other two chains, began to retract into the banner.

"No... don't..."

The Divine Souls of Yun Che and Phoenix Dance let out their final, despairing pleas.

They could feel that once they were completely dragged into that banner, an eternity of torment, never to be reborn, awaited them.

Luo Ximei turned a deaf ear to their pleas.

She watched as the three chains pulled the Divine Souls of the three once-arrogant Body Integration Stage Cultivators, along with their Physical Body and vital essence, little by little into the banner's surface.

Their bodies began to decompose the moment they touched the banner's surface, transforming into the purest energy, which was greedily snatched and devoured by the distorted faces on the banner.

The entire process took only about ten breaths; three powerhouses who could stir up storms in the outside world had completely vanished from this world.

After devouring the vital essences of the three Body Integration Stage Cultivators, the black Qi on the myriad soul banner's surface became even denser, and the distorted faces became a few shades clearer.

Luo Ximei contentedly put away the myriad soul banner, and the suffocating pressure in the valley bottom instantly disappeared.

She turned and walked towards Su Lin, the Aura of a Demonic Path Lord dominating the world completely receding from her face.

"Revered Master, the flies have all been cleaned up."

She walked in front of Su Lin, "See, if you fall into the Demonic Path with me and stop caring about those worldly rules, you can gain the same power as me."

Su Lin's expression was very calm; he merely glanced at the few Magic Treasures that had fallen to the ground, then redirected his gaze back to the massive light net.

The brief but tragic battle just now had not distracted him; he had been observing and thinking the whole time.

"Well done."

Su Lin's voice broke the silence, "However, in the future, such matters need not be so troublesome."

Luo Ximei paused slightly at his words, asking somewhat bewildered, "Revered Master's meaning is?"

"My meaning is," Su Lin raised his hand, pointing to the light net flowing with dark red runes, "I have found a way to enter."

"You found it?" Luo Ximei's face was filled with surprise.

She had just personally experienced the power of this Formation.

It could even reflect her full-power strike at Great Perfection of Integration Stage with double the force, yet Revered Master merely watched for a while and found a way to break it?

This surprise quickly turned into a matter-of-course adoration.

As expected of her Revered Master; even with his Cultivation fallen, his vision and insight were still unmatched in this world.

"Revered Master, what should we do? Do we need some special Materials, or do we need to attack with full force from a specific direction?"

She asked impatiently, already prepared to act at any moment.

"None of that is needed."

Su Lin shook his head, "On the contrary, any form of attack is nourishment to it."

"To deal with it, we must not use addition, but subtraction."

Su Lin's voice was very calm; he walked to the light net, extended his hand, but did not touch it, merely feeling the rhythm of the runes flowing from an inch away.

Luo Ximei followed behind him, her brows tightly furrowed, her eyes full of vigilance.

Subtraction? What was that? Showing weakness?

"This Formation itself has no offensive capability; all its counterattacks stem from the energy you input."

Su Lin didn't turn around, but he knew what she was thinking, "You punch it once, and it punches you back twice.

The more you give it, the more it returns. So, the best way to make it not fight back is to give it nothing at all."

"Give it nothing at all?"

Luo Ximei was even more confused, "Then how do we get in? Stand here and wait for it to disappear on its own?"