244: Crisis

A hunched figure, like a decaying tree root crawling out from underground, slowly slid out from behind a grotesque rock.

It was an old crone.

She wore a robe covered in various eerie black cloth patches; her form was withered and small, looking as if a gust of wind could knock her over.

Her face was covered in dense wrinkles, layered like cracked bark, making it almost impossible to see her features. Only a pair of eyes—turbid yellow eyeballs sunken deep within the folds—now flickered with a greedy and sinister light, like a vulture eyeing carrion, firmly locked onto Di Jintian.

In her hand, she leaned on a twisted black wooden staff topped with a pale white beast bone. The staff was wrapped in several wisps of grey mist that constantly writhed and emitted silent wails.

"Little fellow... you're quite heavily injured..." The old crone split her mouth, which had few teeth left, into a smile uglier than crying. Her turbid yellow eyes scanned back and forth over Di Jintian's broken body, as if evaluating a rare treasure.

"Tsk tsk, this physique... the potential contained in this Bloodline... and this heaven-towering hatred... it's simply a gift from the heavens for this old woman! By absorbing your living Soul and refining your hatred, this old woman might even be able to touch the threshold of the Law Realm!"

She took a greedy, deep breath; the blood Qi of Di Jintian permeating the air seemed to make her extremely intoxicated, and her withered body trembled slightly.

"Bastard..." Di Jintian's throat rolled, squeezing out a voice as hoarse as grinding gravel, every word carrying a bone-chilling coldness.

He tried to mobilize the pitifully weak spiritual energy within his body, but his Dantian was depleted and his Meridians were shattered. The remaining Origin of the Yin-Yang Twin Fires was as dim as a candle in the wind, making it difficult to ignite even a single spark.

The God-Demon Nirvana Body was still struggling to repair his Physical Body and was simply unable to provide a burst of instantaneous power.

As for that profound and mysterious Space-Time Bloodline Power that had just awakened... he had no clue how to even actively trigger it!

An absolute disadvantage!

An unprecedented dead end!

"Jie jie... curse all you want, hate all you want! The more you hate, the more delicious your Soul will be!" The old crone didn't care at all; instead, she became even more excited.

Her withered, claw-like left hand slowly rose, making a grasping motion toward Di Jintian from a distance!

Buzz!

An invisible, chilly Soul Power, like an invisible poisonous needle, pierced straight toward Di Jintian's Sea of Consciousness at his glabella!

This strike was silent and soundless, yet incredibly malicious, specifically targeting the Divine Soul!

Given Di Jintian's current state of severe Divine Soul damage, once hit, his consciousness would at best collapse, leaving him at her mercy, and at worst, his Soul would Fly Away and his Spirit Scatter!

Di Jintian's eyes nearly split from strain!

The shadow of death had never been as clear as it was at this moment!

He wanted to dodge, but his body was as heavy as lead; he wanted to block, but he had no means of defending his Divine Soul!

He could only watch helplessly as that sinister, cold Soul Power needle tore through the air and arrived in an instant!

At the critical moment just as the Soul-piercing needle was about to enter his glabella—

Buzz!

Inside Di Jintian's body, those slender, transparent silver-grey energy threads flowing at the bottom layer of his new flesh—which he had almost ignored—suddenly moved without any wind!

They were not controlled by Di Jintian, but seemed to have sensed the lethal Divine Soul attack aimed at their host, fluctuating spontaneously and extremely weakly!

This fluctuation was as weak as a pebble thrown into the ocean, almost negligible.

But at the moment this fluctuation was generated, in the space right in front of Di Jintian's glabella where the needle was about to pierce, an incredibly eerie delay of a billionth of a second... occurred!

It wasn't a defense, but rather the flow of time at that point in space itself was invisibly and extremely subtly stretched!

Chiss!

Under this undetectable space-time delay, the speed of the malicious Soul-piercing needle underwent a minute yet world-changing stagnation!

Puff!

Di Jintian only felt a chill at his glabella, as if licked by a cold poisonous snake, and a violent, piercing pain accompanied by a strong sense of dizziness suddenly struck!

He gave a muffled groan, and two lines of dark gold blood instantly gushed from his nostrils as his vision turned black in waves.

That Soul-piercing needle had, after all, pierced into his Sea of Consciousness!

However, the expected outcome of his Divine Soul shattering did not occur!

That malicious Soul-piercing needle, which was enough to heavily injure or even kill the Divine Soul of an ordinary Heaven-Reaching Realm Cultivator, had its sinister Soul Power and impact speed silently weakened by at least thirty percent after penetrating that subtle layer of space-time delay!

The remaining power rushed into Di Jintian's already crack-filled Sea of Consciousness like a spent arrow hitting a broken dam. Although it stirred up violent tremors and unbearable pain, causing dark gold blood to seep from his seven orifices, it miraculously did not completely crush his final consciousness!

"Ugh—!" Di Jintian let out a low roar of pain, his body convulsing violently, but his bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the old crone, burning with unyielding fire!

"Hmm?!" Yin Lao's turbid yellow eyes suddenly shrank, and for the first time, a clear look of surprise and suspicion appeared on her withered face.

"To actually be able to withstand this old woman's Soul-piercing needle? No!" She stared fixedly at the extremely subtle traces of spatial ripples at Di Jintian's glabella that had not yet fully dissipated, and an unbelievable light of greed erupted in her turbid eyes!

"Space-time... fluctuations?! It's Space-Time Power?! You actually have traces of Space-Time Power on you?!"

The old crone's voice suddenly rose, sharp and ear-piercing, filled with ultimate shock and wild joy!

"Hahaha! Heaven is helping me! Heaven is helping me! Not only can I obtain a Physical Body with infinite potential and pure Soul food, but I can even capture a hint of the mysteries of the Space-Time Law! Kid, you are truly this old woman's lucky star!"

After the wild joy came an even more chilling killing intent!

The mysteries of Space-Time Power, even if just a trace, were enough to drive any Cultivator mad!

The old crone would absolutely not allow any accidents to happen!

"Little thing, come over to this old woman!" She stopped testing him and her claw-like hands suddenly gripped that twisted beast-bone wooden staff, her mouth emitting sharp, rapid incantations like the wailing of ghosts!

"Ten Thousand Souls Heart-Devouring!"

Wooo—!

A shrill ghostly howl suddenly resounded across the desolate beach!

At the tip of the beast-bone wooden staff in the old crone's hand, that pale white beast bone erupted with a blinding grey light!

Countless twisted, wailing, and spite-filled translucent ghost shadows, like a bursting flood, frantically surged out from the beast bone!

These ghost shadows were of various forms—men and women, old and young—their faces all frozen in the most extreme pain and resentment from before their deaths. They shrieked, tearing and devouring each other, forming an all-encompassing storm of resentful Souls that carried a Soul-freezing chill and mind-corroding malice as it swept toward Di Jintian!

Before the resentful Souls even arrived, that terrifying shockwave of resentment had already descended!

Di Jintian felt as if his Sea of Consciousness was being pierced by billions of ice needles simultaneously. Countless whispers filled with vicious curses and desperate wails from the moment of death frantically bombarded his consciousness's defensive line. Illusions cropped up before his eyes, as if he had instantly fallen into an Avici Hell!

His already heavily injured Divine Soul was teetering, and his remaining clarity was like a candle flame in a gale, liable to be extinguished at any moment!

His body was firmly suppressed against the ground by an invisible field of resentment, unable to even convulse.

The new, tender pink flesh on his body's surface rapidly turned grey and lost its luster under the erosion of the resentful Qi!

Death was close at hand!

Di Jintian's heart was cold, and despair wrapped around him like poisonous vines.

The spontaneous weak fluctuations of his Space-Time Bloodline were like a mantis trying to stop a carriage in the face of this storm of resentful Souls fully unleashed by a Heaven-Reaching Realm powerhouse!

Was he to be buried under the biting of this old witch's ten thousand Souls just after Awakening his Bloodline and escaping the space-time turbulence?

No! He was unwilling!

Di Jintian let out a silent roar in the depths of his Soul!

He frantically tried to mobilize every bit of power in his body; even if it meant self-detonation, he would never let this old witch have it easy!

At the very instant that storm of resentful Souls was about to devour Di Jintian's broken body—

Buzz!

The entire Ten Thousand Ghosts Prefecture—no, the entire vast world where the Thirty-Six Prefectures of the Eastern Domain were located—seemed to be lightly pressed by an invisible giant hand!