Master of Nine Stars

In the Snow Prison Arena, Gao Lingwei looked at her palm as a Snow-made Heaven-piercing Halberd slowly pieced itself together.

She suddenly spoke. ”On the surface, it looks like a Heaven-piercing Halberd created by the Snow Soul, but in reality, it must be something conjured from my thoughts.”

”Huh?” Rong Taotao also looked at his own hand, trying to conjure a firearm, but... it was no use.

”And here I thought the Visualization of Thought could conjure anything,” Rong Taotao said, pursing his lips. ”It seems you still need to base it on your existing Soul Skills.”

”Come on. Let’s spar,” Gao Lingwei said, holding the halberd in one hand behind her back as she faced Rong Taotao.

”Alright.” Rong Taotao also materialized a Heaven-piercing Halberd, and this time, the process was much smoother.

They exchanged a glance and took a sudden step forward!

”CLANG!”

The two Heaven-piercing Halberds slammed together.

”Hiss...” Rong Taotao couldn’t help but grimace as a piercing pain instantly shot through his body.

Rong Taotao’s manifested body, an illusion formed from his spiritual will, suffered no damage at all. His physical body lying in the hospital bed, however, was in agony.

The mere clash of conjured weapons brought physical pain. It was terrifying.

’Is this what a battle of wills is supposed to be?’

’I blocked her attack, so why does my body still hurt?’

Gao Lingwei’s expression was also grim. Waves of pain jabbed at her nerves, spreading through her entire body. For a fleeting moment, she found herself unwilling to make any contact with Rong Taotao.

Their Heaven-piercing Halberds parted as quickly as they met, and both of them retreated.

With a grim look, Rong Taotao said, ”Looks like we thought this would be much simpler.”

”Mm,” Gao Lingwei nodded. ”If just touching an opponent causes this much pain for both sides, my physical movements will be severely limited whenever I activate the Snow Prison Arena.”

Rong Taotao was baffled. ”But our weapons just clashed. Why does it hurt so much? We’re not even injured.”

Gao Lingwei hesitated for a moment before reasoning, ”Our manifested bodies in the Snow Prison Arena, including the weapons in our hands, are all just visualizations of our spiritual will.”

Rong Taotao nodded. ”Right.”

Gao Lingwei continued, ”These visualized bodies and weapons are just external manifestations of our spiritual will. In essence, we’re not fighting with our bodies. We are pitting our spiritual wills against each other, clashing directly.”

Rong Taotao raised an eyebrow. ”So you’re saying the pain we feel is just a signal from our brains. When our spirits clash, our brains naturally sustain trauma and send pain signals to our bodies.”

Gao Lingwei dismissed the halberd conjured from her thoughts. ”Stab me.”

Rong Taotao: ???

With a flick of her wrist, Gao Lingwei summoned a Great Xia Dragon Sparrow, held it in a reverse grip, and plunged it into her abdomen!

”SHLICK!”

”Da Wei!?” Rong Taotao’s breath hitched. He shot his hand out, but there was no way he could stop her in time.

The Great Xia Dragon Sparrow in Gao Lingwei’s hand pierced her abdomen, its gleaming tip protruding from her back. But all she did was frown slightly. ”I can’t hurt myself,” she said.

Shocked and furious, Rong Taotao demanded, ”What do you think you’re doing?”

The Great Xia Dragon Sparrow in her hand vanished. Her expression was grave. ”I have to understand this Soul Skill. Only by understanding it deeply can I wield it effectively against my enemies.”

’She’s ruthless!’

Rong Taotao swallowed hard, his expression flickering through a range of emotions.

「In the hospital room, beside the bed.」

Gao Lingwei, sitting in her chair, suddenly leaned over and took Rong Taotao’s hand, squeezing it gently. ”Stab me. We’re still in recovery, so we have all the time in the world to recuperate. I need to understand this Soul Skill.”

On the bed, Rong Taotao turned his head in a daze to look at Gao Lingwei’s earnest expression.

”Listen to me.” Gao Lingwei leaned down, pressing Rong Taotao’s hand between her own and her cheek. ”You’re helping me,” she whispered. ”In the future, I’m bound to make mistakes. There will be times I lose a fight.”

”Experiencing the taste of failure now, getting used to the pain of it ahead of time—that will help me.”

Rong Taotao’s expression was complicated. ”Okay...”

Back in the Snow Prison Arena, the Heaven-piercing Halberd in Rong Taotao’s hand had transformed into a Great Xia Dragon Sparrow. He pressed its tip against her heart. ”Are you ready?”

Gao Lingwei’s gaze was resolute. ”Come on.”

”SHLICK!”

One thrust of the blade!

In the Snow Prison Arena, Rong Taotao drove the blade straight through Gao Lingwei’s heart!

”Urk.” In the hospital room, Gao Lingwei let out a pained hiss, her hand gripping Rong Taotao’s with such immense force it nearly crushed his bones.

But...

To their surprise, back in the Snow Prison Arena, Gao Lingwei didn’t shatter and disappear, even with her heart pierced.

Her expression was just as pained as she staggered back a few steps, the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow being wrenched from her chest.

Yet, there was no wound on her chest. Even the clothes that had been pierced were perfectly intact, as if she had never been harmed at all.

In the Spiritual World of the Snow Prison Arena, there were no wounds, which meant things like bleeding were out of the question.

Gao Lingwei was in agony—truly, in agony. Yet Rong Taotao, the one who had dealt the blow, wasn’t faring much better...

He was the one who had stabbed his girlfriend through the heart, yet he had taken a significant amount of damage himself!

’What kind of logic was that?’

The rules of this so-called Spiritual World, this Snow Prison Arena, were completely different from the real world.

Rong Taotao now completely understood what it meant to have a contest of spiritual will.

In this world, there was no such thing as an aggressor and a victim. The moment the two sides made contact, in any form, both were harmed.

So, who would ultimately win?

In a Spiritual World with no concept of ”defense,” the only one left standing would be the one with the stronger willpower.

The pain signals the brain sent to the body were merely a filter, designed to force people to retreat in fear. But at its core, the contest was one of willpower!

Whoever was more resilient, more resolute, would be the last one standing.

Then again, if both combatants were utterly ruthless individuals who would rather die than yield, the pain would ultimately be reflected on a physical level.

If both combatants really reached that level, then physical fortitude would become paramount.

Without a doubt, the body of a Soul School was far more resilient than that of a Soul Soldier.

”Let’s stop, let’s stop,” Rong Taotao muttered, crouching on the ground in the Snow Prison Arena, his face contorted in pain.

”Alright.” At Gao Lingwei’s thought, they called a truce, and the Snow Prison Arena instantly vanished.

This left two people in the hospital room, silent and grim-faced.

After a long moment of adjustment, Rong Taotao finally spoke. ”My sister-in-law said only the loser’s brain suffers trauma, but it seems that’s not quite accurate. We’re already being traumatized just by being in the fight.”

”Maybe our brains are just sending pain signals, without any real damage being done,” Gao Lingwei murmured softly. ”Perhaps only the loser gets to truly experience what brain trauma feels like.”

Rong Taotao: ”Hmm...”

Gao Lingwei: ”Let me lose, Taotao.”

FIGHT!

As if from the ether, a furious, impassioned roar echoed in their minds, and in an instant, Rong Taotao and Gao Lingwei were back in the Snow Prison Arena.

Rong Taotao looked at the stubborn woman before him, feeling utterly helpless.

”I’m the one who didn’t think this through,” Gao Lingwei said suddenly. ”Actually... you don’t have to be the one to do it.”

Rong Taotao froze, watching as Gao Lingwei began to back away.

’Is she... trying to run? Just leaving the Arena?’

In the fifty-to-sixty-meter square Snow Prison Arena, Gao Lingwei quickly backed up to the edge, the endless abyss yawning behind her.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Gao Lingwei leaned back and let herself fall.

Rong Taotao watched in a stupor as the Snow Prison Arena vanished once more.

On the hospital bed, the woman resting her head on his lap kept her eyes shut tight, her teeth clenched, not moving a muscle.

”How do you feel?” Rong Taotao asked tentatively.

”I’m okay. It wasn’t the crippling blow I expected, but my head hurts badly, like it’s being pierced by needles, and I feel really dizzy,” Gao Lingwei murmured. ”If this happened on a real battlefield, though, it’d be enough to get you killed several times over.”

”Mm.” Pity was written all over Rong Taotao’s face as he gently stroked her long hair. ”From now on, you listen to me. We’re not using a double-edged Soul Skill like this unless it’s absolutely critical.”

”There’s no need to be that cautious,” Gao Lingwei said, forcing a faint, strained smile. She rubbed her cheek against his palm, seeming to seek comfort. ”This world is full of cowards. Not every opponent comes into a fight determined to win.”

”Against those who are physically strong but mentally weak, I can crush them in an instant. That way, they’ll never get the chance to overpower us physically.”

”After all, we have years less training than everyone else.”

She spoke of avoiding being physically crushed, but in reality, Gao Lingwei was already a mid-tier Soul Captain. Compared to the junior and Senior Year students who were late-stage or peak Soul Captains, there was no fundamental gap in their physical strength, only a difference in degree.

The one who could truly be crushed was Rong Taotao, the Soul Warrior.

”I don’t want you... to have to face the next Bai Xiwu alone,” Gao Lingwei murmured, her eyes closed. ”I promised you that I’d be there for you, that you could leave everything to me. I’ve already broken that promise once.”

Rong Taotao’s heart stirred. He looked down at Gao Lingwei, who was resting against him, and couldn’t help but lean forward, gently pressing his lips to the crown of her head, to her long, black hair.

Gao Lingwei’s body trembled slightly. A few seconds later, a soft smile graced her lips.