A Will Eternal

The Spirit Stream Sect fled in abject terror. The Profound Stream Sect wanted to block their path, but no threat could cause them to tremble like Bai Xiaochun’s medicinal pills could.

Bai Xiaochun’s jaw dropped at the sight of his fellow disciples fleeing in such a fashion. Worried that he had pulled out the wrong pill, he looked down to confirm which pill he was holding. Clearing his throat, he then gave a mighty shout as he launched the pill into the air. It shot up and then exploded, becoming swirling black mist that spread out in all directions.

Lei Shan frowned, and the Profound Stream Sect disciples scattered, worried that the mist might be toxic. As for the banebeasts in the area, as soon as they caught a whiff of the destroyed medicinal pill, their eyes lit up with madness, and they began to howl.

At the same time, Lei Shan’s eyes flickered as if with lightning as he watched Bai Xiaochun attempting to flee at high speed.

Snorting coldly, he said, “Think you can leave just like that? Leave your Dao bottle behind!”

With that, he flicked his sleeve, causing thunder to boom, shoving the black mist away from him.

Then he shot after Bai Xiaochun, moving with incredible speed. Lightning danced around him, and flames burned beneath his feet. As he closed in, he waved his right finger through the air. Rumbling could be heard as a sea of flames appeared, which then rose up into a huge wall that blocked Bai Xiaochun’s path. Within the wall of flames, bolts of lightning appeared which then shot toward Bai Xiaochun.

When the Profound Stream Sect disciples saw this, their eyes glittered with derision. As far as they were concerned, Bai Xiaochun was dreaming if he thought he could escape from Lei Shan.

“A rogue Foundation Establishment cultivator once chased Elder Brother Lei Shan for seven days but never caught him. Even Eldest Brother Nine-Isles praised his speed before.”

“And then there’s his flame lightning magic. Elder Brother Lei Shan has already reached the pinnacle. Nobody in this generation could possibly match up to him. Bai Xiaochun is courting death!”

Even as the Profound Stream Sect mocked him, Bai Xiaochun’s anxiety increased. He knew that the banesouls could show up at any moment, and that the best thing to do was leave this place as quickly as possible. Seeing that his path was blocked, his eyes flickered, and he slammed into the incoming bolts of lightning.

BOOOOOOOOOMMM!

As soon as the lightning bolts made contact with him, they shattered into countless sparks of electricity that scattered in all directions. Bai Xiaochun, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have even a mark on him. He continued on to the wall of flames, and when he hit that, it exploded too, and he passed right through.

“Impossible!” Lei Shan said, his eyes widening with disbelief and shock. He was very familiar with his own magical techniques, and was confident that other than Nine-Isles, Ghostfang, Song Que and Fang Lin, there were no Qi Condensation disciples who could pass through his flame lightning unharmed.

And yet, unexpectedly, Bai Xiaochun had done exactly that.

“This guy is–” Before he could finish speaking, an indescribable sensation of deadly crisis washed over him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the air rippling off in the distance as numerous banesouls appeared, rushing in his direction with expressions of longing.

“Banesouls!!” he gasped. Just as he was preparing to flee, his heart was struck with deathly terror.

“There are so many!! Heavens!!” There weren’t just three or four banesouls approaching. The air rippled with constant fluctuations as dozens of them closed in, with even more behind them. From the look of it, there might be a hundred in total.

Among the banesouls was a sinister young girl in a white dress, holding a bear. Her eyes swirled with underworldly light, and although her face was expressionless, Lei Shan and the dozens of Profound Stream Sect disciples with him could hear chuckling in their ears.

It was a bizarre, sinister laughter that instantly set their hearts pounding. Further off among the crowd of banebeasts, Fang Lin’s eyes went wide, and he began to flee, panting.

Bai Xiaochun was further off, running for his life. He could also hear the chuckling, and it left his scalp numb with fear. Wings appeared behind the black wok on his back, and he blasted off at top speed.

“Hmph! You think you can just steal my banebeasts? Those are Lord Bai’s banebeasts! Nobody can just take them away!” With a cold snort, he pushed forward even faster.

Lei Shan swallowed hard, and his face was totally ashen. Having no time to pay any heed to his fellow disciples in the horde of beasts, he fled.

About this time, the girl in the white dress shot out ahead of the horde of banesouls to be the first to arrive in the area where the medicinal pill had exploded. There, she took a deep breath, causing the surrounding black mist to be sucked in through her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

At the same time, the surrounding banebeasts began to tremble and then explode, transforming into ash. As for the few dozen Profound Stream Sect disciples, their bodies were completely beyond their own control. White mist began to seep out of their own eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, and was sucked away with the black mist by the girl.

“Come play with me, big bros….” she said. No longer was her face expressionless. Her lips twitched into something like a smile, a terrifying smile that would cause any cultivator who saw it to tremble.

Her voice reverberated through the air, matchlessly sinister, echoing out in all directions. The disciples of the Profound Stream Sect felt as if their souls were being ripped out of their bodies. Their flesh and blood withered, and they became like stiff corpses which hopped over to the girl’s side, where they began to lurch and dance as if they were playing with her.

Their withered bodies and stiff limbs provided a bizarre scene, and from a distance, Lei Shan and Fang Lin looked on with ashen faces. Hearts trembling, they began to flee in terror.

“What kind of banesoul is that?!”

“The sect’s information didn’t list anything about banesouls like that. It can even talk! That’s impossible!”

Lei Shan and Fang Lin were both shaking as they fled in different directions, resorting to life-saving magics to flee as fast as possible.

The other banesouls around the little girl weren’t able to absorb any of the black mist, and soon they calmed down, and began to float aimlessly with blank expressions on their faces.

The little girl stood there in their midst, looking completely bizarre. By now, her eyes were pitch black. Momentarily ignoring the fleeing Lei Shan and Fang Lin, she slowly turned in the direction Bai Xiaochun had fled in. Then her lips twitched into something that almost looked like a smile, and she flew after Lei Shan.

Deep in the Fallen Sword World, Bai Xiaochun flew along at top speed for two days before finally slowing down. That little girl in the white dress left him shivering in fear. However, as soon as he thought about how he had filled his Dao bottle by more than ninety percent, he realized that he only needed a bit more earthstring energy to form the earthstring capture crystal. Therefore, he began to carefully use his medicinal pills to attract more banebeasts to collect the last bit of earthstring energy he needed.

Two days later, he had gathered a few dozen banebeasts in a remote location. After slaughtering the entire group, his Dao bottle was completely filled with earthstring energy. The gray liquid began to bubble and boil, and then solidify. Soon, cracking sounds could be heard, and the bottle shattered.

A gray crystal was revealed, which Bai Xiaochun grabbed. Almost instantly, he felt a connection between himself and the world around him, a resonance that he hadn’t felt before. This crystal was like a key that unlocked the barrier between himself and the world.

“It worked!” he exclaimed. He now felt more confident than ever that if he absorbed enough energy, he would be able to reach Foundation Establishment. However, he knew that he shouldn’t go about it carelessly; he needed to find a safe place to go through the process. After all, if someone interfered with the process, causing it to fail, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

“Foundation Establishment. Foundation Establishment! Hahaha!” Suppressing his excitement, he was about to begin his search for a safe location when suddenly, he felt a chill run down his back and up his neck. Without even thinking about it, he looked over his shoulder, and saw a face directly behind him!

It was a little girl’s face, her lips twisted into a bizarre smile!

Everything around him was deathly quiet. Bai Xiaochun’s eyes widened, and his hair began to stand on end. The flame of his life force flickered a bit, as his intuition told him that this girl was extremely dangerous!

“Come play with me, big bro,” she said in a sinister voice. In that same instant, a cold wind blew past, and Bai Xiaochun suddenly realized that the girl wasn’t holding the skinless, blood-colored bear any more.

She was holding something else, and when Bai Xiaochun realized what it was, his heart began to pound. It was a tiny cultivator, skinned like the bear had been. Although it wasn’t easy to tell at first, it was none other than Lei Shan!

The majestic number two Chosen from the Profound Stream Sect was being held in the arms of this little girl. Clearly, he wasn’t dead either! He was trembling from the pain, and his tongue had been removed, making it impossible for him to speak.

Bai Xiaochun’s mouth and throat went dry, and he began to back away, shaking physically. All of a sudden, he realized that he had no idea how long the girl had been following him.

“Um, big bro has something else to do right now,” he said, feeling like he was about to cry. “Why don’t you go find somebody else to play with? There’s a guy named Song Que, and another called Nine-Isles. Oh right. There’s also Fang Lin. Y-y-you can go play with them, alright?” However, the girl continued to advance on him, chuckling. As she neared, she suddenly began to breathe in deeply.

Instantly, Bai Xiaochun’s mind began to spin, and he felt his life force stirring, as though it were about to be ripped out of him. At that moment, any other person really would have lost their life force.

But Bai Xiaochun’s fleshly body was powerful. The silver light of the Undying Live Forever Technique flickered in resistance. Bai Xiaochun let out a piercing shriek as the sensation of imminent death washed over him. Without any hesitation, he pulled out his third strange pill and threw it off into the distance.

In that instant, the girl’s eyes flickered with mysterious light. Happily ignoring Bai Xiaochun, she went off after the medicinal pill.

Face ashen, Bai Xiaochun took advantage of the moment to flee as fast as he could.

The girl didn’t chase him. After retrieving the medicinal pill, she put it in her mouth, and her eyes grew even blacker than before. A bizarre smile appeared on her face as she turned her head to look in the direction Bai Xiaochun had fled.

—