Chapter 67
Chapter 67: Enchanting Purple Eyes
Shao Heng poured spiritual power into the Soul-Seizing Bell. Though it was only a Second Grade artifact, it was one she’d gathered deliberately—made to restrain souls.
She rang it three times in a row, each chime sharper than the last. The old matron phantom collapsed until only a blurred human outline remained.
And even so, Dan Hua still forced her hand out and intercepted the colored arrow meant to pierce Jiang Yun Jiang’s heart, crushing it to pieces.
Shao Heng’s gaze sharpened. The power Dan Hua used remained at the First Realm. It didn’t break the rules of this small world.
Like True Lord Pu Xuan’s divine-sense avatar before, Dan Hua wasn’t blocking through sheer realm, but through control—through laws and methods that exceeded what her current state should allow.
The shattered arrow didn’t disperse. The colored light bored forward like living grit and drilled into Dan Hua’s soul.
In the same breath, Shao Heng tossed a pale-purple formation plate into the air.
Golden Smoke Locking Cloud Formation.
Golden-sand smoke burst outward, swallowing the area and weakening everything within it.
Shao Heng drew again, faster than thought, and aimed at the Lotus Jade Hairpin pinned into Jiang Yun Jiang’s bun.
The lingering soul had emerged from that hairpin. It had to be its dwelling.
A soul without a body couldn’t exist independently forever unless it became a ghost cultivator and cultivated again. Without a vessel, its soul power faded day by day. Only rare materials—Soul-Roosting Wood, Spirit-Communing Jade—could serve as a home.
Destroy the hairpin, and she’d see how that filthy thing survived.
Another colored arrow screamed through the golden smoke.
Dan Hua surged to block again—then froze.
Her phantom was already speckled with countless tiny points of colored light. No matter how she moved her power, she couldn’t grind them away. Worse, they were steadily siphoning her soul origin, eating into her foundation with each pulse.
“Senior Dan Hua—back to the hairpin first!” Jiang Yun Jiang shouted, panic flaring.
She yanked her badly wounded Azure Carp Demon back into her demon-taming bracelet and tore out an ink-painting scroll, unfolding it as a guard.
Dan Hua’s form scattered, and she forced herself into motion. The Lotus Jade Hairpin, carved from Spirit-Communing Treasure Jade, responded to Jiang Yun Jiang’s call and turned into a wisp of white qi, trying to draw Dan Hua back into its shelter.
“Boom!”
The ink-painting scroll released black-and-white qi, light as mist yet solid as stone, wrapping Jiang Yun Jiang in armor.
But Shao Heng’s arrow wasn’t aimed at Jiang Yun Jiang’s vitals.
It was aimed at the hairpin.
Dan Hua was only halfway inside when the arrowhead punched through the lotus carved at the top. Then the arrow detonated.
Interwoven colored light erupted and ground the hairpin to ash, inch by inch.
“Ah—!”
A shrill, ancient scream tore through the air. To Shao Heng, it sounded sweet as music.
“Since you already died once,” Shao Heng said, voice low and merciless, “then die again for me.”
Dan Hua’s soul appeared again—more scattered, more chaotic than before. She didn’t bleed like the living, but her ragged, weakening aura made the wound obvious.
At the same time, the black-green bell shot upward and dropped over her head, ringing without pause.
“How could a mid Qi Induction Realm cultivator possibly shatter Spirit-Communing Treasure Jade?” Dan Hua’s voice carried unmistakable pain—and deeper than that, confusion.
Jiang Yun Jiang’s heart lurched.
She’d exhausted herself and swallowed who knew how many pills just to reach mid First Realm, and her spiritual power had still been floating when she first broke through.
How could Shao Heng, an outer-sect disciple, reach mid First Realm in six or seven months—and have combat strength like this?
No one answered.
Shao Heng stepped into a seven-star pattern, riding lunar radiance. In a blink, she was in front of Jiang Yun Jiang.
She smashed forward with punch after punch.
After tempering her body with dragon blood, her strength was terrifying. Even a pure body cultivator in the same realm might not be able to match her.
Blood and qi roared in Shao Heng’s veins, gathering on her fists as she hammered the black-and-white armor with thunderous impacts. At the same time, colorful radiance gleamed over her knuckles like crystal, steadily eroding the black-and-white qi with each strike.
Jiang Yun Jiang’s mind was split—fear for Dan Hua’s condition, rage at Shao Heng, the instinct to survive. But she wasn’t a fool.
She forced her breathing steady. The medicinal power inside her spread farther. At last she gathered enough strength to swing her sword up in a counterattack.
Bang!
Shao Heng’s fist snapped the blade off line.
Bang!
Jade Bee Needles stormed from Shao Heng’s sleeves, striking like hail and forcing Jiang Yun Jiang’s spirit sword to veer again.
Shao Heng’s earlier arrows had cost too much spiritual power. Driving the Soul-Seizing Bell to restrain Dan Hua dragged heavily at her spiritual sense as well.
But Jiang Yun Jiang’s condition was worse.
And even before she’d cultivated, Shao Heng had studied martial manuals thoroughly. Her angles, her timing, the way she stole leverage with a half-step and a twist of the wrist—she kept Jiang Yun Jiang pinned, never giving her room to breathe.
“So it was you,” Shao Heng said, voice cutting through the clash, “having Yan Ning and those worthless bastards spy on me.”
She couldn’t break the armor outright, but she used penetrative force, sending the impact through it and into Jiang Yun Jiang’s body. Blood churned in Jiang Yun Jiang’s chest. Her bones rang with pain.
Jiang Yun Jiang took it without a word, jaw clenched, purple eyes locked on Shao Heng.
Then light erupted from those eyes—cold, sharp, unnatural.
A six-pointed mark within them seemed to hook straight into the soul.
Jiang Yun Jiang had finally gathered enough spiritual power and spiritual sense to force her divine ability into action.
Heart-Bewitching Eye—Bewilder.
A matching six-pointed mark flared in Shao Heng’s eyes against her will. Her movements stalled. For a heartbeat, she stood blank and still.
If Shao Heng hadn’t been driving the Soul-Seizing Bell, she might have resisted. But her spiritual sense had been drained too far. For the moment, she couldn’t oppose the divine ability.
A fierce glint flashed through Jiang Yun Jiang’s eyes.
She dismissed the black-and-white armor herself, drawing the qi into her sword in swirling coils, then thrust straight toward Shao Heng’s qi sea—her dantian.
Rip.
The blade cut into flesh.
Jiang Yun Jiang’s pupils shrank.
Shao Heng had reached out with her left hand and gripped the sword barehanded, stopping it cold. An artifact longsword that should have cleaved metal like tofu still hadn’t severed her fingers.
“What immortal art is that black qi?” Jiang Yun Jiang hissed.
Shao Heng’s hand was wrapped in a layer of black mist like a glove, protecting tendons and bone.
Shao Heng looked up and smiled—bright, almost beautiful.
To Jiang Yun Jiang, it looked like a vicious ghost smiling as it came to claim her life.
“Finally caught you.”
Colored light flooded Shao Heng’s right palm.
From the moment she’d obtained the Golden Crow Sun-Embracing Visualization Art to the moment she’d entered the secret realm, there hadn’t been enough time to store much sun radiance within her body.
This small sliver of colored light was all she had left.
But spending it on Jiang Yun Jiang was worth it.
She drove her palm forward—
And Dan Hua, still trapped beneath the Soul-Seizing Bell, had already endured the colored light’s erosion long enough to understand its terror.
“By edict!” Dan Hua’s voice snapped like a command. “Shock!”
Power erupted from her—briefly exceeding the First Realm and immediately drawing the secret realm’s suppression.
Even so, it swept Shao Heng away in a single strike.
The burst flared and vanished at once, crushed by the realm’s rules. Dan Hua couldn’t continue attacking, but it was enough.
She seized the shaken Jiang Yun Jiang and fled, using a secret escape art.
When one person and one soul finally tumbled into an unknown place, Jiang Yun Jiang turned, breath ragged.
“Senior Dan Hua… are you all right?”