Chương 114: The Lesser Primate Who Refused to Die

Hm? What's that?" Pulling her gaze away from An, she lifted her head and looked toward the source of some energy she couldn't identify." Eh? What is that? Why didn't I notice it before, and... why can't I tell what type of Qi this even is?" Snapping her fingers, An's body followed her like a puppet on strings. Flying up to the massive symbol, she started examining it from every angle, trying to make sense of the strange thing.

"This energy… I don't understand what this is. The only thing I can say is it feels familiar somehow... But where's that feeling even coming from?" Driven by curiosity, she reached a hand toward it." AH!!" The instant she nearly touched it, her hand began to blur, and a searing pain shot through her entire body like lightning." AH! What is this?!" Teleporting a safe distance away, she stared with wide eyes at the symbol, spinning faster and faster.

"That's not an artifact, and it's not a life treasure either, not like the ones I read about in the Great Library." Bringing her hand up to her face, she studied her own fingers, still dripping, the droplets falling onto the floor of An's inner world.

"The energy in this strange circle is layered. The upper layers are some kind of energy I don't recognize, familiar and foreign at once. The lower layers are completely identical to the Qi radiating off his spiritual and physical bodies..." Her brow furrowed, faint wrinkles gathering at the corners of her eyes, and she started to grow uneasy, unable to make sense of what was in front of her.

"External magical items, or life treasures, always carry their own distinct Qi signature, they never blend with the host's own Qi... The same goes for anything cultivated inside a cultivator's own body... So what is this, then? It's like this thing is actually part of him. And that reaction from just touching it..." Suddenly, her pink eyes went wide, and without hesitation, she severed her own hand.

"A... a Qi aspect! The Rot aspect?! No! That's not possible, how could a cultivator from the lower world have learned an aspect of a Great Dao?!" Then she noticed her severed hand, made of pure energy, hovering beneath her, melting away, its particles slipping through nearly invisible channels straight toward the spinning symbol.

"Don't tell me he can absorb foreign energy... Damn it, I need to hurry!" A faint panic started building inside her, because the longer she stayed inside this cultivator's inner world, the less she understood what was actually happening. She reached out a hand, snapped her fingers toward An, trying to pull him toward herself, but nothing happened." Hm?!" Snapping a few more times, she realized she'd completely lost control over his spiritual body.

"Wait, could this strange circle be spreading its influence outward? Releasing enormous amounts of stored Qi... What even is this thing? How is he doing this?" Pressing one hand to her chest and the other to her mouth, staring intently at the paralyzed body, she began whispering something.

Forming a massive clump of energy at the level of her stomach, which left several parts of her spiritual body noticeably more transparent, she fell silent, crossed her arms, and with a sharp motion pulled them apart, sending the enormous clump of energy hurtling toward An's body. But at that exact moment, An opened his eyes, and the Cycle Symbol behind him stopped instantly.

"Wh-what?" Feeling a creeping sense of unease building at the back of her neck, tangling together with rising panic, she let out a high-pitched cry. Woosh! A massive wave of energy burst out from the Cycle Symbol. The moment her clump made contact with the wave, it melted instantly, merging with the particles of the Cycle Qi, losing every last trace of its previous owner.

"How?! No!" Shrieking, more from irritation than anything else, though mostly from unpleasant emotions she hadn't felt in a very long time, she started retreating sharply.

"How can you absorb someone else's Qi? This makes no sense! Your cultivation's far too low! How?!" Finally free of her hold, An's cold gaze never left her retreating spiritual form. Focusing hard, he pushed enormous amounts of energy through the symbol, trying to fill every inch of his inner world as fast as possible. At the same time, back in reality, his physical body, buried underground, began greedily drawing in energy from its surroundings.

Every pore on his skin, even his mouth, worked to devour the Qi around him.' I need to keep an eye on her at the same time as managing the filtering process for the Qi flooding into my world and into the Cycle Symbol... and that's putting way too much strain on my mind... I can't keep this up much longer!' He redirected the flow of his Qi, deciding to fill the space near the walls of his inner world first, securing them in case this woman decided to strike there. ….

Retreating farther and farther from him, she felt an enormous, waterfall-like torrent of Qi pouring into that strange symbol.' What is this? Is he pulling Qi directly from his surroundings? How's he doing that? How's he absorbing Qi this pure? Everything around here is tainted with this filthy demonic energy... Even I, without a Pure Qi artifact, couldn't carelessly draw this disgusting energy straight into my Golden Core! So how is he doing it! And why is his Qi so strange!'

Already starting to lose her grip on rational thought from the sheer weight of the unknown, she found herself regretting how hastily she'd acted the moment she'd spotted An tunneling through the earth.' I rushed. I made a mistake. I should have made sure taking his body would be safe first, before anything else. But because I'd waited so long, and given his origins, a primate from the lower world, only once I entered his inner world did I realize he was at Foundation Establishment...

That alone should have put me on guard. How could I make a mistake like this, when his physical body wasn't giving off any energy at all... Stupid! Stupid Siu Mio!' Retreating further, she kept glancing toward the nearest boundary of his world, watching the energy wrap around the walls, she knew this was very bad news for her.' I need to somehow force him to open his mouth and finally speak to me! Or this is going to end badly for me!'" Hey! You'd better calm down.

If I stop holding myself back, I'm afraid your world, and by extension, your soul, might not just suffer, they might be destroyed outright!" Fixing her gaze on his cold, empty eyes, she shouted.

"Maybe it's better to stop, before it's too late? What do you think?" Gathering energy into clumps in her palms, she kept retreating toward the wall of his inner world, an expression of irritation on her face that was growing harder and harder to hide.' Just how enormous is this world of his?!'

Seeing no reaction from him at all, panic and fear merged into something else entirely, some strange emotion she hadn't felt in a long time, and she didn't even notice these emotions starting to influence her, starting to shape her decisions.' I'm not going to make it in time! Then fine, this is your own fault!' Stopping suddenly, she hurled both spheres of concentrated energy straight at the boundary of his world. ….

Watching the trajectory of the spheres, An didn't redirect the spread of his Qi, he simply intensified how much energy his physical body was pulling in, trying to speed up the whole process.' I can't afford to focus on defense. That's exactly what she's counting on, the moment I redirect my Qi, she'll either attack me directly, or hit some other point along the boundary of my world... I need to fill the whole space and destroy her as fast as I possibly can!' Crack! Crack!

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Both spheres slammed into the boundary and detonated.

Since his Cycle Qi hadn't yet built up a thick enough layer along that boundary, her spheres of energy managed to punch through and damage the wall of his world.' GAH!' Watching cracks spread out from two points along the boundary, An's spiritual body suddenly flickered with static, and for a moment, he even lost his balance. ….

"That was just a warning. I'm still willing to let this go, part ways peacefully! What do you say?" Turning her head toward him, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked into his eyes with a confident smile. The moment she said it, she watched An come to a stop too, his lips parting slightly.' Eh? Could it be? Is this my chance?!' Watching his lips move, she already felt victory within reach, just a little closer now, one word from his mouth, and this would all be over.

Watching, breathless, as his lips parted, her eyes grew brighter, and she found it harder and harder to hold back the smile spreading across her face, but the next instant, she heard a sound that very nearly sent her into shock." Pfft!" He smirked and simply let out a breath.' A w-warning? I can read information off your Qi flows now... which means your attack burned through f-far too much of your own strength!'' H-hold on! Kh-! Hold on! I n-need to finish this!'

Drawing in Qi from his surroundings at full capacity, pushing so hard that his physical body began hardening and cracking apart under the brutal pressure. Completely ignoring the pain signals flooding in from his physical body, An didn't stop, doing everything he could to fill his world with Cycle energy as fast as possible.

"S-stop! I said stop!" Feeling herself getting squeezed into a corner, she lunged for the nearest boundary. But the instant she reached the dense wall of Cycle Qi and so much as brushed against it with her body, she flinched back like she'd been scalded." Ah! A-AH!"

"N-no! No! S-stop! I'm ordering you! Stop!" Cutting away the rotting portions of her own spiritual body, she turned toward An and began forming dozens of spheres of energy. Watching and reading these spheres, An wasn't particularly worried, fully aware their strength didn't come close to matching her earlier attack.

"You've left me no choice! HA!" Drawing back, she suddenly spun and started hurling the spheres at the boundary, trying to carve herself a tunnel to escape through.' I need to get out! I can't stay here!' ….' UGH!' Feeling every explosion, every wave of energy punching through his Cycle Qi and slamming into the boundary of his inner world, An felt agonizing pain each and every time.

In that state, his spiritual body splitting apart from the pain radiating through his world and, by extension, his soul, while at the same time his physical body, now looking more like a dried-out husk of meat, sent its own signals of pain.

An slowly closed the distance toward the three-meter-tall female spiritual body. …." Ah! H-how is this happening!? Let me out!" Realizing her strength was already running low, especially after all that time spent trapped inside the statuette, buried underground, she understood she couldn't carve her own tunnel out. Turning to face An, her burning pink eyes flooded with panic, she screamed: "If you don't let me out right now! Lesser primate! I'll do everything in my power to make sure we both perish together!!"

Long claws suddenly grew out from her hands.

"How dare you!" Screaming with rage, she launched herself straight at him. ….' This is going to hurt!' Bracing himself, An packed particles of Cycle Qi as tightly as he could around his own body, forming a thick, dense membrane, like a second skin. The moment they collided, her claws suddenly extended, tore through the membrane around his body, and skewered him clean through." Ghk-!" Teeth clenched, he swung and tried to grab hold of her arm." A-AH!"

Feeling the intense pain signals shooting through her claws, she was about to strike with her other hand when she saw what he was planning.

"Like hell!" Wooosh! In a single strike, she skewered both his arms and pinned them in place, keeping his energy from reaching her.

"Did you really think that would work?" Pouring more energy into her claws, they stitched through An like a needle threading fabric. Punching holes clean through his hands and body, tying his whole form into knots with her elastic claws, she suddenly smirked.

"Since you won't let me out. Fine! Then I'll kill your consciousness first! And take your empty physical body for myself afterward!" Just as she aimed her claws at his head, she suddenly saw the lower half of his body lunge straight for her arm.' I-I forgot about his legs! N-no!' Wrapping his legs around the arm that had struck first, a wide grin spread across An's face, irony glinting in the eyes staring straight at her." Ah- A-AGH!" Instantly, she felt a horrific, tearing pain.

Looking down at her arm, watching it melt like ice cream on a hot day, she tried with everything she had to yank it free. But his iron grip wouldn't let go.

"L-LET GO!! FILTH!" Screaming, shrieking, she severed the claws on her other hand and, with one sharp strike, cut off her own arm almost at the elbow.

"Y-you're finished! Lesser primate!!" Clutching the stump where her arm used to be, she barely managed to hold herself together, her whole form flickering and shaking from the massive loss of internal energy. …. With one hand, An grabbed the severed claws; with the other, he tore them free from his own body in one sharp yank.' GHA! Ha! J-just hold on! Don't lose your mind! Gha-AH!' Once everything was torn free, his inner world suddenly began to shake.

Head pounding, holding his focus together through sheer force of will, he turned and threw the severed claws and the torn-off arm straight into the Cycle Symbol. …. Watching what he'd done, she froze in horror as the remnants of her own spiritual body split apart and were absorbed by that strange thing.

"How!? How can you absorb my Qi?! That's impossible! What are you!?" Unable to comprehend what was even happening, how a cultivator barely at Foundation Establishment could absorb Qi carrying someone else's signature.' What is this thing in front of me?! What even is it?!' At some point, she'd stopped thinking of him as human at all.

"Let me go! Please! AH!" Fully consumed by panic now, unknowingly letting it take over her thoughts, dictate her every decision, she started thrashing inside the narrow sphere An hadn't yet filled with his Cycle Qi, desperately searching for any way out. Finally gathering his strength, An, body shaking and flickering, lunged at her.

"NO! Get away from me!!" Seeing him close in, she turned to face him and formed claws on her one remaining hand. Crashing into her, An dug both hands in, trying to tear through her skin and get a grip." AH! Let go, monster!" Swinging her one remaining arm wildly, she'd completely abandoned any concern for her own safety, at this point, it was already pointless. Swinging her already-rotting claws, she tore and ripped open pieces of his spiritual body, cutting away chunk after chunk.

At the same time, gripping her stomach, An wrapped both arms around her waist, her torso nearly two meters long on its own. Everywhere he pressed against her, her skin began to melt instantly, opening up huge, rotting holes. Not wasting the opportunity, he started tearing pieces out of her body with his bare hands, flinging them in every direction.

"No! No! Please! Let go! Please! A-a-AH!" In unbearable agony, her screams degrading into tearing, ragged wails, she used what little clarity of mind remained to her, doing everything in her power just to pry this incomprehensible creature off her body." Ah?!" Suddenly, her entire body seized up completely paralyzed, and even her screams stopped. He had crawled inside her. Climbing in through her stomach, he tore his way straight upward, toward her head, from the inside.

Like a parasite, he ripped and shredded everything around him, forcing a path toward her neck." Ghsha-A! P-please!! N-!" Feeling him crawling upward through her body from within, all she could do was beg him to stop. Crack! A massive hole suddenly opened up beneath her neck, right above one of her breasts. Lowering her gaze, she saw, glowing out of the darkness of her own spiritual body, two empty, cold green eyes staring straight at her, and through her, at the same time.

"N-no... P-please-" Suddenly, everything around her slowed to a crawl. She watched both his hands tear the hole wider and wider. Watched him grab hold of her neck and slowly push his fingers into her spiritual flesh, tearing away piece after piece. But the most terrifying part of all were those burning green eyes, tracking her every last movement.' I-I! M-master! Ple-please, save me!' Fully surrendering to panic, she no longer had any idea what to do. C-craCK!

In one sharp motion, her body, or what remained of it, split cleanly into two. Falling, the half still holding her head stared up at An's flickering spiritual form with her pink eyes. In her fading consciousness, one last thought flickered through: ' A devil.'