Almost immediately, the Golden Serpent soul barreled out of the Golden Serpent Robe and stormed after the ray of black energy that was streaking towards the eastern horizon. Lin Qingcheng watched helplessly as the giant golden phantom slithered away in the night.
"Crap!" She muttered, knowing she had messed up.
Chen Wentian left his disciple behind, his focus solely on the fleeing message talisman. With the Golden Serpent soul, he chased after the strand of spiritual energy with everything he had. He didn't know what the message contained or who it was heading towards but it had to be destroyed. Nothing good ever came out of emergency message talismans for the opposing side, that was an unbreakable rule of the cultivation world.
The Golden Serpent's body was huge and ungainly. His flight speed was slower than even his human form. The message talisman was faster and it wasn't slowing down. It had to have been created by a Spirit Lord. Its initial burst of speed was frightening and its cruising speed was on par with natural flyers such as the Insightful Swallow.
The Golden Serpent was perhaps the worst soul for something like this. The beast was a total landlubber, slow but powerful. It had tremendous defensive and close-range offensive powers. Agility and speed couldn't be taught or trained.
But… these abilities could be transferred from another source!
The golden snake phantom shrank rapidly and its color also changed. It went from a giant mass that could crush buildings to a white bird the size of a man. The soul of the Insightful Swallow took over and with a flap of its wings, shot eastward like an arrow.
The Insightful Swallow was an excellent flyer. Born as a white sun swallow, it was a beast that managed to obtain wisdom at the Spirit Initiate Realm. It gave itself the name insightful and arrogantly ruled the skies with a huge pack of birds of all species, wreaking havoc on human farms and orchards. Many cultivators tried to catch it but it was simply too fast and too smart. It only fell to Chen Wentian because of the sheer number of tricks he had.
After becoming Chen Wentian's soul, the Insightful Swallow's natural talent remained and even improved. It still wanted to dominate the skies. It cultivated the Flying Dragon Saber Art almost obsessively. In its eyes, there was nothing that flew that it couldn't catch!
Chen Wentian turned the situation around with the bird soul and started to gain on the message talisman. The distance between them decreased steadily until he was finally within range. As scenes of mountains and rivers pass below in a blur, he launched an all-out attack.
First Flight, Dragon Snatching the Sea!
The Insightful Swallow's talons glowed with white-hot spiritual energy as it slashed ahead repeatedly. Five simultaneous crescents of saber energy covered the sky, racing towards the tiny strand of black energy. It was as if a dragon god was trying to swat a mosquito.
Poo!
There was a burst of spiritual energy but it didn't come from Chen Wentian. Instead, the talisman let out a surge of power that surpassed the Spirit Lord Realm. With this burst of speed, it outran his attacks completely and continued eastward.
It was a built-in defensive array designed to protect against exactly what he was trying to do. His massive wide-angle attack should have taken care of all possible defensive maneuvers but this sudden acceleration was beyond his predictions.
"Not good!"
There was only one explanation. This message talisman came from a Spirit King. This meant real trouble, life-threatening trouble!
Chen Wentian urged the Insightful Swallow forward. He sent as much spiritual energy as the soul could handle through his soul realm.
It simply wasn't enough. He could only watch it grow smaller and smaller as it streaked eastward in a straight line. The speed at which talisman was traveling was something he simply couldn't match. Even though the Insightful Swallow was a great flyer, it could not keep up, not unless he was a Spirit King himself.
But… this didn't mean he was out of options. Since the message was heading east, towards the wilderness, he still had a chance, one last chance.
Chen Wentian continued to track the trajectory of the message talisman with the Insightful Swallow while he summoned another soul, the Purple Jade Hercules Beetle. Wu Qianyu was slumbering in a wild forest more than a thousand kilometers away. She just so happened to be within range of the path of the fleeing message.
The Purple Jade Hercules Beetle soul silently slipped out of her Purple Jade Sword. Less than the size of a fist, the small phantom insect opened its wings and shot off into the starry sky on an intercept course. Its speed couldn't match the Insightful Swallow but there was more than enough time to get in position.
A message talisman was a vessel created by an immortal's spiritual energy and their will to transmit messages across vast distances. It had the ability to travel fast but not much else. Simple defensive measures were possible but nothing more complex. It was simply a strand of spiritual energy designed to return to its originator, not a living and thinking being that could react with flexibility to all kinds of situations.
The Purple Jade Hercules Beetle settled into position, directly in the path of the message talisman. It was still out of sight and out of range of spiritual senses. It was several hundreds of kilometers away but approaching fast.
Chen Wentian channeled soul power into the beetle as it began collecting sword energy for a powerful attack. Through the eyes of the Insightful Swallow that was still chasing behind the talisman, he could gauge its exact trajectory and could launch an attack from beyond the beetle's normal range.
The talisman closed within a hundred kilometers. It was finally time.
Sword energy collected atop the horn of the Purple Jade Hercules Beetle. It built up until it was a blinding ball of pure destruction.
Dugu's 10th Sword, Second Movement, Pierce the Heavens!
The sword beam pierced the western sky. It illuminated the night like a shooting star, a deliverance from the heavens.
The attack slammed into the message talisman head-on. The Spirit King spiritual energy within it resisted valiantly for a split second before it was all used up. Everything was then vaporized by sheer force and concentration of pure sword intent.
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