On a mountain, two people were fighting. It could only be described as mindless fighting, since there seemed to be no purpose to the fight at all. They were repeating their actions over again and again, as if they were robots.
"Just die already! Die die die die die!" The human with crimson-red eyes cursed the other person repeatedly, as they clashed over and over again. The robe he was wearing had been corroded deeply by now, but if any cultivator saw it, they would have recognised it as the Unbending Sect Leader, Liu En's uniform.
The other man with bright blue eyes was even more vulgar with his words. "Your whole lineage will become nothing but Qi after this! Eat this!" He drew out a golden spear, which emitted a blinding daze. This was the weapon "Dragon God" of the Dragonic Sect Leader, Tai Qi!
"Devouring Dragon!" The spear in his hands displayed a mighty prowess, capable of damaging even Soul Nurture cultivators with just its aura. That was how powerful "Dragon God" was, a weapon that was fit for an Astral Projection cultivator.
Still, Liu En was not without his defences. He drew out his Earth Control Scroll Array, which he tossed out to counteract the effects of "Dragon God". The feeling of an immovable mountain was produced, which stopped "Dragon God" in its tracks.
Tai Qi's glare intensified upon "Dragon God" being blocked by the array. A maddening cry sounded from his lips, as he charged headfirst towards Liu En without care for his life.
Liu En only threw out more arrays to protect himself, as he too let out a growl of menace towards Tai Qi. His fists burned with yellow Qi as he prepared to fight to the death with Tai Qi.
As Tai Qi used his utmost strength to crash into Liu En's barrier, a small tear of regret leaked from his eyes. However, this was masked up with his face of fury, slamming violently into the defence arrays again and again.
Liu En, empowered with his defence arrays, started to pummel Tai Qi with a barrage of punches. Normally, a cultivator of Astral Projection would use their souls to cast immortal spells, but that was a huge problem.
After all, both of their souls were being controlled by a soul parasite. They had already become a corpse the moment the soul parasites managed to control their souls.
***
Ghost King Lai Qing clapped as the two sect leaders fought against each other brutally. They were wasting all their treasures to try and damage each other, but Lai Qing had already perfected the control of soul parasites. There was actually no real damage done to each other.
After all, Astral Projection puppets were quite valuable. He had encountered these two accidentally when they decided to project their spirits out to explore a cave of some sort. It was their fate to encounter him after all, not his problem.
Not only that, he could feel his spirit getting stronger the more he manipulated them to waste the Qi artifacts. Lai Qing was surprised that there were actually martial spirits inside the Qi artifacts. The soul parasites were also transferring to him their cultivation base too.
As he closed his eyes, the Qi from around the area swirled and simply disappeared in the area above his head. Around him, a semi-transparent fog was becoming more opaque by the second.
He was not afraid of being attacked by any cultivators in the area. Soul Robbery was probably one of the highest realms a cultivator could hope to reach. It was what meant to be a "legendary" cultivator.
Fear was a meaningless concept to legendary cultivators. They could directly resist someone a realm above them, and could survive with their lives as long as they did not offend someone two realms above them, or a Perfected Tier cultivator one realm above them.
Not only that, but he had his 100 ghost puppets that was all extremely strong to act as his meat shields, along with several life protection treasures on his body. This was the true meaning of "thick skin".
As Lai Qing continued to enjoy the show put on by himself by listening the melodious sounds of combat, he heard the sound of slow clapping disturbing the performance. Without any hesitation, he shot out a ghost puppet towards the intruder. Anyone who could get within 1 kilometre of him without being noticed was not a simple person.
"Shing!" A sound reverberated as the unknown intruder casually crushed the ghost puppet he had used. This... is extremely dangerous! Lai Qing felt an extreme fear grasping his body.
"Now that was just rude, wasn't it?" Now, Lai Qing could see the person's face. It was the wise, wrinkled face of Peach Immortal Sect Leader, Ren Lan. Not only that, he held a reputation for being one of the few cultivators who had reached the rank, "Emperor of Multitudes"!
By being silent earlier, Ren Lan had already shown his intentions. There were no polite words, only vicious vengeance. He instantly used his "Yin Fate Change" treasure to try to replace his fate with another person. He also threw out all the treasures and ghost puppets to distract Ren Lan.
"Soul Shattering Beam." Ren Lan simply shot out an invisible beam, which completely obliterated everything in its path. He barely raised a finger to use it, only mouthing the words out.
The Yin Fate Change treasure had the mark of Lai Qing wiped off immediately with the beam. Lai Qing had been very confident about his ability to escape, but he was absolutely crushed by Ren Lan.
It was clear that Ren Lan had advanced since the last time he managed to see him at the Gathering of Legends. After all, Ren Lan was one of the pillars of the gathering itself. He had seen that Ren Lan was at the Low Tier, but of all the tricks that Ren Lan had done, all of them had never been as powerful as this.
When the beam reached him, Lai Qing let out a loud scream. With that scream, all the soul parasites that he had cultivated for his whole life tensed up and died. He could only let out one last despair-ridden "Why!?", before his soul shattered into numerous pieces.
Ren Lan turned his back onto Lai Qing. He was sure that his Soul Shattering Beam had utterly obliterated his soul. Once the soul was destroyed, they could not enter the cycle of rebirth.
It was built to specifically kill human soul cultivators. It served him right for killing the two bodyguards that he had been previously helping behind the scenes to protect his divine son. Who knows how long he would take to find a pair as talented and muscle-headed as those two again?
However, unbeknownst to Ren Lan, the beam had been too powerful. When it came into contact with Lai Qing's soul, it turned into a shockwave that could destroy people's soul in an instant, which spread throughout the mountains. This shockwave also affected the Quan Family Village that Tang Peng resided in...