Xie Xie was in a bit of a pickle. His opponent had a similar combat style to him but with the cultivation difference, Xie Xie just couldn't catch up. He wasn't far behind considering he could manipulate the flow of time semi freely but he was always just behind.
"What happened little lizard? I thought you were going to kill me?" Ignoring his opponent's taunting words, Xie Xie breathed slowly, his breath coming out in short, even bursts even when his body was littered with numerous tiny wounds.
It was only by half a second but it felt as though he couldn't catch up to his opponent, always just a tad too slow. At first, he had thought that he was running on fumes since his opponent didn't actually move all that quickly but that wasn't the case.
'He has some kind of spiritual focused martial soul.' Xie Xie could be sure of that considering how the man had found him so quickly. Another he could be sure of was some kind of mental inhibitation type soul ring. Maybe even multiple.
He had only realized it recently but it wasn't that his opponent was going faster but instead that Xie Xie was growing slower. To him, he felt as though nothing had changed yet he could tell with his basic time manipulation that things were wrong.
It was dangerous as mental inhabitations were both discreet and difficult to flush out with soul power. Xie Xie could possibly revert his mind to when it was more stable but it was far from safe let alone a good idea.
"What are you laughing at?" Glaring at Xie Xie hatefully his opponent couldn't understand why the boy was still so confident. He was a spirit king, a rank fifty seven cultivators that no nine year old child could even think about facing! The mere fact Xie Xie was putting up a half decent fight was worthy of eternal happiness in the afterlife!
"Nothing much. Just thought that my boss wouldn't like this very much." With those words, Xie Xie's body began to change as the flow of time itself revealed itself to his eyes. He was pulling forth a previous state of his body into reality, an act that he should have no chance of doing.
Though small in scale, he was defying natural order. The end result may only be a few cuts and scrapes vanishing from the world but in that moment he still transcended what mortals were allowed to do. If it weren't for his bloodline he would have failed due to universal interference.
But he succeeded anyway, his breath suddenly even despite feeling as though he had to gasp for air. He knew it was a plan that Wulin wouldn't approve of as a staunch believer in hard work over long periods of time but sometimes risk needed to be taken.
Though his blood essence had run dry and both his spiritual and soul power were essentially empty Xie Xie never felt better. It felt as though the world had become clearer and everything became a touch more vibrant.
"Get ready to lose creep!" Xie Xie felt like he was on top of the world, a third jade green ring glowing behind him. His spiritual sea had grown immensely and time and space themselves rippled in his view.
Until now, Xie Xie had always manipulated the two forces using a mix of guesswork and intuition but now that was gone. He could see the way space moved, the way time flowed, and how they converged.
"As if." Scoffing at the mere idea the spirit king's eyes glowed for a moment, a malevolent burst of spiritual power spreading through the air. It was the same invisible burst of power that made Xie Xie helpless against him mere moments before and he had no doubt it would connect as it always did.
And yet, Xie Xie defied expectations by simply… disappearing? Even the man's eyes couldn't catch wind of where the boy had gone yet he could firmly feel the killing intent that pushed against his body.
Yet, when a thin line appeared on his body he knew the boy was still present yet imperceivable even to him. It was a situation the spirit king had never encountered but he did not feel a shred of fear.
Truthfully, he wasn't a combatant. His martial soul focused on discreet manipulation and his soul skills all ranged from weak to insignificant. The only reason he was here in the blood bath the Empress had bestowed upon them was because of his special skill.
Pressing his hands together all his soul rings gravitated toward each other, their illusionary forms shaking and shivering as they began to be pulled apart at the seams. His spirit souls screeched in horror as they were forced into an untimely end but he paid it no mind.
His marital soul, Spirit Eyes, was famous throughout history and yet it was no evil soul. It was this natural talent of his that made him so fearsome. The ability to forcefully combine two creatures living or dead. He could combine his soul rings, combine people, and even combine spirit beasts into a hideous monster. That was his strength.
It required a great amount of deathly energy so it wasn't something to be done casually and the efficiency of the merging was only around 80% but that was more than enough for somebody like Xie Xie in the spirit king's mind.
He had just combined five incredibly powerful mental type soul rings into one type which would obviously render Xie Xie's stealth useless. With the boy's greatest strength gone, it would be a simple matter to kill him. His body would make for a wonderful elixir to enhance his body. Who knows, with how Xie Xie was in space-time manipulation he may even inherit some of it!
"Hm?" A brief black and white flash crossed his vision for a moment before his body suddenly became much lighter. Looking down at the source he saw it, the gaping hole that replaced the entirety of his right torso.
"You talk too much." Xie Xie's taunting words were the last thing he ever heard.
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Hey there, hope you liked the chapter.
I can't tell if Xie Xie got lucky or not. On one hand, a mental type like this guy is the weakest in direct combat but on the other if it weren't for him being part of the mental type then Xie Xie wouldn't have been discovered in the first place. It's an unescapable paradox!
If you want more chapters, head to patre*on.com/TrapOverlord for up to 25 extra chapters. It isn't required but it'd be much appreciated.