"Did I say you could leave?"
The voice infused with spiritual energy pierced the elder's ears before he could take a step. He panicked and thought to himself, "This voice...No, impossible."
Chen Mo immediately appeared behind the elder and touched his shoulder, "What's so impossible about it?" The elder felt the immense pressure in Chen Mo's hand. "So fast! I couldn't even sense him with my divine sense. And this aura, Peak Soul Formation? No way," the elder was shocked, stumbling back. He tripped on himself and dropped the unconscious Mei Ling, whom he was carrying in his arms.
"Hey, how can you be so rude to your ancestor's reincarnation avatar," Chen Mo spoke mockingly as he stretched out his hands and chanted, 'Space Transfer.' Mei Ling, who was about to hit the ground, appeared in his arms. He patted her head and apologized for making her wait. He laid her down and erected a space barrier around her as he walked towards the shocked elder.
"So what if you're at the peak of Soul Formation? I'm also at the peak of Soul Formation and have more experience than you," the elder spoke arrogantly as he tried to gather courage.
Chen Mo ignored him and immediately appeared right in front of the elder, landing a strong punch to his stomach. The elder was sent flying. Chen Mo then teleported above the elder and landed a downward strike, crashing the elder into the ground, a cloud of dust rising.
The elder struggled to stand up, wondering how they were in the same realm, yet Chen Mo was so strong. He even wondered why he couldn't sense him using his divine sense. Even if one was using spatial techniques, he should be able to sense the space fluctuations using his divine sense.
"You're wondering why you can't use your divine sense on me?" Chen Mo asked mockingly. "Well, that's simply because my divine sense is stronger than yours." He spoke as he appeared right in front of the elder and held the elder's hair as he grinned menacingly.
Trembling, the elder tried to back away, but Chen Mo's grip was like iron. "H-How is this possible? How could you be this strong? It's only been a few minutes how could you break through two major realms, and master them to such a level?"
"Hmm, maybe because I'm the main character. Does that count?"
"A what now?"
"Never mind"
Chen Mo lifted the elder off the ground by his hair, sneering in his face. "Any last words, old man?" he asked menacingly as a blade materialized in his other hand, the metal gleaming wickedly.
Rather than showing fear, the elder merely smiled, revealing a mouthful of crooked, yellowed teeth. "Did you really think you had won?" he rasped out with a wheezy laugh.
Chen Mo's brow furrowed in confusion. "What? Do you have some new technique up your sleeve?" He tightened his grip on the elder's graying hair, eliciting a pained grunt.
The elder's smile only widened further. "This stupid kid probably used that Immortal Treasure of the Chen family to increase his cultivation," he thought to himself. "I didn't think that damned treasure would be this strong. He probably hasn't even tapped half of its true power. If I can get my hands on it, I would be invincible in the mortal realm!"
A cruel, malicious chuckle bubbled up from his throat as the elder began chanting in an ancient, guttural tongue. "Demon possession!"
Thick, writhing tendrils of inky blackness erupted from the elder's body, wriggling through the air like grotesque serpents. Before Chen Mo could react, they lashed out, burrowing into his flesh with sickening squelches.
Chen Mo cried out in shock and pain, convulsing violently as the vile tendrils wormed their way through his body. He tried to summon his spiritual energy to fight back, but found his cultivation utterly suppressed, smothered by the sheer malevolence of the possessing force.
"There's no use in resisting," the elder mocked, his voice now a rasping, multitudinous hiss. "Although the treasure gave you great cultivation, you have no soul defense techniques. I shall take over your body, and the treasure will belong to me! Hahaha!"
Chen Mo's struggles became more frantic, but the tendrils only burrowed deeper, constricting his limbs and wrapping around his neck. He could feel the vile presence invading his mind, peeling away his sense of self layer by layer.
"You're a thousand years too young to deal with this old man," the elder gloated, his ancient features twisting into an expression of wicked glee. "Despite the Heavenly Palace's hard work getting rid of the Chen family, they wouldn't have thought that I would end up with the treasure. Liu Jian, just you wait!"
…
Chen Mo sat cross-legged on the ground; his brow furrowed in concentration as he worked to stabilize his roiling spiritual energy after expelling the vile presence of the elder's demonic aura that had entered his meridians. Beads of sweat rolled down his face, evidence of the immense mental strain.
As his breathing gradually slowed and his aura settled, Chen Mo's mind turned to the elder's taunting words before the possession attempt. "Even though he had the cultivation of the Soul Formation stage, he had no soul offensive or defensive techniques."
Chen Mo's lips quirked up in a rueful smile. The old man was absolutely right on that account. He indeed had the peak Soul Formation real of cultivation, but he had no formal training in using it safely or harnessing its full potential.
After the Nascent Soul stage most battles that take place include soul attacks.
That was precisely why he had been pushing the elder so relentlessly, goading him into unleashing his strongest soul arts. Chen Mo's plan had been to analyze and replicate those techniques, copying them into his own repertoire through his skills.
He just didn't anticipate the old codger misunderstanding the source of his abilities and deciding to outright take over his body instead.
"Foolish of me to underestimate his greed and desperation," Chen Mo muttered, shaking his head. His mind flashed back to those final, chilling words from the elder's spirit before entering his body:
"Despite the Heavenly Palace's hard work getting rid of the Chen family, they wouldn't have thought that I would end up with the treasure. Liu Jian, just you wait!"
Chen Mo's eyes shot open, understanding dawning upon him like a thunderbolt. "So that's what's going on!"
The pieces fell into place. The Heavenly Palace, that vaunted sect that presided over all cultivation in this realm, they kept making trouble for him. Clearly, the Chen clan's prized Immortal Treasure was the source of their animosity, covetous of its unmatched power.
"They wiped out my ancestors to try and take it for themselves," Chen Mo growled, clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "And now this wretched elder was an agent working towards the same goal!"
"I'll need to look into the full history of this conflict after returning home," Chen Mo decided, slowly rising to his feet with a grunt of effort. "But before that..."
'Activate skill [OpenSource]'
'Although it didn't go as planned the elder's soul is inside my body and now, I can easily analyze his soul and get his soul cultivation technique'
Chen Mo pitied the old man for attempting to take over his body, since he didn't sense the presence of the old man in his soul space, and he had no spiritual sea, he could probably guess where the old man was sucked into.
'The Golden Palace!'
'I'm not worried about him taking over my body now that he was sucked into that place, he'd have a better chance fighting me than facing that woman'