The blue light was his spiritual consciousness, and the red light was his soul.
Whoosh!
The white ghosts barreled through the air as they came flying towards Sal.
Grasping the bleeding stump of his arm, he immediately sprinted into action, maneuvering his body methodically in such an intricate manner and with such rapid speed that he avoided any and all contact with the ghosts. He ran away, still in a straight line after dodging the ghosts.
The group of three chased after him, and unfortunately, they were faster.
In minutes they were upon him.
This time he had no means of dodging their advances.
He was too physically exhausted to execute basic martial movement techniques, and he didn't have any spiritual energy left to perform a spiritual technique.
He also didn't have any pills to recover his stamina or spiritual energy as he had used them all to survive the chase of the two great sects and the hunting dogs of the Holy Emperor.
It seemed like he had no choice but to let the white ghosts take a piece of him.
"Okay, you bastards win. Come. Eat away at me!" he spat out with bloody lips.
One by one, the three white ghosts came into contact with his body and took away a part of it.
The first one took away a few of his organs, such as his gallbladder and his left liver.
The second one took away his remaining limbs, causing him to fall to the ground and writhing in pain, looking like a worm crawling.
The last one took away every inch of his skin, and he was skinned alive, bleeding from every inch of his being, his consciousness drowning in pain.
The pain he was experiencing was excruciating, like a thousand knives continuously stabbing his flesh, but he refused to give up or use his last trump card.
Now wasn't the time for that.
And it's not like the pain he was feeling now was worse than the day he was Blood Eagled alive, bound to a stake in the middle of open grounds of the Nine Divines Sect, and forced to bear the humiliation of every sect member and visitors.
Although he had suffered more on those days, the pain he was feeling now was terrible enough to knock him out.
However, just as his consciousness blurred, he bit his tongue with enough force to draw a mouthful of blood.
Biting his tongue resulted in a pain that stung him sharply and his fading consciousness snapped back into clarity.
With the threat of falling unconscious temporarily alleviated, he used his shoulders to drag his mutilated body forward.
It was said in the heavenly secret that against all odds, if you just keep advancing in the Valley even if it eas an inch at a time, the land area would disappear and the river of time would reveal itself.
As long as he doesn't give up, then he might just stumble across it.
Thus, despite the pitiful state he was in, looking like a broken toy, he didn't stop moving.
As he advanced, a huge trail of blood was left behind. He was bleeding just that much.
After a few minutes, he had lost a significant amount of blood.
Due to blood loss, his senses began to numb, his vision started to dim, and he started to come closer and closer to death.
'Will I die here? But then what about my revenge?
'I want to kill the senior brother who plotted against me just because the woman he had eyes for loved me.
'I want to kill the master who turned his back on me when I needed him the most and pursued and hurt me for my treasures.
'I want to kill all the people who abused and humiliated me just because the ones in power gave them the right to.
'I want to kill the Saintess who brought this calamity to me.
'I want to kill every bastard that joined the Great Hunt to take me down.
'I want to kill them all. So how can I die here? I refuse to die here.'
With hatred as his fuel, Sal continued moving.
Moved by his indomitable will, the mist parted.
His eyes lit up seeing the mist part ways, revealing what was hidden by it.
However, as far as he could see, he only saw land. Immediately, his spirits plummeted, but he didn't stop dragging his body forward with his shoulders.
'Against all odds, I move ahead.
'Overseer, if there's any truth to your word, I should see the river.
'But why am I not seeing it?
'Is the 100th heavenly secret a prank from you?'
Just as he was feeling frustrated, a faint light glimmered in the distance.
He felt it beckoning him.
Mustering all the strength he could from the very core of his being, he dragged his broken, limbless body towards it.
But before he could reach it, as if he was judged to have not suffered enough, cries he had grown familiar with rang out.
Uwaaa! Uwa! Uwa! Uwaaa!
These were cries that could give one goosebumps all over. These were the wails of the white ghosts.
Looking around, several of them could be seen charging toward him from within the mist.
Sal gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath, "The gods are against me!"
No doubt he would die once they reach him.
He was already on his last leg.
"It's not the perfect time to use my last trump card."
"But if I don't use it now, I will never get the opportunity to use it again.
"Hopefully, it will be enough to get me through."
With a thought, Sal took out a skull from his innate space.
The skull wasn't white and, unlike a human skull, it had three pairs of eye sockets, signifying what race it belonged to.
It was the skull of a Limitless.
A Limitless wasn't a race one was born into.
It was a race one could ascend to.
A Limitless was a being who had transcended simplicity, achieving a state unknown to man.
This state was called Limitless.
In this state, the simplest of actions could bend reality and shake the foundation on which the worlds were based.
A Limitless's very existence defied the laws of heaven and earth.
One of the greatest aspects of a Limitless was as follows: Their will could take shape.
A person's will is intangible.
It exists, true, but it can't directly affect the world.
However, the will of a Limitless could.
Sal had spent all his essence blood to refine the skull of a Limitless.
A spiritual combatant of the grandmaster rank could use his essence blood to rejuvenate and heal his body.
The stronger a spiritual combatant, the more they would depend on their essence blood to recover from grave injuries.
Sal had used all of his essence blood to refine the skull. As a result, he didn't have the Essence Blood required to heal himself from the grave injuries he had incurred while escaping his pursuers.
But he didn't regret it.
The skull was the last piece of his plan.
After all, without it, he had calculated that he would not be able to fulfill his plans.
He bit into the crown of the skull to pick it up.
With a quick jerk of his head, he tossed the skull in his mouth towards the light in the distance with all the strength he could muster.
After he had tossed it away, his body seemed to have lost all its strength and dropped dead to the ground as still as a statue in a temple.
A blue light carrying a red dot within shot out of the motionless and limbless body.
The blue light was Sal's spiritual consciousness, and the red light within it was his soul.
They both entered the skull that he had tossed away a moment ago.
Entering the skull, his red soul pulsed like a heartbeat, transmitting Sal's will to the skull.
His will was for the skull to reach the light, nothing more, nothing less.
The skull reacted to his will for it was his refined treasure.
As it was the skull of a Limitless, it manifested his will into reality.
Then the craziest scene played out.