Destiny is ashes

Chapter 996 The Soul Box of the Cave Heaven (13)

Clang.

With a single sword strike, An Jing slew the Blood Sea Demon God and slowly sheathed his sword.

The crimson light on the sword's edge faded, leaving not a speck of dust.

Then, he raised his hand, and in his palm, a few fragile spiritual lights were gathered by a gentle force, supporting the souls of the Tianji Mountain disciples that he had just extracted from the Blood Sea Ghost God's body.

"Thank you so much! Master Gaoyi, we are all deeply grateful!"

The leader of the group from Tianji Mountain finally recovered from his shock. He quickly flew forward and bowed deeply to An Jing, his tone filled with relief at surviving the ordeal and sincere gratitude: "Our equipment and pills were almost all used up in the battle just now, or were destroyed by those demons, so we can't offer any gifts. But once we leave Zhaolin Realm..."

"We're all partners, there's no need to be so formal."

An Jing shook his head slightly, signaling the other party to pay attention to their surroundings, and said with a rather dry humor, "Not to mention, it's not time to relax yet—we may not even be able to leave the Zhaolin Realm, so it's too early to talk about future rewards."

"what?"

The leader of the group was taken aback, and followed An Jing's gaze to look around: "You're joking..."

"Wow!"

Just then, the newly arrived Golden-Winged Roc let out a high-pitched cry, flapped its wings, and swooped down. Jin Yanhua and You Ruhui stood atop it, already poised to pounce.

In an instant, countless five-weapon thunder spears of various colors and light spears shining with pure brilliance fell one after another like dragons falling from the sky!

boom! boom! boom!
The lightning spears and light lances pierced through several sections of the ground and rock walls in the valley with precision. Their terrifying power should have been enough to collapse a mountain outside, but the damage they caused in the Scale Realm was surprisingly small, only blasting out large holes. That was what everyone originally thought, until the 'ground' and 'rock walls' emitted extremely painful howls and screams.

Foul-smelling blood gushed out from the pierced wounds like a fountain, then began to convulse and writhe.

Not far away, a martial artist from Tianji Mountain was examining the injuries of his fellow disciple when he was horrified to find that the ground beneath his feet had suddenly become soft and elastic, as if he were stepping on the flesh and blood of some living thing.

He looked down in disbelief and realized that he was not standing on the ground at all, but on a giant mouth that had quietly opened up and disguised itself as the earth!
"It's a mirage beast! When?!"

Even a real person would be terrified by this scene. He immediately led the group of wounded soldiers into the air and flew away, avoiding the rapidly closing maw.

"Ow!"

Without consuming any flesh or blood, the enormous mirage beast, its core pierced by Jin Yanhua's lightning spear, writhed in agony as it rapidly turned into a pile of charred remains amidst the ever-spreading arcs of lightning.

Throughout the valley, several mirages that had disguised themselves as rock walls and roads, intending to slip away slowly while everyone was off guard, were all exposed by this thunderous strike and subsequently killed by the light spears that arrived later.

At the top of the valley, a small but incredibly powerful mirage dragon, sensing danger, was about to conceal itself and disappear into the void.

But it's too late.

A figure wielding a thunder spear, with agile movements, descended like lightning; it was You Ruhui.

She remained silent, just like Jin Yanhua, but with an even purer and more refined Five Thunder Spear technique. With unparalleled precision, she pierced through the dragon's spine, pinning it firmly to the cliff face!

Before the mirage dragon could let out a miserable howl, the golden-winged roc's figure, as fast as lightning, had already swept past. Its feathers, sharper than divine weapons, slashed down like knives, cleanly severing the mirage dragon's head, spitting out a large spray of silver-red dragon blood! "I remember that when the Great Wilderness Dragon Clan mobilizes, it's usually in a three-person team."

Seeing this, An Jing nodded slightly: "These mirage beasts aren't actually that strong. After swallowing you, they might let you break free, which is why I didn't attack just now—it's quite interesting. It seems like it really thinks it can fool me."

—You really fooled me!
The Heavenly Mystery Mountain Master standing to the side was sweating profusely. Their detection artifacts were shattered during the Blood Demon's first attack. They had initially thought it was just a coincidence, but now it seemed that the coordination was truly seamless!
An raised his hand and handed the few weak souls in his palm to the leader of Tianji Mountain: "Take these souls of your junior brothers and sisters."

After Tianji Mountain Master hurriedly accepted the document, An Jing instructed, "They need to rest. Their soul essence has been eroded to some extent, and the Blood Demon should have also read or even extracted some of their memories through their souls."

"They will be unable to fight again until they are fully recovered."

At this point, a thought flashed through An Jing's mind: "If Huo Qing were here, I could really show him this Blood Demon technique... The Tai Ming Sect's heritage should also have similar abilities."

"Thanks to your help... It's already an immense blessing that I was able to save my life and soul!"

Seeing that his junior brothers and sisters' souls were safe and sound, Master Tianjishan breathed a long sigh of relief.

—As expected of a nature master, not only can he easily accomplish things that seem almost impossible, but he has also already thought of all the countermeasures!
A thought flashed through his mind, and he quickly took out a series of exquisite little boxes from his pocket, carefully sorting and packing these flashes of inspiration into categories.

Interestingly, each person's name was engraved with runes on those specially made little boxes.

"Huh, what is this?"

Seeing this, An Jing couldn't help but feel curious.

He could tell that these were rare items specifically designed to preserve souls, but why would a disciple of Tianji Mountain prepare so many and carry them with him?
"I'm sorry to have troubled Heaven."

While operating the device, Master Tianji Mountain explained, "Our lineage of Tianji Mountain doesn't actually place much importance on the physical body. After becoming a True Person, we focus even more on the soul."

"I usually study puppetry techniques, using myself as the original experimental subject. Whether it's research, cultivation, or combat, my body is always damaged."

"Therefore, our disciples will prepare such a 'soul box' in advance to store the soul. When the physical body is damaged to the point of no further damage, the Yuanling Core, which is the soul inscribed with the law, will be taken out and transferred into the soul box."

"As for the physical body, there are specially cultivated spare bodies on Benshan Mountain. They were developed jointly by us and Tianmu Palace and can be replaced at any time."

He spoke eloquently, yet skillfully categorized and arranged all the souls in his hands, clearly indicating that he did this kind of thing often and that it was not an exaggeration.

"I see. The world of martial arts is so vast and full of wonders. It is indeed very interesting."

An Jing suddenly realized, nodded slightly, and then said thoughtfully, "Speaking of this..."

He envisioned his own sanctuary.

Yes, isn't that a natural, and higher-quality, soul box?

The Cave Heaven Method was indeed correct.

(End of this chapter)