There was now some faith in Ye Lingfeng's dark red eyes. He stood up, his face now bearing a new purple eye that matched the one on his abdomen, which was about as large as a fist. The two purple eyes seemed really cold and didn't blink at all, doing nothing more than embedding themselves into Ye Lingfeng.
Each and every moment was one of sore numbness. He grit his teeth and glared at the two eyeballs, then took out a blood-colored dagger and showed it to the eyes, but they seemed hardly perturbed. Every time Ye Lingfeng tried to stab them, they would retreat into his flesh, causing him to endlessly injure himself.
"Ugh…."
The soulfiend shook its head disapprovingly. It was a futile act that would only leave thousands of holes in him without harming them in the slightest.
"I know my parents were the ones that gave me this body. But if I don't even survive this, what would be the point of caring for it?" His eyes were bloodshot as he had the soulfiend quiet down. Since leaving the wondersky realm, he had already made up his mind. Back then, he didn't dare to do anything for the lack of hope. But now he was willing to go harder on himself.
"I can't disappoint those who care about me. Even the soulfiend cares about me. I'm not someone inconsequential. My death will make them sad." Now, these were the words that kept him going. He recalled the moment where the girl his age knelt and begged for him to be spared, and even threatened suicide for it. If he gave up despite all that, all of her effort and sacrifice would have been in vain.
Now, he held the dagger toward his face and stabbed. The instant he did, the eye disappeared. The dagger pierced until it reached bone, drawing lots of blood. Soon, the purple eye resurfaced on his chest, seemingly mocking him. However, Ye Lingfeng seemed to join in the laughter as his face bled out. It felt a little like whack-a-mole.
"You want to play? I’ll play with you."
Once again, he thrust the dagger towards his chest. However, he stopped right before it pierced his flesh. Naturally, the eye vanished rapidly. It was one step ahead of him.
"One more time!" Ye Lingfeng did it again, aiming his dagger toward the large eye. This time, he went at it for real and plunged the blade into his stomach, but the eye disappeared even faster, reappearing on his left arm.
It hurt a lot when he tore the dagger out. This was a game where he was the sole loser. He wouldn't be able to harm the xenofiends at all. Even so, he was all too happy to play it. He thrust the blade at the small purple eye that appeared at his shoulder but stopped short without going through with it.
Sometimes, he actually thrust it in, but other times, he did not. He focused on the smaller eye that seemed really energetic. It almost seemed happy to be messing with Ye Lingfeng, delighted to see him torture himself like that. Sometimes, it would even arrogantly not disappear when Ye Lingfeng faked a thrust.
"Wwuuuu!" The soulfiend shook its head again.
"Are you saying this is pointless? It can tell if I'm going to pierce for real?"
"Mmm!" The soulfiend nodded.
"I don't believe it!" he roared as he continued. Even with the feints, his body soon got more and more wounded. The little eye seemed more and more excited to see it. Whack-a-mole might just be its favorite game now.
One time, it even appeared right next to the bigger eye. The two of them fit on his palm, though they had to squeeze a bit. They gleefully looked at Ye Lingfeng. Did he really think he could mess with them? They squinted slightly, as if they were smiling. Toying with their host was most entertaining.
Ye Lingfeng continued nevertheless, causing the soulfiend to slam its chest in frustration, unable to do anything. He thrust once more toward the two eyes at the back of his left hand. Was he going to do it for real this time? The two eyes always vanished at the last moment. However, he changed the trajectory of the dagger and cut toward his lower arm, slicing it off!
"Aaaaagh!" He shrieked from the searing pain of amputation. Gritting his teeth, he tossed the amputated lower arm far away. Since he was faking a thrust at the eyes, they didn't vanish this time around, knowing that he wouldn't go through with it. However, he cut off his lower arm instead. He had wanted to lure them to the same spot from the very beginning. Since other spots were harder to cut off, he drove them to his arm. As horrifying as it was, he had finally found some hope in the depths of suffering.
"I won't disappoint you all! Never!" He grit his teeth, focusing his mind on Tianming. Then he stood up and swapped the dagger for the Evil Suppression Pillar. Wielding the black staff, he radiated a menacing aura.
The soulfiend was shocked in the beginning, but it soon understood what he was doing. He had to cut off part of himself to survive, much like a lizard.
The two eyes on the amputated arm were stunned, then writhed in fury. They squeezed their way out of the arm and rapidly expanded into two gigantic creatures. In the place of heads, they had a single, large purple eye. The two xenofiends, one large and one small, had assumed their original forms.
Ye Lingfeng didn't know what kind of creature they were, but they seemed focused on taking over his body. They couldn't help themselves from going berserk after they were tricked.
"Die!" Ye Lingfeng roared with courage and a desire to survive. With the soulfiend, they became demons of battle. This time, they were fighting in their real bodies, not as caeli, but they were doing so outside the wondersky realm.
A black formation came out of the Evil Suppression Pillar. Within the rampaging formation, Ye Lingfeng and the soulfiend clashed with the two xenofiends. Last time, he had only gotten invaded because he wasn't careful. But he wouldn't repeat that mistake.
He struck the xenofiends with his staff, smashing away chunks of flesh. The xenofiends angrily hissed in an ear-piercing voice. Despite the bloody battle, the disciples in the nearby wondersky realm were none the wiser.
……
After Tianming reached the Divine Moon Realm, he started absorbing some stellunar source. He had a divine will and a heavenly will in his astral discs. His Imperial Will, in the shape of the Grand-Orient Sword, looked really large, while his Lifesbane Will, in the shape of the Prime Tower, was only a tenth of its size. At the very least, it was now fully formed.
Tianming relied on Lifesbane Will to absorb large amounts of stellunar source into his astral discs. He and all four of his beasts broke through to Dipole Sky when they reached the threshold. He also needed some stellunar source to charge up his totems so that they would reach the limits of the second level.
"I wonder if I can fly to the Dipole Sky now, or even the Pentarcanic Sky…."
It was said that astralforce could help free one from the binding of the Welkin plane. It wasn't based on the level of the cultivator, but rather the density of the astralforce itself. If that really was the case, Tianming should be able to reach the Pentarcanic Sky.
"In other words, I only need to be at the ninth or tenth level to reach the Orderian Sky."
The astralforce of Primordial Chaos Beasts was truly high quality. Before he reached the Ascension stage, there was no way he could get to the moon no matter how hard he tried because of his lack of astralforce.
Currently, he was at a rural area on the moon. Before he headed for the palace, he decided to go to the wondersky realm once more. This time around, he rescanned his abilities, showing many of his tricks once to the heavenly locus formation, as well as some of his beasts'.
Apart from that, he also had three more godswords registered, giving him a total of seven in the wondersky realm and making him among the peak bane race members without showing off his last three swords. The three new swords he scanned were from the three characters of his right arm: life, time, and heaven.
The one corresponding to life was the Sentient Karma, the one corresponding to heaven was the Ordinem Imperius, and the one corresponding to time was the Grandvoid Universum. Coupled with his four cardinal godswords, his abilities got a magnificent boost.
He wanted to check on Ye Lingfeng while he was at it, so came to the pagoda. He thought he would have to wait a while at first, but he didn't think Ye Lingfeng would be waiting for him.
"Brother Tianming, I have good news and bad news." Though he seemed a little tired, he did seem to be burning with passion.
"Let's hear the good news first."
"I cut off my arm and forced the xenofiends out before killing them."
"Can your hand be recovered?"
"Yes. They said I had the fiendgod bloodline of specters, so I possess really powerful vitality. My arm will grow back in a matter of months."
"Then what's the bad news?"
"Before the xenofiends died, they called the others. There’s a few hundred xenofiends looking for me near the wondersky realm."
"Damn…."
