Chapter Thirty-One: Self-Destruction of the Soul!

The thick dust gradually dispersed, and a figure draped in black swayed unsteadily amidst a scatter of shattered stones. As the haze faded, the mysterious elder’s blood-soaked and disheveled appearance became clear. His garments were torn to shreds, darkened blood streamed ceaselessly from multiple wounds, and a sharp, jagged stone had even pierced through his protective aura, burying itself deep into his right shoulder.

His presence reduced to ruin, the elder coughed up blood, his expression twisted with venomous hatred as he glared skyward at Su Yi. In his eyes flickered not only fear, but an even greater fury and resentment. With his original strength, he was a figure dreaded even on this continent—when had he ever been forced into such a plight?

He had always been the hunter, tormenting his foes at will; the number of powerful adversaries who had perished by his hands was too great to count. Yet now, he was grievously wounded by a youth not yet twenty!

Recalling the glory of his former days, then comparing it to his current state, a fierce sense of humiliation blazed within him, consuming both body and soul. Overwhelmed by wrath, he let out a furious roar and, in a flash, launched himself into the sky.

“You little bastard! Today, I will grind your bones to dust and leave you with no grave to contain your corpse!”

The black waves of energy in the sky had not yet dissipated as the elder landed atop the seething clouds. His hands swiftly formed a strange gesture, and a suffocating pressure began to radiate from him, growing ever more intense. The aura he emanated now was even more formidable than before.

Su Yi’s eyes, cold and murderous, locked onto the elder. Observing his opponent’s actions, a trace of grim resolve—and unmistakable excitement—flashed across his sinister face.

“A secret technique to enhance your power… Old man, are you desperate enough to gamble everything?”

The elder’s hateful glare seemed poised to tear Su Yi apart. He crossed his arms tightly over his chest, trembling ever so slightly. As he did, the space around him filled with countless black stones, each wreathed in dark, burning flames of battle energy.

Hundreds of these infernal stones hovered in the sky, exuding a terrifying might—a spectacle akin to a multitude of black suns blazing in the heavens.

Su Yi only let out a chilling laugh. In response, hundreds of crescent-shaped energy blades began to materialize around him, slowly spiraling in orbit. As they spun, each blade rotated ever faster, becoming increasingly blurred, their motion weaving a circular black mirage.

Countless illusions flickered and whirled through the air, slicing the very space itself. Dull, oppressive sounds echoed with each revolution, like the low keening of demons, imbuing the scene with a dreadful and fearsome aura.

With a hoarse shout, the elder thrust his arms forward. At the same instant, Su Yi, his face cruel and implacable, raised a finger.

“Demonflame Meteor!”

“Blade of Eternal Night!”

Thunderous explosions erupted in quick succession. Spinning wind blades collided with burning stones; rocks burst apart and energy blades shattered. From afar, the descending infernal stones resembled meteors crashing down from the heavens, while the whirling wind blades charged forth like the scythes of death itself, shrieking and unstoppable.

Suddenly, a spiraling wind blade cleaved through the stones and shot straight at the elder. Though weakened from previous collisions, its momentum remained lethal, its humming resonance chilling to the core.

Startled, the elder twisted aside and struck out with a beam of black light. The wind blade was deflected, but its trajectory changed, and with a slicing sound, it slashed across the elder’s waist. Blood spurted forth.

He let out a guttural cry, his body plummeting. For the first time, terror crept into his furious gaze as he fixed Su Yi with a venomous look, then landed and fled into the distance.

“Damn you! Rejoice while you can—once I’ve recovered, I will stop at nothing to see your soul utterly annihilated!”

In this illusory realm, healing meant resting and restoring one’s soul. Blood and wounds were but signs of depleted soul energy; once restored, all would be well. Moreover, at his level of cultivation, not only was his soul formidable, but his recovery was swift. It would take little time to regain his former strength and return with a vengeance. The thought brought a cold smile to his lips.

But then, shock and confusion seized him. Even with his unmatched speed, the scenery around remained unchanged—no matter how fast he moved, the world did not blur past him. It was as if he was treading in place.

There could be but one reason: the master of this soul technique, the architect of this fantasy, was manipulating reality itself—Su Yi was compressing space around the elder, shrinking the ground beneath his feet.

As he considered how to escape this trap, Su Yi’s sinister face materialized before him. The elder’s eyes widened in alarm; he raised his hands to attack, but a searing pain lanced through his chest. Looking down, he saw a longsword already buried in his heart, the hilt gripped in Su Yi’s hand.

Disbelief filled the elder’s face as he stared at the blade slick with his own blood, his gaze growing vacant. “Impossible… Impossible…”

Beholding the elder’s stunned expression, Su Yi, his entire being exuding a demonic aura, let out a chilling laugh, utterly disdainful. “Old fool, my soul is far stronger than you ever imagined! But time, alas, grows short—this is the end.”

He wrenched the sword free and kicked the elder’s chest with savage force, sending him hurtling dozens of meters away.

Flicking the blood from his blade, Su Yi wore a cruel smile, then tossed the sword aside. It clattered to the ground, writhing and twisting until it became indistinguishable from the other jagged stones scattered around.

The elder, sprawled on the ground, spat a mouthful of blood, the splatter streaking his withered face, making his appearance all the more grotesque. He struggled briefly, but in the end, collapsed in defeat.

Meeting Su Yi’s predatory gaze, the elder’s heart clenched with fear—how long had it been since he’d last faced death? Was this to be his fate, like those countless others he’d slain? No—!

His eyes hardened as he fixed Su Yi with a cold glare, forcing a raspy laugh. “I don’t care who you are—do you dare kill me? If you do, you’ll face the endless pursuit of my organization! Each of them is as strong as I am. You’ll be hounded like a dog, never knowing rest, until the day you die, unmourned and unburied! They’ll torment you like a beast until you beg for death…”

To the elder’s desperate threats, Su Yi replied with a single, icy phrase: “Frozen Heaven, Snow Burial.”

Instantly, immense snowflakes began to fall from the sky. In moments, the world was shrouded in white. Where a snowflake touched the ground, a thick sheet of ice formed.

The elder’s eye twitched as a wave of icy chill swept over his left hand. Glancing down, he saw a snowflake alight on his skin, and immediately, a mass of ice spread from the spot, encasing his hand in a solid, unyielding block. Feeling vanished, and the frost began creeping up his arm. At this rate, it would not be long before his entire body was frozen inside a solid mass of ice—if a single snowflake could do this, what of the countless flakes now falling?

With a desperate roar, the elder bellowed, “Then I’ll take you with me!”

With his defiant shout, his entire body erupted in flames, a torrent of energy surging forth, so fierce it scattered the falling snow around him. He became a pillar of fire, his burning radiance illuminating the world, the air itself shimmering with heat.

As the snowflakes drew close, they were instantly repelled, flames blazing amidst the storm. Su Yi’s cold eyes narrowed with the satisfaction of vengeance. “Oh? Self-immolation of the soul? So you’ve given up and stopped struggling? Heh… The spectacle of a soul’s combustion is truly something to behold…”

The elder’s power, gathered and compressed, detonated in a thunderous explosion. A sphere of flame, dozens of meters wide, blossomed outward, its radiance and heat as fierce as the sun. The sky was lit as if by day; the falling snow was utterly eclipsed, vanishing into the inferno.

And so it ended.