Chapter 168 - Festival’s Eve (Part VII) (Patreon)

After he felt the pressure upon his Spiritual Sea increase, as though it had suddenly been stuffed after a ten-day feast, Lucian laughed loudly. He was genuinely delighted to feel the ten thousand human forms manifest within his soul.

"I want this!" His eyes gleamed with a hint of madness. "This power! Your techniques! I want it all!"

Along with his shout, the Eye of Greed, created by the Rune of Greed, burst apart, and a torrent of Blood Essence engulfed him. He had been preparing for another large-scale attack, as that seemed to be Resonant Sea Ancestor's specialty!

Above the Domain of Pride, the three drops of blood exploded, sending a shockwave downward that solidified the blood and sea beneath. Be it the crimson waters or the emerald ones tainted by specks of blood, they turned solid.

Those waters were filled with the echoes of ten thousand cultivators created by the Ten Thousand Echoes Across the Ages. They were prepared to unleash a powerful technique when suddenly they were crushed from every direction, as if buried beneath countless mountains.

Worse still, those mountains weren’t common ones, as the solidified blood was enhanced to the point it didn’t shatter beneath the pressure of Nascent Soul cultivators!

The Core Formation images didn't resist, popping under the pressure. Lucian had crushed the echo bodies in the first counterattack!

At least, most of them. Ten images had survived.

Meanwhile, the Resonant Sea Ancestor was continuously consuming Lucian's soul foundation to recover. She had exhausted the borrowed power of her three Authorities, and now had to focus on phasing through the blood.

Nonetheless, she wasn’t particularly worried.

Her eyes were fixed upon the gigantic sphere of solidified blood surrounding Lucian, patiently waiting for the true power of her forbidden technique to unfold.

Soon enough, just as she expected, the ten remaining echoes carrying the pressure of Nascent Soul cultivators moved effortlessly through the reinforced sea.

Despite being able to kill the Core Formation’s images, Lucian didn’t leave a scratch on the most powerful conjurations. Narrowing his eyes, Lucian initiated the final step of his plan.

The solidified blood filling his Spiritual Sea, most of it originating from the fallen night creatures, evaporated, gathering into an enormous crimson cloud above the ocean.

However, the transformation wasn't instantaneous.

While it fully manifested, the Nascent Soul echoes acted.

One of them, a young girl wearing golden bracelets and anklets, swam gracefully beneath the sea as though drifting among clouds. She spoke soundless words, and her golden ornaments vibrated beneath the water.

Countless threads of golden and silver light erupted from her limbs, circling her as she danced with the elegance of an immortal fairy. The moment her dance ended, her echo dissipated, and only a myriad of golden and silver arcs remained.

Swiftly, these arcs fused into a single torrent and rushed toward Lucian.

The entire technique, despite its complexity and beauty, had taken less than a second to cast.

Not far away, another echo had acted at the same time.

A middle-aged man staggered drunkenly through the waters, lazily drinking from a wine gourd. He shook his head, and then his unfocused eyes suddenly became clear, shining with a profound, mystical light.

Then he snorted, and his echo vanished, leaving behind a tiny beam of light, almost impossible to perceive, that zipped through the sea toward Lucian.

Adding to that, before either attack had crossed half the distance to Lucian, two more Nascent Soul echoes began invoking their own techniques.

With a cold gaze, Lucian first reached toward the false memories he had implanted inside Resonant Sea Ancestor, attempting to glean any useful information.

To his surprise, he learned two things.

First, using a Forbidden Technique had inflicted severe backlash on her soul, temporarily lowering her defenses and leaving her unable to act, explaining why he could read more into her.

Second, he discovered how she enhanced her own thoughts.

She made similar ideas resonate, accelerated their flow, and generated echoes to form entirely new chains of thought. These thoughts would flow, form new ideas, and repeat the process.

Lucian had seen mages create secondary minds and even artificial brains to assist them in battle or research, and he himself possessed methods of accelerating his thoughts beyond what his soul foundation allowed. However, he had never witnessed anything quite like this.

Inspired by her, Lucian dissipated most of the false memories within both of them, immediately creating new ones through the Rune of Lust and reinforcing them with the weakened Rune of Pride.

While doing all that, he didn't dodge the two attacks.

Resonant Sea Ancestor watched with wide eyes as the tiny beam of mystical light pierced Lucian's head, exploding it into tiny particles, while the golden and silver arcs slid across his body, leaving burning and freezing marks on his armor, causing it to shatter alongside the rest of Lucian’s body.

Gritting her teeth, Resonant Sea Ancestor refused to let the situation cloud her judgment, focusing on recovery, concealment, and surveillance. She wasn't foolish enough to believe Lucian would commit suicide, as being hit by those Nascent Soul attacks would erode his sense of self!

After a moment, she looked up. There, above the crimson clouds, a silhouette appeared, six crimson orbs slowly revolving behind its back.

It descended from the dark heavens, inhaling deeply as it consumed every gaseous blood in the sky, staring at the eight remaining echoes of Nascent Soul cultivators, two of whom were already fading after unleashing their techniques.

The blood-formed entity was naked and had none of Lucian’s current facial features. Its body stood ten times that of an ordinary man, with a muscular crimson physique, six fleshy bat-like wings, and five sharp horns protruding from its head.

There were also marks on its neck, like fingers seared into its skin. Its eyes remained closed, and two long fangs extended from its mouth, while hands ending in five claws rested calmly at its sides.

The moment Resonant Sea Ancestor felt the pressure radiating from the figure, after the crimson clouds dissipated, her eyes trembled, and she muttered, "An Infant Soul... No... a Mature Soul!"

Had she possessed a physical body instead of merely existing as a split soul, her face would have turned pale, and her heart would have skipped a beat.

Meanwhile, completely unaware of the turmoil raging in his opponent's mind, Lucian, having reformed himself through the Rune of Wrath, flexed his hands. He observed the two new attacks launched by the Nascent Soul echoes.

One was a tri-elemental flame composed of blue fire, green water, and colorless wind. It rapidly expanded until it was large enough to engulf Three Feathers City, occupying the entire left side of his vision.

The other attack, coming from the right, was countless metallic needles that formed a mysterious formation, sealing the space around him as they rushed like a swarm of insects.

Lucian ignored the attacks for a moment and glanced at the giant fangs summoned by the Rune of Gluttony. They had resumed the devouring process.

I see. Using a Forbidden Technique disrupted her Battlefield Killer Technique, he thought.

Next, Lucian threw a punch toward his right, aiming to break the space lock put on him. His fist shattered the sealing formation like fragile glass.

At the same instant, one of the crimson orbs revolving behind him disappeared. Then, wails resembling the slaughter of hundreds of millions reverberated throughout the Spiritual Sea.

Following the punch, he spread his six wings and his body vanished.

The enormous tri-elemental flames scorched the waters below as they passed through the space he had occupied an instant earlier, while the metallic needles attempted to change direction before suddenly shattering beneath an overwhelming invisible force.

Where the needles once were, space broke, and dark rifts appeared briefly before closing up.

Watching the scene unfold, Resonant Sea Ancestor's lips trembled. "That attack...Did it affect the plane between the Spiritual Sea and the Material Plane?"

Alarm surged through her mind. She immediately abandoned her recovery, allowing more of her split soul to dissipate as she poured its remaining strength into the six surviving Nascent Soul echoes.

“Attack together! Kill him,” she ordered, her eyes on Lucian.

With extreme focus, Lucian streaked through the Spiritual Sea at terrifying speed. Feeling the consumption of his soul foundation, he immediately realized Resonant Sea Ancestor had committed to her final move.

Smirking, he shouted, "Sacrifice!"

The remaining five crimson orbs behind him burst apart.

Wails born from more than a billion sacrificed souls echoed throughout the Spiritual Sea, shaking the waters and causing even the Nascent Soul echoes to tremble, their images nearly collapsing.

Next, Lucian extended his palm and pressed downward.

The crimson and emerald sea instantly evaporated.

The lights born from the six Nascent Soul techniques' conjuration process also dissipated, while Lucian's crimson body cracked apart alongside them under the immense strain.

"No!" Resonant Sea Ancestor screamed, her split soul no longer concealed as her translucent figure appeared, bloodshot eyes glaring at him. "This is impossible! This is beyond the Nascent Soul realm! Beyond the power I granted you!"

As the crimson entity shattered, Lucian's face emerged from its chest. His body slowly unfurled like that of a newborn as he stared at her with a single open eye. Then, with a cold and utterly apathetic expression, as though he were looking at nothing more than a stain on a carpet, he said,  "You gave me nothing I couldn't have taken myself.”

Resonant Sea Ancestor widened her eyes. As if angered, she laughed and shouted, "You think you've won? My main body will find you! I'll kill you and take everything you possess! You are nothing but an oversized bug—"

"Stop buying time," Lucian interrupted, a faint smile appearing on his face as he closed his eyes.

At the same instant, every remaining Nascent Soul echo shattered, while the six-winged crimson body dissolved into countless motes of light.

Realizing her feigned outrage had been seen through, Resonant Sea Ancestor fell silent, and her figure dissolved into echoes and flowing currents. She did not attempt to possess Lucian again, nor did she invade his memories, much less try to preserve her split soul in another form.

In her judgment, she had underestimated him enough.

Now that killing him was no longer possible, the wisest choice was simply to dissipate. After all, throughout the battle, she had forced Lucian to consume more than a third of his soul foundation. That alone was enough for her to consider this encounter a draw.

Deep down, she even hoped he would attempt to devour her split soul or preserve it somehow. If he did, then the day he approached her true body, the real Resonant Sea Ancestor would immediately notice him and prepare accordingly for their inevitable confrontation.

Alas, even as her split soul completely unraveled and nothing remained of her, Lucian made no move to devour it.

With trembling eyes, Resonant Sea Ancestor's split soul finally ceased to exist, destroying as much of Lucian's soul foundation as possible before her soundless death.

What she didn't know was that Lucian had spent those final moments reading her memories and converting them into false memories. The Rune of Lust, Pride, and even Sloth would allow him to safely consult them later.

But now, he had little time.

The technique that had allowed him to wield Nascent Soul methods, granting him Supreme-tier power within his Spiritual Sea, vanished with the split sound. With this, his borrowed strength also began to fade.

That meant he had only a few precious moments left to ensure the gains from this battle outweighed its tremendous cost.

With his current strength outside, he wouldn't be capable of making the runes interact to create false memories, much less perform more advanced applications such as externalizing them.

Lucian had to act in a way that his weakened self could harvest the gains now, and he did so. He acted quickly, using seconds to create an opportunity to grow!

Reduced to nothing more than a falling body, Lucian dropped from the sky toward the fading Spiritual Sea, which once again became a land of endless darkness beneath a solitary line of white.

His senses gradually slipped away, as he was currently not strong enough to maintain a connection with his inner self.

With a quiet sigh, Lucian was about to return to the outside world.

But only after he digested his gains.