Chapter 117 — What Happened? [Second Update]

Although it was his first time circulating his divine sense in this way, Zuo Yan's control over his divine sense was far superior to that of the yin sha. All those materials he had refined had not been refined for nothing. His divine sense had originally been much stronger than the yin sha's, and his control was stronger as well; he simply had not known how to use it. As he probed how the yin sha before him employed its divine sense, Zuo Yan felt as though a paper window had been easily pierced.

A thread of divine sense condensed into a needle and bored toward the yin pearl.

He had not expected the yin qi within the yin pearl to be so solid. That single thread of divine sense was a little too feeble. Zuo Yan was not one to cling stubbornly to a fixed form; he quickly split off several more threads and gathered them into one, and only then did they barely manage to pierce into the yin pearl.

The moment his divine sense entered the yin pearl, Zuo Yan immediately sensed an astonishing change.

He seemed to be standing in a gray, hazy world. All around his body was incomparably dense yin qi, cool and rather strange.

Zuo Yan's mind went blank for a moment. Only when he felt the hard texture beneath his feet did he snap awake.

That thread of divine sense that had entered the yin pearl also came from him. The sensations it fed back clashed with those of his own body's divine sense, and that was what had caused the sudden daze.

It sounds complicated, but in truth it was no more than the snap of a finger.

A pitch-black yin thorn appeared before the yin sha. The instant it took shape, Zuo Yan felt a sinister, terrifying aura and tensed at once. Fortunately, the 'yin thorn' in his own hand was completed at the same moment. Strangely enough, the yin pearl still kept the shape of a pearl, but its color changed from gray to something like the most perfect crystal, transparent and utterly free of impurity.

Although he had refined it step by step in imitation of the yin sha, Zuo Yan was still unsure. Gritting his heart, he raised his hand and flung the transparent crystal pearl.

At the same time, the yin sha's yin thorn launched.

The pitch-black yin thorn moved, and a great wu-wu sound rose, like an infant's wailing, as yin wind howled.

Seeing such a terrifying and appalling display, Zuo Yan felt even less sure. Holding the Dripping Water Sword in his right hand, he forced himself to stay calm. He decided that at the slightest sign of trouble, even at the cost of injury, he would immediately unleash Leaving Water to Burn the Heavens. He had already injured his meridians by reversing his spiritual power a moment ago; if he used Leaving Water to Burn the Heavens again, his injuries would surely worsen. But he had no many other choices.

Only then did he realize that what he trusted most in his heart was still this move, Leaving Water to Burn the Heavens. The demon Pu had described the yin fire pearl as incomparably powerful, but he had never used it, and during its refinement he had nearly given up halfway. Zuo Yan did not know whether its power would be compromised.

He had personally experienced the power of the talisman soldier, and it was indeed a good thing, but it required time to chant the spell and form the hand seals. In an emergency, there would be no time to use it.

Only Leaving Water to Burn the Heavens could be unleashed at any moment, so long as the Dripping Water Sword was in his hand.

He could not help smiling bitterly. Leaving Water to Burn the Heavens was not hard to use, but limited by his cultivation, a moment's carelessness could injure him. He resolved that once he returned, he must properly study the matter of life-saving ultimate moves.

Taking his stance, Zuo Yan cast all distracting thoughts from his mind and fixed his attention on the pitch-black yin thorn.

The transparent crystal pearl traced the most ordinary parabola in silence, without the slightest sound or menace. The pitch-black yin thorn, by contrast, was appallingly loud. The surrounding yin qi seemed to be dragged along; the grim yin wind set Zuo Yan's clothes flapping loudly and chilled him to the bone. A sky-covering wu-wu howl and an all-pervading yin cold pressed in. Anyone with a weaker will would probably not even be able to summon the thought of resistance beneath such force.

In the corner, the demon Pu watched blankly as pearl and thorn collided.

Pfft!

There was no violent collision as imagined, nor any radiance, only a soft sound like a bubble bursting.

Yet it was precisely this soft sound that cut off the sky-covering wu-wu noise, and the bone-drilling, sinister cold suddenly vanished like smoke.

Zuo Yan, who held the Dripping Water Sword and had long been prepared to risk everything at the first sign of trouble, was also frozen in place.

At the impact, the crystal pearl turned into a sphere of transparent light, and the awe-inspiring pitch-black yin thorn was melted by that transparent radiance, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye. The light sphere, its momentum unspent, rushed at the yin sha. The yin sha seemed to have been struck by an immobilizing spell; it did not move at all, letting the light sphere strike its body.

The yin sha struck by the light sphere made no sound. Like a snowman, it melted away at astonishing speed, disappearing together with the light sphere and leaving not the slightest trace.

At the instant the light sphere vanished, Zuo Yan's mind went blank for a moment.

After a while, Zuo Yan came back to himself and stared blankly at the empty ground.

This... what was going on?

At the instant the light sphere and the yin sha vanished together, behind him, Pu's blood-red pupils abruptly contracted, but they quickly returned to normal.

"Pu, this... what is going on?" Zuo Yan turned his head and asked haltingly. He had imagined many different outcomes, but the one before his eyes was absolutely not among them.

The demon Pu said with utter disdain: "A blind cat stumbling onto a dead mouse."

Zuo Yan absolutely would not accept such an irresponsible explanation from the demon Pu. He took out another yin pearl, injected a thread of divine sense into it, waited until the yin pearl once again became a crystal pearl, and then threw it.

Pfft. The crystal pearl struck the ground. A faint glimmer flashed, and it disappeared, leaving not even a pit on the ground.

Apart from a brief daze, there was no reaction at all. Zuo Yan stood there dumbly.

"Haha!" The demon Pu laughed loudly.

Could it really be a blind cat running into a dead mouse? Zuo Yan did not quite believe it. Or perhaps this thing was only useful against yin sha?

"It was not easy to come across a yin sha of decent quality, and now you've gone and made it disappear." The demon Pu seemed somewhat dispirited. He casually tossed out several crystal stones, and Zuo Yan felt his vision blur; then he was back in the stone chamber.

Once back, the demon Pu returned to his sea of consciousness and sat down again on the tombstone, closing his eyes to rest. Zuo Yan thought it was most likely that this fellow had eaten too much and was now slowly digesting it.

Back in the familiar stone chamber, Zuo Yan finally felt exhausted to death. For a whole day his spirit had been stretched taut, especially during the final encounter with the yin sha; his mental energy had been greatly consumed. Paying no heed to the cold, damp stone slabs on the floor, he fell asleep as soon as his head touched the ground.

"Do not forget!"

"Even in death, you must not forget!"

...

In his sleep, a warm green light rose from Zuo Yan's chest, turned into a thin stream, and dispersed through his limbs and every organ.

The demon Pu sat on the tombstone, coldly watching the distant void.