A Will Eternal

When the fire soul arrow exploded, it sent a huge shockwave out in all directions. The long red spear slowed down for a moment, but after completely destroying the arrow, continued on toward Bai Xiaochun.

In the blink of an eye, it slammed into him, causing a boom that shook the entire sepulcher. The walls cracked, the floor shattered, and Bai Xiaochun’s 30-meter-tall stone golem form collapsed, revealing his true form.

He was holding his turtle-wok in front of him, coughing up blood as he was flung violently backward. Although he wasn’t dead, his internal organs had been crushed, and his bones shattered. Skin and muscle were shredded, and he was left hovering on the brink of death.

Bai Xiaochun chuckled bitterly, his eyes flickering with despair. He was well aware that without his turtle-wok, he would have been killed moments ago. After all, he was facing a deva....

The restorative warmth of the last Godly Vestige Pill he had placed into his mouth earlier was already fading away. He only had one more pill in his bag of holding, which he produced now and put into his mouth.

As of this moment, he was out of tricks. If he was injured again, there would be no recovery. And since he was facing repeated attacks at the hands of Mistress Red-Dust, that meant that he now had no chances at survival.

He had used just about every trick he could think of so far, and all of them were weak at best when used against the power of a deva. And clearly, this Mistress Red-Dust was very insistent on seeing him dead.

Whether it was the deva soul itself, the knowledge he possessed of how to use such souls, or just the general Wildlands hatred toward him, she had more than enough reasons to want him killed.

The teleportation power was still building up in the sepulcher, but from what Bai Xiaochun could tell, if the battle continued on as it had so far, he wouldn’t last until it finished.

“I can’t believe he’s not dead!!” Mistress Red-Dust thought. She was really starting to go crazy because of how this fight was progressing. She was a deva, and although there were some mitigating factors to explain why she couldn’t kill someone in the great circle of the Gold Core stage, if news spread that he had stood up to her over and over again, it would turn her into a laughingstock.

The fact that the wok he had pulled out was capable of blocking her red spear caused Mistress Red-Dust’s eyes to glitter. However, she didn’t hesitate to once again advance on Bai Xiaochun, her cultivation base surging as she summoned a Dharma idol into being behind her.

It was an enormous head that bore Mistress Red-Dust’s features. Devas were vastly more powerful than people beneath them, even without Dharma idols. To summon a Dharma idol would draw significantly on the deva's cultivation base, and would normally only be used when fighting another deva. And yet here, Mistress Red-Dust was so anxious to kill Bai Xiaochun that she didn’t hesitate to resort to that method.

When Bai Xiaochun saw the Dharma idol, his eyes turned even more bloodshot than before, and he smiled a mad smile.

“I guess there are no more options now!!

“There is only one thing left to do to buy time, one chance to hold out until the teleportation begins and I can flee this death trap!!

“It’s going to force me down a one-way path that I’ll never be able to come back from, but I have to protect my poor little life!! Time to go all out!!” 

The madness in Bai Xiaochun’s eyes grew as the idea swirled in his mind; as of this moment, he really didn’t have any other options available.

As Mistress Red-Dust closed in with murder in her eyes, Bai Xiaochun let out a shout and slapped his bag of holding, producing a blue and white jade bracelet.

Immediately, the deva soul inside the bracelet began to shine with scintillating light.

Almost as soon as the bracelet appeared in the open, Mistress Red-Dust seemed to realize what he was thinking of doing, and roared, “How dare you, Bai Xiaochun!!”

At the same time, she picked up speed, reaching back with her right hand to deliver a fierce palm strike. That simple motion caused all of the energy in the entire sepulcher to surge into her palm, which she would then use to crush Bai Xiaochun.

Behind her, the Dharma idol’s eyes glared menacingly, and it began to race toward him.

“You’re forcing me to do this, Harlot Red-Dust!!” he yelled angrily. Even as she neared, he unhesitatingly crushed the jade bracelet!

As the deva soul floated out, a look of despair could be seen in Bai Xiaochun’s eyes as his hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture.

“Deva soul merger!”

Instantly, the deva soul shot toward him, merging into his chest. However, that was when Mistress Red-Dust’s palm arrived, collapsing the air around him, shattering everything, and shoving him backward, blood spraying from his mouth, hair flying around wildly. His chest caved in, instantly revealing the flesh and blood beneath his flayed skin!

At the same time, shocking fluctuations began to spread out from inside of Bai Xiaochun, and then a double-image of himself appeared, which stepped out in front of him.

It looked exactly like him, as if a second Bai Xiaochun had suddenly appeared!!

“Deva soul clone!” Mistress Red-Dust exclaimed, the killing intent in her eyes growing stronger.

It most definitely was a deva soul clone of Bai Xiaochun, with a complete cultivation base that was virtually exactly the same as Bai Xiaochun’s. His first action was to protectively grab his own true self and flee from Mistress Red-Dust.

The clone was also bleeding and injured, but he gritted his teeth and unleashed all the speed he could muster.

At the same time, Bai Xiaochun’s true self didn’t hesitate at all about what to do next. It was a moment of deadly crisis, and Mistress Red-Dust’s fury was blazing, and therefore, he yet again slapped his bag of holding.

“Fudge! Alright, if I’m gonna absorb deva souls, what’s the difference between one and two!? Alright, Red-Dust, you pushed Lord Bai, so he’s gonna push you back. To death!!” Gritting his teeth, he produced the deva soul that Du Lingfei had given him and slammed it down onto his chest, using the prescribed method to instantly absorb it.

“You!! Impossible!!” Mistress Red-Dust’s eyes were wide and her mind was reeling. She almost couldn’t believe what was happening; Bai Xiaochun actually had an additional deva soul!!

“Dammit!!” she growled, her madness growing. She had just unleashed power sufficient to destroy Bai Xiaochun’s true self and clone, and yet, that was when another double-image appeared and stepped out. Just when the true self and the water clone were on the verge of being shredded to pieces, the flames of their life force flickering on the verge of eradication, a second clone appeared!

This was Bai Xiaochun’s fire clone!

The fire clone stood directly in front of the water clone, roaring as he drew upon the full power of his cultivation base and battle prowess to fight back against Mistress Red-Dust....

Only a moment later, blood was spraying out of the fire clone’s mouth, and he was bloody and battered. Even his bones were visible, many of them shattered.

However, the time he had bought ensured that Bai Xiaochun’s true self was still alive.

“So what if you have two clones? You’re still dead!” Mistress Red-Dust was feeling quite humiliated. The battle so far had been quite a blow to her, and she even regretted how she had conducted herself so far. If she had known before that Bai Xiaochun had two deva souls, she would simply have allowed the shafts of light to injure her in exchange for the ability to crush him with her full might!

What left her more flabbergasted than anything, though, was what happened next. Even as the two clones fought back against her with all their power, Bai Xiaochun’s true self pulled out another deva soul, this one in the form of a green, jade walnut, which he crushed into his chest.

As soon as he merged with the deva soul, a third clone stepped out! It was none other than a wood clone!

Three clones stood with Bai Xiaochun’s true self to defend against Mistress Red-Dust, howling and fighting back with unyielding defiance!

Mistress Red-Dust was herself on the verge of collapsing mentally at the absurd sight in front of her. To her, Bai Xiaochun was like some sort of freak; not even in her dreams could she ever have imagined that a person like him would have so many deva souls!!

“Impossible! Y-y-you... you have how many deva souls?!?!” Mistress Red-Dust’s heart was in physical pain, and the regret she currently felt went all the way to the deepest level of her being!