Chapter 240: Mental Demons, Finally Stronger? [PART 2]
Li Yao floated in the endless void of space, the cracks covering her body having spread even further across her skin. She didn’t seem to be completely conscious. Suddenly, she clutched her head with both hands, screaming out in agony.
"What’s happening to me?" she wondered as her eyes darted around. "Did I go unconscious? My head feels like it’s going to explode" she spoke aloud.
"Thats right, senior brother, I have to..."
But then she paused abruptly as she noticed something in her hands. She was holding a small, ornate cage, and inside that cage, she could clearly see her senior brother trapped like a helpless bird.
Before she could fully process what was happening, everything around her shifted. She still held the cage containing Xiang Yu, but now she found herself trapped inside a much larger cage of her own. Looking up through the bars, she saw the one who held her prison—a massive, imposing dark silhouette that towered above her like a mountain.
Li Yao was taken aback for a moment by the sheer size of the entity. But then, unexpectedly, she started chuckling softly.
"I finally get it now," she said. "Is this what they call mental demons?" she laughed.
Her expression then shifted to become serious as she stared directly at the dark silhouette looming above her. "You made two huge mistakes," Li Yao started. As she spoke, her earlier red cracks began receding across her skin, being rapidly replaced by brilliant blue cracks as crackling lightning started gathering all around her.
The dark entity seemed surprised by this sudden shift.
"First," she continued, "I don’t like tight spaces." Her spiritual aura exploded outward with tremendous force, completely shattering the cage that had been holding her prisoner. The metal bars scattered like broken glass into the void.
"Second..." she spoke, her gaze shifting to the small cage she still held in her hands, "I really hate it when someone tries to take what belongs to me." Her expression transformed into something truly terrifying.
"Only I am allowed to take from others," she declared.
With that final declaration, her aura flared even more dramatically, extending outward in a brilliant white light. The white light expanded rapidly in all directions, encompassing the dark entity and continuing onward to swallow all the surrounding darkness.
Meanwhile, inside the spiritual sea, the Empress was still absorbing all the corruption energy flooding Li Yao’s consciousness. She thought to herself that this situation was really getting out of hand. Was her earlier assumption about Li Yao’s being able to break free actually wrong? Could it be that she couldn’t break free in the end?
As she began to doubt her earlier assumptions, she suddenly noticed a brilliant white light rapidly approaching. A relieved smile spread across her face.
"So she made it after all," she thought with relief.
In the next instant, the white light encompassed the entire spiritual sea, destroying all traces of corruption it encountered. The Empress could finally allow herself to relax as the corruption energy was completely eradicated from Li Yao’s consciousness.
She looked down at her own darkened body, watching with satisfaction as it slowly restored to its original color. "Are you back?" she asked, noticing that their connection had finally been restored.
"Yes, thanks," Li Yao replied.
The Empress smiled, but her expression quickly turned serious. It seemed someone powerful was definitely targeting Li Yao. She would need to accelerate her plans even more.
Outside in the physical world, Li Yao was carefully practicing qi circulation methods to calm her spiritual energy that had gone completely out of control during her qi deviation episode. She wore a deeply serious expression as she worked to stabilize her cultivation, but her mind was focused on the vision she had experienced.
It seemed someone was definitely targeting her senior brother. She needed to become much stronger, and quickly.
She glanced up at the storm clouds gathering overhead, noting how the lightning was starting to get more and more riled up.
...
From that brief exchange, Xiang Yu was able to estimate her combat power to be roughly equivalent to peak Soul Formation realm, rather than the late-stage level he had initially expected. This realization made him a little nervous, if this form was already at peak Soul Formation strength, would her limit break transformation jump straight to the Void Traversing realm?
That seemed utterly impossible. The sheer distance between those two cultivation realms was so astronomically vast that anyone below the Void Traversing level might as well be considered a mortal in comparison.
Xiang Yu abandoned his casual approach and became completely serious. He needed to determine whether Li Yao could truly bridge such an impossible gap with her final transformation.
Within just a few short breaths, he managed to defeat this new form, though he found the battle somewhat more challenging than it should have been due to her irritating teleportation ability that allowed her to escape his finishing moves repeatedly.
After finally overcoming this version, she entered her limit break form.
Instantly, Xiang Yu’s precognition activated, showing him an incoming attack from directly behind his position. He quickly dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike. The two combatants now faced each other across the battlefield.
Just from analyzing the incredible speed of that opening attack, Xiang Yu knew that this was the real deal. He launched himself forward to attack, and their epic clash began.
As they exchanged earth-shaking blows, each impact sending shockwaves through the simulation environment, Xiang Yu confirmed his earlier suspicion. This wasn’t the Void Traversing realm after all, merely a significantly stronger version of Soul Formation power. Although she had become multiple times more powerful than her previous form, she remained nowhere near the level of Void realm cultivation.
"Maybe half-step... nah, that’s too generous. A quarter-step toward Void, perhaps..." he mused internally as they continued their relentless exchange of devastating attacks.
Although they appeared somewhat equally matched in raw power, Xiang Yu maintained a consistent upper hand thanks to his precognition ability. He utilized this advantage to its fullest extent, systematically overwhelming her defenses until he finally achieved decisive victory.
A triumphant smile spread across his face—he had won. He was finally, genuinely stronger than Li Yao in combat.
Still, as he basked in the sweet taste of victory, part of him felt slightly disappointed that Li Yao hadn’t managed to surprise him in the end with some hidden trump card. This meant that if a true Void Traversing realm opponent ever came to attack their sect, they would be completely doomed with no hope of resistance.
"Hmm... that’s weird, why isn’t the simulation closing..." he wondered aloud as he finally registered that his surroundings hadn’t changed back to the spirit vein.
Suddenly, he felt his entire body become completely immobilized. It was like being encased within a solid block of impenetrable ice—he couldn’t move so much as a finger. In the next instant, he felt the frozen space surrounding him begin to crack ominously, spider-web fractures spreading through the air itself.
Those same cracks appeared across his own body, splitting him into countless fragmented pieces. Then everything went completely dark...