"What is this?!" Xu You loudly questioned as his Mystic Ward began to shiver chaotically, seemingly on the verge of collapse. His eyes widened as he inspected his body once again, finally noticing that something was affecting the crucial components of his Mystic Power—Physical, Mental, Essence, Spiritual, and Mystic Energies. They were experiencing a decline in their intrinsic stability and their strength was seemingly been devoured by an unseen force. This force was undetectable by his Spiritual Sense!
As Xu You found his internal situation continuously deteriorating, his heart shook as he recalled the floral fragrance that caught his attention. He swiftly calmed down as he redirected his energy to reverse the effects of this unseen force, using his Mystic Intent to aggressively maintain his innate energy's structural integrity.
"Poison?" An ordinary cultivator would've succumbed to their growing fear at the unexpected and ludicrous discovery of their deteriorating situation, besieged by panic and dread, but Xu You was an experienced old fox and instantly calmed down. This wasn't his first time being poisoned.
He hastily withdrew a general antidote peak Mystic-Earth grade purification elixir from his Saint Ring and downed it into his mouth without any hesitation in his movements.
"CHARGE!" The Legion of War did not wait for him to solve his current predicament or assess his situation, and they struck as a unit and charged Xu You with their Mystic Auras fully evoked. While individually, each Spirit of War was inferior to Xu You, some even vastly superior, as a Legion, they easily matched his power.
A true army of cultivators wasn't scattered and acted as mortals, but was a united force that could gather their strength through miraculous tactics and combat formations that relied on each soldier as the central component of the whole. Together, they could fight off a Worldly Saint!
They rushed Xu You with killing intent, ramming against him in what could be considered an extremely simple tactic. However, by forgoing arts and spells, they cut down their offensive initiation time to the barest minimum imaginable. Xu You hadn't even had the time to properly begin the refinement process of his antidote before his Mystic Ward was slammed by their united Mystic Aura!
"Ugh!" Xu You's eyes reflected a wisp of rage as he was blown back. His Mystic Ward scattered and shrunk, weakened again and again. Before Xu You could react, the Legion of War roared with blood-boiling ferocity and charged once again!
Zhan Zheng's eyes contained an unbearable chill as he watched Xu You struggle. A Worldly Saint was unable to muster much of a response as he was assaulted both externally and internally, a fearsome combination that could collapse the strongest of cultivators. The fact that Xu You reacted calmly and intelligently displayed his experience and strength once more. It would be a lie if Zhan Zheng didn't wish to summon his mount and charge in first, fighting this expert with everything he had.
In the fields of slaughter and death, it was the fight with beings beyond your ability and the ensuing triumph that invigorated the spirits and provoked the greatest changes in one's potential. His fists clenched as he grew restless.
Unfortunately, Xu You had fallen into this quagmire of a death trap. He wouldn't get the chance to have a true battle. Truly unfortunate.
Zhang Gu led her Battalion in the joint assault, her eyes brimming with excitement and ardent fervor. This ambush was exquisitely designed, and she felt thrilled that others could feel how she felt once before—how they all felt!
Their earlier attacks had been slowly infused with Myriad Gravestone Poison, but it was properly refined unlike before, containing genuine Mystic-graded materials and an entire World Devouring Rose as the core material. The Myriad Gravestone Poison that had conquered them before they even realized it was raw, easily seen through by Spiritual Sense, and could be countered by simple tactics. It was constructed with over 40 different mortal-grade materials and could only affect Ascended beings because of the single World Devouring Rose's petal being introduced and forcefully fused into it.
This Myriad Gravestone Poison lacked any mortal-grade materials, contained the entire World Devouring Rose, and was properly refined by what could be considered a Mortal Saint Alchemist! While not entirely perfect, have a few flaws, but these flaws were easily covered up in this ambush.
For example, this entire space enveloped by Stellar Transit Light might seem unbearably large, expanding thousands of miles across, but this was remarkably small in terms of what beings at their levels could traverse in the briefest of moments. To them, this was a small cage similar to an adult human being caught in a chimpanzee cage.
Here, the poison could be spread without any extra power that might betray its existence. After all, if this was outside, the fragrance would spread out for tens of thousands of miles, thinning out and becoming increasingly ineffective. If a poison cultivator were to use it, they would try to attack their opponent with their various forms of power, be it Qi, Astral Force, or Mystic Power, and others would never allow it to easily hit them. A sealed cage was its best delivery environment.
Another flaw was that it's easily repelled by a simple Mystic Ward. In true battle, a cultivator almost always has their Mystic Ward erected. Xu You was tainted by his belief in his unmatched invincibility, so he went essentially naked throughout the entire process. He had only summoned his Mystic Ward after finding out the effects of the Myriad Gravestone Poison and was forced to face their initial charge!
Furthermore, cultivators at the Earthly Saint or higher stages rarely used their Mystic Powers to perform movement arts. They were used to executing Spatial Shifts by using the world's power, not their own. In fact, most experts at their level refused to use a single iota of their own power unless they faced genuine danger. They would exert their Mystic Aura, stir their Mystic Intent, and manipulate the mystic-graded worldly forces to eliminate their enemies—Space, Time, Mana, Light, Etc.
To them, losing a percentage of their Mystic Power could take months, if not years, to recover. The stronger they were, the truer this became. It was either to refine their mystic power naturally or rely on rare, expensive mystic-graded alchemical products.
The Myriad Gravestone Poison needed to be circulated to affect the body, so restricting their usage of Spatial Abilities such as Spatial Shifting effectively forced them to execute Movement Arts that used Mystic Power. These flaws were perfectly circumvented, and Xu You had willingly fallen into this trap as if he was a paid actor.
Zhan Gu was extremely excited! She manically shouted in her heart that Xu You should die faster, that way she could inspect his body and see how the Myriad Gravestone Poison could be improved to better affect Worldly Saints. If Xu You knew the glee and expectation in her thoughts at dissecting his corpse, he would probably risk it all to kill her first.
However, Xu You still didn't feel that things were out of his control. This was merely little poison. So he defended while trying to refine his antidote.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
The Legion of War was relentless. They kept charging repeatedly, driving Xu You into an explosive retreat that took him a hundred miles away. He wished he could focus on two things at once, possessing two minds, so he could focus on defending and refining. Unfortunately, while his Mystic-graded mental energies were terrifyingly powerful, and he could multitask effectively, true splitting of one's attention always left a divergence of focus and energy that led to inefficiency.
With a soft roar, he pressed his palm forward and his Mystic Heart Intent went into action, exerting a forceful conversion of the ambient Spatial Energy into Mystic Energy. He clenched that open palm, and the Mystic Energies condensed into a round shield that blocked the legion's next charge.
This only stopped them for a fraction of a fraction of a second before it shattered with an explosive burst. Their charge rushed through with even greater intensity. But this was the slightest bit of time needed to refine the generalized antidote, circulating it to combat the Myriad Gravestone Poison.
While he didn't hope to eradicate it, he hoped that it would cause a distraction enough to retain sufficient strength to escape! He had already figured out how to do so, but his Mystic Power was extremely unsteady, and without a stable source of power, he wouldn't be able to breach the Sealing Formation.
Zhan Zheng praisingly nodded; Xu You's usage of his Mystic Heart Intent was extremely refined, and it was clear that he knew how to shatter the Sealing Formation after he forcefully seized the spatial energies in this space with it and converted it into Mystic Energy. By his estimation, Xu You should be able to escape if given the time.
Unfortunately, he made a misstep.
Xu You's generalized purification antidote was extremely efficient in combating foreign material within the body by attaining the foundation of the Mystic Soul and figuring out what should and shouldn't be there. Even if the poison evaded his Spiritual Sense with frightening means, it wouldn't normally be able to avoid this as the poison couldn't be accepted by his Mystic Soul as part of him.
But Wei Wuyin's refined Myriad Gravestone Poison wasn't so simple, and he was a Mortal Saint Alchemist. How could he not account for such purification antidote products? If it was simply a skilled apothecary turned poison master, then this might work, but Wei Wuyin was an ungodly talent in alchemy skilled in all types of products—including poison and antidotes.
Xu You's eyes widened as the antidote circulated throughout his body like ferocious lightning seeking its prey, but after undergoing a complete circulation of his body, he sensed the antidote had lost about 30% of its effective purification strength.
Then, his Mystic Ward began to weaken even further.
"The poison is stronger?!"
However, as if finding its foe and feeling good about its chances, the purification power made another circulation cycle and seethed.
Another 30% was lost.
By this point, the Mystic Ward of Xu You shattered entirely after a violent charge of the Legion of War! Their united roar defended his ears after he lost his protection, absolutely at a loss as he felt his four essential energies begin to collapse at a much faster rate. Moreover, it was as if the purification power wasn't attacking and expelling any poison, but his energies!
Horror was finally rising in Xu You's eyes!
"CHARGE!!!" Zhan Zheng gave the order and the Legion of War listened! They were like manic bulls as they flew towards Xu You with everything they had!
Xu You was about to activate his Mystic Heart Intent, but then he felt a strange power begin to suppress his Mystic Intent! No, his Mystic Soul!
The World Devouring Rose's name wasn't given due to its poisonous traits; in fact, it wasn't poison by any means. It was capable of absorbing every type of energy source in the world and using it to bloom! But its true horror was its ability to devour Mana, the glue of everything!
How were Natal Souls formed?
By developing a type of personalized mortal-grade Mana in the False Reality Phase and infusing Spirituality in the next!
The states of a Natal Soul, from 1st to Zenith, were all based on how empowered one's personalized Mana is by the merging of Qi Essence! It wasn't just the glue of everything, it was the glue of Natal Souls, Astral Souls, and Mystic Souls! And these souls were the basis by which Intent gained strength.
The Myriad Gravestone Poison was originally designed as a poison capable of slowly weakening a cultivator, and the World Devouring Rose changed that to slowly siphoning the cultivator's energies and strengthening itself! While it was short-lived if left alone, it was terrifying if interacted with.
The Soldiers of War painfully knew this truth.
And Xu You was about to learn this as well.
His Mystic Soul began to grow unstable causing his life to flash before his eyes as all sorts of hectic emotions, memories, and thoughts of regret flowed through his mind. But no one would be able to know these things.
BOOM!
The fruits of the Legion of War's efforts pushed Xu You's unprotected body into a rainbow wall. His eyes widened so much that one would fear eyeballs might pop out of their sockets. Suddenly, a flow of Present Time Energies invaded his body and his thoughts, twitches of his muscles, and the circulation of his power stilled.
The Legion of War watched as Xu You was finally trapped. They watched calmly, nearly ten thousand eyes observed the Worldly Saint that had reached unimaginable degrees of power with obscene levels of effort, struggle, and willpower. No matter what, he was an enemy and thus should be respected for his journey thus far. This was something ingrained in the Dao of War—respect. Not just towards your enemies but yourself as well.
From beside Xu You's frozen body, a white-robed figure exited out of the rainbow wall. Behind him, three figures with unfathomable auras followed respectfully, their auras enveloping him. The Legion of War's spines all straightened immediately after this white-robed figure's arrival.
When his silver eyes swept them, containing a light of satisfaction, they felt a sense of swelling pride. This was none other than their lord who infused them with his Soul Light, Wei Wuyin!
But he didn't speak; he grasped the hilt of his saber at his waist, and without hesitation, stabbed it into Xu You's dantian, piercing the Mystic Soul that struggled against the Present Time Energies.
"It's too bad you don't know who I am. While you aren't who I wanted to come here, you deserve death all the same." Wei Wuyin said with a chilly indifference. He plunged his saber deeper! Annihilation Saber Force erupted with the greatest intensity imaginable!
It was supported by the three Earthly Saint's Mystic Power beside him, giving him enough strength to pierce and kill!
Xu You's eyes, for the briefest of moments before his consciousness would eternally fade, regained a light of consciousness despite the Present Time Energies, but all he saw was the mystifying brilliance of those silver eyes. In his last moments, he was stunned by how he had never, in his entire life, seen such beautiful color before.
Today, a Worldly Saint fell.