Chapter 102: The Might of Double Pupils, A Close-Combat Pupil Master
When the ghostly girl and her guard-like companion appeared before Shangguan Lengyan and Sima Ye, they were dumbfounded.
Especially Shangguan Lengyan.
Because Luo Xue’s current aura, and the sinister, ghostly “will” surrounding her, were characteristic of a Demonic Ghost City cultivator.
Her ghostly aura was even purer and more evil than Shangguan Lengyan’s.
Just facing her directly was suffocating.
“Is this… your younger sister?”
Sima Ye twitched his lips. He could sense that the ghostly girl’s aura was somewhat similar to Shangguan Lengyan’s and should be from the Shangguan clan.
“I don’t remember having such a younger sister…”
Shangguan Lengyan finally recovered and exhaled.
She had already seen through Luo Xue’s cultivation level.
Just peak Innate Realm, about to enter Spirit Condensation.
Even an injured Foundation Establishment cultivator was still a Foundation Establishment cultivator, a world apart from the Innate Realm. A peak Foundation Establishment cultivator could easily crush countless Innate Realm cultivators with a single breath.
Even injured, capturing her would be a piece of cake.
But…
The appearance of this girl, who seemed to be from their clan, shattered all of Sima Ye and Shangguan Lengyan’s previous speculations.
Wasn’t it the Temple of the Nether Spirit who was involved in this conspiracy?
Or… had someone from their clan betrayed the Demonic Ghost City and joined the Temple of the Nether Spirit?
But this speculation didn’t make sense. The Temple of the Nether Spirit and the Demonic Ghost City weren’t connected, neither allies nor enemies.
However, there was no time for Sima Ye and Shangguan Lengyan to ponder this.
When they saw Luo Xue and Nangong Mengxiang, Luo Xue also saw these two prodigies of the Demonic Ghost City.
Instantly, both sides understood, this battle was unavoidable.
Without even a greeting, Sima Ye attacked first. Several ghostly hands extended from behind him, and a few ghosts instantly possessed him.
The Evil Ghost lineage was skilled in controlling ghosts, and the Sima clan’s ghost control techniques all used the physical body as a vessel.
Sima Ye consumed a secret medicine and directly merged with three ghosts.
A Sword Ghost from the Peerless Summit Sect, a Medicine Ghost from the Everspring Pavilion, and a Ferocious Ghost from the Ten Thousand Demons Sect.
A sharp sword intent, carrying a monstrous aura, mixed with a hint of poisonous power, surged towards Luo Xue.
Forcibly merging with the ghosts made Sima Ye’s face as ferocious as a demon’s. His dark purple skin was covered with bulging black veins, and his attack was a killing blow.
However, the ghost sword condensed by Sima Ye couldn’t reach Luo Xue. A tall, alluring figure intercepted him, catching the ghost sword with her bare hands.
“Girly man, your opponent… is me!”
Nangong Mengxiang shouted, her hand tightening, crushing the ghost sword.
Her nightwalker suit fell away, and a simple, unadorned fist smashed towards Sima Ye.
“A body cultivator!”
Sima Ye was shocked and quickly used his ghostly hand to block Nangong Mengxiang’s fierce attack.
Body cultivators were known as the nemesis of ghost cultivators. Unless a ghost cultivator was extremely powerful and had completely abandoned their physical body, encountering a body cultivator was like tying their own hands.
Although soul-targeting attacks were effective against body cultivators, unless they instantly destroyed the soul, these lunatics, who cultivated even their brains into muscles, wouldn’t even care.
Sima Ye did have a powerful technique, but it took time to prepare.
And this time… Nangong Mengxiang wouldn’t give him.
Every punch and kick carried earth-shattering power. Nangong Mengxiang relentlessly pressed forward, the aftershocks of the battle flattening the surrounding dilapidated buildings, even cracking the ground.
Sima Ye was completely entangled by Nangong Mengxiang, unable to free himself.
Shangguan Lengyan’s expression was indifferent. She didn’t pay attention to the battle between Sima Ye and Nangong Mengxiang, her gaze fixed on Luo Xue.
And the pestle in Luo Xue’s hand.
“Which lineage are you from? Why are you here?”
Shangguan Lengyan’s voice was cold, her expression carrying a hint of arrogance.
“…Are you asking me?”
Luo Xue pointed at herself, blinking innocently.
Shangguan Lengyan didn’t speak, her gaze turning colder.
Wasn’t it obvious? You’re the one standing opposite me.
“I’m actually…”
Luo Xue was about to answer, but stopped.
She realized why Shangguan Lengyan had asked this.
She had mistaken her for a member of the Shangguan clan…
It made sense. The face Li Guijiao had created did have the aura of the Shangguan clan, and coupled with the change in aura brought about by the Evil Ghost Subduing Pestle, she definitely looked like an “Shangguan.”
“Perhaps, I should call you Big Sister.” A sweet smile appeared on Luo Xue’s pale face, but it carried a chilling undertone. “My name is Shangguan Xue, and my mother is… Shangguan Yu.”
“Cough, cough, cough…”
A violent coughing sound came from within the Treasure Pavilion.
At the same time, somewhere in the Demon Abyss, a drunken woman fell from her flying sword.
“Aunt’s daughter!” Shangguan Lengyan’s cold expression instantly melted, replaced by disbelief. “Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! Aunt can’t have any children!”
“She’s clearly…”
Shangguan Lengyan couldn’t believe it.
“…Is it really that shocking?”
Luo Xue was a bit puzzled. Why was Shangguan Lengyan’s reaction so big? Could it be that there was something she didn’t know about Shangguan Yu?
Besides, with her shouting like that, the person in the Treasure Pavilion could definitely hear…
Luo Xue suddenly wanted to see Shangguan Yu’s expression now.
However, she shouldn’t take the joke too far.
Luo Xue smiled faintly, just as she was about to say that she had made it up, Shangguan Lengyan’s expression changed drastically again.
After a moment of uncertainty, Shangguan Lengyan whispered,
“No, it seems… this is the only possibility…”
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why, after triggering Shangguan Yu’s remnant soul, this girl could walk out unscathed, holding the completely corrupted pestle.
What if this ghostly girl was really her aunt’s daughter, her cousin?
And another question that had been lingering in Shangguan Lengyan’s mind since before they came to Ghost Demon Pass.
Why did the Evil Ghost Subduing Pestle, which had been lost for a thousand years, suddenly reappear, and in Ghost Demon Pass, thousands of miles away from the original battlefield?
If all of this was to let this “Shangguan Xue” obtain her mother’s legacy… suddenly, it all made sense.
As for who did this… it could only be Master Wumu.
Master Wumu, the manipulator of fate.
If Luo Xue knew what Shangguan Lengyan was thinking, even she would feel wronged for Master Wumu. Just because he liked to go against fate, they couldn’t blame him for everything, could they?
However, Luo Xue didn’t know what was going on in Shangguan Lengyan’s mind. In an instant, her attitude did a complete 180.
“Little Sister—perhaps I should call you that. Perhaps the Evil Ghost Subduing Pestle is your mother’s legacy, perhaps you want to keep it,” a sinister, blood-red light flickered in Shangguan Lengyan’s pupils, “but no matter what, I have to take what’s in your hands.”
Having come this far, how could she give up?
Moreover, in the Demon Abyss, clan members and relatives weren’t necessarily allies, they might even be mortal enemies.
Shangguan Yu and Shangguan Ling, biological sisters, were the best example.
The “Mystic Dark Eyes” ignited at this moment, and Luo Xue felt that the surrounding scenery suddenly became bizarre and distorted, separated from reality.
—The pupil technique, “Mystic Boundary.”
Even though her opponent was only at the peak of the Innate Realm, Shangguan Lengyan still went all out.
“If that’s the case…”
Luo Xue gripped the pestle, and with a thought, the “will” entwined within it gradually merged with her aura.
Luo Xue’s eyes instantly turned into a deep darkness, only her pupils a shocking crimson.
At the same time, a seductive, illusory figure appeared behind Luo Xue, like a guardian spirit.
The combination of the “Double Pupils” talent and the “Mystic Dark Eyes” brought back Luo Xue’s blood-mist vision.
In this vision, Shangguan Lengyan’s entire body was laid bare before Luo Xue’s eyes, as if dissected by a scalpel.
Not only her injured soul, but also the circulation of her spiritual energy, the paths of her meridians, and the state of her injuries, all clearly visible.
The next moment, Shangguan Lengyan moved.
But in Luo Xue’s eyes, her movements were slowed down thousands of times, slow and stiff.
Luo Xue easily grasped her pupil technique, and the corresponding countermeasures appeared in her mind.
This wasn’t something Luo Xue could do on her own. The sliver of Nascent Soul “will” enveloped her, enhancing all her pupil techniques, bringing them to an unimaginable level.
Luo Xue reveled in the sensory experience brought about by this state, as if she was seeing another world.
“Soul Snatch!”
A cold, faint light emanated from Shangguan Lengyan’s eyes, enveloping Luo Xue, trying to pull out her soul.
Once separated from the body, the soul would become extremely fragile, and all soul-targeting attacks would be amplified thousands of times.
Shangguan Lengyan wanted to catch her off guard. She was confident that even if Luo Xue’s soul was separated from her body for just half a breath, she could severely injure, or even kill her.
Unfortunately, Shangguan Lengyan’s attempt at surprise was a joke in Luo Xue’s eyes.
Through the “will,” Luo Xue learned Shangguan Lengyan’s pupil technique and imitated it.
“Let me… snatch your soul!”
A cold light, tinged with blood-red, shot towards Shangguan Lengyan.
The clash between pupil techniques was instantaneous. Shangguan Lengyan was shocked to find that her pupil technique couldn’t affect Luo Xue’s soul—because Luo Xue had already set up defenses in advance, making it extremely difficult to extract her soul.
Moreover, Luo Xue counterattacked. Shangguan Lengyan felt a buzzing in her head, and when she came back to her senses, she was watching her own body slowly fall through her own eyes.
“What!”
Shangguan Lengyan was shocked, but the next moment, something even more terrifying happened.
Her soul… was separated.
Her three souls and seven spirits… were all separated.
Through her soul’s vision, she could see seven Shangguan Lengyans floating in mid-air, and a body falling backward on the ground.
“Soul Snatch,” enhanced by “Double Pupils,” could not only extract souls but also scatter the three souls and seven spirits.
“So useful?”
Luo Xue hadn’t expected her first attempt at using a pupil technique to be so effective, although it was with the help of the Nascent Soul will.
However…
Unfortunately, Luo Xue didn’t have any soul-targeting techniques—Shangguan Lengyan hadn’t used any yet, so she hadn’t had the chance to copy them.
Therefore, after half a breath, the three souls and seven spirits returned to her body, and Shangguan Lengyan, still shaken, steadied herself.
“You… are definitely not at the Innate Realm!”
Shangguan Lengyan murmured.
How could an Innate Realm cultivator possess such a terrifying pupil technique…
“Ah, I’m indeed not at the Innate Realm anymore.”
Luo Xue looked within and found that after merging with the “will,” with the understanding gained from the Nascent Soul will, she had naturally crossed the chasm between mortals and immortals.
A Spirit Condensation aperture formed in her sea of consciousness, and she reached the Spirit Condensation Realm.
And because of her previous accumulation, she directly reached the peak of the early stage, about to enter the mid-stage.
At the same time, Luo Xue noticed that the Nascent Soul will was gradually fading, reaching its limit.
Shangguan Yu had put in a lot of effort to make it possible for even an Innate Realm cultivator to merge with it, but the duration was still inevitably short.
Of course, it wasn’t a one-time use item. After a cooldown period, it could be used again.
“Let’s end this quickly.”
Luo Xue composed herself and, while Shangguan Lengyan was still recovering, charged forward, holding the Evil Ghost Subduing Pestle.
At the same time, a cold light emanated from her captivating eyes.
“You—”
Shangguan Lengyan was startled and uncertain. She bit her lip and cast a protective pupil technique on her soul.
Although she didn’t know why this unfamiliar cousin was using a pupil technique at such close range, she could only try her best to resist.
As a skilled user of pupil techniques, Shangguan Lengyan knew how terrifying a technique that could separate the three souls and seven spirits was.
Unlike ordinary soul separation, the state of having one’s three souls and seven spirits scattered was a cultivator’s most vulnerable moment.
So vulnerable that even a strong wind could scatter their soul…
Shangguan Lengyan never wanted to experience this terror again.
As expected, after Luo Xue used her only learned pupil technique, “Soul Snatch,” Shangguan Lengyan once again felt the instinctive fear of her soul being separated from her body.
She focused all her attention on resisting the pupil technique, desperately holding onto her soul.
It was because she was unprepared before that Luo Xue had succeeded so easily. This time… she wouldn’t make the same mistake!
Finally, after a long but brief clash in the world of consciousness, Shangguan Lengyan protected her soul, preventing it from being extracted again.
When her consciousness returned to reality, she breathed a sigh of relief, thinking she had escaped the danger.
But unexpectedly…
The ghostly girl had already appeared above her, raising the Evil Ghost Subduing Pestle high, a sinister smile on her pale face, her crimson pupils terrifying like a demon’s.
“—Take this!”
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