Chapter 206 Graveyard and Void

Graveyard and Void

Seeing the locusts burrowing into the children’s flesh, Seana’s knuckles turned white around her hilt.

"You bastards," she muttered, glaring at the figures guarding the altar.

She, too, recognized Seth immediately, but that didn’t matter to her right now. After all, she didn’t have any attachment to him.

Lothe walked forward, his black spear held in one hand. He stopped twenty paces away, leveling the spearhead at Seth’s chest.

Seth didn’t move. His gaze traveled from the cold steel point up to Lothe’s face.

"Lothe..."

"I didn’t expect to see you here," Lothe said, his voice flat.

Seth looked down. "There’s a lot you don’t know."

"Then tell me."

Seth hesitated, glancing toward the convulsing children before looking back. "It isn’t that simple."

"Make it simple."

Silence stretched between them.

Lothe kept the spear steady. "No matter what happened to you, some lines shouldn’t be crossed. You of all people should understand that."

Seth flinched.

He remembered the early days of the apocalypse. He remembered being bitten, betrayed by his own sister, and left to die. He remembered Nyren attacking him—and how Lothe and Seana had stepped in to give him a chance.

They had saved his life when everyone else wrote him off as a corpse.

And now, here they were. Probably disappointed at him.

"Look at them, Seth," Lothe said quietly. "They’re just kids."

Seth closed his eyes. "I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know until today. I knew Master was searching for a way to save us, but I never knew he was harvesting children."

Lothe glanced at Leon. "So he’s your master."

"Yes," Seth said. "He took me in when I had nowhere to go. He gave me a home and taught me how to cultivate." His fingers tightened around his black spear. "I know how this looks. I hate seeing those kids suffer just as much as you do. But what am I supposed to do? Turn on the only person who helped me? Let everyone in the city lose their minds?"

"Why exchange words with him Seth" Leon said from the side.

Seth looked up, defiance flashing in his eyes.

"It’s easy for you to judge. You survived without having to make these choices. You didn’t end up like this."

Not knowing where the caurage came from, he raised his spear, matching Lothe’s stance.

"It’s always easy to talk about right and wrong when your own mind isn’t rotting away."

Lothe studied him for a second.

He could tell Seth meant every word. The youth wasn’t acting out of malice; he was trapped between loyalty and desperation.

None of that mattered right now.

"Are you going to step aside?" Lothe asked.

Seth didn’t back down. "I can’t. I can’t let you destroy our only chance."

Lothe lowered his spear a fraction. "Even if it means protecting this?"

Seth stayed silent.

Lothe’s expression went cold. "Then there’s nothing left to say."

Seth moved first.

His black spear thrust forward, dragging a dense wave of dark Qi behind it. The air turned frigid, accompanied by faint, distant wails that sounded like voices from beyond the grave.

[Death Spear Art — First Form: Graveyard Piercer!]

The spear drove forward with brutal speed, dark Qi condensing to a sharp point at the tip. At the same time, two humanoid wraiths tore out from the shadows behind Seth, their clawed hands reaching for Lothe’s shoulders.

Lothe shifted his feet, leaning aside just enough to let the spear graze past his chest.

Before he could counter, a faint whisper sounded right in his ear.

Help me...

Lothe’s eyes narrowed.

It hurts...

For a fraction of a second, the clearing vanished. He stood in a vast, desolate graveyard under a black sky. Cracked tombstones stretched into the distance, and pale hands clawed their way out of the soil.

The dead were weeping.

A heavy, dragging sensation pulled at Lothe’s Core. His Spiritual Qi was leaking out, swallowed by the illusion.

It wasn’t just a mental trick—Seth’s technique carried a necrotic spiritual domain that siphoned energy while confusing the senses.

A faint purple ripple spread beneath Lothe’s boots. He circulated his Void Qi, anchoring his mind against the chill.

But Seth didn’t give him room to adjust.

A black spearhead broke through the darkness, aimed straight for Lothe’s heart. He went for the kill even though he didn’t want to.

Lothe twisted his wrist and swept his spear upward.

CLANG!

Sparks flew.

Before Lothe could follow through, a wraith lunged from his blind spot, clawing at his throat.

Lothe leaned back. The claws grazed his chin, leaving behind a streak of numbing cold. He pushed off the ground, vaulting backward.

The wraith stretched unnaturally, lunging again. Lothe snapped his spear horizontally, sending a razor-thin spatial wave through its torso.

The spirit split in two—only to dissolve into black mist and pull itself back together.

It regenerates?

Before Lothe could test it again, Seth was already upon him.

His spear came down in a heavy diagonal slash, trailing dark Qi. The whispers of the dead grew louder in Lothe’s ears, and the drain on his Core sped up.

Lothe raised his shaft to block.

BOOM!

The impact drove Lothe three steps back, the vibration rattling his forearms.

The difference in cultivation was obvious. Seth was at the Mid Stage of Core Formation, and his strikes carried a heavy, crushing density that tested Lothe’s Early Stage foundation.

Seth pressed the attack, thrusting toward Lothe’s throat.

Lothe tilted his head, letting the blade whistle past his ear. He stepped inside Seth’s guard, thrusting his spear toward his ribs.

A wraith threw itself between them, taking the blow. Spatial force tore its chest to shreds, scattering it into mist.

In that same split second, Seth reversed his grip and swept the spear butt across.

Lothe twisted his torso away, but the metal tip still clipped his side, tearing through silk and drawing a line of blood across his waist.

Lothe backed off several paces.

The graveyard illusion around them was growing clearer. The tombstones were sharp and solid now, glowing with sickly green runes. Skeletal arms reached higher from the dirt, and the wailing grew louder.

Lothe felt another chunk of Qi pulled from his meridians.

Seth was using the domain to wear him down, letting the wraiths create openings while his spear kept up the pressure.

Lothe tightened his grip on his spear. He couldn’t afford a drawn-out exchange.

Void Qi surged from his Core into the black shaft. The space around the spearhead began to warp.

Seth saw the distortion and shifted his stance to guard.

Lothe vanished.

[Void Step — Spatial Anchor!]

A spatial ripple appeared behind Seth.

Lothe emerged from the void, driving his spear straight toward Seth’s back.

Seth reacted on instinct, spinning his spear behind him to block.

CLANG!

Lothe didn’t bounce off. The space around his spearhead folded violently.

[Void Spear Art — First Form: Rift Thrust!]

The spear’s path bent in mid-air.

Instead of meeting the block, the point slipped through a spatial fold and drove toward Seth’s shoulder.

Seth’s eyes widened. He threw himself sideways, but the spear still ripped through his robes, carving a deep gash along his upper arm.

Seth staggered back, clutching his bleeding arm. "You’re finally taking me seriously"

"You’re also dangerous yourself." Lothe landed several paces away. His breath remained steady, but his Core felt the strain. The graveyard was still siphoning his energy, and Seth was already rallying.

Dark mist gathered around Seth’s feet. The wraiths Lothe had dispersed rose from the ground once more, their forms solidifying as dark Qi poured from Seth’s body.

Seth leveled his spear, his face grim.

[Death Spear Art — Second Form: Wraith King’s Pursuit!]

The graveyard shook.

Dozens of wraiths pulled themselves free from the soil, armed with spectral swords and spears. They moved in perfect rhythm with Seth.

Whenever Seth thrust, a wraith lunged from the opposite side. When he pulled back, two more stepped in to flank. Their strikes carried real weight now, hitting with the force of physical weapons.

Lothe parried a wraith’s blade, stepped aside to dodge a spear, and swept low to take out another’s legs.

The spirit shattered into smoke, but Seth was already there.

His spear stabbed toward Lothe’s ribs.

Lothe turned his body, taking a shallow cut along his side rather than a clean pierce. Blood stained his purple robes.

Seth’s technique wasn’t just brute force anymore. Every thrust was backed by the swarm, filling every opening before Lothe could counter.

He was being forced onto the defensive. And the longer the fight dragged on, the more Qi the domain consumed.

Lothe’s eyes narrowed. His Void Qi flared to its limit.

[Void Spear Art — Second Form: Spatial Drill!]

Void Qi wrapped tightly around the spearhead, forming dozens of micro-thin spatial blades that spun in a blinding vortex. The air shrieked like metal grinding against stone, and cracks spread through the stone beneath his feet.

Lothe lunged forward.

The spinning spatial vortex tore through the incoming wraiths, shredding their forms so completely that the mist couldn’t reform.

Seth raised his spear horizontally to block the direct thrust.

BOOM!

The weapons collided.

A screech of grinding metal echoed through the clearing as Lothe’s spatial drill chewed directly into the dark Qi protecting Seth’s shaft.

Seth’s arms shook violently.

His cultivation was higher, but the spatial blades were physically tearing his Qi apart.

Realizing he couldn’t stop it head-on, Seth twisted his spear, deflecting the drill past his shoulder.

The vortex grazed his arm anyway, shredding his sleeve and cutting multiple bloody furrows into his forearm.

Seth stumbled back, his boots dragging through the dirt. Dark Qi flared around his wounds as he caught his balance, his breathing heavy.

Lothe didn’t press the attack.

He held his spear at his side, breathing slowly.

The spatial technique had taken a noticeable bite out of his reserves. At the Early Stage of Core Formation, he couldn’t afford to trade blows carelessly with a Mid Stage opponent.

He kept his eyes locked on Seth.

"Is this really the path you’re choosing?"

Seth looked down at the blood dripping from his fingers, then tightened his grip on his spear once more.

"I’m choosing to survive."?