Chapter 547: Counter Kill

Li Chengxia, the third daughter of Prince Yuanx Yong’an?

Fourth-Grade Peak!

Ming Nianwei’s heart skipped a beat. Her face turned deathly pale, her eyes filled with utter despair.

No wonder!

‘No wonder I sometimes felt there was something strange about Tong Li’s gaze, his words, and his actions.’

‘So that wasn’t Tong Li’s true self, either. There was a Li Chengxia inside him all along.’

‘In that case, all those feminine gestures and postures suddenly made perfect sense.’

“Back then, my father, the Prince, was condemned by the Divine Dynasty and besieged and killed by numerous Martial Arts experts. I couldn’t escape my fate, either.”

Li Chengxia seemed in no hurry to make her move, speaking at a leisurely pace:

“In my desperation, I used the Soul-Transfer and Soul-Seizing technique, crossing tens of thousands of miles to seize Tong Li’s Physical Body.”

“Unfortunately…”

“Tong Li’s Talent was mediocre, and he was a man. His male body was incompatible with my Primordial Spirit, which made a perfect fusion impossible.”

“Just then, members of the Celestial Eagle Thieves came knocking. I had no guards with me at the time. The moment I showed the slightest abnormality, they broke my legs and threw me in a cell. I wasn’t rescued by the people from the Zhu Mansion until two years ago.”

Her voice was tinged with emotion as she recounted the past.

Li Chengxia had lived for over three hundred years, but she had spent most of her life in Cultivation.

As the daughter of a Prince and a Commandery Princess herself, she had barely interacted with common people over the past three hundred years.

She had certainly never suffered any real hardship.

Her experiences over these past few years had been nothing short of earth-shattering, to the point of affecting her very character.

“Time’s up.”

Her illusory Primordial Spirit stood within Ming Nianwei’s Sea of Consciousness. As Li Chengxia spread her hands, countless chains descended from above, piercing deep into the Sea of Consciousness and extracting something from its depths.

Memories, attachments, the Soul…

Everything that had once belonged to Ming Nianwei was devoured, bit by bit, and fused with Li Chengxia’s being.

“No!”

“Don’t!”

Terror bloomed in Ming Nianwei’s heart.

She could feel her consciousness fading away, bit by bit, her thoughts silently erased.

Against Li Chengxia’s possession Secret Technique, the Soul-Stabilizing Pearl lasted only a moment before shattering completely.

‘My path of Cultivation has been severed.’

Fourth-Grade Peak—the very limit for a Mage.

An existence this powerful, at their full, unimpeded strength, could crush the entire Taiyuan Prefecture with ease.

All the preparations she had made were like a child’s toys before such a foe—utterly fragile.

‘Even with Zhu Ju’s help, what difference could it make?’

‘It’s over!’

Despair flooded Ming Nianwei’s heart.

This was a confrontation within the Sea of Consciousness, one that didn’t involve the Physical Body. Here, her opponent could unleash the full might of her Fourth-Grade Cultivation.

‘How can I possibly resist?’

“My dear disciple, it is your honor to have your Physical Body become the vessel for your master’s rebirth.”

“Haha…”

“The Divine Dynasty, the Evil Dragon, the myriad demons of Mang Mountain…”

Li Chengxia raised her hands high, her long hair flying wildly, her face twisting into a cold, ferocious snarl.

“All of you who destroyed my Li Family—just you wait! I will have my revenge on every last one of you!”

“Soul-Stealing Technique!”

“Go!”

As her Divine Thought trembled, a chilling beam of Profound Light descended from above, landing in the Sea of Consciousness.

Ming Nianwei felt her Divine Soul tremble, as if something vital was being forcibly ripped away from her.

A hollow, empty feeling washed over her.

‘Something’s not right!’

Her eyes flashed as she came to a sudden realization.

‘My Soul has clearly been torn away, and my memories and attachments are gone.’

‘Why…’

‘am I still aware of my own existence?’

Logically speaking,

‘I should be ‘dead’ by now. After all, my Primordial Spirit is gone.’

‘No!’

A light flickered in Ming Nianwei’s eyes.

‘I can still feel my own consciousness. That means my Primordial Spirit is still here! My True Spirit is still here!’

As if she had realized something, she suddenly focused on the soft halo of light enveloping her.

The glow was faint, almost imperceptible, yet it wrapped her within it.

Even as her Three Souls and Seven Spirits, her consciousness, and her attachments were all being stripped away, this light had protected that single spark of her True Spirit, keeping it from being extinguished.

‘A technique like this…’

‘Zhu Ju?’

‘How is that possible?’

‘How could Zhu Ju possibly protect my True Spirit from a Fourth-Grade Peak Cultivator, a master at the very pinnacle of Magic?’

“Annihilate!”

BOOM!

RUMBLE…

Countless streams of light descended, purging the entire Sea of Consciousness like rolling Yin Thunder, crushing everything in their path.

After a long time, Li Chengxia’s figure reappeared. Her face looked haggard, but her eyes were filled with joy.

An ownerless Sea of Consciousness and Physical Body, just waiting for her to occupy them.

“Here I come!”

With a low cry, Li Chengxia lunged forward, abandoning Tong Li’s Physical Body to merge into Ming Nianwei’s.

「A moment later.」

“How can this be?”

Within the Sea of Consciousness, Li Chengxia shrieked:

“Why can’t I fully occupy this Physical Body? What went wrong?”

Her voice was laced with panic.

A Fourth Grade,

had not yet condensed a Nascent Soul.

Without the protection of a Physical Body, even she couldn’t survive long in the outside world.

As for becoming a Ghost Cultivator…

It was too late for that now!

“The Array was fine, the Secret Technique was fine, the process was fine…”

“So what the hell went wrong?!”

BOOM!

Countless bolts of lightning exploded in the Sea of Consciousness as Li Chengxia roared madly, her Divine Thought sweeping back and forth across the mental space.

Enveloped by the Profound Light and submerged in the depths of her Sea of Consciousness, Ming Nianwei watched the surrounding turmoil, her heart pounding in terror.

She felt both terror and a glimmer of joy.

She was terrified because Li Chengxia was truly worthy of the title of Fourth-Grade Peak Mage—she could be crushed with a single thought.

The joy came from the fact that whatever measure Zhu Ju had given her, it had somehow managed to deceive the perception of a Fourth-Grade Magic Cultivator.

A Fourth-Grade Mage can neither survive for long outside a Physical Body, nor can they occupy a body whose True Spirit remains un-extinguished. If this dragged on for too long, Li Chengxia’s Primordial Spirit would surely dissipate, and she would be able to reclaim her own body.

“Found you!”

Then, suddenly,

a delighted voice rang out.

Ming Nianwei felt her spiritual form tremble as her consciousness was pulled upward by an Invisible Power.

‘Damn it!’

Her heart sank.

“I never thought you’d have a trick like this up your sleeve, hiding a wisp of your True Spirit here.”

Looking at the True Spirit enveloped in Profound Light, Li Chengxia’s face filled with surprise. Then, a Spiritual Light flared between her brows.

“No matter.”

“Die!”

Third-Grade Technique—the God-Slaying Demon-Subduing Needle!

The Divine Thought of her Fourth-Grade Peak Primordial Spirit transformed into a seemingly solid spike and shot toward Ming Nianwei.

Its power was so immense that even before it struck, Ming Nianwei felt her True Spirit on the verge of shattering.

Just then, the Profound Light enveloping her trembled and transformed into a mirror, reflecting Li Chengxia’s image perfectly.

Not only that, but it also reflected a perfect copy of the God-Slaying Demon-Subduing Needle.

BOOM!

The two nearly identical streams of Divine Thought collided, sending ripples across the Sea of Consciousness and causing both women’s expressions to change drastically.

Terror filled Li Chengxia’s eyes, while Ming Nianwei’s were alight with ecstasy.

“Impossible!”

“This is…”

Li Chengxia’s face twisted, as if she had realized something. She couldn’t stop herself from pointing at Ming Nianwei and crying out hoarsely:

“Formless…”

BOOM!

Spiritual Light erupted from the mirror once more, unleashing the same Magic Li Chengxia had used before—the Soul-Stealing Technique and her other spells.

An endless torrent of Spiritual Light surged forth.

By the time Ming Nianwei came to her senses, Li Chengxia’s Primordial Spirit had vanished. In its place, a flood of new memories filled her mind.

“This…”

“What just happened?”