Spirit Cultivation

Swoosh!

Just as he tried to sense the Air Qi in his surroundings, all the Qi around them reacted to his call. It moved at his will as if he had permanent Wind Domain turned on. 

To his surprise, he could even feel the air going in and out of their lungs, giving him an evil idea. He could feel Yiren and Nuwa were struggling already so he sent them back, staying back alone. 

"You have bloodline!" the old man called outright as he regained his freedom, distancing himself. "Good! Good! Do you think you can fight me? Let me show you the real power of an Immortal!" 

A bow appeared in the old man's hand and he shot an arrow at him without hesitation. 

Xuefeng only extended his palm, letting it hit him. 

Puff!

The arrow split in two, turning into the wind while losing all of the power behind it. 

"Don't worry, it won't be a long fight," Xuefeng muttered.

Cough…

Cough, cough… 

The old man suddenly grabbed onto his chest, then neck, gasping for breath. He opened his mouth to speak yet no words came out. 

"It must be hard to breathe when you have no air to breath from," Xuefeng commented, walking up to the old man. 

High ranked cultivators could survive a long time without breathing fresh air, only using the capacity of their lungs yet now Xuefeng emptied them completely for him. The old man began to create his own air only to have it stolen by Xuefeng right after. 

Thud, thud. 

He fell onto his knees, visually losing strength with each second. 

Slash!

The old man's hand fell to the ground, blood gushing in all directions. All rings came off from his fingers and flew towards Xuefeng's palm. He didn't give the old man any chances to come back. 

Even though he wanted to scream, the old man's lungs were empty. 

Placing his Dragon Edge on the old man's throat, he asked in revenge, "How does it feel to have a sword up your throat? Did you think the situation would turn like this?" 

Whoever hurt his women deserved the same treatment and even worse. He didn't even feel bad for his bullying but he got scolded by Ling. 

'End him fast. You are using a lot of Fate Qi.'

'Wait, what?' Xuefeng questioned confused. 

'Did you think power comes from nothing? The bracelet is sucking Fate Qi from you the more you use it,' Ling explained which absolutely made sense. 

Elemental Bracelet was a Spirit Artefact in a sense so it needed a source of energy to function. 

He didn't have an unlimited source of Fate Qi so he finished the job, ending the old man's life with a clean cut. 

Thud. 

The head rolled on the ground and the headless body fell lifelessly. Even if the old man hurt Wu, there was no need to torture him anymore. 

"Such irony," the Phoenix muttered with a sigh. "He wanted to achieve immortality by killing the Elemental Bracelet holder yet he died at the hand of the very same person. He waited all those years for nothing." 

Xuefeng had to kill him anyway as he couldn't pass on such a great ability. Just the sheer thought of being able to control time made him desire it. 

"Leave the rest to me," Ming said as she appeared next to him and crouched next to the old man's body. 

She extended her palm above his chest and closed her eyes. A second later, a golden orb came out of his chest, sucked into Ming's hand. It was a round ball made of what looked like a thick liquid.

Ming inserted her hand inside the ball and her expression immediately turned ugly. 

"Bastard…"

 It was the first time he saw Ming curse like this. 

"What happened?"

She didn't reply right away but instead leaned over and gulped the whole liquid down her throat, swallowing everything. Ming returned into his body right after, clearly upset. 

'He connected his soul with his Fate Spirit,' Ming finally explained, still fuming. 

'Isn't that exactly what we did?' Xuefeng asked. 

'No, you don't understand. He literally consumed his Fate Spirit to prolong his life. Gone. The Fate Spirit is gone forever. It won't be reborn even after this bastard death,' Ming explained further. 'Now I know why I couldn't sense him earlier. He used almost all of his Fate Qi and there was no Fate Spirit inside him I could sense. Even if we didn't do anything, he would die on his own soon.; 

'How is that even possible?'

'I don't really know how... It shouldn't be possible. Fate Spirits are the only beings in this universe that are truly immortal. We return back to the reincarnation circle and get reborn. This bastard must have found an evil way to consume his own Spirit. I don't like this…' Ming muttered unhappily. 

'So he basically freed himself from his Fate Spirit and took over its powers? He was still able to use his abilities so there can't be other explanation,' Xuefeng guessed. 'But why didn't he use the Fate Stones Mine underneath the mountain then?' 

'Maybe he couldn't sense the Fate Qi as Spirits can?' Ling proposed, joining their conversation but there was nothing they could do to confirm it. 

'Damn,' Ming cursed again. 'It wouldn't have happened if the Fate Kingdom was still open, monitoring everything under the Heavens. What if more Fate Spirits suffered similarly? Evil Sects might have appeared since the control lessened and invented some method against Spirits.' 

'Don't worry, we will investigate and if there really is such sect, we will destroy them,' Xuefeng assured. 

He knew how much it mattered to her, knowing she was actually the mother of most of those Fate Spirits. 

'Wait,' Xuefeng paused her, getting a sudden idea. 

He pulled out the rings he got from the Old Man and scanned them swiftly. Ling and Ming joined him to speed up the process only to find nothing useful to their case aside from one object. 

Black Token with three words inscribed on the surface. 

'Dark Fate Sect.'

Title - Dark Fate Sect