A Battle for the Mind

The old man smashed in Red's mind. He had been observing the ritual taking place with complete attention, even though he was frozen in place.

The moment this old man invaded his mind, Red set up his mental fortification with every ounce of his will. The practice he had done the past few weeks had really helped him here. Using his all, he began resisting the old man, however the old man kept on hitting into his mental barrier with immense force.

Red suddenly realized one thing. This old man's mental projection was very strong and Red knew he couldn't hold on for too long, but it was still weaker than the slaughter intent from the scabbard which had helped him rebuild. Red felt like he could resist this invasion for fifteen minutes. The old man was shocked by the defense of Red's mind but he simply smirked. "Boy! Your mind is surprisingly strong, but there is no way you can resist this mental transference ritual. Why do you think I sacrificed people to transfer my mind? As time passes, the pressure your mind feels will only keep increasing."

Red, however, ignored him. He couldn't dare spare a thought other than defending his mental fortification with all his will.

Lana and the Asura saw that the old man had entered Red's head and he was perspiring heavily. They had been protected by their treasures, but they were still frozen in place and had no clue how they would survive. The Asura was worried, because her treasure was not going to last too long. It was the mask that had been given to her by her mother, and now that was on the brink of shattering. The moment it shattered, she knew she too would age and die. Lana tightly held her fist. "No matter how powerful that being is, Mr. Clown is very peculiar. He is resisting that being even right now, may be he can get us out."

Within his mind, Red was beginning to lose resistance very slowly. Like the old man had said, while his initial strength was strong and Red could resist for fifteen minutes, his invasive strength kept getting sharper and sharper and stronger and overwhelming with time and Red couldn't hold on anymore.

Suddenly he heard the cauldron. "Kid, don't give in. If you do that bastard will consume your mind." Red got irritated. "Can you help me with something I don't know?" The pressure kept increasing. Outside Red's body, the ritual had created a vortex of energy above Red's forehead which was slowly feeding the old man energy to invade Red's mind, which was increasing the pressure. "Boy, it's time for you to give up!" The old man's mental form laughed.

The mental wall Red had been holding up, now had a million cracks and was about to shatter. Red was really getting desperate at this point. He was at his limit, but he didn't know what to do. Then he finally heard the cauldron sigh. "Don't give up, the moment your barrier shatters, I'll help you out." Red suddenly had a tinge of hope in his heart and with renewed vigor he went on defending. However, the old man's power increased and the barrier finally shattered and Red's mind came in contact with a very large and powerful mind. Immediately he felt very small and was going to be stomped like an ant.

At that moment a presence of gold suddenly appeared pushed back against that extremely powerful mind, saving Red from being swallowed. Red and that golden presence, which was the cauldron spirit joined hands to resist the mental invasion, but the cauldron immediately realized that even the two together weren't a match for this old man.

The old man was surprised again. "Boy, you really have a lot of tricks up your sleeve! A spirit treasure of such a high grade? Unfortunately for you, you still cannot resist me."

At that moment, the burning body of Senior Flame Tribulation woke up and her eyes opened. She looked on the brink of death, yet at that moment she opened her eyes. This wasn't the old man controlling her, but the Senior Flame Tribulation herself. She saw the altar and Red on it as well as the glowing tattoo of the cauldron on the back of his hand. Her eyes blazed and immediately her mental projection entered Red's mind as well.

Lana and the Asura were stunned at what happened. Red was perspiring, yet the ritual was still ongoing, which meant that he still had been resisting and then his hand began glowing brightly and suddenly it felt like his complexion got better and suddenly the Senior's eyes opened and a beautiful woman entered his mind.

Within Red's mind, both Red and the cauldron were on the brink of disaster when suddenly another powerful presence interrupted the tripartite mental stand. "Mistress! You were alive!" The cauldron cried out. The old man was shocked and the sound of a woman sounded out. "Old bastard, you made the grave error I had been waiting for, today you will finally die."

The powerful woman, Senior Flame Tribulation attacked the old man from behind while Red and the cauldron resisted him in the front. Tackled from both sides the old man snorted. "I didn't expect you to actually hide your own mind!"

Flame Tribulation had only rage on her face. With her arrival the energy funnel which powered the old man was stopped and Lana and the Asura were released from being sealed.

The sudden arrival of Flame Tribulation completely changed the equilibrium. The old man was at the disadvantage now, but this only led to a stalemate. The Old man laughed. "Stupid woman, the more you attack me the more your body will burn and once your body perishes, you and this boy will die along with it!"

When Red heard that, he knew that this was indeed going to happen. Realizing that, his spirit started to lose hope. He inwardly cursed at the old beggar. "Beggar, you are really a good schemer! At this rate I won't even become a ghost!"

Yet, as if a stroke of both genius and madness, Red had an idea. He had noticed that the seal on him had unfrozen because of Senior Flame Tribulation. "If I am going to die, might as well die fighting!" Red yelled and suddenly took out the scabbard from the storage ring. "Here goes nothing!" He said as he stopped resisting the old man and put his entire concentration into the scabbard to sense its slaughter intent.

Like a huge tsunami, a powerful blood slaughter intent invaded Red's mind, but he didn't resist it at all. A huge flood of slaughter intent immediately hit the old man. Usually Red would immediately cut off from this scabbard when the qi would break his defenses, but now he kept trying to decipher the intent deeper and deeper without any attempt at defending his psyche.

The slaughter intent pierced into the old man who yelled in bewilderment. "This... This... How can it be you!" However, caught in a stalemate already, he had no way to resist at all. The slaughter intent invaded his mind in eaves upon waves.

Red who was exploring the intent in the scabbard deeper and deeper, suddenly realized he had peered past the blood like slaughter qi and had come to a a grassland within his mind. Flame Tribulation, Divine Cauldron and the Old man looked in bewilderment as their surroundings changed to a grassland and they found a mysterious man looking at their direction.

His eyes were sharper than the sharpest swords and he looked calmly at the four as if he were looking at an ant. He took his left leg back and leaned forward. The scabbard Red was exploring was now on that sword eyed man's waist. The man made an instantaneous movement with his hand, and the hint of a blade appeared from the scabbard but had already returned to its place.

The cauldron and Flame Tribulation were thrown out of Red's mind. The old man only had a look of incredulity on his face as his individuality was erased by that slash and his mind collapsed into tiny particles. The grassland disappeared and Red was pushed out of the scabbard.

Outside the ritual immediately stopped and Red's hand stopped glowing. Red's hand was on the scabbard that had been glowing dimly with a red aura, but stopped. Flame Tribulation suddenly smiled and sat down, her body was still burning with flames.

Red, however, didn't wake up. Facing the slash, even though it wasn't directed at him without any defenses had damaged his mind with a huge crack in his psyche. He was stuck inside his inner mind. Surrounding him everywhere were droplets of identitiless mental fragments that used to belong to the old man. At that moment the metallic silvery liquid that had fused with his brain in Puratynt B's anomaly event suddenly emerged with a blue energy fused within it and suddenly began guiding the memory fragments to fuse with Red's mind to heal himself. However, until he healed his mind, Red couldn't get awake.

He heard the Cauldron. "Kid, are you alright? You didn't die?" Luckily Red could converse with this cauldron. "My mind is damaged, it'll take me a few hours to heal and awaken." When the cauldron heard that it disappeared.