75 Carelia's Smile

The exact moment her scream ended, the woman felt with increasing rage the reactivation of the blue participles of energy that were hidden inside the cultivation base of the body she was inhabiting.

"That little shit!"

Her face paled: she had tried every method at her disposal to sever that link and expel those few sparkles of blue energy from Star Leaf's body: nothing worked!

The woman remembered when she first saw the blue man conjure the spell on Darkscale and Star Leaf. It was something that she didn't plan for, but it wasn't something that could hinder her plans for the green haired girl. On the contrary, if it helped her with her cultivation it was even better! It actually helped her plans go faster than expected!

So, at first she wasn't that preoccupied at all: after all, it was a simple bridge-magic, a spell that dao couples used in dual cultivation. Instead of connecting their bodies physically, they connected magically their cultivation bases.

Although it wasn't exactly something that could be considered a common spell, especially seen that this blue link didn't need to be constantly maintained and created an unbelievably good link between the cultivation base of Darkscale and Star Leaf, it was still a spell created only to allow dual cultivation, how hard would it be to break something like that?

Yes, there was a problem with the fact that she couldn't really tell what was the combination of power inside those blue strands of energy, yet Carelia didn't actually think it was a big deal.

The man that branded the two youngsters with the blue energy wasn't even a true Transcendent!

The kinds of energy someone with his cultivation had access to weren't something that she was afraid of. Maybe the blue link was made from some rare form of Supreme Energy that she never heard of. Then what? She had access to an immense source of Supreme Energy, Ghost Power!

When the Blue Monk appeared, she hid. She told Darkscale that it was because she was scared of the man, and thought he would take the ring for himself.

Lies.

The truth could not be a father than that: she didn't hide because she was afraid of being noticed and killed by him. No, she hid because she was afraid of not being able to kill the strange man before he fled away.

She had no fear of someone of that level. She found him very hard to deal with in the same sense than a grown-up man finds a sneaky rat very hard to deal with. She didn't want to spent too much time and energy dealing with something like that.

Even if he wasn't transcendent, he seemed to be very close to the realm of Laws. Someone like that would definitely have access to many defensive items and also should have a level of Tempering high enough to allow Teleportation.

She couldn't risk being identified! If she truly was identified, she would then be obliged to follow the blue man wherever he went and try to silence him. She didn't have the time for that. That's why she hid.

"Dammit!"

Suddenly the blue link shined with dark light and it started pushing corrupted bloodline power inside the body of her vessel.

"Here we go"

The pain she was already feeling, became even stronger now that new corrupted energy was pouring inside of the body she was using. Normally she would simply leave the vessel to its fate, but now she was locked inside of it!

'I was too careless, dammit!'

If she tried to move while she was connected to the red screen, she would probably suffer a killing blow from the array and have her entire soul exterminated!

This second screen, wasn't like the first one. The first one opened to anyone from the Seven Bloodlines!l This one instead could be open only by those of the Seventh Bloodline!

Normally Carelia wouldn't care much about what was evidently an inheritance ground left behind by some elder of the Lost Bloodline. Similar places were numerous as the star in the sky. Some contained useful things, others were only filled with useless junk.

This one, however, wasn't a simple inheritance gound. Carelia had recognized the figure represented on the front of the entrance: the Stranger! The Masked Founder of the Seventh Bloodline, and one of the most hated cultivators in all history. The Masked Thief was especially hated by those who cultivated the Bloodline Dao, yet he was also considered one of the most powerful experts that ever lived.

If there was even a single chance that this inheritance ground was authentic, then it was worth it ten thousand times over to blow her cover and even risk of being detected by using too much freely her bloodline power.

Unfortunately, to open the second portal, not being a member of the Lost Bloodline, she needed to carefully manipulate the Runes that composed the red screen. Basically, she needed to trick the array left behind by whoever erected that inheritance ground. She had to make it believe that she wasn't from the Fourth Bloodline, but the Seventh.

Doing so was not that easy. Not with an array so complex. The pain of the corruption was making it harder, and now the process was even slower and more dangerous.

Talking with Darkscale wasn't an option. She knew him well. She saw him mature from the insecure small animal always looking around for someone to lead him, to the strong-willed expert he was now. If he had decided that he wanted her dead, he would not change his opinion that easily.

Screaming at him had been a very bad idea. It was something that she did in the heat of the moment, feeling that this great opportunity was slipping away from her fingers.

'Little shit, I should have killed him before entering the Trial Zone. I don't have time for this, I need to complete my work on the array before someone manages to sense me!'

Although Carelia really wanted to just concentrate on the solution of the complex array in front of her, Darkscale put her on the spot: she couldn't just leave the corruption move from the Forest Will Tribe's green haired girl to her soul!

'I can't let my soul by infected... this corruption can't find its way inside my soul, it needs to stay inside the vessel!'

Carelia gathered her Ghost Energy and sent it to block the advancement of the corrupted energy. The silver power formed a shield of some sort between her soul and the body that she was inhabiting, preventing the corruption from spreading to her.

The flame around her became smaller, but the dark power coming out from the blue link was blocked. However, this was only a temporary solution that could not be maintained for long. Plus with less energy at her disposition, her work on the red screen was going to take more time!

'Dammit!'

What the woman truly feared was that the corrupt energy managed to touch her soul. The only thought terrorized her.

This would lead to Soul Corruption and she would lose her mind and become a mindless beast. In time her body would age and die, and then only her soul would remain behind, wandering aimlessly in this cave like the other corrupted souls she had seen around. It was truly a fate worse than death.

If the corrupted energy stayed only inside the body of Star Leaf, Carelia knew that she would able to survive this. The vessel she was wearing would probably die in the end, but who cared about that.

"Why the hell isn't he losing his mind yet?"

If he was able to send her corrupted energy, this meant that the energy had been inside of him at some point. She could block her soul from being corrupted by the energy in her body because she had been shown how to do it. But how did the serpent manage to resist until now?

Maybe he had a stronger resistance than normal? Yes, non-Vitruvian entities had less control over power, but also had more resistance. This was true. However, even that resistance had a limit.

The woman kept blocking the corruption power in Star Leaf's body and continued working on the giant scream before her. While she was in pain and her vessel was being destroyed by the bloodline, she also firmly believed that Darkscale couldn't keep up with his own strategy without dirtying his own soul and losing his mind.

Probably he already did, losing everything right after his dream of becoming a real cultivator had finally become true.

A smile appeared on the now unrecognizable face of Star Leaf. The black veins made it seem like she was wearing a horrifying obsidian mask.