Devouring Qi

"What the… this is…"

Cobra looked around in awe at the scenery around him—a purple landscape all over. A purple sea, a purple sky, and a white full moon. Clearly, this was not normal—it was a mutated variant.

"… The Devil's knowledge sea?"

"You noticed. Well done."

"Wha-?!"

Cobra suddenly turned around only to see Xuan floating there, a slight smile on his face. His body, however, extruded an immensely powerful aura, enough to make Cobra gulp in fear and emit cold sweat from his forehead. Xuan looked like a god in this realm despite the horrible shape his physical body was in, which shouldn't be possible.

That was all it took for him to realize what had happened, and how horribly he'd fallen for Xuan's trap.

"You… how is your Soul still this powerful?! Your physical body should be dead! I stabbed your heart… cut off both your hands… not to mention the deadly poison on my blades… how?!"

"You're right. My physical body should be dead and my Soul should be reduced to a single wisp… that is, if my body was normal. Didn't you notice when you cut me with your armblade? Was that really the feeling of cutting flesh? You should know that feeling very well as a hired assassin, shouldn't you?" Xuan laughed.

"…"

Cobra fell into thought, considering Xuan's words. He recalled the moment his armblade entered Xuan's body, and the moment he pulled it out. And now that he really thought about it… it really wasn't exactly the feeling of flesh.

It felt almost ethereal, like Xuan's body was made out of energy—of Qi—rather than blood and flesh. Cobra was baffled—he'd never seen something like this before. Was it a secret physique he didn't know about, or was it simply some special secret art that Xuan cultivated? Either way, it now made sense—no wonder Cobra's cuts weren't enough to kill him. If his body was made of ethereal energy, what good would a materialistic sword strike do?

'… No. I have to get out of here!'

Realizing he'd lost, Cobra quickly turned around with grit teeth and attempted to flee, but Xuan only chuckled.

"Trying to run? Too bad, too bad…"

With a snap of his fingers, a vortex suddenly opened in front of Cobra, sucking him in.

"Wha- agh- AHHH!"

With a scream of both rage and fear, the leader of the Four Serpents disappeared for good, and a notification appeared before Xuan.

<Devil's Knowledge Sea>

<Four Serpents (Cobra) Absorbed>

<Strength +30,600>

<Defense +20,000>

<Soul Strength +40,000>

<Soul Defense +40,000>

"… Not bad, not bad."

After exiting his knowledge sea and returning to the real world, Xuan inspected the corpses of the other three members of the Four Serpents. This time, they were dead for good—Mamba just managed to hold on for a bit longer than expected.

After all the chaos and noise that was made here, the city guards would surely be on their way here. Xuan needed to move quickly—and that he did. Bending over Mamba's corpse first, he used Devouring Qi to suck his Soul out of his body and into his own, obtaining his knowledge, experiences, and techniques.

<Four Serpents (Mamba) — Devoured.>

<Poison Agony Pill x5 — Obtained!>

<Black Mamba (Sword) — Obtained!>

<Qi Overflowing — Unable to obtain any more until breakthrough!>

'Hm… so Devouring Qi can let me consume their Qi to let me progress faster in my cultivation as well… interesting. But… where are the techniques and knowledge promised-'

<͏M̡E̴͘M̧͟ÒR̵̸͟I̕͝͞È͢͟S̵̷ —͜͠ ̴͞E̶͘͘Ŗ̷̧R̵͘O̡R͝͏̧!̛>҉̛

"Ngh—?!"

Suddenly, Xuan's system screen flashed dangerously red in an error code, and he felt a horrible headache attack his brain. He fell to the floor, clutching his skull in pain.

'D̵I͟E͏͠͡!҉ ̸D̢͘I͘҉̶E ͜͜D̢͏̀I͏͡E̸͜ ͠҉͡DÍ͠͠E!'

̢́

'̧L͟É͜͟T҉͠͞ ͏M̸E̴͘ ́F͞͞R̢E̵̴͢E̢̕͢!͏'͢

͘͏

"Shut… up…!" Xuan growled at the distorted voice in his head, eerily resembling Mamba. "What's going on…?!"

'̸͘HOW ͏̨͞DA̸̢͝R̡̀E҉ ̶͡Y̡̨OU̷ ̛̀C͏̨́A̵͜P̷̶͜TÚ͏R̵̕͠È̛͢ ̨́͟ME͞!̢̨'

̡'̛҉̧HO̡͞W̧͡ D͞À̧R̷͘͞È͏ ̢̛Y̛͟O̷͜U͞ ͠S̸Ţ͠EA̸͝Ļ̴ ͏̕MỲ MĘM̀͘ÓR͠͝Į̶͘ES̴̴͟?̧̀!̶̨'̡

Quickly, he used his Soul Defense stat to raise his knowledge sea's defenses once more, and the voice went away. He could still faintly hear it in the back of his mind if he tried, but it wasn't anything painful or distracting.

"Hah… hah… hah…"

Panting heavily, he slowly rose to his feet, and glanced at the other two bodies—Viper and Python. It was regrettable, but he didn't want to risk anything. If he tried absorbing their Souls too with Devouring Qi, there was a good chance his mind would burst, even though he had a Soul Defense stat of 16 billion. After all, the Soul and the body were connected. Given his current physical state, lined with fatal injuries—not to mention being handless—it would be hard for him to handle it.

If it wasn't for his body being tempered using World Qi rather than classic physical training, he would've died a long time ago—and he still would, if he didn't get medical treatment pretty soon. He couldn't even access his System and retrieve some Health Rejuvenation Pills to stall for time, since he had no hands.

He needed to get out of here—as fast as possible—and figure out what that strange phenomenon just now really was.

*****

On the way back to Open Sky Alchemist Guild, Xuan passed by the ladder that he'd used to get on top of the roof of the building. Said building was half-destroyed as a result of both Python's attack and Xuan's Sword Intent, but the ladder still stood.

Using the civilian clothes that the four assassins had tossed away, Xuan did his best to disguise himself and hide his wounds. He was still limping and looked odd if anyone were to pay close attention to him, but at least he wasn't dripping blood as he walked.

It would be better if he could use Ruo Xi's brooch to change his appearance as well, but he couldn't exactly do that without his hands. At the very least, his presence was still hidden from when he was hiding on the roof—he never took that off anyway; there was no reason to.

Thankfully, since it was now nighttime and everyone was eager to get to the scene where all the noise came from, they didn't really pay attention to the sidelines of the road where Xuan snuck by. The crowd acted as the perfect cover for him, and that plus a little bit of luck allowed him to reach Open Sky Alchemist Guild without being discovered.

Gritting his teeth and hanging on to consciousness by a breath, Xuan slowly lifted a shaking hand and slammed as hard as he could on the door—which, granted, was not very hard, given how weak he was at the moment.

Thankfully, someone was already prepared inside, having been waiting for him to return home. Almost immediately, the door opened, so quickly that Xuan didn't even have time to back away, and he fell forward from the momentum…

… Crashing directly into Zhi Ruo.

"J-Junior brother?!" She cried out as she fell onto the floor from Xuan's weight. "Ah- what happened? Why are you…"

"Take me… to a bed," Xuan weakly breathed by her ear, too faint for it to even be considered a whisper. Zhi Ruo, however, understood, and with some struggle, stood up to her feet while carrying Xuan on her back.

"Grandmaster Dun! Help me with this, please!"

"What? What happe-" Grandmaster Dun came through the hidden room leading to the staircase upwards, and as soon as he saw the sight of Zhi Ruo attempting to carry Xuan up, his eyes widened.

"Xuan boy!"

Immediately, he rushed over and heaved Xuan onto his back, taking over the duty from Zhi Ruo's hands.

"Zhi Ruo, go bring some healing pills from storage. The highest-grade ones possible—hurry!"

"You don't need to tell me that!"

Hurriedly, Zhi Ruo rushed off in worry, while Grandmaster Dun began carrying a weak and barely-alive Xuan up the staircase.

"Just hang in there for a bit longer, kid… just hang in there."