19 A Desperate Yuan Zhen

"Don't be mad. I'll tell you the secret now. It's actually a matter of if you can sing as well as a disn-- Uah!!"

"I'm being serious this time. Fucking bastard! Gu!!"

"Don't you dare hit me again, you little shit! Pft!"

Soulbleeder was losing his patience, and thus was striking Yuan Zhen repeatedly. He was convinced that Yuan Zhen either didn't know the secrets behind his reincarnation or he was unwilling to speak of them.

As for Yuan Zhen, his blood boiled within him. Though Soulbleeder was constantly imbuing his strikes with poison, he could not do any true damage. As quickly as Yuan Zhen was poisoned, his unique blood would neutralize the poison. The reason for it turning black was merely the result of that 'dead' poison being forced out of him.

Still, despite his best efforts, Yuan Zhen could not free his energy from Soulbleeder's immeasurable soul power. As for Feral-Fang, he was all smiles and giggles.

"Tell me, Yuan Zhen. What was your goal in coming back here? Did you want to finish us off? Perhaps you wanted to steal away Ji Xie's treasures! Gyahahaha!"

"Ji Xie?" Yuan Zhen glared into the distance upon hearing that name. Soulbleeder paused, keeping an eye on his expression.

"His treasures? So he thinks he can claim what's mine? Oof!"

Soulbleeder landed another blow, then allowed Yuan Zhen to cough and spit by placing him on the ground. Unexpectedly, the lock on his energy persisted despite the lack of physical contact.

"I see you're even more resilient ...how boring." Soulbleeder shook his fist and turned away from Yuan Zhen, taking deep breaths. Feral-Fang took this as an invitation to walk over to the beast and kick him in the jaw.

Yuan Zhen fell back with a thud. Before he could properly adjust to the attack, he felt a numbness spread from where he had been kick. At that moment, he felt his jawbone 'unhinge' and sway unhindered.

His eyes widened at the state of his jaw, and got even wider when he used his hand to properly assess its condition.

It was like a limp limb. He couldn't move it without the help of his hands, and could not even attempt to heal it without his energy.

The quivering seas of blood in Yuan Zhen's eyes burst with raging contempt as he glared at Feral-Fang.

"There's that lovely expression. I'd forgotten how satisfying it was to see." The bane-devil chortled madly and once again moved his leg. It slammed down onto Yuan Zhen's chest, then rose again and collided with his stomach.

Dozens upon dozens of times, Feral-Fang pummelled Yuan Zhen with his foot, leaving a permanent scar on the earth.

Yuan Zhen's vision began blurring as his consciousness tottered, on the border of passing out and staying awake.

He tried to speak, but his broken ribs had punctured his lungs and other organs, leaving him unable to say anything.

Without his energy he would begin to choke on his own blood, or perhaps would succumb to his injuries before that could happen. Either way, he was in a dire situation. Anything he could do to prolong his life at this point would be momentous.

He turned to look at Soulbleeder, who had gone off to the side. Feral-Fang had stopped his onslaught, beginning to think that beating the youth was boring.

When Soulbleeder sensed Yuan Zhen's eyes on him, he turned around. There was a look in Yuan Zhen's eyes that Soulbleeder could instantly recognize.

Yuan Zhen was doing his very best to assume the appearance of someone entirely afraid of death. He had to force his damaged body to shiver, which increased the pain he was suffering.

Soulbleeder smirked, then picked Yuan Zhen up. A single wisp of his immortal spirit energy was enough to almost completely heal Yuan Zhen's wounds.

"Ready to talk?"

As he once more dangled by the neck from Soulbleeder's hand, Yuan Zhen fought against every ounce of rage building up in him.

"Y-yes. Please don't kill me.."

Feral-Fang and Soulbleeder's expressions went stiff. Was this truly Yuan Zhen, begging for his life some piss-pantsed arseling?

"I won't kill you if you tell me what I want to know." This was obviously a lie, and Yuan Zhen once more fought the desire to shout, 'Bullshit!'

"The secret is with one of my manifestations. I need to bring it out."

The bane-devils exchanged glances, then Soulbleeder nodded. "Just one. I'll be monitoring your energy, so don't try anything stupid."

"Alright. Look at this."

In that moment, a small key materialized in Yuan Zhen's hand. He held it out for Soulbleeder to take. Though it looked like any ordinary key, Soulbleeder's immortal spirit could sense some profoundly mysterious aura from it.

"Now, pay attention you half-wits--"

"Pow!"

Yuan Zhen had been trying to fuse a bit of his authentic thoughts with his facade, but that resulted in him being slapped.

He instinctively tried to summon his manifestations, but was glad that his energy was sealed again. In his brief anger, he would have blown his cover.

"Sorry, lords. If you allow me to insert some energy into the key, I can show you the secret."

However, instead of allowing Yuan Zhen to control his energy, Soulbleeder extracted it himself. Even though Yuan Zhen was now begging for his life, they still had an innate fear of him.

When Soulbleeder placed Yuan Zhen's energy into the key, Yuan Zhen was crossing his fingers and saying a silent prayer.

'If this really is just an ordinary key then I'm dead. Something needs to happen. Anything at all, just do something!'

Much to their amazement, and Yuan Zhen's surprise, the key lit up and then grew two whole sizes. The weight of it was also quite significant, equivalent to that of about ten stone bricks.

After he inwardly sighed in relief, Yuan Zhen smiled. The next step was the most important step of all.

"How much has Ji Xie told you about the core region?" Before Soulbleeder could respond, Feral-Fang raised his hand in preparation for a slap.

"Trying to get information out of us?"

Soulbleeder shock his head. "He's been here before, Feral-Fang. He wouldn't need our information."

"Precisely. I've seen things in here that no one else has. Tell me, has Ji Xie ever mentioned the Ten Springs of Life and Death?" Thinking as quickly as he currently could, Yuan Zhen came up with a fake name.

His only goal was to probe just how much Ji Xie had told them. If he was right, then Ji Xie would have ordered them to strictly protect the core region and would not have shared anything.

"He didn't. Is that the secret behind your reincarnation?" Soulbleeder's energy began to gather on the hand that was holding Yuan Zhen. If the 'Ten Springs of Life and Death' were the cause, then he would no longer need to keep Yuan Zhen alive.

"No, but it is a valuable treasure." Yuan Zhen remained solemn-faced, but he was smiling inside. They were completely ignorant.

"This key opens the door to a hidden region within one of the mountains You can keep the seal on my energy, just allow me to carry my friend there with me. She's just an unconscious Soul Nourishing cultivator, nothing you two mighty figures need to worry about."

Though they were skeptical, the possiblity of gaining power over Samsara was all they could think of. Even if it was all a desperate trick, they wouldn't have to fear the weak Yuan Zhen.

This was what they thought. If they could only read Yuan Zhen's thoughts, they would have discovered that he truly was leading them toward Samsara, but not to be reincarnated.

"I'm sure Ji Xie's ordered you to not go too far, or even put up a seal, but it won't matter."

Feral-Fang scoffed. "That damnable beast. He thinks he can boss us around just cause he comprehended eternity?"

Hearing this, Yuan Zhen couldn't help being surprised. 'So Ji Xie grew that much. He must be working with someone even more formidable than I thought. Could it really be Jin Yuan?'

"Shut up, Feral-Fang. If you want to speak about him in that way, do it in his face. If you can say it to his face, that is."

As they bickered, Yuan Zhen led the way toward the mountains. He was headed straight for one of the taller ones, a clear plan in mind.

It was an odd sight to behold. The land, for miles, was devoid of any kind of life. The mountains were bare and empty, just large protrusions of sand and stone.

One of those mountains was currently awash with lightning bolts. They come down liked raindrops, striking every area possible on the mountain.

Yuan Zhen looked around, seeing the first sign of his plan coming together. Images of possible scenario played out repeatedly in his head, then he paused and turned to them.

"Did Ji Xie do anything to this mountain?"

They both shook their heads, "No."

"Then could the mighty lords please blow a hole in this mountain. That should be the quickest way to the entrance of the hidden region."

Soulbleeder's wide-eyed expression made Yuan Zhen think he was doubtful, but then Feral-Fang stepped forward. At the point where the land began to rise, he struck with a fist.

That fist strike was accompanied by energy that persisted and drilled a hole into the mountainside. Yuan Zhen smiled with glee which he, of course, kept beneath the surface.

They followed him in with guards raised, preparing for the chance that this was a trap.

'Worried about a trap now? You should have thought of that sooner.

They eventually ran out of tunnel, but Feral-Fang fixed that with another punch. This time, further along the tunnel, the earth above came loose. Rocks and dirt fell into the tunnel, but in doing so had exposed an open area above them.

"There it is," Yuan Zhen lied.

Shimmering white light filled their eyes as they climbed up out of the tunnel. Once they entered that open area at the core of the mountain, they saw a transparent sphere. Arcs of electricity danced along the walls and roof of the space, which surged and struck the sphere every few seconds.

This was the source of the white light. This drew Feral-Fang and Soulbleeder's attention back to the scene of the bolts of lightning endlessly striking that mountain.

That was the mountain they were now within. Realizing this, they increased the amount of energy they used to protect their physical bodies. What also contributed to their increased worry was the fact that lightning had an 'erasing' effect on souls.

If a spirit, like an ordinary bane-devil, was struck by lightning, they would instantly perish. There would be no lingering soul power, and not even the chance of regular reincarnation.

As for Yuan Zhen, he had been the last to climb out of the tunnel. This was because he made a show of finding a comfortable spot to place Qi Zixie. In reality, he wanted to leave her in there so he could easily escape with her in the end.

While the bane-devils marvelled at the sphere of light, Yuan Zhen was finally taking the chance to try something that he could only hope would work.

'Grey-skinned senior, help me out. I need you to control the soul art for me in place of my soul energy. I can't use my soul power right now. If you can help me, I'll give you even better nourishment than some withered corpse's remnant soul.'

Surprisingly, there was an immediate response.

"I've watched closely. Help... I will help."

Instantly, a great soul power welled up within Yuan Zhen's body. His eyes glowed with intense, blue-green rays of mystical light. That soul power immediately shattered the seal that Soulbleeder placed, alerting the bane-devil almost instantly.

"Crap! Yuan Zhen!"

They spun around, but were too late.

A ball of concentrated flame flew over their heads, heading straight for that lightning sphere.

The reason Yuan Zhen had brought them there was simple. It was the only place that he was absolutely certain could kill them.

Back in his ignorant adventuring days, he had taken the long route up the mountain and suffered untold difficulty thanks to the lightning. Though it was not as bad as the current state of the mountain, it was still a nigh-impossible task.

When he made it further up, he found a deep chasm that led straight down to the core. The lightning was being conducted by something and brought down.

It was, namely, that same sphere. It was some kind of lifeform, sucking in the unnatural lightning of the core region and cultivating its power.

Back then, almost a century ago, it was powerful enough to defeat the Origin Evolving Yuan Zhen with a single attack.

He hoped that, now, it was far stronger. If it wasn't, then it was highly likely that his second death would be swiftly approaching.