The Grey Figure's Insatiable Hunger

The fireball hit the sphere, covering it in flames. In almost no time at all, a domain of lightning spread out that filled the core of the mountain. Yuan Zhen narrowly escaped by jumping back into the tunnel as soon as he had tossed the fireball.

As for the bane-devils, they cried out in both surprise and rage. The lightning sphere was actually holding them in place within an intricate trap.

"Damn you, Soulbleeder! I knew Yuan Zhen couldn't be trusted!"

"You fucking liar!"

Yuan Zhen didn't even waste time to stop and laugh. He picked Qi Zixie up and prepared to leave, but as soon as he took the first steps his body froze. A mighty soul power was forcibly keeping him from leaving.

"No ...I want to eat now. Right now." It was actually the grey figure that was inhibiting his movement from within his body.

"I know you must be starved senior, but if I don't run away now we might all die." In his plea, Yuan Zhen even relied on some of his earlier act to sound deathly afraid.

"Can't fool me ...kid. You won't die with my help... Go back." Yuan Zhen sighed, having no choice but to put Qi Zixie back down.

Meanwhile, trapped in the lightning domain, Feral-Fang and Soulbleeder were struggling against electric currents that arced and danced like living entities. They were both absolutely livid, not only with Yuan Zhen but with themselves. They had allowed him to get the jump on them thanks to their ignorance of the core region.

Still, they didn't feel like they were in much danger at all. The electricity was weak and the sphere didn't seem to be able to control it all too well. The only formidable thing was that domain.

"The sphere, try attacking it. Maybe that will break the domain and we can kill that brat." Feral-Fang didn't think twice when he heard this, immediately striking the sphere with his fist.

"No, you idiot! Stop!"

That was when he realized that he actually hadn't heard Soulbleeder's voice just now. It was Yuan Zhen's.

However, he was too late. His hand hit the outer layer of the sphere, now even causing so much as a slight distortion. Instead, the sphere seemed to become even more incensed. The surging electricity on the walls began to take the form of lightning and wantonly strike everything around them.

Soon enough, they would be struck by however many volts of electricity and, possibly, suffer immensely.

"Ha! You're still an idiot, Feral-Fang!"

From outside the domain, Yuan Zhen had nothing to worry about. There was not even a single spark that came near him. He could goad them on without worry.

He kept shouting and throwing insults at them, even as the sphere slowly became more and more lively.

Yuan Zhen could tell that it had been in a dormant state, since it was still without a color. In his past life, when he had stupidly awoken it by trying to grab the entire sphere, it had turned into a bright yellow ball.

Now, it was slowly shifting into that yellow ball once again.

The electricity began to bounce off of the walls and continuously strike around the yellow ball. Then, from high above the top of the mountain, lightning energy began to gather in the clouds.

The domain thickened and the electricity grew stronger. The lightning sphere finally became fully yellow and blindingly bright, but that was when the whole situation took a turn for the worst of all possible situations.

The domain grew, encompassing even Yuan Zhen before he could even realize it. However, he kept quiet about it, not wanting to alert the bane-devils of his plight.

As for Feral-Fang and Soulbleeder, they were gathering their full power to resist the attack that was coming. Though Feral-Fang had been about to go all out against the walls of the domain, Soulbleeder alerted him that it would be safer to try to defend.

A single bolt of lightning the size of a magnificent cedar tree broke through the mountaintop and entered the narrow chasm. It rained down from the sky and straight down onto them, preparing to fill the entire lightning domain with a portion of the destructive power of heaven.

When it came down, the power within the lightning would spread out into a fibrous web of electrifying thread.

Yuan Zhen braced for impact, while the bane-devils were already in full defense mode.

Despite their best efforts, when the lightning struck and exploded within the domain, the chaotic electricity tore their bodies to microscopic shreds.

The same could not be said for their souls. Lightning was a natural nemesis of souls, spirits and ghosts. Even some demons, devillings and hellions were extremely vulnerable against powerful lightning.

But, when it came time for Yuan Zhen to suffer his electrocution, he felt nothing. Aquamarine mist was cushioning the lightning, sucking it in and bringing it to wherever the grey figure was.

Yuan Zhen sighed, but soon sensed that the domain was still functional. "Senior, are you going to help me escape now?"

To his surprise, the grey figure made a loud gulping noise then chuckled gleefully.

"Escape? No ...no escape. I want that Three Dimensional Thunder Soul."

Hearing the name, Yuan Zhen had a growing desire to question it. He didn't get a chance to, though, as the aquamarine mist around his body took the form of a larger-than-normal bat. The bat lacked any specific features beyond the overall shape of a bat, but its eyes shone with dim gold light.

"Don't waste... Learn the energy's movement."

As it said that, both Yuan Zhen and the bat acted. The bat flapped it's wings and flew out of the tunnel, into the larger open space. The sphere's brightness was constantly fluctuating, as if it was trying to speak. As the bat grew closer, the fluctuations became more intense.

As for Yuan Zhen, he was closely monitoring his body and soul power. He found that the grey figure was actually using his soul power to perform the special technique.

As he silently committed the movement of energy to memory, and even further comprehended the profound technique, the eyeball in his core began to change.

It slowly shed some of its red color, and the gold veins grew and spread out even more.

As for the bat, it maneuvered past the yellow sphere's attacks like they were nothing. It appeared that it would need more time before it could launch another big attack, so the grey figure didn't need to fear the sphere for a while yet.

Yuan Zhen had only just committed the special method of manipulating soul power when he opened his eyes and saw the scene. The bat was hugging the yellow ball tightly, completely uncaring of the tiny arcs of electricity shooting out from it.

The bat's golden eyes brightened, then it opened its mouth, sinking two large teeth into the sphere and sucking in torrential amounts of energy.

Yuan Zhen watched as the yellow color drained from the sphere. He could even feel the power being sucked out of the domain around him, signalling that it could no longer hold him.

The Three Dimensional Thunder Soul was actually filled with soul power which it used to cultivate its lightning energy. Thus, in draining it of its energy, the bat was sucking away all of its soul power.

Yuan Zhen was caught in a stunned stupor. The domineering sphere that had almost claimed his life with one attack was now in a hopeless dilemma.

Before long, the electricity within the area weakened and the sphere was now devoid of any color whatsoever. It was like it had gone back to sleep, only this time it would never wake.

The bat then returned to Yuan Zhen, reverted into mist, then re-entered his body through his eyes.

All of that soul power was indeed quite an astronomical amount, and Yuan Zhen was wishing he could have gotten some of it.

Sadly, it entered his core where the grey figure was already waiting. All of that soul energy poured into its mouth and then vanished into a void.

As it continued to suck in all that energy, the skeletal grey figure went through an even more exaggerated change than before. Instead of the paper thin layer of skin that hugged its bones tightly, it now had the shape and form of a thin, slightly skinny, person.

Yuan Zhen delighted in the partial restoration, thinking that he would acquire something new yet again.

However, he had underestimated the grey figure.

It waved its hand, and the world outside changed. Tendrils of black energy broke free from the earth in a geyser, sending splashes of that venomous black energy everywhere.

The aquamarine mist appeared, capturing every last drop. Before long, even the geyser was drained completely. Yuan Zhen panicked, thinking that the next step to the grey figure's plan was to travel to the source of the black energy.

He was relieved when he saw the aquamarine mist shoot up the chasm that led to the mountaintop. Despite it being almost 1,600 feet above him, he could still clearly see what was happening.

The grey figure sent the mist into the clouds.

"Think you can escape? Think again, Thunder Soul."

Yuan Zhen almost didn't notice how its speech seemed to have become better as well. He was even starting to hear an actual tone in the voice instead of muffled fluctuations.

The mist stabbed into the sea of clouds and straightway began to pump pure energy from the sky. The mist thinned out and stretched all the way back to Yuan Zhen, creating a makeshift energy channel.

"Senior, what are you doing that for?" Yuan Zhen knew that the grey figure used the Ghost-Devouring Soul Art, so it should only have a taste for soul power. However, the energy in the clouds wasn't of the soul, so why would it go after it.

"Right before its death, the Three Dimensional Thunder Soul sent its true soul into the clouds. I overlooked the fact that it could summon lightning, meaning it had established a connection with the thunder clouds."

"If I had gotten any less energy just now, I would have missed that clue."

While Yuan Zhen nodded in understanding, the mist was sucking away the final vestiges of power from the clouds. The mist departed, fully coming back to Yuan Zhen.

As it returned, and the torrential energy with it, Yuan Zhen became lightheaded for a short while and almost fell to his knees.

"Senior... I don't feel- ugh..."

Soon enough, the discomfort passed and his vision cleared. He took several deep breaths and circulated his energy to readjust, then probed the situation within his core.

When he looked inside, he was shocked to see that all the energy had long vanished into the grey figure.

Now, the white hairs on its head were almost all gone and replaced by black strands, save for a rogue patch of white at the side of its face.

As for its appearance, Yuan Zhen was shocked to see that when it removed the hair from its face what remained was a fleshless skull with peculiar eyes.

They were minuscule, perhaps as small as seeds, but shone brightly with green light.

As for the rest of it, Yuan Zhen saw that it grew into the shape of a completely naked woman with the same grey skin. When Yuan Zhen's consciousness arrived, the skull-woman turned to see him, seeming focused on his reaction.

"Senior ...your face... And you're a lady?"

Smooth laughter filled the void as the grey figure folded its legs. "Perhaps I am. What matters now is that my face remains hidden."

The grey figure then muttered something. All Yuan Zhen heard was, "...fuckers."

"Well, either way, you look much better than you did. Alright, I'll be going now. There's still much to do and little time to do it." He prepared to leave, but the grey skull-woman raised her hand and stopped him before he could.

"I've been wanting to ask you, but how is it that you can cultivate the Netherworld's Soul Decimating Canon?"

"Soul Decimating Canon? Do you mean the Ghost-Devouring Soul Art?" Yuan Zhen frowned. He had never heard of a 'Soul Decimating Canon.'

"Indeed. Your version is infinitely worse, in fact it's really just dog shit. No, even dog shit can become fertilizer. Yours is even worse than dog shit, then."

Despite what she was saying, Yuan Zhen didn't take offense because of how she said it. It was less harsh and more like an elder evaluating a student.

"But, Senior, how is it that you came to exist within me? I found a cultivation manual for the Ghost-Devouring Soul Art, but it suddenly vanished."

When he said that, the skull-woman made an odd noise like a groan, standing up and floating over to him.

"A manual? And it was titled under the Ghost-Devouring Soul Art?" Her energy became chaotic, causing even Yuan Zhen to feel afraid.