Chapter 880: Chapter 48: Soul Loss
Faced with such a sudden attack, Zhou Yan seemed as if he hadn’t anticipated it at all, displaying a near-stunned and unbelievable expression.
Beside Zhou Yan, Zhou Ying also looked extremely shocked and incredulous, staring blankly as the scene unfolded.
Lan Ji felt a trace of disdain flash through her heart. Any heaviness she felt instantly vanished. She even thought that instead of going through all this trouble, it would be quicker to simply kill the two of them in one move.
After all, the two people before her seemed truly very weak and lacked any sense of crisis.
Lan Ji judged that they must be children of some declining noble family who never experienced hardship and were accustomed to an easy life.
If this was the case, then she needed to fight quickly and decisively to resolve the two of them and kill them to silence them.
If it weren’t for taking down that Bear Demon earlier, Lan Ji reckoned she might not have acted against such insignificant people, but since she already made a move, she had no regrets. Instead, she would eliminate them completely, leaving no future troubles for herself.
Lan Ji couldn’t help but think about this situation, but she suddenly sensed that Fang Tianhao, who was charging out behind her, didn’t seem to find it as easy as she did.
"What’s going on?"
Lan Ji felt a bit puzzled, but then she horrifyingly discovered that all her attacks, her domain that enveloped the two, seemed to have become ineffective.
This shock was simply extraordinary.
Yet, before she could retreat, Lan Ji found herself inexplicably feeling a kind of fatigue, thinking that endless cultivation was so laborious and worthless, suddenly yearning for the simple life of an ordinary mortal.
"Fighting and killing, what’s the point? How could it compare to the comfort of an ordinary life? It turns out I only understand now."
Lan Ji was like a fool, forcefully retracting all the attacks she had unleashed, standing there dumbly.
She had a moment of clarity but soon seemed to fall into a dream, as if losing herself.
Vaguely, she seemed to hear someone shouting loudly beside her, yelling something, but she couldn’t make out the words, feeling them rather distant and unattainable like smoke in the clouds.
...
Lan Ji’s destructive domain attack and her peculiar method of almost instantly draining Soul Power were completely within Zhou Yan’s sensing.
In fact, from the first glance at this woman Lan Ji, Zhou Yan had already determined that she was not Ping’er.
Zhou Yan didn’t even need to look, sense, or discern any aura to know this.
Because, in this world, Zhou Yan believed that aside from Lee Ran, no one could understand Xingyi better than he did.
Currently, Zhou Yan had even cultivated the Xingyi Dragon Soul into the Dragon Soul Form Domain, making Lan Ji’s little tricks nothing but crude attempts of self-deception, a pathetic joke.
To think of deceiving others this way? Zhou Yan didn’t know if this Lan Ji was naive or thought everyone else was foolish.
But Zhou Yan didn’t show it; he played along, and with just a glance between him and Zhou Ying, they understood each other’s thoughts, thus both pretending to be ignorant and weak to deceive the enemy.
The enemy’s realm should be around the Divine Spirit Second Transition. Under the complete rules of such a Great Domain, cultivators at this realm were mighty, growing extremely fast, almost equivalent to a basic combat power of Third Nine or Fourth Nine True God Plane powerhouse.
Newly arrived in this place, Zhou Yan wasn’t so adept at utilizing the energy and combat methods here, so he dared not be careless against such an enemy.
Hence, after a glance exchange with Zhou Ying, they feigned being hit. Then, Zhou Ying instantaneously deployed the Heavenly Spirit Domain, causing Lan Ji’s combat power and fighting spirit to ’Mortal Transformation’ while enveloping the mysterious area behind Lan Ji, capturing the lurking enemy within as well.
At this point, Lan Ji’s attack indeed halted, and the lurking Fang Tianhao, suddenly sensing something amiss, immediately roared loudly, only to terrifyingly discover that Lan Ji remained motionless like a puppet.
"Lan Ji, wake up, run!"
Fang Tianhao roared, his voice echoing like thunder.
But Lan Ji still showed no sign of response.
Not only was there no response, but Lan Ji’s eyes seemed soulless, losing any divine brilliance, resembling a walking dead, merely a puppet without a Divine Soul.
Fang Tianhao watched in endless horror, casting another fearful and frenzied glance at Zhou Yan and Zhou Ying.
"You dare to touch people from the Fang Clan and Lan Clan? Don’t you know how to spell ’death’?"
Fang Tianhao, shrouding himself with Domain Rules Power, questioned Zhou Yan and Zhou Ying in a threatening manner, trying to oppress them with his identity.
"We don’t know, so we’ll have your corpses write the word ’death’ so we can learn it."
Zhou Yan sneered, then gave Zhou Ying a glance—act!
At this moment, Zhou Ying’s domain erupted with an extremely powerful suppressive force almost instantaneously. Fang Tianhao’s domain guardian shattered in an instant, and he let out a heart-wrenching scream, but it abruptly stopped, as if forcibly cut off.
Zhou Ying’s domain rule power crushed forward, shattering all of the domain powers of Fang Tianhao and Lan Ji, making them suddenly like lambs awaiting slaughter.
Zhou Yan’s domain rules combined, deriving a Xingyi Dragon Soul.
The dragon soul form, Dragon Form Swordsmanship, Emperor Qi Dragon Swallowing Sky Divine Skill, and even the Dragon Sword Dao all manifested, revealing endless lethal intent.
The killing intent locked on, and like two rays of light, it instantly pierced through the soul bodies of Lan Ji and Fang Tianhao.
Then the Gray Dragon took a great breath, immediately swallowing their bodies and divine souls into the Soul Sea.
Zhou Yan’s dragon form domain Soul Sea appeared in an endless void, the void twisting, quickly suppressing their divine bodies and soul bodies, rendering them unable to struggle any further.
They were completely powerless to fight back, almost instantly being obliterated!
These were two cultivators who had just stepped into the Divine Spirit Second Transition in a complete Great Domain, yet this battle was actually Zhou Yan and Zhou Ying’s true first battle, and they achieved extremely strong results and astonishing effects in an unexpected situation, dealing with it very easily.
...
"Brother Zhou Yan, can this path of devouring still work in the Great Domain? Doesn’t that mean you will grow extremely quickly?"
Seeing Zhou Yan’s actions, Zhou Ying wasn’t repulsed, because Zhou Qianqian possessed the Soul Devouring Sword Body. With characteristics similar to this, Zhou Ying was already quite used to it.
Besides, the law of the jungle is indeed survival of the fittest, which is very normal.
However, everything in this Great Domain is very complete, and completing a similar level of devouring would presumably be extremely difficult.
That was why Zhou Ying asked this question.
"No, the effect is much worse than on the Plane, but slightly better... hmm, it’s just that this refining has become much more difficult. I only recently fully refined the energy of that crystalline war chariot and its three crystalline skeletons I devoured last time, and have yet to absorb it. This time, it probably also requires some time to refine, unlike before when it could be instantly refined.
These complete domain rule cultivators indeed have almost no flaws in all aspects. However, once refined, the benefits are significant, though many impurities accompany it, so it’s not suitable for mass devouring, otherwise it might affect one’s mindset.
Also, my injuries can’t be healed by refining a cultivator’s divine body or divine soul. I don’t know why. Could it be that I have left behind some kind of Dao injury that requires something like a Divine Spring or Life Spring Water to recover? If so, my future progress will be troublesome."
Zhou Yan looked at Zhou Ying, conveying this information in an instant with his eyes.
He didn’t speak, but his gaze expressed everything.
"If that’s the case, Brother Zhou Yan, your situation might be Soul Loss, a fundamental soul injury caused after the soul body exceeds its limit. This could be difficult to handle. But in the Great Domain, anything could happen, and Brother Zhou Yan, you also have the Soul Cutting Skill, so once you comprehend it deeply, it should be easy to resolve. Don’t worry, Brother Zhou Yan."
Zhou Ying comforted.
If it truly is Soul Loss, it might indeed be a very troublesome matter. However, Zhou Yan knows the Soul Cutting Skill, and once the domain of soul cutting is comprehended, this injury won’t pose a problem.
However, Zhou Ying didn’t know that if Zhou Yan didn’t recover from Soul Loss, he wouldn’t be able to unlock the second layer of the War Soul, and if the second layer couldn’t be unlocked, subsequent War Souls couldn’t be unlocked either. This would mean that the second transition Divine Spirit’s Soul Cutting Skill rules couldn’t be executed.
It’s a vicious cycle, meaning if the first step isn’t achieved, everything afterward will be suppressed and restricted, causing considerable trouble.
This point, Zhou Yan did not tell Zhou Ying.
"Hmm, in the Great Domain, unimaginable divine aspects are everywhere. We’ve made it through the hardships of the Plane, so a little Soul Loss, once I comprehend the Soul Cutting Rules, will indeed be a minor matter. Let’s not talk about this; let’s go check on Ping’er."
Zhou Yan said in a deep voice.
"Okay."
Zhou Ying obediently agreed.
Zhou Yan once again flew with Zhou Ying on a Spirit Sword, but this time, during the flight, Zhou Yan shattered Lan Ji and Fang Tianhao’s domain rules first, acquiring a lot of bizarre items from their domain space.
The cultivators of the Great Domain, although they also carry things like Space Rings and Qiankun Rings, prefer to store precious objects in a separate area within their domain rule space.
Zhou Yan knew this point, so after suppressing Fang Tianhao and Lan Ji, the first step was to crush their domains.
Their soul bodies were heavily damaged and now suppressed in the Soul Sea, almost completely losing their ability to think. Although not dead, they were nearly as good as dead.
And once completely refined, they’d truly become ashes and smoke.
The two had already awakened in this state, desperately pleading within the Soul Sea, but Zhou Yan did not respond at all.