Chapter 1961

Grid’s fist smashed through the heavy pavilion with ease, only to be blocked by a gray protective film. But he’d expected that.

From the moment he broke the pavilion, the purple energy around his fist became lighter. The effect of the Annihilation energy, which removed the target’s defense effect one single time, had ended.

All he had to do was activate it again.

Grid’s other purple fist slammed into the woman’s face, Russian hook followed by a punch to her body. Even though he had mastered Tai Chi, he liked showing off his boxing skills in a funny way.

The gray protective shield shattered and the woman’s head whipped to the side. Her body flew because of her shield breaking, and she rolled a good distance backward.

Grid immediately chased after her. Seeing how the woman was relatively unscathed, Grid thought to himself, ‘She’s way past core formation.’

Right now, he didn’t have a weapon equipped. So, he just swung his bare fists infused with Annihilation energy.

Based on what the prisoner in Reinhardt Prison had said, a cultivator would’ve been damaged if they were only at the level of foundation building, meaning that this woman was at a level beyond core formation.

The woman barked at him, grinning, “It seems you have mastered a technique that neutralizes defense! Haha! Even if you break my shield, what are you going to do with your cotton fists?”

Of course, she was feeling bitter inside. Not only was her defensive orb smashed, but now that her shield was broken, she was consuming way more spiritual energy than before. She thought she was going to die, but she was relieved to find out that was not the case.

‘I need to get rid of this strange guy as soon as possible, raise the blood sacrifices, restore my cultivation level, and regain my treasures.’

This woman had originally been a soul transformation cultivator. However, hundreds of years ago, she was mortally injured by an enemy and her cultivation dropped to the nascent soul realm. The strange person in front of her or the world that she’d suddenly found herself in didn’t matter to her. She could move forward once she recovered her cultivation.

If she killed all the hundreds of thousands of fish people here, took their dantians, and held a sacrificial ceremony with the blood they shed, she would become much stronger and restore her cultivation.

The woman had a poisonous heart. She opened her mouth and took out four silver longswords. Those were her highest-grade treasure, and they displayed the skulls of the White Tiger, Red Phoenix, Black Tortoise, and Blue Dragon, realistically depicted on the hilt.

The woman brought her fingers to the hilt of the four swords and the skulls bit her fingers. It was bizarre seeing them chew and swallow as if they were savoring delicious food.

Kieeeek!

A red mist was emitted by the skulls as soon as they finished their meal. It clumped together, like a cloud of blood, and was extremely powerful. It released mighty waves of spiritual pressure and caused the seafloor to tremble. There were many water clan members who collapsed, unable to control their bodies.

Grid frowned. The four fingers that the skulls had chewed and swallowed sprouted from the woman’s eyes.

“You’re trying to become immortal, and yet you look like that…?”

“Are you talking about my appearance? What does appearance matter when it comes to achieving the great dao? The important thing is the essence. What I look like now is simply the consequence of using some spells.”

“Yes, it isn’t the appearance that matters. That’s a good thing to say.”

Grid’s heart throbbed. He recalled how ugly he used to be, and sympathized with the woman’s words. He asked, “By the way, why are you trying to hurt the water clan people? They might look different from us, but they are the same in essence and life.”

“Because their blood and dantian will help me with my cultivation. The outcome would be no different even if they were mortals or cultivators. I will eat whatever it takes to help my cultivation!”

“…Do you lack ethical awareness entirely?”

“Bah, the world of the cultivators is a society composed of both weak and strong individuals. Do you think the other cultivators are different from me?”

The four fingers sprouting from the woman’s eyes crossed at a strange angle. Just then, the blood-red fog turned into a flash of light and attacked on Grid.

Grid didn’t avoid it. He planned to experience as many tricks this cultivator had up her sleeve as possible, since he was fighting the likes of her for the first time. Of course, he also didn’t intend to let the water clan be damaged. He armed the God Hands with shields and ordered them to protect the people.

The sight of hundreds of black-gold hands being armed in unison made the woman’s heart sink. However, she noticed that spiritual energy wasn’t flowing through the shields and soon regained her composure.

“Can a mere mortal’s belongings handle the blood flames coming from every single direction?”

The blood clinging to Grid quickly caught on fire.

The technique used by the woman wielding the four swords demonstrated exceptional energy and firepower. It was a large-scale killing technique that wouldn’t go out until the target was turned to ashes. In addition, the range of the flames expanded to the surrounding areas every time the target succumbed to them.

However…

“…What?”

The blood flames failed to burn this target. Bewildered, the woman tried to chant to increase the power of the blood flames, but it was useless.

Grid muttered as flames surrounded him, “You must be a nascent soul.”

The damage over time exceeded 40,000 per second, and it was putting a lot of pressure on him.

—No, there was no pressure. He was able to cast mana shields to absorb more than half the damage. Every time the mana shields melted, he would cast new ones. Thanks to the shields mitigating the damage, Grid remained at full HP. The rate of recovery was much faster than the rate at which his health was consumed.

The blood flames failed to burn him over time and finally disappeared. The woman’s spiritual energy was almost depleted.

Grid approached her. He didn’t even have to use Shunpo. The update had removed the restrictions on the players’ sixth sense and speed. Once liberated from these constraints, Grid’s speed was back at what it used to be.

“High rankers who have built up a bit of status must be on a similar level to you. There is no way you are in the soul transformation realm, right?”

“What do you know?!”

Would she have suffered such humiliation if she hadn’t lost her cultivation level? Enraged, the woman fired four silver swords at Grid. Grid also pulled out whatever secondary weapon was lying in his inventory—a sword he had made a long time ago, which he had abandoned because it wasn’t profitable.

“Link.”

Grid performed a sword dance. The person he imagined was Hurent. He wanted to use the Aura Master’s ability to inflict ‘fixed damage’ and gauge the target’s health.

He had already roughly grasped the woman’s defense when he hit her with his bare hands before.

The four silver swords stabbed at Grid’s vital points. At the same time, a sharp sword slashed at the woman.

[The target has received 353,100 fixed damage.]

[The target has received 353,100 fixed…]

[The target has received 353,100…]

……

…

Hurent’s aura had been steadily growing. His current aura damage was affected by his stats, level and status. His compatibility with Grid was pretty good.

Grid’s sword dance stopped the moment he saw the woman’s HP drop to almost zero in an instant. She looked confused and scared, but Grid maintained a serious expression.

He murmured, “Is your health at around twenty million? It seems like you can’t overcome the limitations of being human.”

“What nonsense!” she yelled, a mist the color of blood trickling out of her. Her wounds were so great, Grid could even see some exposed bones. There was blood flowing from her injuries, and she was using it as a medium for another technique.

Once again, Grid allowed himself to be hit by her. Most of the woman’s attack methods were focused on dealing damage over time, so defense was irrelevant. Grid had high resistance, health and recovery, so he withstood her attack without the use of any armor. He had accurately estimated its power.

Worn-out, Grid unfolded the two fusion sword dance. The purple sword cut lightly at the woman. She died without even getting a chance to scream.

Surprisingly, a dwarf emerged from the corpse. The dwarf looked exactly the same as the woman, but she had short arms and legs. Four silver swords floated around her. She held a broken pavilion in each hand.

‘This is the nascent soul.’

Grid’s interest was finally piqued now that he finally understood what the prisoner had told him about the concept of the nascent soul.

His enemy gritted her teeth. “I’ll remember your face!” she said before disappearing using a technique resembling teleportation.

Grid activated Barbatos’ Vision, only to pause.

‘That escape technique is superb. Like those obsessed with eternal life, she has exercised extreme caution in honing her survival skills.’

Grid let out a tsk and pulled out a flask containing the ‘Golden River Water.’ He’d obtained this item after killing Judar. The moment he poured golden water droplets on his finger and applied them to his eyes, Clairvoyance was activated.

Grid’s field of view increased by nearly 400 kilometers. This way, he figured out the location of the dwarf, and used Shunpo to catch up to her.

“Hah!”

Grid caught up instantly. Astonished, the dwarf squeezed out her remaining spiritual energy into a protective shield, but it was meaningless—Grid’s purple-covered hand ripped through it. He slashed his sword at the dwarf, threatening to kill her.

“W-Wait! Spare my life! I have lived for over three thousand years. I will be useful one way or another.”

“Three thousand years? Are you saying that you are in the soul transformation realm when your skills are only to this extent?”

“It wasn’t like this until two hundred years ago. However, my cultivation has declined. I am now only in the early stage of nascent soul.”

“The early stage of nascent soul? Are there different stages for each realm?”

“Yes. Each realm is divided into early, middle, late and great completion. You don’t seem to know much about cultivators. Please, spare me. I will serve you sincerely and answer any questions you have.”

Grid laughed. Neither Reinhardt’s prisoner nor the woman in front of him had any sense of pride. The moment they lost a fight and were captured, they immediately started whining about how old they were. Their obsession with living seemed to surpass their pride.

“Why should I trust you enough to spare you? Even if I did, it would be annoying if you teleported again and ran away.”

“Put a ban on my nascent soul. The moment I betray you, I will explode to death.”

“What is a ban?”

“Ah…”

The dwarf frowned. She was depressed because she had been defeated and humiliated by a man who didn’t know anything.

Behind Grid, a black-gold wave consisting of hundreds of God Hands was approaching.

The frightened dwarf hastily explained, “Just as the name implies, a ban means a way of preventing a person from doing anything. There are many different types… First things first, I will teach you a forbidden technique that will cause the target to self-destruct if they break their promise. So please, place it on me.”

Grid was interested. He nodded. The dwarf pulled out a booklet from her sleeve and handed it to him.

[The common technique book ‘Golden Soul Technique: 1 star’ has been acquired.]

“This is the most commonly used forbidden technique. It has been studied for a long time and many people have improved it over the years, thus making it easier to learn. Your cultivation is just in the qi refining realm, so you should be able to learn it in a few days.”

The booklet was around a hundred pages, filled with letters and complex patterns that he had never seen before.

Grid thought to himself. ‘Learning this in a few days? Are all cultivators geniuses?’

He admired the cultivators to some extent because of this. He clicked the ‘Acquire’ button that appeared at the bottom of his field of view.

[’Golden Soul Technique: 1 star’ has been learned.]

[Golden Soul Technique: 1 star]

Forcibly places a ban on the subject’s soul. The target of the ban must obey the caster’s command or their souls will disappear.

If you cast the Golden Soul Technique on a target with a weaker level of cultivation, you will have a 50% success rate. There is a 10% success rate on a target with an equivalent level of cultivation. There is a less than 1% success rate on a target with a higher level of cultivation.

However, if the target accepts the ban, it will succeed 100% of the time.

Spiritual Power Consumption: 1,000

Effect Duration: 12 hours.

Cooldown Time: None.]

“The effect duration is only half a day? Do you want me to put the ban on you twice a day?”

The dwarf’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Y-You’ve already mastered the Golden Soul Technique?”

She searched through her sleeves. In the new technique book that she handed him, the Golden Soul Technique went up to 7 stars.

“Is 7 stars the highest level?”

“It is known that 12 stars is the great completion stage, but coincidentally, the Golden Soul Technique I have is up to 7 stars.”

Grid mastered the Golden Soul Technique up to 7 stars.

The 7 star Golden Soul Technique allowed the subject’s soul to be bound for up to thirty years. However, the amount of spiritual energy consumed was also enormous. Grid’s total spiritual energy was only 8,000, so he couldn’t use it. Saddened by this, he instead used the 3 star Golden Soul Technique. The dwarf obediently accepted the ban.

The dwarf was truly impressed. “I can’t believe you can learn the Golden Soul Technique to 3 stars in just a few minutes… People this talented are born only once every hundred of thousands of years.”

Just as Grid didn’t know anything about cultivators, the cultivators also didn’t seem to know about the system at all.

“Hundreds of thousands of years? Your lifespan is so long that the unit of time you use is also large. How do you increase your spiritual energy?”

“By learning techniques or training. There are many common technique books that can be used.”

“Give them to me.”

“Yes, please wait a moment. They are valuable, so I’ve sealed them…”

The large booklets that the woman took out of her sleeves had all types of talismans stuck to them. Every time she chanted a spell with a solemn look on her face, a talisman was torn off.

“What happens if the talismans are carelessly removed?”

“Then the contents will be destroyed.”

Afterward, Grid looked at the items collected by the woman and asked her a few questions to satisfy his curiosity. She knew a lot of things, unlike the prisoner held in Reinhardt. Therefore, he had a good time chatting with her.

Grid smiled before swinging his sword without warning. The woman barely had time to react before being slashed.

“A coward who deceives people!”

The woman cried out venomously up until the last moment. Her hate-filled gaze contained a curse directed at Grid.

Grid didn’t even arch an eyebrow. He quietly observed the last moments of the person who dared to harm the soldiers of the water clan. Then, he took the silver swords and pavilion that had fallen from their master’s hands, as well as retrieving a pouch full of items.

His return to Siren was warmly welcomed by the people there.

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