Chương 71: Chapter 70 — More Than Meets the Eye

Lin Che pushed through the agony and splutter of blood and waited for the next strike from the tribulation. A bolt of lightning cleaved down into and through him, its sole intent to unmake him. He let it come, defending only with his raw body and without attempting to circulate any Qi. It felt like something peeled underneath his skin, much deeper than his organs were. As though layers of his soul were being stripped away by this very lightning.

The moment the bolt struck, he voluntarily crushed another core — now, the next loop would be one without any strikes causing imminent death. Instead of detonating the pill before the full blast of the lightning came into play, Elder Wong allowed Lin Che to writhe in pain as both his physical and spiritual body felt the full force of the heavens. Only then did she allow him to die.

Blood was already in his mouth before his eyes focused, and, this time, something other than blood came up when he coughed. It was a thin, light thread of something that dissolved into the air, like some sort of internal smoke from his body.

"Already coughing up soul, are we?" The core in his hand was crushed, so Lin Che hurriedly moved for the next one. Elder Wong allowed him to move his arms freely, having pieced together his aim to set his new spawn point another few seconds in the future.

"I don't hear any thunder," she said.

"I wonder just how many times we've been in this position before."

"This—this is the first," he managed. His voice was raspy as he forced the words out of a throat still raw with blood.

"I want to have a conversation with you." Every limb and joint in Lin Che's body stiffened, before he pinned himself to his seat, core in hand. Elder Wong motioned her fingers as though she were playing the piano, each key press causing a slurred motion in one of his appendages. She was not at all being subtle about her use of puppetry, which caused Shen Yue to flinch slightly.

"And why should I listen to the final words of a demon who tried to puppet my dearest Yue-er?" asked Elder Wong, raising an arm to 'protect' Shen Yue.

"Thankfully, I have managed to reverse the connection from this core and can now pilot you instead. The best way to kill a demon is with its own abilities," she bluffed. Lin Che's eyes flashed towards Shen Yue, who was partially obscured by Elder Wong. She was taller than Elder Wong, who was built more like a young teenager, so hiding behind her didn't really have any impact on his line of sight. They made eye contact before Shen Yue's eyes skittered away.

"Because—" Lin Che's mind scrambled through the few conversations he'd had with Elder Wong in his previous lives, "—I know about Leixin." The tension across his body disappeared immediately, and Lin Che flopped over slightly before he caught himself.

"Speak very carefully," she warned.

"What do you know?" Elder Wong clicked her fingers, instantly forming a barrier separating her and Lin Che from Shen Yue — some sort of temporary silencing array. In fact, it was far better than a silencing array, as the barrier turned semi-translucent, blurring everything inside, and preventing Shen Yue from feeling the sheer wrath of the killing intent Elder Wong was emitting. The girlish warmth on her face was now long gone. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Lin Che pushed up against the seat in front of him to sit up and meet Elder Wong in the eye. In the process of doing this motion, he slipped a couple of cores beneath his backside, ready to crush using the weight of his body in case Elder Wong tried to prevent him from resetting his spawn. Her eyes met his, and his entire body was signalling danger, but he knew he was still functionally immortal. Otherwise, she would have killed him already for what he'd done.

He crushed the one core in his hand, saving his progress so far.

"You mentioned the name to me in my first ever loop," he lied, keeping his voice as level and unhurried as he could manage.

"That was when you provided me with access to the Boundless Intake Sutra."

"It can't have been your first life," she said, her words mostly a snarl as she flared bloodlust.

"It's almost impossible for you to have achieved all that in one lifetime. I'd have only approached you if I saw power."

"Almost impossible," he echoed.

"I thought you knew the records I mentioned weren't a lie."

"Spill the truth, now!" she roared, her voice almost cracking the barrier itself.

"You would be much stronger if that were the case."

"Cultivation is stored in the soul, Elder. And you of all people should know how to damage a soul." She stared and said nothing, forcing Lin Che to carry on the conversation himself.

"I fractured my soul in my third life. One where we've already had this conversation before, so I'll just talk a bit more to speed things along. I need to catch back up to my previous progress, after all." He said the last part as though it were an inconvenience rather than anything else. Her voice had gone very careful.

"And how did you manage to fracture your soul, then?"

"In a fight against Leixin." The barrier trembled in response to Elder Wong's bloodlust, which had now manifested into physical form as a noxious, red gas trapped within the confines of the privacy field.

"I lost the fight," he said, sagging his shoulders with what seemed to be regret.

"Which is why I am back here."

"And you are meaning to tell me," she began, advancing half a step, "that you managed to find my main body without ever killing anyone?" Lin Che swallowed. That confirmed his suspicions — whenever he took the life of a person, his loop spawn point would reset to just after their death. The cores themselves were constructed out of a person, just one without a body. Crushing it would kill whatever remained of them, and that was why they changed his spawn point. He subtly dug into a core using the bone in his bottom.

Overwriting my save data. He didn't care about crushing these cores. To him, these people were already dead and could not be brought back to life as far as he was aware. That meant they served only one purpose now: to be used as checkpoints. He felt a wave wash over him once again.

"I thought that, by sacrificing my entire cultivation base, I could land a finishing blow on you, Leixin," he said, sounding genuinely regretful.

"But Wong and your other bodies held me down. I couldn't kill them since I would have looped back to an injured state. And, this current body of yours — Wong, I mean — plunged a fist into my chest, embedding this pill so that you could track me down and nip me in the bud."

"You're implying that I cannot kill you right now," she said, cocking her neck sideways.

"You currently have no cultivation, and, if you really have had so few lives, you won't be able to handle what's coming next."

"You cannot kill me for one main reason," said Lin Che, holding his gaze even as his heart hammered against his ribcage.

"I am not the sole remaining Lin. You wouldn't want this bloodline ability to go to some near untraceable man on another continent now, would you?" He wasn't dead yet, which meant his bluffs were working.

"I can just take your blood essence and trace him very easily," rebutted Elder Wong, shooting back a little too quickly.

"I won't need you alive for that."

"You know I'm not stupid, Leixin." He treated her like a rival or an old friend turned enemy.

"I'm only revealing his existence because I am confident you would not be able to trace him."

"And I'm not stupid enough to fall for your lies," said Elder Wong, her voice suddenly becoming deeper and manlier. Elder Wong looked at Lin Che's open bag and took out the remaining stock of Crimson Miasma Powder. She channeled her Qi into it, enchanting the powder with various effects, before forcing Lin Che still. Then, she transferred the contents from each individual plastic bag of Crimson Miasma Powder into one single bag, and placed it over Lin Che's head before forcing him to crush a core in his hand.

Lin Che held his breath — without his Qi, he was forced to die. But, if he tried to channel his Qi, he would be hit by more tribulations, causing his soul to take damage. He was really running out of options now.