The Villain Fox's Sickly Beauty Master - Chapter 22
Chapter 22: How Can Your Soul Be Complete?
007 now had no idea what was going on. It just felt like the world had gone crazy. It quickly sorted the data, preparing to report the situation, while simultaneously comforting Jiang Jinheng.
“Host, don’t listen to her nonsense for now. It’s not too late to check after I confirm!”
Jiang Jinheng could barely hear its words. She realized that as soon as she activated her spiritual energy, a suction force in this space slowly drew away her energy.
In just the time it took for a stick of incense to burn, Jiang Jinheng fought until exhaustion. Her forehead was drenched in sweat, her spiritual energy was depleted, and she could only watch helplessly as Fentian pressed her palm towards her forehead, utterly powerless to resist.
But the next moment, she surprisingly noticed Fentian’s shocked expression. The woman retreated a few steps, her face filled with astonishment: “Why is your soul complete?”
Now it was 007’s turn to be shocked. Jiang Jinheng’s soul was fully mended by the Administration Bureau due to its intervention. Since she was mentally sound and exceptionally talented, with only a slightly weak body, no one else in this small world had noticed that half of her soul was missing. But how did this Fentian know? Could what she said be true?
007 dared not think about it, but it took the liberty of retrieving an Essence Recovery Pill from the storage ring for Jiang Jinheng, transforming the pill into her hand. After doing this, it continuously chattered in her mind, trying to bring her back to consciousness.
“Quick, eat it, eat it, quickly replenish your spiritual energy!”
Jiang Jinheng must have understood. She mechanically raised her arm, but before the pill reached her mouth, it was struck away by a demonic-red spiritual energy. Fentian, standing in front of her with bloodshot eyes, stopped using her twin blades and started pummeling Jiang Jinheng from all directions with her fists, her face full of frustration.
“How can your soul be complete? Tell me, open your mouth, speak!”
Although her thoughts were becoming chaotic, Jiang Jinheng had no intention of revealing the existence of the system.
However, Fentian didn’t give her a chance to speak at all. Every time a punch landed on her, she would cough up a mouthful of bl00d. Before the bl00d was fully spat out, another punch would land.
Every punch carried spiritual energy, and the weak spiritual energy around her couldn’t protect her. In an instant, Jiang Jinheng suddenly thought of Fu Yi, whom she had just seen, wondering if she was also beaten like this.
They truly deserve to be master and disciple; one after the other, they get beaten up.
This continued until Fentian, too, became tired from punching and stopped, merely standing there catching her breath.
007, spinning anxiously in her mind, was on the verge of crying. It kept calling Jiang Jinheng’s name, wanting to wait until she was clearer before sending her the pill. Instead, it heard her say suddenly:
“I finally figured one thing out.”
The fact that she could speak fluently meant she hadn’t been beaten into idiocy. 007 couldn’t see the bl00d-crusted face through the system interface, nor could it look down at the bluish-white robes already stained red. It could only stare at Fentian, simultaneously reminding Jiang Jinheng.
“Stop talking to me, look at her! She’s coming over again!”
Seeing Jiang Jinheng lying motionless on the ground, only her eyelids being forcibly held open, Fentian produced a cluster of ice-blue flames from her palm. 007 looked closely and realized that this was exactly the same as Jiang Jinheng’s Cold Star Flame. Its voice sounded like its tongue was tied.
“This… You… She…”
Fentian gradually approached. The light cast by the ice-blue flames on Jiang Jinheng’s face appeared intensely dim, yet it also illuminated another face, a face full of arrogance, which shocked 007 instantly.
Fentian looked exactly the same as Jiang Jinheng, with only a slight difference in their expressions.
“It doesn’t matter if your soul is complete. At most… it will just take a little more effort.”
Jiang Jinheng stared at the familiar flame, feeling a sensation of her soul being scorched for the first time. But suddenly, an identical ice-blue light shone above both of them.
Seeing this, Fentian instantly looked up and saw a familiar face. Realizing her mistake, she tried to retreat but was instantly bound by a net-like formation. Her elbows and wrists were all pinned to the ground by fine needles, leaving her completely immobilized.
“Soul-Locking Array… When did you send out a clone…”
007 was equally stunned by the sudden role reversal.
The arrogance on Fentian’s face completely vanished. Jiang Jinheng, covered in wounds, struggled halfway up from the ground, took out several medicine bottles from her storage ring, and scattered ten-something pills to swallow. Only then did she have the strength to speak.
“After you revealed my background, the second time your curved blade was struck away. To prevent you from noticing, I cast a deceptive spell, separating only enough spiritual energy to form the array. Everything just now was only to lure you here.”
Jiang Jinheng, just like Fentian earlier, conjured her Cold Star Flame and walked toward her. The space was so quiet that even the sound of their heartbeats was loud, until Jiang Jinheng finally reached the spot and crouched down.
“Originally, this array… was meant to deal with Wan Zhuqing. Now I can only test it on you first.”
The ice-blue flame moved closer and closer. Fentian, who had condensed her soul into a solid entity using a secret technique, began to look increasingly transparent. In her panic, she could only try to provoke Jiang Jinheng into retreating with words.
“You can’t refine me. I am the primary soul. If I die, you will naturally die too.”
“But you already said it yourself. My soul is now complete.” Jiang Jinheng curved her lips into a smile. The bl00d covering her face, paired with this smile, made her look incredibly chilling, causing Fentian to shiver involuntarily.
“Furthermore, even if I stopped and released you, wouldn’t you still try to devour me and take over this body? Since that’s the case, killing you first has no drawback for me, regardless of whether I die or not.”
Seeing that this threat didn’t scare Jiang Jinheng and that the surrounding array was already activated, Fentian thought of something else.
“Although you have trapped me, you are still inside the belly of my demon pet, the Teng Snake. If you release me, I can consider letting it release you. Otherwise, if it casts another illusion, your body won’t be able to withstand it.”
Fentian’s words seemed reasonable, but Jiang Jinheng smiled even more profoundly: “If the Teng Snake were still alive, I would listen to you. But hasn’t it already died?”
Ever since Jiang Jinheng discovered that this space continuously drained the spiritual energy she used for spells, she speculated that she was still within an illusion. However, this illusion deliberately mimicked the scene inside the Teng Snake’s belly, and Fentian appeared neither too early nor too late, showing up precisely after Jiang Jinheng discovered a potential flaw, which was highly suspicious.
Having experienced what just happened, Jiang Jinheng heard the giant heartbeats in the abdominal cavity weaken more and more, and she found the answer in her heart.
But this was, after all, a ray of hope. Even though Jiang Jinheng might have already guessed the correct answer, Fentian was still desperate to argue:
“Nonsense, we are clearly inside its belly…”
Fentian spoke urgently, but her words were interrupted by Jiang Jinheng.
“In that battle, you relied on a secret technique to guide your soul out, borrowing the Teng Snake’s pair of horns for two future illusions.”
As Jiang Jinheng spoke, she observed the array’s activation status. At the same time, she raised her hand to erect a protective barrier to prevent any sudden developments, then continued:
“A soul cannot remain without a host for long. So you found Wan Zhuqing’s alchemical cauldron and coexisted with him inside it. His soul entity was too weak, so you planned to first weaken my strength, then have him assist you in refining me, and only then find a suitable body for him to possess. If I’m not mistaken, this place where we are staying is actually that alchemical cauldron, right?”
At this point, Jiang Jinheng threw the flame in her hand into the fully activated array, listening to the crackling sound of burning souls and Fentian’s agonizing screams, before finally asking one last question.
“Tell me, am I right or wrong?”