Chapter 874: Ak vs Kal Aftermath P4
Kalina’s body suddenly trembled violently, and she vaguely felt it.
Something deeper than Spirit Essence was being stolen. Unseen by her, the blue flames above her head rapidly began losing their brilliance.
Blue...
Light blue...
Whitish blue...
Gray...
Finally...
They turned pitch black, looking empty and hopeless. They were darker than the dead embers buried beneath ashes.
At the same time, something changed above Aksai’s own head.
His originally colorless Fortune Flames quietly absorbed the stolen fortune. The flames brightened. Color slowly spread through them.
A faint shade of blue appeared.
Not as deep as Kalina’s previous flames. Not even close. But undeniably, they had become blue.
Aksai quietly observed them.
"Tch. So some of it was lost."
He was not surprised.
After all, he had merely borrowed his Aether Clone’s understanding of the technique. Had the clone performed the plundering itself, the loss would likely have been almost negligible.
Then again, this was a relative way of putting things into perspective. In reality, his clone’s cultivation base was far weaker than his own. As such, it would have been nearly impossible for it to plunder the fortune of someone like Kalina.
Still, this result already exceeded his expectations. He had successfully proven that the technique worked.
The moment the plundering ended—
"Cough!"
Aksai suddenly bent forward.
A mouthful of blood escaped his lips. Dark red drops splashed onto the ground. A thin stream of blood slowly flowed from the corner of his mouth.
His face turned slightly pale, but he merely wiped the blood away with the back of his hand.
"There it is..."
He had expected this.
The blood itself was insignificant. It merely represented the price he had paid.
The true backlash was the loss of his lifespan.
Aksai silently estimated the cost.
"...Almost ten years."
Even though Kalina stood at death’s door, her Fortune Flames had still belonged to an extraordinary individual. Plundering fortune from someone of her caliber inevitably demanded a heavy price.
Had he attempted this while she was still healthy, the backlash would have been far more severe. He might have lost decades of his lifespan. Perhaps even more.
That was precisely why Aksai had waited until the final moments before her death.
Only now...
When her destiny itself had begun to crumble...
Could he barely afford to perform such a technique.
An ordinary Lord would never dare use such a self-destructive art casually. Losing ten years of lifespan for uncertain gains bordered on madness.
But Aksai was not an ordinary Lord.
His druidic bloodline granted him a natural affinity with life itself. As long as he possessed sufficient Life Essence and enough time, he could gradually recover the lifespan he had lost.
Compared to obtaining blue Fortune Flames, ten years was a price he found entirely acceptable. In fact, a druid like him would have been okay if the price was even hundreds of years provided the Fortune Flames were of higher grade.
Aksai looked one last time at the faint blue flames now dancing quietly above his own head. A satisfied smile slowly appeared on his face.
"Let’s hope this blessing lasts for a while."
Looking around, the Spirit farmer saw his dying opponent. At this point, Kalina stared at Aksai with unwillingness, grievance, and deep resentment.
Her pupils slowly lost focus.
The anger...
The unwillingness...
The grievance...
Everything gradually disappeared from her eyes. A moment later, the last trace of life left her body. Silence filled the poisonous barrier.
Aksai quietly looked at the woman lying before him. His expression remained calm. Neither joy nor sadness appeared on his face.
He had no reason to celebrate. Nor did he have any reason to mourn.
Kalina had simply become another cultivator who failed to survive a life-and-death struggle. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Aksai slowly withdrew his gaze.
This battle had never been about personal hatred. From the very beginning, he had fought for several reasons.
One of them was his prior agreement with the Purple River Sect.
He had accepted the Purple River Lord’s alliance. Since Kalina had become their common enemy, helping eliminate her was naturally part of that agreement.
The second reason was himself.
He wanted to test the improvements he had recently obtained. His poison techniques and new products from the farm. The Void Gu. Serya’s evolved poison. Even the Fortune Telling Arts.
This battle had forced him to use almost every trump card currently at his disposal, which he hadn’t used before for various reasons. Only by using them in real battle could he improve upon them in the future.
However, those were still not the most important reasons.
Aksai slowly looked toward Kalina’s lifeless body once again.
This was actually a test and not merely a battle. A litmus paper. A way to measure the true depth of the Shinayin Empire.
Now...
He finally had his answer. His expression gradually became serious.
"Haah! The situation is worse than I expected."
Kalina was only one cultivator. One late-stage Lord. Yet defeating her had nearly cost him everything.
Had she possessed just one or two more hidden trump cards or did not fall into the initial trap Aksai set for her, the outcome could easily have been reversed.
More importantly, this battle had taught Aksai several valuable lessons.
First, his greatest advantage against the native cultivators had already disappeared.
Intent-based Spirit Spells.
The Lords of the Dadangar Subcontinent weren’t even aware of Intents or ways to cultivate them. How could they then use them in their real-life battles? But the cultivators from the empire were way ahead of Aksai when it came to using intent-based techniques.
Secondly, the cultivators from the Shinayin Empire were no strangers to different cultivation paths.
Body cultivation. Mind cultivation. Poison cultivation.
They might not possess complete countermeasures against every path but they knew enough to reduce their effectiveness. That knowledge alone greatly reduced Aksai’s advantage.
Thirdly, the spatial abilities of the Enchanted Everwood Farm. Previously, he had relied on this ability to summon crucial components or worthy puppets from the farm. But it looked like he would either have to stop or find other ways. Otherwise, it would be no different from painting a target on one’s own exposed back.