Chapter 207 - The Flaw-Piercing Needles and the Angry Space
Su Bai stepped out of the trench.
Dozens of black needles came with him.
There was no warning this time. The Qi needles emerged from his body and shot outward in different directions, crossing the battlefield in an instant.
The Returnees had already been advancing toward the trench, but not all of them reacted in time.
Several of the weaker ones were pierced before they could even turn. Black needles entered throats, brows, joints, and chests. They tore through the unstable structures beneath their stolen flesh.
The stronger Returnees reacted much faster.
Some twisted aside. Others raised their hands and struck the needles away with condensed Ashen-Blood Miasma. A Nascent Soul-level Returnee swept its sleeve, then released a black-red wave that knocked several needles off course.
More than half of the first volley missed.
Su Bai was already moving when the counterattack arrived.
A claw wrapped in red-black Qi tore through the place where his head had been. He slipped sideways. His feet glided across the stone through Frictionless Phantom Step, while another thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
The first volley had been ordinary Qi needles.
His Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent had made his attacks much more troublesome, but there was still an inconvenient step whenever he wanted the needles to carry that Intent.
He had to place it upon them.
Su Bai’s expression changed slightly.
Why was he waiting until the needles were already outside?
His Qi was different from that of ordinary cultivators. He did not need to gather ordinary Qi and shape it every time he attacked. The needles were already there.
Su Bai’s eyes brightened.
’Then why don’t I infuse them before they come out?’
The thought appeared simple once it occurred to him.
His Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent stirred inside his sea of consciousness.
At the same moment, a beam of black-red light tore toward his chest.
Su Bai leaned aside and glided several steps across the ground. The beam passed close enough to tear a section from his robe before blasting apart the stone behind him.
He barely glanced at it.
Most of his attention had already turned inward.
Inside his infinite Dantian, countless black Qi needles rested within the vast darkness. More needles filled the nine Gateway Qi Reservoirs distributed throughout his body.
The tiny illusory needle inside his sea of consciousness trembled.
Su Bai guided his Intent downward.
A faint meaning entered the Qi needles.
The process was far smoother than he had expected.
These needles were already his Qi. They were already shaped according to the path his cultivation had naturally taken. His Intent did not need to force something foreign upon them.
It only gave the needles a purpose they had already begun to understand.
Su Bai smiled while another Returnee charged toward him.
This seemed much more reasonable.
He continued moving.
Only then did he take a proper look at the battlefield around him.
Lower Returnees had spread across the ruined ground, trying to close the available paths around the trench. Several Nascent Soul-level figures remained farther back. Ashen-Blood Miasma gathered around their hands as they prepared techniques.
The Void-Shattering Returnees were farther away. They had not rushed toward him with the others.
Su Bai understood why.
First, they were observing the battlefield and gradually sealing off his escape routes.
Second, the ancient Space-Reaping Intent remained nearby.
The spatial wound left behind by the ancient sword strike still hung in the air like a thin scar across reality.
After studying it for two days, Su Bai understood its reach much better than before.
He knew approximately how close he could approach before the lingering Intent began affecting him.
He also understood something else.
Space around that sword scar was already unstable.
The Void-Shattering Returnees could tear open ordinary space and travel through the rifts they created, but opening another spatial passage beside an ancient wound that was already being held apart by Space-Reaping Intent was a different matter.
Trying to force another rift there would only make the surrounding space even more chaotic.
That was why none of them had simply appeared beside him.
Su Bai glanced toward the distant figures.
One of the Void-Shattering Returnees was watching him quietly.
"He learned the scar."
Another Void-Shattering Returnee turned its head slightly.
"Drive him away from it."
Su Bai heard the words through his spiritual sense and became considerably less pleased.
Apparently, the enemies had also noticed what he was doing.
He changed direction immediately.
Frictionless Phantom Step carried him around the outer reach of the Space-Reaping Intent while Nether Threads flicked from his sleeves and anchored themselves into broken stones around him.
The Returnees followed.
Su Bai kept moving while his attention remained divided between the battlefield and his own body.
Inside his Dantian and Qi Reservoirs, more Qi needles received his Intent.
His spiritual sense had already spread across the nearby enemies.
There were flaws everywhere.
Su Bai’s Intent began locking onto them one after another.
A Returnee lunged from his left. Su Bai slipped beneath its arm.
Another attacked from behind, only for a Nether Thread to tighten around a broken stone and pull Su Bai sideways at the last moment.
A black-red palm struck empty air. Three more Returnees closed from the front.
Su Bai changed direction again.
He did not attack yet.
The Returnees gradually became more aggressive. They thought he was only avoiding them.
But then, the preparation inside Su Bai’s body finished.
The tiny illusory needle in his sea of consciousness trembled.
Dozens of Qi needles inside his Dantian and Qi Reservoirs now carried the meaning of Flaw-Piercing.
Su Bai looked at the enemies surrounding him.
’Let’s try that again.’
The needles emerged.
Dozens of black lines burst from his body at once.
The Returnees reacted immediately.
They had already seen the first volley.
Several twisted aside before the needles reached them. One lowered its head. Another stepped backward. A Nascent Soul-level Returnee struck toward the incoming needles and sent a wave of miasma sweeping across their path.
For a moment, it seemed as though the second attack would end exactly like the first.
But at that moment... the needles turned.
The Returnee that had lowered its head froze.
A needle curved downward after it.
The one that stepped backward watched another needle change direction in midair.
The Nascent Soul-level Returnee’s miasma wave knocked several needles away, but the remaining ones slipped around the edge of the technique and continued toward the flaws Su Bai had already locked onto.
The battlefield suddenly became much quieter.
Puchi!
One after another, the needles found the weaknesses Su Bai’s spiritual sense had already discovered.
The Returnees tried to dodge again.
The needles followed.
Some were blocked. Some lost their targets when stronger Returnees disrupted Su Bai’s spiritual sense or moved beyond the range of his lock.
Enough still landed. Black-red veins spread across several bodies.
The first Returnee collapsed.
Its Soul-Bloom erupted immediately, and the Soul-Bloom Bud inside Su Bai reacted. The rising bloom force was pulled toward him and swallowed.
More Returnees died breaths later. Their blooms followed.
For a moment, Su Bai nearly laughed.
The first volley had been arrows thrown at moving targets.
The second volley had opinions about where those targets were allowed to go.
He liked the improvement.
The surviving Returnees clearly did not.
"Bind him!"
A Nascent Soul-level Returnee raised both hands.
The ground beneath Su Bai darkened.
Several black-red chains erupted from the broken stones while another Returnee released a rain of miasma blades from above.
Su Bai’s feet slid across the ground.
Frictionless Phantom Step carried him beneath the descending blades, and a Nether Thread tightened against a distant stone pillar. The pull changed his angle sharply enough that the miasma chains closed behind him instead.
More attacks followed.
Su Bai passed between them.
The Void-Shattering Returnees still had not entered the fight directly, but they were moving now.
They were spreading apart.
Su Bai noticed the pattern immediately. They were preparing to corner him.
That was troublesome.
Several Nascent Soul-level Returnees moved into his path.
Their hands rose together.
Black-red spiritual light gathered above them before transforming into several enormous miasma techniques.
One resembled a bloody palm. Another became a long black-red serpent. The last condensed into dozens of narrow spears.
All of them descended toward Su Bai.
He looked at the incoming techniques strangely.
Ever since he had eaten the dead flesh fragment, Ashen-Blood Miasma had become increasingly familiar.
Before, techniques like these had looked deeply unpleasant.
Now the miasma within them felt strangely recognizable.
It was still hostile power. It simply no longer felt nearly as threatening as it once had.
The Starving Wraith’s Devouring Maw appeared.
The bloody palm distorted first, then the serpent. The miasma spears trembled as the Devouring Maw tore apart the power holding them together and swallowed the Ashen-Blood Miasma within them.
The techniques collapsed before reaching Su Bai.
He continued gliding forward, then his eyes narrowed.
Those attacks had not been meant to kill him.
They had been controlling his direction.
Every blast forced him closer to the Space-Reaping Intent.
Su Bai glanced toward the ancient spatial scar.
Understanding immediately followed.
He had been tricked.
Earlier, he had assumed the Void-Shattering Returnees wanted to drive him away from the Space-Reaping Intent. Thinking back now, they had probably realized he was listening to their conversation and deliberately fed him the wrong conclusion.
Their true goal had been the opposite.
They wanted him to enter the Space-Reaping Intent’s range.
A faint smile appeared on Su Bai’s face.
That was a good idea. He decided to return it.
The Nascent Soul-level Returnees were preparing another round of techniques when Nether Threads suddenly tightened around their limbs.
The threads had spread across the battlefield while Su Bai was running.
The Returnees reacted immediately, gathering power to tear them apart.
Su Bai’s Intent reached them first.
Sloth Needle.
Several of the bound Returnees suddenly convulsed.
No actual needles had reached them yet, but their bodies still reacted.
For Su Bai, that brief disturbance was enough.
The Nether Threads tightened.
He pulled.
Three Nascent Soul-level Returnees were ripped from their footing and hurled sideways.
Several lower Returnees running behind them were struck by the flying bodies and dragged along.
Their direction changed, straight toward the Space-Reaping Intent.
The first Returnee realized what was happening and roared.
"Stop!"
It twisted violently and tore several Nether Threads apart. But it was already too late.
The ancient sword scar trembled.
For one brief instant, the thin spatial wound seemed to widen.
There was no grand explosion. The Space-Reaping Intent simply passed through the approaching Returnee.
Its body separated.
The upper half continued moving while the lower half remained behind. Both surfaces were so smooth that the Returnee itself seemed unable to understand what had happened.
The lingering Intent moved again.
The two halves were cut apart further.
Its Soul-Bloom barely began to emerge before the spatial wound tore through that as well.
The second Nascent Soul-level Returnee tried to stop itself in midair.
It failed.
A faint distortion crossed its chest. Its body disappeared from the middle.
The remaining pieces fell in different directions.
The lower Returnees behind them fared even worse.
For several breaths, the ancient sword strike that had survived countless years reminded everyone nearby why even the Returnees had avoided this place.
Su Bai watched the scattered remains fall.
His expression became unusually solemn.
That was a Nascent Soul-level Returnee.
It had died almost as easily as the little miasma creature he had tested his Sloth Needle on earlier.
Su Bai gave the spatial scar a little more distance.
Respecting one’s elders was important. Especially when the elder in question was an ancient sword strike capable of accidentally dividing him into several Su Bais.
The battlefield changed.
The Void-Shattering Returnees stopped observing.
One of them stepped forward.
The pressure spreading from its body caused the surrounding miasma to sink toward the ground.
Its voice carried across the ruins.
"Enough."
Another disappeared from Su Bai’s spiritual sense for half a breath before reappearing farther along the safe edge of the spatial scar. It had not opened a rift. It had simply moved with raw speed.
The remaining Void-Shattering Returnees spread out with it.
Their expressions had changed.
Earlier, they had chased him because the sealed source wanted him.
Now there was something much more personal in their movements.
One of them stared at Su Bai and spoke through clenched teeth.
"Golden Core mutt."
Su Bai’s eyebrow twitched.
That felt unnecessarily rude.
The Returnee continued.
"You have run long enough."
Su Bai looked at the figures closing around him and had to admit that they had a point.
He had disappeared for five entire days.
Now that they had finally found him, he had used the ancient Space-Reaping Intent to kill more of their people.
Perhaps their anger was understandable.
Well, this was probably not the right time to empathize with the enemy.
The first Void-Shattering Returnee moved.
Su Bai’s spiritual sense barely caught it.
His Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent immediately searched its body.
There were flaws. Of course there were.
Su Bai locked onto one near the Returnee’s shoulder where the stolen flesh and bloom structure joined.
Sloth Needle reached toward it.
But...
The Void-Shattering Returnee moved before the sensation could fully settle. Its shoulder shifted.
The flaw vanished from Su Bai’s lock.
Su Bai’s expression changed.
He tried again.
His Intent touched another weakness along the Returnee’s side.
The figure twisted almost immediately.
Once again, his lock slipped away before the real Qi needle could follow.
Su Bai’s eyes widened slightly.
It had dodged his Intent!
The Returnee had not seen a needle. There had been no hand movement to read and no obvious attack trajectory.
Its instincts had simply reacted the moment Su Bai’s Intent touched its weakness.
The Void-Shattering Returnee appeared in front of him.
A palm descended.
Su Bai activated Falling Leaf Substitution.
His figure disappeared as the palm crushed the afterimage and shattered the ground beneath it.
Su Bai reappeared several dozen steps away and immediately glided sideways.
Another Void-Shattering Returnee was already there.
Nether Threads tightened.
His direction changed just before a spatial blade passed across his chest.
The remaining enemies were closing in as well.
Su Bai’s newly improved needles could kill weaker Returnees. His Sloth Needle could disrupt Nascent Soul-level enemies. His Soul-Bloom Bud could consume their eruptions.
None of those facts changed the problem in front of him.
The Void-Shattering Returnees were still Void-Shattering. His Intent Seed was still only a seed.
Su Bai continued moving around the dangerous range of the Space-Reaping Intent while attacks descended from every direction.
The safe routes were disappearing.
The Returnees had stopped trying to rush him.
They were squeezing the battlefield instead.
One blocked the path ahead. Another closed from behind. Two more moved along the sides, carefully keeping outside the unstable spatial region.
Lower Returnees filled the remaining gaps.
The encirclement tightened.
Su Bai’s expression gradually became serious.
His methods were no longer enough.
He needed another way out.
His gaze moved toward the ancient spatial wound beside him, then he looked at the angry Returnees surrounding him.
A rather unreasonable idea slowly formed.
Escaping from angry Void-Shattering Returnees was difficult.
Perhaps the solution was to anger something greater.
The tiny illusory needle inside his sea of consciousness trembled.
Su Bai smiled.
If the Returnees insisted on cornering him beside wounded space, then he might as well see what happened when he poked the wound.
This time, Su Bai did not retreat from the spatial seam.
He reached for it.
He was going to make space angry.