Dual Cultivation was a type of cultivation system, wherein male and female cultivators pair up and cultivate through intercourse.
Though a lot pursued it casually, many had Dao Partners—partners with whom they exclusively cultivated. These bonds were ford for various reasons, from sexual compatibility to affinity and even genuine love.
Such was the case for Xinyi. She and her partner were deeply in love. Even better, they had good compatibility with a certain Dual Cultivation technique.
Xinyi comprehended the Law of Creation, while he comprehended Destruction.
Together, they used their opposing law energies to cultivate, the contact agitating their energies, causing them to push against each other and rush to their energy cores faster. This saturation accelerated their comprehension, their cores absorbing essence rapidly while their souls processed the laws’ working processes.
However, after the accident that ended with Xinyi being displaced into the Infernal Dinsion, she was separated from her partner.
But it wasn’t all bad. She had her token and could locate his general direction. She could find him that way.
Until one day, the token’s signal disappeared.
That could only an one thing: he was dead.
The thought was unthinkable. Her beloved was a Superior Stage Transcendent, a master of Destruction. How could he have been defeated?
Frantic, Xinyi rushed in the last direction she had sensed his presence and there, she found his sister cradling his cold corpse.
It turned out he had just reunited with his sister when they were attacked by an Archdevil. He had bought her the ti to escape but lost his life against the Archdevil.
That Archdevil’s na, was Yujia.
And Xinyi wanted revenge.
But her opponent was a Superior Transcendent, and one of the Infernal Devil commanders. Charging in recklessly would be suicide.
When she learned the Infernal Devils were recruiting cultivators to prevent them from joining the Spirits, she seized the opportunity to slip into their ranks.
Yujia knew nothing of her existence, and her partner, dressed out of uniform during the fatal encounter, had left no clue connecting him to her.
Together with her lover’s sister, Xinyi bid her ti, waiting for the perfect chance to strike.
Their vendetta nearly ca to an end when the Infernal Devil base ca under attack from the Spirits.
At the forefront was an existence whose na had made waves on the Interstellar Stage recently—the Progenitor from another Universe.
Xinyi tried to stay as far away from him as possible, but that was impossible as she was a practitioner of Creation.
As a Destruction user, he wouldn’t miss her presence even if he was blind.
She thought she was done for when he caught her in his gravity-enhanced grip, but with no options left, she took a chance and sent him a telepathic ssage begging him to spare her.
His ntal defences were ridiculously strong, and her telepathic ssage couldn’t even get to him properly. He had probably only heard bits and pieces, but miraculously, he spared her, granting her a sliver of hope for revenge.
That mont ca soon after.
Blocking two of Arthur’s attacks ant for the Archdevil increased her credibility and made Yujia lower her guard.
The end result, was Yujia’s death.
Xinyi hadn’t delivered the killing blow herself, but she had her mont. She had paid back the stab wound to the heart that killed her lover.
With the Archdevil gone, a strange emptiness settled over her, the sharp ache of loss settling deeper than any satisfaction vengeance had brought.
◇ ◇ ◇
Hearing the short story Charisse narrated for him, Arthur sighed softly and shook his head. He had no words, only sympathy for the woman who’d lost her significant other.
He was in Nature’s Dwelling, seated in the Council Hall, opposite the eight of the ten Elders. Two had been gravely wounded and were recuperating elsewhere.
As for him, he was receiving treatnt from Charisse. The energy circuits in his right arm had burnt out, and unless they recovered, he couldn’t circulate energy through that arm—a problem that threw off his whole body’s balance.
It was just like how a person would certainly have issues if blood couldn’t flow through an entire arm.
As Charisse helped him speed up the recovery, they discussed the aftermath of the recent battle, strategizing for potential retaliation from the two remaining Archdevil Commanders.
By the end of the eting, they decided to publicize the news. The spirits planned to use their unique communication thods to spread the news across the Chasm, aiming to boost morale on their side while weakening the Devils’.
◇ ◇ ◇
Archdevil Yujia was dead, slain by Progenitor godslayer, Arthur. An ally of the spirits who wields the power of Destruction.
That headline was spread as far and wide as possible, across all civilisations of the Iohodis Continent.
The death of one of the Archdevils’ three powerful commanders sent shockwaves rippling through the land.
As planned, the Spirits of Nature’s Dwelling contacted the others on the other half of the Continent and had them spread the news.
That did numbers to the Devils’ morale on that side and let the spirits there reclaim vast territories in a surge of montum.
Of course, Kagluk’s death was also publicized and that doubled the impact of the blow to the Devils’ morale.
As if exchanging, a new piece of news was sent back to the Spirits of Nature’s Dwelling from their counterparts at Tír Síorghlas, separated by the Chasm.
Soul Devil Azzonnin was dead! He was killed by the Masked Rogue Hero, Evan.
Azzonnin was not a Commander like Vonun, Yujia and Jegunul were, but he was the next highest-ranked Devil after them.
So, news of his death coming alongside Yujia and Kagluk’s shook the Devils to their cores. If even their Commanders and elite were falling en masse, their own fates suddenly felt terrifyingly fragile.
When Arthur heard the news of Evan killing Azzonnin, the boy burst into uncontrollable laughter.
The Elders, Charisse, Hibiki and Crim looked at him in confusion but he ignored them and continued laughing.
Arthur still hadn’t recovered from his injuries sustained against Yujia at the ti, so Charisse had to hold him down or else he’d have been rolling on the floor laughing.
"Soul Devil, huh? I think I know what happened here."
Arthur hadn’t t many of them, but he knew what Soul Devils were and how they were ford.
"Soul Devils have a big weakness in the form of their lack of material bodies.
And you said this Azzonnin was once a white dragon, did you not?"
When Charisse nodded, Arthur continued.
"Evan’s dragon bloodline is also that of a White Dragon. My guess is that Azzonnin tried to take over Evan’s body.
To do that, he needed to subdue Evan’s ’Soul’. That should be his expertise considering he’s a Soul Devil, but he ssed up big ti."
Still laughing, Arthur took a hint of cosmic energy and following Charisse’s lessons, he managed to project a bit of his Soul Pressure, to let everyone here understand just how strong his soul was.
Arthur’s claim about not being affected by any Mortal Status effect was not a lie, neither was it him being arrogant.
His Soul was already the strongest any mortal soul could ever be.
After showing them this, he retracted the pressure and then proceeded to drop a line that shocked even Charisse who had divined so many things about them.
"Evan’s Soul is stronger than mine."
"...huh?"
The young woman was so dumbfounded that her healing magic spell misfired. Arthur burst out laughing once more, and even when they asked him if he was joking, he repeated the sa line, confirming he wasn’t.
"...but if Evan’s soul is stronger than yours then that’d make it a..."
Seeing Crim’s look of realisation made Arthur laugh once more, and he turned his eyes in the direction of the Chasm.
His gaze pierced through space and he saw the slowly closing ravine, sensing the reduced concentration of the law energy wall dividing them.
’Soon...’
◇ ◇ ◇
Council Hall
Tír Síorghlas
Iohodis Continent
November 4th
Year 1054
"Um...when did you say you killed him again?"
"Eight weeks ago."
Evan responded to the question from one of the Spirit Elders of Tír Síorghlas, the Abode of Spirits on the other end of the Chasm from Arthur.
Hearing him, everyone in the room gave him incredulous looks and then they turned towards one of the elders who shook her head.
"He speaks no lies."
Evan didn’t seem bothered that they had used a lie detection skill on him, he just focused on recharging the portable console in his hand when one of the Elders spoke.
"Sir Evan...I think you should have disclosed this information to us far earlier."
"That’s your fault, not mine. You didn’t tell he was a big shot. You only told about Vonun, Jegunul and Yujia. No Azzonnin, so I didn’t think much of it."
"..."
His response made them go silent and they could not refute his words. Truly, if they had inford him of Azzonnin’s importance to the Devil Hierarchy, Evan would let them know that he’d killed Azzonnin over two months ago.
’To think that he’d already hilled a High-Rank Devil before we even made contact with him...’
The Spirits couldn’t help but view this Rogue Hero who had beheaded half a dozen Sovereign Realm existences in the past week in a new light.
"Still, that Yujia was a Superior Transcendent, right? I wonder if Arthur has finally Transcended. That would be nice."
When Evan ntioned this, one of the Spirits’ eyes went wide with rembrance and he quickly spoke.
"Sir Evan, the Prophetess said that she would need to speak with you privately when the Chasm closes."
"Speak with privately? About what?"
To Evan’s question, the spirit responded.
"Sir Arthur’s Transcendence."
◇ ◇ ◇
One of the three commanders was dead. The Infernal Devils had lost many Transcendents in the battle at Yujia’s ho base.
Still, Jegunul and Vonun were nowhere to be seen.
In that manner, days went by.
And on the Seventh Day, the Chasm finally closed.
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