A Will Eternal

Bai Xiaochun’s expression turned serious, and his heart began to pound with anticipation. Although he hadn’t spent much time on the damaged fan, on previous occasions when he was not inside one of the levels, he had often looked out into the inky darkness of the void.

At first, it had been with curiosity, but later with boredom. After all, it wasn’t even a starry sky; it was just darkness.

It was like an enclosed room in which all the candles had been extinguished. It was terrifyingly quiet, with nothing at all visible except the sea of darkness.

Therefore, this palace with its blue light seemed almost like a bright star, and was eye-catching to the extreme!

How could Bai Xiaochun not be excited by this sudden development? In fact, he blurred into motion, heading to the edge of the fan, where he stood and watched the huge palace flying closer and closer to him.

As it neared, he could see that it was actually only one corner of an even larger palace structure, as if it had broken off from the whole. And as it got closer, it was clear that the entire thing was hovering on the brink of falling apart.

Black bloodstains were visible, dried up for what must have been many, many years. All-in-all, it looked like this palace had undergone a catastrophe of world-destroying proportions.

After observing it for a bit, Bai Xiaochun felt the impulse to go explore it. But the cautious side of him quickly squashed that dangerous idea.

But out here in this strange, dark void, this sudden spot of light that was the palace was profoundly intriguing. And he couldn’t dispel the notion that it would be a real pity to abandon it.

“What if there’s some good loot inside?” he thought. After looking down at the damaged fan, and then up again at the palace, his eyes glittered as he came up with an idea.

“That palace is obviously not very sturdy. And definitely not as strong as this sovereign-level precious treasure.” With that, he drew upon his ability to control the damaged fan, which was now at thirty percent.

After all, he had already passed the thirtieth level, and was thus able to somewhat influence the direction the fan moved in.

As he sent his divine sense out, the fan vibrated a bit. Thankfully, the spirit automaton had already fallen into slumber, otherwise it would have been very difficult for Bai Xiaochun to succeed in this effort.

Just like that, the fan changed directions, and began to head directly toward the palace!

In that very moment, Bai Xiaochun could see that the previously calm and quiet palace suddenly began to tremble. The blue light that had been shining out of it was sucked back in, and then a moment later was projected back out in the form of an enormous, vicious head with two horns sticking out of it. Looking in the direction of Bai Xiaochun and the damaged fan, it let out a soundless roar.

At the same time, a burst of holy archaean power erupted out from the illusory head!

“An archaean soul!!” Bai Xiaochun blurted, his eyes going wide.

Few other people would be able to identify such a thing. But Bai Xiaochun was a heavenly necromancer, and had immense experience working with souls. Therefore, it only took a single glance for him to realize that the head being projected out of the palace by means of the blue light was none other than… an archaean soul!!

Presumably, some archaean expert of the past had died in this palace. Then, because of some unique characteristic of the palace, or perhaps because of other reasons, the soul of that dead expert remained behind, fused with the palace itself. Although the soul was no longer intelligent and aware of its surroundings, it still existed!

The blue light was obviously some sort of defensive trap. If Bai Xiaochun had blithely tried to enter the palace, he would have been attacked by the archaean soul. Instead, with the damaged fan barreling toward it, the archaean soul had no choice but to reveal itself.

As it howled noiselessly, ripples spread out through the void, a formless attack aimed at the damaged fan. Bai Xiaochun’s face fell, and he backed away from the edge of the fan. However, as soon as the ripples reached the fan itself, it was to his delight that he realized that they didn’t do anything to it at all, not even slow it down. In fact, they apparently suffered from an automated backlash attack by the fan.

The fluctuations which rolled out from the fan surpassed those of the archaean soul, filled with a power that caused Bai Xiaochun to gasp. He was even slightly injured just from their presence. This… was something far, far beyond the power of an archaean.

It was something Bai Xiaochun had never felt before… the power of a sovereign!

The void vibrated in response, and the eyes of that enormous blue head went wide with shock. It tried to retreat, but couldn’t do so quickly enough, and the sovereign-level power slammed into the palace.

The enormous palace shuddered to a stop in the middle of the void. Then, to Bai Xiaochun’s shock, it rippled and distorted until it transformed into a beam of light that shot toward the fan. It was almost as if the fan was dragging it toward itself! Moments later, the palace vanished!

Bai Xiaochun looked around, barely able to breathe. He was fairly certain he knew what had happened. He looked down at the fan, beads of sweat dripping down his face as he realized that he had definitely underestimated this precious treasure!

Before, the image on the fan’s face had featured a mountain and a river with a boat in it, within which two people were playing Go. But now, at the source of that river… a palace was visible!!

“It became a part of the picture… it became a part of the face of the fan!” His eyes went wide, and his mind spun. This development completely surpassed his powers of imagination. After taking a moment to let it all sink in, his face fell.

“I just wanted to explore it and see if it had any treasures inside. Even if it didn’t, an archaean soul would be great to have. But this fan just went and ate it….” He almost felt like crying at how badly he had lost out. Not quite willing to give up, he sent some divine sense over to the palace, drawing upon the thirty percent of the fan that he could control to see if he could pull the palace out of the picture.

As soon as he sent his divine sense out, the river stopped flowing for a short moment. When it resumed flowing a moment later, a drop of water shot out from it and flew toward the palace. When it hit it, the palace flickered with bright light, and emitted what sounded like a defiant roar. The water spread out, covering the blue light. Then it began to wrench at the palace, ripping away fully a third of it. Then it vanished, to reappear in Bai Xiaochun’s hand!

Heart racing, Bai Xiaochun stared in shock at the drop of water floating above his palm, within which was a bit of blue light. Upon examining it closer, he could see a vicious head within that blue light, radiating an aura of anger and violence.

The head couldn’t escape from the water no matter how much it battered at it. Furthermore, based on the aura it emitted, Bai Xiaochun could tell that this was the archaean soul!

However, it was only about thirty percent as powerful as a true archaean soul!

For Bai Xiaochun, that was more than enough!

“I can’t believe I can do this!” he said, licking his lips. Then he threw his head back and laughed uproariously. “A fan that shares! I love it!”

He was very excited to understand how truly strong this fan was. And after it absorbed things, it would share those things with him in proportion to how much he controlled the fan!

One day, when he was truly its owner, he could easily dominate all existence! It was a truly exciting thought.

Yet again, he realized that everything he had done to get this fan was definitely worth it!

“Alright. I need to go back and get some rest!” Savoring the beauty of the fact that he had acquired a portion of an archaean soul, he sent out a thought, and vanished.

After reappearing in his private chamber in Mistysea Prefecture in the north, he sent some divine sense out to find that the Grand Heavenmaster had apparently sensed his return, and was hurrying over to talk with him.

“What happened?” Bai Xiaochun wondered, surprised.