A Will Eternal

When Bai Xiaochun looked up, it was as if the entire world had turned the color of blood. Waves began to roll out across the water that made up the swamp, and the countless entities which lived within it sensed Bai Xiaochun’s aura, and instinctively began to tremble!

Master Cloud Lightning’s heart was racing faster than it ever had in his entire life, and his mind was spinning in terror.

“Dammit, how could this Bai Xiaochun be so strong!?!?” he howled in his heart. “He’s not in the early Deva Realm!!”

All of a sudden, he realized how arrogant he had been, and cursed his decision to anger Bai Xiaochun. Even worse was his childish decision not to flee when he could have.

He felt like slapping himself in the face over and over again, and yet, all he could do was try to flee at top speed.

It was in that moment that Bai Xiaochun looked up. Because of the red mist which surrounded him, it was impossible for anyone to see his blood-red eyes clearly.

And the voice with which he spoke almost didn't seem to be his own….

“God… killer!”

As soon as the words escaped his lips, he suddenly vanished, becoming a streak of blood-colored light that pierced through the air at indescribable speed. In fact, it moved so quickly that it seemed capable of moving through time!

It was much faster than any type of teleportation. In the blink of an eye, he was upon the fleeing Master Cloud Lightning, and before the man could even react, slammed into him!

A scream echoed out into the air, and Master Cloud Lightning trembled violently. He immediately began to wither up, a sensation that filled his heart with indescribable terror.

“How… how can he move so fast!?!? He’s… he’s absorbing my life force!!” Multicolored light flared as Master Cloud Lightning tried to fight back, and yet, he was no match at all for Bai Xiaochun’s Godkiller technique.

Within moments, Master Cloud Lightning was nothing more than skin and bones, his face ashen and tinged by the shadow of death. The flame of his life force was already flickering on the verge of being extinguished.

It happened too quickly. A single blow, and almost all of his life force was sucked away in shocking fashion. Trembling, Master Cloud Lightning let out a shriek of despair.

“No!!”

Immense regret filled him, and yet, in that moment of ultimate calamity, he suddenly realized that there was something strange going on with Bai Xiaochun. He seemed dazed within his blood mist, as though he weren’t even conscious.

A tremor passed through Master Cloud Lightning as hope suddenly appeared within his despair. Knowing that now was not the time to ponder the situation, he took a deep breath and unleashed another divine ability which reversed the withering from before. Then, multicolored light shone brightly as he gritted his teeth and shot downward toward the swamp below!

In an instant, he was inside of the swamp, and yet a moment later, Bai Xiaochun looked down… and followed him!

The entire swamp vibrated. In the briefest moment, hordes of leeches were killed, not by the vibration, but by Bai Xiaochun’s blood mist, which sucked away at all the life force around it.

It wasn’t just the leeches, but the larvae and other entities in the swamp as well. Anything that got too close to Bai Xiaochun ended up dead!

“So, there is something strange going on with him,” Master Cloud Lightning thought. “That magical technique is completely terrifying! It has to have a weakness!!” He was delighted to have escaped with his life; obviously, Bai Xiaochun was in some sort of semi-conscious state, and had descended into the swamp itself, not to chase Master Cloud Lightning, but to absorb the life force that it contained.

That gave Master Cloud Lightning the chance he needed. As Bai Xiaochun absorbed the life force in the area, Master Cloud Lighting began to speed through the swamp itself. Although doing that was dangerous, it wasn’t as dangerous as dealing directly with Bai Xiaochun.

There was clearly something strange going on with Bai Xiaochun, and yet, he didn’t even think about looking over his shoulder to try to determine what it was. Bai Xiaochun’s magical technique was simply too terrifying, and left Master Cloud Lightning with only one thought in his head… unless he managed to combine with his other half, he had to stay away from Bai Xiaochun at all costs!!

After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the bedraggled Master Cloud Lightning was quite a distance away. At that point, he burst out from the swamp water. He was covered with leeches and larvae, but didn’t even take the time to remove them. Gasping for breath, he shot forward as quickly as possible, glancing over his shoulder, a look of terror on his face.

“That Bai Xiaochun is a complete monster! He just won’t die! He's definitely one of the biggest enemies of the north!! But even if he turns out to be stronger than he’s already shown himself to be, he still isn’t in the mid Deva Realm. Once I combine with my other half… I’ll definitely be able to kill him!” Having reached this point in his train of thought, he once again made contact with his other self, and then sped off into the distance.

Meanwhile, now that Bai Xiaochun had dropped down into the swamp itself, a dramatic vortex had begun to spread out in all directions….

The leeches in the swamp were fleeing madly this way and that, as were the larvae.

Even more powerful life forms were doing the same, including spiders, giants, and other terrifying creatures.

As the storm spread out in all directions, all life forms that it touched had their life force drained away, leaving them withered in death….

It lasted for the time it takes two incense sticks to burn….

Then, a boom filled the swamp as Bai Xiaochun shot up into the air. There was no blood mist around him any longer. His face was ruddy, and a look of incredulity could be seen on his face. He was also trembling uncontrollably.

At the moment, he wasn’t even thinking about Master Cloud Lightning. Instead, he shot off to a location with some land where he could sit down cross-legged and examine himself closely.

After a long moment passed, his eyes opened, and they flickered with terror.

“Dammit! What just happened? How come I lost consciousness when using the Godkiller technique? What’s the deal?!?!” As he thought back to what had just occurred, his heart shivered with fear.

One thing he was certain of was that after he lost consciousness, his mind was not taken over by any other entity. His body had been acting of its own accord… to absorb as much life force as possible from around it.

The mere thought of that caused Bai Xiaochun to shiver in anxious fear.

“No way. Before, I had no idea how the Godkiller actually worked. But now that I do, I can’t use it. It’s too dangerous.” The feeling of having just lost control of his own body was completely horrifying.

A long moment passed. Suddenly, a look of surprise appeared on his face, as he realized that the destroyed drop of Undying Blood was now fully recovered!

He could only imagine how much life force he had absorbed in those two incense sticks’ worth of time in the swamp….

“If only I could control it, then it would be a much better divine ability.” Feeling torn, he looked down at the swamp and then scanned it with divine sense, only to find that it didn’t contain any life force at all….

Even distant reaches of the swamp were completely vacant of any life force fluctuations.

“How much did I absorb…?” Shaken, and eyes wide, he suddenly felt a bit excited.

“Hahaha! Who would have thought that I'm so awesome! Even after losing consciousness because of the Godkiller, I still accomplished a lot!” He then began to travel through the swamp a bit, whereupon he discovered that there were indeed some signs of life force here and there. However, as soon as he neared, they would vanish, clearly in an attempt to avoid him.

That only got him more excited though. At one point, he patted his bag of holding, pulled out Big Fatty Zhang, and touched his forehead. Big Fatty Zhang’s eyes opened, and he looked around blankly for a moment before noticing Bai Xiaochun. At that point, he immediately jumped up and prepared to say something.

However, Bai Xiaochun beat him to the punch. Clasping his hands behind his back and sticking his chin up, he said. “Eldest Brother, you were ambushed in this swamp. I got so mad that I forced all of the living beings in the swamp to apologize to you. As a result, from this moment on, they will avoid us at all costs. Don’t believe me? Go around a bit and see what happens!”