Chapter 80: Panic-Stricken and Lost

At this moment, this enormous Soul Beast had invaded Xu Chen's Sea of Consciousness, appearing both excited and somewhat at a loss.

The blue light of the Magic Treasure bottle made it feel terror.

Yet the aura emanating from within the bottle held a deep temptation for it.

Although Xu Chen was filled with dread, he was not so panicked that he lost his composure, for he believed the Blue Light Treasure Bottle would not let him down.

A Magic Treasure capable of trapping even a powerful monster like the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus should have no trouble dealing with this Soul Beast, which had at most the strength of the Zhenyuan Realm.

"Squeak~"

The Two-Headed Demon Bat finally could not hold back and lunged at the Blue Light Treasure Bottle; when it collided, several specks of Blue Starlight splashed out amidst the swirling black light.

The Blue Light Treasure Bottle remained motionless. Xu Chen breathed a sigh of relief; his own Soul seemed to have merged with the Blue Jade Bead, and as long as the Blue Light Treasure Bottle remained unbroken, his Soul stood firm, feeling not the slightest threat.

The Two-Headed Demon Bat seemed unwilling to give up on what was inside the Blue Light Treasure Bottle, flying up and down around the illusory light of the bottle and crashing everywhere. Amidst the continuous booming vibrations, clusters of black light dispersed, and the scattered specks of Blue Starlight splashed about in the pitch-black Sea of Consciousness like fireworks.

Time felt as if it were not passing during the battle within the Sea of Consciousness. Xu Chen gradually began to grow anxious, so he continuously used his Divine Sense to contact the Blue Jade Bead, releasing the intent to subdue the Soul Beast. However, the Blue Jade Bead seemed to have some resistance, and Xu Chen did not give up, communicating repeatedly until the Two-Headed Demon Bat began trying to charge into the mouth of the bottle, at which point the Blue Jade Bead finally stirred.

The bottle suddenly flashed, and a vortex composed of Blue Starlight appeared out of thin air at the bottle's mouth. The Two-Headed Demon Bat was sucked in without any resistance, the starlight vortex then collapsed and vanished, and the Sea of Consciousness returned to calm.

Xu Chen let out a long breath and hurriedly projected his Divine Sense outward, only to see the body of the enormous black Demon Bat, which had almost wrapped around him, rapidly disintegrating and dissipating into clusters of black mist.

"Huh, what is this thing?"

In just a few breaths of time, the black Demon Bat had completely vanished, but it had not left behind a Soul Bead as Xu Chen was accustomed to; instead, there was a black Jade Piece the size of three inches, somewhat resembling a Spirit Talisman.

Xu Chen was incredibly surprised. He raised his hand to grab the Jade Piece, and an icy chill that made his Soul tremble surged into his hand, as if he were holding ten-thousand-year-old ice.

At this temperature, a mortal's soul would instantly shatter and they would freeze to death.

Even a cultivator in the Kaiyuan Realm would likely suffer severe damage to their soul.

Xu Chen knew very well that if he had the strength he possessed three months ago when he first came to Black Wind Ridge, his soul would likely be frozen stiff and he would have fainted by now.

This thing was even stranger than a Soul Bead.

Xu Chen instantly formed a judgment in his heart, then carefully examined the Jade Piece, discovering that apart from a very abstract pattern resembling a two-headed bat on one side, there was nothing else.

"Boom~"

A faint vibration came from the side along with the howling Black Wind; it seemed the people from Yuqing Hall had run into trouble again.

Xu Chen had no time to think; he put away the Jade Piece and hurriedly chased in the direction the sound came from.

The entanglement and battle with the Two-Headed Demon Bat had taken quite some time. Now, the Soul Beasts deep in these fissures were becoming more numerous, stronger, and even stranger. Although he had the Blue Jade Bead to protect his body, his cultivation was too poor to last long, so he had to get out as soon as possible.

Relying on his powerful Divine Sense, Xu Chen searched continuously through the maze-like fissure passages, trying his best to bypass the Soul Beasts he discovered. After nearly half an incense stick of time, he finally saw the man in green robes again.

He looked badly injured and in a sorry state, but he seemed to still have some strength left and had not reached the point of being unable to hold on.

Thus, Xu Chen did not alert him, but instead ran past nearby with a thudding sound, continuing to search for the whereabouts of the woman in black.

The man in green robes seemed to have heard Xu Chen's movements and couldn't help but call out loudly for his Junior Sister, but Xu Chen turned a deaf ear and instantly disappeared into the distance.

This woman in black was a Disciple of Yulong Zhenren, but her strength was far inferior to that of Liang Feng or the man in green robes at the time.

However, while her cultivation was not high, her temper was not small.

Most importantly, in Xu Chen's view, this woman had something wrong with her brain; she completely lacked social awareness, just like a noble girl raised in luxury since childhood, possessing nothing but Zhenyuan Realm cultivation and Daoist practice, with zero experience in the world of martial arts.

If such a woman did not change her temperament, according to Xu Chen's judgment, she would be beaten to death sooner or later.

And now, trapped in these fissures, if she could not use her Divine Sense at all, she would lose her sense of direction and sink deeper and deeper; if she were not found soon, she would likely lose her life in an instant.

Therefore, Xu Chen's main focus was still on her, intending to let her be beaten and tortured in this hellish place until she was battered and exhausted before getting her out; this would allow him to vent his anger and also give her a lesson she would never forget.

The woman in black was actually not very far from the man in green robes, at most a hundred paces away.

At this moment, she was in a very sorry state: she had several wounds on her body, her clothes were torn, her hair was disheveled, her face was pale, and her expression was panicked, just like a terrified woman lost in the dark, running around aimlessly in the complex fissure passages.

Whenever there was the slightest movement around her, she would immediately, like a cat with its fur standing on end, nervously release her Flying Sword to protect her body, while also releasing a glowing white Jade Bead Magic Treasure to illuminate the surrounding environment.

But the vibrations caused by using Magic Treasures and releasing Yuan Qi and Divine Sense in the fissures would actually attract the attention of Soul Beasts like a lamp in the dark.

This was the reason why Xu Chen did not constantly release his Divine Sense to check the environment.

And this woman clearly did not know this, or perhaps if she were calm, she would have been able to discover this situation quickly, but unfortunately, she had no way to calm down now, with only panic in her heart.

Xu Chen was less than thirty zhang away from the woman in black, hiding his Divine Sense in the black mist to observe.

This strength of Divine Sense was very weak, but if it were not for the influence of the black mist, with the woman in black's cultivation, she could have easily discovered Xu Chen's position.

Unfortunately, she was now so terrified that she had lost her wits, and coupled with the strong pressure of the black mist on her Divine Sense, her Divine Sense could only see an area of a few feet around her body, so she had to use the Magic Treasure for illumination and use her naked eyes to search for signs of Soul Beasts.

But the light reflected by the precious bead only reached a radius of two zhang.

Such a narrow range was almost non-existent compared to the attack speed of a Soul Beast.

Watching the woman in black with the bead above her head in terror, her Flying Sword flying up and down beside her, and the expression of extreme tension on her pale face, Xu Chen knew that this woman was nearing the limit of a mental breakdown, seemingly far inferior to the Dao heart of Zhou Ding and Sikong Qing of the Five Thunder Sect back then.

And releasing Magic Treasures and Yuan Qi like this deep in the fissures was simply courting death.

Sure enough, a moment later, a Soul Beast the size of over a zhang, shaped like an octopus, swam out silently from a nearby fissure and then slowly approached the woman in black.

Xu Chen also kept moving through the complex, crisscrossing fissure passages, rapidly closing in on the woman in black, while also continuously releasing his Divine Sense to observe the movements of the woman and the Soul Beast, preparing to assist.

However, before Xu Chen could arrive, the Soul Beast had already launched an attack.

In her panic, the woman in black slashed wildly with her Flying Sword, and the Soul Beast was cut with several wounds.

But under the violent roar and impact of the Soul Beast, the precious bead the woman used for illumination was also knocked away and disappeared, and her body was wrapped in the tentacles of the Soul Beast.

Just when Xu Chen thought it was too late to save her, a sharp killing intent suddenly erupted from the woman in black. Several blinding sword lights crisscrossed and exploded, the Soul Beast's tentacles were severed, and it let out a scream that pierced the soul, while the woman in black fled without regard for direction, seemingly spitting out several mouthfuls of blood as she ran.

Xu Chen's face twitched and turned dark.

The item the woman in black just used was at least a top-grade second-tier Spirit Talisman, which was worth a fortune.

And the direction she fled in was actually deeper into the fissures.

In other words, her running around in such a panicked state meant her mind was already completely chaotic.

Not long after, Xu Chen chased to the place where the battle had just occurred.

The enormous Soul Beast had suffered heavy injuries and was still rolling and roaring on the ground; apart from having several tentacles severed, its body was also covered in several deep wounds from the crisscrossing slashes. If the woman had not been in such a hurry to flee and had followed up with one more sword strike, this Soul Beast would have died.

And at this moment, the Soul Beast's wounds were constantly absorbing the black mist to heal rapidly; it was estimated that it would fully recover in at most two quarters of an hour.

Xu Chen naturally would not let this opportunity to scavenge pass; his Flying Sword swept past, splitting the Soul Beast in two. Once the Soul Beast's body crumbled and vanished, he raised his hand to grab a Soul Bead the size of a pigeon egg. At the same time, he released his Divine Sense to scan the surroundings, found the precious bead the woman had dropped, and only then chased after the direction in which the Woman in black had fled.

The man in green could still hold on for now, so he could be ignored for the moment, but if he let this Woman in black run around, Xu Chen feared he would not be able to find her after a while; after all, the deeper he went, the more his Divine Sense was continuously weakening.

During the pursuit, this feeling became increasingly obvious to Xu Chen. After chasing for over a hundred zhang in one breath, he discovered that his Divine Sense had already been compressed to a scale of only thirty zhang, and as he went deeper, this weakening of his Divine Sense showed a rapid downward trend.

At this moment, Xu Chen discovered that he had actually lost the trail of the Woman in black.

Just as he stopped to fully release his Divine Sense and search carefully, a loud noise suddenly came from the depths of the cave ahead, followed by a faint scream that traveled along the howling Black Wind, only to vanish without a trace in an instant.

Xu Chen accelerated forward again. After winding through many turns, he finally found the place where the aura fluctuated. He could already sense that the Woman in black was surrounded by several Soul Beasts, large and small, with strange shapes, all lurking and hissing within the black mist around her, ready to launch an attack at any moment.

The Woman in black could not see, but she knew she was already surrounded, so her emotions became even more terrified. Her Yuan Qi surged out, and her Flying Sword whistled back and forth around her body; as long as there was any movement, she would launch a fierce attack.

Under this aimless consumption, her Yuan Qi was depleted greatly, and coupled with her terror and fear, she was already in a semi-crazed state.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom..."

Within the churning black mist, the Flying Sword danced back and forth like lightning, occasionally striking the rock walls of the cave and erupting with sounds like thunder. Large amounts of gravel scattered, only to be swept by the howling Black Wind into the crisscrossing fissures, destination unknown.

After a full several dozen breaths of attacks.

The Yuan Qi of the Woman in black seemed to be exhausted, and the offensive of her Flying Sword quickly weakened. She raised her hand to grab at her Storage Bag and opened a Jade Bottle, but after shaking it several times, no Spirit Pill came out, and her emotions immediately became even more panicked.

"Roar~"

A Soul Beast shaped like a giant wolf but with two horns over a chi long lunged out from the black mist.

"Boom~"

In her panic, the Woman in black did not have time to defend and was slammed heavily against the cave wall by the Soul Beast; its sharp horns pierced through her abdomen.

The woman let out a miserable scream, but she still did not give up resisting. With a *slash*, the Flying Sword swept across the Soul Beast, and the giant wolf Demon Beast was cut into two pieces, quickly crumbling and dissipating into black mist, leaving a thumb-sized Soul Bead to fall to the ground.

However, at this time, the Woman in black had no heart to pay attention to the Soul Bead; instead, she covered her abdomen with both hands and, with a deathly pale face, slowly slid to the ground against the rock wall. Blood gushed out instantly, soaking her tattered clothes in a flash.

Just as she pulled another Jade Bottle from her Storage Bag, a huge black shadow suddenly darted out from the black mist, and its sharp giant claws grabbed her and smashed her fiercely against the cave wall.

"Boom~"

The Woman in black screamed again and rolled to the ground, adding several more hideous wounds to her body, with half of her body already a bloody mess.

(End of this chapter)