Bai Shi took the pair of golden short axes in hand and gave them a few experintal swings.
He then mimicked the Death Knight’s movents, unleashing the weapon art imbued in the twin axes: ‘Instantaneous Lightning.’
As the power of the weapon art transford his entire being into a bolt of lightning, Bai Shi was genuinely stunned.
He had actually beco lightning, not so re illusion. Wasn’t this a bit too much?
Bai Shi couldn’t wrap his head around it. How was this even possible?
If it were a being on the level of the Dragonlord, capable of transforming into a thundercloud, Bai Shi wouldn’t have found it strange at all; he would have expected it.
Alright, on second thought, the Death Knight from before hadn't been weak either. He was certainly among the ranks of top-tier heroes.
For a warrior of that caliber, possessing so kind of exclusive technique wasn't entirely out of the question.
Besides, the denizens of the Mohgwyn Dynasty could liquefy into blood to move about. Considering that, this suddenly seed more plausible.
In any case, the weapon art now belonged to him.
Bai Shi pondered for a mont. Now that he had ‘Instantaneous Lightning,’ if he developed it further and combined it with his storm abilities, could he eventually pull off a budget version of a thundercloud transformation?
And apart from the weapon art, which was its most valuable feature, the quality of the axes themselves was quite impressive.
He could tell they were crafted by a master smith, with excellent workmanship, and had already been reinforced to a
7 grade.
A
7 somber weapon was considered exceptional in the Lands Between.
After all, the Sword of Night and Fla in Bai Shi's possession, also a somber weapon, was only at
7, and it was a Carian royal heirloom passed down through generations.
It seed the Death Knight held a significant position in life, perhaps as one of Godwyn’s trusted retainers.
Bai Shi put away the Death Knight’s twin axes for future use.
He then circled the room and picked up a set of spirit ashes that these followers had been enshrining.
These were one of the legendary spirit ashes: ‘Lhutel the Headless’.
If she were still alive, the fiercely loyal knightess would never have willingly followed Bai Shi.
But now that her ashes were in his hands, she no longer had a say in the matter.
Bai Shi cackled inwardly. He would summon her relentlessly in the future, to fight against Godwyn's enemies. Heh heh.
Suppressing his thoughts, Bai Shi returned his gaze to the center of the room.
For now, he had to deal with this so-called 'death rite'.
In the middle of the chamber, the cultists had been kneeling in a circle; now, they were dead in a circle.
Their bodies, charred by the lightning strike, were twisted into grotesque shapes, yet this macabre ring of corpses now bore an even stronger resemblance to a sun without color.
Looking at the circle ford by the remains, Bai Shi felt a wave of disgust.
Let the dead rest in peace. Why must they be subjected to such tornt after death?
Did Godwyn himself ever consent to them desecrating his mory like this?
The iron spire they enshrined remained perfectly intact. Surrounded by the devoted cultists, its position hadn’t even shifted an inch.
And the strange, colorful gray mist floating above it also showed no change whatsoever.
Despite being crushed by gravity, blasted by ancient dragon lightning, and caught in the crossfire of his battle with the Death Knight, the thing was completely unscathed.
Seeing it unhard, Bai Shi felt a headache coming on.
He hated dealing with completely inexplicable things of unknown origin.
The item prompt that usually appeared in his vision didn’t even provide a na for it.
But its purpose was obvious—it was a crucial component for sustaining the sunless sun and conducting the death rite.
Destroying it was likely the only way to make the sunless sun disappear or, at the very least, weaken it.
Bai Shi circled the spire and its gray mist twice. After so thought, he drew his strongest weapon: the Starscourge Greatsword.
The previous attacks, while fierce, hadn’t been direct hits.
He might as well try to destroy it. If even this couldn't damage it, he would have to find another way.
Bai Shi took a deep breath. Imnse gravitational magic swirled around the Starscourge Greatsword, imbuing the blades with unparalleled energy.
Raising the greatswords high, Bai Shi brought them crashing down.
As the twin blades slamd into the spire, a purple shockwave of gravity spread from the point of impact.
After a brief mont of resistance, the iron spire was finally pulverized by the blow.
The gray mist that had been hovering above the spire shattered like a soap bubble.
Just as Bai Shi was celebrating the destruction of the ritual, however, the shattered mist instantly expanded, enveloping the entire room.
Bai Shi imdiately summoned a tempest, intending to blow the fog away, but his storm had no effect on the bizarre mist.
In a re instant, Bai Shi's figure was swallowed by the fog.
——
Amid a dizzying spin, Bai Shi quickly regained his senses. His surroundings had undergone a dramatic change.
He scanned the area, observing the situation.
Overhead, a cold, colorless sun floated in a dead, black sky, casting its light upon the land.
On the ground, pale Ghostfla flickered everywhere.
Neither the sunless sun nor the Ghostfla brought any warmth; instead, they made the place as frigid as an ice cavern.
Bai Shi looked down and saw that he wasn't standing on soil, but on fine, pale dust.
...No, that wasn't right.
Bai Shi knelt and looked closer.
He brushed away the top layer of dust and found countless bones underneath.
The ground wasn't sand, but finely crushed bone al, blanketing the entire landscape.
He gazed into the distance, a pale earth stretching out before him with no end in sight.
Near his position stood several thick ‘trees.’
But when Bai Shi focused his gaze, he realized the so-called ‘trees’ were actually dark thorns, covered in a dense thicket of dead n's eyes.
So of the eyes grew directly from the thorny branches, hanging like morbid fruit.
Swarms of flies buzzed nearby, and so kind of writhing creature, likely death-worms, crawled along the thorns.
Bai Shi’s brow furrowed deeply. He had no intention of getting any closer to those thorns, which were clearly linked to the curse of death.
This was all wrong. Just where was he?
There were no sites of grace here, making it impossible to teleport out.
Bai Shi didn’t move rashly. First, he tried to communicate with Ashmi inside him.
“Ashmi, Ashmi?”
After a few seconds, he felt a slight stirring from Ashmi’s dormant core within him. It seed she was awake.
‘Ngh... Host, I’m here. What is it?’
‘Huh?!’
‘Wh-what is this place?’
Ashmi had fallen into a brief slumber after Bai Shi was engulfed by the gray mist and was only now realizing they were sowhere else entirely.
Bai Shi didn’t answer her question, as he didn't know himself.
Hearing Ashmi’s voice, his heart sank, and he clenched his jaw.
The situation was troubleso.
Ashmi was still inside him, which ant this wasn’t so illusion created by sorcery or an incantation.
Apparently, his physical body had been teleported here.
That ant he couldn't use Fengling Yueying to clear the abnormal status and escape.
But was this place truly part of the Lands Between?
If Bai Shi had to guess, the only plausible explanation was that this was the Spirit World.
But the old Spirit World was supposed to have collapsed long ago, destroyed by the Erdtree.
This place was certainly not the original Spirit World, but given the presence of Ghostfla, it had to be connected.
As for the death-thorns... had Godwyn’s followers struck so kind of deal with the Deathbirds who represented the Spirit World?
Bai Shi touched his body, checking himself carefully for anything unusual.
A quick check revealed no apparent problems.
He could still use all his abilities and powers, except for the power of the sun, which was completely suppressed here.
Bai Shi could feel the sun's power still within him, but he couldn't draw it out at all.
Was it because of the overwhelming presence of the sunless sun in the sky?
Bai Shi thought for a mont, then began walking in a direction his intuition suggested.
Since he had no objective anyway, he might as well trust his gut.
But after walking a short distance, he suddenly stopped.
Bai Shi closed his eyes and felt his soul once more.
He felt a faint burning and stinging sensation in his soul.
Ever since Radagon had smashed him with that hamr, Bai Shi had morized the feeling of a damaged soul.
And right now, his soul was taking continuous, minor damage.
The damage wasn't intense, nor was it particularly painful, nothing at all like Radagon’s strike.
In fact, Bai Shi had almost overlooked the sensation, mistaking it for an environntal anomaly.
If he stayed in this place for too long, his soul would likely be damaged.
Not only that, but staying here for an extended period seed to cause his consciousness to gradually beco muddled.
Perhaps because he had invested so many points into his mind attribute, he recognized this danger quickly.
Ashmi was a unique life form, existing sowhere between soul and physical matter. He wondered if she was also affected.
Bai Shi asked Ashmi:
“Ashmi, do you feel like your soul is being constantly eroded here?”
Ashmi took a mont to feel, then replied:
“Host, I don’t feel anything at all.”
Bai Shi glanced at the sunless sun in the sky, shook his head, and continued forward.
Bai Shi pressed on through the path of bone and thorn. Every corner of this place was the sa, with no landmarks to guide him.
No matter where he went, it was the sa Ghostfla, the sa thorns, the sa flies and worms, and the ever-present, watchful eyes of the dead.
Under these circumstances, even ti itself lost aning.
Bai Shi even began to wonder if he was making any progress at all, but for now, he could only keep walking.
After an unknown amount of ti, Bai Shi finally saw sothing different ahead.
At the edge of his vision, an enormous and peculiar tree appeared.
This tree had no branches or leaves, only a thick trunk. But it wasn't made of death-thorns, so at least it looked relatively normal.
Bai Shi quickened his pace, moving closer.
As he neared the strange, colossal tree, he got a better view of its entirety.
Its size was comparable to the Minor Erdtrees scattered across the Lands Between.
But the tree was covered in dense, honeycomb-like hollows, as if providing shelter for so kind of creature.
Sure enough, Bai Shi soon saw the tree's residents.
As he approached, countless sludge-like creatures began to ooze slowly from the hollows.
The creatures resembled slugs, but their bodies were not whole; instead, they were coalesced masses of so dark matter. These sludges were quite large, and each carried many skeletons on its back.
The skeletons on the sludge were tightly bound together, their empty eye sockets glowing with an eerie light.
From one of the hollows, a glob of sludge-like substance fell from the tree and landed on the ground.
The other nurous sludges remained at the openings of their dens, peering in his direction.
Looking at these things, Bai Shi couldn’t help but frown.
What in the world was this place? Why were its creatures so abnormal?
These things looked completely incapable of communication, yet their behavior suggested they possessed intelligence.
Bai Shi decided to give it a try.
If this was indeed a reconstructed Spirit World, then perhaps the forms of life here were just different from those in the Lands Between.
Maybe this appearance was considered fashionable in the Spirit World.
Bai Shi spoke to the bizarre creature squirming toward him:
“Can you understand what I’m saying?”
The sludge, an amalgamation of countless corpses, continued to creep toward Bai Shi. The skeletons on its back moaned and shrieked ceaselessly.
The sounds were terrifying and chaotic, their aning completely indecipherable.
Bai Shi shook his head. It seed communication was impossible.
But the sludge-mass in front of him didn't seem aggressive?
Bai Shi thought for a mont and stepped forward.
As they drew closer, several skeletal arms shot out from the sludge’s back.
One arm reached out, trembling, toward Bai Shi.
The mont its hand touched him, Bai Shi imdiately felt the damage to his soul increase.
His expression changed, and he quickly took two steps back.
It was unclear whether he could communicate with this thing, but it seed getting close was out of the question.
The sludge-like creature didn’t seem to have any hostile intent. Seeing Bai Shi retreat, it stopped in its tracks.
Bai Shi took a closer look at the creature.
Beneath the skeletons it carried, two slender, crimson eyes grew from the dark sludge, and the black substance flowed ceaselessly across its surface.
The sight gave Bai Shi an uncanny sense of déjà vu.
Was this... a Pus of Man? A mass of the undead?
Just as Bai Shi was observing the sludge, two distinctly different monsters suddenly rushed out from behind the tree.
They were two massive skulls wreathed in Ghostfla, which shot out from sowhere at the base of the tree and imdiately charged toward Bai Shi at incredible speed.
As they flew at him with jaws wide open, Bai Shi could clearly sense their hostility.
The two skulls wore golden helts, emblazoned with the mark of a tarnished, colorless sun.
Perhaps they were the severed heads of the Headless Knights?
But their size was not much smaller than a Fla Chariot.
In any case, it was ti to test their strength.
Bai Shi drew the Sword of Night and Fla from his dinsional satchel and swung it at the two skulls.
A searing wave of flas consud the space before him, engulfing the path of the advancing skulls.
To Bai Shi’s surprise, the two skulls burst through the intense fire and continued their charge.
The flas seed to have no effect on them whatsoever.
‘Immune to fire?’
Bai Shi shifted his body slightly, allowing the gaping mouth of the leading skull to graze past him.
The skull's attack missed, and Bai Shi swung his sword back at it in a counterattack.
But sothing completely unexpected happened.
The Sword of Night and Fla passed right through the bizarre skull, giving him no sensation of impact at all.
Bai Shi slashed again, this ti imbuing the blade with magic, but it was still useless.
His eyes widened.
Immune to physical attacks? What was going on?
By now, the other skull had reached him.
Bai Shi coated his left fist in gravitational magic and t the incoming skull with a punch to its face.
This ti, the attack was effective. The punch sent the skull flying backward, its cranium covered in cracks.
However, Bai Shi could feel that his soul, beneath his physical form, had sustained even more severe damage from that one collision.
Moreover, the gravitational magic hadn't produced its expected effect.
Bai Shi frowned slightly.
It seed this place really was the Spirit World, and its inhabitants were likely in purely spiritual forms.
And since he had no ans of dealing soul damage, he was forced to wear down their souls with his own, which was not a good situation.
Any physical contact resulted in soul damage.
But if he didn't do that, he couldn't attack them. What was he supposed to do?
Ashmi suddenly offered a suggestion:
“Host, let
try.”
“It might work if I do it.”
Right, Ashmi was semi-spiritual, and she didn’t take continuous soul damage here.
Bai Shi nodded and quickly let Ashmi take control of the battlefield.
Ashmi swiftly materialized, holding a replica of the Sword of Night and Fla.
anwhile, the skull that had missed him had already turned around and was now crashing down from above.
Ashmi swung the Sword of Night and Fla upward to et the giant skull.
This ti, the blow landed squarely, shattering the skull into countless fragnts that disintegrated in mid-air.
Then, a wisp of black mist floated out of the shattered skull and into Bai Shi’s body.
Bai Shi imdiately felt a small, dark mass of soul materialize within him, which he was unable to absorb.
That dark soul was filled with resentnt, despair, and other negative emotions.
Ashmi clenched her fist and said:
“Host, it seems my power has been weakened.”
“I can only exert about half of my usual strength now, but it’s still enough to deal with them.”
Bai Shi looked at the remaining skull rushing toward them, contemplating the situation.
Ashmi was only a semi-spiritual being, and her power couldn't reach its peak here.
Normally, Ashmi could only exert sixty to seventy percent of his strength. Now that was halved, leaving her with only about thirty percent.
In Bai Shi’s estimation, that put her roughly at the level of a top-tier hero.
At that level, she couldn't just rampage through this place.
What about his spirit ashes? Could they use their full power?
But his ashes weren't strong enough either...
For now, these were just the heads of headless soldiers or knights, re grunts. He had no idea if stronger enemies were lurking here.
——
Seeing the giant skull shattered, the sludge that had been acting normally suddenly swelled up.
The skeletons on its back shot upward as its body expanded several tis over, and countless skeletal hands reached for Bai Shi.
Bai Shi looked at the suddenly attacking sludge, wondering why it had gone berserk.
What? Was it one of Godwyn’s minions too?
By now, Ashmi had already dispatched the other skull. She rushed over and split the sludge in two with a single strike.
Seeing the two halves on the ground still moving, she followed up with several more slashes, dicing it into tiny pieces until it was finally destroyed.
At that mont, countless skulls flew out from behind the tree in the distance, at least thirty or forty of them at a glance.
And the other sludge creatures, still clinging to the giant tree, began to rge, forming a single colossal, grotesque humanoid monster.
Bai Shi asked:
“Ashmi, do you think you can handle this?”
In Bai Shi’s view, even with only thirty percent of his strength, dealing with these enemies shouldn’t be a problem for him.
But he wasn’t sure if Ashmi could manage it.
Ashmi looked at the nurous and varied enemies in the distance and pursed her lips.
“Host, I think we should run.”
“I can handle what’s here now, but if more show up, I can’t be sure.”
Bai Shi nodded.
“Fair point.”
“Then let’s fight our way out.”
Just as Bai Shi and Ashmi prepared to break through in one direction, a voice called out:
“What are you two still doing there?!”
“Let's go, I’ll help you!”
As the words fell, the area where Bai Shi and Ashmi stood was instantly shrouded in a thick fog.
Just as Bai Shi grew wary of this sudden developnt, a figure appeared before him—one that was sowhat familiar, yet he found it hard to believe.
She was dressed in the garb of a Finger Maiden, her shoulder-length brown hair slightly disheveled from running.
She was the first person he had t in the Lands Between, his Finger Maiden.
Bai Shi stared at the person before him, rendered silent.
What was going on? Could it really be her?
The woman who looked like a Finger Maiden grabbed Bai Shi’s hand and hastily started running in one direction.
“Quick, run with !”
“You’ve disturbed them! It’s too dangerous here; we can’t stay any longer!”
Bai Shi was confused, but he found himself instinctively running, pulled along by the woman.
He had suddenly been thrown into this strange world, knowing nothing about it, able only to guess that it was the Spirit World.
Could it be that her soul had co here?
Bai Shi quickly had Ashmi return to his body, while he followed the witch in front of him.
From above, the mist was spreading out in all directions, making it impossible to tell where they had gone.
The two of them ran continuously through the fog until, finally, a forked, black spire appeared before them.
Only when they reached it did the woman in the Finger Maiden’s attire stop and let out a sigh of relief.
She turned her back to Bai Shi, smoothed her ssy hair with her hands, took a deep breath, and finally turned around to face him.
“Honestly, what are you doing in the Spirit World?”
Her eyes shone with anticipation as she looked at Bai Shi.
“Are you... here for ?”
Added a side story for Godwyn, which will be told in parts so it won’t take up too much of the plot at once. The Land of Shadow is coming up soon. Also, school starts tomorrow, so I have to pack. The update might be a bit late, splat _(:з"∠)_
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