Unsealing Emptiness

393 Battle for survival.

“The disgust is mutual, whoever you are.”

As the contempt in the Prince’s tone registered in her mind, the woman’s face scrunched up in hatred.

She stood as tall as the Prince with short hair and dark hair. Her robes loosely hung on her body, making it easier for her to move with fluidity. Anyone would have mistaken her for a hermit if they had found her in this perplexing area of the forest on this mountain.

“Surely you haven’t forgotten our night together?” the woman almost hissed out.

Noticing the grim side-eye that he received from his commander, the Prince coughed, “You make it sound as if we were on a romantic date, you lightning bitch.”

The woman “So you do remember me, huh?” She chuckled, “You got away that night, but look what fate has done to you. In the name of the Steel Mountain Kingdom, today I will behead you.”

But the Prince didn’t back down either. He smiled as well and spoke, “You seem very confident in yourself.” Right after that, he raised his aura to match hers.

The woman squinted her eyes; she was confident from their previous clash which wasn’t long ago that she had the upper hand in terms of raw strength. Staring at the trash, as she considered them, behind the Prince, the woman showed contempt. “Are those vermins going to help you?” she said as dark clouds were summoned above the recruits.

“Careful, you don’t want to do that,” the Prince said with a severe tone. He added, “You don’t want ‘them’ to get involved, do you?”

.....

It only took a moment for the woman to grasp the significance of his words, as her gaze shifted toward the crowd. Upon identifying the individuals she wished to avoid, a wave of rage washed over her. With a fierce stomp of her feet and an enraged cry, she threatened, “So what?! I can still take you down!”

The atmosphere became tense as the Prince faced the commander, “Let them deal with the Fox. Do not intervene.”

With these words, he and the woman charged towards each other, their eyes alight with a deadly determination. The air around them crackled with the palpable waves of their Spiritual Essence.

The commander sighed before turning toward the anxious crowd, “You heard the man.”

With that said, he also disappeared, leaving them to fend for themselves.

At this point, Ozul looked at their faces, some of them having a mental breakdown and others wishing to wake up from this ‘nightmare’ that they themselves had jumped into. At times like these, he wondered how humans, with such a fragile mentality, could achieve all that they have.

But then he was reminded of his own group. Feeling their emotions, he knew they were afraid as well, but at least they hadn’t lost the ability to think. There were others like them as well, but far too few and scarce.

Excluding the wild man, only around 20 people could and actually had the will to fight.

The Prince and the woman from the neighboring Kingdom clashed, sending waves of Spiritual Essence in all directions.

And before they could react to that, the screeching of the injured Black Horned Fox on the other side caught their attention.

Once again, the wild man had a knowing smile as he eyed Ozul. “Let me give it a try first,” he said before running toward the Beast.

The ground shook to bear witness to the battle between peak Origin Realm cultivators.

Having lost their will to fight, many turned around and ran to save their lives. Crying and begging for help, they only hoped to make it out of there alive.

As if the Fox had also decided not to interfere in the battle between the Prince and that woman, it turned its focus on the remaining people. It opened its mouth and sucked in a huge amount of Spiritual Essence.

The wild man, whose name they had yet to hear, also crackled his fists before a bluish aura enveloped his body.

The Spiritual Essence gathered at the tip of Fox’s growling jaws suddenly ignited and formed into a huge ball of fire. The wild man clearly wasn’t expecting such a development as a ball of fire thrice his size was thrown straight at him.

He might have been able to dodge it if he wasn’t rushing straight at it before. Making a quick decision, he used his arms to cover his face. Since he couldn’t dodge it, he was going to bear all the burn! The man sneered in the face of that heat that visibly melted the few trees which stood in its path.

The huge ball of fire prevented the Fox from having a clear vision of him, so he was going to take it by surprise. As his body collided with the fire, he couldn’t help but jolt in pain.

“Akh!”

The bluish aura prevented the fire from coming into direct contact with the fire, yet the heat was painfully felt.

Ozul realized what he was trying to do, but there was a small problem that the wild man wasn’t aware of. Even if he wanted to do something about it, he didn’t have to luxury to as another ball of fire was headed straight in his direction.

‘Let’s see if it can hold out against an attack from a Beast of the Origin Realm,’ thought Ozul before he pushed his little group aside and used The Purity to create a wall in front of himself.

Unlike the wild man, the ball of fire collided with The Purity and created a huge explosion, sending everyone but Ozul flying in opposite direction!

While the Nascent Soul cultivators were only injured slightly, the few remaining Core Formation cultivators who hadn’t run away yet were almost crippled!

At the same time, the wild man got out of the ball of fire ready to catch the Fox off-guard. What he didn’t expect was that before he could even regain his bearings, the Fox had already rushed over to him!

The beast brought down its blade-like claw, ready to sever that man’s head in one sweep.

His eyes widened in horror as the claws descended on his shoulder without mercy. At the critical time, he managed to duck which saved his life, but the claws still dug deep. The force also sent him shooting to the right until a tree broke his momentum.

*Khuu!*

The wild man coughed blood while mustering up the strength to stand up. He wasn’t overconfident, but the Fox was clearly better than him.

Dealing with it alone is impossible, he reasoned as he turned to the only person he believed could be of assistance and yelled, “It’s likely that the beast has already sensed all of its Origin Gates! I will need some help!”

Meanwhile, Ozul stood stunned on his spot. The fireball he had defended against shook his whole body. The rocky ground was not only on fire but also dug a few feet below on both sides because of the explosion. Before absorbing those Cores, he wouldn’t have been able to survive this attack.

Hearing the wild man yell for help, he forced himself out of the trance. If that man died, he didn’t know if he would be able to deal with the beast either.

The black wall made up of The Purity instantly separated to form tens of sharp blades before he thrust them all in the Fox’s direction.

Taking notice of the blades coming at it, the Fox once again screamed before charging straight at Ozul.

Before the blades could graze its fur, its tail suddenly glowed with a blinding red light as it rotated its body midair and struck the blades with its tail! Without fail, all the blades were deflected toward the ground!

Fortunately for Ozul, he hadn’t sent all of The Purity at the Fox. Using what he had left, he sent a few needles at it for distraction while also flying out of its course. A moment of hesitation would have ended up with the beast’s horn ripping apart his body. But since he wasn’t given time to think, he wasn’t able to take into account one thing; his whole gang was still there!

In the face of this threat, Zier managed to calm his nerves as he also threw his needles at the marching Fox. Alas, the force behind those needles didn’t even make the beast flinch. They couldn’t even go through its fur, much less pierce its hide.

Rose also manifested something vague behind her as she arched her hands like she was holding a bow. Multiple arrows of Spiritual Essence struck the beast but it made no difference.

“Run!” Ozul shouted from behind and flew straight at the Fox, attempting to throw it off course. He was starting to get anxious since there wasn’t enough time, but he didn’t stop to think that.

Just when he thought that his group was done for, a shadow blurred into the area.

The ground shook as something was dragged along the earth, erasing whatever stood in its way!

Coincidentally, that ‘something’ passed between the remaining group of recruits and the Black Horned Fox, disrupting the latter from killing them.

The dust was pushed instantly as sparks crackled in the air. At the end of the line ‘etched’ on the rocky ground, the woman stood up with a bleeding lip as she ground her teeth in anger. She didn’t care about the growling Fox to her left or the pathetic humans to her right.

She looked straight ahead at the man and spoke, “So the little prince has improved.”

Taking advantage of this moment, the wild man had already closed in on the Fox. “HAA!!!” He jumped and Ozul could see a gigantic bear manifest itself behind him as it slapped away the beast!

Sighing in relief, he thought of the Soul Materialization stage of the Nascent Soul.

‘The bear must be the manifestation of his soul.’