Legends of Ogre Gate

Chapter 89: Souls

Sunan closed his eyes and tuned out the sounds around him.

Back in the fortress, he hadn’t felt any effects from the poison, and hadn’t even been able to detect its presence in his blood. Only after the complete evacuation, when the sect leadership began to confer, did he break out into a cold sweat. Then his heart began to race, and he had begun to cough.

It had been imperceptible at first. Furthermore, the appearance of the flood dragons and Kun Peng had been so shocking that he had been swept up in the events.

Now, as he cast his awareness inward, he became more aware than ever of the racing of his heart, and could also sense that with every passing moment, it was beating faster and faster.

So that’s why I didn’t notice it before. It’s only in my heart. Although Sunan was no physician, he knew that the human body had limits.

If my heart doesn’t slow down, he thought, what will happen? Will it stop? Or collapse? Whatever happened, it would fatal, of that he was sure.

He attempted to breathe more slowly to calm himself, and also tried to slow his Qi flow. However, none of those things did any good. Bit by bit, his heart raced and raced toward what was certain death.

I need to calm my heart, Sunan thought. Calm.

Suddenly, he thought back to years before when he’d climbed almost to the very top of Zun Shan to meditate. His Qi flow had been altered during that state of meditation, leading him into a state of profound calm. In the years which had followed, he had contemplated how his Qi had flowed, and had replicated it on a few occasions. However, other than the state of deep calm, it had never proven particularly useful.

Without any hesitation, he altered the flow of his Qi to match that same Qi flow he had discovered on Zun Shan.

Within moments, his heart rate stabilized. Then, as he continued to send his Qi flowing through those particular meridians, the beating began to slow.

However, as his heart began to calm, he noticed countless minute objects flowing out from it into his blood vessels.

That’s the poison.

By this point, his heart was beating as calmly as if he were floating on the top of a lake. However, the poison was still present inside of him. To Sunan, it seemed as if hours had passed, but the truth was that from the moment he had stepped forward and fell to his knees, until his heart calmed, only a few breaths of time had passed.

Is Bao safe?

He opened his left eye just a crack, and the sight that met his eyes almost caused his heart to begin racing again.

Bao was standing about twenty meters away or so, looking up at what appeared to be an enormous black wheel that was falling down out of the sky directly toward her. She almost seemed rooted in place, as if she couldn’t move.

When Sunan focused more closely on the black wheel, he realized that it was Geng Long, wielding a sword that was so exaggeratedly long it was almost comical. However, there was nothing comical about the energy fluctuations rolling off of him. Even with this one brief glance, Sunan could tell with certainty that if Bao were struck by this technique, she should be grievously injured, perhaps even killed.

Without any hesitation, Sunan took his right hand off of his knee and grabbed the hilt of his Wind Sabre.

“Bao!” he shouted, drawing the Wind Sabre from its scabbard and throwing it in her direction.

He had kept his Wind Sabre sheathed for a very long time, not even drawing it during his fight with Lin Cuirou. The scabbard within which it was sheathed was the same one Ruan the Flamingo had created for him to wear on his wedding day. The spell formation in that scabbard could focus and build up the power of the Wind Sabre over time, allowing it to reach shocking levels.

When Bao heard Sunan calling her name, she glanced back and saw his Wind Sabre speeding toward her in a blur.

During their years in Nangu, they had done a bit of experimentation, and were sure that if the Wind Sabre and the Phoenix Crown were used together, the resonance between them would unleash devastating force. However, because of the volatile way that the two objects reacted to each other’s presence, they had never actually gone so far as to use them together in a fight.

But it was a critical moment, and there was no time to ponder the situation.

As the black blur that was Geng Long descended, Bao reached out and grabbed the Wind Sabre. Instantly, ripples of power coursed through her meridians, causing her to gasp. At the same time, the Phoenix Crown began to shake, creating vibrations that perfectly matched the ripples of power. Within the blink of an eye, the Phoenix Crown and the Wind Sabre connected to each other, using her body as the channel of communication.

Although the connection itself was beyond Bao’s control, she could sense that somehow, the Wind Sabre was tugging at the Phoenix Demon sealed inside of the crown, causing it to let out a miserable, enraged shriek.

There was power stored inside of the Wind Sabre, but with the addition of the essence of the Phoenix Demon, that power began to expand exponentially. Bao’s hand began to tremble, and then her entire arm.

The energy seemed to be growing at an exponential rate, and was rapidly reaching a point where it couldn’t be contained. Bao quickly realized that if she didn’t release that energy, it would almost certainly harm her, and potentially even kill her

**

Meanwhile, Kun-Peng was locked in a vicious struggle with three flood dragons. The flood dragons were no match for the enormous bird in terms of raw strength, but clearly had the advantage in terms of mobility and speed. Kun-Peng was like a sovereign of the sky, and was not the type of creature built for close-quarters combat.

Currently, the bird had its beak latched onto the neck of one of the flood dragons, and was just about to rip its head off when another of the flood dragons bit onto the base of its wing.

Releasing the first flood dragon, Kun-Peng jerked the second flood dragon away, then lashed at it with enormous, curved talons.

That was when the third flood dragon head-butted Kun-Peng on the back, sending it staggering forward.

Of course, considering the enormous size of all the group of beasts, their battle caused the ground to shake and sent intense rumbling sounds out in all directions.

Thankfully, the flood dragons’ black liquid attack was apparently not something that could be used again in a short period of time; not a single of the flood dragons had unleashed that attack a second time.

As Kun-Peng and the three flood dragons fought back and forth, Sun Mai and the Profound Masters continued to hold their own against the lone flood dragon. In their battle, they were the ones who lacked strength but had the advantage in mobility and speed.

With one powerful martial arts technique after another, they slashed and battered the blood dragon, simultaneously using their Qinggong to avoid the deadly attacks being leveled against them. So far, not a single of the Profound Masters had been seriously injured.

**

Geng Long was only two meters away from Bao this point. There was no time for lengthy planning or strategizing, and she knew she couldn’t simply attempt to block Geng Long’s technique. She had to unleash and attack of her own.

Without any hesitation, she did her best to focus the terrifying energy buildup, and then swung the Wind Sabre out in front of her. White and blue light erupted out to meet the pitch-black of Geng Long’s attack, and when the two forces met, a deafening droning sound filled the air that sounded like a thousand boulders being shattered by lightning.

Geng Long’s eyes went wide, and his mouth twisted into a snarl, and yet, that snarl quickly vanished as Geng Long realized that he was being pushed backward.

The white and blue light erupting from the Wind Sabre shone brighter and brighter as it shoved Geng Long and his bone sword away from Bao, slowly at first, but then faster and faster.

Moments before, the bone sword had defended against and eventually destroyed the Rage Holocaust. However, against the combined might of the Phoenix Crown and the Wind Sabre, it was like a dried branch trying to stop a rolling boulder.

The droning sound continued to increase in pitch, and the white and blue light grew brighter, until it was like a sun shining on the battlefield.

Within moments, the beam of light erupting from the Wind Sabre was so large it was about to envelop Geng Long, it was to his shock that cracks began to spread out on the surface of his bone sword.

A moment later, the sword began to shatter, starting at the tip, working down the blade to the spot where his two hands held the base of the weapon. Next, his suit of bone armor began to split apart and fall off. Then, when there was nothing left to stave off the deadly white and blue energy, Geng Long found his skin melting.

An enraged, terrified scream of pain and disbelief escaped his lips as his muscles were reduced to ash, and then his bones were incinerated.

And the energy of the Wind Sabre was still not fully unleashed!

Even as Geng Long was reduced to nothing more than a shadow, which then disappeared into the sun-like light of Bao’s attack, she turned her head to the left.

There, Kun-Peng was in the middle of fighting only two flood dragons. Moments before, the gargantuan bird had finally managed to rip the head off of one of the flood dragons, which it tossed into the waters of the bay. There, the decapitated corpse transformed into countless motes of black light that faded away into nothing.

The other two flood dragons had both received injuries of some sort. One of them had a gash on its back that almost cut through its entire body. The other had one of its legs ripped off.

However, Kun-Peng was also in bad condition, with numerous wounds that bleed scintillating green blood. Currently, one of the flood dragons had latched its jaws onto the bird’s right wing, while the other circled around through the air, apparently intent on attacking Kun-Peng from behind.

Even as the second flood dragon prepared to do just that, a beam of white and blue light slashed through the air like a whip toward it. Before it could react, the light slammed into the flood dragon, incinerating half of its body in the blink of an eye.

Only at that point did the light finally fade away.

Bao sagged in place, lowering the Wind Sabre until the tip rested on the ground in front of her. Sweat was dripping down her face, and her entire body was trembling.

Although Geng Long’s attack hadn’t even come close to touching her, she still felt as though she had been injured. Closing her eyes, she cast her senses inside of her, but couldn’t find any internal injuries. And yet somehow, she felt incomplete.

Suddenly, she recalled something Du Qian had mentioned decades ago. Every person has five souls inside of them. The cathartic method of drawing on Qi has the potential to damage or even destroy those souls.

Bao took a deep breath. Now’s not the time to worry about souls.

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