Inside its mind, the system's final words reverberated—
"Defense active. All incoming soul or mind attacks will be blocked until host energy reserves are depleted."
The lizard exhaled once—slow, relieved, almost trembling.
Just like before…
As I thought… It's a little different, but the same. The AI… it can block any soul-type attack. As long as I still have spirit energy, his soul art won't work.
Golden eyes brightened, pupils narrowing with renewed confidence.
The white-scaled creature lifted its head, golden eyes glowing hotter, brighter—and stared directly at Luo Yuanji.
Unblinking.
Unshaken.
Unharmed.
Lightning crackled across its limbs, then erupted—violent and radiant—spreading across its scales like molten threads weaving through ivory armor. Electricity arced from wingtip to wingtip, forming a storm of living light around its body.
Yuanji stiffened.
…What's this?
My attack should have pierced its soul.
He had expected the beast to recoil. To stagger. To show even the faintest sign of backlash—pain, dizziness, instability—anything a soul-severing strike should have caused.
Instead—
The creature's aura didn't falter. Not even slightly.
A cold blade traced down Yuanji's spine.
The attack should have struck its soul. Even if it didn't kill, it should have caused backlash… ruptured its consciousness, disrupted its qi—something.
His heartbeat thudded once—heavy, loud.
Don't tell me… it's not only capable of launching soul attacks… but blocking them as well.
The thought alone punched the air from his lungs. His whole body went cold.
If that's the case… then this creature… it's far more dangerous than I assumed.
His eyes locked onto the lizard—onto its full, crackling form.
Lightning dancing wildly.
Golden pupils burning with an intelligence that matched his own stare for stare.
A predator stood before him—and he was no longer sure which of them ranked higher in the food chain.
No… I need to—
But the thought snapped in half.
Because suddenly—
He couldn't move.
Not an inch.
Not a finger.
Not a breath beyond the shallowest.
His muscles locked. His qi froze mid-circuit. His blood roared in his ears as if sealed inside a chamber.
His eyes widened.
"H–huh…? What… what is this?"
He tried to step back.
His body didn't respond.
Not at all.
His entire body—
froze.
Completely.
A spike of panic stabbed through his chest.
Why? Why isn't my body moving? I can't move. I can't even twitch. Why?
His breath hitched.
Is it fear? Am I paralyzed from fear?
No.
There was no tremor in his core, no collapse of will, no fracture of courage. His mind stood firm.
Yet his limbs remained stone.
…No. This isn't fear. This isn't me.
Something else was holding him.
The lizard—wings spread, lightning swirling around its frame like a thunderstorm given flesh—fixed him with a gaze that sent another wave of ice through his bones.
Because that gaze was not the gaze of a beast.
It was the gaze of something evaluating him.
Calculating him.
Preparing.
And Yuanji, trapped in place, could do nothing but watch.
His breath strained against the invisible grip locking him still. His thoughts detonated in frantic bursts.
I need to move—!
If I stay like this, I'm a fish on a chopping board.
I can't die here. Not to a beast—not like this! MOVE!
His qi surged in panic, crashing uselessly against the unseen force constricting his limbs. His pulse hammered in his ears—loud, frantic, powerless.
MOVE… MOVE…!
Nothing obeyed.
His fingers might as well have been carved from stone.
His body had become a prison.
And then—
FWAP.
The lizard's wings snapped open.
Lightning gathered in an instant—violent, focused—funneling down its spine until the very air trembled. The wings arced once—
And the creature vanished.
Not blurred.
Not moved.
Vanished.
A spear of lightning tore toward him—silent, instantaneous.
Yuanji's pupils shrank.
NO—!!
He willed his body to dodge, block—anything—but the invisible paralysis held. His qi erupted wildly, instinctively, but it couldn't channel past the lock binding his limbs.
He was trapped.
The lightning was already at his face.
Time slowed to the edge of a knife.
For the first time in decades—
Luo Yuanji felt a heartbeat of pure, unfiltered fear.
The lightning-formed lizard struck—
A white flash—
A snapping roar—
A blur of killing light—
And then—
CLAAAAANG—!!
A metallic scream ripped through the courtyard as golden sparks exploded outward.
The lizard's fangs clamped around a long, curved blade.
Yuanji's glaive.
The weapon that had been in his hands moments ago—
now hovered before him, shaft trembling, blade caught between the lizard's teeth, held aloft by no visible force.
Lightning crawled over its jaw, biting into the metal. Sparks spat violently where fang met steel, a grinding shriek echoing like worlds colliding.
The lizard's golden eyes stayed fixed on him—
unchanging, unblinking—
the gaze of a predator that knew it should have killed its prey.
But Yuanji remained frozen.
Externally immobile.
Internally trembling.
That was close… too close…
The thought cracked inside his skull.
If he hadn't reacted—
if he hadn't reached within—
if he hadn't pushed his divine sense with everything he had—
He would be dead.
I only managed to move this one thing…
My artifact…
My glaive…
His divine sense surged again, trembling through the weapon. The glaive shook in the lizard's jaws, steel groaning.
That's the only thing I can control.
My body is locked… but my spirit sense—
I can still use it!
A shallow, strained breath escaped his lips.
Inches away, the lizard bit harder, testing the weapon's limits. Stone hissed beneath them where stray bolts struck the ground.
Yuanji could feel the heat of the lightning against his frozen skin.
He could smell ozone.
He could see death—hovering a breath from his throat.
If I hadn't thrown the glaive in front of me…
I would have been pierced clean through.
The invisible force binding him didn't loosen.
Didn't waver.
Didn't even tremble.
He remained trapped. Helpless. Prey.
But now—
Now he had his weapon under control.
The glaive vibrated violently as the lizard bit down, sparks cascading through the air.
Lightning coiled around the beast's skull.