Xie Zhaolin moved slowly, trying to circle around the battlefield.
But before she'd even taken three steps, a sharp burst of sword qi slashed out from the side!
Shua!
The sword qi grazed her cheek, leaving a deep mark on the stone wall. She snapped her head around and saw a cultivator's yin soul gripping a longsword, its hollow eye sockets flickering with eerie green flames. It had seen through her disguise!
"Intruders… die…"
The yin soul's voice was hoarse as it slowly raised its sword. The blade glowed with soul force that made her heart lurch.
Worse, the moment it moved, the surrounding yin souls stopped their own fighting and turned in unison to face her.
"Shit…" Her throat tightened. The pressure of dozens of berserk yin souls locking onto her at once drenched her back in cold sweat.
The sword-wielding yin soul suddenly let out a piercing shriek, and every yin soul lunged at her together!
She didn't have time to think. Instinctively, she formed a seal, and violet-blue mist erupted from her body, spinning into a barrier in front of her.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The yin souls slammed into the barrier again and again, deafening blasts echoing through the cavern.
With every impact, her face paled further. Their strikes carried soul-shaking force that hammered directly at her consciousness. Worse, ordinary attacks couldn't even hurt these things!
"I can't drag this out!"
She gritted her teeth, her body flashing backward. Stepping onto the Seven Stars Footwork, she blurred into an afterimage and sped toward the exit. Behind her, the shrieks of yin souls rose into a frenzy. Her divine sense swept ahead, and she suddenly recalled the wandering low-level yin souls. They were mindless, but maybe they could stall the chase.
The instant she burst out of the passage, she pulled the nearby low-level yin souls toward her.
Just as she'd hoped, those dim creatures immediately reacted to the stronger yin souls' aura and swarmed together. In moments, the tunnel mouth seethed with drifting shades, forming a natural blockade.
But her relief didn't last long. The sword-wielding yin soul let out another piercing cry. There was a strange rhythm in the howl. At once, the low-level yin souls stopped wandering and turned toward her as one!
"Shit!" Her heart sank.
Those high-level yin souls could command the weaker ones!
The low-level shades weren't strong, but their sheer numbers were overwhelming. They swarmed toward her in waves, their attacks weak on their own, but together the constant shocks made her Primordial Soul throb in pain.
Retreating step by step, she threw out seal after seal, violet-blue mist forcing back the closest shades. But just as she was being pressed hard, her spirit beast pouch shook violently.
Weng—
The queen bee burst out, wings buzzing in rapid urgency.
What shocked her even more was how excited it looked. Without hesitation, it darted toward a side passage, its compound eyes glowing strangely. If the queen bee was this stirred up, then the cause had to be those silver motes she'd seen in the mountain stream!
She didn't know why they'd appear here too, but she trusted the queen bee wouldn't harm her. That path might be her only chance! Without hesitation, she followed. Sure enough, the deeper she went, the fewer yin souls there were. The air grew thinner with yin qi, and silver motes shimmered faintly in the passage.
"Yes!" Joy surged in her chest. If these motes could heal her meridians, then maybe they could help her escape too.
But before she could relax, a violent fluctuation erupted behind her. She looked back—and her face turned pale. The sword-wielding yin soul had broken through the swarm and was leading other high-level yin souls straight after her!
"Damn it!" Her eyes hardened. She pulled a pitch-black bead from her storage ring—Thunderburst Pearl!
A weapon infused with pure thunder force, the perfect bane of yin souls. She had very few left, and unless desperate, she didn't want to waste them. But right now, there was no other choice.
"Explode!"
The explosion roared like the heavens splitting apart. Wild thunder force tore through the cavern, ripping into everything. The shockwave blasted her forward, while the tunnel behind her collapsed under falling stone, cutting off the chase.
"Cough, cough…"
She collapsed onto the floor of darkness, gasping for air.
Safe.
But only for now.
Rocks couldn't hold back yin souls forever. They could phase through stone at will, and the Thunderburst Pearl's power would only keep them scattered for a short time. She couldn't stay here.
The queen bee fluttered back onto her shoulder, then pointed toward the depths of the passage where a faint glow flickered.
"Could it be…"
She forced herself to stand, tucked the queen bee back into the pouch, and carefully walked forward.
The deeper she went, the colder it became. Ice crystals spread over the rock walls, glittering faintly. Finally, she reached the end of the passage, and what she saw stole her breath. In the center of a small stone chamber floated a spring glowing with eerie blue light. From the water, silver motes rose one after another—the very same energy she'd sensed before!
And beside the spring lay a strange corpse, sealed in heavy frost.
"The Yinsha Spring…" she whispered.
She'd finally found the goal of her journey. But this spring had clearly undergone some terrifying mutation. Her fingertips trembled as her eyes locked on the corpse.
The skeleton shone a dark silver, twisted and unnatural. Its spine had over thirty vertebrae, coiled like a spiral. Its skull was long and narrow, with three pairs of hollow sockets. Its limbs were impossibly thin, bristling with sharp bone spurs.
Even when she'd been a Nascent Soul cultivator in her past life, she'd never seen a skeleton so bizarre.
"What… is this thing…" Her throat tightened, and she instinctively stepped back.
The aura from the bones made the violet-blue mist in her sea of consciousness surge uneasily. Every fiber of her being screamed with rejection and fear.
Now she understood why the yin souls wouldn't come near this place. To them, this skeleton was like a snake in a nest of mice, a predator carrying innate terror.
The yin souls might be drawn to the Yinsha Spring, but they'd never dare cross that threshold.
Her gaze shifted back to the spring.
The silver motes rising from it no longer seemed so benevolent. They felt ominous, shrouded in hidden danger.