Whether to risk losing control and force an eruption, or... "The outside World is actually so great. Heh heh, where should I wander tomorrow?"
"There's actually a fight to watch over here. Let me take a look."
A sudden voice came: "Eh? A Titan Giant Ape?"
The alleys of Xingye City were bottomless, dyed ink-black by the night, with only a few scattered soul guidance lamps casting a dim yellow glow at the entrances.
Yuanen Yehui was looking into the alley, frowning slightly.
Suddenly, a sinister laugh rang out, making the hair on her body stand on end.
"I smell it... the aura of corruption."
A dark figure slowly emerged from the shadows at the end of the alley, wearing a Green Skeleton mask and holding a scythe with chains Binding it, with a pulsing dark green core embedded at the end.
Yuanen Yehui's eyes narrowed. After a moment of thought, she said solemnly, "An Evil Soul Master?"
"Alas, that is a misunderstanding the World has of us." The Evil Soul Master chuckled eerily, tapping the scythe with chains Binding it lightly on the ground as a blackish-red mist spread along the pavement. "I offer Your Excellency a most sincere invitation. Join us; that wonderful aura on you belongs among our ranks."
"As long as you join us, the organization will grant you even stronger dark power, allowing your Martial Soul to Breakthrough to a higher Realm."
"Not interested," Yuanen Yehui coldly refused as the phantom of a Titan Giant Ape emerged. "I disdain the dealings of an Evil Soul Master. Either get lost or die."
The smile on the Evil Soul Master's face froze, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes. "It's not this..."
After a moment of contemplation, he realized, "twin spirits?"
He then bowed slightly in a request: "Could you let me see your other Martial Soul? I can feel that it is absolutely the most beautiful thing in the World."
Ignoring him, Yuanen Yehui wanted to retreat, but found she had already been locked onto. Fleeing would only lead to an instant defeat.
"Troublesome."
Yuanen Yehui's voice was colder than the evening breeze of Xingye City.
The phantom of the Titan Giant Ape solidified behind her, its faint light illuminating the darkness for a few feet around, firmly resisting the blackish-red mist that kept probing and spreading.
The Evil Soul Master was indifferent to her killing intent; instead, like someone appreciating a rare treasure, he took a deep breath of the "aura" that had become increasingly apparent due to the manifestation of her Martial Soul.
The dark green core of the chained scythe in his hand pulsed even more joyfully.
"What pure and noble corruption, yet it is suppressed and defiled by this barbaric giant ape's power." He shook his head, his tone full of pity. "Have you never listened to the longing of that other voice within you? It craves freedom, craves to embrace the true darkness—that is its, and your, true source of power."
"My affairs are not for a hiding coward like you to judge." Yuanen Yehui took a step forward, the ground trembling slightly. An incomplete one-word battle armor was instantly donned.
"It seems words cannot move you." The Evil Soul Master sighed with regret, slowly raising his scythe. "Then, I have no choice but to let you feel for yourself what true power is. This is not coercion, but enlightenment."
The chains rattled as a faint green light flickered on the blade of the scythe.
The blackish-red mist was no longer content with just spreading; it began to churn and condense, turning into distorted shadow arms with sharp claws that slowly reached out from the darkness in all directions, grasping at Yuanen Yehui.
Faint, malicious whispers echoed in the air, boring directly into her mind.
Yuanen Yehui's gaze turned sharp, knowing this was a mental attack.
She struck first, her left fist punching out. A highly compressed Qi mass whistled forth, not toward the Evil Soul Master himself, but toward the area on her left where the shadow arms were densest.
"Boom!"
The Qi mass exploded, and a violent shockwave swept out, blowing several shadow arms apart into mist.
However, the mist only churned for a moment before condensing again under the faint light of the dark green core, though its color was slightly dimmer.
"It's useless," the Evil Soul Master chuckled. "Your power is indeed fierce, but against this kind of power that exists between reality and illusion, you'll get half the result with twice the effort. Why struggle in vain? Release your true power; just a sliver would be enough to make these annoying shadows vanish."
He was inducing, or even forcing, Yuanen Yehui to use the power of the Fallen Angel.
Yuanen Yehui pursed her lips and did not respond. The Titan Giant Ape phantom shone brightly, and the battle armor covering her fists glowed.
She charged into the shadow arms, her fists, elbows, knees, and legs turning into violent weapons, shattering every grasping shadow.
Pure physical strikes were indeed limited in effectiveness, often requiring two or three punches to completely disperse an arm. However, relying on her astonishing physical fitness, she maneuvered through the siege of arms, not falling behind for a moment. Instead, she was slowly but steadily advancing toward the Evil Soul Master.
"Stubborn." The Evil Soul Master seemed to lose patience and swung his scythe. "Then let us increase the intensity of the enlightenment."
As he spoke, the attack rhythm of all the shadow arms suddenly quickened. Simultaneously, dozens of sharp earth spikes thrust out from the blackish-red mist flowing on the ground, blocking Yuanen Yehui's room to dodge.
Furthermore, a strand of extremely concentrated dark green light silently mingled with the shadows, shooting toward her back.
Yuanen Yehui twisted her body to dodge the earth spikes by a hair's breadth and dispersed the dark green light with a punch, but the shockwave from the explosion made her blood and Qi churn, slowing her movements for a fraction of a second.
It was in this moment of Slow, three or four shadow arms took the opportunity to wrap around her ankles and wrists.
A cold, greasy sensation that felt like it was intensely draining her Soul Power came over her. More importantly, a bone-chilling cold and chaotic emotion pierced through her Soul from the points of contact.
"Ugh..." Yuanen Yehui groaned, and the light of the Titan Giant Ape flickered violently.
Sharp pain radiated from the place of the Binding—not physical pain, but an erosion stemming from her Martial Soul and even her Soul. Even worse,
the dark power of the Fallen Angel within her, which she had been suppressing with all her might, actually surged uncontrollably for an instant under the stimulation of this foul external force.
It was only for an instant before she immediately suppressed it with even stronger will.
"Hahaha! I felt it! I really wasn't wrong!" The Evil Soul Master laughed wildly with excitement, the greed in his eyes almost becoming tangible. "That's it! Such pure dark Origin! Join us, and you will gain the power to control it instead of being controlled by it. You will be omnipotent!"
Yuanen Yehui's face looked pale under the dim yellow glow, and fine beads of sweat broke out on her forehead.
The restraint and erosion continued, and the conflict between the two powers inside her made her feel as if she were trapped between poles of ice and fire. The situation took a sharp turn for the worse.
"I will never..." She clenched her teeth, golden light and a hard-to-detect dark tint flashing alternately in her eyes, as if she were making an extremely difficult decision.
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