The Wind Will Blow You

With his body tempered by the tribulation fire, Qin Ran did not have as great of an increase in power as expected, because what he wanted was not just a bit of body tempering. He only wanted to stay alive and make it through this Heavenly Tribulation.

"That was close, I almost died," he thought to himself grimly.

To be honest, compared to that pillar of blood-colored lightning that pierced the heavens and earth, these silent, invisible flames were even more deadly.

"Roar!"

Chasing the Wind let out another roar. His roar still held the milk-sound of a young tiger, but the tiger's roar embedded in his genes allowed him to let out a cry with a trace of a fierce tiger's dominance.

Qin Ran looked down at him and smiled.

"It's okay, your dad is invincible in the world!"

Hearing this, Chasing the Wind excitedly ran back and forth.

Although Qin Ran spoke lightly, looking around, he saw that the Wind and Cloud Barrier was still present. His heart did not relax one bit - the Heavenly Tribulation was not over yet. There would be another type of tribulation lightning coming. But having learned from experience once already, he was no longer panic-stricken and bewildered this time...he could handle this wave.

"Come on then..." He looked up at the sky. The winds stirred the clouds in the sky. He had a premonition that the supreme existence in this world above his head seemed to be real. "Let's see what other tricks you've got."

Then, as if from thin air, a breeze picked up...

"This wind is called the Soul-eroding Wind," the widely learned Elder Ning lectured to the crowd in the skies.

"It blows in from unknowable places, targeting solely the souls...destroying people's souls and wasting their mortal bodies. It seems soft and gentle, but it is actually violent and wild. If you are even a little inattentive, your soul will leave your body. That would lead to the dissolution of your body and extinction of your Way, not to mention. Even if you don't die outright, it will leave an ingrained flaw behind. Your foundations will be unstable and your soul weakened - this is set in stone."

Elder Ning's eyes held a trace of complexity. In his judgement, no matter if Qin Ran was an old monster who had seized this body, or an outsider demon that had slipped in from outside the realm, or some lone ghost from another world, the harmony between his soul and body could not be high.

He would not be able to escape this Soul-eroding Wind no matter what.

Once the Soul-eroding Wind blew, Qin Ran would definitely die!

The wind that rose up around him out of thin air blew onto Qin Ran's bare skin. He felt a trace of coolness, but his eyebrows were locked in a frown. Because this wind had come too bizarrely, as if it had appeared here out of nothing.

"Wind?" He murmured. "Is this wave a wind tribulation?"

Just as he spoke, he suddenly sensed himself floating for a moment. This floating feeling had come abruptly and inexplicably, with no basis whatsoever. It was like when napping during the day and your body would inexplicably jerk.

Qin Ran was flying in midair, but as someone who had reached the Golden Core realm, the difference between the air and the ground was not substantial to him. He stood extremely steadily - it was impossible for him to sway uncontrollably for no reason.

And furthermore, he was very clear that he had not moved!

He had not moved, yet he clearly sensed that he had moved. What was the reason?

That gust of wind passed by. On the ground, Chasing the Wind chased the wind for a few steps. His formerly snowy white fur had been burned black and yellow, but he seemed extremely happy.

"Fu... Fu..." He called out to Qin Ran in the language of tigers.

Qin Ran understood his tiger speech - he was saying "wind...wind..."

This silly child did not understand anything. He thought it was just ordinary wind.

One gust of wind passed. After a momentary lull, another gust of wind rose.

The previous gust of wind had felt cooling. But this current gust felt a little cold already.

Furthermore, after the breeze passed by, Qin Ran once again felt his body sway twice.

"Moved again..." He clearly distinguished it. "This is not my imagination!"

His body had not moved, yet his perception sensed that it had...

Qin Ran was thinking when his face suddenly changed dramatically as he realized it.

Soul!

It was the soul!

The wind was blowing at his soul!

And his soul was precisely the weakest part of Qin Ran's current self.

It wasn't that his soul itself was weak. He had practiced Master Danfeng's nameless mantra, so his soul force was not poor. However, the harmony between his soul and fleshly body was low...it was easy for them to separate!

If the normal harmony between one's body and soul was 100%, then Qin Ran's was probably only around 98%.

No matter whether it was 98% or 99%, as long as it wasn't 100%, although it did not affect his daily life, once he encountered a soul attack like the present situation, 99%, 98%, it was all equal to 0%.

Because for his mortal body, there was no protection. This kind of soul attack could act directly upon his soul.

For example, the gentle gusts of wind could easily blow his soul just like that.

Qin Ran had just realized this when the third gust of the Soul-eroding Wind came.

Like the tribulation lightning from before, each gust of the Soul-eroding Wind was stronger than the last. The first gust had been a light breeze. Then this third gust could already be considered an intense wind. If Qin Ran had any hair, his hair would be lightly swaying in this wind.

Since he had no hair now, his soul swayed along with the wind instead!

"No..."

Feeling his soul swaying without resistance in the wind, Qin Ran was filled with fear to the core.

He had not cultivated any soul arts. He did not possess any treasures to protect his soul either. Facing these gust after gust of wind, he was utterly helpless. All he seemed to be able to do was resign himself where he stood and await his death.

Await for these waves of icy gusts to blow his soul out from his body and blow his soul into scattering destruction!

"No!" Qin Ran let out a short, terrified cry.

The fourth gust...came!

In his terror, Qin Ran hunched down by instinct. His hands crossed in front of him defensively, struggling in his last throes...

The wind blew over. Qin Ran's mind went blank for a second. It was as if in the peak of winter's chill, he had appeared naked on the streets. Opening his eyes, before him was...a bald head.

He clearly recognized - that was his own head!

From afar, after a gust of wind, behind Qin Ran's body there appeared an identical transparent figure to him making defensive crossing gestures as his soul flew out.

"That's not right..." said the peerless beauty with puzzlement. "His cultivation is so deep, his mortal body so strong, and his soul doesn't seem lacking either. How could he be blown out of his body so easily? This...doesn't make sense!"

Hearing the peerless beauty's words and looking at Qin Ran's terrified disembodied soul behind his fleshly body, the elegant man sank into contemplation and said, "Perhaps this is the very reason why his Golden Core Tribulation is so bizarre!"

"No..."

Realizing his soul had left his body, terror exploded in Qin Ran's heart. He struggled in the icy winds.

But while the wind was negligible to his mortal body, to his soul, it was a violent storm.

He desperately tried to lunge forward to grab his body, but he couldn't exert any strength at all. Each time he reached out with all his might, his hands just passed through his physical body when he tried to brace against it.

It was as if he had died and turned into a resentful ghost, no longer having any connection to the material realm.

"Am I..." Qin Ran gradually stopped struggling. "Really going to die?"

He thought back on his two lifetimes as a human. Both were ordinary and mundane existences. He had always struggled to live. He had never committed any wicked acts or wronged anyone. Why must he be treated like this?

Letting him die, letting him come back to life, leaving him to wander alone in this strange world. And now, to make him suffer a fate worse than death. He had always been struggling to survive in this mortal world, yet he was always powerless to change anything...

"Why?" He involuntarily asked.

He did not know who he was asking - himself, or that existence shrouded in heavenly mystery.

No one answered him, except...

A tiger.

A tiny white tiger.

"Dad!" it yelled.

Qin Ran looked over. He only saw Chasing the Wind watching him. Then, compelled by some mysterious force...when he opened his eyes again, he had returned to his physical body.

"I'm back?" Qin Ran opened his crossed arms that he had put up defensively and looked left and right at the body he had lost and regained.

Very quickly, he stopped and started pondering to himself. Why?

Just now, no matter how hard he had struggled, his soul could not return to his body. So why did he suddenly return all of a sudden?

Why?

It seemed that at that time, Chasing the Wind had called out to him...

Unwittingly, he looked towards Chasing the Wind...