Soul Severing Talisman

That pure black talisman paper was tightly gripped in Li Miaoyuan's hand.

The golden veins on it flowed as if they possessed a life of their own.

There was no roar of spiritual energy erupting, nor any earth-shattering aura.

Only an extremely ancient, deathly silent aura seeped out from the talisman.

Even the dense spiritual energy haze surrounding them rapidly melted away the moment it touched this aura, like early snow meeting the blazing sun.

Shen Fei stared at that talisman.

Danger.

Extreme danger.

This was the first time since he obtained the system, reached the peak of Grandmaster, and acquired the Heavenly Demon Body, that he felt a fatal crisis capable of threatening his life.

"This is the life-saving trump card bestowed upon me by the sect master."

Li Miaoyuan lay prone in the crater, his face covered in blood.

His eyes were already completely frenzied.

"The Ancient Soul-Slaying Talisman!"

"A supreme immortal treasure left behind from the upper realm a century ago!"

"Using it on a mere mortal like you, even in death, you should be proud!"

Li Miaoyuan fiercely bit the tip of his tongue, spitting a mouthful of essence blood onto the black talisman.

"Slay!"

He roared hoarsely.

"Buzz—!"

There was no fire, no shockwave.

The pure black talisman turned into nothingness directly in Li Miaoyuan's hand the moment it was stained with the essence blood.

In its place was an extremely slender, hair-like ray of golden light.

This golden light did not attack Shen Fei's body, did not aim for his heart, nor did it slash at his throat.

It ignored space and the laws of physics.

It directly pierced through the dark golden Heavenly Demon True Qi defense layer that Shen Fei had projected, with no resistance whatsoever, like a hot knife through butter.

Straight and true.

It sank right into the center of Shen Fei's brows!

Fast.

An unavoidably fast speed.

This was a direct dimensional strike from a higher-dimensional power against a lower dimension.

The instant the golden light sank into his glabella.

Shen Fei's body suddenly stiffened.

Time seemed to stop at this moment.

There were no wounds, no splashing blood. Shen Fei's skin, bones, and even his brain did not suffer any physical damage.

But immediately after.

An extremely terrifying, excruciating pain that Shen Fei had never experienced in his life explosively erupted deep within his consciousness!

It wasn't a pain of the flesh.

It was the sensation of his soul being forcibly torn apart.

It was as if a rusty saw had directly cut open his conscious defenses. Or as if two invisible giant hands had grabbed his soul and were savagely tearing it apart in opposite directions!

"Ugh..."

Shen Fei let out an extremely suppressed muffled groan from his throat.

His pupils instantly dilated.

His tall, straight body swayed violently.

Bleeding from his seven orifices!

Black blood uncontrollably gushed out from Shen Fei's eyes, nose, ears, and the corners of his mouth.

It dripped onto the rocks beneath his feet, making incredibly faint pattering sounds.

Shen Fei's knees, for the first time since he was reborn into this world.

Bent.

"Thud."

He fell to one knee.

He pressed one hand firmly against the ground, his five fingers digging deeply into the hard rock, his nails curling back, dripping with blood.

He clenched his jaw, desperately resisting the force that was trying to completely shred his soul.

In his mind.

The system's extremely piercing red alarm almost drowned out his consciousness.

[Alert!!!]

[Host's soul is suffering from a high-dimensional rule attack!]

[Energy assessment: Upper Realm Law Remnant - Soul Slay!]

[Warning: Heavenly Demon Body (SS-Rank) is a dual physical/energy defensive physique. It cannot defend against pure soul-level damage!]

[Host's soul integrity is dropping rapidly!]

[Current soul integrity: 82%... 75%... 68%...]

[Continuing to drop!]

The system's cold voice echoed in Shen Fei's increasingly blurry mind.

A fatal blind spot.

This was the deadly consequence brought about by an information gap.

He thought that relying on the Heavenly Demon Body and his Grandmaster true qi, he could forcefully withstand a cultivator's flying sword. He had done that.

But he did not know that in the cultivation system, there were attack methods specifically targeting the soul.

This was a blind spot that the martial arts system simply could not touch.

In the crater.

Li Miaoyuan struggled to climb up from the dirt.

Clutching his caved-in chest, his face deathly pale, every breath pulled at his broken ribs. But looking at Shen Fei kneeling on one knee, bleeding from his seven orifices, an extremely twisted ecstasy erupted in his eyes.

"Hahahaha..."

Li Miaoyuan coughed up blood while laughing maniacally.

He pointed at Shen Fei.

"Mortal!"

"This is the consequence of you provoking immortal might!"

"So what if your physical body is strong? In the face of cultivation laws, a mortal who hasn't tempered their divine soul is nothing but livestock waiting to be slaughtered!"

Li Miaoyuan stumbled forward two steps.

He drew the sword of an unconscious junior brother nearby, pointing the tip at Shen Fei's head.

"Didn't you refuse to kneel?"

"Didn't you say the ground was dirty?"

"Now, aren't you kneeling before me like a dog!"

Li Miaoyuan's laughter sounded extremely piercing in front of the empty mountain gate.

He prepared to step forward and personally chop off the head of this demon who had subjected him to such extraordinary humiliation.

But.

Just as he took his third step forward.

He stopped.

Because he saw Shen Fei's eyes.

Shen Fei knelt on one knee, panting heavily.

Black blood smeared half of his face, making him look like a vengeful ghost crawling out from an Asura battlefield.

The pain of his soul tearing was still continuing.

But.

Shen Fei raised his head.

He looked at Li Miaoyuan, who was looking down at him.

In those eyes dyed red with black blood, there was no collapse, no fear, not even a trace of the weakness of begging for mercy.

There was only one thing.

Extreme.

Brutality.

"Livestock?"

Shen Fei's voice was extremely hoarse, carrying a heavy scent of blood.

But he still spat out these two words with extreme steadiness.

In that extreme agony where his soul was about to be torn apart.

Shen Fei's rationality not only didn't collapse, but instead became like the stones at the bottom of an iceberg—cold, hard, and indestructible.

[Current soul integrity: 62%... 57%... 53%...]

The system's countdown, like notes of death, was still ringing.

But at this moment, the system also keenly recorded a brand new piece of data:

[Detected that the host is forcibly resisting a high-dimensional soul law.]

[The core operational logic of the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art has been stimulated... Attempting to record and analyze the law remnant...]

Shen Fei paid no attention to the system's prompts.

He stared at Li Miaoyuan.

If he were the male lead of a hot-blooded manga right now, he might erupt in this desperate situation, shout "I will never surrender," and miraculously counter-kill his opponent.

But Shen Fei was a villain.

An extremely rational, extremely cold-blooded villain.

He knew very well that he couldn't kill Li Miaoyuan right now.

His soul trauma made it impossible for him to mobilize all of his Heavenly Demon True Qi.

If he forced a move, his soul would completely shatter before Li Miaoyuan died.

If you can't win.

Then run.

He wouldn't hold out just for the sake of face, nor would he have any saint-like hesitation.

Survive, and then slaughter nine generations of this enemy's family. That was the vision a villain should have.

"System."

Shen Fei issued a command in his mind with extreme calmness.

"Open the shop."

"Redeem the Heavenly Demon Blood Escape."

[Ding!]

[Command confirmed.]

[Heavenly Demon Blood Escape: Instantly transforms the host's physical body into a blood mist, randomly teleporting them up to two kilometers away. At the moment of transfer, a high-intensity Heavenly Demon true qi shockwave is unleashed upon the original location.]

[Cost: 10,000 Villain Points.]

[Confirm exchange?]

"Confirm."

At the critical moment when Li Miaoyuan raised his longsword, preparing to sever Shen Fei's head...

A sudden anomaly erupted!

"Boom!!!"

Shen Fei, who was kneeling on one knee, had his body explode outward right where he was without any warning!

There was no mangled flesh.

There was only an extremely dense, scarlet blood mist!

Along with the eruption of the blood mist, an overwhelmingly oppressive dark-gold Heavenly Demon true qi exploded in all directions like a highly compressed bomb, centered on Shen Fei's previous location!

"What?!"

Li Miaoyuan's expression changed drastically.

He never expected that a mortal, having been struck by a Soul-Severing Talisman and with his soul on the verge of collapse, could actually unleash such terrifying energy!

The distance was too close.

The Heavenly Demon shockwave crashed head-on into Li Miaoyuan with the force of an avalanche.

"Puh—"

It was as if Li Miaoyuan's chest had been fiercely smashed by an invisible giant iron hammer.

His entire body flew backward like a cannonball.

He crashed directly into the massive folded space barrier stone pillar behind him!

"Crack."

An extremely obvious fissure appeared on the barrier stone pillar.

Li Miaoyuan fell heavily to the ground.

The internal injuries he had forcefully suppressed earlier completely erupted at this moment.

His chest churned violently, and he spat out another large mouthful of blood.

Clutching his chest, he raised his head with great difficulty.

The area ahead was completely empty.

Only that cloud of scarlet blood mist was slowly dissipating in the air.

Shen Fei was gone.

"He escaped..."

Li Miaoyuan gnashed his teeth, his eyes filled with extremely venomous hatred.

But right now, he was also at the end of his rope.

His natal flying sword had been destroyed, and his internal organs were injured. If he forcefully pursued, it would likely damage his cultivation foundation.

"Demon..."

Li Miaoyuan clenched his fists.

"No matter where you run, having been hit by the Soul-Severing Talisman, your soul will eventually slowly dissipate. You are dead for sure!"

...

Two kilometers away.

Beside an abandoned dirt road.

Under an old locust tree.

An extremely thick scent of blood suddenly wafted through the air.

A cloud of scarlet blood mist appeared out of thin air.

The blood mist rapidly shrank and condensed.

Shen Fei's figure tumbled out from within the blood mist.

"Thud."

He leaned against the rough trunk of the locust tree.

His body was panting violently.

Black blood was still flowing down from the corners of his eyes and mouth, dripping onto the collar of his white shirt in a shocking display.

The pain of his soul being torn apart had not lessened; instead, it had become even more intense due to executing the Heavenly Demon Blood Escape.

[Warning: Soul Integrity: 48%!]

[Host's vital signs have entered the critical threshold!]

Shen Fei ignored the system's alarms.

Leaning against the tree trunk, he slowly closed his eyes.

He took a deep breath.

Three seconds later.

He opened his eyes.

Enduring the agonizing pain in his mind, which felt as though countless steel needles were piercing it wildly, he extremely steadily pulled out that specially-made encrypted phone from the inner pocket of his suit.

He did not make a call.

He opened the contacts and found Ye Qingyu's name.

His fingers pressed on the screen extremely slowly, yet with absolute precision.

He sent a text message.

The content consisted of only two words.

[Western Suburbs.]

Message sent.

The hand Shen Fei used to hold the phone finally dropped weakly.

His vision began to plunge into darkness.