Chapter 157: I Find Myself Intrigued
In the shadowed depths of the Twin Peak Hill’s rear mountain, an ancient well loomed the northwest corner, its stone rim weathered by decade of neglect. Above it, the vast Souleater Kodama’s gnarled branches swayed without wind, their rustling leaves whispering secrets too vile to comprehend. The sound was a chorus of countless taunts, indistinct yet piercing, as if the ghost tree itself were alive with the anguished souls it had devoured.
Ruru Rosa felt the whisper taunts bore into her skull like a million steel needles, each one driving deeper into her mind through her every pore. Her vision blurred, darkness creeping at the edges, and with a guttural cry, she spat a mouthful of blood, the coppery taste flooding her senses. Her body trembled, her soul and spirit tugged toward the Kodama as if caught in an invisible current. The tree’s presence had become a yawning black vortex, hungry to devour her essence entirely.
"Souleater’s Gaze!" Ruru gasped, her voice raw with extreme pain. Her instincts screamed at her to look away, to break the Kodama’s cursing hold, but her eyes were locked, as if bound by an unseen force. The ghost tree’s myriad eyes, embedded in its twisted bark, stared back, their malevolent glow paralyzing her will. "It’s the Souleater Kodama’s innate divine..."
In desperation, she struck herself across the face with such force that her head snapped to the side, breaking the gaze’s hold. The pain was sharp, grounding, but it freed her from the tree’s grasp. She staggered, her breath ragged, barely clinging to consciousness.
Yet beneath the Kodama’s twisted haunting canopy, Lordi was still cultivating. He stood untouched, as if the ghost wood’s dread soul devouring power held no sway over him.
From Ruru’s vantage, Junior Brother Payne was the picture of serene intensity—his bearing poised, his presence as unshakable as an ancient pine rooted in stone.
His features were striking, sharp yet refined—a face carved with the quiet precision of a master sculptor. High cheekbones framed piercing eyes, now half-lidded in deep meditation, their depths hiding untold focus beneath a surface of perfect calm. His lips were set in a neutral line, betraying neither strain nor effort, even as the Kodama’s essence surged into him.
One hand rested lightly against the great tree, fingers splayed. Where his palm met bark, the wood darkened, withering like parchment held to flame. Yet Lordi’s expression remained undisturbed, his breathing slow and measured, as though this act of near-devouring absorption demanded nothing of him.
Handsome, yes, Ruru thought. But more than that—unmoved, untouchable, like a blade sheathed in jade.
Ruru’s pulse hammered in her throat, each beat a drum of stunned reverence. "Lordi-kun’s soul... it’s monstrously strong!"
The Souleater Kodama’s innate divine was was a tempest of annihilation, a soul-rending assault that shredded the soul and spirit so potent that even early-phase Human Path Foundation Stage cultivators dared not meet its gaze. She had escaped only because the ghost wood’s hunger eyes were fixed on Lordi, her own suffering merely collateral.
She had thought this Junior Brother Payne doomed, yet here he stood, not only unscathed but draining the Kodama’s life force under its soul-devouring attack.