Chapter 708 - 708: Ghost Valley
Mingyue landed on the broken ground, slid one step back, and narrowed her eyes.
This thing did not only ignore ordinary damage.
Being close to it also corroded qi and life force. If it were any other cultivator, they would have already felt the change.
A Nascent Soul cultivator would already be dead and probably have had their soul eaten by it.
But Alex and Mingyue already had a lot of experience with life force, so protecting their vitality from something like this was not hard.
The soul golem attacked again.
This time, its whole body broke apart mid-charge, turning into a storm of grasping hands and screaming faces. It rushed at her from all sides, trying to swallow her whole.
Mingyue inhaled slowly. Her pupils sharpened. Cold mist spread from under her feet, followed by a green aura. Then a thin red layer started appearing within her ice.
Alex looked at her and chuckled. "Getting serious?"
Mingyue lifted both swords. "You know this is not even ten percent of my power."
She slashed once.
A circular wave of white light burst outward. Everything within thirty meters froze. The air, the ground, even the storm of souls froze in place. Dozens of twisted faces hung in the air like insects trapped in amber. Black hands stopped inches from her body.
Mingyue stepped forward, her expression still cold as she walked through the frozen soul storm, every step leaving an ice lotus blooming in the air itself. She raised one sword and lightly tapped a frozen face.
Crack.
The face shattered. But before the fragments could escape, Mingyue's second sword stabbed into the air.
A tiny purple line appeared. It was a space cut, small and thin. Yet the moment it appeared, the frozen soul fragments were dragged toward it and erased.
Mingyue finally understood. "I see. Seems this is just someone's toy."
It was strong, but by the planet's standards, this was not enough to be a real powerhouse. At best, its power level was only a few steps above a normal immortal.
The soul golem suddenly broke part of the frozen field by force. Half its body tore free, while the other half remained trapped in ice. Its many eyes glowed with rage.
The hollow chest opened wide again, and this time a flood of ghostly figures poured out. Hundreds of human-shaped soul remnants rushed at Mingyue, clawing and screaming.
Mingyue's eyes turned sharper. She swung both swords in a crossing pattern. Space lines spread through the battlefield like a net. Then icy qi flooded along those lines.
The net snapped shut.
SHRRRK!!
Every ghostly figure that touched it froze, split, and vanished into the cracks of space.
The soul golem staggered for the first time. Its body had lost almost a third of its mass.
Mingyue did not stop. She stepped in front of it and thrust one sword into its chest. The golem tried to grab her, but her second sword cut off the arm and froze the severed section before it could reform.
Then she released more life force. Her aura surged.
The sword in the golem's chest shone with green light, while the other glowed with a thin purple line along the edge. The frost invading the golem's chest became far denser. At the same time, the red line spread through the frozen soul mass like veins.
The screaming faces inside its chest suddenly started twisting against one another.
The monster convulsed. Its body started collapsing from within.
Alex's eyes narrowed slightly. "Don't kill it."
Mingyue pulled back both swords. "Too late..."
A massive crescent of frozen space tore through the golem from shoulder to waist. The entire upper body froze solid.
Then the space inside that frozen mass broke apart.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The soul golem let out one last shriek. Its body shattered into thousands of pale fragments. The space around the fragments folded inward. All the shattered soul pieces were dragged into dozens of thin black cuts and disappeared.
Only cold mist remained.
Mingyue exhaled and lowered her swords.
Alex walked over from the side. "You should have left some at least for me to research."
Mingyue looked at the drifting mist. "Well, it is what it is."
Alex raised a brow, then sighed.
Mingyue's expression stayed calm. "Don't worry. I'm sure there are still more of them."
Then she looked at the spot where the golem had died.
Among the frost-covered rubble, a dim black crystal the size of a fist remained, still pulsing with weak soul light.
Alex noticed it too. "Seems it did leave something."
The black crystal suddenly trembled. A thin crack appeared on its surface.
Then a voice came from inside. "So you are the one."
Mingyue stopped.
Alex's eyes narrowed.
The crystal vibrated again. The crack spread wider, then turned to dust.
"Seems they will make a bigger move now," Mingyue added coldly.
"And you already look forward to it." Alex shook his head.
He then looked back at the remaining wisps in the air. His fingers moved quickly, drawing runes and absorbing everything that remained.
After a few moments, Alex opened his eyes.
"That corruption, whatever it is, seems to have changed their life force. I could only get one piece of information from them."
"What is it?" Mingyue asked.
Now he was already sitting calmly on a chair, like he was on vacation while sipping orange juice.
Alex's lips twitched. "Let's talk while we move. The authorities will come here soon."
As they walked back, Alex then shared what he had learned.
"Ghost Valley?"
"Yes. It is one of the factions inside the Human Empire.
Their abilities focus on soul cultivation. But based on my research, they should be barely surviving now.
The Human Emperor pushed them down after some event many millennia ago. They should not have the resources to pull off something like this."
"That's not all. Don't you feel it?" Mingyue asked back.
Alex nodded. "Yeah. I know there's a trace of vampire technique used on that life force."
"Seems there's more to this than just the upcoming election."