Watching Dai Hao pounce toward him, Lin Xiao's gaze shifted slightly as he gently exhaled.
After entering the Mingdou Mountain Range, he hadn't delayed too long before arriving at this valley.
For others, finding where the White Tiger Imperial Guards had fallen might be somewhat difficult, but for him, the lingering remnant souls along the way served as the best guide.
Upon reaching the bottom of the cliff, what he saw was the scene of Dai Hao mourning the other White Tiger Imperial Guards.
At this moment, Dai Hao's voice rang in Lin Xiao's ears, causing him to let out a soft sigh.
It had to be said that no matter the time, people like Dai Hao always seemed to stir something in Lin Xiao, but unfortunately...
As Dai Hao's tiger claws drew near, Lin Xiao's eyes flashed. With a step, he swiftly retreated a great distance. Raising his right hand lightly, a sea of blood-red Higanbana flowers instantly bloomed across the entire valley.
A gentle breeze blew softly through the valley. After passing over that sea of flowers, even the wind seemed to carry a trace of dead stillness.
Lin Xiao's first and second soul rings lit up. Large swathes of blood-red radiance spread outward with him at the center.
Dai Hao reacted quickly, his pair of tiger claws striking out in succession to try to scatter the Higanbana seeds Lin Xiao had released.
However, those Higanbana seeds were under Lin Xiao's control. Though some were swatted down by Dai Hao, most still arced through the air under constant dodging and landed on Dai Hao's body.
Immediately afterward, countless branches and leaves grew from Dai Hao's body, forcibly halting his mid-air pounce.
Since falling from the mountain path to this place, Dai Hao had been unconscious until now, waking up. The soul power in his body was already scarce, and Lin Xiao's second soul skill, Germination, grew by absorbing the opponent's soul power. With one strike, Dai Hao's soul power was instantly depleted.
Although his soul core continued drawing in the surrounding heaven and earth origin energy without pause, it could nowhere near compensate for the speed of his consumption.
"Marshal Dai, come back with me."
Lin Xiao did not continue attacking. Instead, he stopped and looked at Dai Hao, who had fallen to the ground.
Dai Hao's legs were fixed to the ground by the branches and leaves of the Higanbana flowers. One hand pressed against his chest, while the other barely propped up his body. With some difficulty, he raised his head to look at Lin Xiao.
"Why are you so insistent on bringing me back instead of killing me here?"
Lin Xiao paused slightly. "If it's my personal reason... It's probably because I feel it would be too much of a pity for someone like Marshal Dai to die just like this."
"Though our positions differ, I have to say that since coming to this world, I've rarely seen someone like Marshal Dai."
"Heh—" Dai Hao lowered his head and gave a light laugh. "I never expected to receive such high praise from you. But I think even in the Sun Moon Empire, people like me are not lacking."
"However, you probably don't know why I act this way. Otherwise, you should understand—"
As Dai Hao spoke, his tone suddenly changed. His muscles bulged high, and white light flickered on and off his body. Relying solely on physical strength, he forcibly tore apart the branches binding him.
"I, Dai Hao, can die—but I will never surrender!"
"Roar—"
A howl erupted, carrying fierce gusts of wind that whipped Lin Xiao's cloak into fluttering sounds.
Dai Hao's figure had already vanished from sight. Only a massive tiger with black-and-white striped patterns pounced toward Lin Xiao. Both pupils in their eyes shone brightly. Even knowing he was no match for Lin Xiao, there was not the slightest fear.
Dai Hao did not use any soul skills. He knew that in his current state, manifesting his martial soul's true body was already beyond expectations. The soul power in his body could no longer support him, releasing even the weakest hundred-year soul skill.
Therefore, he had only one goal.
As the distance rapidly closed, Lin Xiao once again raised his right hand. Suddenly, a thread of blood overflowed from the corner of Dai Hao's mouth. His soul power stagnated, then violently surged back, rushing straight toward his dantian.
The rapidly spinning soul core was suddenly struck by such an impact. Its steady rotation was instantly disrupted. Terrifying power surged out madly from Dai Hao's dantian.
Before his consciousness faded, Dai Hao only saw that the person before him showed no trace of panic. Only that, beside him, the ninth soul ring lit up with bright blood-red light.
When Dai Hao's soul core began to become unstable, that chaotic spatial power instantly made Lin Xiao understand exactly what he intended to do.
Knowing he could not possibly win, Dai Hao showed no fear, only the thought of detonating his soul core to perish together with the other party.
Sensing the chaotic aura before the soul core's self-destruction, Lin Xiao finally no longer held back. His ninth soul ring flashed brilliantly. The entire valley instantly fell into complete dead silence.
No wind sound reached the ears. Even the shadows cast by sunlight on the ground froze in that moment, as though flowing time had reached its end. The momentum of Dai Hao's soul core, about to explode, was forcibly halted.
Raising his palm, he gently pressed it against the forehead of that massive tiger. In an instant, the tiger's enormous body seemed to lose all weight completely, as though every trace of color it had left in the world had been erased, leaving only a piece of decayed gray spreading from the head across the entire body.
The massive tiger dissipated. Dai Hao's figure slowly emerged, but like the tiger, he had completely lost all sound. Even the soul core in his body that had been on the verge of exploding had now fallen entirely into dead silence.
Within the valley, flowers swayed gently across the mountains and fields, as though welcoming another new soul on its journey to the Higanbana.
Dai Hao's consciousness had already sunk into complete chaos.
Did I succeed?
He himself did not know. He only felt as though he had walked for a very long time in a daze. The surroundings were utterly silent, filling his heart with unavoidable loneliness.
Memories from his life surged continuously into his mind. One familiar or unfamiliar face after another flashed before him. After a moment, he suddenly let out a soft sigh.
"I wonder how she and her child are doing now..."
Just as the memories kept surging forth, he suddenly felt a light breeze coming from somewhere unknown.
This breeze carried a trace of chill, making him feel slightly uncomfortable. But in this vast chaos, that single wisp of wind seemed to point out a direction for him.
After walking forward for who knows how long, a glimmer of light finally appeared ahead. The sun in the sky was not bright; instead, a strange gray. Yet upon careful feeling, that gray held a few degrees of warmth.
Before him was a desolate world, but it was not empty. One figure after another drifted by, as though busy with something.
Dai Hao's expression suddenly changed. "Zhang Biao, why are you here?"
However, the figure before him did not respond to his call.
Just as he prepared to reach out and grab it, another voice rose eerily from behind him.
"Don't bother. His cultivation was inferior to yours. Now his soul is incomplete; he can't remember much of his life anymore."
Dai Hao whipped his head around. Unbeknownst to him, a figure had appeared behind him at some point.
"Who are you? What is this place?"
"This place? This is the world belonging to the dead."
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