A silent, black flash had already arrived before Shi Nian. As a Soul Saint, his reaction was incredibly swift. Yet, at this moment, he no longer had time to dodge. Both his arms rose almost impossibly fast, his Soul Power condensing to an extreme. His left arm went slightly numb as the black flash embedded itself within it. Even the Soul Power he had desperately exploded outward at the cost of harming his own body failed to block it.
*Bang—*
Tang San, his entire body like a deflating ball, twisted in midair before crashing heavily to the ground, gasping for large gulps of air. The light in his eyes had returned to normal. One hand barely pushed his upper body up, while the other wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
Though he had blocked the black flash, Shi Nian's gaze was now completely vacant. He muttered, "No... impossible. You're just a Soul Ancestor who barely passed the fortieth level. How could you possibly break my seventh Soul Skill?"
Tang San looked at him coldly, then leaned against a large tree nearby to support himself as he struggled to his feet.
"In this world, nothing is impossible. You've lost."
"Hahahaha—" Shi Nian burst into wild laughter. "I've lost? At your young age, you certainly have a big mouth. I don't know how you saw through my seventh Soul Skill, Nightmare. But do you think that's enough to defeat me? How laughable. With my seventy-two levels of Soul Power, even without using any skills, there's no way you could break through my defenses or restrict me. Even if you broke my skill, the outcome won't change. However, before you die, I'll give you a chance. I'm curious—how did you break through my divine Nightmare Skill? Tell me, and I can make your death a bit quicker."
Leaning against the tree, Tang San replied, "You don't have the right to know. Better to die as a confused ghost. When Yama calls for your soul at the third watch, who dares keep you until the fifth? Goodbye—."
Shi Nian blinked in confusion, then his expression suddenly turned bizarre. His entire body went stiff, right arm rising to point at Tang San. He tried to speak, but not a single word came out. His eyes seemed ready to bulge from their sockets.
Tang San continued watching his opponent coldly, as if everything happening before him had been expected long ago.
With a soft *bang*, Shi Nian's body collapsed. Black blood flowed from his seven orifices. A strange, black hue had already permeated his entire form. The black blood spread across the ground, seeming to continuously hollow him out. Gradually, it spread from his skin inward to his bones, and Shi Nian's body simply dissipated into nothing within that darkness.
Did Shi Nian truly die inexplicably? No, of course not. Heaven is fair—luck is only a relative concept. He died at Tang San's hands, or rather, within Tang San's calculations.
As a seventy-two level Soul Saint, Shi Nian could never have imagined that Tang San's Purple Extreme Demon Eye was the natural nemesis of all illusions.
If it were the original Purple Extreme Demon Eye, it might not have been able to break through Shi Nian's seventh Soul Skill due to the vast gap in their Soul Power. However, Tang San's Purple Extreme Demon Eye, after consuming the Autumn Water Gazing Dew, was like a pair of fiery golden eyes. Forget the seventh Soul Skill—even the ninth Soul Skill, as long as it was an illusion, could not deceive his sight.
The moment Tang San sensed something was wrong, he had secretly activated his Purple Extreme Demon Eye to carefully observe everything around him. Shi Nian thought Tang San was trapped within the illusion, but in truth, Tang San had known his real location all along. He simply hadn't acted on it yet.
The Soul Power gap between the forty-first and seventy-second levels was simply too immense. Tang San knew that even escape would not be easy. Therefore, from the moment Shi Nian revealed himself to kill him, he had been creating an opportunity—one to deliver a fatal strike to his opponent. Tang San knew that would be his only chance to survive.
So he waited. Even enduring the painful torment of the illusion, he held back, until the moment Xiao Wu was about to be truly humiliated did he finally explode. Although that wasn't the optimal timing Tang San sought, at that point, he could endure no longer.
With Tang San's intelligence, would he not know that Blue Silver Grass covering his body offered no protection within an illusion? No, of course not. The use of his Blue Silver Grass was not to protect himself, but to obstruct Shi Nian's line of sight. While Shi Nian's view was blocked, Tang San drew something from his Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlit Night—the one thing that could possibly turn the tide.
The third-ranked hidden weapon of the Tang Sect's inner circle: the Soul-Seizing Yama's Invitation.
He did not choose a mechanical-type hidden weapon, nor did he choose the Mother-Child Soul-Chasing Gall he had crafted, which could cover a wide area. Because Tang San knew he would only have one chance. If he failed, given the Soul Power gap between them, even if his opponent didn't use the Nightmare Martial Soul, the one who died would be him. Besides the Yama's Invitation, Tang San could not think of any other weapon capable of breaking through his opponent's defenses.
He didn't even use any control-type Soul Skill to lock onto his opponent's body, because it wasn't necessary. First, Tang San simply didn't have the spare Soul Power to cast a skill. Second, did the Yama's Invitation require a lock? If it did, how could this hidden weapon possibly rank third in the Tang Sect? How could it be hailed as Yama's personal invitation?