Book 3: Clear River in Turmoil - 97: Pursuit 2
At the center of the hall was a burning brazier. The whole room was lit up with the flickering light of the fire.
At the very front of the hall was a massive research workbench, elevated like it was an altar. On top of the workbench were all kinds of strange items.
The Spirit Race individual stood behind the research workbench, floating in midair like a ghost.
The Spirit Race were created from consciousnesses. Like Patelocke, they had no real physical body; they were pretty much beings made completely with energy.
Because they were lifeforms made from consciousnesses and were made of energy, they had chosen to maintain the same appearances as before they had been converted – they were exceptionally tall and had long limbs. His body was covered in strange inscriptions, and it was even possible to see his dark skin.
He floated calmly in midair, roughly half a meter off of the ground, with a cloak draped over his shoulders.
Su Chen thought to himself, “Ghosts don’t need to wear clothing. This means that he has likely kept the same habits as he had before he was converted, or perhaps he believes that it’s improper to be naked even as a ghost.”
The Spirit Race individual didn’t seem to be surprised by their arrival.
In reality, the Spirit Race were almost always calm and cool. They were used to being alone and preferred it. Their emotions had disappeared along with their body, making them like an old well that very rarely rippled.
Even if the sky were to collapse in front of him, he might not behave all that differently.
When she heard what the other party said, Ji Hanyan coldly harrumphed, “We’ve finally found you, you damn tunneling rat.”
Because of their solitary tendencies, the Spirit Race preferred to live in a place far away from other people. In addition, their race was accustomed to living underground, making it a natural home for them. As such, the Spirit Race were often referred to as rats that liked to live in tunnels.
Ji Hanyan’s words were not meant to earn favor, and she spoke ugly-sounding words right off the bat. Silence didn’t grow angry. All he said was, “Poisonous words won’t help you at all. It will only result in loss of the poise that you originally possessed.”
“But it makes me feel very good,” Ji Hanyan replied.
Silence shook his head gently. “Only by elevating your heart will you find real joy. My confused, sharp-tongued little lamb, it’d be better for you to find the direction you lost sooner rather than later.”
Killing intent flashed across Ji Hanyan’s eyes. “I’m not one of your lambs!”
As she spoke, she unleashed Frostbird White Ice Fist in his direction.
The force behind the punch didn’t seem that impressive. It was just a simple punch, but all of the power behind it had been compressed. The trail of ice followed along the trajectory of Ji Hanyan’s punch, spreading toward Silence.
This fist alone was enough to confirm that Ji Hanyan’s strength had increased greatly from before.
However, this powerful strike seemed to run into some kind of formless resistance when it got close to Silence. It came to a stop right before it reached Silence, and cracks appeared right in front of him like a dense spiderweb.
Some kind of invisible barrier had absorbed Ji Hanyan’s strike entirely.
When Su Chen saw this, he felt like it was quite similar to an Ancient Arcana Technique known as Crystal Wall.
Silence shook his head with a bit of regret. “You’re too reckless, young human. I was originally planning on having a conversation with you.”
“That’s fine. I wanted to talk with you too, but you should first obediently be bound!” Ji Hanyan unleashed another punch.
The Crystal Wall in front of Silence didn’t seem very powerful. If a single punch was enough to reduce it to this state, the next punch would definitely shatter it.
Boom!
The energy billowing from the fist did indeed shatter the Crystal Wall. Countless crystal shards flew through the air, glittering as they refracted the light that shone on them.
However, Ji Hanyan’s punch wasn’t able to wound the person she wanted to wound. The frigid blow passed right through Silence’s chest, but it couldn’t harm him at all, as if he didn’t actually exist in that spot.
“That looks like Nihility Body,” Su Chen thought to himself.
Silence was still unperturbed. “That might be very difficult for you to do. You are all too weak.”
“Weak?” When he heard this, An Siyuan could no longer remain calm.
He was still the Clear River City’s City Lord and a Light Shaking Realm expert, while his opponent was just a low-tier Spirit Race individual. How dare he look down on them with such scorn?
It was very easy to determine the social status of a Spirit Race individual. Because they were made from conversion and had given up their former statuses, they had no fathers or mothers. Their surnames were meaningless. Most Spirit Race individuals used names for symbolic reasons and only had one character in their names. Only high-status Spirit Race individuals would have complex names. This was the way to distinguish them from other Spirit Race individuals.
They only needed to hear his name to know what kind of status he had.
Low-status Spirit Race individuals had names with one character, while middle-status and high-status individuals had names with two and three characters, respectively. The leader of the race could have four, as well as a “crown title” in front of their name. For instance, the current leader of the Spirit Race was known as “Menelaus the Wise”.
Silence didn’t have a second character in his name, meaning he was a low-status Spirit Race individual.
Even though Spirit Race individuals were strong individually, they weren’t so strong that a low-status Spirit Race individual could totally overlook a Light Shaking Realm cultivator. Otherwise, the Spirit Race would’ve been invincible a long time ago.
For a low-status Spirit Race individual to ignore him like this, how could he not be enraged?
“Yes, weak!” Silence replied very sincerely.
He glanced at An Siyuan. “I can feel the stores of surging energy within your body. That energy is powerful enough to overturn the rivers and the seas. If you unleash an all-out attack, you can easily level this mountain.”
“As long as you know this.”
“But so what?” Silence smiled slightly. “Materialistic power is vain in the end. Only consciousness power is lasting. You humans are mired in the pursuit of materialistic power, but you’ll never understand the importance of having a powerful consciousness. You’ve lost your direction in your craving for material things and have made misstep after misstep in your advancement. No matter how much physical power you have, you’re just viewing things through rose-tinted glasses. It’s all just an illusion.”
“Lies!” Lu Qingguang barked angrily.
As he barked, a purplish-blackish wave of energy suddenly shot forward from him, soundlessly charging at his opponent.
Su Chen knew that this was probably the Ripple technique that Lu Qingguang was well-known for.
The ripple technique contained powerful vibrational frequencies. It could achieve tremendous jolting effects when used on an opponent. As such, its unique properties made it so that its initial attack power was only average, but could be layered multiple times to achieve incredible results. Because the effects were multiplicative, if he were given enough time, the power of his attacks would reach a staggeringly high level. In addition, he could use these kinds of shock attacks to attack any opponent. Even a Spirit Body wouldn’t be able to avoid this kind of attack.
Silence was a Spirit Race individual and had the Nihility Body Ancient Arcana Technique. Other skills might not be able to affect him much, but Ripple would definitely be effective against him.
Even so, this attack that logically should have been effective was like a rock tossed into a body of water after passing through Silence’s body. All it caused was some ripples, but it didn’t have any substantial effects.