“The Dance of the Succubi!” Up in the air above the thirty-ninth level was the spirit automaton of the damaged fan, in the form of a boy. He had been awake for a while now, but hadn’t interfered in any of the previous levels, worried that even increasing the difficulty level wouldn’t slow down the shameless Bai Xiaochun.
He had been waiting patiently for him to get to the thirty-ninth level, which he deemed the best place to gain a victory!
The thirty-ninth level tested the challenger’s determination!
There were many aspects to determination. For example, some people would be tempted by profit. Seeing precious materials of heaven and earth laid out in front of them would stir their desires on a deep level. Others could be affected by different temptations.
Only someone who had completely severed all of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures could possibly be unaffected by the thirty-ninth level.
The women Bai Xiaochun was seeing were only soul projections, given corporeal form by the Dao Essence of Life and Death. However, they had originally come from a very advanced civilization. After all, the void had not always been dark. Before the great catastrophe, there had been a matriarchal world ruled by a race called the Succubi!
The Succubi were invaders. After taking over another world, they would kill all the women and imprison all the men, whom they would then torment day and night. Before death, a male cultivator’s life force would be converted into a soul seed, which the Succubi would then use to propagate their own people.
Eventually the Succubus Queen arose, a Succubus who achieved unheard-of levels of power. With almost no effort, she could cause any living being to be attracted to her on an instinctive level!
In the thirty-ninth level, the final woman to appear would be veiled, revealing only her sensuous form. And she was… the Succubus Queen!
As soon as she appeared, Bai Xiaochun felt like he was about to go crazy. Not even his Breakup Pills could suppress the instincts within him.
When the spirit automaton saw Bai Xiaochun’s expression changing, he immediately got excited, and couldn’t wait to see how things played out. He had been waiting for this level for quite some time, and was looking forward very much the despair that was surely to come within it.
“If you fall into her hands a single time, I have my ways of making sure that it happens over and over again. You’ll be eternally entrapped by your own desires, and will only come to your senses in the moment before you are killed in body and soul!” The boy threw his head back and laughed uproariously. Considering the lesson he had learned with the Dark Concocters, he no longer took Bai Xiaochun lightly. Normally speaking, the Succubus Queen would never appear in this level. However, just to be safe, he had adjusted the difficulty to the highest degree. Even then, he had been a bit worried, and had spent a few extra months in slumber to be able to gather the power necessary to push the difficulty level beyond its previous limitations.
Because of that, even as Bai Xiaochun was struggling to control himself, the dancing women around him… all turned into Succubus Queens!!
The power that had drained his determination suddenly appeared a hundred times greater than before, and the pink mist writhed as a mysterious force assailed him.
His eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and he began to pant heavily. His heart pounded so hard it felt like it might explode from inside his chest. With what little control he still had left, he pulled out all of the Breakup Pills he had and stuffed them into his mouth. Only by doing that was he able to cool down the immense heat within.
“Heavens, this is just too hard!” He could almost immediately sense that these women were affecting his soul. The desires within him were like a steadily burning flame that never went out. If it had been a chaotic inferno, there might have been less to worry about, as raging flames are usually quickly extinguished. But this steadily burning fire only continued to build in intensity.
If he lost control, then he would lose his soul. And he shuddered to think about what would happen in that scenario. He almost considered teleporting out of the level, but then his expression flickered as he realized that the teleportation function wasn’t working!
“Dammit. It’s definitely that spirit automaton messing with things!” Although consuming all of the Breakup Pills had cooled him down for a moment, he was more nervous than ever.
“They’re affecting my soul…. This place is fundamentally illusory…. I'd say there’s a high likelihood these women are souls of some sort!” Considering that he was a heavenly necromancer, he was seventy percent certain that his assessment of the situation was correct.
“If they’re souls, then I have plenty of ways to deal with them!” He knew time was of the essence, so he quickly produced a Soul Convergence Pill from his bag of holding and threw it out.
A popping sound could be heard as it exploded, and although it had some effect on the surrounding souls, it wasn’t much. The Succubus Queens were pulled toward the convergence spot, but then their eyes glittered, and they used some mysterious power within their voices to negate the gravitational force!
That caused Bai Xiaochun’s heart to pound even harder, but at the same time, it confirmed his theory.
“They really are souls!” He bit his tongue hard to regain some lucidity, then fished through his bag of holding to produce a mask, the same treasured item that had kept his identity hidden during his time in the Wildlands. It also would make him invisible to souls in the area. That was the only thing he could think of to do in the moment.
As soon as he put the mask on, the Succubi stopped dancing, and looked over in confusion to the spot Bai Xiaochun had just occupied.
Feeling wonderful, he backed up. However, he knew that although he could hide from the women, he couldn’t hide from their power. At the moment, he had only bought himself a little bit of time.
Sure enough, the spirit automaton could see exactly what was going on. Drawing upon the power at his disposal, he quickly forced the Succubus Queens to start dancing again, which caused soul fluctuations to roll out in all directions.
“It’s too bad I don’t have time to concoct some pills,” Bai Xiaochun thought, “otherwise I could try to make a more powerful version of my Soul Convergence Pill. Although I don't even have enough ingredients anyway.” With that, he racked his brains trying to figure out a way to resolve the situation. Sadly, there were just too many limitations, and the level of difficulty was too high. No matter what ideas he came up with, they didn’t seem good enough.
As the Succubus Queens danced, he felt his soul stirring, and his heart slowly losing its calm. The heat inside him grew stronger, and soon, not even biting his tongue did anything to help.
“Dammit, I guess you have to fight the wicked with wickedness!! They’re just some sexy souls, right? If I have to, I can just call that old ghost out of the Greatsword of the North and let him deal with his own kind!” By this point, he was really out of ideas. Quickly pulling out the Greatsword of the North, he sent his divine sense inside and, in the blink of an eye, summoned the quasi-archaean ghost that had once existed on the flag on Ghostmother’s ship. When the ghost face appeared, he looked around in confusion.
“Hey old ghost….” Bai Xiaochun said. At first, he had assumed he would have to negotiate a bit with the ghost face. But before he could even begin talking, the ghost face shivered, and then his eyes began to shine with unprecedented brightness.
“Succubi!?!? Heavens. They’re actually Succubi! I can’t believe… they’re all Succubus Queens! This aura… this place has the aura of a Dao Essence!!” At this point, he trembled with incredible anticipation.
“It’s been a long, long time since I’ve enjoyed the flavor of Succubi!” The ghost face didn’t need any orders from Bai Xiaochun. Like a hungry wolf, he pounced on the nearest Succubus Queen.
Bai Xiaochun was completely stunned, but not as stunned as the spirit automaton was.