“I made you lower your guard by exploiting my dying state.” Fluttering Baldie was proud of his deception. “You can be glad you haven’t lived in vain. It’s your honor to have a soul as intelligent as mine occupying your body.”
Zu An sighed. “You should be the one feeling flattered. You’re going to use my body to approach Miss Firework, aren’t you?”
Fluttering Baldie’s face reddened at having his thoughts exposed. “Miss Firework is fond of you. It’ll be easier for me to get close to her with your body.”
Zu An scoffed, “Do you think Miss Firework truly likes me?”
“Is that not the case?”
“You clearly don’t know women.”
Those words enraged Fluttering Baldie. “Hmph, the barks of a loser! Once I take over your body, I’ll be able to hold her openly.” He morphed into a shadow and lurched toward Zu An.
Clang!
The deep reverberation of a bell echoed. A purple-gold alms bowl appeared above Zu An, emitting a golden dharmic note that cleansed the dark shadow.
Fluttering Baldie snorted, “Using such a mediocre trick against me?”
The shadow rapidly expanded until it covered the alms bowl. The golden light dimmed as if corrupted, and the reverberating dharmic note gradually faded into silence.
Crk crk crk...
Cracks appeared on the alms bowl until it shattered into dust. Zu An’s treasure was nowhere enough to withstand Fluttering Baldie’s powerful soul energy.
The shadow morphed into a fearsome storm cloud that seemed to herald a devastating tornado. Zu An looked small and insignificant before the storm, and it felt as if it would only take a whiff for him to be devoured whole.
Just then, a woman in a red dress manifested beside Zu An.
“Huh. How did you get involved with such a powerful enemy?” The woman was none other than Mi Li. She'd been awoken by Fluttering Baldie’s powerful soul pulsations.
Zu An smiled. “You appeared at a good time. That fellow wants to possess me.”
“He wants to possess you?” Mi Li’s gaze turned cold. Her soul was bound to Zu An’s, which meant that she would die if Zu An’s soul was possessed.
“Oh? It’s a rare twin soul—a man and a woman on top of that! That explains how you were able to disguise as Miss Firework so convincingly. It’s going to be a feast for me!” The wind transformed into a demonic face that greedily lunged at the duo.
Mi Li stood still before the approaching demonic face. Meanwhile, Zu An sweated profusely, to the point where he couldn’t hold himself back from making a move anymore.
Just then, Mi Li pursed her lips and made the gentlest suction sound, as if taking a sip of tea.
The ferocious demonic face warped in fright. “This stature! It can’t be...”
He desperately retreated, but where could he escape to? The shadow swiftly flew into Mi Li’s mouth, and even the demonic face began trembling intensely.
A pair of hands grew out of the face and attempted to claw forward as if to grab onto something. But no matter what he did, he couldn’t escape the fate of being devoured by Mi Li.
In the blink of an eye, Mi Li had already consumed everything. She let out a burp. “Not too bad.”
Zu An was stunned.
This was beyond his imagination. He'd thought there would be an intense battle, but Mi Li had easily devoured Fluttering Baldie’s soul as if it were nothing at all. “My beautiful master, shouldn’t you explain things to me?”
“It would have been hard for me to deal with him if he was in his normal state, but he happened to be a soul entity. Whether a possession succeeds or not depends on the rank and not the volume of the soul. He was weaker than me, so his only fate was to be consumed,” Mi Li replied.
Zu An asked, “What does the ‘stature’ he mentioned earlier mean?”
“It refers to how high one stands. To explain it in your words, it's similar to the concept of dimensions. A higher dimension being is bound to crush a lower dimension being. His stature was lower than mine, so he was unable to hurt me, but I could easily hurt him.” Mi Li yawned. “I’m going to take a nap and digest his soul energy.”
She went back to sleep.
Zu An was speechless. I feel as if she’s hiding something from me, but I can’t force her if she doesn’t want to speak.
When he opened his eyes once more, he was faced with Firework’s anxious expression. She asked, “Big brother, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Zu An replied.
He immediately noticed the massive trove of knowledge in his mind, containing information about languages across the Myriad Worlds. He now grasped all the languages Fluttering Baldie had devoted his life to studying.
“It’s all my fault. I didn’t expect that damned baldie to be this cunning!” All of a sudden, Firework coldly eyed Zu An. “Hold on. Are you that damned baldie?”
Zu An laughed. “Don’t worry. He did try to possess my body, but failed.”
“Are you sure?” Firework remained skeptical.
“Of course I am.”
Firework pondered for a while before finally smiling once more. “Your eyes are still as pure and innocent as before. Alright, I believe you aren’t that damned baldie.”
Zu An was stunned, but he wasn’t in the mood to bicker with Firework. Perhaps it was due to the earlier possession attempt or the flood of information in his mind, but he was feeling incredibly weak. What the hell? Mi Li was nourished by Fluttering Baldie’s soul, but somehow I’m feeling exhausted.
Even so, there was no time for him to dwell on that. There was an abrupt spatial warp, and Fire Knight appeared at the entrance on his wheelchair, saying, “I’ve finally found you two.”
With a wave of his hand, he unleashed fire arrows, destroying all the escape pods.
Zu An used his final sliver of strength to pull Firework out of her escape pod, lest she get taken out in an explosion.
“It’s all that baldie’s fault!” Firework cursed. If not for him, we would have been gone by now! She whispered to Zu An. “Reach into my clothes. I have two larger firecrackers in there. Find a chance to hurl them at that bastard. We’ll drag him down to hell with us!”
Zu An was speechless.
“You want to drag me down? Don’t even think about it!” Fire Knight harrumphed as he hurled two fire chains at the duo. Zu An and Firework felt their bodies being weighed down, preventing them from making the slightest move.
Firework’s expression collapsed into despair. Zu An frowned contemplatively.
Fire Knight was about to drag his two captives back when he suddenly turned around and shouted, “Who is it?”
Zu An and Firework looked over. Another wormhole-like entrance appeared on the wall, and a woman dressed in white walked out.
Zu An was stunned. “Xuehen?”