Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 296: Spirit Seal

“Relax,” Helian Hu indifferently replied, stepping into the ring.

Tang Jie patted Cai Junyang on the back. “Remember what I told you.”

“Relax,” Cai Junyang laughed. He strode onto the stage.

Once they were in the ring, Helian Hu stared at Cai Junyang and grinned. “Kid, since you’ve been matched against me, Helian Hu, don’t even think about running!”

Three fiend tigers appeared behind him—none other than his three lower-grade Mind Opening refined beasts.

These fiends were above Cai Junyang’s level, and there were three of them. Perhaps Helian Hu only needed to send out a single fiend tiger to eliminate Cai Junyang. This was just how big the difference in strength was.

But Cai Junyang didn’t care. He took out his big sword and sent a wave of sword light at Helian Hu.

Surprisingly, he didn’t use the 19 Star Sword.

This took Helian Hu by surprise. Even so, he swiftly cast a spiritual energy barrier, at the same time ordering his three beasts to attack Cai Junyang from separate directions. He was in no rush to attack, instead choosing to surround Cai Junyang and cut off his path of retreat.

Cai Junyang didn’t care at all, continuing to swing his sword at Helian Hu. Though Helian Hu was in Mortal Shedding, the flaw of the Myriad Beast Union Mantra was that controlling refined beasts used up spiritual energy and mental energy. Controlling these three refined beasts took up at least thirty percent of his energy, greatly decreasing his strength.

Glancing at Cai Junyang’s rapid attacks, Helian Hu grunted. His left hand didn’t move, only three of its fingers slightly twitching as if they were pulling on strings, but his right fist made a swinging punch, creating a savage gale.

This gale was aimed straight at Cai Junyang’s greatsword, and it was so powerful that it managed to bounce it back. Helian Hu laughed and said, “Even if I don’t use my refined beasts, you will still lose! White Tiger Heart Scooping Fist!”

He really was electing to not use his three refined tigers, only fighting Cai Junyang with his own strength.

Even Peng Yaolong’s face darkened at this sight. “This Helian Hu… is truly quite powerful.”

“Great Brother, what would happen if you fought him?” a student untactfully asked.

But Peng Yaolong thought it over very seriously before saying, “I would definitely lose, but before losing, I would kill at least two of his refined tigers, making him pay a grievous price. As for Junyang…”

He sighed, shook his head, and started to worry over Cai Junyang’s fate.

But Tang Jie smiled. “Great Brother, don’t underestimate Junyang. There’s no harm in continuing to watch.”

As he spoke, Cai Junyang, who was being pressed hard by Helian Hu’s White Tiger Heart Scooping Fist, suddenly roared, “Don’t think you’re all that, Helian Hu! Watch my sword!”

His sword erupted with starlight.

Brilliant and enchanting resplendence filled the stage.

The 19 Star Sword!

The various stars took aim at Helian Hu’s face, each one threatening to take his life.

Unlike Tang Jie, Cai Junyang only knew the 19 Star Sword, so that was the sole focus of his practice.

His understanding of this sword art was engraved in his bones.

The surging torrent of starlight left Helian Hu feeling slightly threatened, and so he closed his left hand and shouted, “Return!”

The three unmoving refined tigers suddenly leaped into the air, lunging at Cai Junyang, their claws flashing with a crimson light.

The Celestial Heart Tiger Claw!

This was the innate spell art of these three fiend tigers, and under Helian Hu’s control, they used this spell art in unison. This wasn’t some combination spell art, but with all three tigers using it in unison, it was still extremely powerful.

But this was only the beginning. As the three tigers got closer, their tails began to flash with halos of spiritual energy.

The Tigerchain Tail!

This was to prevent Cai Junyang from escaping.

Balls of energy also began to gather in their mouths. This was a sign that they were readying long-range spell arts to give chase.

Three tigers and nine spells, creating level upon level of suppression. This was the most common strategy Helian Hu employed.

And even he wasn’t just standing idle.

While his left hand was busy controlling the three tigers, his right hand threw out a talisman.

Heaven-Earth Jail!

This sealed off the entire arena as another measure to prevent Cai Junyang from escaping.

After throwing out the talisman, Helian Hu extracted a foot-long knife from his Mustard Seed Bag.

The Skinflayer Knife!

Helian Hu swung the knife at Cai Junyang, releasing a dazzling wave of energy.

Despite the number of actions, Helian Hu finished it all in a split second.

In this split second, Cai Junyang did only one thing.

He put away his sword.

He then took out an item from his Mustard Seed Bag.

A talisman.

A talisman that could only be used once in the fight, and one that Tang Jie had given to him.

Cai Junyang thrust this talisman at the ground. “Rise!”

Light erupted from the center of the stage and proceeded to engulf the area.

In this wave of light, Helian Hu swayed, and his sharp knife had its momentum stopped cold. At the same time, those lunging fiend tigers fell from the sky, and they raised their heads and let out roars of shock. All the attacks had been instantly neutralized.

“This is…” Everyone was stunned.

“The Spirit Seal Talisman Formation,” Ming Yekong muttered.

“It’s the Spirit Seal Talisman Formation!” Experienced Spirit Masters of the six major sects also recognized this spell, and they shot Cai Junyang weird looks. How did this kid think of such a thing, and to use it at such a perfect moment? With one strike, he had gotten at Helian Hu’s weakness.

A talisman formation was a high-level usage of talismans, getting the effect of a formation through the use of a talisman. And the effect of the Spirit Seal Talisman Formation was to seal the surrounding spiritual energy and render the area void of spirit.

In a spiritual vacuum, it became very difficult to cast spell arts.

But the ones most affected were those at the Mortal Shedding Realm.

The greatest difference between Mortal Shedding and Spirit Platform was the Heaven-Earth Bridge of the Mortal Shedding Realm that allowed for the usage of the world’s spiritual energy when casting spells. Meanwhile, those of the Spirit Platform Realm had to consume their own spiritual energy.

These two were completely different.

But what if the surroundings were devoid of spiritual energy?

Then Mortal Shedding and Spirit Platform weren’t different at all, because there was no worldly spiritual energy to borrow.

Of course, this alone still left a Spirit Platform expert with no chance of dealing with a Mortal Shedding expert, for the Spirit Seal Formation had no binding power. The cultivator only needed to leave the region to start casting spells again.

But where on this stage was Helian Hu going to go?

And this wasn’t all.

If it were just that spiritual energy had been sealed, Cai Junyang still wouldn’t be a match for Helian Hu. After all, even if a Mortal Shedding Realm expert didn’t borrow worldly spiritual energy, they could still store more spiritual energy in their body than a Spirit Sea student could.

The problem was that the refined beasts of the Beast Refining Gate required spiritual energy in order to control, and only then could the refined beasts work with their master. This was also why they would even go so far as to wipe the intelligence of the fiends when capturing them, so that they would completely obey the commands they were given.

This control required invisible spiritual threads, and with spiritual energy sealed, these threads were severed.

This was also why those three fiend tigers had dropped to the ground once Cai Junyang had used the talisman: they had gone out of control.

Helian Hu managed to react quickly, immediately linking with the three tigers and taking back control, or else those three beasts might have turned against him. But in this spiritual void, he could only rely on his own spiritual energy to control them. As his spiritual energy flowed out of his body into the three refined tigers, Helian Hu immediately knew that he was in trouble.

He glared at Cai Junyang. “You!”

Cai Junyang chuckled. Not only did he stop attacking, he fell back and began to put up a wall of sword light, going completely on the defensive.

Helian Hu instantly knew what he was trying. These three refined beasts were consuming his spiritual energy with every passing second, and once his spiritual energy ran out, Helian Hu wouldn’t be able to keep fighting. But he also couldn’t release the tigers. Just as Tang Jie had said, he barely had control over the three, and loosening his control even a little would cause them to rebel.

What should have been his greatest fighting force had now become his biggest problem.

In truth, he had another choice. He could call back one or two of his refined beasts. But when he was about to call them back, he found that he couldn’t. His refined beast token was covered in spiritual threads, a spiderweb that had completely sealed the token.

The Lesser Sea Massing Wave Mantra!

This was the unique effect of the Lesser Sea Massing Wave Mantra. It could thicken the air and make it difficult to move.

When Cai Junyang had been waving his sword around and not using the 19 Star Sword, he had actually been secretly using the Lesser Sea Massing Wave Mantra, but rather than targeting the surrounding air, he had taken aim at Helian Hu’s refined beast token. As a result, Helian Hu hadn’t noticed anything.

And when he finally did, Cai Junyang had already tightly sealed it up.

If Helian Hu were given time, he could break apart this condensed spiritual energy, but Cai Junyang clearly wouldn’t give him this chance. Helian Hu realized that everything had been planned out, and his only option now was to defeat Cai Junyang before his spiritual energy ran out!

Helian Hu roared and then pointed at Cai Junyang. “Go!”

The three refined tigers lunged.

As for Helian Hu, he didn’t dare to make his own attacks anymore. He needed to save all his spiritual energy for controlling the three tigers.

Cai Junyang was just about to face down the three tigers, knowing that this would decide the outcome of this battle. At this moment, Tang Jie shouted, “Fall back into the corner!”

Cai Junyang was startled at first, but he instinctively trusted Tang Jie and still did as he was told, retreating to a corner of the stage.

He was concerned that if the three refined tigers collided into him there, they might just knock him off the stage. But to his surprise, when he arrived at the corner, he found that there was what seemed like a solid wall supporting his back.

But after his surprise had passed, he realized that this was the Heaven-Earth Jail that Helian Hu had used.

Cai Junyang’s Spirit Seal Talisman Formation used the ring as its boundary line and only sealed spiritual energy within the ring. And Helian Hu’s Heaven-Earth Jail used the same boundary, solidifying spiritual energy along the edge of the ring to prevent escape, so it was also unaffected.

With his back against the jail and standing in the corner, he now had an advantage in terrain. The three tigers could not attack him at the same time. There was only space for two at most to attack him.

Cai Junyang cast a barrier and then began to make sweeping swings with his sword, blocking left and right, putting up a tough resistance with no care for how much spiritual energy he used. In any case, no matter how quickly he used up his spiritual energy, he couldn’t possibly match the speed at which the three refined beasts were draining Helian Hu.

Helian Hu started to grow frantic. He hadn’t expected his Heaven-Earth Jail to be used like this. One of the refined tigers couldn’t squeeze its way into the corner, and though the other two tigers were giving Cai Junyang a good beating, this guy had clearly come prepared and was defending with all he had, making it difficult to take his life. And all this time, Helian Hu’s spiritual energy was flooding out of his body.

Growing worried, Helian Hu had the lone refined tiger take a few steps back, where it began to gather energy in its mouth, clearly in preparation to strike with a long-range spell. The fiend tigers had their own spirit power, and Helian Hu didn’t need to conserve it.

Just when he was about to strike, Tang Jie shouted, “Use Shore-Crashing Hand on Helian!”

Cai Junyang immediately used the Shore-Crashing Hand on Helian Hu, thrusting out his left hand.

Helian Hu had never anticipated a counterattack from Cai Junyang at a moment like this. To save spiritual energy, he had not cast the slightest defensive spell art on himself. Fortunately, he reacted quickly, and the free fiend tiger was able to block the blow. But this also canceled the fiend tiger’s long-range spell.

“Keep going! Keep attacking him!” Tang Jie shouted.

Cai Junyang used the Shore-Crashing Hand with one hand to attack Helian Hu while his sword in the other blocked the attacks of the refined tigers. His body flashed with rainbow light, and when his barrier shattered, he simply cast another.

Helian Hu had no recourse against the Shore-Crashing Hand, so he could only cast a defensive spell on himself.

This was exactly what Tang Jie wanted to see.

He wanted to accelerate Helian Hu’s spiritual energy consumption.

In terms of strength, Helian Hu was far stronger than Cai Junyang, but in terms of consumption, Cai Junyang used much less than Helian Hu.

This battle was a contest of who would run out of spiritual energy first.

Thus, ten Shore-Crashing Hands from Cai Junyang for one barrier was a very worthwhile trade.

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Helian Hu clearly realized this. Cai Junyang’s Shore-Crashing Hands forced him to use spells to dodge or defend, consuming his limited spiritual energy.

“Shameless! Despicable!” Helian Hu was disgusted and infuriated by these tactics, angrily roaring. His eyes glinted with a harsh light. “You want to use up my spiritual energy? Then I’ll use it up for you! Life or death will be decided with this one blow!”

He threw his head back and howled, raising the Skinflayer Knife high into the air and unleashing a blinding light from it.

“Flay the earth and weave the heavens into clothes! Heavenly Garment Knife!”

With a roar from Helian Hu, the Skinflayer Knife slashed at Cai Junyang.

Even the spectating Spirit Masters paled at this move. Helian Hu had clearly cast all apprehensions aside and put all his power into the move.

The outcome of the battle would be decided by this strike.

At this moment, Tang Jie’s vexing voice rang out: “Cover your head and squat down!”

Cai Junyang hastily squatted down.

The two refined tigers saw a chance and instinctively lunged at Cai Junyang.

The sharp teeth broke through the barrier and bit into Cai Junyang’s back, tearing away a large chunk of his flesh.

But this also meant that Helian Hu had lost his target.

“No!” He angrily roared.

What was he going to do with this attack into which he had gathered all his power?

He didn’t have time to call back his refined tigers.

His eyes glinted with savagery.

He could catch another refined tiger, but losing this battle would utterly humiliate him.

After a moment of hesitation, he continued to swing down his knife.

He first cut through the refined tigers, creating an explosion of flesh and blood.

As the tigers miserably howled, the power of the knife cut into Cai Junyang’s body.

“Go all-out!” a voice exploded, resounding through the audience.

There was a burst of starlight, sword energy meeting saber energy in a flashing rainbow light show.