"Is that so? Why me?"
Ye Ling smiled faintly at Jiu Yuan, his palm runes twisting and imprinting onto Jiu Yuan's heart, then spreading across his entire body.
Seeing himself covered in runes again, Jiu Yuan felt a surge of immense fear from the depths of his heart.
If it were before, he would naturally not fear any of Ye Ling's methods. After all, his strength and cultivation level were there, and he could easily break through all of Ye Ling's attacks.
But now it was different. He had just self-destructed and was in an unprecedented state of weakness. Now that Ye Ling had taken advantage of his vulnerability, he had no means of counteracting him!
"You despicable fellow, do you only know how to sneak attack?"
Jiu Yuan cursed Ye Ling angrily, while simultaneously circulating his spiritual energy at full speed, constantly clearing the runes from his body.
However, the speed at which the runes were growing was clearly faster than Jiu Yuan's ability to clear them. No matter how hard Jiu Yuan tried, more and more runes covered his body and soul!
Ye Ling knew that this sneak attack was a great opportunity to create an advantage for himself, and he did not relax at all. He continued to increase his spiritual energy input, attempting to defeat Jiu Yuan completely in one blow!
"Ye Ling, I warn you, if you stop now, I might spare you. Otherwise... I will definitely make you wish you were dead!"
"You're already like this, you should talk less and accept reality frankly," Ye Ling said to Jiu Yuan. "We are mortal enemies, life and death. There's no chivalry between us... If I can't kill you this time, then you'll kill me."
"Jiu Yuan, I am prepared for this. As one of the Seven Pillars, you shouldn't still be holding onto a glimmer of hope, should you?"
"You scoundrel! You forced my hand!"
Upon hearing Ye Ling's words, Jiu Yuan realized that Ye Ling would not stop. He could only burn his life essence again and repeat his previous tactic.
"You're still thinking of self-destructing!"
Ye Ling sensed the flow of spiritual energy within Jiu Yuan and a hint of amusement flashed in his eyes. He immediately transformed the runes he had imprinted on Jiu Yuan's body into Mo Zhi Jian, turning Jiu Yuan's life essence into text, thereby preventing Jiu Yuan's self-destruction.
"Damn it!"
Seeing his burning life essence extinguished, Jiu Yuan's expression grew even more grim. Finally, he gritted his teeth, released his soul power, and attacked Ye Ling's soul, attempting to scatter Ye Ling's spirit and escape.
He was currently bound by the runes and could not exert any power. Only after he got rid of the runes within his body would he have a chance to counterattack.
However, Jiu Yuan had clearly forgotten that Ye Ling possessed the power of the Primordial Soul King.
Ye Ling was currently the least afraid of soul-level attacks!
Before Jiu Yuan's soul power could even touch Ye Ling's soul, it was entangled by invisible chains and could no longer move!
A large number of runes took the opportunity to invade Jiu Yuan's soul, and then the runes transformed into Mo Zhi Jian, turning Jiu Yuan's soul into text.
"You brat..."
At this moment, fear finally appeared in Jiu Yuan's eyes.
It was only when his cultivation level dropped to be similar to Ye Ling's that he truly understood why Ye Ling was rated as a catastrophic threat by the organization, and why the organization believed that if Ye Ling grew... he would be enough to threaten the organization's very survival!
The endless methods Ye Ling possessed made him invincible among peers, leaving no room for his opponents to survive.
The pressure Ye Ling was exerting on Jiu Yuan at this moment made Jiu Yuan deeply feel despair!
Ye Ling also clearly sensed Jiu Yuan's emotional change, but he did not let his guard down. He continued to modify Jiu Yuan's body and soul with runes, while using the Devouring Domain to disintegrate Jiu Yuan's power and prevent him from using any other trump cards.
After all, Jiu Yuan was one of the Seven Pillars on the side of the watchers. A starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Even if Ye Ling could be considered a spirited horse, he had to go all out!
Although it appeared that Ye Ling had completely suppressed Jiu Yuan, with even the slightest carelessness, Jiu Yuan could very well make a comeback.
Thus, in the standoff between the two, Jiu Yuan gradually gave up his resistance, and Ye Ling gradually transformed Jiu Yuan completely with Mo Zhi Jian.
Seeing that Jiu Yuan had completely turned into text, Ye Ling breathed a sigh of relief. After modifying a few sentences in Jiu Yuan's attributes, he immediately looked up the method to travel to the Primordial Flame Domain.
After obtaining the information he wanted, Ye Ling began to activate the Devouring Domain, starting to disintegrate Jiu Yuan's power and convert it into his own, while also further probing Jiu Yuan's memories to learn the truth about the watchers.
All of this seemed to be going quite smoothly.
However, just as Ye Ling absorbed nearly half of Jiu Yuan's power and was about to reach the depths of Jiu Yuan's consciousness, the text surrounding Jiu Yuan suddenly began to vibrate violently. Then, every single character, including those modified by Ye Ling, turned a blood-red color, and each character transformed into the word "Death"!
"This, this is?"
Seeing the text modified by Mo Zhi Jian mutate, Ye Ling's eyes were filled with immense shock, and a sense of foreboding immediately surged in his heart.
The next moment, an ominous aura emanated from Jiu Yuan's body. The runes Ye Ling had attached to Jiu Yuan's body, including the operating Mo Zhi Jian and the Devouring Domain, all collapsed!
"What happened?"
Ye Ling had never witnessed such a thing before, but his rationality was frantically telling him that it was best not to approach Jiu Yuan at this moment.
Without any hesitation, Ye Ling let go of Jiu Yuan, withdrew his power, and retreated to a distance!
Boom!!!
An extremely bizarre aura erupted from Jiu Yuan's body. The text that formed his entire body at this moment turned into a string of meaningless garbled code!
Even the space around Jiu Yuan was affected by the garbled code. It was first transformed into text, and then polluted by the garbled code on Jiu Yuan, turning into chaotic characters that Ye Ling could not comprehend.
"Did I... accidentally touch some kind of switch?"
Seeing Jiu Yuan's current state, Ye Ling subconsciously swallowed and a fine sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead.
At this moment, Jiu Yuan was like someone who had mastered an out-of-control Mo Zhi Jian.
As Ye Ling was in shock, the range of Jiu Yuan's influence on the surrounding space expanded dozens of times, and it was about to affect Ye Ling.
Although Ye Ling could not comprehend the chaotic characters, he could feel their ominous nature and began to retreat continuously, moving away from Jiu Yuan.
"Ye Ling!!!"
Jiu Yuan suddenly opened his mouth and let out a hoarse cry. The chaotic characters swirling around him began to vibrate violently.
The next moment, Jiu Yuan's face, which had turned into garbled code, suddenly broke into a grin, and then his entire body transformed into a dark red beam of light, charging towards Ye Ling!