The Wind Wolf Soul King darted toward the dense forest to one side like a bolt of blue-green lightning, trying to draw the Great Blade Soul Emperor away. Huang Yan, the Great Blade Soul Emperor, snorted and pursued him with long strides. The two were locked in combat in an instant, the thunder of colliding soul skills carrying far into the distance.
Only Dai Youheng, stunned and furious, and Huang Heyun, advancing step by step with murderous intent, remained at the scene.
"Huang Heyun, you must have misunderstood! I have no idea what happened last night!" Dai Youheng was still trying to explain as he released his Evil Shadow Demon Tiger martial soul. Three soul rings-two yellow and one purple-rose around him as he took a defensive stance.
"Misunderstood? Still refusing to admit it!" Huang Heyun completely lost his patience. With Martial Soul Possession, his Dark Demon Tiger unleashed a savage surge of darkness. "Since you've forgotten, I'll help refresh your memory!"
A Soul King against a Soul Elder-the result was a crushing defeat without a shred of suspense.
Their martial souls were comparable in quality: the Dark Demon Tiger and the Evil Shadow Demon Tiger were both top-tier dark-type beast martial souls.
But the enormous gap in soul power level was impossible to bridge. Huang Heyun did not even use a soul skill. Relying solely on the tremendous strength and speed granted by possession, he toyed with Dai Youheng like a cat with a mouse, breaking through his defenses with a few punches and knocking him viciously to the ground.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Huang Heyun kicked Dai Youheng hard in the chest and abdomen, again and again. Finally, he ground his sole against the side of Dai Youheng's face, stamping his head into the dirt, just as "he" had done to him last night.
"Aaah!" Dai Youheng screamed in agony. An unknown number of his ribs had broken, his nose had caved in, and blood and mud smeared his face. He was a miserable sight.
"Trash! Simp! You think you can threaten me? You think you're worthy of coveting Princess Jiujiu?" Huang Heyun cursed as he trampled him, venting the humiliation and rage in his heart. Finally, he brought his foot down with a vicious stomp. With a crack of bone, he snapped Dai Youheng's right arm!
The excruciating pain nearly made Dai Youheng pass out.
Having vented his anger, Huang Heyun looked at Dai Youheng curled up on the ground, moaning like a dying dog. Most of the resentment in his heart had finally dissipated.
He snorted and left him with a warning. "This was just the interest! If I catch you pestering Princess Jiujiu in Star Luo City again, it won't be your arm that gets broken next time!"
With that, he bounded away and vanished into the wilderness.
He had probably gone to find Huang Yan, the Great Blade Soul Emperor. After all, he had not truly intended to kill Dai Youheng. Having Dai Youheng's guard come to rescue him would be enough to keep him alive.
In fact, the other Dai Youheng had anticipated all of this, whether it was the Soul King and Soul Emperor taking their fight elsewhere or Huang Heyun beating the simp Youheng without killing him.
Now, he was merely waiting for the right moment to make his entrance.
A moment like this, for instance, when only the grievously wounded simp Youheng remained in the wilderness, lying immobile on the cold ground and moaning in pain.
"B-Bastard..." The simp Youheng spat bloody foam, his eyes filled with hatred and defiance. "Huang Heyun, just you wait. Once Yuhao... once Yuhao grows stronger! He'll avenge me."
Even now, his only hope was still that younger brother who could become a god in the future.
Just then, a cold voice dripping with mockery abruptly sounded nearby. "Even in this state, you're still dreaming of having someone else avenge you? What an... utterly hopeless piece of trash."
The simp Youheng stiffened, then turned his head with difficulty. At the sight before him, his pupils contracted sharply, and his face twisted with a terror far greater than when Huang Heyun had beaten him!
What had he seen?
Another version of himself?
Another him, dressed in black, with a cold, sinister air and eyes as sharp as blades, slowly emerged from behind the rock face and walked toward him.
"Y-You... who are you?" The simp Youheng's voice shook violently with shock and fear. He seemed to have momentarily forgotten even the agonizing pain wracking his body.
Dai Youheng stopped in front of him and gazed down at him from above, his eyes indifferent, as though looking at an ant.
"I'm Dai Youheng," he said flatly. "In other words, I'm another you. As a fellow transmigrator, surely you've heard of heteromorphic counterparts?"
"Heteromorphic... counterparts?" The simp Youheng felt as though lightning had struck him. Of course he knew what that term meant! Different individuals who shared the standing of the same "existence"-their fortune, identity, and even... their very presence! They were mortal enemies who absolutely could not coexist!
"Ever since I arrived in this world, I've clearly sensed your existence," Dai Youheng continued coldly. "And not a moment has passed without me thinking about how to devour you and make myself whole. By rights, you should have had some faint awareness of me as well. Unfortunately..."
His lips curled into a smile of utter contempt. "Your heart, your soul, everything about you has long since been filled by that woman, Xu Jiujiu. How could there be room for anything else? You've become so laughably oblivious that you couldn't even sense a threat to your own existence."
"I... I..." The simp Youheng opened his mouth. He wanted to beg for mercy, to defend himself, but overwhelming terror and cold reality clenched his throat. He understood that when heteromorphic counterparts met, only one could survive.
"For the sake of that face, I'll give you one last chance." Dai Youheng's voice betrayed no emotion. "Do you have any unfulfilled wishes?"
A final glimmer of light suddenly flared in the simp Youheng's eyes. Using almost every last ounce of his strength, he cried hoarsely, "Help... help me win Jiujiu's heart! Tell her that I truly... love her..."
Even in the final moments of his life, all he could think about was the unattainable moonlight of his dreams.
At those words, the last trace of any subtle kinship Dai Youheng might have felt toward a fellow transmigrator vanished completely from his eyes, leaving only pure coldness and disgust.
"You... really are beyond saving." He slowly raised his hand. Extreme cold began gathering in his palm, and even the surrounding air seemed about to freeze. "Unfortunately, I only asked what your wishes were. I never promised to fulfill them."
"Take your resentment and stupidity with you, and disappear forever."
As his words fell, his palm struck the simp's chest without mercy, carrying the Snow Empress's supreme art and the essence of Great Cold Without Snow, wrapped in the Fate-Reversing Heavenly Demon Pill's power of extreme frost!
"Pfft!"
There was no violent crash, only a faint, muffled sound like ice crystals shattering.
The simp Youheng's eyes instantly widened to their utmost, filled with disbelief, terror, and, finally, a frozen obsession with Xu Jiujiu.
Suddenly remembering something, he rallied as though in a final flicker of life and spoke his last words. "Take my identity and look after my mother and my younger brother, Luo Li. Please!"
In the end, he at least
had a little conscience left and finally remembered his family.
"That, I can promise!" Dai Youheng said. He had intended to use the simp's identity anyway.
With those words spoken, the simp's heart was completely shattered and frozen by ultimate ice in an instant, his life extinguished at once.
Just as he breathed his last...!
Before you continue