Chapter 933: A Thousand Ghost Claws

"I did not expect that upon meeting again, you would not only be able to see my true body, but that your strength would also be several times what it used to be."

Driven back, the dark silhouette wavered and revealed its form.

That face, once all too familiar to Qin Sang, told him who it was. It was the missing yaksha.

Yet the voice that came from its mouth sounded unfamiliar, hoarse and low, each word forced out with effort, as if it had not spoken for a very long time.

The yaksha had once possessed no independent consciousness. It had worn a blank expression and obeyed its master’s orders, every movement shrouded in bloodshed and slaughter.

Now it had changed. Corpse qi still rolled from its body, marking it unmistakably a refined corpse, but its expression had become far more vivid. Black pupils turned slightly as it fixed a strange gaze on Qin Sang. It looked like a living man.

Qin Sang’s pupils narrowed. He knew this ghostly creature must have birthed intelligence, but he had not expected it to be so complete, no different from an ordinary person.

Had it always been so, or had the yaksha’s memories not yet fully vanished and been fused into the ghostly creature?

What shocked Qin Sang even more was that, before it had been taken, the yaksha’s cultivation had only been equivalent to the early stage of the Core Formation Realm. In that brief clash just now, the strength it displayed had not been weaker than his.

"Who are you?" Qin Sang asked coldly. His hands, however, did not hesitate. He beckoned the ebony sword back, flicked his fingers lightly, and sent it whirling.

The ebony sword spun sharply in mid-air. Sword qi and sword light erupted in torrents and merged into a dazzling sword wheel that instantly wiped out the drifting bone dust.

The descending sword wheel blanketed the eight directions and pressed down to suppress the yaksha.

Toward the ghostly creature that had taken the yaksha, Qin Sang showed no mercy. He had resolved to kill the opponent quickly before it could prepare or let complications arise.

A hint of confusion crossed the yaksha’s face. In a faint voice it said, "Yes... Who am I... I do not remember. In my former name... There seemed to be a Bai character. Why not call me Bai."

As he answered Qin Sang, the sword wheel bloomed to the extreme like a splendid flower.

There was not the slightest fear in Bai’s eyes. He raised his head a fraction to look at the sword wheel, then reached out with a ghostly hand. Slow and yet swift, his hand suddenly split into countless ghost-claw shadows.

In an instant, the bone dust between them was swept clean, and the space seemed split in two. One half belonged to the sword wheel, whose momentum soared like a rainbow and broke all before it.

The other half turned murky and black, corpse qi surging. The outlines of the claws were barely visible, yet it felt as if ghost claws filled the heavens, their might no less than the sword wheel’s.

"My flesh rotted away. I do not know when it was ground into dust... My memories decayed and withered like my primordial spirit, leaving only this lonely soul, trapped in this world... Bewildered, persistent... for an obsession that was nearly impossible to fulfill. Perhaps in another thousand or ten thousand years, even the soul would perish. I should thank you for sending me this body, letting me finally see a sliver of hope."

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Bai seemed to be growing used to speaking. His words came faster, clearer, as if he enjoyed it. He seemed to be conversing with Qin Sang, yet also speaking to himself, the content obscure and perplexing.

Ghostly hands churned the winds and clouds and multiplied into thousands, meeting the sword wheel head-on with unyielding force.

Within the sword wheel, sword qi rose and fell, shredded by the claws, and claws were in turn cut to pieces by sword qi.

But the true sword light, born of Sword Light Division, was not only unaffected by the claws, it became even more brilliant, forming the framework of the sword wheel. Razor-sharp, it tore through the claw-shadows.

Thunderous rumbling did not cease. In a blink, a third of the myriad claw-shadows had been ripped apart by the sword wheel. Seeing this, a cold snort rolled from Bai’s throat.

Whoosh!

All at once, the claw-shadows drew inward and fused into Bai’s arm.

The corpse qi contracted as well. His arm appeared, black as dark iron. As his fingers flexed, his joints rang with the clash of metal, as if forged from stone and steel.

The sword wheel closed in. Bai’s eyes flicked. His palm clenched at the air, then struck toward the sword wheel’s center. A colossal ghost-claw shadow tore sword qi apart with ease and thrust into the wheel.

Boom!

The power of that ghost claw surpassed the earlier phantoms by far. Not only did the sword wheel fail to sever it, the claw rampaged within, and the wheel staggered for an instant, showing signs of instability.

Qin Sang’s face darkened. Forming a seal, he urged the sword wheel to explode with force. A pillar of sword light, dazzling to the extreme, blasted the ghost claw aside and shot toward Bai’s true body at astonishing speed.

Bai’s gaze tightened. He threw himself back, but he was still slower than the pillar. In the end, the light swallowed him whole.

Carrying the might of the sword wheel, the pillar’s aftershock surged far into the distance before it dissipated. Several bone mountains behind Bai were pierced through, left with a row of gaping holes.

Clang!

When the light faded, an unexpected scene appeared.

Bai stood unscathed. He had not been injured. His arm still lifted high, blocking in front of him. Corpse qi surged from his palm and formed a solid barrier that forcibly held off the ebony sword itself.

The ebony sword trembled, sword light breathing in and out, but it could not pierce the corpse qi. Seeing this, Qin Sang had no choice but to pull the ebony sword back, his gaze toward Bai growing more grave.

This, at last, counted as a true exchange. Neither had gained the upper hand, and it looked difficult to defeat the other.

"Your strength is not bad, but it still is not enough to suppress me," Bai said calmly.

"Is that so?" Qin Sang gave a cold snort. The wings at his back quivered, and the Heavenly Corpse Coffin flew out from his body. It transformed rapidly in mid-air. With a series of crisp clicks, the coffin boards became interlocking plates that clung tightly to his external incarnation, forming a suit of armor.

In the next moment, the incarnation’s eyelids twitched and opened. His eyes burned blood-red, a trace of madness and bloodlust in their depths that made him terrifying to behold.

At the same time, Qin Sang stared directly into the incarnation’s eyes and secretly activated a secret technique to forcibly suppress the incarnation’s backlash of devilish intent.

The blood-red light in the incarnation’s eyes gradually faded. He stood silently behind Qin Sang.

Sensing the incarnation’s aura, a glint crossed Bai’s black eyes and his expression grew solemn. "Your methods truly come one after another. You even have an external incarnation whose strength is not beneath your true body."

Hearing this, Qin Sang gave Bai a deep look. Bai had seen through the incarnation at a glance.

"What if I include him?" With another cold snort, Qin Sang ordered the incarnation to strike.

He and the external incarnation flanked Bai from left and right and charged together. Qin Sang once more urged the ebony sword, conjuring a sword wheel whose momentum surpassed the last by several degrees.

The external incarnation was not to be outdone. Clad in armor, he wielded a blood sword. That blood sword had turned out to be unexpectedly compatible with the external incarnation.

When Qin Sang helped him refine it, he had examined it carefully; there were no hidden marks left by anyone else.

A soul search had also revealed its origin. It had been obtained by that Fang-surnamed youth by chance, not bestowed by the Black Snake Mountain's grandmaster, and Qin Sang had left it with the incarnation as a weapon.

The incarnation’s cultivation had reached the peak of the Core Formation Realm, yet only by wielding a top-grade astra could he fully bring out his true strength.