Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 424: No Mercy.

Tired of the constant pursuit, Ozul realized he had to find better ways to attack Kumaou.

Under the guise of running from him, he left blobs of The Purity on the ground which went unnoticed by Kumaou.

At that moment, he slowed down a little which Kumaou mistook for a slip, and took the opportunity to pounce at him.

*Boom!*

Black columns shot out from the ground, hitting Kumaou from opposite directions!

Caught off-guard, he could only endure the blow as he used the Spiritual Essence to force himself out of the entrapment midair.

But Ozul couldn’t let him go so quickly as he manipulated those columns to converge into spikes as they forcefully dug into Kumaou’s hardened skin.

"Argh! You Bastard!" shouted Kumaou as he unleashed his Soul Materialization.

The strength of a monstrous bear coursed through his body, allowing him to shake off The Purity impaling him into a place.

Facing him, Ozul was unperturbed. Having already survived against two Origin Cultivators, he was confident in his abilities to defeat him.

However, it still wasn’t easy. While Kumaou was a little hurt now, his strength was nothing to scoff at. He once again rushed toward Ozul, closing the distance between them in seconds.

Ozul tried slowing him down, but he advanced like a mad bull, uncaring of all the projectiles scraping at him.

At that range, he could only use The Purity around his body as he blocked Kumaou’s paws descending down at him.

*Boom!*

Once again, a shockwave scattered around the island, impressing the old man who looked more than excited.

The power behind Kumaou’s attack was strong enough to sink him knees-deep in the ground as pain coursed through his hands to his feet.

Enduring the pain, Ozul propelled himself out of the ground before Kumaou could pin him there.

At the same time, he sent two streams of The Purity to latch onto his feet, opening a small window to attack him from behind.

While Kumaou felt the blades coming at his back, he couldn’t do anything about them but endure as they left shallow wounds on his back.

They two kept on going back and forth but it became evident after a while that Ozul had the upper hand.

Kumaou would sometimes manage to land a hit, but it amounted to nothing compared to the wounds piling up on his body. The island, though sturdier than any they had seen, was in bad shape. The ground was uprooted and it felt like the island would fall down any minute.

Their battle continued until the whole island was unrecognizable.

It was a slow process, but Kumaou struggled more and more under Ozul’s odd method of attacks. He wasn’t the only one who couldn’t get used to his attack patterns, even the old man on the sidelines would continuously be surprised.

The Purity was quite versatile as it could be used in any shape and form that Ozul wanted. And coupled with the fact that there was no Spiritual Essence involved, it became almost impossible for his opponents to figure him out.

"Argh!!"

Ignoring Kumaou’s shouts, he once again instructed the Purity to bind him. This time, it wasn’t just his feat but his hands and torso as well.

Having unfortunately exhausted himself, Kumaou found it harder to break free.

But it seemed as if he was just waiting for Ozul to drop his guard when he mustered up all his strength and burst forth, dragging the Purity with him.

Alas, he underestimated Ozul. That was his last mistake as the bindings of the Purity transformed into something akin to tentacles with sharp edges as they all dug into his wounds.

"Ahhhh!"

With so many holes in his body, it was a miracle that he was still alive.

But it wouldn’t last for long. Kumaou had lost too much blood and as he stood there defeated, he couldn’t hide the resentment in his eyes for Ozul.

"I helped you! You owed me!!" he shouted at Ozul’s face as if all of it was his fault.

But Ozul only looked at him without a hint of pity on his face. Shaking his head a little, he spoke slowly, "I tried helping you."

There was no doubt about it. He had tried multiple times to bind him in place so he could admit defeat. However, even after realizing his efforts were futile in front of him, Kumaou refused to back down.

And now, after losing so much blood and having so many wounds punctured in his body, Kumaou was taking his last breaths.

Life slowly faded away from his eyes as Ozul sighed in his mind, ’Once again, it was greed.’

It was avarice everywhere in this world. Be it this Realm of Egon or the previous broken Realm he was born in, everything was run on and consumed by it.

Most people he had come across were vulnerable to greed.

Another such example was the old man who slowly walked toward him, now donning an amiable smile of a wise ancestor.

The greed and malice that he exuded toward him was at its peak right now.

Knowing anything could happen, Ozul was vigilant of his surroundings and was ready to attack the moment he felt anything amiss.

The old man snapped his fingers and Kumaou’s body disappeared from before him, teleported outside the realm.

"You really surprise me, rude boy."

It wasn’t a lie; the old man couldn’t figure out till the end the nature of the black substance that he used at his will.

"Are there any trials left? Or do I get your inheritance now?" Ozul asked blandly, as if still uninterested in everything.

This time, however, the old man didn’t show his displeasure like before. By this point, he had already accepted his indifferent attitude.

"Of course, I won’t go back on my words. This was the last trial and you have earned my legacy," answered the old man but Ozul didn’t believe a single word coming out of his mouth.

Just then, the old man clapped his hands and both of them were once again enveloped in light particles before being teleported to a room on yet another island.

It was a lavish room adorned with herbs and flowers scattered on the ground and lush green veils climbing the walls.

There was a white pedestal placed in the middle of the room and an illusory light shone from the top.

’I need to find the corpse...’ Ozul thought while looking at the stairs leading to the top of the marble pedestal.

There was a strange energy that he felt from there. It wasn’t just Spiritual Essence that he felt, it was something more. Something better than Spiritual Essence.

"Follow me, boy."

The old man climbed the stairs, followed by Ozul who wondered just why didn’t he teleport them atop the pedestal. What point was there in climbing the stairs physically? It certainly didn’t make him feel anything special.

And when they reached the top, Ozul saw two things of interest.

First and foremost, he didn’t need to ask the old man to take him to his corpse as it was right in front of him.

Now, he also realized why Ember had told him that he’d immediately know if it was the Sage’s corpse. After all, the corpse didn’t even look like a corpse.

In front of him was the body of an old shriveled man sitting cross-legged atop an expensive-looking cushion.

But from his senses, Ozul knew that the old man wasn’t alive as his heart wasn’t beating. Yet, the body seemed preserved as if death was nothing but a temporary sleep he would wake up from soon.

The corpse would look exactly like the old man if only it was a little healthier.

"As you can see, this is me... To be exact, it is what remains of me," the old man stated, pointing to his corpse.

The second thing that he noticed was a circle of strange runes drawn on the floor.

Lines of this text originated from the corpse’s position and revolved around, mingling with each other before stopping around another cushion placed right in front of it.

"What is that?" he asked, pointing to the runes and the cushion.

The old man smiled in response before replying, "You won’t be able to understand it. But that’s how I’m going to impart all of my knowledge and wisdom to you."

’Lies...’

He didn’t even feel an ounce of truth from those words.

There was a tingling sensation in the back of his head that the situation was dangerous, but he could only ignore it as he asked, "How did you die? If you were so powerful, and your corpse seems intact, what happened?"

At the same time, he slowly walked toward the corpse as if he was curious about the body of a Sage.

Although the old man was a little surprised that Ozul was finally showing some interest, he answered immediately,

"Ahem! No matter how powerful, there comes a time when the body starts losing its strength and cannot contain the soul anymore..."

’Truth...’

"Couldn’t you do something about it? Looking at these, you must have been an expert in these runes..." Ozul asked while inching closer to the corpse.

The old man eyed him with scrutiny, but in the end, replied with his amiable tone, "Well, I could do something, but I have lived a long life. It’s time to pass on my legacy to the new generation."

’Half lies half truths...’

From all of the conversation, he could at least interpret that the purpose of those runes wasn’t to impart him any knowledge.

’Use my body as a vessel to live longer?’ There were multiple other possibilities, but this seemed the most fitting judging from everything that he had said.

But ignoring all of that, his hand approached the corpse’s head when he was halted by the shout,

"What are you doing?"