Merene family head felt a bit dazed and lost as he looked at his hand. It is not reacting as fast as it should it is almost as if there is a time-lapse between the command from his brain to the actual motion.

This made him miss the timing of the attack and Night Ghost easily managed to dodge.

He leaped to the side and gave a kick to the right shoulder with all his strength, at least it looked like it, but there are no effects on the family head and the Night Ghost to the recoil and rolled to the side.

The family head came back to his sense by now and he tried to move his hand around, but there is almost a second delay in the reaction time, he couldn't help but feel frustrated. He doesn't know what is happening, but he knew it has something to do with the attacks of the Night Ghost that don't seem to harm him at all.

It seems like their purpose is not to harm them anyway.

The family head used his left hand to throw a mage attack. A large cluster of dark red flames joined together forming a flaming horse that was ready to go after the Night Ghost.

At this moment, the family head felt like his left hand is also acting weirdly and before he knew it, his aim was missed. It was only a small shake right before he could release the attack, but it missed.

Night Ghost rolled forward on the ground dodging the attack and kicked the Family head upwards on his left hand's elbow.

He could see that the reaction time of his left hand also slowed down. Not just the movement but even the reaction for circulating spiritual energy has slowed down.

"What did you do, you filthy vile creature?" The family cursed in a low cold tone as he looked at Night Ghost,

The Night Ghost didn't reply, he maintained some distance and looked at the family ahead vigilantly. As the cultivation level increases, it would be harder and harder to fight people of higher cultivation. If it is a normal run-off-a-mill late-stage transcendent cultivator, Night ghost is sure that he could put up a great fight and even be able to beat him.

But the current opponent is not just talented, but also has a great fighting style with abundant experience.

And most of all he has a solid foundation within the mortal plane cultivation.

Many people ignore this and focus too much on the cultivation levels, but the more they cultivate and fight with their peers, the more they realize the importance of the foundation in the cultivation journey.

That is why Night Ghost is vigilant. He knew that sooner or later his tricks would be seen through and he would be in trouble by then, he needs to land as much damage as he can before that happens.

He used another ghost strangling technique on the family head when he is still shocked over his body reactions and started delivering blows on the legs.

The limbs might not be vitals, but they play an essential role in the battle and sometimes leads to more disasters.

The family head was extremely confused, but he still tried his best to calm down and closed his eyes before examining himself.

By now, his four limbs are completely out of tune and even his liver is not functioning properly. He doesn't know what is happening exactly.

But once he calmed down and focused, he understood what the problem is. The hits of Night Ghost are not actually focused on the body, at least not solely on the body, he is hitting the nerves physically and the soul mentally with every blow is delivering.

This is something the Marine family head never came across before.

The attack is not damaging the nervous system directly, rather it is just dealing with the functions of the nervous system, and the soul attacks are done so that the mental strength wouldn't be able to repair the functions and get that reaction time back.

Now the family head is on his way to do that. He just needs to stabilize his soul which will make his mental strength stable and the nerve function will come back.

But in this small interval of time, he would be defenseless.

Night Ghost lunged forward with a dagger in his hands.

A bunch of ghosts manifested as they dove towards the knife. The knife slowly started turning darker as the spiritual energy condensed around it.

He stabbed the Family's head in the chest cleanly. But he didn't manage to hit the heart as the family-head managed to move a bit, barely enough to dodge his heart by a hair's breadth.

But the Night Ghost is not worried. The dark energy that was condensed around his blade and his arm are all being channeled into the family head and he used all his energy to do so.

He just wanted a few more seconds and the family head will be finished.

But he is not that lucky.

The family head opened his eyes and blazed with fire elemental fusion before blasting the Night Ghost who is completely defenseless.

Night Ghost was thrown away with a large trail of flames into the forest as everything burned on his way. Almost one-fifth of the forest burned smithereens.

Within this flaming hell, the family head slowly walked towards Night Ghost whose hair, robes, and skin were burned. There are several charred injuries on his body as he breathed heavily.

That is the result of a full-blown Late-stage Transcendent stage cultivator's attack.

If it is an ordinary middle-stage cultivator he would turn into ashes. Night Ghost is not ordinary and managed to live through it.

He even slowly took the support of the burning tree beside him as he stood up slowly.

He took out an ice blue cylinder in his hands and stood there vigilantly.

The liquid energy cell.

If possible he doesn't want to use it at all.

He is closer to the Late-stage than ever would breakthrough in a few days, if he gets a late-stage soul now and manages to devour it, he would not only breakthrough, he would also have enough energy to stabilize and also progress a bit into the breakthrough of the next stage.

If he used the liquid energy cell, the energy explosion exterminates everything and that includes the soul of the person, particularly when they are in the middle of the explosion.

But as he saw the family head slowly walking forward, Night Ghost's expression from vigilance to surprise.

Because in the middle of the chest of the family head, there is a portion that didn't fuse with the fire element. It is a normal piece of flesh which is not what he expected. The dagger he stabbed was still there and he could see the dark energy spreading all over that portion of flesh and it is even spreading throughout the fusion body.l

He had a new hope, it seems like the family head attacked his prematurely fearing the dagger, but instead neglected his soul stabilization.

This caused the dagger attack to have more effect.

This dagger attack lands both physically and mentally to the body and soul. Currently, the family head is suffering it at the highest level.

The family head's steps were completely slowed down as he struggled to move forward.

"What is your name, Young man?"

The family head asked as he looked at Night Ghost.

"Now my name is Night Ghost."

"You are quite formidable. It feels like an honor dying by your hands."

"You are the greatest opponent I faced until now." Night Ghost also replied in a painful tone.

"It seems like I made a wrong decision and was way over in my head. I shouldn't have underestimated you. One small trick cost me my life. Your attitude right now is great. Don't leave that. Use every weapon and every advantage you could find and don't be ashamed to use them. I will be looking forward to seeing you in the afterlife. But don't come too early."

With that, the family head collapsed.

Night Ghost who is trying his best to stand didn't try anymore and collapsed to the ground as well.

He couldn't hold on anymore and the energy he is using to suppress the heat in his body was also gone almost making his blood evaporate.

Saber Monarch and Paras arrived by now and looked at his situation.

They immediately took out a formation disc and three medium-sized energy cells.

The formation disc has three grooves for the three cells. One cell is of ; light elemental energy, the second one is wood elemental energy, and the third one is normal energy.

When the formation disc was activated a small dome surrounded the Night Ghost and the blood burning was immediately stopped as his vital stabilized.

His body is slowly being healed as he laid there sleeping taking in the comfortable sensation.

At this moment, both of them looked at the body of the family head and the dagger stabbed in.

"We need to seal the soul instantly, it would be such a waste if the Night ghost couldn't take it."

"But he fainted. And we cannot do anything."

As they thought. Both of them exchanged a glance. They could still hear the music coming from the forest, Sam cannot do anything for now as he is the middle of the battle. They can only disturb one more person who is currently exempted from the battle.

Tamas.