The hastily made agreement pleased all but a few. Song Lu Tian was annoyed to hear his killing spree would have to come to a stop, but the most angry was of course the woman that was being sacrificed. She was still roaming about the battlefield the lower rank cultivators were fighting on. She’d raked the sides of the Flying Ship with the burning lines shooting from her eyes. The lower rank cultivators didn’t hear of the agreement that the Nascent Souls had made until they flew over and landed in a circle around the ghostly red skull. Or at least the four from Sage’s side had. Elder Manji and Ruanfu had both reverted to a human form, and joined Dian Huifang and Sage in glaring at Hei Bai.

At the same time, the enemy Nascent Souls landed near their subordinates and quickly organized a retreat. They moved in the direction of the previous battlefield, sweeping up corpses, storage treasures and fallen weapons. Sage glared at them and they yelled at their subordinates, leaving the center of the battlefield alone. The cultivators from his Inner World had been surrounded most of the battle so most of them had fallen at the center. He couldn’t bring back those who died, but he could at least ensure their remains were returned to their families. The enemy stole a few benefits while they were occupied with Hei Bai, but he could only let it slide. For this hated enemy of his, giving up a few treasures was a small price to pay.

Song Lu Tian started to grumble with annoyance to the cultivators nearby him, immediately recognizing that the battle had been brought to a close. Hei Bai was horribly upset, or at least that’s what Sage figured. She was merely a ghostly red skull covered with wisps of insubstantial orange flame, so there were no facial features to read, but she was flitting back and forth looking for an opening while screeching violently. Sage nodded to the others and they combined their powers. Lightning poured forth from Dian Huifang and Manji, while Ruanfu released a whirling cloud of snow. The snow was propelled in a smooth circle, forming a glittering white perimeter to make sure Hei Bai could not escape. Sage used Stormbreath to empower the swirling snow, while Huifang and Manji released their lighting above and below, blocking the sky and the ground.

The circle of wind and snow slowly tightened, while the lightning above and below grew denser and denser as the area they covered shrunk. Hei Bai didn’t give up, her eye beams were able to pass through the lightning, but were blocked by the flurry of snowflakes. The tiny glittering stars were like tiny mirrors, deflecting and scattering the burning rays that struck them. Her attacks could strike the ground or shoot into the air, but there was nothing there for her to attack. As she grew desperate, strange and unusual attacks were released. She spat out a ghost head similar to her own and it attacked just like she did, unfortunately yielding the same result. The many eye beams turned the ground underneath her into quite the mess and caused quite a light show in the sky, but did little else.

Then Hei Bai started to screech again, even louder than before. Without a body, her voice wasn’t actually sound, but some sort of energy delivered directly into their heads. This new screech targeted the energy in their bodies and they felt their Qi quiver. They were all momentarily stunned by this strange attack and the lower level cultivators felt fear. This creature was battling among them for so long and concealing so many terrible powers. If she didn’t want to keep them all secret, who knows how many more of them might have died. The elites like Song Lu Tian, Chong Xiezi, and Kang Min realized that they would likely lose to this old ghost. Even if they were geniuses, this old monster at the same rank as them was still more powerful.

Once the seal was broken she could use all these weird abilities and was probably saving them for Sage. He guessed she was just so vehement that she saved all these powers as a surprise for him. Even if she could have turned the tides among the weaker cultivators, she would rather let them die just for a small chance to hurt Sage a little bit more. Or, maybe they were just really expensive to use and only dared to try them now that she had no other options.

Despite her frantic efforts, there was little way for a single rank five to compete with four rank sixes. The noose of energy around her tightened and her ghostly body was exposed to the different powers. Sage, Ruanfu, and Dian Huifang mostly just contained her, as it quickly became apparent that Manji was the most effective. Lightning was the bane of ghosts and spirits, and Manji was a very old and powerful Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel. Dian Huifang also used lightning, but she used the Law of Shocking. Or at least, that’s vaguely how Sage saw it after watching her fighting so far.

Only Huifang would go and find a way to become a supernatural stun gun.

Despite his desire to finally rid himself of this evil woman once and for all, Sage still found he was trying to distract himself to distance his mind from the screeching and suffering ghost. It was one thing to kill someone in self defense, but this was more of an execution. Even if she deserved it, there was still a different feeling to it. He cleared his mind of distraction and solemnly finished the deed. Ruanfu assisted him in creating the sides of a barrel, while Dian Huifang created the bottom. Manji’s lightning fell down from above, ‘shooting’ the fish and wiping her terrible presence away.

At her last moment, the burning skull turned towards Sage and her screeching ended. Her jaw fell down, opening her mouth wide and the orange flames suddenly disappeared. The red skull exploded, transforming into a bloody mist and rushing towards the wall of snow and wind directly towards him. The fast moving cloud dyed the snow crimson, rapidly corrupting the wind and snow. It was far more effective than the eye beams had been and it spread into the defensive circle. Then the circle of wind and snow rippled and the bloody mist shot out. Sage reacted quickly, releasing a burst of brilliant white flames towards the red mist.

The bloody cloud started to boil away, filling the air with a burnt smell as it continued to move closer. He increased the intensity of the flames, releasing the First Light until it started to grow dim. Then he switched to the Samsara Flame, bathing the burning red mass with orange fire. When it was just a few feet away from him, the vast cloud of red mist had turned into a blackened ball the size of a grapefruit and fell to the ground with a wet squish. The other three wanted to help him, but they were careful to ensure that every last bit of Hei Bai inside their encirclement was destroyed first. They’d been warned how tricky the woman was and didn’t want to fall for the red mist being a diversion.

Finally, everything came to a stop. Manji’s lightning shot through the wall of wind and snow, completely eradicating every last drop of the red and wiping it clean once more. Every last bit of the woman was eradicated and all that remained was the burned ball. Then Manji frowned and he shot his lightning into the ground, suddenly thinking that something might have slipped underground when the ball hit the dirt. They all realized what he was up to and Huifang joined him. Then Manji stopped and directed his lightning towards the burned ball, wanting to eradicate it entirely. Sage nodded, and an orange flame lit up on his hand once again. Just as he was about to throw it, the burned ball split apart and a wisp of white light shot towards him. The ghostly sphere rippled and split open, forming a mouth with sharp fangs poised to bite into him.

Unfortunately for the little wipe of light, it was too slow. Manji’s bright lightning struck it at the same time as Sage’s orange flames. It was stopped by the flame and blasted to the side by the bolt of lightning. Arcs of electricity crawled over the little wisp and the mouth faded away, leaving a gently glowing sphere of energy sitting upon the ground. Manji lifted a finger and lightning crackled on his fingertip, but then Sage reached out to stop him, “Wait.”