"That she is! Now, who the fuck are you?" Nox asked, glaring at the elderly interloper.
"My! It can speak as well!" the old man replied.
"Yes, she can! Now are you gonna answer my question old timer?"
"Old timer?! I'll have you know I am not a day over 900!"
"Well happy 900th birthday then Mr.-?" Nox asked, trying to get a name out of the elder.
"Well, thank you very much! Wait a second?! It's not my birthday!"
"Welp, Mr. It's-not-my-birthday, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Nox asked.
"Hm? Oh, right? Hey, wake up!" The elderly man said as he began shaking the unconscious Mei.
"Ugh! QUIT SHAKING ME YOU OLD FOOL!" Mei screamed upon waking up as the elderly man's shaking did not do her wounds any favours.
"Oh good! You're awake! Now, do you mind filling this young and handsome man in on what is happening? I were in need of some fresh air, so I tagged along when I heard you requested some reinforcements, though, I thought your objective here was to deal with the Yang inheritor, not battling some sentient beast!"
"*Cough* Ugh! They seemed to have realized what it is we are after and hidden the ring! As for that thing, it is a bastard of the Yangs in dragon form!"
"Now, now, no need to be rude! Wait, dragon form? What in the world?! Did you skin it alive or something? Why does it look like tha-? Huh? Where'd it go?"
While the old expert was talking to Mei, Nox had retreated back into the mist while he was distracted.
"I see! A fog imbued with willpower! It is quite the trick!" the elder said as he raised his hand into the air.
"Tsk! Don't let it get away! It knows the location of the-!"
Just then, bursting out from the fog behind them, a dragon's skull emerged with its fangs bared, about to chew them to bits, however, before it could.
*Snap*
*BOOM*
The elderly man merely snapped his fingers, releasing a spark that grew into a blazing inferno that pushed aside the fog as it encompassed the whole forest in an instant, leaving nothing but scorched earth in its wake.
*Sizzle*
"-ring." Mei finished saying after the fact.
"Hm? What was that?" The elder asked.
"*Sigh* That thing held information on the ring's whereabouts!"
"…! I suppose I overdid it a bit, huh!" The elder said as he turned around to look at the charred dragon skeleton lying dead on the ground.
This time, Nox's body was not showing any signs of getting back up. The fire had evaporated every drop of blood in her body and turned her flesh to ash. The damage was too severe for her to recover, and she perished.
"Well, no sense in crying over spilled milk! So, where to next?" The elder asked Mei, clapping his hands together as he tried to brush over the fact he had killed their best lead.
*Sigh*
Mei just sighed in exasperation at the elderly immortal, forgetting that not long ago, despite knowing better, she had actively tried to murder Nox out of frustration.
"Well, first of all, we need to regroup with the others! Then we will-!"
"Oh right, I haven't told you! The reinforcements will arrive later than expected!"
"What?"
"The continental barrier was a bit more hectic than usual and the transport ship got trapped in a time-vortex! In the end, it was decided that your clan's elder would stay behind to resolve the situation while I went on ahead!" He explained, while refusing to meet Mei's glare full of suspicion.
*Sigh*
Letting out a tired sigh, she rubbed her head in exhaustion as she quickly assessed their situation. With Nox having picked off her escort, she was even more shorthanded than before, moreover, her allies, the sages, while they won't necessarily turn against her outright, they can no longer be trusted to hand over the object should they acquire it now that they know the value of the item she is after. If they do get their hands on the real dragon ring before her, they might very well pocket it in secret and try to steal the Yang clan's fortune for themselves. With her best lead now being dead, she is going to have to fumble around in the dark until she finds another clue.
"This is such a mess! Let us depart to the north! If I am lucky, I may get the chance to exact revenge after all!" Mei muttered out, as she grabbed on to the elder.
"Why are you grasping my sleeve?" The elder asked, trying to pull away.
"I am in no condition to be exerting myself, moreover, as a heavenly immortal, you could very easily move across vast distances instantaneously, even while carrying a maiden such as myself!"
"Do I look like a horse to you?"
"Excuse me?"
"Lady Yin, I am not an elder of your clan, do not presume you can command me as you please! I am not obligated to aid you in satisfying your own personal vendetta, so do not treat me as if I were a pack animal! Unless it involves Yang Xing or the ring he bears, then I am not interested!" The heavenly immortal stated.
"Tsk!"
Feeling frustrated, all Mei could do was click her tongue in annoyance at the heavenly immortal who denied her request, before she flew away. The elder was about to do so as well, when he suddenly sensed something and stopped.
"Hm? I see!"
Not long after, space began to twist around Mei, as she suddenly found herself back on the ground, next to the elder.
"What is it now?!" Mei grumbled out as she glared at the immortal.
"You said that one knew where the ring was, yes? If that is true than leaving so soon would be foolish!"
"What do you mean?" Mei asked.
"Come out! I know you are there!" The heavenly immortal said to the charred dragon skeleton.
"What are you-?"
*Smash**Thud*
Before Mei could finish her sentence, Nox's charred skeleton collapsed as something broke out of the blackened dragon skull. Floating in midair was a blue flame encircled by multiple chucky-orbs, orbiting around it.
"Interesting! What are those orbs floating around you! They do not appear to be cultivation cores! It's not a type of pill is it!" The heavenly immortal asked, looking on at the floating fire.
Soon thereafter, some kind of light blue, slightly transparent, substance began to leak out of the orbs, taking on the form of a masked Nox in her human form, her spectral head, enveloping the flame, making it look like the chucky-es had been embedded in her skull.
'No, well, I guess you could technically swallow it, but it's not really a pill!' Nox spoke telepathically.
Seeing the ghost before her, Mei felt slightly relieved. As cultivators usually do not leave much of a soul behind when they perish, she had forgotten to look for one out of habit once Nox croaked. Though it is not ideal as interrogation would require specialized methods, capturing this ghost would be useful for finding the ring.
*Snap*
With a snap of his finger, the heavenly immortal erected a divine forcefield around the spirit to prevent her from running.
'Well, that's a waste of energy! It's not like I was planning on going anywhere anyhow! After all, with you here, running would be pointless!'
"Oh, so you surrender then?"
'This me is!'
"This you?"
'Well, Mr. not-my-birthday, you were a little late to the party, but essentially, the original me got bored and decided to play a little game, so she created me and a number of other look-alikes of artificial spirits modelled after her soul, then sprinkled us all over the place, handing one of us that ring you guys want so badly!'
"So, you are a split soul then?"
Pulling on one of the chucky-es in her head, a thin glowing blue string stretching behind it, as she responded.
'Right idea, wrong method! Creating copycat souls from your own excess ectoplasm isn't a bad idea, if you're only making one, but doing it on this scale can get a bit iffy! I mean, the number of me-s aside, just one of these chucky-soul-brains could easily fit a regular person's soul and more by itself, but because my original's soul is so massive, just a basic replica with the bare essentials need like 5 or 6 to operate properly!' She said, before letting go of the orb as its slingshot back into her forehead.
"I see! Well-!"
"Stop wasting time with meaningless questions! Tell us where the real ring is located, now!" Mei demanded, feeling impatient.
'Well, miss puppet, to answer your question in a short concise manner, I don't know!'
"Stop playing games!"
'I'm not! I'm not privy to who is where or has what! Stuff like that was intentionally left out of my head for the sake of the game! All I can tell you is that you might be able to find more of me, west, southeast, and north of here, though I couldn't tell you whether they have the real ring or not!'
"You expect us to believe you! Tell the truth or I will-!"
"Lady Yin, don't waste your breath! Threats do not work on split souls! They are incapable of acting outside the nature and desires of the one they were split from! They lack the capacity to feel such things as fear or any other emotions!"
'Au contraire my birthday-less fellow, I am actually very much capable of emotion!'
"I suppose deceit is part of your nature!"
'Not at all, well, eh, actually, maybe a little, but not with this! As I said earlier, you got the right idea, but the wrong method! Because the method you're thinking of is wrong, you're drawing a wrong inference about my capabilities! The reason why your run of the mill split soul tends to be a bit emotionless is because they are made using left over parts of a person's soul, causing deficiency and instability in certain areas! I on the other hand, don't have that problem, since I was made from scratch using external soul fragments! Operations wise, I am fully capable of the human experience, meaning I can feel fear, joy, sorrow, pain, and so on!'
"Oh? If that is the case, then why not test your theory?" The heavenly immortal stated as he began to shrink the barrier around the artificial soul.
'Sorry, but I'm not really claustrophobic, so this doesn't really do it for me!' She said as her spirit was forced into the shape of a ball.
"You don't seem to be very concerned? You do know I could destroy your soul in an instant, correct?" He asked.
'Yeah, but your forgetting something Mr. Its-not-my-birthday! I'm a copy, which means, my fears or lack thereof, is entirely based on the original!'
"So, you are claiming your original is fearless! You're quite a deluded offshoot! Everyone is afraid of something!"
'When you stare at something long enough, even the face of death becomes mondain in the end! I am not fearless, but I do not fear my own end! Unfortunately, you don't seem to have gotten that memo! Tell me, is my blood-relation really all my reputation chalks up to on the 3rd continent?'
"Did you think yourself so impressive you believed your name would be known even on the 3rd martial continent? Even if you are considered impressive to the rest of the world, people like yourself are a dime a dozen on the land of immortals!"
'I guess stealing Walpurgis didn't make as big of a splash as I thought it would, huh!'
"Indeed, nothing impressive! It is good that you realize-! Wait, what?"
'Well, maybe after I tear all of you down, I'll get that sweet street cred I need to buy that people repellent I was aiming for! Speaking of!' She said as something began happening inside her soul.
"I thought you understood that resistance was futile! Nothing you do can break out of the-!"
'This is gonna hurt like hell!'
As the blue flame inside the artificial spirit turned pitch black, a sudden chill ran through the heavenly immortal as the realization dawned on him. Without another thought, he immediately grabbed Mei and teleported them several miles into the air.
"What in the world do you think you are doing, laying your hands on-!" Mei complained.
"Shut up!" The elder said.
"…! HOW DARE YOU-!"
*BOOM*
*Distant screams*
Just as Mei was about to berate him for the disrespectful reply, her words were cut short by the sound of an explosion followed by the agonized screams of every soul caught in it. Looking down below, there was no fog, no forest or wasteland, just a lake of pitch-black flames.
What is the worst way to die? Some say it is death by fire, and in the spirit of that answer, I ask you this. What flame would be the worst to perish inside of? In this world, there is only one correct answer to that. The dreaded black flame feared by both demons and gods alike, an eternal flame of suffering …
"Hell fire!" Mei muttered in recognition.
"Has the demon emperor lost his god damned mind?! Allowing something so dangerous to leave the 3rd martial continent!" The heavenly immortal blurted out, shaking just from the thought of what's burning down below.
Taking in a deep breath to calm his nerves, the heavenly immortal prepared to deal with the expanding mass of murderous pain and suffering made manifest below. Straining himself, he isolated the space around the entire area and compressed it into a tiny black bead.
"If I was not here, this whole continent would have been destroyed!" He said as he grabbed the bead which the hell fire was sealed inside of.
His words were not wrong. Hell fire is one of the most dangerous phenomena in the world. Just the tiniest ember could have a god screaming and flailing around on the floor until he draws his final breath. It's almost impossible to put out once it starts and saying it spreads like wildfire is an understatement. It is a parasitic flame that burns and spreads through soul fragments, converting it into more of itself. Though not as prevalent as it is in the demon world, soul fragments are essentially everywhere, meaning that, no matter how small the flame may have started out, if hell fire were permitted to burn without intervention, it could theoretically cover the whole planet given time. It's a potentially world ending calamity that should not, under any circumstance, be allowed to burn freely, and the fake-Nox had just unleashed a boatload of it into the wild in a self-destructive act.
"Tell me? What was the name of that girl!" The heavenly immortal asked Mei.