Dragon's Soul Chapter 204: Golden Pearl

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Heya folks :D this chapter is a tiny bit longer then the others, enjoy :D
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As countless rays of blinding light, uncountable blades made up essence and an unfathomable number of techniques rose up from the seafloor toward the ice barrier Ling had erected and the wall of Behemoth Jelly fish not too far away, Zhang reached out his hand and placed it on Ling’s shoulder.
Soon a tingling warmth entered her body and began to spread. From the tips of her toes to the ends of her silky long hair, Ling felt a nearly exhaustible amount of essence enter her body.
With the essence transferred into her by Zhang, Ling performed the technique she had just used not long ago to create the icy sh.e.l.l that was created to block the incoming attack of the Golden Pearl Sect. 
“Ice Prison!” Ling recited once again in her mind as the thin layer of ice began to thicken exponentially into a solid wall moments before a constant barrage of attacks impacted. 
As attacks smashed into the ice barrier in succession, the sound of cracking ice soon made its way into everyone's ears. A short while later countless thin cracks began to become visible as the barrage of attacks continued on without an end in sight.
Not in a much better situation then Zhang and the beauties, Shan Li’s forces were also hit by one attack after the other. As resilient and durable as the Behemoth Jellyfish were, they began to disturb heavy injuries as the onslaught of attacks continued.
In the meantime, Zhang was busily empowering the beauties and his Saint level subordinates with the essence aired away within the Dragon Heart Necklace. Although the Demonic Pearl Array had sapped away the essence of everything within it, it could not even steal away a tiny ounce of the essence stored away in the Dragon Heart Necklace. 
Since Zhang constantly kept the flow of essence between the outside world, the Underworld Heart, and the Dragon Heart Necklace in a constant flow from one to the next, it was practically impossible for the Demonic Pearl to affect him. 
How could an array deployed by saints compare to heavenly treasures that are powerful enough to create and destroy empires? 
“Let's end things before they pull any more hidden tricks.” Zhang relayed to the beauties and his subordinates after negating the effects of the Demonic Pearl Array by sending constant streams of essence into their bodies.
“Continue attacking! Once that barrier crumbles they'll be at our mercy!” Holy Son Hui Ying said with eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with excitement and a gleeful tone as the small cracks on Ling’s barrier branched out and grew larger in size.
As Hui Ying’s eyes remained glued on Ling's icy barrier and the wall of Behemoth Jellyfish, filled with antic.i.p.ation, the icy sh.e.l.l suddenly bursted into thousands of fragments. 
“Double your efforts! Kill them all!” Holy Son Hui Ying commanded as a blinding beam shot out from the tips of his fingers. 
“Catastrophe's Descent.” Zhang mumbled in his mind as he unleashed his original technique. Thousands of mithril tipped javelins shot through the icy curtain made up of Ling’s shattered barrier. True to the nature of mithril, all of the attacks comprised of essence directed at Zhang and the beauties were absorbed as the storm of javelins made its way toward the sea floor.
Following up on Zhang’s attack, Ling directed the countless scattered shards of ice floating in the water to speed toward the sea floor. 
Seeing Zhang and Ling’s incoming counter attack, Holy Son Hui Ying cursed his horrid luck and instantly ordered for the Chimera Maxima Clams to close their sh.e.l.ls.
By a stroke of luck, the ma.s.sive clams all managed to close their sh.e.l.ls tightly shut a fraction of a second before Zhang and Ling’s barrage of mithril and ice impacted. 
Sadly, due to the soft nature of mithril and the lack of penetrative power of the ice shards, little to no damage was dealt to the sh.e.l.ls at all. 
However, a wide grin was still plastered on Zhang’s attack even after seeing that his attack has little effect. 
“He who waits will be rewarded.” Zhang thought as he remained on route and flew toward the seafloor.
“Shan Li! Have your men attack!” Zhang commanded Holy Son Shan Li through his divine sense while also commanding his subordinates to attack. He also had the beauties and his saint level subordinates who had charged toward the sea floor with him gather together.
With a single thought, Zhang made all of his javelins smelted out of mithril fly back toward him and form a hollow ball in which he, the beauties and their subordinates hid inside.
“Everyone attack!” Holy Son Shan Li ordered despite thinking everything would be futile due to the powerful defense that the Chimera Maxima Clams possessed. 
Since the Chimera Maxima Clams possessed little to no combat ability at all, their defense was absolute and unyielding.
True to Holy Son Shan Li’s thoughts, despite being pummeled by countless thousands of attacks from both the forces of the Blood Coral Cove and the Starry Sea Sect, only minor and faint scratches could be seen on the sh.e.l.ls of the ma.s.sive clams. 
“Try as you may, none of your attacks will ever be able to penetrate the sh.e.l.ls of these clams! Not when it takes high saints a total of four hours to do so.” Holy Son Hui Ying laughed mockingly as the sh.e.l.l of the clam was in slowly opened after the barrage of attacks directed toward it ceased.
“I don't need to penetrate the sh.e.l.l of the clans to get to you. All I need is to be able to see you.” Zhang said as the ball of mithril that he was hidden in disappeared and a small slit in s.p.a.ce opened up directly in front of Holy Son Hui Ying moments after his clam opened up. 
“Like I said, those who wait will be rewarded.” Zhang mumbled as he plunged the Sky Piercer Halberd grilled in his hand into the spatial slit.
In a flash, Zhang’s halberd shot out of the spatial slit and toward Holy Son Hui Ying’s neck.
“s.h.i.+t…” Holy Son Hui Ying cursed as the Sky Piercer Halberd was on its way to claiming his life. 
As his eyes were locked onto the gleaming halberd, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Although his mind screamed for his body to move, it simply could not work as quickly as his mind. 
Moments later a large amount of blood spewed out of Hui Ying’s body and dyed the surrounding waters a crimson red color.
With gaping jaws and eyes filled with disbelief, all of the members of the Golden Pearl Sect watched as a small cloud of blood formed around of Hui Ying’s body, covering it from their gazes.
On the other hand, the members of the Blood Coral Cove and Starry Sea Sect cheered with all of their might and were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with excitement and relief.
“Quickly! Seize his corpse and retrieve the Demonic Pearl so we can deactivate this accursed array!” Holy Son Shan Li said to his subordinates.
However contrary to what everyone believed or were attempting to do, Zhang simply stood in place with an unhappy frown plastered across his face.
“Ling…” Zhang murmured as he placed his hand on her shoulder without having to say another word before she realized his intention and began to work her magic.
With a wave of her hand, Ling’s essence was released from her body and used to disperse the cloud of blood around Holy Son Hui Ying.
Upon the dispersion of the cloud of blood, a deafening roar rang into everyone’s minds. 
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How dare you! How dare you! I'll kill you! I'll kill your wives! I'll kill all of your kin!” Holy Son Hui Ying’s voice could be heard as everyone caught sight of him. Although Zhang’s attack did not take away his life, Holy Son Hui Ying was left with a long gash on the side of his face that opened up a hole in his cheek. 
“Kill who?” Zhang said in a calm demeanor as he opened up another spatial slit and plunged his halberd inside once again. Once the cloud of blood blocking his vision was dispersed, Zhang was able to employ his technique once again. 
Having witnessed and experienced Zhang’s technique first hand, Holy Son Hui Ying instantly evaded as quickly as he could, sparing himself from being run through by Zhang’s halberd another time.
“It appears he needs to be able to see me to employ his technique. If not, then he would have made sure I was dead.” Holy Son Hui Ying thought as he transmitted a thought to his pet giant Chimera Maxima Clam, ordering it to shut its sh.e.l.l and s.h.i.+eld him from Zhang’s preying eyes.
However, before the sh.e.l.l of the clam could close shut, a total of ten black colored specks formed and each released a powerful repulsive force, making it impossible for the clam to enter its absolute defensive form.
On top of conjuring ten singularities, Zhang also made a spatial slit open up in front of Holy Son Hui Ying and once again stabbed his halberd into it.
“I won’t fall for the same trick once!” Holy Son Hui Ying said as he evaded Zhang’s attack, only to have yet another spatial slit appear in the location where he moved to. One after the other Zhang created a total of five spatial slits that appeared in succession. After each one of Holy Son Hui Ying’s attempts to dodge, the damage he received from Zhang’s attack would increase. 
At first, the blade of Zhang’s halberd that went through the spatial slit didn’t even manage to catch the hem of Holy Son Hui Ying’s robes, however by the third spatial slit Zhang was able to draw blood once again. By the fifth spatial slit, Holy Son Hui Ying could be seen bellowing in pain as his arm was severed from his body.
Of course, the members of the Golden Pearl Sect were not simply going to watch as their sect’s Holy Son met his demise so before long all of their saint level experts shot through the water toward where Zhang was.
“Anyone who dares to come closer will be sent on a one-way trip to h.e.l.l!” Nai Fan roared as he stood towering beside Zhang in his original gigantic form while Xiao Gong stood not too far away. There were also the beauties and all of Zhang’s lesser saint subordinates who surrounded him from all sides, warding off any attacker who dared to come near.
Thus, undistracted, Zhang continued his attempt at Holy Son Hui Ying’s life as a ma.s.sive brawl broke out around him.
“Time to end things.” Zhang thought as he charged through the sea full of people battling one another at full speed. 
Although it wasn’t evident to anyone else, after opening so many spatial slits, Zhang was experiencing a tremendous amount of mental fatigue so since Holy Son Hui Ying was already on his last leg, Zhang decided to move in closer to deliver a finis.h.i.+ng blow.
Having lost a large amount of blood after having his arm severed by Zhang, Holy Son Hui Ying hastily withdrew a red colored bottle from his interspatial ring and gulped down a hand full of red colored pills. 
After consuming a dozen or so of these pills, blood stopped seeping out of Hui Ying’s open wound and miraculously it appeared as if his missing arm was slowly but steadily growing back.
“To think I would be forced to consume so many of the Blood Pearl Dans that master gave me…” Hui Ying complained as his pain riddled body slowly began to mend itself. 
“You should save those for people who are still apart of the living instead of wasting them on yourself when you've already got one foot in your grave.” Zhang said, shatter Holy Son Hui Ying’s brief moment of peace. 
Without uttering even, a slight reply, Holy Son Hui Ying sped through the water in an attempt to get away from Zhang. Weaving through the chaotic battlefield so Zhang could not get a clear visual of him, Hui Ying’s face was now had the definition of fear written across it. Although his physical injuries were healed, Hui Ying wasn’t in any condition to fight Zhang thus his only path to survival was to flee.
“d.a.m.n it… Maybe I should have cooperated with that guy after all…” Hui Ying mumbled as he thought about how differently the current events could have played out if he listened to his master’s words and fully cooperated with Shan Li. 
While Zhang chased after Holy Son Hui Ying, the Blood Scale Army and the disciples of the Starry Sea Sect suffered ma.s.sive casualties due to the effects of the Demonic Pearl Array.
At first, the two forces were relatively equal due to the numerical disparity between them, with Zhang and Shan Li’s subordinates outnumbering Hui Ying’s people two to one. However, as the battle drew on, the lack of essence in their bodies and in the surrounding area made it difficult to keep up with the forces of the Golden Pearl Sect.
To pract.i.tioners, essence represented the very fiber of their power, building blocks that allow them to defy common sense, strengthen their bodies, alter and manipulate the elements. 
So when one side could not channel enough essence, while the other side could, a huge disadvantage would surely appear for the side that could not channel enough essence.
“I need to kill him before the number of casualties get any higher…” Zhang thought as he witnessed the members of the Blood Scale Army losing their lives or being heavily injured one after the other as they struggled to defeat the disciples of the Golden Pearl Sect.
However as much as Zhang wanted to slay Hui Ying, there were simply too many people around obstructing him. 
“Sweetheart, I'll help you catch him.” Yuying’s voice could be heard in Zhang’s mind as he noticed a thick green colored fog rolling in across the seafloor.
In the following few moments, hundreds of thousands of bones that had been stored in Yuying’s interspatial ring shot through the water and while countless more were rising up from the seafloor. 
The countless bones swept through the sea, weaving through the everyone and everything in its way as it chased after Hui Ying.
“What kind of technique is this!” Hui Ying yelled in his mind as he saw the thousands of bones closing in on him from all sides.
As Yuying’s waves of bones came closer and closer, Hui Ying soon found himself completely surrounded from all four sides. 
“You think this can stop me?!” Hui Ying roared in a somewhat panicking tone as a golden colored pearl appeared in his hand and released a blinding radiant glow.
“It’s not meant to stop you.” Zhang’s voice could be heard as he shot out from behind the wall of bones that surrounded Hui Ying. In but a flicker, Zhang’s sword entered through Hui Ying’s chest, pierced through his heart and came out through his back. On top of stabbing Hui Ying in the heart, as a precaution Zhang even went as far as igniting the Rising Moon Sword that was not lodged in Hui Ying’s body with Soul Devouring fire. Thus the Holy Son of the Golden Pearl Sect met his end before he could make use of the treasure he had just withdrawn from his interspatial ring.
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