The Asura Evil Ghost form had been unleashed, and Feng Qi's reason was slipping away.
To be precise, the rational part of his main consciousness was being completely taken over by his negative persona.
Left hand gripped the Ghost Blade, right hand held the Demon Blade.
Gray and black flames ignited over his body, spreading along the blades, from the hilts to their tips.
With both blades raised, it was like a demon's wings had spread wide.
A twisted, crazed grin crept onto Feng Qi's face. He crouched low, eyes fixed on the dozen or so ancient beings before him, letting out a beast-like snarl.
His body coiled like a tightened spring, ready to explode.
As he leaned forward, his muscles tensed and burst with power, his figure tearing through the air, leaving afterimages as he charged straight at them.
Facing his attack, these ancient beings didn't dare underestimate him.
The aura of evil radiating from Feng Qi crushed down on them, as if what was coming wasn't a man, but a pure evil spirit.
They stomped the ground in unison, chanting in some ancient tongue.
Immediately, the spiritual energy in the air surged towards them, converging on their bodies. Their muscles swelled, bulging like solid steel, glowing with a metallic sheen.
The two leading figures stepped forward to meet Feng Qi head-on.
One had two heads and stood over three meters tall, vicious and brutish.
The other was about two meters, with a blue face and sharp fangs, like a demon from hell.
They absorbed the spiritual energy, condensing strange crimson weapons in their hands.
These weapons were shaped like war axes, but the blades were lined with rows of jagged teeth.
As Feng Qi closed in, he lifted the Ghost Blade.
The moment it clashed with the energy axes, gray energy surged forward, seeping into the weapons.
In the blink of an eye, the axes began to corrode, disintegrating like weathered stone into gray mist.
The Ghost Blade didn't slow down, slicing straight through their bodies.
Like a stone cast into a lake, ripples spread across their forms as gray rapidly crept along their flesh.
"Heh."
Feng Qi's grin widened. His right hand raised the Demon Blade high.
Black light surged around it, the blade stretching to dozens of meters long, crashing down like a black mountain.
Before they could react, the two ancient beings were smashed into the ground, their bodies bursting into clouds of blood mist.
With a flick of his wrist, the black light around the Demon Blade faded, and it returned to normal.
At the same time, his left hand thrust out to the side.
From what seemed like empty space, black blood sprayed as an invisible ancient being was revealed.
The moment the Ghost Blade pierced it, it was dragged into Feng Qi's negative mental domain, frozen in place.
The Demon Blade came crashing down.
Crack!
A sharp snap of bone echoed, and as the blade hit, the ancient being was cleaved into mist.
In this Asura Evil Ghost form, Feng Qi didn't even pause.
He leapt into the air, the Ghost Blade flickering silver-gray under the faint moonlight.
As he swung it, gray crescent-shaped blade energy shot down.
Wherever it passed, ancient beings froze in place, gray spots appearing on their bodies and spreading rapidly.
As Feng Qi landed heavily, crouching and pushing off, he lunged again like a hunting beast.
The Ghost Blade spun in his hand.
And the Demon Blade, now fused with his very being, flowed as an extension of his body. Even with his mind slipping into madness, he wielded it flawlessly.
His figure became a streak of black lightning, weaving through the enemy.
When he came to a halt, blades sheathed, the ancient beings behind him collapsed one after another, their bodies exploding.
Feng Qi slowly turned, a crazed grin on his face.
The fight wasn't over.
With their flesh destroyed, these ancient beings now showed their soul forms.
They looked eerily similar to the fog-form of the Lord of Mist, but leaned more towards energy than mist.
Freed from their physical shells, their forms no longer cobbled together from stolen bodies, grew massive.
Their souls burned crimson, over ten meters tall, twisted horns jutting from their foreheads.
The pressure they gave off now was far beyond what it had been.
The Ghost Blade alone couldn't cut their soul forms, a clear sign of their strength.
Their crimson souls glared at Feng Qi, and with flickers of light, they surrounded him, chanting as countless black runes shot toward him.
Feng Qi swung both blades at once.
Any rune that touched either blade shattered instantly.
But more and more runes kept appearing, closing in from every direction.
Feng Qi's blade swings quickly fell behind the endless surge of black runes. His body was instantly engulfed, and the runes that touched him sank into his body like water soaking into soil.
At that moment, the world before Feng Qi changed.
He realized he had been dragged into his own spiritual sea, and his nearly suppressed main consciousness awakened.
Black matter kept seeping into his spiritual sea, corroding it bit by bit.
At the same time, eerie, demonic figures began to form inside his spiritual sea.
These figures resembled the ancient soul forms from the outside world, eyes shut tight, slowly stirring as the black matter grew, inching closer to full awakening.
The first one woke up quickly.
It lunged at Feng Qi's consciousness like a starving beast.
Facing this attempt at possession, Feng Qi's spirit retaliated at once. Waves of his will turned into golden light, trapping the soul-beast.
But it wasn't alone. Over a dozen more surged at him in a frenzy, trying to possess him together. Feng Qi's heart turned cold.
Taking his body wasn't going to be that easy.
The Eighteen Trials of the Blood Soul Clan's cultivation platform in the Future Dream Realm had massively strengthened his mental resilience and willpower.
Normal possession didn't faze him.
Even this group attack wasn't enough to shake him.
Unlike Po Jia's fragile mental state, Feng Qi's will radiated golden light, guiding the golden liquid of his spiritual sea, burning mental energy to fight these soul beasts.
The battle on the spiritual plane erupted.
But soon, Feng Qi noticed something was wrong.
These strange soul beings were laying out a soul formation inside his spiritual sea, something he had never seen before.
Formed entirely from pure spiritual power, this soul formation sped up the corrosion of his mind.
That's when the Demon Blade appeared in his spiritual sea.
"Bro Blade!"
"Relax, I'm stepping in this time. Possession? They're just trying to steal my turf!" the Demon Blade said in a low voice.
At the same time, the Negative Persona showed up too.
"Boss, want me to unleash that power sealed deep in your heart and crush their minds?"
Hearing this, Feng Qi shook his head without hesitation.
What a joke.
Unleashing the suppressed negative emotions might wipe these soul beings out in an instant, but he'd suffer just as badly.
If he couldn't control that negativity, he could forget about challenging Jian Ji.
Back in the old sacrifice timeline, he had to overdose on mental-soothing agents daily just to keep the negativity in check.
Only after enduring the Eighteen Trials did he gain real control over it.
If he ever let that demon out, he wouldn't even need the Negative Persona's help—he'd turn into a true devil himself.
Even if he managed to force it back down, things wouldn't end well.
In the last sacrifice timeline, he often slipped into dementia from the lack of those calming agents.
His mind would break, just like old age senility.
Unless these soul beasts stepped into the forbidden zone of his spiritual sea, he would never willingly let that demon loose.
Letting out that negativity was like using the Seven Wounds Fist—hurting the enemy a thousand, but wounding yourself eight hundred.
With the Demon Blade here, he could relax.
Just as he thought, the Demon Blade unleashed its power.
Not acting before didn't mean the Demon Blade's spirit wasn't strong.
This ancient being had lived over a thousand years, his will sharpened by countless God Ascension Challenges, unshaken by these soul beasts.
Feng Qi joined in too, fighting alongside the Demon Blade, cutting down the soul beasts waking in his spiritual sea.
As these ancient beings died, his spiritual sea began to change.
When the Demon Blade killed them, their soul energy scattered and merged into Feng Qi's mind.
Crimson starlight slowly lit up his golden spiritual sea.
These lights were the condensed soul energy of the fallen soul beasts, absorbed into his mind.
Feng Qi could clearly feel his mental strength rising steadily.
This surprise caught him off guard.
What seemed like a brutal fight turned into a farming session.
With the Demon Blade taking the lead, these soul beasts didn't stand a chance.
The moment the Demon Blade was forged, Chao Tian had vanished, and his consciousness became one with the blade.
Even as a spirit, the Demon Blade's edge was unmatched.
Its goal was to kill Jian Ji, to sever miracles.
These soul beasts were nothing.
Every time the Demon Blade killed one, its soul energy turned into a crimson light in Feng Qi's spiritual sea.
Soon, the sky above the spiritual sea was filled with crimson starlight.
The barriers of the spiritual sea grew even stronger after absorbing large amounts of soul energy.
The ancient beings channeling their clansmen's soul forms into Feng Qi's spiritual sea realized something was wrong.
They were very familiar with the process of flesh possession.
Normally, when a target was possessed by their clansmen, the target's body would start changing to resemble their race.
For example, muscle structure would shift, skin would turn crimson, and so on.
But Feng Qi's form remained exactly the same.
More importantly, not even a trace of soul mist from their clan appeared on him.
Aside from showing no signs of being possessed, they also noticed that Feng Qi's spiritual sea barriers were visibly strengthening, and the soul marks of their clan were sinking in slower and slower.
Sensing danger, they stopped at once.
In their view, the soul marks covering Feng Qi's body faded rapidly.
Feng Qi, who had been standing with eyes shut, slowly opened them.
With clarity returning, his condition began to deteriorate sharply.
"Taihang!" Feng Qi roared.
"Aw!"
Taihang, understanding at once, quickly shook the Nightmare Bell.
As his main persona was suppressed again, Feng Qi's Asura Demon form reactivated, and his aura surged.
The gray flames in his left eye looked like a hell of destruction, filled with madness, extinction, and pure evil.
The black flames in his right eye reflected a hell of slaughter, radiating killing intent, death, and an overwhelming will to cut down everything.
The extinguished flames on both the Ghost Blade and Demon Blade reignited.
Feng Qi slowly raised both blades, a twisted grin spreading across his face.
Sensing the fury sealed deep within Feng Qi, the Negative Persona swung both blades at once, and gray and black blade energy poured forward like a violent storm.
"Hahahaha!"
Raspy, crazed laughter rang out as cracks formed across Feng Qi's body.
But in his berserk state, he didn't care about his body at all, continuing to swing his blades, with a tornado of blade energy forming.
Even though the soul beasts had already been shattered, he still didn't stop.
After a long while, Feng Qi was drenched in blood.
He turned, eyes cold and filled with evil, staring at Po Jia who was still hanging by the energy ropes in the distance.
The Ghost Blade slowly lifted.
At that moment, Taihang suddenly stopped shaking the Nightmare Bell.
The Negative Persona also cut off the supply of negative energy.
The Ghost Blade in his hand faded away, and the sinister gray armor on his left side vanished too.
Freed, the main persona instantly took back control of the body.
As Feng Qi snapped back to reality, a chill ran down his spine.
Just now, he had almost killed Po Jia.
Thankfully, Taihang and the Negative Persona reacted fast, preventing a disaster, but he still felt shaken.
Looking up at Po Jia, he saw a misty soul beast still floating above his body.
Walking over, Feng Qi placed his hand on Po Jia's forehead.
What he discovered made him frown.
Po Jia was in bad shape—his mind had merged completely with the soul beast.
Feng Qi couldn't tell if Po Jia's mind was dominant, or if it was the soul beast's. He didn't even know if Po Jia was alive or dead.
He recalled Po Jia's warning when they first arrived here.
He leaned toward believing Po Jia was still alive.
Just then, the Demon Blade's voice echoed in his mind:
"If Po Jia's still alive, and he can endure the risk of mental collapse, he might actually benefit from this. Those soul beings you just fought weren't ordinary. They must be remnants from some ancient, powerful clan. I've never seen beings that lost their flesh yet still had such strong soul forms."
"You only managed to kill them by sheer luck. If they had been at full power, even I, at my peak, might not have beaten them."
Feng Qi was stunned.
"You mean if Po Jia can absorb that soul beast inside him, he could gain its power?"
"Not its power. Just part of its abilities."
"Damn, I absorbed so many of them. How come I didn't get any of those abilities?"
"You crushed their souls completely and just absorbed the soul energy. That's not the same as merging. Plus, your spiritual sea has grown at least twice as strong, and you got some hidden enhancements out of it. Be satisfied."
While they chatted, Taihang suddenly came over and pawed at the hem of Feng Qi's black robe.
Looking down, Feng Qi saw Taihang holding a crimson bead in his mouth.
Curious, Feng Qi squatted down and took the bead.
Inside, countless black specks were swimming around. Looking closer, Feng Qi was shocked to see that these specks were actually curled-up, dormant soul beasts.