To Rise Again In The Apocalypse

Li Xinwen stared at the last arrays that he needed to undo in order to remove the seal. He had been working on the seals for a few hours and had finally reached the last step. Unfortunately, he was already feeling exhausted. He glanced at the few empty bamboo tubes on his side. These bamboo tubes used to be filled with the spiritual lake water that Lanyu brought him.

"Should I call him again?" Li Xinwen wondered.

Before he could though, Lanyu already came in and brought another bamboo tube. "Master, the time for an incense stick to burn is already up in the outside world," Lanyu informed Li Xinwen. "Here, drink and recover your strength," Lanyu handed the tube to Li Xinwen.

Li Xinwen reached out to grab the tube, unscrew the cork that sealed the opening and drank it in one go. "Then, I guess I'll continue this next time. I'll leave, for now, Lanyu. Take care of everything here," Li Xinwen said as he handed the tube back to Lanyu before he left the dimension. 

When he returned to his room, Li Xinwen heard his phone ringing. Walking over to his table, he picked his phone up to see that it was Xue Rui who called.

"Hello?"

"Xinwen? Were you taking a bath?" Xue Rui asked from the other side of the line.

"Oh... En. I just finished bathing," Li Xinwen replied. A lie, but it didn't matter since there was no need for Xue Rui to know what he's been doing. "Why did you call?"

"It's about our lunch tomorrow. Lakeside Pavilion. My brother already reserved a private room for the whole afternoon," Xue Rui informed him.

"Your brother? Xue Jun or Xue Liang?"

"Jun-ge of course. Liang-ge is still out somewhere," Xue Rui quickly replied.

"En. Alright then," Li Xinwen went over to his bed and sat down by the edge. "But why is it your brother who does the reserving? Is he also coming along?"

"Ah... yes. He will," Xue Rui answered. "I told him about the apocalypse and he wanted to ask Jinghua more information about it," Xue Rui murmured softly.

"Hmm... that's actually good. I was going to get him into our group too. It might be good to have a military back-up," Li Xinwen told Xue Rui. "Is that all?"

"I... En. That's all," Xue Rui seemed to hesitate but in the end, decided not to say anything. "Good night, Xinwen. I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll see you tomorrow. Rui-ge, don't sleep too late. You should rest more for your recovery," Li Xinwen said before ending the call. He placed the phone on the table and plugged the charging cable on. Seeing the phone is now charging, Li Xinwen went over to take a quick shower. Only after cleaning himself did he return to his bed.

That night, Li Xinwen didn't know why but he felt tired the moment his head hit the pillow. Thinking that his soul might be tired from trying to undo the seals, he decided to close his eyes and entered a deep meditative state. When he did, he noticed that something was wrong. There was a foreign force pulling his consciousness out and he tried to defend himself. Unfortunately, he was too slow and darkness covered his awareness.

Luckily, the darkness didn't last long but when Li Xinwen became aware of his surrounding once again, he realized that he was no longer on his bed. Instead, he finds himself standing on a desolate patch of land. The land stretches for as long as he could see, but there was nothing surrounding him. Looking up, he saw that the sky was covered in dark cloud as if to show the despair and hopelessness.

'Not only that...' Li Xinwen looked over at the clothes he's wearing. The familiar colour of blue and white, the soft materials that covered his skin, it was the exact same as the one he used to wear back in Long Xing. 'But this place is not Long Xing. I don't know where this is but this place is deprived of any spiritual energy...'

"What is this? When I was told that there was a strong cultivator, I thought I would be able to find a good seedling," a voice suddenly came from behind Li Xinwen. The voice sounded languid but held a bewitching charm in it.

Li Xinwen himself felt that he had almost fallen into its influence. Thankfully, he was quick to snap out of it and bit down on his tongue, using the pain to distract himself from the charming effect. Turning around, he immediately took a defensive stance as he stared at the being before him. "Who are you? No, rather... What are you?" Li Xinwen's eyes never left the figure that stood in front of him.

The figure had a humanoid form, similar to that of a man. The clothing the man wore was just like a typical cultivator, with the exception, it was in black. Just like the voice that Li Xinwen heard before, even the face has a bewitching charm. The only exception is that there is three protruding horn on its head. Even in Long Xing, Li Xinwen had never seen someone like this before. The more Li Xinwen stared at the other's face, the more he felt that his soul was being pulled. When he realized what happened, Li Xinwen quickly shook his head and cleared his mind.

"Oh? It has been a while since I met someone who can remain clear-headed when they saw me. Most of these foolish mortals simply yield and pledged their allegiance over to me, to forever serve me. I am truly happy," the figure sounded impressed. "Maybe you are not that bad at all," he added with a chuckle as he approached Li Xinwen.

As if sensing danger, Li Xinwen jumped back and tried to summon Shuang Ren but the sword didn't appear. With a frown, he called out to Lanyu in his mind, but there was also no response from the spirit fairy. With a click of his tongue, Li Xinwen mobilised his spiritual energy stored within his dantian and guide them over to his hand, forming a sword made of ice.

"En. Such a terrifying expression. I guess this means that you do not plan on hearing me out? Did that righteous cultivator already told you about me?" the man asked Li Xinwen. His tone still carried that bewitching charm but at the same time, his eyes were cold and full of killing intent. "Such a shame. But I am feeling magnanimous tonight. After all, you are the first person to resist me while being in my dimension..."

"Enough talk. If you plan on trying to take me to your side, just give u-"

Before Li Xinwen could even finish, a blur of shadow appeared before him and he suddenly felt a surge of pain on his abdomen. Looking down, he saw a hand buried deep into his abdomen. Not long after, he felt the spiritual energy within him becoming more chaotic as demonic qi invades his dantian. As his spiritual energy actively fought against the intruding demonic qi1, Li Xinwen screamed as he experienced excruciating pain.

"Aaah... such a nice scream. Is it painful?" Li Xinwen heard the man ask as the hand was pulled out of him.

Li Xinwen's legs gave way but before he could truly fall on his knees, he quickly stabbed the sword made of ice to the ground to support his body. His other hand went to his abdomen and he quickly covered the wound with ice to temporarily stop the bleeding.

"Even if you cover them with ice to stop the bleeding, the demonic qi I injected in you has already worked its way to destroy your dantian. Once they did, they will proceed to destroy your meridians and in the end, you will become crippled," after saying that, the man's lips curved up into a cold smile before adding: "But, if you kneel before me, I will help you and it won't be as painful. In addition, I'll let you have the honour to be my personal furnace..."

A hand reached out to hold Li Xinwen's chin and he felt his face was lifted up. Li Xinwen grits his teeth as he glared at the man before him in defiance. Then, a smile also formed on his face but it was more of a mocking smile. "Kneel? Even if your whole family kneel before you, I will not kneel!"

Upon hearing Li Xinwen's reply, the man only let out a burst of laughter. When he's done, he looked at Li Xinwen for a while before showing Li Xinwen a sadistic grin. "Speaking of which... My servant told me about your brother's special. Mmn... A pure Yin and a pure Yang, if I can have both..."

When Li Xinwen heard that the man dared to covet Sun Xiao, a burst of rage bubbled up within him. "You dare..."

"Oh, I am. Why wouldn't I dare? Especially when I have the strength to do so. Ah, yes... I remember you asking who I am. Should I tell you?" the man leaned closer to Li Xinwen while staring into Li Xinwen's eyes. "Look into my eyes, and remember this name well. I am called An Wuya. This is the name of your master, and you will heed my words."

As Li Xinwen continued to listen to the bewitching voice, he felt his consciousness is slipping away.

"My words are law, and my orders are absolute..."

The voices continued to ring inside Li Xinwen's mind and his eyes became dull as if succ.u.mbing to the other's charm.

The demon saw this and a smirk formed on his face. "I will send your soul back, and you will then bring your brother to meet with me. Only then will I help you with the demonic qi inside you."

Li Xinwen parted his lips, about to answer but suddenly, a familiar voice sounded in his mind.

'No! You promised to protect my family in return for giving you my body!'

The voice was so clear and it helped Li Xinwen snap out of the demon's influence. Li Xinwen knew the voice belongs to the original, reminding him of his promise. In his anger, Li Xinwen tightened his grip on his ice sword and swung them towards the man before him.

An Wuya had been confident that Li Xinwen had fallen for his charm, so he did not expect that Li Xinwen would attack him. Because of that, he was unable to dodge in time and the tip of Li Xinwen's ice sword grazed him slightly. Having felt that he had been humiliated by someone of a lower realm than him, An Wuya was livid. Gone was his carefree expression which he used to look down on Li Xinwen and it was replaced with a furious look.

"To refuse a toast from this lord... then allow this lord to force you to drink a forfeit instead!" An Wuya went to attack Li Xinwen, but he only managed to take a step forward when he saw Li Xinwen's pupil turned to a shade of purple. Soon after, he received an injury to his soul and he ended up coughing blood. "You-! You dared to do soul attack with your current condition? Do you want to die?!"

Li Xinwen didn't lower his guard as he continued to stare at An Wuya with Moyan activated. He knew that the moment he lost sight of An Wuya, he might end up dead. 'Might? No, if I lower my guard, I will die... since the chance of surviving is zero, I may as well take a gamble. At the very least, if I could injure him or even take him down, Ah'Xiao will be safe...'

Although that was what Li Xinwen was thinking, he could already feel his consciousness slipping away. The pain from his spiritual energy and demonic qi opposing each other was too much for him to bear. Li Xinwen once again focused all his strength into his eyes and used Moyan to convey his attack on An Wuya once again.

Unlike attacks using spiritual energies, a soul attack can only be defended by counter-attacking using one's, own soul. Thus, only the one with the stronger soul will win. When An Wuya saw that Li Xinwen once again, prepared to unleash another soul attack, he became angrier.

"Such puny ant dared to oppose me this much! Let this lord teach you a final lesson before this lord scatters your soul!" An Wuya roared as he unleashed his own soul attack. He was confident that his soul was stronger than Li Xinwen but the moment their soul clashed, his eyes widened in surprise. In a panic, he quickly withdrew, but it also meant that he suffered huge damage to his soul. An Wuya suffered another bout of blood coughing as he fearfully stared at Li Xinwen.

"You... how come your soul is at Kongming stage?!" Qi is spiritual energy. Demonic Spiritual Energy sounds too long so I'll just use Qi. Just remember they are interchangeable.