Hei Lou Lan had found what made her truly her.
Her drive, ambition, and her desire for power, love, affection, recognition, and above all else freedom!
This was what made a person a person.
More than just having the same memories, the same body, or even the same soul.
It was about having the same drive and desire the same ambition!
Take Ying Guang Xin for example, right now she no longer has the same drive, body, memory, or even soul of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable.
Yet she was still living her life as if she were, this was fine until her eyes were opened by Feng Jiu Ge.
"What am I alive for? Who am I? Am I still just a remnant soul of the main body? No, I was reincarnated. Do I owe the main body a debt of gratitude? Maybe but to what extent? Surely not to the extent of becoming an indentured servant for life."
Ying Guang Xin continued to ponder her thoughts as she took her time climbing the stairs.
Seeing that she was the one lagging behind Hei Lou Lan decided to target her first.
Stepping onto the 1st step; boundless pressure descended upon her.
Yet as she was getting accustomed to the weight Effort Gu began to emit an invisible barrier around her that greatly lightened the load.
Yes! This was another part of Reckless's arrangements, the accumulated Effort Hei Lou Lan had put in at the start was now bearing fruit.
"Truly the Effort of one is invisible to others." Hei Lou Lan smiled at the opportunity.
She made great haste up the stairs.
Ying Guang Xin was still obliviously lost in thought.
Hei Lou Lan traversed 10 steps while the others had only advanced 1, with Zhan Bu Du barely squeaking by each time.
At this point, his body was almost completely exhausted of energy but he was determined!
The one desire that unified all of Fang Yuan, Eternity!
That desire fueled his determination to keep going.
Hei Lou Lan made another 10 steps, and the others went up 1.
Soon Hei Lou Lan was just 1 step behind Ying Guang Xin.
She donned the Supreme King Totem.
The tattoo glowed with a blood-red savage light.
A faint illusory phantom of beast armor encasing Hei Lou Lan could be seen.
Then suddenly the phantoms turned from illusory to reality!
The armor now existed in the physical world, giving Hei Lou Lan a massive boost.
Feeling the sudden burst of power Ying Guang Xin turned to look at what was causing the commotion.
"Hmph, Hei Lou Lan you're still alive begone," Ying Guang Xin shot a ball of Soul energy at Hei Lou Lan.
But instead of dodging Hei Lou Lan merely grabbed forward and extinguished the attack.
Ying Guang Xin raised her eyebrows in surprise: "Oh? It seems Reckless gave you some good stuff. Looks like I'll have to get serious."
Ying Guang Xin cracked her neck and fingers.
Hei Lou Lan did likewise: "But before we start, I let you get one cheap shot in now it's your turn."
Before Ying Guang Xin could scoff at Hei Lou Lan a fist was already fast approaching her face!
Ying Guang Xin grabbed at the fist with her hands, stopping it mere inches from her face.
"Hmph, that the best you g.."
Hei Lou Lan's left fist sucker-punched Ying Guang Xin in the gut right before she finished her sentence.
The punch sent her flying across the step [1]
Ying Guang Xin's body somersaulted in mid-air as she flew backward, her feet left a trail of dust on the floor as she slowed the knockback.
When the dust cleared Ying Guang Xin's body was emitting an illusory blue light.
Similar to Hei Lou Lan, Ying Guang Xin had coated her body in Soul Path Dao Marks.
Hei Lou Lan soon burst out from the dust and pounced onto Ying Guang Xin.
"Hmph, brute."
Immortal Killer Move ---------- Soul Chains
Blue chains constructed from Soul Path burst forth from Ying Guang Xin in an attempt to restrain Hei Lou Lan.
Immortal Totem Second Form ---------- Biao Flight!
A pair of wings appeared behind Hei Lou Lan as she soared through the air dodging the pursuing chains.
This caused Ying Guang Xin to frown.
"Petty tricks."
Ying Guang Xin ripped out a chunk of the blue phantom aura surrounding her and gathered it onto her hands, she then blew the chunk into the air.
Immortal Killer Move ---------- Soul-Beast Creation.
The blue aura turned into Immemorial Flying Soul Beasts and chased Hei Lou Lan.
In total there were 10 of them.
But rather than just mindlessly flying, Ying Guang Xin was expertly controlling them.
This was a form of Soul Path mimicking Enslavement Path!
As they were formed from Ying Guang Xin's soul, she needed mere thought to control them.
But the influx of information 10 pairs of eyes gave her was a bit overwhelming.
"Hmm, after this I need to take Wisdom Path as a side," She thought before sending her full concentration onto the Soul Beasts.
An ariel battle soon occurred as the 10 Soul Beast used their perfect cooperation to attack Hei Lou Lan from the back while blocking her from attacking Ying Guang Xin.
"Tch, how annoying," Hei Lou Lan thought to herself.
She was still adjusting to flying with the wings and, this was with just 2 there were 4 more wings at her disposal.
At this moment everyone was watching the fight between these 2 especially Spectral Soul Demon Venerable who was holding his Rook piece, ready to act at a moment's notice.
The only person not paying attention to the fight was Zhan Bu Du!
He was relying on pure instincts to keep on climbing.
"I…m…must g…go on f…for E…eternity!"
Hei Lou Lan was slowly getting accustomed to flying: "I think I'm getting the hang of it let's bump it up a notch."
Immortal Totem Second Form ------- Biao 2
The second pair of wings burst forth from Hei Lou Lan and her speed doubled!
But the sudden burst of speed made it hard for Hei Lou Lan to steer as she now had to work with not only twice the speed but also twice the difficulty in controlling the wings.
At first, she could not get the 2 wings in sync, when she wanted to fly right her top pair flapped its right wing to steer right but the bottom pair flapped its left wing.
This cause Hei Lou Lan to spin, luckily this threw off the opponent just as much.
But she was still receiving more and more attacks because of it: "This won't do if I keep this up, I'll exhaust the energy of the Totem!"
Hei Lou Lan was done playing around.
She stopped in her tracks and hovered in midair.
The 10 Soul-Beast soon surrounded her.
Ying Guang Xin was squinting her eyes: "What is she planning? No matter; fire!"
The Soul Beasts charged up a Soul Breath attack and just as they were about to fire Hei Lou Lan acted!
Immortal Totem Second Form ---------- Biao 3!
The 3rd pair of wings appeared, and her speed was now triple the initial!
She flapped all 6 at once and burst forward, aimed at…
Ying Guang Xin!
This caught Ying Guang Xin off guard as Hei Lou Lan's speed was too fast for her thoughts, luckily the beasts had some instincts and dove for Hei Lou Lan, but it was too late.
Coupled with the momentum of her speed Hei Lou Lan's hand pierced through Ying Guang Xin's stomach.
Ying Guang Xin coughed a mouthful of blood
The attack shocked her, and she was coughing and panting: "*Cough* *huff* You should have gone for the head,"
At that moment a torrent of Soul Path came crashing down on where Ying Guang Xin and Hei Lou Lan stood.
Spectral Soul Demon Venerable had activated both his Rook and Queen!
The Soul Path Dao Marks rejuvenated and healed Ying Guang Xin's Yin Body while decaying away at the Supreme King Totem.
In the midst of the Soul Torrent Ying Guang Xin pushed Hei Lou Lan aside and activated the Soul Chains once again.
Under the baptism of Soul Path Dao Marks, the chains were incredibly strong now!
Hei Lou Lan struggled against the chains but each time she broke one another would take its place.
"Dammit if I keep this up I will not have enough energy to fight Zhan Bu Du!"
Despite the boundless Soul Path Dao Marks pouring down on her Hei Lou Lan was not phased because Reckless had imbued his specialty of Transformation Path onto the Supreme King Totem.
It had the feature of adapting its user's Dao Marks into the same type as the attack it received!
This helped greatly dampen the effects of an attack.
Ying Guang Xin was unaware and was smiling to herself: "Oh, Hei Lou Lan you were too cocky you should have spent time adjusting to your newfound strength first what a pity but after you die maybe I can create my first Split Soul and use your body as my future servant. I think you'll make a great guard."
At that moment Hei Lou Lan's arms suddenly burst forth and grabbed Ying Guang Xin's neck!
She gripped onto it tightly as Ying Guang Xin kept pushing back against Hei Lou Lan.
"*Cough* How are you still alive???"
Panic was in her voice, for the first time ever Ying Guang Xin truly felt the fear of death.
As a split soul, she was never worried about death as it was irrelevant to her, of course, she was willing to die for the main body.
But now that she had a life of her own, she was starting to rethink her decision and now with the threat of death so close, she began to feel regret!
She craved for a life of her own now, not one dedicated by the whims of others, she wanted to live the life that she had been given, that she had not known before.
The torrent of Soul Path was keeping her body alive, but Hei Lou Lan's grip did not falter.
"Tch, I didn't want to do this,"
Ying Guang Xin was desperate and activated her trump card.
Immortal Killer Move --------- Yin To Yang!
Immediately the torrent of Soul Path was sucked into Ying Guang Xin and converted to Yang Path!
Ying Guang Xin's body began to grow, her height reached 2 meters and her fair and smooth skin became rugged and rough, her delicate body soon began to swell with strength.
Ying Guang Xin had turned into a male!
Her body was now flowing with Yang Path which was not 1 Path by itself.
Yang Path was the epitome of Power. Everything that exerted Power was Yang Path, things like Light and Fire were the most direct but also Heaven and Strength Path!
Yin Path was the opposite, and it took Power, Soul and Death were an example but so were Ice, and Human Path!
Yes, that's right Human Path was Yin in nature, Humans always take from others to use and empower themselves they were pioneers of Yin Path.
Whether it was from the Earth or from Heaven or even from other Humans! It was never enough for Humans whose insatiable desire was one of the strongest elements of Yin Path.
Now Ying Guang Xin was a bulking figure of a man.
Just turning his neck produced cracking noises.
Ying Guang Xin pounded his fists together: "Round 2 let's go!"
He instantly let out a punch, Hei Lou Lan returned in kind.
Their fists collided and shockwaves were sent throughout the entire Path Of Ascension and Descension!
[1] Sorry while writing this I realized I did not mention the dimensions of each step it has been added in the previous chapter for future readers but for those here, each step is 800 meters in length and, 80 in width with a height of 8 meters.
Phew taking a one-day break really let me gather my creativity back.
I think moving forward I'll be taking Saturdays off. I'm very sorry but it is too exhausting doing 1 chapter a day on top of my job I hope you guys understand :)
P.s with this chapter, it marks over 100k words! Woohoo I still can't believe I've typed this much I hope to see you all at the finish line.