The Geared Immortal

The Aftermath part 1

/*unedited*/

In a muddy and uneven pathway slowly traverses a long line of wagons. The atmosphere exuding from each of the wooden wagons is truly a gloomy and a depressing one. Once in a while, one can hear faint sobbing of a woman or a child.

This convoy is The Roc's Eye merchant group traveling caravan. After spending at least a week in the town of Snowpeach their preparation was completed and began their journey towards the great city of Wu.

Inside the last wagon which is painted in black is a group of 10 people. Unlike the other wagons, this group's atmosphere is serene and calm. The people in this wagon are Shin Jiao with the two women, Jiyi and Jie Ye and the two kids, then Jin Fu and his family, Elder Jugs, and Lily Chen, the girl with a hidden half-beast aura.

Some of their companions were left in the town, as they have already decided to stay there. Though the town was devastated, with the help of Princess Xinge Lee and the remaining army of cultivators she brought, they began to rebuild the town with her authority acting as a temporary mayor. There are those who decided to stay in town but there are also some who decided to travel with the Roc's Eye merchant group caravan to forget the horror they have suffered in the hands of the necromancer Su Aw.

…

While traveling, Shin Jiao turns his gaze towards the horizon and remembers what happened at the time in the village of Yong where he faced the Vile Soul essence of Vexi Muxin.

He laid a trap for the ghost as the thing though he is unable to see its appearance. As a powerful ghost cultivator, Vexi Muxin is already able to control his spectral body. He is able to hide from normal cultivators below the nascent soul realm. But unknown to him, Shin Jiao's special goggles are able to detect his aura whether he suppresses it or not.

The design of the goggles came from Gubu, who is a talented artifact craftsman and also a powerful cultivator at the World Nascent realm.

Shin Jiao has already learned the process of making the hallowed ground. With his crafting ability, he was able to miniaturize it into an array formation plate. With it, Shin Jiao was able to trap Vexi Muxin's soul outside and the pure soul essence went to his hand.

When Vexi Muxin lost the soul essence his soul immediately return to normal. And the desperation in his now visible expression can clearly be seen by Shin Jiao.

"No… You… you tricked me! Give me the soul essence back. It's mine! It's mine!" like a howling wind, Vexi Muxin's voice echoed outside the boundary of the hallowed ground array.

No matter how hard he wanted to reach out and touch the soul essence floating on Shin Jiao's palm he is unable to breach the golden field which surrounded Shin Jiao's body. His action instead causes his soul to be purified.

A normal soul is white and translucent, but because of the negative karma and souls the Vexi Muxin has devoured, his soul turns black.

But right now, as he stretched forth his hands and touched the golden field black smoke would evaporate from his darkened soul. And as the black smoke rises, Vexi Muxin can feel the power leaving him.

"You wanted this right? Come get it!" Shin Jiao said as he stretched forth his hand.

Upon seeing this Vexi Muxin immediately flew back. He already knows that if he touches Shin Jiao his powers would all vanished. All his hard work and effort would be for naught. This time all he can think of is how to get the soul essence and escape. On the other hand, Shin Jiao is also at a dilemma, though he is able to protect himself against the power of the dark ghost, yet he is also unable to hurt it. His only option is to fight it in hand-to-hand combat.

This time, Shin Jiao truly wished he could go to town and read some cultivation books so that he can analyze and learn how to manipulate Qi spells. Because what he knows right now are just bits and pieces of knowledge from those cultivators he has met on his travels.

"This is not the time to hesitate. I need to end this now!" Shin Jiao thought as he suddenly attack the black ghost in front of him.

But Vexi Muxin has already anticipated this, and immediately flew to the air and out of Shin Jiao's reach. Seeing that his enemy is trying to run away, Shin Jiao immediately infused enough amount of natural energy in his handgun bullets. This way the balance of holy mana he is able to put in the bullet would be enough to cause damage.

He immediately empties a whole cartridge of magazine bullets at the floating black ghost.

Upon his escape, Vexi Muxin showed Shin Jiao a scornful look as the young man is unable to reach him. Plus the movement of the young man is easy to predict for him who is an old and once-powerful cultivator.

But before he can react he suddenly felt that his spectral body became weak. Then he discovers that multiple circular fist-sized holed has torn open his dark body, now revealing pure translucent white. Then the power began to weaken as the amount of dark Qi he has accumulated was immediately down by a fourth.

"You! I will kill you!" Vexi Muxin howled in a voice like that of a banshee.

Shin Jiao expected the dark ghost to attack, so he prepares to fire another round. But to his surprise, Vexi Muxin actually ran away like the wind. Yet, Shin Jiao didn't hesitate and fire off many rounds while chasing the black ghost. What was once a black ghost now turns almost transparent, it is clear that not even half of his power is left.

In desperation, Vexi Muxin suddenly had an idea. Without hesitation, he dove down to the ground.

When Shin Jiao saw this he wanted to stop the ghost by casting a fireball but he only hit the feet of the now grayed ghost as his body has already dived deep in the ground.

"Damn it! I didn't expect this thing to be so crafty." Shin Jiao muttered in helplessness.

He knows that his preparation lack offense, as he never expected to face such a slippery opponent this time. Without a choice, he dejectedly returns towards Su Aw and sees the situation.

"What is that?" Shin Jiao muttered as he saw the spirit of a beautiful woman standing beside Su Aw.

"I guess this is what happens when someone dies right." He thought.

Su Aw right now is already at his limits. Without the soul essence, he is practically a mortal as the soul essence has already taken every bit of his power. And right now beside him stood a beautiful lady, he knows this lady as she grew with him in the village of Yong. She has proven herself to him by not leaving him even in his darkest hour.

The woman is… Mer Li.

Her beautiful and calming smile made his heart warm. Though he didn't know why Mer Li is the one he is seeing right now, only her semi-transparent face seems to interchange with his wife Lingling's face. Su Aw could not utter any words anymore as he slowly feel his strength leaving him and the slowly fading beating of his heart is the only sound that can be heard.

Then… his eyes slowly close, but a contented smile is on his face. He knows that he had done a long of wrong in his life. Because of his desire for revenge, he was blinded and used by the vile soul essence. But seeing her for the last time, he is already contented. If ever he would face retribution, then so be it.

When Su Aw closes his eyes, his soul was lifted from his body by the woman and both of them banished like the wind.

"Sigh… I guess this is the end." Shin Jiao muttered as he looks at the soul essence silently floating in his palm.

Shin Jiao immediately flew towards where Jiyi is hiding.

"Master Shin, is it finished? Did you kill the necromancer? I mean that black ghost thing?" Jiyi asked as she saw Shin Jiao approached her.

She is currently standing on a thick branch of a tree and wearing Shin Jiao's glasses. Though she didn't see everything, still she was able to perceive the fight.

"Yeah… I guess so. I also got this." Shin Jiao replied as he showed Jiyi the soul essence.

"The problem now is how…" Shin Jiao wanted to ask, but suddenly the calmly floating soul essence on his hand began to rotate.

Then Jiyi suddenly felt something from within her dantian.

"Master Shin… I… I feel…" Jiyi muttered as she unconsciously extended her hand towards the glowing rotating ball of light on Shin Jiao's palm.

Shin Jiao wanted to put back the soul essence, but he suddenly saw it flying towards Jiyi's hands. It acted like an excited lost sprite meeting its master at last.

When Jiyi's hand touches the soul essence, it immediately enters her meridian like a wisp of smoke and flows through towards her dantian. Then from within her dantian, it actually nestled on a special space that seems to be already reserved for it.

Jiyi closes her eyes, while Shin Jiao looks at her dumbfounded.

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