Chapter 380 – The Final Battle (3): Don’t Fade Away
A dark figure slowly materialized.
Tu Ran stared unblinkingly as the shadow became clearer.
It was Hache Bulu.
It had to be Hache Bulu’s doing.
Tu Ran scrambled to her feet. “Where is this? Why did you bring me here?”
Hache Bulu didn’t look much different from before, except he was now clean—just like how he had been before their battle. He extended his hand toward Tu Ran, his long fingers curling in a beckoning motion. “Let’s duel with our souls. If the soul dies, the body follows.”
After a long silence, Tu Ran curled her lips and sneered, “…So, you can’t beat me in the real world, so you dragged me into the soul realm?”
Hache Bulu, as though his tail had been stepped on, grew agitated. “It’s not up to you to say no. I’ll make sure you stay here forever!”
As he spoke, a beam of light extended from the center of his forehead, connecting directly to Tu Ran’s head.
A chill flashed in Tu Ran’s eyes. She reached out to pull at the beam, but her hand grasped nothing but air.
She stepped back, but the line extended along with her. She turned around, and the line twisted and followed her movement.
“What is this?!” Tu Ran raised her voice and demanded.
Hache Bulu no longer seemed to hear her. He had only one thought in his mind: to trap Tu Ran here forever.
The disdain and contempt were gone from his blue eyes. Now, he saw Tu Ran as his true opponent. His killing intent filled his gaze, and his soul radiated a dark, oppressive aura.
“Die!”
Suddenly, Tu Ran’s head was wracked with pain, as if thousands of needles were stabbing into her brain all at once. The pain made her stagger, but with the last bit of her strength, she lunged at Hache Bulu—only to pass straight through him. He was incorporeal. She hit the ground hard, clutching her head with both hands.
“Ah—!”
Countless needles churned and twisted inside her head, the agony overwhelming.
She wasn’t supposed to feel pain. Even when she pinched herself, she had never felt anything before. So why? Why did it hurt so much now?
At that moment, the air seemed to thin, and her heart twisted painfully, its erratic beats echoing in her chest.
Tu Ran’s face turned deathly pale. She bit her lower lip so hard that beads of blood seeped out, yet she felt no pain from her mouth. Trembling, she pulled her hands away from her head and braced herself on the ground to sit up. Tilting her head back, she drew in a shaky breath. Sweat drenched her forehead as her gaze locked on Hache Bulu.
His eyes were tightly shut, his impossibly long lashes concealing most of his expression. That elusive thread connecting them shimmered with an otherworldly glow.
Damn Hache Bulu!
She needed to strike back! To make him suffer this unbearable pain as well!
What were the rules of this duel?
Hache Bulu hadn’t explained them to her.
Through the haze of pain threatening to make her pass out, Tu Ran clung to a shred of reason, forcing herself to think.
Superpowers didn’t work.
This wasn’t a physical attack.
She had been dragged into the soul realm.
The thread extending from her head…
Mental power!
This was a battle of mental power!
Tu Ran immediately visualized herself piloting a mecha, focusing all her mental energy into the center of her forehead.
Sure enough, the pain eased slightly.
She took a shaky breath of relief. Her body, rigid from the earlier waves of excruciating pain, twitched involuntarily as the tension released. She ignored it, concentrating fully on gathering every ounce of her mental energy and channeling it into her forehead.
Hache Bulu’s words replayed in her mind over and over.
If the soul dies, the body dies too.
She couldn’t die.
Before being pulled into the soul realm from her mecha cockpit, she had glanced at the display board. Her mental energy level: 72%.
That gave her a small sense of reassurance. Seventy-two percent was plenty.
She could afford to outlast him.
In the vast, tranquil void, one stood while the other knelt on one knee. Both had their eyes tightly shut, and between their foreheads, a glowing thin line connected them.
The thin line itself flickered, its pulsations growing faster as the mental battle intensified.
But now, the line began to tremble ever so slightly.
Tu Ran gritted her teeth, her brow furrowing deeper with each passing moment.
67%, 52%, 41%, 28%, 11%…
Though she couldn’t see her mental energy’s progress, she could feel it draining rapidly.
Meanwhile, Hache Bulu’s mental output remained steady.
The situation was dire.
4%.
2%.
1%.
Pff!
Blood poured from Tu Ran’s mouth in great, wrenching gulps. The pain in her head was so intense it tore at her senses, making it impossible to maintain her crouching position. She curled up on the ground, clutching her head.
Blood continued to pour from her nose and mouth, pooling on the pristine white floor. Her body convulsed from the pain, and her clothes became soaked with it.
Her chest and back were covered in her own blood.
Meanwhile, in the real world, in her mecha cockpit, she stood upright. Yet, just like in the soul realm, blood slowly seeped from her body—not in the violent gush of the soul realm, but quietly and slowly from her seven orifices.
Her clothes were already soaked in the dark stain of her own blood.
Her life was slipping away fast, nearing its end.
“Tu Ran! Hold on! It’ll be over soon, just hold on, please don’t fade away, don’t fade away… I have life-sharing… I’ll share it with you…”
A choked sob came from the chest of the Red Crown Tribe Leader, her trembling hands cradling Tu Ran in the corner of the mecha cockpit, her back pressed against the wall. She placed her palm against Tu Ran’s, desperately trying to share what little life force she had left.
After shaking off the other Rulers’ guards and climbing into the mecha cockpit, Tang Ying immediately walked to the mecha’s viewport. She could see a mass of Green-eyed guards from the Bulu Sanda tribe climbing toward them. Without hesitation, she pressed the mecha’s automatic cleaning button. The guards on the mecha’s outer shell immediately convulsed like they’d been shocked by electricity, falling off the mecha and plummeting down.
She quickly moved to Tu Ran, who was covered in blood, and silently knelt beside her. She placed a square-shaped device on the ground and gently pressed Tu Ran’s other hand into the depression on top of the device.
The machine began to hum, its motor whirring with a low buzzing sound.
“Leave this to me,” she said, looking at the Red Crown Tribe Leader, who had a similar appearance to Xi Chunzhi. “You handle the guards outside.”
Xi Chunzhi opened her eyes, turning her head to glance at Tu Ran. Only after confirming that she was no longer transparent did she gently lay Tu Ran’s hand back on her leg.
Pushing off from the wall, Xi Chunzhi stood up, wiping her face. The tenderness in her eyes vanished, replaced by bloodlust and murderous intent. She turned to the viewport and saw the Rulers’ guards attempting to surround the entire mecha. Black smoke began to seep from her ears.
She cast one last glance at Tu Ran before leaping out of the mecha cockpit. A burst of fiery dragon-like flames shot from her palm, incinerating the Green-eyed guards surrounding the mecha, turning them to charred remains.
Inside the mecha cockpit, Tang Ying sat down in the spot Xi Chunzhi had previously occupied, leaning low to examine the machine under Tu Ran’s hand.
“The Haenden Star System has 160 million people, and 120 million of them have offered their mental energy to you. The plan to reclaim the small planets taken over by the alien beasts has been put on hold, Tu Ran,” she said, lifting her head to meet Tu Ran’s pale, almost paper-thin face. “Don’t let them down.”
Mental energy poured continuously from the storage device into Tu Ran’s body.
Soul realm.
Feeling the changes in her body, Tu Ran immediately got up from the ground, wiped the blood off her face in a hasty motion, and closed her eyes. She focused on organizing the mental energy that had just been input into her body, gathering it at the center of her forehead.
Time passed, second by second.
“Cough cough… Pff!”
Tu Ran opened her eyes to see Hache Bulu, kneeling on the ground, spitting blood, staring at her in disbelief.
“Impossible! Why… Why can you withstand this—”
Taking advantage of his moment of weakness, Tu Ran unleashed the counterattack she had prepared. It surged into Hache Bulu’s mind like a tidal wave. His body immediately convulsed violently, and a sharp, tortured scream echoed through the white, endless world. It was as though his soul was being ripped apart, and his phantom-like body began to grow increasingly transparent.
…
“Hoo…” In the mecha cockpit, Tu Ran’s hand, which had been placed on the machine, moved slightly. She opened her eyes, gazing at the familiar surroundings, and let out a long sigh of relief. “I’m back.”
A stack of tissues was handed to her.
Tu Ran followed the extended arm and looked up.
“Clean the blood,” Tang Ying said expressionlessly.
Tu Ran took the tissues, pulling one out to block the blood flowing from her nose. “I barely escaped with my life, and you still look at me like I owe you a million.”
Tang Ying replied flatly, “…If you’re sure your body’s fine, then go help your friend.”
“Which friend?” Tu Ran asked, confused.
“The one who’s occupying the body of the Red Crown Tribe Leader. Her name is Xi Chunzhi.”
Tu Ran’s hand, which had been wiping the blood away, froze. “Xi Chunzhi… she’s here?” She immediately stood up, but the intense dizziness caused her to collapse back onto the ground.
Tang Ying rushed to steady her, preventing her head from slamming into the wall.
Tu Ran tried to get up again, but Tang Ying pressed her back down by the shoulder. “Your condition isn’t good. You should rest here for now.”
“Take me downstairs. I need to… see if Hache Bulu is dead or alive.”
Originally, Tang Ying had intended to refuse, but upon hearing that Tu Ran wanted to check on Hache Bulu, she knew this matter couldn’t be taken lightly. She nodded, placing the storage device in Tu Ran’s arms. “Hold on to it. There’s still a lot of mental energy inside.”
Tu Ran obediently took it, and Tang Ying grasped her arm with one hand while shrinking the mecha with the other, pulling it into a capsule.
As they stood on the uneven ground, what greeted them was the devastating sight of the battlefield—no longer a battlefield, but a horrific scene. Corpses were strewn everywhere, and the ground was riddled with deep ravines, some nearly two meters deep. These were the result of her using the light blade to carve through the earth, making it almost impassable.
The scorched earth emitted faint wisps of smoke. Some bodies were still burning, while others were guards shrieking and fleeing, their bodies aflame and unable to extinguish the fire.
And then… the Red Crown Tribe Leader, now out of control, rampaging and setting fires everywhere.
“Xi Chunzhi?” Tu Ran called her name softly.
Her throat was sore, and her voice was weak. Xi Chunzhi didn’t hear her.
But just as luck would have it, Xi Chunzhi was chasing a Bulu Sanda tribe member. She turned to launch a fireball, but upon seeing Tu Ran standing there, the murderous intent in her eyes immediately faded. She let go of the Bulu Sanda guard and ran toward Tu Ran.
The distance between them was far, with a large portion of the battlefield separating them. The ravines and guards made it difficult to meet up.
Tu Ran looked at Tang Ying. “Let’s head over there, and maybe we can find Hache Bulu as well. Have you seen him? He should’ve been nearby when I was dragged into the soul realm.”
Tang Ying shook her head and helped Tu Ran navigate around a ravine. “When I arrived, your mecha was standing still here. I guessed something had happened to you and didn’t pay attention to anything else.”
“Alright.” Tu Ran pressed her lips together, her gaze involuntarily drifting toward a certain spot in the battlefield before quickly snapping back to focus on the scorched ground beneath her. “We need to find him quickly. Hopefully, he’s still alive… though the chances are slim.”
She had defeated Hache Bulu, but she couldn’t feel happy about it.
Hache Bulu had died quietly. It wasn’t a self-detonation, and the Order Cube hadn’t absorbed the necessary energy. The cosmic order still hadn’t been restored.
There were so many ravines here, each of which could hide someone or even a body. With just the three of them, how long would it take to find him?
If she had [Sense of Direction], she could have found him immediately…
