Ye Chu’s body tensed as well. Although Drawing Ground into Prison had blocked the two men’s attacks, the consumption was terrifyingly extreme. His internal spiritual energy was being drained at a frantic rate. With such dreadful expenditure, Ye Chu simply could not hold out for long!
He struck out with two more palms in succession. Ye Chu and the two men each retreated two steps. Ye Chu shook his numb arms and smiled at them. “I cannot do anything to you, and you cannot do anything to me either. How about it? Why do the gentlemen not make way?”
The two men also felt sharp pain in their arms. They looked at Ye Chu with deep wariness! They knew very well that with the opponent’s combat power, even if they wanted to kill Ye Chu, they would have to pay a heavy price. Naturally, they were unwilling to let him go just like that!
“Do you really think we cannot deal with you this way?” The two sneered. Suddenly, they roared loudly inside the cave, “Wind rise! Formation activate!”
After shouting, they grabbed their heavily injured companion and dashed frantically towards the outside. At the same time, the sound of rolling boulders thundered again. The last two passages were sealed shut by massive stones, completely blocking the way.
“Ye Chu!” Tan Miaotong’s expression changed as she watched every interconnected passage being sealed. “They want to trap us to death!”
Ye Chu shook his head. With his Innate Realm strength, although such boulders could obstruct him, if he attacked with full power, he could still shift or break through them given enough time. The other side was not foolish; they naturally knew this. They would never believe the boulders alone could stop him.
“Ye Chu! Step aside!” Tan Miaotong said to him.
When Ye Chu turned to look at her in confusion, Tan Miaotong’s face flushed with shyness. “Let me see if I can use the power inside me to push the boulders away.”
Ye Chu was curious but stepped aside. Tan Miaotong traced graceful arcs with her slender fingers. Her fair, delicate fingers danced like a performance, ethereal and enchanting, as though an immortal maiden were swaying in a dance. With every movement, seven-coloured rays of light flickered forth.
The multicoloured glow burst out. Ye Chu could see Tan Miaotong’s arms gradually enveloped in a halo of light. As the halo shimmered, it stirred the surrounding spiritual energy, releasing a surging, majestic aura.
Merely from the appearance, Ye Chu could tell this power far surpassed his own. Yet he also noticed that the power remained completely confined within Tan Miaotong’s arms. No matter how her fingers danced, she could not draw even a trace of it outward.
Tan Miaotong bit her soft pink lips, pressing them into a shallow curve. Perhaps from exerting too much force, her face flushed deeply red. Fine beads of sweat appeared on her fair forehead.
“Out!” Tan Miaotong shouted. Her delicate palm struck the boulder.
The boulder did not budge in the slightest. Instead, Tan Miaotong cried out in pain and hurriedly pulled her hand back.
Ye Chu was stunned for a moment, then could not help bursting into loud laughter.
Tan Miaotong glanced at her reddened palm, then heard Ye Chu’s hearty laughter. Her face instantly turned scarlet. She pouted coquettishly, “Do not laugh!”
“Not laughing! Not laughing!” Ye Chu tried hard to hold it in, but he simply could not stop. Tan Miaotong had put on such a serious display earlier, yet who could have expected this outcome?
Tan Miaotong felt embarrassed by Ye Chu’s laughter. Pretending to be fierce, she kicked at him with her foot. Ye Chu did not dodge. The kick landed on him, but the force was barely enough to swat a mosquito. It only made her seem all the more adorable.
“Do not laugh, or I will kick you again,” Tan Miaotong huffed. Though she tried to act fierce, in the end even she could not help covering her mouth and giggling. Clearly, she also found her earlier actions quite ridiculous.
“Looks like it is still up to me!” Ye Chu stepped forward. Power gathered in his palm as he pushed hard against the boulder. The massive stone slowly began to move, but the speed was agonisingly slow. Even with his full strength, he only shifted it a few centimetres.
“There are more boulders behind this one!” Ye Chu said to Tan Miaotong. “To move this one aside would take at least half an hour.”
Just as Ye Chu and Tan Miaotong were speaking, thick mist suddenly began seeping in through the narrow gaps left by the boulders in every passage.
“Spirit Moulding Qi!” Ye Chu’s expression turned strange. He naturally recognised what the mist was. But why were the others pouring Spirit Moulding Qi in here?
His confusion was soon answered. In a short time, the interconnected passages kept flooding in more mist. The small space where Ye Chu and Tan Miaotong stood was quickly filled with dense vapour.
“Ye Chu, they want to burst your primal spirit!” Tan Miaotong’s face changed dramatically as she stared at Ye Chu.
The mist grew thicker and thicker. Eventually, it became so dense that even standing face-to-face, Ye Chu and Tan Miaotong could only see each other vaguely.
“Haha! Kid, did you not want Demon Origin Grass? Today, we will let you enjoy Spirit Moulding Qi to your heart’s content. Everyone, keep pushing! Flood this place with Spirit Moulding Qi. Let the kid enjoy it properly.” The voices of the two men from earlier echoed in from outside, reverberating endlessly through the cave.
Ye Chu’s expression darkened. He could feel the Spirit Moulding Qi surging madly into his body with every breath.
Spirit Moulding Qi entering the body was a good thing, but only up to a limit. It was like a person who loved braised pork: eating one or two pieces was enjoyable, but eating ten or twenty would be uncomfortable. Eating ten or twenty pounds would be fatal.
That was exactly the situation Ye Chu and Tan Miaotong faced now. The other side was frantically pouring in Spirit Moulding Qi until it reached an unimaginable density. Taking in one or two breaths was enjoyable, but continuously absorbing it like this, with the current strength of Ye Chu’s primal spirit, he might not be able to endure it.
Yet to breathe was unavoidable, and breathing meant inevitably absorbing this thick Spirit Moulding Qi.
“Damn it! Where on earth did they get so much Spirit Moulding Qi!” Ye Chu cursed. The Spirit Moulding Qi had already condensed into smoke-like form. He even suspected they were funneling the Spirit Moulding Qi from every passage in the entire cave towards this spot.
Ye Chu naturally did not know that his opponents’ clan indeed had methods to channel Spirit Moulding Qi. The Spirit Moulding Qi from all the interconnected passages really was being drawn here.
With every breath, it felt like inhaling particles of smoke. Ye Chu felt extremely uncomfortable.
“Ye Chu, what do we do? If this continues, we will not last long! Forget half an hour; we might not even endure a quarter of an hour,” Tan Miaotong said anxiously to Ye Chu.
“Breathe as little as possible!” Ye Chu told her.
Tan Miaotong nodded. Yet because of her special physique, even when she held her breath, Spirit Moulding Qi still poured continuously into her body. Her affinity with it was extremely high.
“Are you still holding on?” Ye Chu asked Tan Miaotong.
“My physique is a bit special, so I can endure far more Spirit Moulding Qi than others. But we have no Spirit Moulding technique. If we had one, we could absorb and integrate the Spirit Moulding Qi into our primal spirit to strengthen it, and we would not fear this move. Right now, the Spirit Moulding Qi is crashing wildly into our primal spirits. We will not last much longer,” Tan Miaotong said, somewhat angrily.
Ye Chu shook his head. “Using a Spirit Moulding technique in this cave would kill us even faster!”
“Hahaha! You two, enjoy yourselves slowly. Try not to breathe; perhaps you can live a few more moments. Otherwise, just wait for your primal spirits to shatter and die.” The voices from outside rang in again, laughter echoing endlessly.
Without a Spirit Moulding technique to refine the Spirit Moulding Qi, the two of them were doomed.