Chapter 601 Seal Joselle
The spear in Joselle’s hand turned into a shadow as it flew toward Jonathan’s throat. Clang! The sound of a clock chimed. Jonathan glowed with a golden light, surrounded by countless complex runes.
Boom! Though the bronze handbell had blocked the strike, the impact knocked Jonathan over and sent him falling onto the bed of white bones below.
“Hurry up, Vladimir! I can’t hold on much longer!” Jonathan roared before leaping to his feet and dashing once more toward Joselle. In the meantime, Vladimir had positioned Sofus into a peculiar stance beside the Flaming Tree.
“You mustn’t blame me, my disciple. I’m afraid all of us will die in this abyss if you are not used as the formation base.” “No!” Sofus cried in despair, sensing the spiritual energy revolving around them.
“You only want to use the Three Ultimate Formations to refine the ancient beast, don’t you?” Vladimir said. “Phoebus Sect has sealed the spirit, and that involved two thousand years of spiritual energy. You are already halfway to the Divine realm. Are you not satisfied?”
“There’s no need to kill me, Master! You are my—”
Sofus stopped speaking abruptly as Vladimir spewed blood which dissipated into the air like mist, within which were three drops of blood that carried a tinge of gold light in its color.
It was the blood essence only available to God Realm cultivators. Every drop was exceedingly precious as it was the essence of a cultivator’s physical body.
Vladimir’s face turned sallow after ejecting three drops of blood essence. In an instant, his entire being seemed to shrivel until he looked like a feeble old man in his nineties.
“I don’t want to kill you but you could only blame your luck for being so. Die!”
Vladimir grabbed the three drops of blood essence and drew his finger on Sofus’ body at great speed.
The three drops of blood essence appeared sparse, but they behaved like acid upon contact with Sofus’ skin. The spot where Vladimir’s finger passed decayed rapidly into streaks of terrifying runic symbols.
“Awaken!”
Following the sound of Vladimir’s exhortation, blood-colored light burrowed out of the white bones in the entire valley.
One streak. Two streaks.
The glint of countless drops of blood solidified into a blood-colored screen with the Flaming Tree as its center.
Sofus, kneeling on the ground, was no longer angry.
Opposite Jonathan, Joselle frowned as she staggered backward. The direction of the spear in her hand had deviated to such an extent that it went half a meter away from Jonathan.
As even half an inch of deviation might lead to a loss during a cultivator’s fight, such an error was rather devastating.
Jonathan swung his bat mercilessly against Joselle’s skull.
Bang!
Joselle was smashed into the forest below following the sickening thud.
Jonathan turned to leave after another thud signified her collision against the forest ground.
He had clearly sensed the extent of Joselle’s cultivation at that moment—she was in Divine Realm.
The seal worked!
Before that, he could not have found out about Joselle’s cultivation level. However, her cultivation level had been suppressed to Divine Realm at that moment.
“Awoo!”
A roar of rage reverberating through the skies erupted from the mountainous forest.
Then, a figure dashed out through the fog amidst crackling branches and tumbling rocks toward Jonathan.
Clang!
The forceful strike sent Jonathan a dozen meters into the air.
Beneath Jonathan was a strange demon beast with Joselle’s head but had gray fur all over its body.
“Jonathan! You’re going to die!”
The demon beast sounded hoarse. If it did not have Joselle’s head, Jonathan would never have associated it with the girl he knew.
The spear whizzed through the air. Jonathan swung the long staff in his hand, ready to deflect it.
Vladimir, on the other hand, was standing below at the center of the Flaming Tree with both hands pressed together.
Leaves of a fiery red rose shade danced in the wind and turned into streaks of light all over the skies as they flew toward Joselle.
“We need the blood essence of one more person!” Vladimir’s voice rumbled across heaven and earth. “The formation will slow her down by ten minutes at most. If you want to live, catch one of the two people remaining!”
A faint red light surrounded Joselle, which did not move in the slightest no matter how she attacked it.
Jonathan gazed at the unceasing movements of the red leaves from atop the valley, but he was plunged deep into thought.
He had heard Sofus’ last words and learned that the formation was not to seal demons away. Instead, it was a formation set up by the Phoebus Sect to seal the ancient beast and plunder its resources of spiritual sense.
That explains how Sofus has made such progress within two years.
After gazing at the trapped Joselle in the distance, Jonathan turned and left after a moment of thought.
Good and evil, right and wrong will all have to take a back seat in the face of survival. I too will die if I do not think of a way to help Vladimir seal Joselle away in ten minutes.
…
Irving and Lauryn were running with great speed within the stretch of a mountain range.
“I owe Jonathan for this,” Irving said coldly as he hugged Lauryn. “I will let him go if he were ever at my mercy, but I definitely will not help him. I advise you not to do the same.
“There’s an essential difference between the respectable families and Asura’s Office. Besides, that difference contradicts one another and cannot coexist. Do you think your father will listen to you if you tell him not to go against Jonathan?
“Or perhaps you think Jonathan will spare the Blackwood family and allow you to reign supreme after he does away with the other respectable families?
“Stop dreaming. You can’t overthrow power as great as that.”
Although she knew Irving was merely stating facts, Lauryn was unwilling to accept his words.
Before she could open her mouth to retort, a clear voice sounded from beside the pair.
“Let me borrow you for a while, Irving!”
The pair felt their surroundings tightening violently at the new voice and became rooted firmly to the spot by the next moment.
Jonathan threw a fruit into Lauryn’s hand and grabbed Irving by the collar before turning around to leave.
“Enter the outermost mist wall,” he instructed her. “Leave as soon as the formation vanishes. Don’t forget what you promised me.”
Jonathan and his captive then disappeared by the time Lauryn regained her composure.
The tartness of the fruit in her mouth sent pure spiritual energy flooding her throat. Lauryn’s eyes widened as she devoured it. Though the spiritual energy did not heal her injuries, it sufficed at least to pull her through until she arrived at the border of the abyss.
More than half the leaves of the Flaming Tree back in the valley had turned into light and filled the spirit shield sealing Joselle away.
Vladimir panicked at the subtle shift of the surrounding aura. It had been five minutes, and he would die there once all the leaves of the Flaming Tree had fallen if Jonathan still did not appear by then.
Here he comes!
Jonathan emerged once more with an unconscious Irving from the slope to their left when there were barely any more leaves of the Flaming Tree.
“Throw him to me, quickly!” Vladimir shouted excitedly.
However, Jonathan shook his head.
“Give me the pill first.”
