Chapter 472: The Key
"It's the world behind you, isn't it?" a voice, indistinct as to its origin, took over Wu Zhi's words.
The atmosphere instantly grew oppressive, as gusts of an eerie wind swept up the fallen leaves from the ground. The leaves swirled higher and higher, gradually coalescing into a three-dimensional human figure.
"Who's there!" the two exclaimed in unison.
"Is that you?" After a few seconds, Chris Ding reacted. On this planet now, if anyone could approach her surroundings without a sound, it could only be that person.
"How did you do that?!" She closed her eyes and sensed around. The warning spells she had set up on the periphery showed no signs of disturbance; the other party was like an intangible ghost.
"That's not important." White light emanated from the gaps between the leaves, and the terrifying pressure it exuded solidified almost into substance, making the surrounding air tremble under its weight.
"Hand over the key."
"What key?" Chris Ding asked, perplexed.
She suddenly realized that Wu Zhi seemed to have been hiding a lot from her. Her understanding of Wu Zhi over the past twenty years might not even compare to that white figure's.
No sooner had the words fallen than a semi-ethereal, semi-corporeal purple doll-like girl emerged from the bracelet. Using Chris Ding's wrist for leverage, she leaped onto the grass nearby.
As she landed, she continuously expanded against the wind. Initially, she was only palm-sized, but by the moment she touched the ground, she had already assumed the stature of a normal human.
The girl wore a hood with a ribbon bow, and behind her were six fluffy, large tails. She had an innocent, harmless appearance.
She said nothing more, but silently removed her hood, and directly plunged her hand into her own head to rummage around. After fiddling for quite some time, she pulled out a magnificent ball of light, a fusion of purple and green, which was connected to the back of her head.
"What you want is all inside," she said, exceptionally weakly, looking greatly depleted, "But with my ability, I can't unlock this."
"You're crazy! To actually use your soul core to seal something else!" Chris Ding cried out. She knew that Wu Zhi was currently in a half-dead, remnant soul state, and continuing to torment herself like this was simply courting death.
"Truly, for powerful and wealthy forces, six-stage individuals are merely expendable resources," said the glowing figure, whose face was gradually forming Bai Mo's features, ignoring Chris Ding's cries as he seized the ball of light.
With a single movement, the leaves covering his body instantly burst open, and more white light streamed from the cracks.
With a thought, Bai Mo's right hand, formed from leaves, exploded. The nearly overflowing white light immediately found an outlet, surging madly from Bai Mo's hand, and all of it pierced into the ball of light, which bore a resemblance to a brain.
This was his development of the Myriad Phase Realm ability, an attempt to construct a body using any tangible matter. However, his control over the power seemed to still be imperfect.
...
The intense pain, deep within her soul, was, in the eyes of the almost maddened Wu Zhi, ten times more agonizing than having countless sharp needles pierce her brain.
Her trembling body, and her tails thrashing wildly everywhere, all testified to the agony of her physical form.
"The outward propagation of sound, light, and vibrations in this area has all been controlled by me; no matter how much commotion there is, no one will discover it," Bai Mo casually remarked, watching Wu Zhi, who was desperately suppressing her pain, so much so that her expression had become somewhat twisted.
"Ah!!!!"
Then came a wailing mournful enough to break the hearts of listeners and bring tears to the eyes of onlookers.
However, all sounds just happened to lose all energy outside a ten-meter radius circle centered on Bai Mo. From the outside, it appeared precisely as if a hemispherical soundproofing barrier had been erected.
After five minutes of tumultuous torment, a cluster of green light was finally separated from the purple ball of light. The half-dead Wu Zhi reverted to her doll-like size, lying weakly in Chris Ding's hand.
Those past five minutes were absolutely the longest five minutes of her life. Every second, she endured bone-scraping pain far exceeding what a normal person would feel from needles piercing their eyeballs or fire scorching the soles of their feet.
Recalling that sensation, even death no longer seemed quite so unbearable.
"As for this 'door,' I still decide when it opens."
"Even if you're invincible in the Solar System, don't try to open the door to the Shuttle World," Wu Zhi, having recovered her senses, advised while gasping for breath.
Bai Mo said nothing, merely glancing at the other party.
"Thank you," Wu Zhi said, dragging her six tails, paying no mind to the other's silence as she thanked Bai Mo with difficulty.
"Did I miss something?"
The dramatic turn of events made the nearby Chris Ding even begin to doubt if she was a qualified spectator. Having watched the entire process, she couldn't fathom why their relationship had changed so rapidly!
Just minutes ago, Bai Mo was forcefully demanding Wu Zhi hand over the 'door,' yet now she was the one thanking him. Could it be that Wu Zhi had awakened some strange attribute in the past few minutes?
"In the Shuttle World, after I was framed, my punishment was random coordinate exile. The only way to return was to lure a seven-stage life form to open the door..."
Wu Zhi noticed Chris Ding's bewilderment, and her somewhat meaningful gaze, and began to proactively explain the whole story.
"So, all this time you've been raising me, it was just to create someone to lead the way?!" Chris Ding questioned after hearing it.
Anyone who discovered they had been raised as a tool by their closest kin would certainly not feel good about it.
Wu Zhi did not deny it.
That green ball of light, rooted in her soul, besides being able to establish a teleportation gate, was also a ticking time bomb within her.
If, after the countdown ended, she still hadn't completed her mission, the ball of light would annihilate along with her soul.
When she first arrived on Earth, she had considered possessing Chris Ding's body. However, she realized it wouldn't be very meaningful, because she couldn't shake off that seal.
Wu Zhi, whose soul had been severely damaged, understood that even if she successfully possessed a body, the possibility of breaking through to seven-stage was still minuscule.
And if she couldn't break through to seven-stage, she would still face a dead end two hundred years later. Therefore, she ultimately decided to abandon possession, and instead cultivate a 'pathfinder'.
She didn't want to die, not even if it meant barely surviving as a remnant soul.
Without the 'door's' restraint, with the abundant spiritual materials supplied here, and the longevity-extending secret techniques from her memories, living for a thousand years wouldn't be too difficult for her.
As for Bai Mo, whose mission was already complete, he had no mind to concern himself with the two's intertwined loves and hatreds. He had already hastily vanished as soon as he acquired the 'door'.
Before he could utilize Tang Na Sen's plan, he still needed some time to arrange everything. After all, he only had one chance to attempt it.
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