Mo Sheng and Teng Yi's thoughts were in disarray and even now they couldn't believe what they just witnessed. The Xue Clan was a clan famous for their body tempering, it was rumored that the first Patriarch of the Clan was able to make his body into something harder than divine weapons. Even if that rumor was grossly exaggerated, the abilities of the Xue Clan in regards to body tempering were no lie. Xue Jin was a genius of the Clan and the last time Mo Sheng fought him it took him fifty slashes of the [Mad Sabre Consecutive slashes] to be able to harm him. That means that Xue Jin's body was akin to something like a treasured weapon.
Xue Jin's body was already sturdier than most of those in the same realm but if you add his control of Qi into the mix it was no exaggeration to say that no one within the entirety of Swallow City could match up to his body's sturdiness. Yet not only did Ren easily make his head explode but he even destroyed Xue Jin's Nascent Soul. That was the worst possible fate one could have as without a soul there was no hope for reincarnation and that means that was a true death.
This scared both Mo Sheng and Teng Yi, especially Teng Yi who was next in line to receive that dreaded forehead flick. If it was just the death of his body Teng Yi wouldn't be as frightened, but now even his soul was at stake.
No matter how hard he thought about it, despite the knowledge and experience which he accumulated over the centuries he still could not understand how a physical attack could harm one's soul. At first, he was the same as Xue Jin and thought that this little game with Ren was nothing, but now it turns out even after he tried to overestimate Ren's abilities it turns out he was still underestimating Ren.
Teng Yi was trying his best to suppress his fear as he was thinking of what action to take. At the moment there were two options available to him. The first option was that he would try his best to survive that forehead flick. The second option was to use his escape talisman and bet that Ren wouldn't be able to stop him. Both options were risky and only had a fifty-fifty chance of working. While Teng Yi was thinking hard about what to do, Ren had arrived in front of him.
"It's your turn, are you ready." The moment Teng Yi heard Ren say those words he felt his entire body grow cold.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Please give me a few minutes, I still need time to prepare."
"Take as much time as possible. Also, I'm sorry about your companion I wasn't planning on destroying his soul, I just didn't expect that he was so fragile. If I knew that beforehand I would've decreased the strength I used. I promise this time I will decrease the strength of my forehead flick." Ren bowed his head in apology, which made Teng Yi's eyebrows twitch as he tried his hardest not to speak what was on his mind.
'You f*cking monster! You weren't trying to destroy his soul, it was an accident?! Is this how it's going to end, my life at the hands of this monster?... No, it can't be, there must be a way!' Teng Yi screamed in his mind but on the outside, he was smiling awkwardly.
"It's alright, it was Xue Jin's fault for being weak."
"Hmmm... That is true, so I hope that you at least don't allow your soul to get destroyed."
"I will try my best, so please allow me more time to prepare."
"Sure." After nodding his head, Ren stood at one side waiting for Teng Yi to finish his preparations. At this moment Teng Yi's mind went into overdrive trying to figure out how he could possibly survive this ordeal.
'Either way, failure would mean true death. The second option does seem to be my best bet, but even if I succeed in escaping, this horrifying person would surely come looking for me, and the first place he would look is in my clan. Based on what I've observed of him in the little interaction we had, this guy would definitely destroy my entire clan if they don't comply with his wishes. On the other hand, the first option would be the hardest, even if I use everything at my disposal I'm not confident that I can survive even a weakened version of the forehead flick.'
Teng Yi closed his eyes and pictured the scenery within his clan, after a while, a smile emerged from his face. He already had found his answer to what to do next, Teng Yi looked at Mo Sheng who had been silent for a while now.
"Mo Sheng, I know you and I aren't really on good terms, and our clans have been rivals for a long time, but I hope that you would listen to a request of mine."
"What is it?"
"I hope if I were to perish today, that you and your clan would not bully the Teng Clan. Of course, I'm not asking you to do this for free." Teng Yi took out his prized escape talisman a few spirit stones and a map he then handed them to Mo Sheng.
"This is a life-saving treasure that could help you escape and a few spirit stones, I know it isn't much, so you can also have this map, it's a map to my secret treasury. I'm sure that should satisfy you. So will you promise to not do anything to my clan?"
Mo Sheng looked at Teng Yi surprised that he would offer these things. He always thought that Teng Yi was just an arrogant fool that liked to scheme in the shadows, but it would seem that wasn't all there as to him. Seeing Teng Yi's determination, Mo Sheng nodded his head and answered.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"I promise."
Teng Yi smiled as he looked at Ren, Teng Yi then took out all of his talismans that could amplify his defense. Teng Yi then started writing on the ground making a simple array formation to help him negate some of the damage he was about to receive.
"Great, then Sir... Oh, I haven't heard your name yet..."
"It's Ren."
"Then Sir Ren, I'm ready."
Ren looked at Teng Yi and saw the fear in his eyes was no longer there, in its place was a sort of clarity. There was utter calmness in Teng Yi's bearing.
"Very well, do your best to survive."
Ren stretched out his arm towards Teng Yi's forehead. The moment Ren's hand came close to his face Teng Yi tensed up a bit as he quickly burned his own life force to strengthen his array formation. Unlike Xue Jin who only did his best at the very end, Teng Yi used everything possible thing at his disposal to survive. Ren then flicked his fingers and this time he weakened the flick.
Despite the finger flick Ren used being weaker than what he used against Xue Jin, it was still considerably powerful. The force of Ren's finger flick was lessened by Teng Yi's defensive array formation, and as the finger hit Teng Yi's forehead he felt an oppressive force invading his body.
Teng Yi gritted his teeth and did his best to endure this attack, but despite him being better prepared than Xue Jin he still shared the same fate. Teng Yi's head had exploded, but his soul had miraculously survived albeit barely. It looked like it was going to disappear at any moment. Seeing the slowly disappearing soul, Ren sighed.
'How fragile...'