Crash!
Bai Ming crashed hard on the ground, creating a two meter wide pit. He coughed out a mouthful of fresh blood, there was a gapping hole in his abdomen, fresh blood was rushed out from it.
But Bai Ming completely ignored it, he lifted his head staring intensely at the 7 sided purple prism barrier. The two Luo clan members were trapped inside it like animals in a cage, watching this Bai Ming smiled. He then took out a 2nd tier high grade medical pill which had gotten from elder Xu and swallowed it, instantly the medicinal properties of the pill began to show its effects, the bleeding stopped and wound even began to heal slowly. Of course this wasn't just due to the healing pill but also due to Bai Ming's special physique.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!" A ear piercing screech could be heard coming from the formation. The pitiful scream was so shrill that it could pierce eardrums.
"Young master, what happened!?" Luo Cai was terror stricken as he grabbed Luo sheng's shoulders, his aged voice filled with fear and anxiousness as he tried understand Luo sheng's state.
But Luo sheng was in no state of answering him, his expression twisting from the pain, he was in so much pain that he was shivering from head to toe, luo sheng was about to lose his sense of reasoning due to the pain, this was an inhuman pain.
Luo Cai felt wave of helplessness and despair rising in his heart, he used his divine sense to scan Luo sheng again and again but he still didn't have the slightest clue.
Subconsciously, he turned towards Bai Ming, his face ferocious like a bloodthirsty killer, deep killing intent surged violently from him. He spoke slowly in a deep voice, "What have you done, tell me what have you done to my young master?"
"Noisy" Bai Ming sneered and made another hand sign.
Luo Cai was even more enraged now, he vanished from his sport and appeared in front of the purple barrier. He used is spear to pierce at barrier, but there wasn't even a scratch on it.
Luo Cai revealed an expression of surprise, as he thought "This formation is able block my attack! how can this be!?"
"Hmph! let's see how long it can last, I don't believe I can't even destroy a formation set up by some worthless elemental realm junior!" Luo cai sneered.
"Penetrating rainbow" the spear in Luo cai's hand shot out dark rainbow essence, as it majestically slammed against the purple barrier.
Bam!
There was a momentary ripple in the barrier, but it quickly subsided. Tranquility returned to the barrier once again.
Bai Ming indifferently watched Luo cai, as he continued to make hand signs.
"Attack" Bai Ming coldly commanded.
Woosh! woosh! woosh!
Hundreds of icy chains shot out from the ground, they viciously targeted Luo cai like poisonous snakes!
Luo cai didn't dare be careless, he used his abilities to his max as he fought against these icy chains, once he destroyed one of the chains another would come in it's place, the cycle was never ending. Most importantly each icy chain carried the strength of peak core formation realm expert, he felt like he was surrounded by gang of core formation realm experts who wanted nothing more than to kill him.
But unknown to him, his pitiful young master who was previously screaming his lungs out, stopped his waling as his lifeless body quietly floated towards the edge of the formation before being thrown outside, Bai Ming quickly stored Luo Sheng's body, his body had a high value for Bai Ming. At a high point inside the seven sided barrier, the corpses of seven Ye clansman hovered together.
They quickly formed a ball of corpse, few of the icy chains rushed towards them making tens of holes in their bodies, next the bodies slowly started to merge together, forming a blood red human infant.
Next all of the icy chains in the formation quickly moved towards the Bloody baby, Luo cai was startled slightly but he was even more shocked at not finding his almighty young master, previously the icy chains had only targeted him and obstructed much of his view, even if they had targeted Luo sheng this old man didn't have enough strength to save him.
Now seeing that his young master was nowhere to be found, his heart hit rock bottom. His face was darker than the night sky.
"AHHHHHHH!!" Previously it was Luo sheng who was screaming, but now it was Bai Ming's turn. He wanted to shut his mouth tight, but the pain was so inhumane that he let another ear piercing scream. His entire body was covered in cold sweat and was trembling from the cruel pain. But he still had to continue making hand signs, he had to persevere. Pain wasn't something new to Bai Ming, everytime he had to go through body refining he would experience unbearable pain, but the pain this time was even more cruel, even more inhuman. It was only because he had will of steel that he was able to maintain his reasoning and continue with operating this formation.
But the reason for this inhumane pain was due to the fact he was burning his own soul!
There was nothing else he could, if he wanted to survive he had to do this. The pain of burning one's soul was 100 time's more excruciating than any kind of brutal physical torture.
Bai Ming was only an elemental realm expert, his divine sense was lacking to set up 3rd grade array, hence he could only make adjustments with his high attainment, but even that had it's limitations.
Bai Ming's initial plan was to find some fodders, he wanted to integrate them into the formation. Making them take most of brunt, which in this case was to make them burn up their souls and transform that energy into soul force, which is generally used to set and operate formations.
But unfortunately for Bai Ming, Luo cai had dealt with those fodders. Which made Bai Ming helpless, he could have looked for other people but that was useless, luo cai would have killed them also. So he could only grit his teeth and do it himself, it wasn't that Bai Ming was unwilling to do it because of the inhumane pain, it was because damaging one's soul had so much to lose, firstly if the soul was completely burnt he would be nothing more than a empty shell, secondly damaging the soul will make your soul related abilities weak, for example a person's divine sense strength will be severely weakened and there is also the fact that a person will feel much mental unrest and his cognitive abilities will also weaken.
As for healing of the soul it depends on the damage of the soul, if it is slightly damaged it may recover within a week but if the damage is serious, then it can take atleast 3-4 months to recover on its own. But if one had certain means they could even recover it within seconds. Unfortunately Bai Ming lacked such means, the main reason was that the village was too secluded from the outside world, the true place where martial arts belong and flourish was the outside world.
But even though Bai Ming was forced into a corner he still wanted to cut short his losses, then he decided to use Luo Sheng, but using luo Sheng had it's difficulties. He had to make Luo Sheng hold the key spirit stone for atleast ten seconds, but how would he accomplish it. If the core formation realm elder wasn't present he would have directly chopped off luo Sheng's limbs, shattered his Dantian and place a spirit stone on him, But when fighting Luo Sheng in the presence of the expert, he had to be cautious as to not make the expert alert. So his only option was to take that strike head on, which made both of the Luo's startled and before they could even comprehend Bai Ming's actions he had struck, making the most of his opportunities. But if his actions had alerted Luo cai a bit earlier he definitely wouldn't be having a good time. One could say Bai Ming was an opportunist at heart, a person who loved taking risks as long the rewards where worth it.
"Fuse" With a final ditch effort Bai Ming made another hand sign.
The icy chains which had either entered the blood baby through its mouth, nose, ears, eyes and butthole began to melt and spreading through its body, once it melted it transformed into sliver mercury like liquid. The blood baby was completely covered in sliver coating, there were even two pair of sliver bat wings on it's back.
"Kill" Bai Ming commanded as he pondered "The damage my soul has taken is terrible, now my soul is strength comparable to a 9th layer bone forging realm martial artist, but fortunately i have finished doing all necessary things. I don't have to use my soul force to control the infant, just using the mental connection is enough to control it now."
The sliver baby flapped it's wings as it dashed towards Luo Cai leaving behind a streak of dazzling sliver light, like a crashing meteor. A bone chilling coldness spread from it, making one feel a chill deep in their hearts and bones.
Luo Cai watched the sliver light approaching him rapidly, his eyes spitting flames of hatred and rage, his hands grabbing the spear tightly, an earth shattering aura erupted from him, the ground below him cracked just from the pressure. He waited for the sliver streak of light to approach him, then he thrusted his spear with boundless might.
Bang!!!
The intense collision resulted in Luo cai crashing against the barrier, the sliver infant had the clear upper hand in this round of collision.
The sliver infant immediately followed up with another devastating attack, it opened its tiny mouth shooting out a thick beam of majestic sliver light.
Woosh!
"Crescent Moon!" Luo Cai swung his spear in a wide arc, a four meter wide golden crescent shot out from his spear.
The golden crescent and the sliver beam collided, the sliver beam made a hole in the crescent as it continued to move towards Luo cai.
Luo Cai narrowed his eyes and tried to evade the beam of light. But unfortunately for him, the ground below him instantly caved in making him lose balance and simultaneously dozens of sliver chains restricted his moment and before he knew it, the sliver beam of light pierced through his skull, killing him instantly.
Plop
Luo cai's lifeless body fell down, motionless. A grand core formation realm expert died just like that.
"Phew" Bai Ming exhaustedly looked at the outcome. But he still didn't enter the formation.
Swish! The infant pierced the Luo cai's heart. Then it took out a dim yellow core from Luo cai's abdomen with both of its baby palms.
Only then did Bai Ming enter the formation, he then held the yellow core in his hand with some delight, then he moved towards the corpse and coldly stared at it before storing it.
"Break" Bai Ming made a hand sign, destroying the the 3rd tier formation. The sturdy formation broke apart like fragile glass, the sliver infant and icy chains turned into dust.
"I have suffered much this time around, but I was able to keep my life that's all that matters. But there also gains to be earned from this misfortune." Bai Ming didn't waste more time here as he vanished in darkness of the night.