Chapter 422: Brutal Battle

With each heavy step from the stone golems, the once-clear lake rapidly turned murky, making it nearly impossible for Wu Qingsong to see what was happening beneath the surface. He couldn’t give more detailed commands to the golems either. He could only order them to march toward the depths at the lake’s center.

Seconds later, the still waters suddenly began to churn as if boiling. A powerful suction erupted from the depths. 

Yet the stone golems remained unfazed, weighed down by their massive bodies. After swaying slightly, they continued trudging forward under Wu Qingsong’s commands.

A piercing screech echoed from beneath the lake. The golems were unaffected, but Wu Qingsong felt as though his spirit were being stabbed repeatedly with needles.

It was a continuous mental assault. 

But for someone like him, who had endured countless soul backlashes from using soul fragments and awakening undead, such an attack barely registered as pain.

But then, Charlotte screamed.

Crap!

He could endure this kind of spiritual attack. Charlotte couldn’t.

He dashed toward her at top speed. She was already collapsed on the ground, clutching her head in agony.

Wu Qingsong immediately concentrated his spiritual power and drew on the energy of a soulstone to form a barrier around her. Then, pressing his hand to her chest, he awakened her powers.

If her potential lay in some form of mental interference or control, then once awakened, she should possess enough spiritual strength to at least defend herself.

Charlotte was clearly suffering. Her eyes had rolled back, her heartbeat was erratic, and her limbs were twitching uncontrollably. Meanwhile, that dreadful screech continued to pierce the air, leaving Wu Qingsong unable to split his attention for long.

‘Destroy everything in the lake!’

Steeling himself, Wu Qingsong issued the command. The two golems immediately raised their fists and began pounding the lakebed wildly.

Under this assault, the screech faltered slightly. Wu Qingsong seized the opportunity and poured power into Charlotte’s core, finally awakening her ability. She blinked back to consciousness.

“What’s happening?” she gasped, still shaken.

“Get to the edge of the ruins. Now!” Wu Qingsong barked. 

There was no time for explanations. He commanded a zombie to carry her to the forest’s edge and immediately turned back toward the lake.

The screech erupted again, sharper, stronger. The pain stabbed even deeper. Wu Qingsong glanced back. Charlotte hadn’t fallen into another fit. Reassured, he focused his mind on the confrontation.

The stone golems, immune to spiritual attacks and devoid of life, were the perfect weapons. Wu Qingsong sent even more of them into the lake and directed them toward the source of the screech. He ordered indiscriminate destruction. Simultaneously, he gathered his spiritual strength and launched a probing assault on the unseen foe.

He had suffered soul attacks from the Crimson Demon Lord, had experienced firsthand what it meant to erase undead memories, rage, and emotions, and he had long since mastered the use of unpurified, violently unstable soul fragments as weapons. But this was his first time engaging in a direct, long-range battle of spiritual power.

One mind against another.

Again and again, he failed. Again and again, the enemy countered, even breaching his soul multiple times. 

Yet with the unique trait of his indestructible soul, Wu Qingsong held firm within the dominion of his own consciousness. He ground away at the enemy’s strength, just as he had done against the Crimson Demon Lord—tearing off chunks of the opposing spirit, swallowing them, enduring the agony, and growing stronger.

This was one of the strongest foes he had ever faced. And yet, for some unknown reason, its attack methods were extremely limited. 

Just like how Wu Qingsong had struggled to deal with Maylen’s spiritual immunity, this mysterious entity, facing stone golems immune to psychic interference and a necromancer with an unkillable soul, was unable to wield its full power. All it could do was struggle helplessly as its essence was consumed.

Wu Qingsong lost track of time. Lost track of his surroundings. Lost track of everything. All that remained was the obsessive hunger to devour that power.

The tide of battle gradually shifted. The enemy’s intrusions into his mind grew weaker and less frequent. Wu Qingsong’s counterattacks became more precise, more frequent. As the confrontation wore on, he felt his strength increasing while his opponent’s spirit steadily diminished—no longer dominant, barely able to resist.

Finally, when he devoured the last vestiges of that soul and channeled all his spiritual force into dissolving its final resistance, integrating its essence into his own, everything fell utterly silent.

A strange cocktail of satisfaction, emptiness, and insatiable hunger flooded his being. But moments later, Wu Qingsong forcibly expelled those feelings from his consciousness and returned to awareness.

He was stunned.

The stone golems were still standing nearby, but their surfaces looked weathered, worn down as if they’d endured years of erosion. The once-lush ruins, full of melancholy beauty, had become a dead land. Every plant had withered. Even the soil had turned black and lifeless, crumbling like ash.

The lake continued to churn, and the golems were still pounding the lakebed. Shocked, Wu Qingsong quickly ordered them to stop their now-meaningless rampage.

What… just happened?

How much time had passed?

A surreal sense of detachment overwhelmed him. He turned at once, searching for Charlotte.

Was she dead?

He could sense that the zombie made from Maylen’s corpse was still outside the forest. But the zombie that had been protecting Charlotte had gone silent. Wu Qingsong hurried toward the area. The two horses were now nothing but skeletal remains, long since decayed.

Had Charlotte… died? Caught in the crossfire of his battle with that entity? Had she perished like the horses?

Staggering forward in a daze, he found a decayed beastkin corpse. Thankfully, the skull made it clear it wasn’t Charlotte. It was the fallen zombie.

“Charlotte! Charlotte!” Wu Qingsong called out loudly.

Minutes later, a silhouette appeared at the edge of the forest. Her eyes lit up with joy, and she ran to him, throwing herself into his arms.

“You won?!” she cried, ecstatic, kissing him wildly before he could say anything. 

He tried to dodge at first, but in the end, couldn’t bring himself to push her away.

“You won…” Charlotte sobbed uncontrollably, her tears flowing freely. She didn’t even notice his hesitation. “Thank the ancestors! Thank Xuanyuan! Thank all the gods who heard my prayers! You won! You really won!”