Chapter 459: Soul Music
His eye had lost their lustre and his body was sluggish.
Before anybody could react, the person sat cross-legged and removed something from his storage ring.
"Is that a mirror? Why did he take out a mirror?" A spectator couldn’t help but wonder.
"Is he obsessed?" Another sneered.
However, none of their words reached Bai Hua.
Without caring about Jiang Yue, Bai Hua held the mirror and began to stare at his image.
Seeing this, a smile flashed in Jiang Yue’s eyes but his fingers didn’t relent.
He continued to play the pipa and Bai Hua continued to admire himself.
"Is he under an illusion?" A spectator finally realised what was happening.
"What kind of illusion is he seeing?" Another asked.
"Didn’t fellow Daoist Bai close his hearing; how can he still be affected?"
"I also want to know."
Although the spectators were confused, it didn’t affect their enjoyment.
They eagerly stared at Bai Hua and soon realised that his expression had changed again.
"What kind of expression does he have?" A female cultivator shuddered.
When he first began looking at his image in the mirror, Bai Hua’s expression was still dull.
However, after a moment of looking, his expression turned lively.
He looked like someone in love and even extended his hand to touch the face in the mirror.
Unfortunately, this lively expression didn’t last long.
In the blink of an eye, the pleasant expression turned ferocious.
For some reason, Bai Hua looked like he was staring at his life-and-death enemy.
His face distorted into an ugly expression and his lips curved into a cruel smile.
"Mother, I am scared." A young man screamed, causing the people around him to laugh in amusement.
"His smile is too scary." A female cultivator said and trembled in fear.
"What do you have to worry about? Bai Hua is a pervert who attacks men." A handsome young man said.
"You are right, you are in more danger." The female cultivator said with a hint of schadenfreude in her voice.
"Look..., what is he doing?" Someone screamed in horror.
At that, everyone turned to the martial stage and a collective gasp resounded in the audience.
"This..." Someone whispered and didn’t dare to look at Bai Hua.
"Deputy master Jiang is also cruel." Someone said and the others nodded in agreement.
As they watched, Bai Hua swung his right arm and his green snakeroot whip hit the ground.
A moment later, the whip tip rebounded and hit Bai Hua’s face.
Under ordinary circumstances, a whipmaster would never allow his weapon to rebound and hit him.
Even if the whip accidentally rebounded, the whipmaster would react quickly to avoid being injured.
However, Bai Hua didn’t react when his whip rebounded. Rather, he stood in place and allowed the whip to hit his face.
Even more strange, he laughed wildly when a large tear appeared on his already ugly face.
"Is he crazy?" A female cultivator couldn’t bear to watch.
Although Bai Hua was not good-looking, at least he wasn’t scarred.
After being hit by the green snakeroot whip, his face would inevitably be permanently disfigured.
"I think he is under an illusion." Someone guessed.
"He has already hit himself with the green snakeroot whip. How come he hasn’t woken up from the illusion?" Another asked, confusion written all over his face.
"Illusions have a common weakness and it’s difficult to maintain them in the face of external force. However, Bai Hua is already badly injured but he hasn’t woken up. How can this be?"
"I also find it hard to believe."
"I am afraid deputy master Jiang’s technique is not as simple as we thought."
"I may have an idea..." Someone suddenly said with a conflicted expression on his face.
"How could I forget that senior sister is also an illusion master? Senior sister, what idea do you have?"
"Normally, illusion masters use qi or soul power to create illusions." The senior started and then continued.
"However, even the illusions created using soul power do not directly communicate with the soul."
"Senior sister, what do you mean?" Someone asked and the surrounding people also looked confused.
When she heard the question, the senior sister frowned and fell silent.
A moment later, her eyes brightened and she continued to explain.
"When a person speaks, their words are heard by a listener’s ears, and interpreted by the brain. The interpretation is then assigned meaning by the soul."
"Whether deputy mountain master Jiang uses qi or soul power, playing the pipa produces sound which is heard by the ears and interpreted by the brain before the meaning is communicated to the soul."
"If that is the case, why has fellow Daoist Bai been affected?" Someone asked the pressing question.
After all, according to the explanation, without hearing or interpreting Jiang Yue’s music, it was impossible for Bai Hua’s soul to be affected.
"Deputy master Jiang Yue should have figured out a way to directly communicate and affect a cultivator’s soul." The senior sister said with a solemn look on her face.
"Isn’t that too crazy? If he can do that, doesn’t it mean it’s useless to seal the five senses when facing him?"
After that, the group fell silent and solemnly watched the match.
At this point, Bai Hua had already beaten his face into a bloody mess.
Looking at the bloody opponent, Jiang Yue sighed and stopped plucking the pipa strings.
’Soul music is powerful but it consumes too much soul power.’ He thought and frowned.
As the senior sister alluded, illusions had two major shortcomings.
The first shortcoming was that illusions were mostly useless against cultivators with equal or higher soul power than the illusion master.
Second, illusions relied on the five senses.
If an opponent sealed their five senses, illusion masters would have a hard time defeating them.
Because of this, illusion masters practised other martial arts to ensure their safety.
However, Jiang Yue didn’t want to deviate from his chosen path.
After thinking about it, he finally thought of soul music which was a direct way to communicate with an opponent’s soul.
That said, using soul music was extremely difficult.
This was because each person’s soul was unique and emitted a unique soul aura.
To use soul music, Jiang Yue had to identify his opponent’s soul aura and initiate a soul resonance with his own soul aura.
Only after a soul resonance was initiated could he use soul music. Otherwise, he would have to rely on other means to defeat the opponent.
Fortunately, Jiang Yue was quite gifted when it came to soul-related matters.
While Jiang Yue was thinking and smiling in satisfaction, a loud roar resounded on the martial stage.
"Bastard." Bai Hua screamed and ran towards Jiang Yue.
Hearing this, Jiang Yue sneered.
With his personality, he would never take the initiative to disfigure an opponent.
However, Bai Hua did not conceal his intention to maim him so Jiang Yue treated him in his own way.
"Fellow Daoist Bai, you should surrender." Jiang Yue advised.
At the same time, he retreated and carefully avoided the green snakeroot whip.
"How dare you make me ugly? How dare you harm me?" Bai Hua continued to roar; his bloody face distorted into a menacing mask.
"Does your sinful face give you the right to harm others?"
"I will kill you today."
"If I can’t kill you today, I will write my name backwards."
"Jiang Yue, die for me."
With a crazy look in his eyes, Bai Hua chased him around the martial stage but Jiang Yue didn’t attack.
After all, Bai Hua was injured by the poisonous green snakeroot whip.
Even if Jiang Yue didn’t do anything to him, he would soon suffer from the poisoning.
"Bai Hua has lost his mind." A spectator sighed.
"Deputy master Jiang Yue is too vicious." Another said.
"Humph, I don’t think he is vicious." Another said and then continued.
"Bai Hua wanted to disfigure deputy mountain master Jiang. His outcome is only fair."
"Bai Hua was already ugly. After this, he will be unbearable to look at."
"His heart will be even more distorted. Deputy mountain master Jiang has harmed everyone." Someone complained.
"With your face, do you have reason to complain?"
"What did you say?" A middle-aged man shouted angrily.
Objectively, he wasn’t bad-looking but he wasn’t up to the level that Bai Hua targeted.
However, he was unwilling to accept that and wanted to fight his companion for his lack of good eyesight.
"It’s unknown whether Bai Hua can survive." Someone suddenly said.
"What do you mean?"
"For many years, Bai Hua has been hiding from the people he offended in those days. This time, he came to challenge deputy mountain master Jiang and revealed himself. As soon as he leaves the martial arena, he will definitely be attacked."
"He is also poisoned and won’t recover to full strength for a while."
"Will this be the end of the scourge, Bai Hua?"
"Deputy mountain master Jiang is eliminating harm for the people." Someone sneered and the rest agreed.
