The purple leader's Nascent Soul was acting as the base and it let out a silent psychic command. The twelve orbiting purple soul-balls flared in unison and streams of raw soul energy flowed from them as a conduit pouring into the central miniature purple figure. The leader’s Nascent Soul blazed with a sudden light, its power amplified.

At the same time, the Xylarri drones in the formation below let out a collective high-pitched screech. It wasn't a soul attack itself but a disorienting psychic wave of malice designed to distract and overwhelm his senses.

Li Yu gritted his teeth, the sound piercing his mind but his 'Leviathan Soul-Shield' held firm, dampening the worst of the psychic noise.

He had to disrupt them but his attacks were useless in the short term against their formation. He unleashed 'Death's Roar' again.

But the Xylarri were ready. Even while empowering their leader the twelve soul-balls pulsed and formed their defensive soul barrier and nullified his attack once more. The group was now unaffected by his soul assaults as long as they were in this formation. They had taken away his ability to fight them physically and through soul attacks. At least in the short term.

‘This formation must not be able to be easily maintained. If it is easy to maintain there must be some kind of cost. They can’t just keep taking my hits and attacks forever. I will have to slowly wear them down.’ Li Yu thought as he prepared to take action again.

The counter-attack from the Xylarri came.

The purple Nascent Soul, now overcharged with the power of its twelve Praetorians. From its head shot a purple beam of concentrated destructive light. It was as thin as a needle but thrumming with a power that made Li Yu's very essence recoil.

It was aimed directly at Li Yu.

His instincts screamed at him that the light was extremely dangerous. He didn't hesitate for a bit. He used his void-step, flickering as far away as he could and reappearing hundreds of meters to the left.

The beam passed by where he was and then it began to turn. It changed direction in mid-air, locking onto him somehow and followed him at a terrifying speed.

Li Yu's eyes widened. ‘A tracking soul-beam?’ This was a level of technique he had never seen. He void-stepped again, a desperate instantaneous hop across the sky.

He reappeared in another place. The beam had already changed directions and was moving faster than before. It was already there next to him when he came out of the void. It was too late to react and void-step away again. The purple jet of energy slammed into his spiritual sea.

There was no sound. No physical blast. It was a mental impact, an explosion of alien malice and destructive intent. It went right into his ocean of qi and targeted his Leviathan Soul.

His 'Leviathan Soul-Shield,' flared violently as it met the purple beam.

Li Yu staggered in the air, a grunt of pure agony forced from his lips. He felt the impact in the very core of his being. His soul-shield shook. Dozens, then hundreds of tiny spider-webbing cracks spread across its invisible surface. It was on the absolute verge of shattering.

But it held. Barely.

Even though it held, the mental agony was blinding. His head felt like it had been split open with an axe and then someone was wiggling the axe in place. His Abyssal Sentry orb flickered and disappeared. Its connection to his staggered consciousness severed.

The Xylarri did not give him time to recover. The instant Li Yu was staggered by the soul-beam, the twelve Praetorians in their physical formation moved. They moved in union and raised their hands. Their purple auras were flaring and their linked formation glowing.

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They unleashed a single massive combined attack. A colossal dark-purple spiritual spear formed from their collective Qi and launched directly at the staggered and momentarily frozen Li Yu.

He vaguely sensed it coming but his mind was still reeling from the soul attack. His body wouldn’t listen to what his mind wanted him to do. He could only brace himself for the impact and count on his tough body to take the blow. Even his defensive arts that usually operated automatically were stunned from the soul attack.

The massive spear of purple energy slammed into him.

The impact was brutal and he was without any defensive techniques to help him soften the blow. Li Yu was blasted from the sky like a cannonball. His white robe which were always pristine before was in tearing and damaged. A crack of bone echoed in the air. He crashed into the basalt ground below with enough force to shatter the rock, creating a shallow dusty crater.

The Xylarri didn't let up. They were relentless in their attempt to kill him. The twelve drones immediately prepared a follow-up bombardment, energy gathering in their claws and maws, ready to obliterate the crater and everything in it.

The dust cloud where Li Yu had landed was instantly peppered with a dozen high-energy attacks. Corrosive spit, void-purple energy blasts and physical shockwaves all converged, turning the crater into a smoking pit of annihilation.

The Xylarri leader paused, its Nascent Soul observing the destruction. Then it sensed it.

A few hundred meters away, Li Yu flickered back into the air. He was a wreck. His pristine white robes were in tatters. Blood trickled from his nose, ears, eyes and a few other areas throughout his body. The blood coming down from his face was a result of the soul backlash. His shoulder ached, his ribs felt bruised but overall he was okay. He was slightly injured but very much alive.

He had void-stepped away the instant he hit the ground, the follow-up bombardment missing him by just a little bit.

His head was still pounding from the soul attack. It was indeed powerful. The second strongest soul attack he had ever taken. The strongest, without question, had been the attack of that ugly old man, Zephyr. That had been a wave of overwhelming annihilation that had nearly destroyed his soul.

It was because he had survived Zephyr's attack, because Nascent Soul had been tempered by that ordeal that his 'Leviathan Soul-Shield' had been strong enough to endure this one. It had cracked but it hadn't broken. That his mind had also been tempered by that pain. Because he had endured a worse pain before he was able to endure this one much better. He had experienced something stronger before so it was not as shocking but it wasn't any less dangerous.

The Xylarri leader's purple Nascent Soul swiveled as soon as it detected him, its multiple eyes fixing on him.

Li Yu could vaguely feel an aura of shock from it. As though it was saying ‘It had survived? It had survived the soul-beam? And it was... still standing?’ That was just his guess.

However, what was true was that the formation attack and the soul-beam had cost the Xylarri immensely. He could feel it. His attacks from before and his koi draining them also had an impact and now they were all adding up. Their combined aura was noticeably dimmer. His own constant and relentless drain was also helping to heal his injuries.

The purple leader quickly continued the attack without any pause. It couldn't give him a moment to breathe. It screeched and the formation unleashed another barrage of techniques at him.

The soul-beam lanced out again and Li Yu still had no options to avoid it. He tried to take continuous void-steps to get away from it but after a while it hit him. He was more ready mentally against it though.

The twelve Praetorians tried to hit him with ranged techniques after he was hit by the beam. This time Li Yu was able to bear the soul beam attack much better and was able to void-step away from their techniques.

He re-materialized his Abyssal Sentry orb and it helped to shoot down the weaker projectiles, acting as a point-defense system for him.

Li Yu hovered in his spot away from his enemies, panting from the sheer mental strain of taking the soul attack and then the high-speed evasion of techniques. He was just barely holding on but the important thing was he was holding on.

He looked at the Xylarri as they were still coming to get him. The formation was visibly faltering. The twelve drones were ever so little trembling. Their purple auras were now flickering weakly. The purple Nascent Soul itself looked dimmer and less defined. They had spent too much. And his devouring field was still relentlessly pulling at their remaining strength.

They were getting weaker. He was barely holding on himself but he was doing okay.

This was a war of attrition. They had a devastating one-two punch but they couldn't knock him out if he was prepared. His parasitic drain was a slow and inevitable death sentence. As long as he stayed out of trouble, as long as he avoided taking a fatal hit he would be okay.

This battle was one he would win. It was only a matter of time.