Tsunami's soul body was undergoing an eerie transformation.
The almost-separate halves were coming together, while the rest of his body was turning black and producing a horrifying stench, akin to a body undergoing the rotting process.
His eyes turned bright red with no pupils, while two antenna-like devices appeared on top of his head, probing like an insect.
This new creature's presence emitted a chilling yet powerful pressure that was on par with Pearl's earlier form... before she superimposed the door relics and shattered her cores— a second step peak Favourite.
The unharmed cyclone was even more startled than it was when fighting Pearl.
It took some good seconds to assess the state of its brother and the abomination that had caused it, and when reality dawned on it —that it was a tainted creature before them, it turned the other direction and flew at its top speed, without a shred of remorse.
There was no more brotherhood today.
Their low cultivation bases and the fact that they were born just a little over five years ago made them young juniors in the cultivation world, especially in the spirit realm, which was known to be at times more perilous than the real world.
But despite their ignorance and arrogance, which stemmed from their immaturity and powerful mother... something that caused them to be in this situation... any cultivator, whether beast or one of the nine million orthodox races, even without personal experience, knew one thing across the board.
A tainted creature when they see one.
Although they came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, they had two distinct characteristics based on outer appearance, which were the rooting body and red pupilless eyes.
Though having red pupilless eyes was a relatively common trait among members of different races in the multiverse, and even some having rotting properties like the Rotters.... Only tainted creatures possessed both outer qualities at once.
Historically, across the multiverse, there were two leading, known causes of such a creature's appearance.
The first one, a practitioner who practised unorthodox pathways, underwent corruption of their internal energy, transforming them into these abominations... whereas the other one was being born from one.
Regardless of their origin, though, these creatures were detested and hated across the multiverse due to their nature as petty, tyrannical bullies.
From the moment of birth, any member of any race, other than humans, was hardwired inside their DNA to recognise a tainted creature when they saw one.
The heavens hated them yet favoured them at the same time.
Though the tainted creatures had their own tribulations, in the same realm, they were almost invincible.
...
Today was really a bad day.
The escaping cyclone drained all its essence, even at the risk of damaging its bloodline to escape at the speed of a second step peak favourite.
To hold back would be courting death.
Their mother, though strong and able to hold it back, was not coming to the rescue anytime soon.
The cyclone, whose life force had been halved, now resembled a flying corpse. It stared at its fleeing brother with a wronged expression and cried out to their mother, feeling betrayed and in danger.
*SCREEEECH!*
...
"Ahh!... the spirit realm"
Now entirely transformed, the tainted creature inhaled deeply, savouring the rich fragrance of the abundant life force compared to his last meal in the real world.
"Although you are a weak pussy... I do like your life endangerment theatrics."
"Powerless, yet you offend a bunch of low lives... powerless yet you dare come to the spirit realm."
"If I didn't know better, I would have thought you were into boys' love."
"..."
The tainted creature spoke in an arrogant and mocking tone to Tsunami's consciousness before bursting out into laughter.
Tsunami's consciousness, which was currently inside their soul body, was sealed inside a dungeon-like infrastructure, held together in chains... was dumbfounded.
After the events in the real world and the rescue attempt went awry, he discovered the existence of this consciousness within his soul.
On regular occasions, he couldn't sense it, not until his life was at risk of death... but after his cultivation session with Aiko, his special eyes could detect this hidden consciousness within him... silently in slumber.
A pair of eyes appeared on top of the dungeon, looking down on the switched prisoner, his soul body pursing its lips.
"But just in case you are, I hate to break it to you, fella... but I'm not interested in your piece of meat."
"..."
Tsunami stared back at those pair of eyes with no emotion on his face.
The tainted creature had a reason for his speculations... after all, Tsunami's actions ultimately led to the tainted creature's consciousness attaining more freedom and dominance over their soul, and he clearly knew that Tsunami could feel his consciousness growing weaker while Darkside's was growing stronger whenever he took control from his slumber.
After taunting him a bit more, his tone and posture turned a little serious as he stared at the directions of the two fleeing cyclones and the overhead battle fluctuations.
"Just don't overdo it next time and have both of us killed in one fell swoop."
"If you don't value life so much, then just be the one in slumber—"
Darkside narrowed his eyes when he sensed the fluctuations heading straight towards his location.
'How did this fucker get entangled with two third-step beasts?'
'One is even at the peak stage... Goddamit!'
He unleashed his entire second step peak cultivation base, which caused a strange natural phenomenon in the sky.
By now, the third moon was partially visible, with only half of its body over the horizon across the spirit realm. Yet, it had changed colour from white to red, while the other two full moons had turned black.
All entities in the spirit realm looked at the sky and frowned.
'A peak second step tainted creature, how dare it act so brazen when it has such weak cultivation?'
'Isn't it afraid of the wrath of all other races?'
The powerful auras that locked on his position sent a shiver down Darkside's spine.
"Fuck this bastard.... fuck! fuck! fuck!"
Tsunami, on the other hand, wasn't surprised by the turn of events; in fact, he had a mischievous grin.
Although his fail-safe plan was a gamble, and he had to risk facing real death, this one was a hard-to-come-by opportunity if done right.
When he discussed this plan with Pearl earlier, it was all for this moment.
Pearl played a key role in revealing much information that he was previously unaware of, including the hatred that all races harboured towards the tainted creatures.
And this was a vital aspect in the final part of their escape plan.
...
A field of rotten matter formed a protective shield around Darkside for two miles, although, given his unique state, he didn't feel the effects of the dual domain. Pearl pierced through his protective field like a piece of paper and slammed hard against his chest.
BOOM!