The wooden ruler floating above the silver box was covered it in a barrier of green light. Then in a flash, the light completely faded away.
Strangely enough, there was a man standing motionlessly over thirty meters away.
He wore blue robes, a red headscarf, and had green lines shining from his face. It was the illustrious Grand Elder of the Sacred Poison Sect, Hua Tianqi.
However, his eyes were closed and expression stiff. Blood leaked from his every orifice. Were it not for the faint movements of his chest, he would’ve been mistaken for dead.
As for his other sect members, they were nowhere in sight.
However, the sounds of a faint explosion could be heard in the distance as if someone was trapped by a restriction.
In the other space, the purple light that shone from the black wolf head’s eyes had disappeared, and a woman’s sweet voice rang out, the very same one that had spoken on the day Xiang Zhili was trapped, but this time with a hint of iciness and much more crude, “Bloodflame, it was you. I believed you to have already returned. I didn’t expect you to remain in this world.”
The Elder Devil respectfully replied, “I pay my respects, Senior. I had taken action too late in the past and had nearly been destroyed. Were it not for my understanding of the passageway between the holy and the mortal realm, and their intent to draw out my soul and interrogate me, I wouldn’t have lived until now.”
The wolf head remained indifferent when it heard this and nodded, “Oh, your luck is quite good then. The passage through that Spirit Ether Garden’s spatial tear we used had already been destroyed by the time we wished to return and we had no way back.”
The large-headed eccentric calmly listened from the side, inwardly surprised at the lack of any devilish characteristics from the feminine voice. ‘This is the Elder Devil that nearly exterminated the ancient cultivators in the past?’
The head then lowered to the black chains binding it and said, “Since you’ve come here, you should have a plan. But I must first warn you that rescuing me will not be so trivial. Your cultivation will not be enough to destroy even the Heavenly Star Chains binding me. It is a treasure passed down from the spirit realm specifically meant to deal with our kind.”
“Be at ease, Sacred Ancestor! I’ve made full preparations before coming. Not only will Fellow Daoist Ye be assisting us, but I’ve gathered many devilish artifacts to assist.”
The black wolf shook its head, “You might be able to break through the chains, but even so, I cannot have you immediately take action.”
“Why is that?” The Elder Devil betrayed surprise from his face, eyes brimming with purple and red light. The eccentric was also surprised.
The head sighed, “It’s quite simple, the star chains aren’t the most powerful restriction here. Take a look at where you’re standing.”
“Where… are standing?” The Elder Devil and the eccentric bewilderedly turned their attention to their feet and only saw the black teleportation formation and nothing else.
The head turned to look at its still asleep silver wolf head with a grave expression. “Do you believe I can leave this place as I wish? The Divine Spirit Treasure on the eighth floor will immediately activate should I make an attempt. And if you perform any exceeding actions, the treasure will immediately teleport you away, preventing you from easily coming back. In addition, the main reason I was trapped here in the first place was because of this troublesome Silvermoon Wolf body.”
They both looked at the slumbering silver wolf head and suddenly came to a faint realization.
The Elder Devil hesitantly asked, “In the past, wasn’t that wolf’s primal soul consumed by the Sacred Ancestor? Could it be that something happened?”
The black wolf head annoyedly snorted, “When I possessed this body, there were two primal souls. I gravely injured one and it escaped, leading me to believe that I would be unbothered. As for the other, it used a secret technique to hide someplace in the body. When I was in the crucial point of the battle against the Three Masters of Kunwu, it suddenly counterattacked and I was defeated, leading me to become sealed.”
“Two primal souls? A single body with two souls!?” The eccentric couldn't help but cry out in shock.
“You humans sure know a lot. This body possessed two entirely independent souls. Originally, there was only one, but when the second made an appearance, the first soul came and fought against me for control over the body. The wolf’s cultivation art was also truly strange. I possessed this body for such a long time and never noticed anything amiss,” she muttered with a puzzled tone.
“Could it be that the second wolf’s soul still exists?”
“Of course. When the humans captured me, I came to realize that this Silvermoon Wolf was actually the concubine of one of the Spirit Realm’s Demon Monarchs, the Divine Wolf Celestial Kui. She was also one of the few demons to descend into the mortal realm in their true body. I was only able to easily take control because it was still weak from its descent into the moral realm. Had the wolf been at the peak of its cultivation, a soul fragment like me wouldn’t have been close to successful, and the existence of its two souls had left me completely off guard. But at the time, I had already possessed the body for a few years and corrupted most of it. The humans were no longer able to expel me and didn’t dare to rashly exterminate me along with the body. As a result, they could only seal me inside the Devil Suppressing Pagoda.”
The Elder Devil managed to retain most of his calm, but the eccentric was left flabbergasted.
“From that, you mean to say that the second wolf soul still exists in that body?” The Elder Devil bitterly laughed and stared at the silver wolf head.
The head sweetly chuckled, “It is no longer there, but in a moment, she should be coming back. You were quite lucky that I was in control when you woke me up.”
“Sacred Ancestor, what do you mean?” The Elder Devil felt his heart tremble.
“It is quite simple. At the time, the ancient cultivators used the Blackwind Flag to seal me in this spiritless land and intentionally extracted the second wolf’s soul. Then, sparing no effort, they constructed a palace hall brimming with spiritual Qi for her. As a result, the soul would attempt to fight me over control of this body every so often. When she exhausts herself, she would return and recover her strength. Because I am sealed here and can only rely on the devilish Qi within my body to resist her, I found myself at a great disadvantage. In order to retain control, I had no choice but to use the Greater Spiritfuse Arts.”
“What, the Spiritfuse Arts? You’re already…” The Elder Devil’s four eyes twisted in shock, momentarily forgetting to speak with a respectful tone.
“That’s right, I fused souls with her to form an entirely new one. Her soul served as the base and I was second. But at the start, the newly fused soul was unstable and when they saw this new soul, they were unable to recognize what had happened. Because they couldn’t verify her identity, they also couldn't release the seal. Those cultivators didn’t dare to take action due to her status and rashly sealed the entire mountain. As a result, our souls ended up strangely sealed together. Now that over ten thousand years have passed, the fusion of our souls stabilized into a fine result. But over the past few days, the other half stealthily submerged a Deity Transformation stage cultivator into Phantasmic Air, causing our soul to weaken and divide once more. However, I reckon that this will be the last time the split will occur. After it is replenished with spiritual Qi from the palace on the other side, our souls will become one.”
As the black wolf head spoke, she maintained a calm tone.
The other two, however, were at a loss for words.
The Elder Devil was mute for a long while before letting out a bitter laugh, “Great Sacred Ancestor, are you the new soul of a demon, or are you still a member of our holy race?”
The wolf head indifferently replied, “What do you mean?”
The Elder Devil could only remain silent.
After a moment of thought, the eccentric said, “Since you’ve given us such a detailed explanation, you should have a method to stop your counterpart. Please don’t hesitate to speak.”
Purple light flashed from the wolf’s eyes and said, “Oh, I still haven’t asked why a human like you is assisting Bloodflame? I see that you’ve used up most of your lifespan and death is soon approaching. Could it be you wish for me to infuse you with devilish Qi?”
At that moment, a sinister expression appeared on the eccentric’s face, “Since you’ve seen through me, I won’t conceal this any longer. I would rather tread the Devil Dao for an eternity than perish from age and have my thousand years of bitter cultivation and bloody battles be for naught. Could it be you would have me subject myself to the cycle of life?”
