Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Gui Yi Sect was not far away, after the spirit boat flew for less than an hour, they could already see numerous lush and green floating peaks in the distance. The spirit boat headed right towards the tallest one and stopped above the empty space before the hall. Many new disciples on the boat stirred, all walking to the edge of the boat to look around. Even Zuo Shuming couldn’t help his curiosity and took glances of the outside.
There were already four to five disciples here to receive them standing outside the hall, both males and females present, dressed in unified long green robes, their cultivation level was all the Foundation Establishment phase. At present, they were looking up at the spirit boat that was gradually landing.
After it was stably parked, everyone was informed to alight. Lonemoon and gang was about to follow when he felt a gaze on him, he was faintly coupled with some killing intent.
Lonemoon’s heart dropped as he instinctively stepped aside to dodge that gaze, Turning around, he saw that it came from the girl on the extreme right amongst the disciples receiving them, they were still some floating Spirit Qi around her, making it seem like she’d just arrived at the Foundation Establishment phase. But Lonemoon could tell that she was actually in the late stage, she’d merely used some methods to intentionally hide her cultivation.
Upon closer look, he found that her line of sight wasn’t on them but on Zuo Shuming who was in front. It came with probing and pondering as if she was looking at a commodity that was waiting for its highest bid, only the killing intent from before had disappeared.
“Father Niu…” Yi Qing had very evidently discovered this person too. He said in a low voice through voice transmission. “She is the person in the woods.”
Lonemoon was shocked. “Are you sure?” She just looks like an average cultivator.
“Sure.” Yi Qing nodded.
“She’d seen us before in the woods.” Lonemoon reacted quickly. “To avoid alerting the enemy, we need to hide.”
With that said, he dragged the two others out of the crowd, then set up a concealing array formation around them. Three figures instantly disappeared from the spirit boat. Everyone was hurrying to get off the boat and no one realized that they’d disappeared.
“Fellow Daoist Lonemoon, let us go down… huh? Where did he go!” Zuo Shuming turned around, wanting to get them to alight together, but found that it was empty behind him, the three people who were behind him a moment ago had disappeared. Looking anxious, he subconsciously began to search.
“Hey, what are you waiting for, we’ve arrived at the sect, it’s time to alight.” The disciple controlling the spirit boat saw that he had still yet to get off and spoke up to hasten him.
“No, Senior Brother, I still have three other friends with me.”
“There is no one else on the boat.” The disciple replied, “They’ve probably alighted long ago.”
Zuo Shuming then alighted wearing a confused look, continuously searching in the crowd but couldn’t find the few of them no matter what. Whereas that girl kept her gaze fixed in his direction.
“Chef, this was really the invader from that day?” Invisible Lonemoon took a close look at the girl on the right. “There doesn’t seem to be anything different about her.”
“I don’t know either.” Yi Qing’s frown grew deeper. It was far more than different, as a manager, he could even sense that the soul in her body originated from the original source of this world, there was completely nowhere incompatible at all, yet this was indeed the invader who got away the other night. “Master, what do you…”
Both of them turned to look at Shen Ying who stood in the middle of them.
“Let’s compare the data.” She tapped open a lighted screen and a series of data flashed across, coming to a stop in the next moment. Shen Ying cocked her head to a side. “Hmm?”
“Why?” Lonemoon asked, “Found it?”
“She is indeed from this plane, but there is something else mixed in a body.”
“Something else?” What did that mean?
Yi Qing faltered, as if struck with a sudden thought, he activated some power of the original source and looked over again. His eyes instantly widened. “Her soul…”
“What’s wrong? What did you see?” Lonemoon asked. Yi Qing glanced at him, then shifted a trace of original source to move before his eyes.
“Damn it!” He almost exclaimed out loud.
The power of the original source allowed them to see through the flesh to observe the soul of the other party. For the girl opposite, in between her originally invisible soul, was a mix of a black layer, her entire soul looked like an expired bread where mold started to grow from the middle, it was especially strange.
“Possession!” This possibility instantly came to Lonemoon’s mind, but he denied it a moment later. “No, this isn’t possession.” That layer of black soul was especially tightly mixed with the original soul, though it appeared disgusting, it was a complete specimen, possession was impossible, it seemed more like cohesion.
Hold on! Cohesion?
“Could it be… the true invader is that layer of soul in the middle. It stays in her body and has fused with the soul of this world?” He was instantly reminded of Mushroom who had her soul stolen.
“Mm.” Shen Ying nodded.
“Damn it!” Why do all invaders like snatching other people’s bodies? “What do we do now? Chef can you separate them?” Like how they saved Mushroom back then, tear them apart.
“No!” Yi Qing shook his head. “The invader has already fused with the primary soul, if we were to forcefully separate them, the original soul will disperse too.”
“Primary soul?” Lonemoon’s eyes widened in slight surprise. “How was that possible, how could the primary soul fuse with another, unless she was willing!” He stopped midway. “F*ck no way! That soul was willing to be swallowed by the invader?”
Yi Qing’s expression darkened too.
Before they could think further, the disciples at the front were leading everyone into the hall. That invader walked right at the front, but at the moment she turned, her gaze still vaguely swept across Zuo Shuming’s direction.
Lonemoon and gang who had already concealed their figures and breathing also followed behind and entered the hall.
The hall was already fully occupied. Most were Nascent Soul cultivators, they seemed like the executive committee of Gui Yi Sect. The ones with the highest level of cultivation were the two seated right at the top. Both were at the Soul Formation stage, auras of elixirs came from their bodies, they were probably core cultivators.
After that invader led everyone in, she walked towards a Nascent Soul cultivator on the right, greeted him with a sweet “daddy”, then obediently stood behind him.
“There are quite a lot of disciples joining Gui Yi Sect this time.” The one sitting right in the middle was probably the Sect Master. He looked across the hundreds of new disciples in the hall then said to the others in the hall with a smile. “Elders, do you have anyone that caught your eye that you want to take under your wing?”
The Nascent Soul cultivators then stood up in succession and started selecting disciples, almost everyone chose a few. Though they were all disciples of Gui Yi Sect, but to be taken under the wing of the Nascent Soul cultivators and have a master to guide them, it was naturally better than practicing cultivation on their own. So everyone who was selected wore looks of surprise and stood behind the Nascent Soul cultivators after bowing.
In less than an hour, the amount of disciples in the hall lessened by a quarter. Lonemoon took a careful look and realized that the gaze of the invader had been occasionally fixed on Zuo Shuming. It was filled with probing. Seems like their previous guess was right, the motive of this invader had to do with Zuo Shuming.
But for some reason, she wasn’t acting, as if she were waiting for something. On the other hand, Zuo Shuming was completely unaware, when he had time he would glance around the crowd beside him, anxiously looking like he was searching for someone.
Until everyone had done their selection, that invader did not make another sound too.
“Since the Elders are done with the selection, we shall end here today.” The Sect Master stood up and looked at the remaining disciples as he ordered, “The remaining people will be our outer sect disciples, dismissed!”
The Sect Master was about to wave his hand when the Soul Formation cultivator on his left suddenly spoke up. “Wait!”
