Book 02 Chapter 063: The Nascent Soul Is a Physical Soul
Outside the Gold Armor Water Crystal Ritual Array:
As Venerable Liu Nian sped off after the flood dragon, Li Haoran stood at the bow of his flying ship and looked at the water below coldly.
“Greetings, Divine Strategy Battalion Commander!” Long Wanqing’s three servants bowed slightly from a distance.
When Li Haoran saw these three, he raised his eyebrows. “What happened here?”
The three servants looked at each other but did not explain.
At the moment, the twenty thousand ordinary people were marveling at the flying ship. Some of the cultivators who jumped into the water earlier climbed back ashore and looked at the Divine Strategy Battalion’s flying ship as well.
“Go question them!” Li Haoran ordered indifferently.
“Yes!”
Whoosh!
A group of Divine Strategy Battalion disciples immediately jumped off the flying ship and captured a few cultivators to bring back to the flying ship to question.
Li Haoran waited quietly as he studied the surroundings.
Soon, the Divine Strategy Battalion disciples submitted a summary of what happened earlier.
“Huh? Gu Hai again?” Li Haoran said with a sullen expression.
Li Haoran had kept hearing Gu Hai’s name since the Innate Puzzle World. An Innate Realm cultivator causing commotions everywhere over and over again?
First, Gu Hai, with his Innate Realm cultivation, caused one hundred thousand cultivators to lose all courage in the Innate Puzzle World. Although Li Haoran had shot dead the “Ninth Young Master” back then, he felt like he just tied up someone else’s loose ends.
Next was the Great Feng Mafia Family. He had resolved the situation back then with one arrow shot, exploding the East Sea Pirate King Luo Tiange. However, Gu Hai had massacred twenty thousand cultivators and defeated Luo Tiange before that. Furthermore, Gu Hai appeared even more savage than him. When Li Haoran learned of all this, it felt like he just cleaned up behind Gu Hai again, which upset him.
Although he killed Song Pingsheng earlier, why did he feel like he just aped Gu Hai again?
“Find Gu Hai!” Li Haoran ordered coldly.
“Yes!”
A group of Divine Strategy Battalion disciples quickly jumped off the flying ship and started searching the surroundings.
On the other side, two Divine Strategy Battalion disciples arrived by the edge of the Gold Armor Water Crystal Ritual Array. Then, they tried to pull out the golden arrow from earlier.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
As the arrow slowly came out, more cracks appeared on the Gold Armor Water Crystal Ritual Array. This was a ritual array that could block one hundred Nascent Soul cultivators, yet one arrow actually broke it.
Bang!
The arrow suddenly came out.
Boom!
The Gold Armor Water Crystal Ritual Array immediately shattered into countless pieces, revealing the scene within the First Song Sect.
Whoosh!
The surrounding water gushed towards some of the valleys.
“Ah! Skeletons! Skeletons!”
“This is—”
“There are no corpses, only skeletons?”
Countless ordinary people cried out.
The cultivators also appeared perplexed.
Skeletons littered the place. What did these people do to the spirit-assimilated cultivators? What about their flesh? Where were their flesh and blood?
Did Gu Hai do this?
Many people inhaled sharply, feeling shocked and startled. What happened previously?
Didn’t Gu Hai kill all the First Song Sect disciples? Why did they turn into bones?
The ordinary people felt startled. The cultivators who had been watching earlier were terrified when they remembered how they had wanted to snatch Gu Hai’s Century Lifespan Immortality Peach.
The Divine Strategy Battalion disciples’ expressions changed.
The scene of dry bones filling the place shocked everyone; even Li Haoran’s face twitched.
Although Li Haoran had killed countless people, he had never left such a terrifying scene.
“Gu Hai? This is the method of demons!” Li Haoran said coldly.
“Li Haoran, please watch your words. You did not witness what happened. After all, Gu Hai killed all the demons and rescued everyone,” one of Long Wanqing’s servants said from not far away.
At first, the servant also felt shocked. However, he needed to thank Gu Hai for Gu Hai’s grace.
If not for Gu Hai, Venerable Liu Nian might not have been able to come back. If not for Gu Hai, the three of them might not have been rescued. Hence, when Li Haoran vilified Gu Hai, that servant immediately spoke up for Gu Hai.
“Humph!” Li Haoran snorted coldly.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a strong wind blew. It was Venerable Liu Nian returning on his flying ship.
“Venerable Liu Nian, did you catch that flood dragon?” Li Haoran turned his head and asked.
“Li Haoran, why did you kill Song Pingsheng?” Venerable Liu Nian countered with a furious glare.
“Venerable, what do you mean by that? I saw that you were fighting against two alone. I was just helping you!” Li Haoran said in a heavy voice.
As Venerable Liu Nian stared at Li Haoran, his gaze turned increasingly sullen. However, given his shrewdness, he did not pursue this matter.
“Humph!” Venerable Liu Nian let out a cold snort. Then, he ignored Li Haoran to fly to the three servants.
——
Inside a valley:
“Look into my eyes!” Li Qinghe’s head suddenly shouted.
Buzz!
Suddenly, Li Qinghe’s eyes shot out a red light at Gu Hai.
Gu Hai immediately turned his head and swung his saber.
Boom!
Surging black energy rushed towards Li Qinghe.
Li Qinghe’s head quickly dodged.
“Gu Hai, you don’t dare to look at me at all. If you don’t dare to look at me, how are you going to catch me?” Li Qinghe shouted.
“Five days have already passed. Although I have not caught you, your strength decreases as time passes. You are slowing down and are unable to fly high anymore. How much longer can you continue fleeing?” Gu Hai said coldly, keeping his back to Li Qinghe.
Shing! Shing! Shing!
Gu Hai rapidly swung his saber behind him, sending out saber qi all over the place.
“You don’t even dare to look at me, and you want to kill me? Gu Hai, let’s see who will die today, you or me?!” Li Qinghe said coldly.
“Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!”
Suddenly, a large number of snakes surged over like a large net flying towards Gu Hai. At the same time, they kept their guard up against the Life Ender Saber. More accurately, all the snakes stared at the Life Ender Saber as they tried to bite Gu Hai. Li Qinghe’s eyes gave off red light, blocking Gu Hai’s view.
Boom!
However, Gu Hai did not blindly swing his Life Ender Saber this time. Instead, he seemed to have stopped there, not moving.
“Gu Hai, go die!” Li Qinghe shouted.
Shing!
Suddenly, a sword qi pierced Li Qinghe’s head.
“Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!”
The many snakes suddenly paused, stopping to gaze at Gu Hai in horror.
The Life Ender Saber had not swung down. How could a sword qi pierce through Li Qinghe’s head?
“All of the snakes are staring at the Life Ender Saber in my right hand, not paying attention to my left hand. Did they fail to notice that a sword had appeared there?” Gu Hai said coldly to Li Qinghe with his back facing Li Qinghe.
“How could you see where I was…?” Li Qinghe’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Suddenly, a beam of light came from Gu Hai’s right hand. Aside from holding the Life Ender Saber, he also held a mirror. At this moment, Li Qinghe’s head reflected in the center of the mirror.
“A mirror? No…no…” Li Qinghe closed his eyes in despair.
——
At the same time in the Gu Residence:
As Shangguan Hen guarded the three thousand stone statues, they suddenly trembled.
Buzz!
The three thousand stone statues quickly lost their gray color, turning back to their original appearance.
“Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!”
The three thousand evil men recovered. As they recovered, they all panted. Clearly, their time spent as stone statues was unbearable.
“What happened to me?”
“Where is this?”
“What happened?”
“Eyes! Right! Li Qinghe’s eyes!”
The evil men immediately made a racket.
“Alright!” Shangguan Hen shouted.
“Legate Shangguan? What happened? Where are we?” Chen Tianshan asked anxiously.
“This is Milord’s residence. Since everyone recovered, it means that Milord killed Li Qinghe!” Shangguan Hen smiled.
“Oh?” Everyone felt shocked.
——
In the valley, Gu Hai put away the sword. Li Qinghe’s head still looked the same, just with an additional bleeding hole.
Gu Hai waited for a while before he used the mirror to inspect Li Qinghe’s snake-covered head.
Buzz!
A clump of golden light emerged slowly from Li Qinghe’s snake-covered head. This was the golden light that entered the head when his body exploded.
This golden light looked like a golden baby, likely the appearance of Li Qinghe as an infant.
“You are still alive?” Gu Hai glowered as he held up the Life Ender Saber.
That golden baby now only gave off a faint light. As he turned his head, he showed a bitter expression.
“This is my nascent soul, also one of my physical souls. However, it is already useless. My three spiritual souls have already scattered. The physical souls have nowhere to reside and will scatter as well,” the golden baby said bitterly.
“Nascent soul? The Nascent Soul Realm? You are a nascent soul?” Gu Hai goggled.
“Humans have three spiritual souls and seven physical souls. The three spiritual souls are the heavenly soul, earthly soul, and mortal soul. As for the physical souls, they are actually our physique, which gets strengthened after being formed. The stronger one grows, the stronger the physical souls will be. When one reaches the Nascent Soul Realm, one can make the physical souls take form, just like how I am now, a nascent soul!” the golden baby said bitterly.
“You are Li Qinghe?” Gu Hai asked gravely.
The nascent soul grimaced. “Indeed. The physical soul is the source of energy. Earlier, my head still existed, so my three spiritual souls remained. By sending my physical souls into my head, I can provide it with endless energy, allowing me to flee for so long. However, you gave relentless chase. After five days, my physical souls have already reached their limits. Your earlier sword strike scattered my three spiritual souls. With that, I will die as well. This is good too. This is good…Fu Xue ate my mortal soul, my heavenly soul will return to heaven, and my earthly soul can go to the nether realm to reincarnate. Reincarnating is good. It is at least better than being a man-eating demon.”
As the nascent soul spoke, it dimmed, on the verge of disappearing.
“Gu Hai, thank you!” The nascent soul suddenly showed a bitter smile.
“There’s no need to thank me,” Gu Hai said with a frown.
“I did not want to become like this, not at all. However, I could no longer turn back. Hah…this is good too. This is good…” the nascent soul said bitterly.
Buzz!
Suddenly, the nascent soul scattered, turning into a golden fog before dissipating.
However, Gu Hai remained silent for a long time.
“The three spiritual souls and the seven physical souls? The physical souls are the physique? When one reaches the Nascent Soul Realm, one forms the nascent soul, which is the condensed form of the physical souls? That is the source of energy?” Some shock flashed in Gu Hai’s eyes.
Veritable Essence forms in the dantian. That Veritable Essence is one’s energy. In the future, this Veritable Essence will manifest as one’s physical soul, which is the nascent soul?
Li Qinghe died, but at the very least, he returned to himself at the end.
Gu Hai sighed as he picked up Li Qinghe’s head. Then, his expression suddenly changed.
He slowly rotated the snake-covered head, then immediately blocked the head’s blood vessels and meridian channels.
When Gu Hai looked into the distance, he saw a venomous snake slithering over.
He infused some Veritable Essence into the snake-covered head.
Buzz!
After activation by the Veritable Essence, a beam of red light shot out from the snake-covered head’s eyes.
“Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!”
When the nearby venomous snake saw this red light, it immediately froze, turning into a stone statue.
“It really worked?” Gu Hai felt slightly startled.
When he examined the snake-covered head with his Veritable Essence, there seemed to be a strange energy in it that was crucial to releasing the red light. When he used the red light earlier, he had drained a quarter of this strange energy.
“This snake-covered head can be used three more times to petrify?”
Gu Hai extremely carefully placed the snake-covered head into the compressed space within his authority token. Perhaps it would be useful in the future.