Treatment & Exploration

"This won't do," Zhou You said bluntly. "With your current physical condition, it's difficult for you to continue long-distance Teleportation. If you keep running like this, you might die from your injuries before the pursuers catch up."

He spoke directly, wanting the mother and daughter to understand the seriousness of the matter.

Ah Rou understood the meaning behind his words: if they continued to take care of the two children, they would only fall into the same dangerous situation as before.

They must split up and escape!

"Xiao Wu, take Zhou You and run away quickly," Ah Rou said firmly.

Zhou You looked at her in surprise. Although it was somewhat inappropriate, he still felt that Xiao Wu's mother's thought process was a bit peculiar.

Before Xiao Wu could say anything, he shook his head in objection. "Why would I run away?"

Ah Rou was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized that the child was from the Spirit Hall and didn't need to run away. She felt embarrassed and two blushes quietly rose to her cheeks.

Fortunately, it was dark, and no one else could see it.

"Then I..."

This time, Zhou You interrupted the other person directly, "I have a suggestion."

He had given up hope that Ah Rou could come up with any solutions; she seemed to have a severe tendency towards self-destruction... or perhaps self-sacrifice?

This sentiment is certainly valuable, but it's not suitable for the current situation.

He deliberately stirred up this mess, not to make things unfold as they did in the original story.

"Aunt Rou, where did you originally plan to take us?" Zhou You knew the answer, of course, but he still had to ask as a matter of routine.

Ah Rou instinctively replied, "The Lake of Life..."

Zhou You feigned sudden realization. "I've read some Soul Masters ' notes, and I've heard that two overlord-level Soul Beasts live in the Lake of Life?"

Xiao Wu finally found a topic she could participate in and answered quickly, "[It's Da Ming and Er Ming!]"

Zhou You followed up on her question, "Xiao Wu, can you find them by yourself?"

[Xiao Wu isn't very familiar with this route.] Xiao Wu's tone softened. She almost never leaves the Lake of Life, and today is the farthest she's ever been from home.

"That's easy." Zhou You took out his Eye of Truth again. "Have Aunt Rou give you the detailed route map. We'll try to buy you some time. Bring them here as quickly as possible!"

He thought that Bibi Dong was probably not ready to face the Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape directly.

At this point in time, those two Overlord-level Soul Beasts are still quite formidable; perhaps under their intimidation, Bibi Dong will choose to temporarily retreat...

Upon hearing this, both mother and daughter thought the plan was feasible.

Ah Rou thought to herself that even if the plan failed, she had at least ensured Xiao Wu's safety; the worst-case scenario was that she herself would be captured by those people.

Xiao Wu's thinking was much simpler. Although she couldn't teleport as far as her mother in one Teleportation, and her skill cooldown time was longer, in reality, her travel speed wasn't much slower.

It can work!

With the help of the Eye of Truth, Zhou You successfully copied the circuit diagram in Ah Rou's mind directly into Xiao Wu's brain. She immediately set off, rushing towards the Lake of Life.

"So next, we need to think of a way to lure away the pursuers behind us, but before that..." Zhou You said, extending his finger and circulating his Internal Qi, "Ghost Gate Needle" condensed on his index finger.

"Aunt Rou, now, please lower your guard. I will do everything I can to alleviate your injuries."

As mentioned before, "Ghost Gate Needle" is essentially a type of acupuncture used for treatment.

Ah Rou was fortunate enough to become the first person in the world to be saved by medical techniques from another world.

Of course, this is also a rare opportunity for Zhou You. After Soul Beast Transformation a human, almost all physiological phenomena are no different from those of a human, but in essence, it is still Soul Beast.

This contradiction intrigued him greatly; he wanted to understand how Soul Beasts behaved in this peculiar state—wasn't that one of the purposes of his trip?

Even if Transformed Soul Beast in this world cultivates to the Peak Douluo, as long as it has not yet become a god, it will still drop its Soul Ring and Soul Bone after death. This indicates that there is another set of criteria for distinguishing between humans and Soul Beasts.

He had a premonition that this standard might involve the true underlying logic of this world. If he could understand this logic, he might be able to follow the clues and find the secret of the Soul Master cultivation system.

Through acupuncture treatment, his Qi explored almost all of Ah Rou's meridians.

Ah Rou follows the pure Soul Master path and has no concept of Zhou You's methods in this other world, so she doesn't know what he's doing.

But the feeling that her injuries were gradually being brought under control was very clear, which surprised her greatly.

"Ghost Gate Needle" cannot completely cure external injuries, but it has a remarkable effect on healing internal injuries.

Its working principle is to activate the patient's own Qi, thereby mobilizing the body's functions to repair itself.

In some ways, it's similar to a monkey version of "Threefold Reversal," essentially stimulating the patient's Innate One Qi to regulate the body's Qi channels and promote the self-repair and renewal of cells in the injured area.

During this process, Zhou You pushed the "observation" technique to its limit, his eyes almost glowing.

While he was treating Arou with the "Ghost Gate Needle" technique, he was also observing the changes in Ah Rou's vital energy.

At one point, it was as if he had grasped something.

Under his keen observation, he saw what appeared to be a dying rabbit inside Ah Rou's body, trying to revive itself.

--[Martial Soul]

Zhou You suddenly realized that it was Ah Rou's Martial Soul, and also her true form, the Soft Bone Rabbit.

He suddenly wondered, for Human Form Transformation Soul Beast, is a "Martial Soul" truly Martial Soul?

Most Soul Masters believe that Beast Martial Souls are illusory entities constructed from energy, lacking self-awareness. The physical body is its vessel, and only when the Martial Soul Possession can they merge into one and exert their true effects.

What about Transformed Soul Beasts?

According to various ancient records, the Martial Soul of Transformed Soul Beast is a manifestation of its original form. They simply reassemble their beast body into a human body, but their essence remains unchanged.

So what is this unchanging essence?

Primordial Spirit?

He shook his head, ruling out that option.

The Primordial Spirit has no species distinction. The Primordial Spirit of a person and the Primordial Spirit of a spiritual beast that has achieved cultivation are essentially the same, both being manifestations of Innate One Qi.

This is a common characteristic of intelligent life.

Therefore, the "essence" recorded in the classics is not enough to reach the root cause. It should be one level lower than the Primordial Spirit and belong to the product of further differentiation.

This "essence" is not something that can be seen physiologically, because mature Transformed Soul Beasts are no different from humans in every sense, and there is no reproductive isolation between them. Their offspring will be judged as human, not half-human.

So what is the answer?

A word popped into Zhou You's mind—[soul]

Perhaps this is the answer closest to the truth: the soul determines the biological essence of an individual life, and no matter how the form of this life may be distorted and reassembled, the soul determines the original appearance of this life.

Thus, the framework for the existence of "Martial Soul" is largely defined.