Were they dead?
That reality pained Li Ye.
Since he began cultivating, he had never felt such anguish.
The emotion spreading from the depths of his heart wrapped around it in fine, silken threads, leaving him momentarily dazed.
His emotions had always been rich. To cast so many spells, he needed to understand those emotions; without understanding or empathy, he naturally could not wield them.
He knew very well that this was both a good thing and a bad thing.
"Chirp chirp?"
At that moment, Azure Bird Hongdou, who had been recuperating in the cave abode and had no need for battle, suddenly fluttered over.
It landed on him and rubbed his cheek with its slightly cool beak.
Parting.
Ever since it had followed Li Ye, it had almost never felt this way for a very, very long time. Even the longing of the Love-Sickness Life-Death Bean was nearly gone.
Li Ye gently touched its feathers.
That faintly cool sensation was like cold rain at parting. Even he, a Golden Core True Person long immune to cold and heat, capable of walking alone through snow in a single robe, felt damp and chilled.
"It's alright."
"I should have known long ago that even as I am now, I am powerless before life and death."
"But where exactly have their souls gone?"
He had heard many senior brothers and sisters say before that within the cave abodes of inner disciples like them in Heaven's Question Mountain Range, every cycle of life and death left traces behind.
Soul essences would never reincarnate without their knowledge.
As long as he could find their soul essences.
He had a way to forcibly keep them in this world.
At worst, he could use the ink-wash method to make them bodies. Insect bodies were very easy