The death of the Heavenly Mountain Child Elder caught not only Ye Weiming and Dao Mei off guard, but even alerted Venerable Huang.
When the two of them arrived at the Heavenly Prison, they saw the Heavenly Mountain Child Elder sitting cross-legged on the only stone bed in the cell, her head lowered and her breath gone. Through the rusty iron bars, they could see that her skin was now covered in wrinkles, dry and mottled like chicken skin, without a trace of the smoothness she had possessed in life.
Xu Zhu, meanwhile, sat cross-legged on the floor directly opposite the Heavenly Mountain Child Elder, his back to the cell door, chanting the "Sutra of Rebirth" to deliver her departed soul.
Seeing this, Ye Weiming could roughly guess what had happened in the cell. He ordered the jailer to open the door, then walked straight inside.
The cell was filled with the decaying odor unique to elderly people nearing the end of their lives. Ye Weiming sat cross-legged beside Xu Zhu and channeled his inner strength into the scabbard of the Imperial Sword on his back, helping him deliver the Heavenly Mountain Child Elder's soul.
This naturally earned him Xu Zhu's goodwill. Even as he chanted, Xu Zhu turned and smiled at Ye Weiming, nodding in thanks. Ye Weiming could not be bothered with him. Instead, while Xu Zhu was greeting him, he increased the frequency of his inner strength output, striving to contribute more in this soul-delivering contest and earn more Chivalry Points and Cultivation Points.
Still, no matter how hard Ye Weiming tried, he had arrived too late. His gains naturally could not compare to Xu Zhu's, who had begun delivering the Heavenly Mountain Child Elder's soul at once. By the time the ritual ended, he had gained