The Root

At the same time, Xu Yi's thoughts struggled to gather themselves after his long sleep.

He remembered everything. At the final moment of the Battle of the Imperial Arena, gravely wounded, he had been swept into a vortex of light. The terrifying power of space and time had nearly torn his entire demon body apart.

His horrifying wounds had drained his Life Source Power at a tremendous rate. He had been certain he was at death's door, certain he was already dead. The last flicker of his consciousness had been of his demon body plunging into the surging Dragon River.

How had he ended up here?

He knew full well that, given the circumstances, the imperial family of Great Yue would have mobilized the entire nation to hunt him down from every direction. Even if he had escaped into the Dragon River—or out into the sea—there was no way he could have gotten away.

That question baffled him, and after turning it over in his mind to no avail, his thoughts shifted to his return from the dead.

This puzzled him even more than how he had been transported from the Dragon River to this place.

As his cultivation and knowledge had grown, he had come to understand Life Source Power more deeply. He knew that it was the root of the Seven Souls. When Life Source Power ran dry, the Seven Souls dispersed; once the Seven Souls dispersed, the body died, and no Yin Soul remained.

In the final instant before his death, he had clearly sensed his very last drop of Life Source Power drain away. How could he still be alive?

It wasn't just that he couldn't make sense of it. Even the well-informed Auspicious Duck had racked its brains and come up with nothing.

In truth,