Returning Home for Quiet Recuperation, Nine Red Soul Rings Heal the Origin

By the time the group returned to their cottage, dusk was already approaching.

At the edge of Sunset Forest, the small courtyard with its white walls and black-tiled roof appeared especially tranquil in the twilight. A brook babbled past the entrance, while several birds returning to their nests swept overhead with crisp chirps.

Huo Yuhao pushed open the courtyard gate. The white cat named Little White was crouched beneath a porch pillar, licking its paws. Seeing its owner return, it let out a lazy meow in greeting.

"We're here." Huo Chen pushed open the doors to the main hall. "The place isn't big, but it's quiet enough. The two of you can stay here for now. I'll go prepare two guest rooms."

"No need for the trouble." Snow Empress glanced around the courtyard and said lightly, "Bing'er and I can stay anywhere. Soul beasts aren't that particular."

"That won't do." Huo Chen shook his head. "Since you two seniors were willing to trust me and come here with me, I can't let you suffer any indignity. Besides—"

He glanced at the pale-faced Ice Empress, and his tone turned serious. "Senior Ice Empress's injuries can't be delayed any longer. I'll begin treating her tonight."

Ice Empress leaned against the porch pillar and raised an eyebrow at that. "Tonight? Don't you need to prepare anything?"

"No." A bewitching red flower appeared in Huo Chen's palm—the Reincarnation Other Shore Flower. Its layered petals shimmered with a blood-red radiance. "My sixth soul skill is called Hymn of Life. It is a healing-type soul skill granted to me by the Reincarnation Other Shore Flower. It can act directly upon one's life essence and repair all injuries, including damage to the origin caused by heavenly tribulations."

Ice Empress and Snow Empress exchanged a glance, both seeing surprise in the other's eyes.

"Directly repair the origin?" Ice Empress's voice carried a trace of disbelief. "Are you sure? My origin was shattered by a four-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation. This isn't some ordinary flesh wound."

"I'm sure." Huo Chen's voice was calm yet resolute. "The Reincarnation Other Shore Flower governs the laws of life and death, and Hymn of Life is its core healing soul skill. As long as you still have a breath left in you, I can pull you back."

His words were overflowing with confidence, and even the ever-proud Ice Empress could not help giving him a few more looks. The young man before her seemed gentle and composed, yet he carried an assurance unmatched by anyone else.

"Fine." Ice Empress spoke decisively. "Then let's do it. My life was already a gamble placed on you. Sooner or later makes no difference."

"Bing'er..." Snow Empress looked at her with some concern.

"It's fine, Snow Empress." Ice Empress smiled at her. "At worst, I die. I only had a few months left to live anyway."

She made it sound casual, but Huo Yuhao heard a hint of bitterness in her voice. He could not help recalling his own experiences at the Duke's Estate—back then, he had been the same. After every beating, he would tell himself that at worst, he would die. After all, there was little point in living.

But things were different now.

He had an uncle now.

He hoped Ice Empress could have the same kind of luck.

"Yuhao," Huo Chen suddenly said. "Go boil a kettle of hot water, then bring me the set of silver needles from the cabinet in my room."

"Okay!" Huo Yuhao answered and quickly ran off.

Huo Chen turned to Ice Empress. "Senior, please come with me to the meditation room in the rear courtyard. There may be some discomfort during the treatment, but you must relax and not resist my soul power."

"Got it." Ice Empress waved a hand and followed him toward the rear courtyard.

Snow Empress had intended to follow, but Huo Chen stopped her. "Senior Snow Empress, no one should disturb the treatment. Please wait outside. I guarantee I'll return Ice Empress to you completely unharmed."

Snow Empress fell silent for a moment before finally nodding. "All right. I'll trust you this once."

The meditation room in the rear courtyard was where Huo Chen usually meditated and cultivated. It was not large, but it had been arranged with great care. Warm jade cushions covered the floor, calming formations were carved into the walls, and a faint scent of sandalwood filled the air.

Ice Empress sat cross-legged on a cushion and looked up at Huo Chen. "Do I need to do anything?"

"You don't need to do anything." Huo Chen sat opposite her. "Relax your body, clear your mind, and leave the rest to me."

He extended his right hand, and the Reincarnation Other Shore Flower quietly bloomed in his palm.

Nine brilliant crimson soul rings, red as blood, rose from beneath his feet, encircling his body in layers as they slowly revolved. Each one was an incomparably pure hundred-thousand-year red soul ring, its vast and profound pressure held tightly within.

Among the nine red soul rings, the sixth was the first to light up with a dazzling emerald radiance—the healing glow belonging solely to Hymn of Life.

"Hymn of Life."

Huo Chen softly spoke the name of the soul skill.

Emerald light streamed endlessly from the crimson soul ring, all of it gathering upon the petals of the Reincarnation Other Shore Flower. The flower, once bewitchingly blood-red, was instantly suffused with vigorous life force. Red and green intertwined, radiating an endless warmth and serenity capable of soothing every wound.

The temperature throughout the meditation room quietly rose. A gentle warmth filled the space, dispelling every trace of coldness and deathly aura.

Ice Empress was instantly enveloped by a gentle, all-embracing power, as though she were bathing beneath the warm spring sun or soaking in a heated spiritual spring. That power passed through her flesh, bones, meridians, and organs, reaching directly into the depths of her utterly damaged life essence.

The flame of her origin, already on the verge of extinguishing, was as weak as a candle flame in the wind. Its surface was covered in countless cracks—the fatal wounds left behind by the four-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation, capable of annihilating it completely at any moment.

The faint emerald glow slowly wrapped around that dying flame, like a cloak of vitality draped over a life on the verge of withering.

The next instant, piercing pain swept through her entire body.

It was the lingering poison of the heavenly tribulation, lodged in her origin and corroding her soul, being forcibly drawn out and purified.

Ice Empress gritted her teeth without making a sound. Fine beads of cold sweat instantly soaked the hair at her forehead, and her cool, beautiful face turned slightly pale, yet she never resisted in the slightest.

"Endure it." Huo Chen's gentle voice sounded by her ear. "Purging the residual poison will be agonizing, but it will pass in an instant. Once you endure it, you will be reborn."

Ice Empress gave a slight nod, completely emptying her mind and allowing that miraculous power to flow freely through her body.

The emerald radiance grew ever more dazzling, coursing through every corner of her body as if it were alive. Decades of accumulated black mist from the heavenly tribulation seeped from her pores in wisps before dispersing completely. Her severed and damaged meridians reconnected and regenerated at a visible speed, becoming tougher than before, while her exhausted organs were thoroughly nourished by life force.

Most astonishing of all was the flame of her origin.

The crisscrossing, seemingly irreparable cracks gradually healed and vanished under the nourishment of boundless vitality. The flame that had once flickered on the brink of extinction slowly rose, strengthened, and stabilized, once more blooming with the icy brilliance of Ultimate Ice.

A long-lost sense of strength gradually awakened, filling every part of her body.

It was the sensation of rebirth—of breaking free from fate and escaping death's shadow, like a drowning person rising out of the abyss and drawing breath once more.