The two left the bloodstained village and headed west.
After walking for roughly two hours, Li Changqing stopped before a hillside.
The terrain here was gentle, backed by green mountains and facing a stream, with towering pines and cypresses shading both sides.
Sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves, scattering broken gold across the ground.
A light breeze carried the fresh scent of grass and trees, occasionally accompanied by birdsong, making the place seem tranquil and peaceful.
"Here will do."
Li Changqing looked around, nodded, and decided, "The feng shui is good. Backed by mountains and facing water, with spiritual energy converging here. Your mother will like this place."
Ye Guyi silently nodded. Without refusing, she gently laid down her mother's body.
Then she knelt on the ground and began digging with her hands.
She did not use Soul Power, nor did she ask Li Changqing for help.
She simply scooped up the dirt handful by handful.
Before long, her fingernails were packed with mud and sand.
Even when her fingertips were scraped raw and beads of blood seeped out, mixing with the soil, she did not notice.
Li Changqing stood to the side without interfering or urging her on.
He knew that this was the last thing she could do for her mother as a daughter.
After more than an hour of digging, a neat grave pit finally took shape.
Ye Guyi carefully laid her mother inside, tidied her collar and hair, then removed her own tattered outer garment and gently covered her mother with it.
She knelt before the grave and kowtowed three times.
Her forehead rested against the earth for a long time before she raised it.
Just then, Li Changqing extended his right hand.
A faint golden light flowed across his palm, warm and gentle, carrying an indescribable aura.
He loosely curled his five fingers and gently drew them toward the grave.
The next moment, a golden orb slowly rose from the grave and hovered in midair.
The orb was roughly the size of a fist and radiated a warm pale gold.
Its surface rippled with a watery sheen, and within it, a tiny human silhouette could vaguely be seen curled up as if asleep.
Ye Guyi seemed to sense something and abruptly raised her head.
When she saw the golden glow, a trace of shock flashed through her eyes. "What is that?"
Li Changqing withdrew his hand. The golden orb floated above his palm, slowly spinning. "Your mother's life soul."
"Life soul?"
Hearing those words, Ye Guyi frowned and asked in confusion, "What do you want with my mother's life soul? Even if you want to revive her, there's no need to do this, right? And... what exactly is a life soul?"
Li Changqing shook his head and explained with rare patience, "You're wrong. If your mother's life soul isn't preserved, she'll reincarnate according to the natural order. By then, even if you truly become a god, what can you do? Can you conjure another mother out of thin air?"
He paused, then continued, "Without a soul, how could resurrection even be discussed?"
Ye Guyi froze. She had never considered this question before.
Seeing that she seemed deep in thought, Li Changqing explained further, "As for the life soul... it's simple. After a person dies, the seven corporeal souls disperse. Of the three spiritual souls, the heaven soul returns to heaven, the earth soul returns to earth, and only the life soul remains, wandering the mortal world."
"This 'heaven' is not the Divine Realm, but the actual sky. The same goes for 'earth.'"
"Therefore, only by grasping the life soul can one truly possess the most important part of a person. With the life soul, it will be possible to reconstruct the soul and bring them back to life in the future."
He glanced at the golden orb in his hand, his voice carrying a hint of emotion. "Those Evil Soul Masters commit countless atrocities, using living people to raise their cultivation and refine Soul Tools. What they truly covet is this life soul. However, they do not know of its existence. They only know how to use forbidden arts to seize the origin power of living beings, without understanding what lies at its root."
Ye Guyi was dumbstruck.
This knowledge belonged to a field she had never encountered.
Even when her mother was alive, she had never mentioned such things to her.
Li Changqing extended his hand toward her, the golden glow resting on his palm, and said softly, "I've already nourished this life soul with the power of merit. It's stable now. Do you want to store it in your Martial Spirit or in your Spiritual Sea?"
Ye Guyi barely hesitated. "Naturally, in my Spiritual Sea."
Li Changqing nodded, unsurprised.
The Spiritual Sea was the most central and private space of a Soul Master.
It was both a Soul Master's greatest weakness—if invaded, one could become an idiot at best or perish at worst.
Yet it was also a Soul Master's strongest barrier. Unless the owner permitted it, external forces found it extremely difficult to enter.
Placing her mother's life soul in her Spiritual Sea would be safe, while allowing her to sense her mother's presence at all times.
For Ye Guyi, this truly was the best choice.
Thus, Li Changqing said no more. He merely gave a gentle push with his right hand, and the golden glow slowly drifted toward Ye Guyi's brow.
The instant it touched her skin, it was like a drop of water falling into a lake, sending rings of golden ripples outward before silently merging into her.
Ye Guyi closed her eyes, and her consciousness sank into her Spiritual Sea.
It was a vast golden expanse, boundless and filled everywhere with a sacred, warm aura.
At the center of that space, she saw her mother.
Ye Wanqing stood there quietly, looking exactly as she had in life, still as beautiful and dignified as before.
Only, her eyes were somewhat unfocused, as though she were immersed in a long dream and barely aware of the outside world.
She simply floated there in silence, as if waiting for something.
As Ye Guyi looked at her mother, her nose stung, and she nearly cried again.
But she held it back.
She looked deeply at her mother and silently swore in her heart, Mom, wait for me. I'll make you open your eyes again, and I'll call you Mom with my own lips.
Then her consciousness withdrew from her Spiritual Sea.
When she opened her eyes, Li Changqing was standing nearby, watching her calmly.
"After becoming a god, you can use divine power through the life soul to reconstruct your mother's heaven soul and earth soul."
Li Changqing said, "As for her body, there's even less reason to worry. At that level, reconstructing a body would be no more than a wave of the hand. So your most important task now is to raise your cultivation and become a god as soon as possible."
Ye Guyi stood, brushed the dirt from her knees, then looked solemnly at Li Changqing and gave him a deep bow. "Thank you."
Li Changqing waved a hand, his tone casual. "It's a small matter. Don't take it to heart. Whether you can reach that point will still depend on your own fate."
"I know."
Ye Guyi straightened up, her gaze resolute. "But I still have to thank you. If it weren't for you, forget about my mother having any chance of revival—even I would have died there. I'll remember this kindness."
Li Changqing did not respond. He turned and walked down the mountain.
Ye Guyi gave the newly made grave one last look, then quickly followed him.
The two walked side by side along the forest path.
After a moment of silence, Ye Guyi asked, "Where are we going next?"
Without looking back, Li Changqing answered in a calm yet clear voice:
"Shrek City. Shrek Academy."
"Shrek Academy?"
Hearing that name, Ye Guyi halted, surprise appearing on her face. "Why are we going to Shrek Academy for no reason? Can't we just keep doing this? The two of us can join forces, hunt Evil Soul Masters, and grow stronger. Isn't that good enough?"
Li Changqing shook his head without stopping, his voice calm but methodical. "First, Shrek Academy is the best Soul Master Academy on the entire continent, without question. Although some of its ideals are old-fashioned and extreme, such as overemphasizing so-called 'justice' and 'rules,' its foundation, resources, and influence are undeniably the greatest on the continent."
He paused and continued, "Second, your Martial Spirit is the Sacred Angel Martial Spirit, possessing the attributes of light and purification. My Martial Spirit possesses similar abilities. If the two of us keep wandering outside like this, and our whereabouts are exposed and the Holy Spirit Cult notices us, what do you think they'll do?"
Ye Guyi thought about it, and her expression changed slightly. "They'll... send powerful experts to surround and kill us?"
"Not just that."
Li Changqing sneered. "They'll use every force available to them, cast a net that covers heaven and earth, and lay trap after trap, waiting for us to walk right in. When that happens, neither heaven nor earth will answer our cries. Even if we possess extraordinary abilities, we won't be able to withstand their endless attrition."
"But joining Shrek Academy is different."
His tone shifted as he analyzed, "With our qualifications, entering the academy won't be difficult. We'll not only receive the academy's resources, but also its protection. No matter how rampant the Holy Spirit Cult is, they wouldn't dare openly come to Shrek Academy to kill people unless they had no other choice."
At this point, Li Changqing shot Ye Guyi a sidelong glance. "Do you know why your rank is so low?"
Ye Guyi was taken aback, then protested somewhat indignantly, "How is it low? I'm not even twelve yet, and I'm already close to breaking through to Soul Elder. That already makes me a genius among my peers, okay?"
"Close to breaking through?"
Li Changqing chuckled, his tone teasing. "If you had enough resources, you wouldn't be close to becoming a Soul Elder. You would have already entered the Soul Elder rank steadily, perhaps even be advancing toward a higher level."
Ye Guyi opened her mouth, wanting to argue, only to find that what he said seemed to make perfect sense.
Since childhood, she and her mother had lived a wandering life without a fixed home.
Their resources came entirely from spoils taken from Evil Soul Masters or from the occasional bounty mission.
Her current cultivation had depended entirely on the innate talent of her Martial Spirit and her own hard work.
If she truly had a stable supply of resources...
She did not dare think further.
Li Changqing ignored her silence and continued, "As for the third reason, as far as I know, Shrek Academy has an internal division called the Inspection Corps, dedicated to tracking down, arresting, and exterminating Evil Soul Masters. By joining it, we can not only share Shrek Academy's intelligence network concerning Evil Soul Masters, but also exchange information to some extent with the intelligence channels of the other three great empires."
He stopped, turned around, and looked seriously at Ye Guyi. "Remember this: in this world, intelligence is often more important than force. Unless your strength has reached the point where you fear no one, where you can remain composed even before a rank ninety-nine Limit Douluo. Otherwise, intelligence is the foundation upon which you survive."
Ye Guyi stared blankly at him for a long while without speaking.
She suddenly realized that this boy, who was even a few years younger than her, viewed problems from an angle and depth far beyond her own.
He not only possessed formidable strength, but also meticulous thinking and clear plans.
Compared to him, her previous way of doing things had indeed been far too reckless and immature.
At that thought, an idea suddenly flashed through her mind.
Her Martial Spirit seemed to possess a very special ability.
That was, she could improve her cultivation by killing Evil Soul Masters!
This was a unique trait of the Sacred Angel Martial Spirit, and one of the key reasons she had reached close to the Soul Elder rank before the age of twelve despite having so few cultivation resources.
If she also had Shrek Academy's resources and intelligence support...
Wouldn't that allow her cultivation to soar in a short time?
Wouldn't she have a greater chance of ascending to godhood like the legendary Angel God from ten thousand years ago, and then reviving her mother?
"Hehe!"
At that thought, Ye Guyi could not stop the corners of her lips from rising. Her eyes sparkled with excitement and anticipation, as if she could already see a wonderful future beckoning to her.
She quickened her pace to catch up with Li Changqing ahead of her, her voice filled with eagerness. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's hurry to Shrek Academy!"
Li Changqing glanced at her. Seeing her eager expression, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
This girl really changed her mood quickly.
She had been devastated with grief just moments ago, and now she looked like she had been injected with adrenaline.
Still, that was fine.
Having motivation was better than being lifeless and despondent.
"Let's go."
He withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace. "We need to reach the next town before nightfall and find a place to stay."
"Got it!"
The two figures, one ahead of the other, vanished at the end of the mountain road.
Sunlight fell over them, stretching their shadows long and longer until they finally intertwined, indistinguishable from one another.
Before you continue