Recaps

Nuwa used her Creation Dao to restore four massive legs to Lu Chen’s Old Shell, completing the foundation of its body and unlocking the Complete Heaven-Bearing Path. The shell’s fate-bearing and death-substitution prospects improved, while the newly restored body showed a faint sign of life.

• Nuwa recognized that Lu Chen’s Old Shell Avatar had developed a genuine but incomplete living origin and offered to make it more complete as thanks.
• Lu Chen accepted Nuwa’s help after learning she could restore the shell’s missing flesh, bones, and four legs.
• Nuwa used the Heaven-Earth Cauldron, Nine Heavens Breathing Soil, Three Lights Divine Water, and Creation Dao to grow four legs for the Old Shell.
• The system announced that the Black Tortoise Four-Leg Dao Embryo had formed and the Complete Heaven-Bearing Path had officially unlocked.
• Lu Chen saw his Old Shell Fate-Bearing rise to 52%, Heavenly Pillar Fate-Bearing Compatibility to 54%, and Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation Substitution Progress to 51%.
• Nuwa admired the restored Black Tortoise body, and its tightly shut eyes made an almost imperceptible movement.

After Nuwa left Abyss, rumors spread across the Primordial World that Mysterious Abyss had guided her to sainthood. Lu Chen denied the claims, but Han Jue and others interpreted his modesty as further proof, while the Old Shell showed signs of awakening.

• Nuwa praised the Old Shell's growing life force, then left Abyss after thanking Lu Chen for helping her find inspiration.
• Rumors spread from Kunlun that Mysterious Abyss had guided Nuwa's path to sainthood, growing more exaggerated over time.
• Di Jun and Taiyi considered the rumors and concluded that Mysterious Abyss understood the path to sainthood more deeply than they had thought.
• Taiqing noted that Nuwa had personally visited the Northern Sea to thank Mysterious Abyss, stirring his own opportunity for sainthood.
• Han Jue showed the rumors to Lan Shuang and Lady Mingzhu, then took Lu Chen's denial as proof that he refused to claim credit.
• Lu Chen dismissed the rumors, but the Old Shell opened its eyes and kept them open.

Lu Chen discovered that the Old Shell had awakened a basic personality shaped by its identity as Mysterious Abyss Emperor and began teaching it how to act independently. The Old Shell could distinguish itself from Lu Chen and showed a cautious temperament, leaving Lu Chen ready to make it handle routine matters while he stayed hidden.

• Lu Chen confirmed that the Old Shell had gained stable Heavenly Mandate Spirituality and a basic identity personality, with no foreign consciousness present.
• The Old Shell identified itself as Mysterious Abyss and Lu Chen as its true body, and it recognized Abyss, Lan Shuang, Ao Lie, Han Jue, and Nuwa.
• Lu Chen had the Old Shell transform into human form and tested its judgment about danger and rewards; it refused risky missions and said it would ask Lu Chen if Nuwa summoned it.
• Lu Chen decided the Old Shell could handle ordinary visitors and affairs while he stayed hidden, then began teaching it its first rule: avoid going out whenever possible.

Lu Chen taught the Old Shell how to stay safe in the Primordial World and tested its judgment. He left it with plans to handle minor affairs at the Northern Darkness Dao Palace.

• Lu Chen instructed the Old Shell to avoid unnecessary trips, leadership roles, Saint-related disputes, risky fights, unknown treasures, unfamiliar arrays, suspicious opportunities, and dangerous crowds.
• The Old Shell answered Lu Chen's scenarios cautiously, choosing to consult him about invitations from Tongtian, Nuwa, and Houtu.
• The Old Shell proposed making Han Jue repair the floor if he tried to provoke it, while Han Jue and Ao Lie discussed the Emperor's warning about curiosity.
• Lu Chen decided the Old Shell had learned enough and told it to sit at the Northern Darkness Dao Palace in a few days to handle minor affairs.

Mysterious Abyss's Old Shell handled Abyss's affairs independently while Lu Chen watched from seclusion, settling a clan dispute and making several administrative decisions. As Old Shell accepted recognition from Abyss's people, its identity as the Mysterious Abyss Emperor grew more independent, allowing Lu Chen to return to his cultivation.

• Lan Shuang and Lady Mingzhu heard the Mystic Clam Tribe and Cold Sand Clan dispute their contributions to a Spirit Field until Mysterious Abyss's Old Shell arrived.
• Old Shell ruled that past investments would be converted into merit and future Spirit Field profits would be divided according to each clan's contributions over every hundred years.
• Old Shell approved expanding Abyss Academy and the Calamity-Resolution Hall, but denied Han Jue's request to extend Realm Guard patrols and assigned him to help expand the Academy.
• Old Shell handled the remaining matters by relying on existing officials, the Book of Cause and Effect, and merit, then told Lan Shuang he was learning to manage Abyss's affairs.
• Old Shell received greetings from Abyss's people and spoke with children at the Academy as their recognition strengthened his independent identity as the Mysterious Abyss Emperor.
• Lu Chen watched Old Shell act on his own and returned to seclusion with greater confidence.

Taiqing taught the Human Clan to cultivate and established the Human Teaching, becoming the Primordial World's second Saint. Lu Chen remained hidden in Abyss as two more Great Dao auras rose from Kunlun Mountain.

• Taiqing observed the Human Clan for years, then began teaching them how to cultivate and gradually drew thousands of people to learn from him.
• Taiqing recognized that his path to sainthood was tied to the Human Clan and declared that he would establish the Human Teaching and pass down Immortal Dao cultivation.
• The Human Clan's Fortune and Heavenly Merit surged, and Taiqing became the second Heavenly Dao Saint.
• Yuanshi and Tongtian sensed Taiqing's ascension and saw their own paths to sainthood more clearly, while Lu Chen chose to keep hiding in Abyss.
• As Taiqing's Saintly might still lingered, two more Great Dao auras rose from Kunlun Mountain, prompting Lu Chen to open his eyes again.

Taiqing, Yuanshi, Tongtian, Jieyin, and Zhunti attained sainthood, joining Nuwa and leaving all six strands of Primordial Purple Qi claimed. As the Primordial World reckoned with the Saints’ rise, Lu Chen strengthened Abyss’s concealment, but more than a dozen Great Luo cultivators gathered outside the Three Lives Gate seeking a path to Primordial Unity without Primordial Purple Qi.

• Yuanshi established the Exposition Sect, attained sainthood, and declared that anyone with aptitude and a Dao heart could seek his teachings.
• Tongtian established the Interception Sect to offer all living beings a chance to seek the Dao, then Jieyin and Zhunti made great vows and attained sainthood through the Western Sect.
• Di Jun and Taiyi considered Nuwa’s distance from Demon Court affairs and wondered what path Mysterious Abyss followed after rejecting Primordial Purple Qi, while Houtu reflected on Abyss’s wandering souls.
• Han Jue discussed the five new Saints with Ao Lie and Mysterious Abyss, who calmly congratulated them and continued inspecting Dragon-Suppressing Pass.
• Lu Chen deepened Abyss’s concealment in response to the Saints’ arrival, then learned that more than a dozen Great Luo cultivators had gathered outside the Three Lives Gate to seek a Primordial Unity Great Dao without Primordial Purple Qi.

Daluos and Quasi-Saints gathered outside Three Lives Gate to ask Mysterious Abyss whether they could reach Primordial Unity without Primordial Purple Qi. His advice to follow their own foundations and paths sent many away with renewed purpose, and Tongtian set out for the Northern Sea after hearing of it.

• More than a dozen Daluos and two Quasi-Saints gathered outside Three Lives Gate, hoping to learn about a path to Primordial Unity beyond the Heavenly Dao Saint Position.
• Lu Chen sent Old Shell to meet the visitors, and Qingheng asked whether anyone could attain Primordial Unity without Primordial Purple Qi.
• Old Shell confirmed that such a path existed but warned that his own path suited only him and could not safely be copied.
• Old Shell urged the cultivators to examine their own foundations, Daos, and experiences instead of seeking the same path as others, prompting Qingheng to reconsider his abandoned Wind Dao.
• Qingheng and more than half of the gathered cultivators departed, and the saying that the Great Dao could only be sought by oneself spread through the Primordial World.
• After hearing the account on Kunlun Mountain, Tongtian smiled and flew toward the Northern Sea.

Saint Tongtian visited Abyss and questioned Mysterious Abyss about refusing the Primordial Purple Qi and pursuing a path toward Primordial Unity without relying on the Heavenly Dao. Tongtian left a sword mark for Abyss Academy’s young cultivators, then departed; afterward, Di Jun sent another invitation.

• Tongtian arrived at Abyss and asked Mysterious Abyss why he had refused the Primordial Purple Qi; Mysterious Abyss said it bound its bearer too tightly.
• Mysterious Abyss explained that he intended to walk toward Primordial Unity through his own Great Dao, and Tongtian asked how he followed that path.
• Mysterious Abyss answered, “Live first. Then walk,” and Tongtian accepted the value of surviving before pursuing the Dao.
• At Abyss Academy, Tongtian left a sword mark on a black stone and told the young cultivators not to cower when it was time to fight back.
• Tongtian departed after inviting Mysterious Abyss to Golden Ao Island, and Han Jue hurried to study the sword mark.
• Lanshuang delivered another invitation from Di Jun, leaving Lu Chen wondering why Di Jun had come again.

Di Jun visited Abyss to settle the boundaries between the Demon Court and the northern clans, and he and Mysterious Abyss agreed on rules for recruitment, refugees, and criminals. Before leaving, Di Jun asked what Mysterious Abyss had been doing in the Northern Sea, and Mysterious Abyss answered that he was raising shells, leaving Di Jun to wonder what the cryptic remark meant.

• Di Jun arrived at Abyss alone and met Mysterious Abyss at the Northern Darkness Dao Palace.
• Di Jun proposed that the Demon Court would not forcibly conscript clans registered in Abyss, while Abyss would not actively recruit clans under the Demon Court.
• Mysterious Abyss insisted that refugees be judged through the Book of Cause and Effect, and Di Jun agreed that Abyss could shelter innocent people fleeing oppression while handing over lawful fugitives.
• Di Jun asked Abyss not to support rebellion among clans under the Demon Court, and Mysterious Abyss agreed.
• Di Jun asked what Mysterious Abyss had been raising in the Northern Sea, and Mysterious Abyss replied that he was raising shells for later use.
• Di Jun took Mysterious Abyss's answer seriously, while Lu Chen wondered why he had read so much into it.

A false Mysterious Abyss Divine Court oppressed Northern Sea tribes and slaughtered the White Fish Tribe while claiming to act under Mysterious Abyss's authority. After Lan Shuang traced the crimes to Daoist Xuan Cang, Lu Chen chose to punish the impostors and clear his name, then led a force toward the Divine Court.

• The Mysterious Abyss Divine Court demanded tribute and conscripted cultivators from Northern Sea tribes, then seized their resources and killed the White Fish Tribe when they resisted.
• Survivors of the White Fish Tribe brought a bloodstained banner to the Three Lives Gate, where Lan Shuang used the Book of Cause and Effect to identify Daoist Xuan Cang as the source of the crimes.
• Lan Shuang told the survivors that the Emperor had nothing to do with the Divine Court and sent news of the imposture to the Northern Darkness Dao Palace.
• Lu Chen chose to settle the crimes, kill the chief culprit, return the seized resources, and establish rules to clear the Mysterious Abyss name.
• Mysterious Abyss ordered Han Jue, Ao Lie, and Feng Li to accompany him to destroy the Divine Court and kill its people, while Lan Shuang began gathering records of the tribes it had oppressed.

Mysterious Abyss confronted Daoist Xuan Cang for impersonating him and using his name to extort and massacre Northern Sea tribes, then destroyed the Mysterious Abyss Divine Court. He returned the stolen resources and warned that Abyss would pursue anyone who abused its name, before leaving for Abyss.

• Daoist Xuan Cang collected tributes from minor tribes while claiming to act under Mysterious Abyss's authority.
• Mysterious Abyss arrived with Han Jue, Ao Lie, and Feng Li, and used the Book of Cause and Effect to expose the Divine Court's crimes.
• Daoist Xuan Cang tried to flee, but Mysterious Abyss killed him with one palm and erased his Primordial Spirit and true spirit.
• Han Jue, Ao Lie, and Feng Li killed the nine core perpetrators, while the Book of Cause and Effect identified the guilty and spared those forced into service.
• Lady Mingzhu and the Treasury Bureau returned stolen resources, and Mysterious Abyss destroyed the Divine Court and declared that Abyss would not collect tribute or conscript soldiers.
• Mysterious Abyss warned that Abyss would pursue anyone who abused its name, then returned to Abyss as the tribes bowed to him.

After the false Mysterious Abyss Divine Court fell, Northern Sea clans flocked to the Three Lives Gate, drawn by Abyss’s refusal to collect tribute or conscript cultivators. To keep them from crowding the gate or turning Abyss’s refuge into an expansion, Lu Chen approved a trial network of Three Lives Post Stations across the Northern Sea.

• Northern Sea clans abandoned false claims of ties to Abyss and sought registration at the Three Lives Gate after Daoist Xuan Cang was killed and the false Divine Court’s abuses were exposed.
• Clans gathered outside the Three Lives Gate, where they could trade freely, undergo Causality Illumination, and leave whenever they wished.
• As more than a hundred clans asked to settle near the gate, Old Shell Mysterious Abyss sent their requests to Lu Chen for a decision.
• Lu Chen worried that crowds near the gate would be difficult to screen and could make Abyss appear to be expanding its territory.
• Lan Shuang proposed voluntary transfer points along key waterways, and Lu Chen approved three trial Three Lives Post Stations.
• Han Jue offered to build the stations, but Mysterious Abyss told him to finish building the Academy first.

Abyss’s Three Lives Post Stations spread across the Northern Sea as local tribes built them for safety and trade, giving Abyss influence without territorial rule. Lu Chen approved their continued operation under strict limits, then learned that a strange departed soul bearing a faint trace of Nuwa’s creation aura had arrived at the Three Lives Gate.

• The Water Moon Tribe’s chief eagerly provided land and labor for the first Three Lives Post Station on Cold Moon Reef, and nearby tribes gained a refuge and trading hub.
• Northern Sea tribes built more stations themselves, and the network expanded from three posts to sixty-seven across nearly half the sea.
• A Demon Court general showed the map to Di Jun, who realized that tribes increasingly turned to the stations and Abyss rather than the Demon Court for help.
• Lan Shuang showed Lu Chen the map, and he confirmed through the system that the stations had created no territorial rule or Imperial Court Fortune collection.
• Lu Chen ordered Lan Shuang to continue the stations without taxes, troops, or land seizures, while warning against anyone abusing their name.
• The Bureau of Cause and Effect reported to Abyss that a strange departed soul carrying a faint trace of Nuwa’s creation aura had arrived outside the Three Lives Gate.

Houtu returned to Abyss and met Shi Sheng, a young Human Clan soul who wanted to go home to his family. Seeing the souls gathered at the Three Lives Gate led Houtu to consider where ordinary beings went after death, and she stayed with Shi Sheng as a subtle change began in her earth aura.

• A young Human Clan boy named Shi Sheng arrived at the Three Lives Gate after dying while saving his younger brother, and Lu Chen ordered that his soul be kept from dispersing.
• Houtu entered Abyss thirty years later and asked Shi Sheng how he had died and whether he wanted to return home.
• Shi Sheng told Houtu he missed his mother and worried about his younger brother, prompting her to consider the fate of ordinary souls after death.
• Mysterious Abyss told Houtu that she was suited to seek an answer because she was willing to ask the dead what they wanted.
• Houtu listened as Shi Sheng described his home, strengthened his soul with earth aura, and promised to tell him if a way home appeared.

Houtu spent three centuries at the Three Lives Gate listening to departed souls and gradually drew closer to understanding what came after death. As she sat beside Shi Sheng, a new soul arrived through the Three Lives Post Station rather than the Three Lives Gate.

• Houtu questioned a Dragon Clan elder, a Phoenix Clan woman, and an elderly cultivator about what they still wanted, learning that they longed for family, home, or knowledge of what came next.
• Houtu visited the Calamity-Resolution Hall and learned that a resentful Water Clan soul could not safely leave Abyss yet.
• Houtu returned to Shi Sheng, who had begun learning Primordial Dao Script and still missed his mother; she told him she had not found the way yet.
• Over the next century, Houtu questioned many souls and heard that they wanted to know what followed death, while deathly aura gradually gathered around her.
• A Bureau of Cause and Effect cultivator told Lan Shuang that a new departed soul had arrived from the Three Lives Post Station instead of entering through the Three Lives Gate.

Dead souls began arriving at the Northern Sea’s Three Lives Post Stations, prompting Lu Chen and the others to investigate why they sought the stations after death. They realized the souls were following a deeply ingrained instinct to seek safety, and Houtu’s concern over their lack of any path forward left Lu Chen’s system stirring.

• The Azure Armor Tribe’s old clan chief died peacefully, then watched his soul drift from his body and begin to fade.
• The old clan chief followed the Three Lives Post Station’s familiar aura, where the duty cultivator asked Abyss whether the station could shelter dead souls.
• Souls began appearing at several other Three Lives Post Stations, and Lan Shuang brought the reports to Mysterious Abyss, Lady Mingzhu, Han Jue, and Lu Chen.
• Lu Chen found that the souls had known of the stations while alive and, after death, instinctively sought them as places of safety.
• Houtu warned that souls unable to find shelter would slowly dissipate, and Lu Chen felt his system activate.

Lu Chen chose to let the Three Lives Post Station shelter willing dead souls temporarily, gaining the Abyss Soul-Attracting Lamp and insight into the Death Law. After testing the law on a leaf and a living plant, he realized it could swiftly extinguish life force.

• Lu Chen rejected establishing a Northern Nether Underworld Court and doubted that shutting off the Three Lives Post Station would resolve the souls’ existing connection to Abyss.
• Lu Chen chose to shelter ownerless dead souls who voluntarily approached the Three Lives Post Station, and the Abyss Soul-Attracting Lamp appeared in the Northern Darkness Sea.
• Lu Chen sent the lamp to the Three Lives Gate, where Mysterious Abyss explained its willing-only guidance to Houtu and Shi Sheng.
• Houtu recognized that the lamp offered no destination beyond the Three Lives Gate, while Lu Chen left her to consider a path forward.
• Lu Chen comprehended the Death Law and tested it on a dried leaf and a Water Spirit Grass leaf, watching both lose their vitality.

Lu Chen tested the Death Law and found that it could quietly erode the spirituality of materials and hasten the death of a nearly lifeless beast. As he considered preparing the law for future combat, all sixty-seven Three Lives Post Stations suddenly lit up.

• Lu Chen tested the Death Law on damaged Black Iron and a broken Acquired Spirit Treasure, and watched their spirituality decay away.
• At Lu Chen’s request, Han Jue found a Cold-Backed Giant Shark near the end of its life, and Lu Chen used the Death Law to stop its heart without pain or warning.
• Han Jue asked whether Lu Chen could use the law to make an enemy die of old age, while Lu Chen considered how it might help him face an attacker he could not peacefully resolve matters with.
• The Northern Darkness Sea trembled, the Abyss Soul-Attracting Lamp’s flame surged, and Lu Chen sensed that all sixty-seven Three Lives Post Stations had lit up.

The Soul-Guiding Lamp linked all sixty-seven Three Lives Post Stations, giving lost dead souls a way to reach Abyss and find temporary shelter. As Houtu questioned whether this could ever be a lasting path for the dead, a gray-robed Daoist in a distant Northern Sea trench noticed fewer souls reaching his Soul Banner and learned of the Three Lives Post Station.

• White flames appeared on the steles at all sixty-seven Three Lives Post Stations, drawing newly dead souls toward them and stabilizing their fading souls.
• Lan Shuang and the Bureau of Cause and Effect organized rules for receiving the dead, while Han Jue, Ao Lie, and Lady Mingzhu discussed the growing number of souls finding the stations.
• Lu Chen decided to wait and see as the stations’ use expanded beyond his original plans, and Houtu observed that souls reaching the Three Lives Gate were relieved to find a place to stop.
• Houtu questioned Mysterious Abyss about whether the lamp could illuminate the entire Primordial World, then wondered whether the Three Lives Gate could hold every soul forever.
• Houtu noticed her earthy-yellow aura and deathly aura beginning to entwine as Shi Sheng asked whether the gate would eventually become full.
• A gray-robed Daoist beneath a Soul Banner in a distant Northern Sea trench noticed fewer remnant souls arriving and identified the Three Lives Post Station as the cause.

Ancestor Youquan discovered that Abyss’s Three Lives Post Stations were drawing departed souls away from his cultivation and sent seven Yin Cultivators to seize more than thirty thousand souls from the Sixty-First Post Station. The seven arrived above the station, where its soul flame still burned quietly.

• Ancestor Youquan traced the missing souls to the Three Lives Post Stations and found all sixty-seven stations lit with soul flames.
• He learned that Abyss sheltered and sorted the souls rather than refining them, then focused on the remote Sixty-First Post Station, where more than thirty thousand souls had gathered.
• Ancestor Youquan ordered seven Yin Cultivators to retrieve the souls without harming nearby living beings or provoking Mysterious Abyss.
• The seven Yin Cultivators arrived above the Sixty-First Post Station several hundred years later.

Seven Yin Cultivators attacked the Sixty-First Three Lives Post Station and seized more than thirty thousand registered dead souls, prompting Lu Chen and Mysterious Abyss to seek a way to intervene before Han Jue could arrive. The chapter ended with Mysterious Abyss attempting to strike the attackers through the connected post stations.

• Seven Yin Cultivators overwhelmed the Sixty-First Three Lives Post Station, broke its Array Stone, and drew more than thirty thousand souls into a black banner.
• The cultivators on duty evacuated the living and sent a message to the Three Lives Gate, but the attackers departed with the souls and claimed they had taken only ownerless dead.
• Lan Shuang informed Han Jue of the raid, and he prepared to go after the attackers before Mysterious Abyss told him to wait.
• Lu Chen traced the Yin Cultivators' banner to a Great Luo and realized the distant post stations might let him send power to the attacked station.
• Mysterious Abyss raised the Northern Sea post-station map and said he would try to strike the attackers through the connected formations.

Lu Chen used the Three Lives Post Stations to project his power across the Northern Sea and traced the Nether Spring Lineage after its cultivators stole more than thirty thousand souls. Ancestor Youquan escaped with the souls, but his intervention revealed the location of the Extreme Yin Trench to Lu Chen.

• Lu Chen tested projecting his Black Tortoise Dharma Body through the third Three Lives Post Station and then relayed it across the Northern Sea to the damaged Sixty-First Post Station.
• Lu Chen found that the Nether Spring Lineage had taken 31,462 souls from the Sixty-First Post Station and traced them northwest toward the Fifty-Seventh Post Station.
• Lu Chen projected his Dharma Body to the Fifty-Seventh Post Station and ordered the seven Yin Cultivators to leave the souls behind.
• The seven Yin Cultivators tried to flee, but their leader summoned Ancestor Youquan, who withdrew them and the souls through a spatial crack.
• Lu Chen followed the strengthened karmic connection to the Extreme Yin Trench, and Ancestor Youquan realized that Abyss had found his location.

Ancestor Youquan confronted Mysterious Abyss over the souls drawn to Three Lives Post Station, and their disagreement led to a fight. Lu Chen used the Death Law against Youquan and discovered that even a Great Luo cultivator could be made to decay.

• Ancestor Youquan arrived at the Sixty-First Three Lives Post Station and offered to discuss the souls he had captured.
• Mysterious Abyss told Youquan to take only the souls who willingly followed him, but Youquan refused to release the rest.
• Youquan unleashed the Myriad Souls Banner and sent a vast tide of souls against the Black Tortoise Dharma Body.
• Lu Chen used a thread of Death Law that followed the Myriad Souls Banner’s connection to Youquan and began eroding his vitality and cultivation.

Lu Chen pursued and killed Ancestor Youquan after the Abyss Soul-Attracting Lamp freed the souls trapped in his Myriad Souls Banner. The victory gave Lu Chen a new offensive divine ability, while the rescued souls gathered at the Three Lives Gate.

• Ancestor Youquan used the Myriad Souls Banner to attack Lu Chen’s Black Tortoise Dharma Body, but the Abyss Soul-Attracting Lamp drew willing souls out of the banner and forced Youquan to flee.
• Lu Chen pursued Youquan to the Fifty-Fourth Post Station, where freed souls struck Youquan through their karmic ties and revealed his past crimes through the Book of Cause and Effect.
• Youquan tried to sacrifice the remaining souls, but the Soul-Attracting Lamp freed them; Lu Chen combined Abyss Power with the Death Law and severed Youquan’s life force, killing him.
• The souls streamed back to Abyss, and Lu Chen gained practical insight into the Death Law and evolved his abilities into the Abyss Soul-Quelling Seal.
• At the Three Lives Gate, Houtu and the Bureau of Cause and Effect received the returned souls, including an old soul who could no longer remember where he came from.