Which greedy cat left that kiss mark on your face?

The change in her body brought tears to Ma Xiaotao's eyes.

"Little Ren..."

"Xiaotao, how do you feel?"

"I'm better! I'm really better! For the first time, I feel like a normal Soul Master!" Ma Xiaotao sprang up from the bedside, scooped Gao Ren off the bed, and planted a fierce kiss on his cheek.

Before Gao Ren could react, a big, unmistakable kiss mark had appeared on his face.

"Little Ren, I love you to death!" Holding him tight, Ma Xiaotao bounced up and down, laughing wildly from the bottom of her heart.

Gao Ren: Anyone there?! Anyone at all! Hurry up and save me! Ma Xiaotao's gone mad!

Ma Xiaotao's wild laughter carried far, even through the closed door.

Meanwhile, Xuan Zi, who had noticed Gao Ren was awake earlier in the dining hall, was bringing Gao Wei and Lu Xiaoxiao to visit him.

They had only reached the foot of the building when they heard Ma Xiaotao laughing.

"What's got Xiaotao giggling like that? She sounds so happy," Lu Xiaoxiao said, puzzled.

"She probably ate A-Ren's Pure World Overlord’s Leg, and it solved her Evil Fire problem, right?" Gao Wei looked at Xuan Zi. "Am I right?"

"More or less." Xuan Zi gave a noncommittal nod.

He was pondering a question—one concerning Ma Xiaotao and the Pure World Overlord’s Leg.

Earlier, when he had been farther away in the Outer Court dining hall, he hadn't sensed it.

Now that he was closer, he could.

The Pure World Overlord’s Leg had purified only the Evil Fire in Ma Xiaotao's body. The Evil Fire in her Martial Soul remained.

Just as Xuan Zi sensed, the Evil Fire in her Evil Fire Phoenix was still there. The power of the Pure World Overlord’s Leg had merely suppressed it for the time being.

Why hadn't the Evil Fire in her Evil Fire Phoenix been purified?

Perhaps it was because her Evil Fire Phoenix differed from Ma Hongjun's.

When Ma Hongjun's Evil Fire flared up, he didn't seem to grow much stronger.

But when Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire flared up, she genuinely became more powerful. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been treated like a ticking time bomb.

At the start of an Evil Fire flare-up, Ma Xiaotao could remain rational, but after a while, she would lose her reason. Strictly speaking, her Evil Fire wasn't purely a negative condition. It was a double-edged sword!

It was like a berserk Soul Skill: once the berserk period ended, a negative condition set in.

The difference was that berserk left its user weakened, while Evil Fire left her mind in chaos.

The Pure World Overlord’s Leg probably hadn't purified the Evil Fire completely because doing so would leave Ma Xiaotao weaker than before.

The moment Gao Ren's door opened, Ma Xiaotao felt a strange force wrench him from her arms.

"Xiaotao, however happy you are, you can't treat A-Ren like that. His little body can't take you tossing him around."

Xuan Zi had been the one to act.

Using his Soul Power, he had drawn A-Ren through the air into his arms.

"Exactly, Xiaotao. How could you treat A-Ren like that?" Gao Wei put on an angry face. "Next time Dean Yan asks me to cook something special for you, Uncle Gao will have to refuse."

"Then refuse. I haven't eaten your special cooking in ages anyway. I'll just eat Little Ren's Overlord Drumstick." Ma Xiaotao stuck out her tongue playfully.

Gao Wei: I'm boiling over!

"Pfft, hahaha!"

Hearing his wife burst out laughing, Gao Wei turned to her, utterly baffled.

"Honey, what are you laughing at?"

Lu Xiaoxiao said nothing. She pointed at Gao Ren's face.

Gao Wei followed her finger and finally noticed the enormous kiss mark on his nephew's cheek. He burst out laughing too.

"A-Ren, which greedy cat left that kiss mark on your face?"

Gao Ren froze and instinctively raised a hand to touch his cheek.

Ah, it's Xiaotao's kiss!

Hearing Gao Wei and Lu Xiaoxiao laugh, Ma Xiaotao blushed with embarrassment.

"Since you're all back, I'll head off! I need to cultivate! I haven't had a proper chance to cultivate in ages! Little Ren, I'll come see you tomorrow!"

With that, she rushed out like a whirlwind, beat her phoenix wings, and soared into the sky.

Seeing Ma Xiaotao flee in embarrassment, Gao Wei and Lu Xiaoxiao broke into laughter again.

This time, someone else joined them.

Xuan Zi.

Even before arriving, he had spotted the kiss mark on Gao Ren's face with his spiritual power.

That was why he had managed to keep a straight face at first.

But after hearing what Ma Xiaotao said on her way out, he finally lost it.

The next morning, Mu En came to the foot of the Outer Court dormitory building as usual. He lay in his rocking chair, basking in the sun, looking thoroughly content with his eyes closed.

"Elder Mu/Granduncle-Master."

Hearing someone call him, Mu En slowly opened his eyes.

"What brings you two here?"

He knew perfectly well what Gao Ren and Xuan Zi intended.

"Granduncle-Master, I'd like you to try my second Soul Skill."

Mu En looked at the Pure World Overlord’s Leg before him. After a moment's silence, he smiled.

"You came because of my disability, didn't you?" He accepted the drumstick but didn't eat it right away. "A-Ren, I've heard what the Pure World Overlord’s Leg can do.

"It may be able to purify the Evil Fire in Xiaotao's body, but that doesn't mean it can purify the deadly poison in mine. That was the former Body Sect master Du Bisou's innate poison.

"It's taken root deep in my meridians."

Mu En didn't believe Gao Ren's Pure World Overlord’s Leg would work on him. At the very least, given Gao Ren's current cultivation, a Pure World Overlord’s Leg he made would struggle to affect something of this level.

That was because the real cause of his disability was not what others believed.

He had, in fact, expelled the former Body Sect master Du Bisou's innate poison from his meridians long ago.

The true reason he could never straighten his back again was the backlash from the Dragon Core's violent energy.

As long as that violent energy remained, he had no chance of resetting his spine.

After so many years, his broken spine had set in place. Even without the Dragon Core's violent energy, putting it right would mean enduring the pain of breaking the bones again.

Without enough vitality to sustain him, he was so old that his bones might not heal after being broken. He might even die from it.

"Whether it can purify the poison or not, you have to try it, Granduncle-Master," Gao Ren said with a smile. "How else will you know whether my Pure World Overlord’s Leg can do it?"

"I never said I wouldn't try." Mu En smiled and began savoring the Pure World Overlord’s Leg.

The moment he finished the entire Pure World Overlord’s Leg, his whole body suddenly went rigid!