Soul-Controlling Scripture

"Ye Wuyou, are you human?"

In most circumstances, those words would mark the beginning of an argument or dispute, or perhaps a one-sided accusation.

But at this moment, they meant exactly what they said.

Ye Wuyou had neither the mood nor the energy to care what madness had seized Xia Anmeng. He merely stared silently at the pained face of the woman beneath him.

"I have a method called Soul Splitting. It can save my disciple..."

Only then did Ye Wuyou's expression shift slightly. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

The Soul-Splitting Method was, in fact, what Xia Anmeng herself had used earlier. It was a method available only to those in the middle three realms, wielders of great supernatural powers.

As a remnant soul that had survived for hundreds of years, Xia Anmeng's mastery of the soul had naturally reached the perfection of a furnace's pure blue flame. Otherwise, she could never have separated a portion of her soul power and placed it within Lu Caiwei to protect her against the corruption.

"But this method requires a human to perform it," Xia Anmeng said calmly.

Silence fell for a moment. Ye Wuyou nearly laughed in fury.

"You think I'm not human? Then what would I be?"

"An anomaly," Xia Anmeng said evenly.

Ye Wuyou froze, then felt his anger boil over.

This master and disciple really were something.

First, the beautiful disciple had pointed a sword at him and demanded to know what he was. Now this damned woman who had lived for hundreds of years was asking strange questions and calling him an anomaly.

Was being human really so difficult?

Xia Anmeng offered no further explanation. With a thought, she made the Soul-Splitting Method appear clearly in Ye Wuyou's mind.

He could see anomalies, withstand corruption, freely use other people's supernatural techniques, and expose her condition with a single remark...

Could someone like that really be a lowly jailer whose actual cultivation had yet to reach even the first realm?

Besides, the greatest suspicious point was that when Lu Caiwei first found him, he had shown no signs of life whatsoever.

Ye Wuyou's clumsy fabricated lie might have fooled Lu Caiwei, but it could not fool an old fox like Xia Anmeng, who had lived for a thousand years.

And so she taught Ye Wuyou the Soul-Splitting Method.

After all, anomalies were not human. They were not even living creatures.

They had no souls!

Would he dare use it?

Xia Anmeng was very eager to see.

Ye Wuyou could not be bothered to argue with Xia Anmeng now. He contemplated the method in his mind.

What a joke. I can't understand a damn thing.

[That vile woman harbors murderous intentions, handing you the Soul-Splitting Method, which only those in the middle three realms can perform. Surely she means to bring about your Soul Annihilation! But what heaven-sent talent you possess! A mere Soul-Splitting Method needs only a little refinement to become yet another wondrous art of this world.]

The intricate method slowly twisted, then turned into new words that appeared within Ye Wuyou's mind.

[Soul-Controlling Scripture-Life-and-Death Brand]

This method required its recipient to remain still and motionless.

He glanced at Lu Caiwei beneath him, her delicate body trembling and writhing constantly in pain, then quietly said, "Sorry."

Duang!

Sound nice? A nice sound means a good head.

Rubbing his slightly aching hand, Ye Wuyou performed the supposedly improved Soul-Splitting Method without the slightest hesitation.

The method clearly worked. After all, it had set the narrator barking.

As for its claim that this improvement was another wondrous art of the world, Ye Wuyou could not tell. He had nothing to compare it with.

Still, improving it enough that even he could understand it was already pretty miraculous.

Xia Anmeng watched, her brows drawing together slightly.

Instead of asking me how to perform the technique, he knocked my disciple unconscious... Has he finally exposed himself? An anomaly is only an anomaly, after all.

But she soon froze.

Because she could clearly see that Ye Wuyou was performing the Soul-Splitting Method.

How... how did he learn it?

If he can split his soul, does that mean he isn't an anomaly?

Xia Anmeng was momentarily dazed, but then something occurred to her.

She had to stop Ye Wuyou from continuing.

For anyone in the lower three realms-let alone someone like Ye Wuyou, whose true cultivation had not even reached the first realm-forcing the Soul-Splitting Method was courting death.

Xia Anmeng had only intended to test him. She could not let this end with her disciple still unsaved and Ye Wuyou's soul dissipating as well.

"Stop. This method isn't something you can perform."

"Your soul isn't strong enough. You'll only throw your own life away."

Ye Wuyou turned a deaf ear.

He merely felt that this woman probably had something seriously wrong with her.

First, she had tried to test him with cutting remarks. Now that he was actually using the method, she suddenly decided to warn him.

Where was that warning earlier?

Whether you're playing the villain or the saint, you have to follow your chosen road all the way into the darkness, you know? Jumping back and forth only makes people despise you.

Hiss... that hurts a little...

It hurts. That hurts way too much.

Ye Wuyou felt as though something had been drawn out of his body and then his mind, before drifting lightly into Lu Caiwei.

Once it was done, Ye Wuyou let out a long breath. A wave of dizziness swept through his mind, and he went slack.

It's still a supernatural technique meant for the middle three realms. No matter how much it's improved, it's still a bit beyond me...

"Senior, is this the Soul-Splitting Method you were talking about?"

Ye Wuyou sat on the ground, holding his head, his voice slightly hoarse.

Before him, Lu Caiwei, whose expression had been twisted with pain, now stood quietly with her sword in hand, her face calm and her clothes white.

Xia Anmeng silently watched the scene before her, momentarily unsure how to answer.

What had happened had clearly overturned the understanding she had built over all her years of cultivation, to the point that she began wondering whether anomalies might actually possess souls.

But that question clearly offered no answer, so she could only abandon it.

"All I can say is that your soul seems to be naturally far stronger than an ordinary person's." After a long silence, that was all Xia Anmeng could offer.

Ye Wuyou did not find that surprising.

If souls really exist, then as someone whose soul crossed into this world, no matter how poor my other qualities are, my soul should at least be a little stronger than other people's...

"How do you feel now?"

At Ye Wuyou's question, Lu Caiwei tightened her grip on her sword, looking somewhat conflicted and confused.

"I-I-I feel very, very strange. My mind is clear, b-but my body doesn't feel like my own."

"That's normal. You're using my soul now... How should I put it? At the time, there was only this tiny bit of your own soul left." Ye Wuyou made a gesture to show her.

Just as Xia Anmeng feared this anomalous corruption despite being a Sixth Realm remnant soul, only when Ye Wuyou split his soul and sent it into Lu Caiwei's body did he discover that her "soul" had already been all but worn away.

A few minutes later, or even a slight delay, and there would have been no point discussing soul splitting or destroying her five senses. They could have gone straight to collecting her corpse.

If Ye Wuyou withdrew that portion of his soul now, even if she left the Heavenly Prison, she would immediately become something like a "living corpse."

After explaining all this, Ye Wuyou added inwardly.

"I know you suspect I'm not human, Senior... But that's all right. Once we reach those cells, the truth will naturally come to light."

Ye Wuyou sighed, a profound weariness washing over his mind.

Then he looked toward Lu Caiwei, who immediately understood.

The young woman stood with her sword in hand at the boundary of the loop.

Her bloodstained white dress fluttered.

That familiar oppressive sensation descended upon Ye Wuyou once more.

Sword light danced, cleaving away every tangled obstruction!