Zhu Zhuqing and Her Four Lives

As the so-called Soul World Theory Grandmaster, Yu Xiaogang did have some ability.

From those eerie black shadows, Yu Xiaogang immediately judged that the Soul Master before him was most likely not a Titled Douluo.

But even if he was not a Titled Douluo, that did not matter. As long as he could help him escape, that would do.

"May I ask which senior stands before me? I am Yu Xiaogang, son of Yu Yuanzhen, the clan master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. I was framed by villains and reduced to this state. If you could take me to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, my father would certainly reward you handsomely."

Yu Xiaogang's face brimmed with excitement. As long as this Soul Master could get him out, he would finally escape this sea of suffering.

Within the layers of shadows, confusion appeared in pair after pair of scarlet eyes.

"That name sounds so familiar."

"Have I heard of it?"

"Never heard of it."

"What's a name? Can you eat it? I want to take a bite and see."

"No, you can't eat him. He's human."

"Why can't we eat humans?"

The pairs of scarlet eyes conversed with one another, sometimes confused and sometimes lucid. But their periods of confusion grew longer and longer, and pure malice swirled within those eyes.

Eventually, more and more eyes filled with malice, while fewer and fewer remained lucid.

Yu Xiaogang shuddered violently.

The good news was that he had encountered a Soul Master in the Soul Beast forest. As long as the man helped him, he could be saved.

The bad news was that this Soul Master was insane. He wanted to eat him!!!

As the malice in those eyes grew stronger and stronger, about to turn into action, Yu Xiaogang was so frightened that he desperately wriggled his backside.

If he wanted to crawl quickly now, writhing his body was his only option.

More and more scarlet eyes gathered around Yu Xiaogang. It seemed they had reached an agreement and wanted to find out whether he tasted good.

Just then, a figure appeared between them.

He rode a puppy-like creature covered in cyan-blue scales. At the sight of him, the eyes in the shadows returned to their initial confusion.

"Who is he? Who is he?"

"Does he have a name?"

"I don't know. Do you?"

"Do I know?"

From Wang Qiye's perspective, however, a group of black cats stood before him. Some licked their paws, some sat on branches with their paws tucked beneath them, and some tussled in pairs. More of them fought over and tore at the carcasses of dead Soul Beasts on the ground.

At the sight, Wang Qiye sighed helplessly. "Cultivating this bunch of seeds really is exhausting. Some need more fertilizer, some have to be left to sprout on their own, and some can't be allowed to grow too fast. Their branches and leaves need pruning."

As he spoke, Wang Qiye abruptly opened his eyes. Majestic golden light blazed from his pupils, and a tremendous power spread outward in every direction with him at its center.

The instant the cats touched the golden light, they turned into wisps of smoke with a hiss, like droplets of water on a sizzling pan.

"Hot, hot! Get out of the way!"

"Hide under the leaves!"

"Run!"

"We can't run!"

The cats immediately fell into a panic. But whether they hid beneath leaves or behind trees, they were purified one after another as the golden power gradually spread.

As each cat was purified, souls were released from their bodies. In turn, the smoke rising from the cats gradually converged on two shadows in the center.

Those shadows were not cats. Rather, they resembled two girls.

As the smoke gathered, the shadows gradually solidified. The final two cats were purified, and the shadows fully condensed into the bodies of two girls. Two pairs of eyes opened, and the girl regained full consciousness.

The cats' final wishes before death also flooded into her mind all at once. "Run, hurry and run! It burns! Run!"

Zhu Zhuqing opened her eyes and abruptly darted forward. But because her body lacked coordination, her legs stepped forward toward the left and right respectively. Naturally, she landed hard on her backside, having shot only a meter forward.

A second later, her other body likewise darted forward, then landed on its backside. The movements were practically identical.

The result was that the second body knocked the first body straight forward.

"Silly disciple, stop playing around. Hurry up and greet your master."

Zhu Zhuqing turned her head. Although this was their first meeting, the person before her felt very familiar.

"You are?"

Wang Qiye smiled faintly. "Without the cultivation art your master gave you, could you have returned to the world of the living?"

Only then did Zhu Zhuqing remember. "Shrek, Tang Hao..."

She felt her body.

"So I already died."

Wang Qiye nodded. "You have indeed died once."

Zhu Zhuqing's current condition was somewhat similar to Gui Mei's. She had already died once, but because of Wang Qiye's cultivation art, her Martial Soul had possessed her again, bringing her back to life.

Unlike Gui Mei, however, her Martial Soul remained the Hell Spirit Cat. It was simply that the cultivation art had fully activated its traits, and her Nether Civet Martial Soul now had three tails behind it.

Three tails meant three cycles of reincarnation, three lives.

In other words, Zhu Zhuqing could die twice more. Only when she died the third time would she be truly dead.

Having understood the chain of events, Zhu Zhuqing bowed respectfully to Wang Qiye. "Thank you for your immense kindness, Master, for saving me and bringing me back to life!"

"Mm, good, very good. You know to repay kindness. You're a good child."

"I only discovered this morning that something might be wrong with you. I hurried as fast as I could and finally made it here."

"Do you realize you nearly suffered cultivation deviation just now? You would have been beyond saving, the kind even your three lives couldn't save you from."

Zhu Zhuqing felt a surge of lingering fear. If her obsession had not run so deep, she would almost have thought she was a cat.

If her perception of herself had changed, she truly would never have been able to return to human form. At the thought of the consequences, a chill seeped straight into the depths of Zhu Zhuqing's heart.

"But fortunately, everything's fine now." Zhu Zhuqing breathed a sigh of relief. "Wait!"

Zhu Zhuqing suddenly remembered something. Before she was killed, she had planned to go to the Heaven Dou Empire to seek instruction from an expert and find a way to grow stronger.

At the very least, she had to become strong enough to defeat Dai Weisi and Zhu Zhuyun on her own.

But wasn't there an expert right in front of her now? An expert who had taught her an incredible cultivation art that could bring her back from the dead, no less.

"Master, please teach me how to grow stronger."

"Why do you want to grow stronger?"

"I want enough strength to control my own destiny. I want to avenge myself and kill Tang Hao!"

Zhu Zhuqing gritted her teeth. The agony of her death had been carved into her bones and etched into her heart.

Wang Qiye nodded in satisfaction. "Yes, that's the spirit. That's the drive you need."

"Diligent, eager to learn, and dedicated to training. Those are the martial seeds Wang Qiye likes best.

"Very good. Since you have the will, there's no reason for your master not to teach you. But I already gave you your path to strength long ago."

Zhu Zhuqing gradually recalled her memories from when she was dead. At the time, an enormous, glowing humanoid outline seemed to have shown her many strange symbols. "Could that have been..."

Wang Qiye nodded.

"But I have absolutely no idea what those symbols mean!"

"Of course you don't understand them now. This cultivation art is called the Nine Lives Profound Art of Penetrating the Netherworld. Since it penetrates the netherworld, naturally it's a cultivation art of the realm of the dead. You're alive now, so you can't understand those symbols."

"But your master has already arranged everything for you. Head west from here. I've prepared a cultivation gift package for you."

"A cultivation gift package?"

Zhu Zhuqing did not quite understand. Why was this master so good to her?

But on second thought, he could even bring her back from the dead. Compared to that, a cultivation gift package was much easier to accept.

"Thank you, Master. I'll set off right away."

Zhu Zhuqing stood up. This time, she finally managed not to fall on flat ground, but the body behind her abruptly stood up as well. It bumped into Zhu Zhuqing, sending her tumbling again.

"I think you'd better stay here with me and learn how to control both bodies freely before you go."