"Are your injuries healed?" In the sect master's hall, Daoist Qingxu raised an eyebrow as he watched Ye Lingtian approach.
"Yes. Thanks to you opening the spirit spring for me to use, Sect Master, my injuries have healed."
Ye Lingtian nodded. At the mention of it, he couldn't help looking at Daoist Qingxu speechlessly.
He must have deliberately neglected to tell him Su Mingyue was in the spirit spring. He just had to see him make a fool of himself, didn't he? What a wicked sense of humor the sect master had.
"Hehe." Seeing Ye Lingtian's resentful gaze, Daoist Qingxu couldn't help chuckling. "Then you must have come today to inform me about your breakthrough."
At the mention of serious business, Ye Lingtian's expression grew solemn. "Yes. How will the sect make arrangements?"
A cultivator under its wing breaking through to the Nascent Soul Stage was a matter worth taking seriously in any sect or clan, and the Primordial Sect was no exception.
Generally, when a cultivator was about to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage, the sect would activate its protective grand array and close itself off for a time, reopening only after the cultivator completed the breakthrough.
"We'll do as we always have. Go to the quiet chamber on the sect's rear mountain and prepare for your breakthrough. You don't need to worry about anything else. I'll explain the matter to the peak masters."
After a pause, Daoist Qingxu couldn't help laughing. "You brat are suddenly about to make a breakthrough. You haven't told your master, have you?"
Ye Lingtian nodded awkwardly. "Sect Master, as you know, Master only just returned from her travels, and I was injured only recently. Naturally, I haven't told her."
"Then go tell her." Daoist Qingxu waved a hand. "That way, she won't come looking for trouble with an old fellow like me when she can't find you."
"Yes." Ye Lingtian bowed. Just as he was about to turn around, he heard Daoist Qingxu suddenly say, "Oh, right. I heard your Clear Profound Sword broke."
"Yes." Ye Lingtian paused, then turned around and took out the broken sword.
"Leave the broken sword with me for now. I'll think of a way to repair it for you. Consider it a gift for your breakthrough." Daoist Qingxu casually drew the broken sword over to himself.
Ye Lingtian's eyes lit up. He had been planning to go see Peak Master Mo Changfeng, but he hadn't expected the sect master to offer to handle it personally.
"What are you standing there for? Do you want me to keep you for dinner?" Seeing that Ye Lingtian still hadn't left, Daoist Qingxu spoke irritably.
"Uh, I wouldn't say no. I've only just recovered from a serious illness, and my body really is a little depleted."
"Get out! Give you an inch and you take a mile, is that it? You haven't even broken through yet, so stop playing the victim in front of me." Daoist Qingxu rolled his eyes.
"Yes~" Having failed to wheedle a meal out of him, Ye Lingtian felt no embarrassment. He turned to leave.
At that moment, a storage bag flew toward him from behind.
"There are some pills and spirit fruits inside to strengthen your foundation and nurture your vitality, as well as a magic treasure I prepared for your breakthrough. If you still fail to break through, I'll hold you accountable."
Though his tone was rather harsh, Ye Lingtian still felt warmth in his heart.
"I won't let the sect down!" After catching the storage bag, Ye Lingtian flew away on his sword.
"That brat." Daoist Qingxu shook his head helplessly and returned his gaze to the scroll in his hand, a trace of solemnity flashing in his eyes.
"Desolate Soldiers... Those things should have died out long ago, yet they've actually appeared again."
The sky screen showing Tang San's perspective, which had previously gone dark, suddenly lit up without warning. Across the Douluo Continent, the people who had been waiting with bated breath for so long abruptly widened their eyes.
The petals of the eerie flower cocoon that had wrapped Tang San tightly were originally a vivid pink, but now pitch-black patterns were spreading across them at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Thin wisps of black Qi carrying a sinister presence seeped out through the gaps in the flower cocoon.
"Heavens, what on earth happened?" Everyone on the Douluo Continent was utterly bewildered. Only a few days had passed since they last saw it, so how had the flower bud ended up like this?
At that moment, within Tang San's sea of consciousness, Huaxiang's Nascent Soul spirit was grinning viciously as she forced Tang San's soul into the farthest corner of his sea of consciousness.
She was only one step away from devouring Tang San's soul and completing the Body Possession.
Tang San was only an ordinary person. Even as a transmigrator, he had no power to fight back against the divine sense of a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator.
His consciousness was utterly hazy, and he could only wait for death to arrive.
Just then, it was as though something had suddenly contaminated the depths of his sea of consciousness. Ink-black currents of Qi steadily corroded Tang San's sea of consciousness.
Baihuaxiang's attention was fixed entirely on Tang San's soul, and she failed to notice it altogether.
By the time she did, the depths of the sea of consciousness had already been completely stained black.
The black Qi spread up from below. Suddenly, as though it had caught the scent of a delicious meal, a vast amount of black Qi rushed toward Baihuaxiang.
"!" Baihuaxiang abruptly came to her senses. The smile on her face instantly froze, and her face filled with terror. "Th-this is?"
She hurriedly tried to suppress the black Qi with her divine sense, but the instant her divine sense touched it, it seemed to be devoured by something and could no longer do anything.
This black Qi was like the bane of divine sense, leaving Baihuaxiang, who now had only her Nascent Soul's divine sense left, at a complete loss.
"It really is Desolate Qi." Baihuaxiang's expression was a mixture of joy and fear.
She was happy because she had finally found the target she had come all the way from the Forest of Ten Thousand Demons to find.
She was afraid because it had appeared at precisely the wrong time. She now had nothing left but her divine sense.
And divine sense just happened to be the least effective thing against Desolate Qi. In other words, she was now utterly powerless to act against her target.
"Damn it." Baihuaxiang's face turned pale. Why had the target chosen this moment to come out on its own? Couldn't it have waited a little longer?
Once she completed the Body Possession, she would have her own methods, but as she was now, she had no way to counter it.
The Desolate Qi didn't care what Baihuaxiang was thinking. It was now like a voracious eater who had gone hungry for a month, desperately in need of nourishment.
And as far as demonic Qi was concerned, a Nascent Soul was the greatest supplement. A single Nascent Soul could satisfy its hunger.
The violent demonic Qi surged toward Baihuaxiang like a tide.
Baihuaxiang reluctantly glanced at what remained of Tang San's soul, then looked around for somewhere to escape.
But unfortunately, the entire sea of consciousness was now saturated with Desolate Qi. Baihuaxiang had nowhere to run.
If Baihuaxiang was willing to give up on the Body Possession, however, she still had a chance to survive.
The problem was that a cultivator could perform Body Possession only once in a lifetime, and Baihuaxiang was no exception. That was a rule set by the Heavenly Dao.
So if she gave up on Tang San now, she could only remain in the world as a Nascent Soul and be reduced to a ghost cultivator.
And in that moment of hesitation, Baihuaxiang lost her last chance to escape.
The Desolate Qi instantly wrapped itself tightly around her Nascent Soul. No matter how she struggled, the Desolate Qi clung to her like a poison in her bones, and she could not escape.
"Desolate Seed! No!"
In the span of a few breaths, the Desolate Qi dragged the Nascent Soul beneath the sea of consciousness and began to devour it bit by bit.
As for Tang San's soul, no one cared about it. How could the energy contained in an ordinary person's soul compare to a Nascent Soul?