It had happened one day a year ago, not long after the Great Elder and Yan San returned from the swamp once again.
They had been in high spirits because the seal remained intact and no further battles with the Wind Beasts had broken out. Then the Fifth Elder flew back to the clan, drenched in blood, his face twisted into a horrifying grimace.
Under the shocked gaze of the Third Elder, who was on duty in the clan, the Fifth Elder only managed to say one thing.
"S-second Brother..."
Then he brushed a hand over a ring on his finger, but before he could even take it off, he lost consciousness. It was a Spirit Storage Ring!
Afterward, the Great Elder, Gong Shanhe, the Fourth Elder, and the others all rushed over. With the clan's pills and the Great Elder sparing no magical power to heal him, the Fifth Elder finally regained consciousness half an hour later.
Though weak, he immediately connected his divine sense to the Spirit Storage Ring.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, however, things were not as they had imagined. They had assumed the Second Elder was gravely injured and had been placed inside the Spirit Storage Ring, but they had not dared force open the Fifth Elder's storage space, lest erasing the divine sense imprint on it worsen his injuries.
Yet when the Second Elder appeared before them with nothing left but his nascent soul, its aura all but extinguished, everyone's expression changed in horror.
Even though the Tianli Clan subsequently used every superior-grade pill in its treasured reserves, and the Third Elder performed the "Soul Descent Technique" at a tremendous cost to his blood essence,
they only managed to keep the Second Elder's unconscious nascent soul alive for a little over a month. In the