The Northwest borderlands had, for the time being, escaped the effects of the Soul-Returning Grand Art for the same reason as the two main battlefields: they had been "blessed" by war.
Two Mystic Insight experts were battling in the heavens, while a host of high-level cultivators of true intent fought ceaselessly below. Space throughout the region remained in constant turmoil, making it difficult for scattered remnant souls to be drawn into the Sea of Corpse Souls.
On the two main battlefields, the clashes between powerful cultivators had even sent spiritual essence flowing backward across the war zones and changed the very color of heaven and earth.
No matter how formidable the Myriad Corpses Demon Lord's cultivation, he could not force his Dao arts to interfere with those regions from the Outrealm Battlefield.
In the Central Region, where the effects were most pronounced, souls kept returning in ever greater numbers. As time passed, the phenomenon even began to spread from cultivators to mortals. The major righteous factions could no longer sit idle; they had to make a decision quickly.
At Lingxiao Dao Academy's initiative, the seven Mystic Insight Venerables guarding the Central Region held a meeting devoted to the matter.
Though none of the factions said it outright, each obliquely revealed the situation with the departed souls who had returned to them.
After hearing them all, Venerable Xuansheng could only think that every household had its own troubles. At one major faction, a returned soul might even outrank his own master in seniority.
Under those circumstances, simply killing every soul that had returned with a single sweeping decree was plainly unrealistic. It could be justified neither by sentiment nor by reason.
The Myriad Corpses Demon Lord's scheme of cutting flesh with a dull blade—returning souls to life without having them commit