Chapter 123 - A Nascent Soul is an Ethereal Soul

Outside the Golden Chrysalis Array...

Grandmaster Liunian was chasing in the direction the flood dragon had escaped to. Li Haoran stepped on the bow of the flying s.h.i.+p, coldly gazing at the flooded area below.

"Greetings, Divine Battalion Commander!" The three distant servants of Long Wanqing bowed slightly towards Li Haoran.

As Li Haoran gazed at the trio, his eyebrows twitched. "What the h.e.l.l happened inside?"

The three looked at each other, but they didn't give an explanation.

At this moment, twenty thousand people were looking at this flying s.h.i.+p, curious. Some of the cultivators who had jumped into the water earlier came out of the water and also stared at the Divine Battalion's flying s.h.i.+p.

"Go, ask them what happened clearly!" Li Haoran gave an order calmly.

"Yes, sir!"

A team of Divine Battalion soldiers jumped down the flying s.h.i.+p and instantly caught a few cultivators before bringing them back to the flying s.h.i.+p for questioning.

Li Haoran, on the other hand, gazed about, quietly waiting.

Very soon, the information of what had happened was gathered completely.

"Hmm? It's Gu Hai again!?" Li Haoran's face darkened as he spoke.

Ever since the Xiantian Endgame World, he had been hearing Gu Hai's name. Xiantian Stage, yet causing so much commotion again and again?

First, it was the Xiantian Endgame World, where he manhandled a hundred thousand cultivators in the Xiantian Stage to the point that they dared not raise their heads. Although it was he who shot the Ninth Young Master, he always felt like someone had beat him to it, picking up where others left off.

Next, it was the Golden Tong. He had blasted the Eastern Seas King, Luo Tiange, with his arrow. But earlier, Gu Hai had already ma.s.sacred twenty thousand cultivators and successively routed Luo Tiange. Gu Hai was fiercer than him. Having come to know this, he once again felt like he was picking up breadcrumbs. He felt very ill at ease.

And now he had come here. He may have killed Song Shengping, but he was having this nagging feeling of picking up the breadcrumbs once more!

"Find Gu Hai for me!" Li Haoran shouted, his voice getting colder.

"Yes, sir!"

The soldiers of the Divine Battalion quickly jumped down the flying s.h.i.+p, searching in all directions.

On another place, two Divine Battalion soldiers arrived at the edge of the Golden Chrysalis Array and pulled out the golden arrow.

Crack Crack Crack Crack!

As the long arrow was pulled out bit by bit, cracks on the Golden Chrysalis Array began to spread out more and more. The array, which claimed to be able to block hundred Nascent Soul cultivators, was actually broken by this arrow!

The long arrow was finally pulled out with a bang.

Following that, the Golden Chrysalis Array also blew up into countless little fragments, thereby revealing the scene within the Song Jia Sect.

Following the disappearance of the array, the flooding water all around the Song Jia Sect swelled towards some mountain valleys.

"Ah, skeletons, so many skeletons!"

"This!?"

"There aren't any corpses, just skeletons!?"...

The crowd of ordinary citizens cried out in shock and horror.

Even the cultivators looked terrified.

The skeletons were spread everywhere over every hill and dale. Were these the demonized men? What happened to their flesh? Their flesh and blood?

Was this done by Gu Hai?

One after another, hisses arose as the onlookers sucked in cold breaths. A primal fear gripped their hearts and minds. What the h.e.l.l had happened earlier?

Didn't Gu Hai kill all the Song Jia Sect disciples? How did they turn into skeletons?

As fear rose in ordinary people's heart, the cultivators who were planning to rob Gu Hai of his Peach were also terrified.

At the sight of this h.e.l.lish scene, even the Divine Battalion soldiers had a change in expression.

The scene of skeletons lying everywhere was pretty impactful. Even Li Haoran's facial muscles were twitching.

Li Haoran had killed countless people, but had never left such an intimidating scene.

"Gu Hai? This looks more like the work of a fiend!" Li Haoran stated coldly.

"Commander Li, please choose your words wisely! What actually happened here, you have not seen with your own eyes. When all is said and done, Gu Hai killed all the fiends and saved us!" one of the nearby Long Wanqing servants immediately rebuked him.

As shocked as he was earlier, Gu Hai's grace of saving them needed to be returned.

Had it not been for Gu Hai, it would have been impossible for Grandmaster Liunian to return. Had it not been for Gu Hai, they would not have been saved. Because of this, when Li Haoran slandered Gu Hai, that servant defended Gu Hai without an ounce of hesitation.

"Hmph!" Li Haoran let out a cold snort immediately.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew over as Grandmaster Liunian returned, riding the flying s.h.i.+p.

"Grandmaster Liunian, did you catch that flood dragon?" Li Haoran turned around and asked.

"Li Haoran, why did you kill Song Shengping?" Grandmaster Liunian asked, his eyes red with anger.

"Grandmaster, what did you mean by this? I saw you fighting one against two, so, I helped you, that's all!" Li Haoran replied in a calm and poised manner.

As Grandmaster Liunian kept staring at Li Haoran, his eyes turned gloomier. However, with Grandmaster Liunian's subtlety, he did not pursue this matter again.

"Hmph!" Harrumphing coldly, Grandmaster Liunian no longer paid any attention to Li Haoran and flew towards the three servants.

In a mountain valley...

"Look into my eyes!" Li Qinghe's head suddenly shouted.

[TLN: I couldn't help but remember the Ghost Rider movie...]

Immediately after, countless red beams shot out of Li Qinghe's eyes, shooting towards Gu Hai.

Gu Hai turned his head at once and swung his saber down at the same time.

With a thunderous crash, billowing black qi surged towards Li Qinghe.

Li Qinghe's head quickly flew away, dodging the attack.

"Gu Hai, you simply don't dare to look at me. If you are afraid to look at me, then how can you even capture me?" Li Qinghe shouted aloud.

"It's been five days already. Although I have not captured you, your strength has been declining continuously. You are getting slower and slower, and you are flying lower as well. How long can you keep on escaping?" Gu Hai, with his back to Li Qinghe, said emotionlessly.

While speaking, Gu Hai continued to swing the Life Severing Saber behind him, firing qi blades everywhere ceaselessly.

"You are too afraid to even look at me, and you still want to kill me? Gu Hai, today, let's see whether you are dead or I am!" Li Qinghe rebuked Gu Hai in a cold voice.

Immediately, countless snakes charged out, enveloping Gu Hai like a giant net. At the same time, the snakes took extreme precautions against the Life Severing Saber. To be precise, all the snakes were staring at the Life Severing Saber, keeping an eye on it. Meanwhile, Li Qinghe kept on shooting red beams from his eyes everywhere, blocking Gu Hai's line of sight.

BOOM!

Thousands upon thousands of snakes rushed forward. Every snake, with their eyes on Life Severing Saber as a precaution, opened their jaws, biting Gu Hai. At this moment, the Life Severing Saber wasn't swung at all, as if it had stopped moving right then and there.

"Gu Hai, go to h.e.l.l!" Li Qinghe yelled out.

But right then, a sword qi pierced through Li Qinghe's head.

Thousands upon thousands of snakes came to an abrupt stop, looking at Gu Hai in shock and horror.

His Saber wasn't even swung, so how come a sword qi pierced through my head?, Li Qinghe could not help but wonder.

"All the snakes were staring at the Life Severing Saber in my right hand, they didn't even pay attention to my left hand, which is holding an extra longsword!" Gu Hai stated indifferently, answering Li Qinghe's unspoken question, even with his back still turned.

"How could you see where I was...!" Li Qinghe's eyes flickered with a look of disbelief.

Suddenly, a flash of light shone over Li Qinghe's face. Apparently, Gu Hai had something in his right hand apart from the Life Severing Saber... it was a mirror! Inside the mirror, Li Qinghe could see the image of his own head.

"A mirror? No, no, no...!" Li Qinghe's eyes flashed with despair.

At the same time in the Gu Mansion...

The three thousand statues that were being guarded by Shangguan Hen suddenly started shaking.

The gray covering of the three thousand statues was fading quickly. Slowly, lifelike complexions returned to all of them.

Very quickly, the three thousand men had completely recovered. The moment they recovered, they all took a deep breath. Apparently, it wasn't easy for them while they were petrified.

"What happened to me?"

"Where am I?"

"What happened?"

"Eyes, right, Li Qinghe's eyes!"...

The men immediately broke into a hubbub.

"Well!" Shangguan Hen shouted in a heavy voice.

"Captain Shangguan? What actually happened, where are we?" Chen Tianshan asked anxiously.

"We are in my Lord's mansion. Since everyone has recovered, my Lord must have beheaded Li Qinghe already!" Shangguan Hen said. There was a smile on his lips.

"Oh?" Everyone was taken by surprise.

Inside the valley, Gu Hai retracted the long sword. At present, Li Qinghe's head still looked the same, just that there was an extra b.l.o.o.d.y hole in between his eyebrows.

Having waited for some time, and only after confirming it through the mirror, did Gu Hai approached Li Qinghe's transformed head directly.

Suddenly, a golden aura slowly emerged from Li Qinghe's head. It was the very same golden aura that had drilled into the head a short while after Li Qinghe's body had exploded.

The golden aura was not some object, but looked more like a golden baby. Judging from the appearance of the baby, it looked like Li Qinghe when he was young.

"You are still alive?" Gu Hai's eyes went wide as he grasped the Life Severing Saber tighter.

At this moment, only a faint golden layer remained to protect that golden baby. Turning its head, the golden baby looked at Gu Hai. There was a bitter cast to its face.

"This is my Nascent Soul, one of my ethereal souls! However, you don't need to worry, as my three corporeal souls have already scattered, the ethereal soul is unable to reside in my body, and will soon scatter!" the golden baby said bitterly.

"Nascent Soul!? Nascent Soul Stage!? You are a Nascent Soul!" Gu Hai's eyes went wide as he spoke.

"Humans have three corporeal souls and seven ethereal souls. Three corporeal souls refer to the heaven, earth, and human souls. The ethereal souls are, in fact, physical souls. They can be strengthened later. The stronger you become, the stronger your ethereal souls will become. When you reach the Nascent Soul Stage, they can be congealed into a solid form, which is what I am now, a Nascent Soul!" the golden body explained sadly

"You are Li Qinghe?" Gu Hai asked in a serious tone.

A painful look showed up on the Nascent Soul's face, "Yes! The ethereal soul is the source of power. Earlier, when my head was still there, when my three corporeal souls were still there, my ethereal soul could enter the head and continue to provide strength in a steady stream. It is the only reason I could flee for so long. However, you kept on chasing and chasing. After five days, my ethereal soul reached its limit. That sword strike of yours just a moment ago scattered my three corporeal souls. And as such, I am also scattering. This may be for the best... for the best! My human soul has been eaten by Fu Xue, my heaven soul has returned to the heavens, the earth souls can go to h.e.l.l and reincarnate. Reincarnation may be for the best, it's better than being a human-eating devil!"

While speaking, the Nascent Soul was getting dimmer and dimmer as if it was about to dissipate.

"Gu Hai, thank you!" the Nascent Soul smiled bitterly.

"You don't need to thank me!" Gu Hai said with a frown.

"I didn't want to turn into this, I never wanted this, but everything has already happened, I could never go back. Sigh, maybe this is for the best, best!" the Nascent Soul stated sadly.

Suddenly, the Nascent Soul dissipated, turning into a golden mist that vanished into nothing.

Gu Hai, on the other hand, went silent for a good long while.

"Three corporeal souls and seven ethereal souls! Ethereal souls are physical souls! When one reaches the Nascent Soul Stage, he can congeal a Nascent Soul, the ethereal souls can be congealed into a solid form! They are the power source!?" Gu Hai's eyes flickered with a sliver of surprise.

Inside the dantian, True Yuan is congealed. That True Yuan is my power. In the future, the strength of the True Yuan can be congealed into a physical form, a Nascent Soul?

Li Qinghe had died. At least he woke up at the last moment.

Gu Hai heaved a sigh as he picked up Li Qinghe's head. Suddenly, Gu Hai's expression changed thoughtfully.

Slowly, he placed his hand on the skull, sealing the blood vessels and meridians of the head.

Then, Gu Hai looked into the distance and spotted a poisonous snake.

Having found a target, Gu Hai immediately poured his True Yuan into the head.

Under the push of True Yuan, the eyes of the head fiercely trembled before a pair of red beams emerged from its eyes.

When the nearby snake saw that red light, it was immediately turned to stone.

"It really can be used!" Gu Hai was slightly taken aback.

Using his True Yuan to investigate, Gu Hai discovered that there was a bizarre energy in the snake hair which was most crucial for releasing those red lights. After just one use, a quarter of it had already been consumed.

"This head can still be used three more times for petrification?"

Reaching out, GUu Hai very carefully placed the head into the storage s.p.a.ce of the token. Perhaps, it would be of some use in the future!