"Wait a moment, something seems off with that black pillar," Yuan Ming suddenly raised his hand, pointing toward a distant stone pillar.

Upon hearing this, the Green-clothed Monk instinctively looked up.

Just as his attention shifted, Yuan Ming made his move, flipping his right palm to summon the Lifebound Magical Treasure of the Free Venerable—a branch—and channeling all his Mana into it, before hurling it toward the stone pillar closest to him.

The magical treasure of the Free Venerable, like the Soul Destroying Sword, required the simultaneous expenditure of Mana and Soul Power to unleash its greatest strength, but at this moment, Yuan Ming could not mobilize the Soul Power of the Free Venerable.

Moreover, with the stone pillar's inexplicably durable material, Yuan Ming wasn't sure if he could destroy it in such a short time, so he directly resorted to the last tactic most cultivators would use.

Self-destructing a Lifebound Magical Treasure of a peak Soul Cultivator should definitely be sufficient.

The Green-clothed Monk realized something was amiss but, due to his momentary distraction, he had also missed the best chance to stop Yuan Ming.

"Free Venerable, why would you..." he exclaimed with wide eyes, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Yuan Ming did not answer, and simply manipulated the spell, detonating the magical treasure.

In an instant, a blinding spirit light appeared on the branch magical treasure, and the runes hidden within burst one after another into Spiritual Power, unchecked by any constraints.

Then, with a loud "bang," the branch magical treasure exploded completely, sending a massive plume of smoke skyward and a wave-like shockwave hurtling around, knocking the Green-clothed Monk airborne, his body splattering with blood.

The Free Venerable, possessed by Yuan Ming, also "splat," sprayed a cloud of Blood Mist from its body and staggered backward several steps.

But just as the shockwave was about to hit the stone pillar, a vast amount of gray mist surged out of the pillar, rapidly enveloping the explosion's smoke and shockwave like closing flower petals, and quickly shrank to form a thumb-sized gray orb, floating between the undamaged stone pillars.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming was stunned.

Before he could react, the gray orb between the stone pillars suddenly vanished, and he felt a pain in his brow; reaching up, he discovered a small hole, the size of a thumb, leaking blood on his forehead.

"This is..."

Before he could finish speaking, the Free Venerable's body exploded instantaneously, as if the power of the treasure's self-destruction had rebounded onto him. It rapidly disintegrated his Physical Body into a mass of flesh, and his Sea of Consciousness was affected, tearing his Divine Soul apart and vanishing into the dust.

Simultaneously, at the summit of Chaotian Peak, Wu Yue God and Blood Demon Ancestor appeared instantly, looking around somberly.

"What happened? Someone tried to disrupt the Great Array!" Blood Demon Ancestor asked, his Divine Sense quickly sweeping over the Great Array; seeing that it was undamaged, he finally sighed in relief.

"I had set up the Reverse Yin Yang Restriction on the formation. The attacker is already dead," Wu Yue God quickly noticed the flesh and the blood-stained Green-clothed Monk beside the formation and shifted his gaze.

"Wu Yue God, I..." the Green-clothed Monk trembled, hastily trying to explain.

But Wu Yue God raised a hand, and the Green-clothed Monk's Nascent Soul was instantly enveloped by a dark light and yanked out of the body, falling into the palm of Wu Yue God.

Ignoring the pleas of the Green-clothed Monk, Wu Yue God searched through the memories inside the Nascent Soul. After finding the information he needed, he wrapped the Nascent Soul in Soul Power and absorbed it into his body, now unconscious.

"Who infiltrated this time? Did that Yuan Ming send someone again?" Blood Demon Ancestor immediately asked.

"No, there's a traitor from within our sect." A faint flicker of doubt crossed Wu Yue God's eyes.

"Hmph, at this critical moment, to have such an issue arise, your control over your subordinates is too weak. I need not stress the importance of the Demon Array. If something like this happens again, don't blame me for not showing you any respect," Blood Demon Ancestor snorted coldly.

"I will personally oversee the Demon Array from now on. You can be at ease now, right?" Wu Yue God said placidly.

"That's good," Blood Demon Ancestor nodded and, with a flicker, vanished from the spot.

Watching him leave, Wu Yue God's expression turned contemplative. After a moment, he suddenly looked up, spotting Ni Mu and Xi Zheng, who had come to the base of Chaotian Peak following the commotion.

"Both of you, come up here," he telepathically communicated.

Soon, Ni Mu and Xi Zheng passed through the demon clouds and arrived at the summit, bowing respectfully to Wu Yue God.

"Xi Zheng, use your Heavenly Destiny Skill. The Soul Talisman in the Free Divine Soul was not activated—what seems to be the problem?" Without waiting for Ni Mu and Xi Zheng to ask questions, Wu Yue God ordered.

Both Ni Mu and Xi Zheng were startled by the command, and Xi Zheng immediately commenced the Heavenly Destiny Skill.

Just then, Xi Zheng suddenly grunted, his aura instantly weakening, with traces of blood leaking from orifices.

Seeing this, Wu Yue God waved his hand, and a black jade flew in front of Xi Zheng. He quickly grasped the jade, refining and assimilating the stored Pure Will Power, which significantly improved his pale complexion.

"Did you find anything?" Wu Yue God asked.

"'Void Spirit Fake Soul, not oneself but possessed,' that's all I could deduce," Xi Zheng replied.

Wu Yue God's gaze sharpened as he quietly repeated the phrase Xi Zheng had spoken, seemingly realizing something.

Having resisted the Evil Curse Kill and escaped the Soul Talisman possession freely, his cultivation was still not at the Spoken Witch level...

Could it be that item was in his possession?

Wuyue God pondered this, waved her hand, and had Ni Mu and Xi Zheng leave. She then guarded the Demon Array alone, motionless for a long time.

...

In another place, the moment the Free Venerable died, Yuan Ming's consciousness returned to his body, and he was immediately overwhelmed by infinite pain.

Just like before, his Divine Soul nearly shattered, suffering the exact same damage as the Free Venerable.

Under the torment of pain, Yuan Ming gritted his teeth, one hand clutching his head, while his other hand hastily summoned the Night Parade of Hundred Demons.

The figure of the Heavenly Ghost Wanderer appeared again, placing a hand on Yuan Ming and once again performing the Substitution Divine Ability on him.

Everything seemed exactly the same as the last time, but when the Divine Soul Transformation of the Heavenly Ghost Wanderer burst open, Yuan Ming's Divine Soul had just stabilized when a mysterious sense of decay surged, quickly sweeping through his body.

This decay was not of the flesh or wilting of the divine soul, but a fatigue and dullness similar to one's life span being exhausted.

Yuan Ming suddenly realized that his thinking seemed much slower, his body's circulation of Spiritual Power was also five parts slower than usual, and a faint drowsiness lingered ceaselessly, as if he might fall into a deep sleep at any moment.

Yuan Ming struggled to pry his eyelids open, calling upon his Desire Power to attempt to repair his Divine Soul and thus mitigate the sense of decay.

This is a sample from *. Read the rest on *.

But the more he did so, the more he felt lack of energy, as if he was an old man at death's door, unable to change the outcome of his life coming to an end, no matter what methods he used.

He even tried having the Heavenly Ghost Wanderer perform the Substitution again, but it had no effect.

Could this be the price of possession at the moment of death? Not only would he suffer the same damage as the possessed, but would his Divine Soul's origin also be damaged?

As the saying goes, it takes more than one cold day for the river to freeze three feet deep.

At this moment, Yuan Ming realized that perhaps during those previous possessions when the host was injured, his Divine Soul's origin had already been damaged, and he had not noticed at all, just as this time, he was unaware of where exactly his Divine Soul was being affected.

"It seems I miscalculated."

Yuan Ming shook his somewhat dizzy head and coughed twice before sending a message to Xi Ying, asking her to come to him.

Soon, Xi Ying hurried into the room.

"How did you end up like this? Wait here, I'll go find someone right away!" Xi Ying, seeing Yuan Ming in a state as if he were at death's door, quickly got up to leave.

"No need, you... oh." Yuan Ming stretched out his hand trying to stop her, but he couldn't muster the strength.

However, Xi Ying did not leave for long and soon rushed back with Xi Qian.

"Sister, quickly take a look at Yuan Ming," Xi Ying said anxiously.

Upon seeing Yuan Ming's weakened state, Xi Qian was also shocked. After a brief inspection with her Divine Sense, she pondered for a moment, then pinched a spell with her left hand while placing her right hand over Yuan Ming's head,

"Don't resist," Xi Qian said.

Yuan Ming was about to nod when he immediately felt a warm current flowing from her palm into his body, circulating through his meridians before quickly withdrawing.

Xi Qian quickly retracted her hand, opened it in front of her, and a small clump of green spirit light appeared in her palm.

As she continued to pinch the spell and recite incantations, this small clump of spirit light grew like a seed sprouting roots and rapidly blossomed into an enchanting little spirit light flower in the palm of Xi Qian's hand.

"Open your mouth," Xi Qian said, and carefully plucked the spiritual flower to bring it to Yuan Ming's lips.

Yuan Ming immediately complied, and then he felt a drop of sweet flower dew drip from the spiritual flower into his mouth.

The moment the flower dew touched his tongue, Yuan Ming's body immediately warmed up, every muscle throughout his body seeming to cheer and nourish itself in excitement. The fatigue slightly receded, and Yuan Ming regained some vitality.

If Yuan Ming had seemed like a frail elderly mortal aged ninety or so just a moment ago, he now at least seemed to have returned to the vitality of a sixty-year-old, not quite robust, but not yet one foot in the grave either.

Although not fully recovered, Yuan Ming was already overjoyed by the effectiveness of Xi Qian's treatment.

"This secret technique is truly miraculous. Where did you learn it? Could you allow me also to study it?" Yuan Ming asked excitedly.

"I'm afraid that might be difficult. It's not that I am stingy with my techniques, but this Seeking Green Transformation Skill is really just an ordinary Wood Attribute healing technique. However, after waking up, my physique seems to have changed a bit. Not only has my Wood Attribute Divine Skills greatly improved, but when I implement some of the secret techniques I mastered in the past, they seem also to have different effects now, like this technique which was originally only for healing the physical body but now appears to also be effective for Divine Souls and Nascent Souls," Xi Qian said with some difficulty.

"I see. It seems, Fellow Daoist Xi Qian, you have also turned misfortune into a blessing," Yuan Ming smiled.

"Let's not talk too much for now. Since the divine technique works, sister, you should quickly treat Yuan Ming a few more times to completely remove the root of the ailment, to prevent any residual effects," Xi Ying urged worriedly.