Chapter 748 - 830 Qiao Yushi
Chen Mo’s words aren’t without reason.
After all, regarding the rumors of the Real Person Du E’s fall, even Zuoqiu Yiren has only heard the stories, and their authenticity is hard to confirm.
If there really is a person within the Soul-Stabilizing Bead.
It’s quite possible that the Real Person Du E failed his Crossing the Tribulation, and a wisp of his remnant soul exists solely inside the Soul-Stabilizing Bead.
The Soul-Stabilizing Bead does have the effect of nurturing souls.
Moreover, Song Jun’s sudden surge in power within the Profound Spirit Mirror also doesn’t seem normal.
"Step aside."
Zuoqiu Yiren’s expression suddenly turned serious as she spoke to Chen Mo.
Chen Mo stepped aside.
Zuoqiu Yiren, who was sitting on the wooden plank, stood up, lightly stomping her jade foot on the ground. The bell at her ankle jingled, and strings of golden runes floated out from the bell.
A Soul Suppressing Array was set up inside the room.
Zuoqiu Yiren threw something into the Soul Suppressing Array, then raised her hand, causing the wooden window to suddenly open. A purple glow shot in from outside, condensing into a longsword in her hand.
Holding the Merak Sword and with the Soul-Calming Bell at her feet, Zuoqiu Yiren sternly commanded, "Come out."
The Soul-Stabilizing Bead showed no reaction.
Zuoqiu’s brows knitted slightly, and then she used one hand to form a seal, chanting incantations that sent streams of golden runes toward the Soul-Stabilizing Bead.
Even though the Soul-Stabilizing Bead is an Immortal Treasure, lacking its Artifact Spirit and without a host, it remains incomplete and cannot activate on its own.
Streams of golden runes poured into the Soul-Stabilizing Bead.
"Stop chanting, I... I surrender."
After half an incense stick’s time, a wisp of smoke emerged from the Soul-Stabilizing Bead, transforming into a translucent human figure, face pale.
"A woman?!"
Chen Mo was taken aback.
Not only was it a woman within the Soul Suppressing Array, but also a woman of stunning beauty.
Wearing a purple gown formed from Soul Power, seductive yet not flirtatious, her curvaceous body drew attention. Her eyes carried a hint of charm, full of grace and allure, with an air of nobility without seeming elegant, adding a sense of distance.
This sense of distance wasn’t because she was a cold beauty.
The feeling she gave was like a woman who belonged to a gangster boss or a mafia wife.
She looked like someone who wasn’t to be messed with.
She had no legs; below her was a mass of vapor connected to a rust-stained ancient lamp burning with a candle flame.
"In the Profound Spirit Mirror, was it you who helped Song Jun?" Chen Mo sensed the aura coming from the woman, and a few breaths later, indeed found it identical to the aura Song Jun emitted after his power boost.
The woman nodded, cautiously avoiding the golden runes of the Soul Suppressing Array, a flash of solemnity passing through her eyes.
"That Dragon-Devouring Sparrow is yours?" Chen Mo asked again.
The woman nodded once more and raised her hand, a cyan light orb emerging in her palm.
Within the light orb, the Dragon-Devouring Sparrow roared at Chen Mo and Zuoqiu Yiren through the air.
As her hand closed, the cyan light orb vanished.
"If the Dragon-Devouring Sparrow’s spirit is yours, then you must be the Real Person Du E..."
Zuoqiu Yiren began to assess her warily.
If it was the Real Person Du E, then this meant the opponent was a wisp of a Tribulation Crossing Realm expert’s remnant soul, not to be underestimated.
The woman shook her head, knowing there was no point in hiding now that she had been forced to appear. She said, "I am his daughter."
With these words.
Chen Mo and Zuoqiu Yiren exchanged a look and spoke in unison, "The rumors of the Real Person Du E’s fall under the Immortal Tribulation are true?"
"Yes."
"As a Loose Cultivator, my father grew to the Tribulation Crossing Realm and naturally made many enemies. After my father fell during the Crossing the Tribulation, these enemies came knocking, seeking to wipe us out. To protect me, my mother chose to self-destruct...
However, I still couldn’t escape their pursuit. To avoid their humiliation, I, along with the Artifact Spirit of the Soul-Stabilizing Bead, chose to self-destruct. Yet, unexpectedly, before its demise, the Artifact Spirit used its last bit of power to whisk a wisp of my remnant soul into the Soul-Stabilizing Bead, casting me into a long slumber, until the Soul-Stabilizing Bead was obtained and refined by Song Jun..."
The woman recounted a sorrowful life story.
She mentioned acting against Chen Mo in the Profound Spirit Mirror due to Song Jun’s coercion.
Since the Soul-Stabilizing Bead had been refined by Song Jun, acknowledging him as its master, and she was but a remnant soul controlled by the Soul-Stabilizing Bead, to avoid Soul Destruction, she had no choice but to obey Song Jun.
"No, you’re lying." Zuoqiu Yiren had been staring into the woman’s eyes. Although her gaze was calm, tinged with a hint of tension over the uncertain situation, it appeared normal.
But her intuition told her that what the woman said was false.
"That is the truth."
Facing Zuoqiu Yiren’s cold demand for the truth, the woman continued to maintain normal behavior instead of exhibiting panic when exposed.
"I’ll call Song Jun to confront you and see." Chen Mo suggested.
"No need, I have a better method."
Upon sensing that the woman’s aura posed no threat to herself, Zuoqiu Yiren said, "A Soul Search will reveal the truth."
This time, the woman’s eyes finally showed panic at being caught lying. Seeing Zuoqiu Yiren ready to act, she furrowed her brows and quickly said, "The Real Person Du E is indeed my father, and being under Song Jun’s control is also true..."
According to the woman’s account.
Her name was Qiao Yushi.
She indeed was under Song Jun’s control, but it was her flesh body that truly restrained her.
At the time, she hadn’t self-destructed; it was the Artifact Spirit that did.
She had also been severely wounded, her Knowledge Sea devastated, clinging to life.
The only hope was for her Soul Body to separate from the flesh body and enter the Soul-Stabilizing Bead, using it to heal the Soul Body and then come out to find Spirit Medicine to repair her Knowledge Sea and return to her flesh body.
She did so, choosing an extremely obscure place, enclosing herself in an ice coffin made of ten-thousand-year-old icy jade, and then separating her Soul Body from her flesh body to enter the Soul-Stabilizing Bead.
But what she didn’t foresee was that the Soul-Stabilizing Bead, under the Artifact Spirit’s prior self-destruction, was damaged, its origin lost, no longer able to restore Soul Power.
And by that time, she was already at the brink of collapse, only able to take out the Soul-Burning Lamp to keep her spirit from dissipating, before falling into slumber.
When she awoke again, the Soul-Stabilizing Bead had already been refined by Song Jun, and it was a trace of his Soul Power that enabled her to awaken again.
Initially, Qiao Yushi intended to bluff Song Jun into helping her restore her flesh body.
But Song Jun, seeing her unusual origins, hid the ice coffin containing her flesh body in a safe place, refusing to tell her where.
Using that as leverage.
Moreover, with the Soul-Stabilizing Bead’s protection, Qiao Yushi had no way to deal with him.
Under his coercion, Qiao Yushi taught him Cultivation Techniques and Divine Techniques, helping him break through to the Golden Core Realm in a short time.
Hoping he would keep his word.
"Soul-Burning Lamp..." Chen Mo murmured, looking at the tarnished Ancient Bronze Lamp connected to Qiao Yushi’s body, "What kind of treasure is this?"