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Utan City, Xiao Family Market.
A girl with long, dark hair and delicate features nimbly weaved through the crowd.
She ran, panting, occasionally turning her head to look behind her, as if being chased by someone.
"Stop..."
"Stop right there!"
Behind her, three bare-armed, fierce-looking men were in hot pursuit.
"You want me to stop and I'll just stop? Do you think I'm stupid?" the girl muttered as she ran.
During her escape, while glancing back again, she didn't seem to notice her surroundings and collided with a boy walking from the side.
"Ouch..." she fell to the ground, head lowered.
"Sorry, sorry." She quickly got up, apologized, and hurried away again.
"It's alright, no problem." The boy showed his usual gentle smile.
Behind the boy was another girl with a gentle aura, looking like a porcelain doll, even younger.
She looked at the gentle and jade-like boy, who was polite, mature, and steady, her small face filled with a smile.
Behind them were several guards.
The three fierce-looking men who were chasing the girl earlier ran over, panting heavily, and shouted from afar:
"Get out of the way, get out of the way!"
Seeing this, the guards behind the boy and girl immediately stepped forward, preventing them from getting closer.
The three men initially wanted to say something harsh, but when they saw the symbol on the guards' chests, they immediately quieted down, their faces replaced with respect.
On their chests was the Xiao family's emblem; these guards were the law enforcement team of the Xiao Family Market!
The Xiao family was one of the three overlords of Utan City; such a behemoth was not something the three of them could provoke!
"Sir Payne..." the leader of the men put on a smile and greeted.
Then, he saw the two children being protected by the guards, and bowed slightly to the boy among them: "Young Master Xiao Yan..."
"What exactly happened? Why are you chasing after a little girl relentlessly?"
The soul of a modern transmigrator made him uncomfortable with their behavior, and he frowned slightly before asking. He didn't offer help indiscriminately but asked for the reason first.
The leader of the three men rubbed his hands a little embarrassedly and said, "That little brat is a thief; she stole our wallets."
Payne looked strange: "You guys got robbed? Looks like you've met a professional..."
These three were known offenders in the market, and Payne, as the enforcement captain managing the Xiao Family Market, had some impression of them.
Xiao Yan shook his head and smiled: "Since that's the case, then I won't interfere, but don't be too heavy-handed after you catch her; just teach her a lesson."
"Yes, yes." The leader of the trio hurriedly agreed.
As if remembering something, he opened his mouth again but didn't make a sound.
Seeing him looking hesitant, Xiao Yan couldn't help but ask, "Is there anything else you want to say?"
The leader said carefully, "Young Master Xiao Yan, she seemed to have bumped into you just now... You'd better check if you've lost anything..."
Xiao Yan said calmly, "How could that be... She's still being chased by you, isn't she? Who would think of stealing things at a time like this?"
The leader couldn't help but whisper, "That little brat is very cunning..."
The girl behind him smiled mischievously: "Brother Xiao Yan, don't be so sure... Look at your hand."
"Huh? Xun'er, what's wrong?" Xiao Yan subconsciously looked down at his hands, and then he froze.
"Damn... where's my ring!"
Xiao Yan's calm demeanor disappeared, and he said with a look of panic, "Payne, quickly help me find that person; that ring is very important!"
The lost ring was a memento from Xiao Yan's mother, and he had worn it on his hand since he was four years old, never taking it off.
"Yes!" Payne nodded immediately and said to the two behind him, "You two come with me; the rest of you protect the young master and young lady."
The Xiao family's young master was robbed in his own market, right under their noses... This made Payne feel somewhat embarrassed and slightly annoyed.
The Xiao family's street patrol team was mobilized, searching everywhere for the thief.
...
In a corner, the black-haired girl stopped, pinched the corner of her right eye, and the corners of her mouth slightly curved back, revealing a smile.
"Heh, let me see what state you're in now..."
The girl placed the dark, ancient ring on the ground and retreated a distance.
With a flick of her finger, a semi-transparent worm with twelve circles and starlight-like colors crawled out and turned into a stream of light, rushing into the ring.
This black ring was naturally the ring where Yao Chen's soul was hiding, the "Bone Flame Ring."
Storage rings are cast from a rare material called "Na Stone," which contains a special small space for storing things without life aura, making them extremely convenient. However, due to the scarcity of "Na Stone," "storage rings" are also very precious. Even the lowest-grade storage ring, with a space of only three or four cubic meters, costs nearly 100,000 gold coins.
For mid-grade storage rings, this price would be more than ten times higher. As for high-grade storage rings... they are basically priceless. Some large families even use high-grade storage rings as family tokens. Only experts with extremely high status or leaders of forces are qualified to obtain high-grade storage rings.
The Bone Flame Ring where Yao Chen's soul was hiding was naturally also a high-grade storage ring. Unlike ordinary storage rings, the owner of a high-grade storage ring can set a soul imprint. If someone is lucky enough to obtain the storage ring and wants to take the things inside, they must erase the original owner's soul imprint. If they do so, the owner of the storage ring will sense it.
Erasing the soul imprint of some experts is not an easy task.
Although Amon's soul was powerful, it was still far from being comparable to alchemists like Yao Venerable, who was a top-tier existence in the Douqi Continent. Moreover, this was not his main body but only a few specialized Worm of Spirit avatars with enhanced soul strength.
However, he had his own methods to deal with it.
Worms of Spirit can parasitize and fuse into other souls, and soul imprints are also a kind of aura left by the soul. After contacting the imprint, the Worm of Spirit can simulate this aura and bypass the protection.
A Worm of Spirit emitted a hazy gray light, becoming illusory and transparent, like a spirit body, and merged into the Bone Flame Ring.
In the silent space, silver patterns were distributed on the surrounding space walls, and a damaged soul floated quietly within.
Yao Chen was seriously injured, and his soul was so transparent that it was almost about to disappear.
The Worm of Spirit approached the soul.
Yao Chen's soul was asleep, without any consciousness. Even if the soul imprint of the storage ring was touched, even if a strange and unknown worm approached, he did not react in the slightest.
The black-haired girl, whose soul power was mentally connected to the Worm of Spirit that entered the storage ring, smiled:
"Since you're so weak, let me help you repair your soul; I'm a professional... Hmm, no need to thank me."
Just as the Worm of Spirit was about to touch Yao Chen's soul, a strange flame suddenly appeared, burning it into nothingness.
The smile on the girl's face slightly froze but quickly returned.
She raised her right hand and pinched the corner of her right eye, "The fire automatically protects its master... Tsk, interesting."
Starlight flickered, and another Worm of Spirit burrowed into the Bone Flame Ring.
It did not rush to approach but sent a soul message to the strange flame:
"Your master is about to dissipate; I can replenish his soul and help him recover some..."
The strange flame had no intention of communicating; it had no intelligence, could not think, and would only make instinctive reactions.
The negotiation failed, but the girl was not disappointed; she separated more Worms of Spirit from her body and had them invade the ring.
The Worms of Spirit were scattered in all directions of Yao Chen's soul, surrounding him. A Worm of Spirit cautiously approached, testing the distance at which the strange flame would automatically protect.
The flame flickered, and when the Worm of Spirit approached a certain point, the flickering of the flame became more intense, and a chill began to spread.
In an instant, the flame, like a striking poisonous snake, instantly swept over the Worm of Spirit used for testing, incinerating it.
Just as the flame made an instinctive reaction, the other Worms of Spirit moved; they rushed over from all directions.
Due to the absence of the owner's urging, Bone Chilling Flame could only exert its minimum power, and the area it could cover was only so small, unable to protect Yao Chen's entire body.
In addition, at the instant when the Worms of Spirit rushed towards Yao Chen's soul, they simulated an aura similar to the soul imprint on the ring, causing Bone Chilling Flame to hesitate slightly.
This hesitation allowed three Worms of Spirit to successfully contact Yao Chen's soul; they also completely abandoned their bodies and merged into Yao Chen's soul in a purely soul form.
Bone Chilling Flame was a little late; it could only burn the bodies abandoned by the Worms of Spirit to ashes, then circled Yao Chen's soul twice, and after not sensing anything unusual, it shrank back into Yao Chen's brow, turning into a white flame mark.
The Worms of Spirit parasitized Yao Chen's soul and also gained some control over Bone Chilling Flame, at least enough to manipulate it so that it would not attack certain targets.
Thus, more Worms of Spirit burrowed into the ring and fused with Yao Chen's soul.
Under the repair of these Worms of Spirit, the originally almost transparent soul body became slightly more solid and no longer so illusory.
Yao Chen opened his eyes, revealing a trace of exhaustion and helplessness.
He was not aware of the initial Worms of Spirit merging into his soul because he was unconscious at that time... but as more and more Worms of Spirit merged, his soul state slightly improved, and he vaguely sensed his situation.
He sighed, revealing a self-deprecating smile.
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