Unlike Ye Guyi, when looking at the tall young girl kneeling before them, Xu Zihuang did not show the slightest trace of surprise from beginning to end.
This was because the person who had come was none other than You Ling Nana, whom he had met before at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy.
From the memories of his previous life, he knew that Nana's parents' souls were imprisoned in a branch altar of the Holy Spirit Cult. Now it seemed that this branch altar was precisely that place.
Two streams of clear tears slid down from the corners of Nana's eyes. Various emotions surged within her beautiful pupils, and the gaze she directed at Ye Guyi was filled with excitement and burning fervor—as if she had grasped the last straw of salvation.
Ever since her parents' souls had been enslaved by the Holy Spirit Cult, she had considered every possible method to rescue them. While at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy, she had also befriended many powerful soul engineers. Yet she had never once sought their help.
After all, the power of the soul was far too mysterious. Although the people she knew were strong, not a single one of them understood anything about soul power.
Just when she was on the verge of complete despair, she inadvertently learned about the ancient history of the original Douluo Continent.
In the ancient era of the Douluo Continent, the most powerful force had been the Church. The reason the Church was so strong was that it possessed holy power and inherited a martial soul known as the Sacred Angel. Back then, there were many soul beasts with evil bloodlines on the continent, and the Church gradually earned the recognition of the world by purifying them, thus growing ever more prosperous.
Within the Church, there had once been an exceptionally gifted genius who gathered the power of faith from the entire continent and ultimately achieved godhood. This was the first-generation Angel God.
With the protection of a god, the martial soul inherited by the Angel lineage evolved from Sacred Angel into Six-Winged Angel.
The Spirit Hall that had flourished ten thousand years ago had the Church as its predecessor. Moreover, the true controllers of Spirit Hall had always been the inheritors of the Angel lineage.
That continued until the Spirit Hall vanished into the long river of history ten thousand years ago.
The Angel lineage also declined thereafter, and few soul masters possessing the Sacred Angel martial soul appeared on the continent.
Even Nana herself had never expected that she would be so fortunate as to actually encounter a descendant of the Angel lineage—and one who had personally slain the elder of this branch altar.
"Thank you." Nana's voice trembled slightly, carrying with it a sense of overwhelming relief. Just like the previous branch altar elder of the Holy Spirit Cult, she also regarded Xu Zihuang and Ye Guyi as being on the same side, believing the two of them had planned to come and wipe out this branch altar of the Holy Spirit Cult.
"As you can see, I too can be considered a member of the Holy Spirit Cult. I know you may not believe me, but I still want to beg you to help me free my parents' souls so that they may escape their sea of suffering. After that, whatever you ask of me, I will willingly do—even if it means my death."
Hearing Nana's words, Ye Guyi's delicate brows slightly furrowed. The Angel Holy Sword she had raised did not swing down for a long time.
Nana's Specter martial soul did indeed border on being an evil martial soul, but it was not particularly evil. There was no resentment lingering around her, which meant she had not used the methods of those evil soul masters to aid her cultivation.
It was undeniable that some martial souls would guide their soul masters toward corruption.
However, whether a soul master was an evil soul master should not be determined by the martial soul itself, but rather by the soul master's heart.
In Nana's eyes, Ye Guyi saw genuine emotion.
She herself was a girl who was kind and upright to her very core, so naturally, she would not indiscriminately kill Nana just because her martial soul was unusual.
Moreover, the reminder from Elder Yi further increased her trust in Nana.
With a feeling in her heart, she glanced toward the small door on one side of the underground hall.
"Where is the vessel that stores those resentful spirits?"
"It should be inside his storage soul tool. I've seen him use it before—it's a flag-shaped soul tool." Nana was stunned for a moment before replying with great joy.
In this world, there was nothing left for her worth lingering over. The only thing she couldn't let go of was her parents' souls.
Ye Guyi's mind trembled slightly. Could it be the Myriad Soul Banner that Elder Yi had mentioned?
When Elder Yi taught her necromancy magic, he had told her that because a person's own mental power was limited, the range in which a necromancer could control undead creatures was naturally restricted.
However, one could use magical artifacts to enhance one's control and conversion of undead creatures. The Myriad Soul Banner was one such artifact. When refined to its pinnacle, the Myriad Soul Banner could contain tens of thousands of souls. In battle, one only needed to activate the resentful spirits it controlled to launch area-of-effect attacks. Any creature—be it human or soul beast—invaded by these resentful spirits would become their vessel in a short time. And once the physical body of those creatures was destroyed, their souls would also be devoured by the resentful spirits.
Extremely sinister.
The "he" Nana referred to was naturally that branch altar elder of the Holy Spirit Cult.
Xu Zihuang was the closest to the elder's corpse. Using his soul power, he drew the storage soul tool into his hand and examined it. Sure enough, he found a metal flag engraved with strange patterns.
The flag was called the Holy Spirit Flag and was the branch altar elder's most important treasure. It was itself a level-seven soul tool, and it could only be used by evil soul masters with outstanding mental power who specialized in soul manipulation.
This was also the elder's final trump card. The reason he hadn't used it immediately was, first, because he feared that driving the resentful spirits would instead allow Ye Guyi to recover her condition after slaying them.
The second reason was his confidence in his own strength at that moment; he had believed the situation hadn't yet reached the point of using this ultimate measure.
Yet he probably never understood, even in death, why he had paid such a terrible price for being repeatedly controlled and severely injured by Xu Zihuang, who was merely at the Soul King level, and ultimately slain by Ye Guyi.
Xu Zihuang exerted force with his right hand and, under the astonished gazes of the two girls, directly crushed this level-seven soul tool, the Holy Spirit Flag.
This Holy Spirit Flag was a soul tool with special effects; in terms of hardness, it was actually inferior to many ordinary soul tools. With Xu Zihuang's physical strength, destroying it posed no difficulty at all.
They did not know how to use the Holy Spirit Flag and had no time to figure it out. Simply destroying it outright would naturally release the resentful spirits from their restraints.
The moment the container that stored them shattered, the small door on one side exploded open. A surging torrent of energy rushed out from within.
Countless illusory human faces of various colors appeared, each wrapped in a spherical orb of light. The faces twisted madly, and piercing wails and shrieks rose and fell throughout the underground hall, creating an extremely eerie atmosphere.
Ye Guyi forcibly circulated the soul power within her body and once again activated her first soul skill, Holy Light Shining Upon the World.
There was no need to use the necromancy magic taught to her by Elder Yi; just the abilities of her Sacred Angel martial soul were enough to purify these resentful spirits.
Platinum-colored holy light spread outward. Wherever the halo passed, the originally chaotic and violent resentful spirits froze motionless in midair. Their ferocious auras and resentment rapidly dissipated.
"Go find your parents. Once the evil and filth staining their souls have been cleansed, they will dissipate here." Ye Guyi reminded her. Affected by the Heavenly Centipede Poison in her body, she could no longer maintain the release of her martial soul.
She exchanged a glance with Xu Zihuang, who was not far away; countless questions filled her heart.
But soon her thoughts began to grow sluggish, and her consciousness gradually blurred.
Just as Ye Guyi was on the verge of collapsing, Xu Zihuang stepped forward and supported her. Ye Guyi's height was nearly 1.8 meters, truly tall and slender.
Yet when Xu Zihuang looked at her, he still did so from a downward angle. At that moment, the corner of his eye happened to catch a glimpse of the golden wing-shaped pattern partially exposed above her chest, and he felt as though he had been struck by lightning.
Although it was only the tip of the iceberg of the entire golden pattern, the memories that had been sealed for ten years surged uncontrollably into his mind.
His calm-as-water state of mind erupted into raging waves. Strange light flickered in his deep purple eyes.
There was rejoicing, sudden realization, and an affectionate longing he had never revealed since being exiled overseas.
So that's how it is. So that's how it is.
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