The group walking toward them from the horizon was indeed the Tang Sect members being escorted by Elder Xuan. They looked utterly exhausted, covered in dust, with weariness etched into their faces—and a concealed grief that made the air around them feel heavy.
Zhu Ziyang, accompanied by Cai Meier, Yan Shaozhe, and the others, immediately stepped forward and asked, "Elder Xuan, what happened?"
"Sigh…" Elder Xuan sighed deeply, his aged face full of helplessness and defeat. Just as he was about to answer, Huo Yuhao rushed forward and interrupted him.
"Senior Brother, please save Xiao Xiao!" Huo Yuhao fell to his knees in front of Zhu Ziyang with a dull thump, his voice hoarse with desperation.
Everyone was stunned, including Zhu Ziyang. Still, he quickly pulled Huo Yuhao up and frowned. "A man's knees are worth gold—how can you kneel so easily?"
Zhu Ziyang's gaze shifted to the figure on Huo Yuhao's back. It was Xiao Xiao. Her expression was peaceful, but her face was deathly pale, and there was no trace of breath in her body. If Zhu Ziyang hadn't sensed her life force rapidly slipping away, he would've thought she was merely asleep.
His face darkened. "What happened to Xiao Xiao?"
"…!" Huo Yuhao's face twisted with grief. He choked up, unable to speak.
Zhu Ziyang had no choice but to look to Elder Xuan and Tang Ya. Elder Xuan said, "Ziyang, it's complicated—hard to explain in just a few words. Let's return to the Tianyuan Pavilion first and see if there's any hope of saving her."
"…Alright." Zhu Ziyang glanced at the Tang Sect members. Their sorrowful and vacant expressions made it clear—they had just gone through some kind of serious upheaval, perhaps even a disaster.
——
In a wooden cabin within the Tianyuan Pavilion.
Elder Zhuang had completed a thorough examination of Xiao Xiao. The conclusion was grim: her life force was rapidly draining. At most, she had one month left to live. The only thing he could do was inject life force into her body to slow the depletion, buying her a bit more time.
But in the end, Elder Zhuang could only sigh. "It's like pouring water into a sieve. Right now, Xiao Xiao's condition is like a pond where the outlet is much larger than the inlet—no matter how much you pour in, the water just keeps draining. If we want to save her, we need to find that outlet. But I've checked her over and over again—I can't find the reason her life force is leaking! So… sigh!"
"Why is this happening? Why?!" Huo Yuhao couldn't accept the reality. His eyes were blank, and he seemed like a balloon that had lost all air—overwhelmed with helplessness and despair.
"I understand, Elder Zhuang," Zhu Ziyang said solemnly. "Thank you for your efforts."
"It's nothing," Elder Zhuang waved his hand and sighed. "It's a shame about this girl. Ziyang, I'll go tend to Elder Xuan's injuries. I'll leave things here to you."
Zhu Ziyang nodded. As he looked at Huo Yuhao—kneeling beside Xiao Xiao's bed, sobbing into her unmoving form—a sense of inexplicable irritation welled up inside him. Just as he was about to step outside and ask Tang Ya for a full explanation, a familiar voice suddenly echoed in his ears.
"Ziyang, this girl's soul… is gone," Electrolux said.
"What?" Zhu Ziyang trembled. At once, he understood the real reason behind Xiao Xiao's near-death state. His expression turned grim. "So that's it!"
Under normal circumstances, a person's soul only leaves the body when they die, after which it returns to the cycle of heaven and earth. For a living person, the soul should never separate from the body. If it does, the person becomes a living corpse.
Such a body may retain physical function for a time, but its life force will steadily drain. If the soul doesn't return before the body's vitality runs out, the person will die completely—just like Xiao Xiao now.
Elder Zhuang's metaphor was apt: the body is like a pond, and the soul is the valve that controls the water. Once the valve is gone, life force (the water) leaks out uncontrollably. In the world of ordinary people, this condition was known as "Soul Loss Syndrome."
Why "among ordinary people"? Because soul masters shouldn't suffer from Soul Loss Syndrome. A soul master's spirit is closely tied to their martial soul, and their martial soul is tightly linked to their physical body. In theory, this makes Soul Loss Syndrome impossible for soul masters.
If a soul master were to suffer from such a condition, it would mean only one thing: their martial soul had been destroyed, severing the link between soul and body.
But Xiao Xiao's current condition mirrored Soul Loss Syndrome perfectly—except both her martial souls were intact, and her soul power rank hadn't declined. This proved her martial souls were fine. And if the martial souls were fine, the soul should never have been able to separate from her body.
This was exactly why Elder Zhuang couldn't see what was wrong. It had never crossed his mind—because it simply shouldn't be possible.
If not for Electrolux's reminder, Zhu Ziyang wouldn't have considered it either. But Electrolux was a soul entity—and his perception of other souls was extraordinarily powerful.
Now that the cause was clear, the next question was: why had Xiao Xiao's soul vanished?
The answer, in fact, was already obvious. While soul masters did cultivate spiritual power, true understanding of the soul's structure was still extremely limited—even for Super Douluo. At most, they could enter a brief out-of-body state during deep meditation. To forcibly extract the soul of a soul emperor-level cultivator? Not even a Super Douluo could do that. Only a god could.
Zhu Ziyang thought back to the divine phenomena that had appeared in the Sun Moon Mountain Range. He thought of Niu Tian, the God Rank powerhouse who had ambushed him and Ma Xiaotao.
There was no need to say it aloud—the culprit behind all this was obvious.
Zhu Ziyang's face twisted in silent fury. He took a deep breath, suppressing his anger, but his heart had already prepared for a divine war in the future.
Huo Yuhao was still crying, endlessly blaming himself. Zhu Ziyang didn't know the full story, but how could he not realize—his poor junior brother had been played by the Sea God. Sometimes, even a child of fate couldn't avoid suffering. What puzzled him, though, was why the Sea God had targeted Xiao Xiao's soul specifically. Was it a move to control Huo Yuhao?
"Yuhao, if you don't want Xiao Xiao to truly die—then stop crying!" Zhu Ziyang said coldly.
"…What?" Huo Yuhao stopped crying instantly, jumping to his feet and looking at Zhu Ziyang with fear and hope. His voice trembled. "Senior Brother, you… you can save her?"
Zhu Ziyang nodded. "For now, what matters most is preserving Xiao Xiao's body. If her body dies, then even if you manage to bring her back someday, she might not be the Xiao Xiao you once loved."
"I understand!" Huo Yuhao hurriedly wiped his tears away. "Senior Brother, what should I do to protect her body?"
"…You're seriously flustered, huh?" Zhu Ziyang gave him a speechless look. "Isn't your second martial soul the Ultimate Ice? What could be better for preservation than Ultimate Ice?"
"Oh!" Realization dawned on Huo Yuhao. A smile broke across his face. "You're right! I get it now!"
He immediately turned and activated his second martial soul, preparing to freeze Xiao Xiao's body in Ultimate Ice. But just as he raised his hand, he turned back, hesitant. "Senior Brother… will this hurt her? Will she feel cold?"
"No," Zhu Ziyang replied. "I can tell you clearly—Xiao Xiao's soul is already gone. She can't feel anything."
"Senior Brother, is that… the reason she's dying?" Huo Yuhao asked, latching onto the crucial point with rare insight.
"Yes." Zhu Ziyang nodded. "Alright, get to it. I'm going to talk to Tang Ya and the others to figure out exactly what happened. I'll update you on her soul afterward."
"Got it." Huo Yuhao's face filled with gratitude. "Thank you, Senior Brother!"
Zhu Ziyang waved his hand and stepped out of the cabin.
(End of Chapter)
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