"You're truly shameless... Alright, I won't enter the fray myself, but I can lend you some of my power."
"Oh?" Lu Xuan's eyes lit up. "You mean...?"
Houtu held out her hand, revealing an illusory and ethereal object.
"Place this in the depths of your soul, and my power can temporarily descend upon you. Although I won't be able to unleash my full strength, you'll have about seventy or eighty percent of my might..."
Lu Xuan's eyes shone. He didn't swallow the illusory, ethereal object right away. Instead, he carefully put it away and bowed formally to Houtu.
Houtu smiled and waved her hand dismissively, then looked Lu Xuan, in his guise as the Hongjun Daoist, up and down. Unable to resist, she asked,
"Since I'm helping you, I hope you can clear something up for me... Just how many True Self Incarnations do you have??"
Lu Xuan paused, counted on his fingers, and chuckled.
"Around... five, six, seven, or eight 'alts'?"
