"Hmm?"
Hearing this voice, Ning Bowen and the others turned around to look at Chen Junting who had spoken, and Ning Tian who was with him.
"Little Chen, Little Tian, you're here."
After Ning Bowen and the others exchanged greetings with Chen Junting and the two, they couldn't help but feel curious about what Chen Junting had said, completely failing to notice that the pupils of the two bound individuals subconsciously contracted, as if they had heard some shocking news.
As for why Chen Junting would say this...
It turned out that just now,
"Little Tian, what did they come for this time?"
Coming out from the Book Collection Pavilion, while walking on the road to the secret chamber, Chen Junting asked Ning Tian about the purpose of the two great empires' visit. But before Ning Tian could answer, he guessed on his own, "Could it be that the two great empires have already decided to launch war against the Sun Moon Empire, so they've come to ally with our Nine-Treasure Glazed Tile Sect?"
"All wrong."
Ning Tian's eyes held a smile as she shook her head prettily.
"Oh?"
Chen Junting's footsteps paused slightly, a trace of confusion flashing in his eyes. If not seeking alliance, then what did they come for?
"The matter is like this..."
Subsequently, Ning Tian explained the whole story in detail.
"I see."
After listening, Chen Junting suddenly understood.
So the high levels of the two great empires felt these people were being controlled by evil soul masters, which was why they acted this way.
Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense.
"Big Brother Junting, what do you think?"
"What do I think?"
Glancing at the inquiring Ning Tian, Chen Junting couldn't help but recall the message Yang Yuan had sent back: Zhongli Wu and Ye Xishui had returned from death, regaining control of the Holy Spirit Cult.
Since returning from death could be achieved, then controlling people?
No matter how you put it, controlling people should be easier.
Thus,
"I think this matter is inseparable from the Holy Spirit Cult."
"Right."
Just as Ning Tian and Chen Junting were conversing, they gradually approached the secret chamber. But just at this moment, "Eh—"
In Chen Junting's mind, a light sound of surprise suddenly rang out.
Hearing this sound, Chen Junting's attention was instantly drawn. Because this voice just now came from Electrolux.
Ever since his cultivation took a step forward, Electrolux remained fairly quiet in his Spirit Sea and rarely spoke up.
But since Electrolux took the initiative to speak, either this matter was extraordinary and he felt Chen Junting couldn't solve it, or this matter attracted his attention and even piqued his interest.
Thus, Chen Junting signaled Ning Tian with his eyes, then submerged his consciousness into his sea of spirit, seeing Electrolux who had already left the second sea of spirit and was standing in the sea of spirit.
"Teacher." Chen Junting slightly bowed to show respect, then opened his mouth to inquire, "Does Elder know something?"
"Hehe." Electrolux chuckled lightly, "Knowing is too strong a word, but this old one indeed discovered a trace of something unusual."
Speaking thus, he pointed from afar. The scene in the sea of spirit instantly changed, which also attracted the attention of the three great spirit souls like Snow Empress. At this moment, the five of them seemed to penetrate through the sea of spirit scene directly to the outside world, then through the secret chamber to see the two individuals.
Seeing this, Chen Junting couldn't help but understand in his heart.
Presumably these two individuals were what Little Tian had mentioned—two of the controlled personnel brought by the Tian Hun Empire and Star Luo Empire.
"Teacher, what problem do you see with them?"
Electrolux neither confirmed nor denied, only saying: "Not to be immodest. In life, I had already walked a considerable distance on the path of souls. The vast majority of soul-related clues cannot escape this old one's discerning eye, just like these two individuals."
Subsequently, Electrolux changed the subject.
But his following words caused the three great spirit souls to involuntarily feel their hair stand on end, and even Chen Junting was shocked.
"Their souls and physical bodies are not compatible."
A simple sentence, yet containing vast information.
Souls and physical bodies not compatible—what does this mean? It means that the soul currently existing in, no, should be residing in this physical body, is not the original owner of this body.
Using the simplest description—it is possession!
Possession is similar to reincarnation, but not the same.
For example, Tang San from ten thousand years ago and Chen Junting himself today—they had already descended into the fetus before birth. This state of soul occupying a physical body is called "reincarnation."
The process seems no different from "possession." But the difference between "possession" and "reincarnation" is that one soul has already been born, while one soul is in the indescribable realm between born and unborn.
As for why this is said...
One can only say souls are quite mysterious. How souls are born, when they are born—difficult to investigate. Even someone like Electrolux, a master of soul research, could only glimpse a thread or two of the surface.
But no matter what, after "reincarnation," the soul and physical body are in an extremely compatible state, inseparable.
But if it is "possession," then no matter what methods the possessor uses, there will be flaws between the physical body and soul. Even if this flaw is only a trace, it still exists.
And this trace of flaw between soul and physical body was as clear as a chasm in Electrolux's eyes—both were crystal clear.
"Possession..."
Murmuring, Chen Junting's eyes were already wide open.
Electrolux's words were like a heavy hammer, fiercely striking his heart. This not only made him suddenly understand, but also shattered the "wall" of his confusion about the mystery of Zhongli Wu and Ye Xishui's return from death!
Return from death?
If previously, Chen Junting might still have thought this way.
But now...
I'm afraid Zhongli Wu and Ye Xishui's condition is no longer return from death, but "possession." Uh... perhaps using "possession" to describe it isn't quite accurate; this should be called "parasitism."
"I see..."
Chen Junting's murmur couldn't help but bring Snow Empress and the other spirit souls back to their senses. Snow Empress looked at Chen Junting's expression of sudden understanding and couldn't help but ask.
"Junting, what do you understand?"
"Me?"
Chen Junting's consciousness body gaze concentrated, his eyes revealing cold light, "I understand what 'return from death' is. I also roughly know that behind the Holy Spirit Cult, there is still a powerful force waiting for us."
Hearing this, Snow Empress also fell into thoughtful consideration.
As for Mad King and Tyrant, they exchanged glances, still not understanding.
At this moment, Chen Junting no longer paid attention to their reactions. Instead, he looked at Electrolux. Now the most important thing was to find a way to identify those who had been possessed. Because he was certain that this method relying on possession would appear again in the future.
"Teacher, how do we identify these possessed individuals?"
Electrolux smiled without speaking, only pointing to the space between his eyebrows.
Chen Junting, seeing this, immediately understood.
And so, this scene appeared now.
"Little Chen, what did you mean by what you just said?"
Facing the inquiry, Chen Junting's gaze was exceptionally cold, meeting eyes with the two bound individuals as if two sharp swords pierced through their minds, "What I just said was simply the literal meaning."
Literal meaning?
"Possession" could be considered a new term for the Douluo Continent; Ning Bowen and the others couldn't immediately think of this point.
But they also roughly understood one thing: that the two currently bound individuals had indeed been subjected to some bizarre methods. Now, these two fellows were no longer their original selves.
"Disciple, explain in detail."
Ye Xuanji's eyes narrowed, killing intent and sword energy already locking onto the two individuals. As long as they dared to make any rash movements, even the slightest insignificant motion, they would die at Ye Xuanji's hands.
Thus, Chen Junting carefully explained what situation these two people were currently in, and what "possession" meant.
When his words fell, everyone fell silent.
Pondering Chen Junting's words, many felt shocked by the "possession" method, and even more saw its harm and danger. For a moment, killing intent permeated the entire secret chamber.
And someone clever like Ning Bowen thought of even more at this moment. Combined with the news Chen Junting had told him after returning from the Star Dou Forest about Zhongli Wu and Ye Xishui's return from death, he suddenly felt that possession was more likely than return from death, and those two were probably not their original selves either.
[The waters here run truly deep!]Thinking of this, this thought subconsciously popped up in Ning Bowen's heart.
He deeply knew that neither the Sun Moon Empire nor the Holy Spirit Cult alone had such means. Instantly, it was as if a great mountain pressed upon Ning Bowen's heart. And this was worry about the unknown.
But the most important matter at present was not this. Ning Bowen withdrew his gaze from the two bound individuals, turning instead to Chen Junting, "Little Chen, do you have any way to prove this?"
"This matter is not difficult."
The sharp light flashing in Uncle Ning's eyes was taken in by Chen Junting; he understood that as a clever person, Uncle Ning would surely take action.
Thus, he didn't need to worry about it.
And after hearing Ning Bowen's words, Chen Junting also immediately took action. Two fingers pressed against the space between his eyebrows, a crack suddenly opening and closing there, emitting a dazzling light.
Facing this strange light, Ning Bowen and the others felt no obstruction whatsoever; they even felt an indescribable smoothness in their hearts. But when the two individuals were exposed under this strange light, forget smoothness—their entire beings were filled with wrongness.
And even as this strange light continued to diffuse, the two individuals' entire bodies trembled like sieves, fear filling their beings.
The next second, hum—
The third eye fully opened, rose-gold and emerald-gold colors flowing, then without a word from Chen Junting, whoosh—
A beam of light split into two, landing on the two individuals.
Instantly, two phantom shadows enveloped the two individuals, but these phantom shadows were not human-shaped—they were beast-shaped, their appearance like beasts from hell. This also caused low growls to emit from the two individuals' mouths. Immediately following, a dense dark energy instantly erupted from the two individuals' bodies, and this power directly corroded the binding soul guidance devices holding them, causing the two to break free.
However, no matter how the dark energy erupted, for a level 99 Limit Douluo, this was like Sun Wukong in the palm of Buddha—wanting to jump but not lasting long.
With just a simple sword finger wave!
Whoosh whoosh—
Several sword energy seemed to contain the Milky Way, a universe within, each slash seemingly containing thousands of star rains.
Effortlessly, two star sword energy prisons formed.
"What a powerful corrosive ability."
The sudden change just now happened too urgently, plus the dense dark energy had attracted everyone's attention, so they naturally subconsciously overlooked the devouring ability.
Ye Xuanji stepped forward, using his sword finger to intercept a section. Carefully examining it, he then reached a conclusion, "Such bizarre, such powerful dark energy... Back then, this old one had the fortune to exchange pointers with Beast God Di Tian. Di Tian, as the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, naturally possessed the attribute of extreme darkness, so this old one also deliberately experienced it once."
"But compared to the purity of Di Tian's darkness attribute, the dark energy on these two individuals is not like this. Only in terms of quality, it surpasses Di Tian's darkness, and what is mixed in its impurity is also extremely vicious."
Speaking thus, he raised the wisp of energy in his hand.
"It will devour all life."
These words once spoken, the killing intent of everyone in the secret chamber became even more pervasive.
These fellows not only could "possess," but also had such evil abilities... they cannot be kept, not a single one can be left!
However, just at this moment, suddenly, a heart-palpitation feeling instantly enveloped everyone's hearts, as if something terrible had happened. The next second, a disciple outside the secret chamber came to report.
"Reporting to the Sect Leader!"
Ning Bowen was pulled back to attention, "What matter?"
"Just now the sky was cloudless, but now it is covered with dark clouds, and there are thousands of thunder snakes dancing across the sky. I feel... I feel... gulp—" The reporting disciple subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva, forcibly suppressing the urge to flee brought by that heart-palpitation in his heart, "It seems like the legendary thunder tribulation is about to strike!"
Thunder tribulation!?
Now, everyone was stunned.
Everything was fine, they didn't have any soul beasts breaking through to above one hundred thousand years here, so how could a thunder tribulation come without warning?
Before others could figure out what was happening, Chen Junting had already acted decisively. Between breaths, array patterns danced in the void. In an instant, the Heaven-Deceiving Great Array formed, the phantom array disk rotating, enveloping the entire secret chamber.
Meanwhile, above the sky outside. The thunder that was about to descend instantly stopped in the sky, lingering without dispersing. Clearly it wanted to descend the heavenly tribulation, but now it had lost its target.
In the secret chamber at this moment.
"What exactly just happened?"
Just as everyone was puzzled why the heavenly tribulation would appear, Chen Junting locked his gaze onto the soul phantom shadows that appeared on those two individuals. Just now, the unexpected change in their secret chamber had only come from these two fellows. But would that dark energy attract heavenly tribulation? At least Chen Junting felt it wouldn't.
So the root cause was still in those souls.
"We're getting closer to the truth..."
In thought, Chen Junting made a decision.
Thus, with everyone's consent, only Chen Junting remained in the secret chamber while everyone else withdrew.
Half a minute later, "Uh... ah—" accompanied by screams, Chen Junting came out with regret and helplessness on his face.
"How did it go?"
Facing everyone's inquiries, Chen Junting shook his head.
"It didn't succeed."
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