Chapter 516: Refining the Demon Soul

“Nephew, I still say the same thing—I have no intention of marrying, so I must respectfully decline your uncle’s kindness.”

“If Uncle has no other business, then I’ll take my leave.” After a moment’s hesitation, Murong Lan bit her lip and shook her head, then bowed deeply and hurried out of the hall toward the cave entrance.

From behind, she gave the impression of someone fleeing.

This time, Wang Yu made no move to stop her; he merely watched silently as she departed, but a strand of divine sense slipped out unnoticed, clinging silently to the hem of her skirt.

As a refined offshoot of his divine awareness, this strand could not remain outside the body for long, nor could it stray far from his physical form—but this distance posed no problem.

Wang Yu closed his eyes once more in his chair and, through that strand of divine sense, clearly perceived every movement Murong Lan made.

The woman did not pause inside the cave at all; in moments, she exited the cave gate and reached the open ground before it, where she finally halted, hesitated, turned back to gaze several times at the cave, her expression shifting between dark and light.

After a long while, she released a yellow wooden boat artifact with a heavy heart and flew away from Jinghuo Peak.

As the flying boat grew ever farther, Wang Yu’s divine sense began to strain; he raised an eyebrow and prepared to recall it.

At that moment, he faintly heard Murong Lan muttering indistinctly:

“Dreaming into another world… Blue Star world…”

Wang Yu’s eyelid twitched; he tried to listen more closely, but Murong Lan’s flying boat had already flown too far—the strand of divine sense had already detached from her, and in an instant, all sound vanished.

He suddenly opened his eyes; the strand of divine sense instantly returned to his divine consciousness sea, his face now grimly serious.

If earlier he had merely speculated, he now had nearly ninety percent certainty: Murong Lan was indeed “Xu Ting,” the daughter of General Xu.

The only thing still uncertain was why she appeared in the Eastern Wastes in her Blue Star form, rather than possessing a body in this world, as he had.

As for the possibility of her being a decoy, it now seemed unlikely.

Otherwise, during his earlier Shitan , she would not have refused the proposal of becoming a concubine—she would have accepted it willingly to approach him under legitimate pretenses.

But out of caution, he would no longer probe further; instead, he would follow the Wentuo contingency plan provided by the Kaitian Group experts and observe quietly for a time.

If she truly harbored ill intent, she might conceal it temporarily—but she could never remain entirely without revealing some anomaly.

Only after confirming that “Murong Lan” carried no hidden “danger” would he quietly acknowledge her; until then, maintaining some distance was wiser.

He could not be blamed for such caution—he was merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and he held profound reverence for Nascent Soul experts in this world, refusing to take any risk.

Wherever a Nascent Soul expert existed, he would never mention the Blue Star world without a reliable barrier seal.

After all, a Nascent Soul expert might, in a moment of curiosity, observe nearby low-level cultivators with divine sense, just as he had quietly observed Murong Lan.

With his Foundation Establishment cultivation, he would detect nothing at all.

Wang Yu simply could not afford such a risk.

Yet if Murong Lan truly was “Xu Ting herself,” that slight hint earlier would likely have made her suspect his “same-kind” identity.

If she wished to return to the “Blue Star world,” she would surely devise ways to test him.

This also gave him a better opportunity to observe her.

Wang Yu pondered silently.

Now he needed to prepare for the Sect Grand Competition—and even hasten to open the Bishui Cave Heaven to purchase a large quantity of “Chaos Stones” from the so-called “gambling stone field.”

After all, both the “Flame Demon Star Armor” and the fourth layer of Star Mind Force cultivation required vast amounts of Star Stones.

Before departure, he must first heal his meridian injuries and also practice the “Soul Subduing Art,” to first forge a protective soul rune and compensate for his weak spiritual defense.

Thinking this, Wang Yu first pulled a message talisman from his sleeve, murmured a few words into it, then flicked his wrist and sent it flying.

The talisman became a streak of yellow light, flashed through the wall, and vanished without a trace.

This message talisman had been specially left for him by Yan Lingxiang; within the Bishui Cave Heaven, he could use it to directly send a message to him.

He now needed to arrange with Yan Lingxiang to depart for the first gambling stone field in the Luanspirit Region in half a month.

For the time being, Wang Yu did not merely wait passively for Yan Lingxiang’s reply; instead, he slapped his waist pouch, and a small bottle sealed with a yellow talisman appeared in his hand.

He tore off the talisman, opened the lid, and a green mist flew out, within which faintly hovered a miniature, inch-tall rabbit with long ears and large feet.

It was the essence-soul of the second-rank beast, “Chongyun Rabbit.”

The moment the Chongyun Rabbit’s essence-soul emerged from the bottle, though appearing extremely listless, it stomped its foot within the green mist and shot straight upward, attempting to flee.

This beast bore the name “Chongyun” for its swift evasion, but now it was merely an essence-soul, having been sealed in the bottle for a long time—it could no longer manifest any true evasion technique.

Seeing this, Wang Yu chuckled softly and tapped his brow with one finger.

A sharp “chii-chii” sound erupted.

An invisible mental force surged forth as countless semi-transparent threads, instantly piercing the second-rank beast’s essence-soul, then curled back and forcibly dragged the essence-soul down from the air, inch by inch toward Wang Yu’s front.

“Squeak! Squeak!”

The miniature Chongyun Rabbit essence-soul struggled desperately within the mental threads, but as more threads pierced its hazy form, its resistance grew weaker.

Wang Yu recalled the incantation and steps of the Soul Subduing Art, formed hand seals, and murmured incantations.

In his divine consciousness sea, a pre-forged pale gray array diagram lit up simultaneously with over fifty gray-white spirit runes.

At the same moment, outside his body:

Beneath the beast’s essence-soul, a phantom image of the same array diagram appeared, its dozens of gray-white spirit runes coalescing into a grotesque, head-sized ghostly face with a gaping mouth.

“Puch!” The ghostly face suddenly swallowed the Chongyun Rabbit essence-soul whole.

Wang Yu halted his hand seals and pointed a finger at the ghostly face from afar.

“Swoosh.”

The ghostly face spun once in midair, then transformed into a gray-white orb, its surface flickering with faint rune shadows.

Within the center of the orb, the Chongyun essence-soul lay motionless, seemingly unconscious, utterly devoid of awareness.

Wang Yu’s expression turned grave—he knew this was the most critical and most difficult stage of the Soul Subduing Art. He raised one hand and cast several hand seals toward the gray-white orb, then opened his mouth, and faint gray-white rune shadows flickered on his tongue.

“Swoosh.”

The gray-white orb trembled slightly, as if summoned, and automatically flew into Wang Yu’s mouth.