(Note: Text in quotation marks refers to the body, while text without refers to the soul.)
All signs indicated that Su Mo had been possessed.
“I’ve been possessed by a statue.” Su Mo muttered to himself, still unable to believe it was real.
But it had already happened—there was no room for doubt.
Just then, “Ye Qingyi”, who had left moments ago, returned. She summoned a combat blade into her hand and swung it fiercely at the statue before her.
Su Mo felt himself split apart. The pain struck his soul directly, no different from being cut in half at the waist.
“Ye Qingyi” smirked coldly, delivering several more slashes until the statue was completely shattered. Only then did she leave, satisfied—though the process had destroyed an otherwise indestructible blade.
……
Darkness. Endless, boundless darkness.
Su Mo didn’t know if he was alive or dead. All he felt was wave after wave of pain crashing over him, relentless and infinite.
Slowly, he grew numb, losing all sensation.
“What am I?”
His consciousness drifted like a lone boat on a calm sea, carried by the currents. He didn’t know how long he had been adrift, nor where he was headed.
Then, suddenly—a single drop of black water fell into the sea.
The tranquil surface erupted into a frenzy. The little boat was tossed violently by the waves, and in that turmoil, the numbness finally faded.
A streak of dark cyan light tore through the night, igniting death and burning away the agony. From the flames, Su Mo’s shattered form was reborn.
……
Back in the ruins, a dark cyan pillar of light shot into the sky, its eerie glow concealing a strange, unsettling aura.
All the undead instinctively turned toward it, the ghostly green flames in their eyes flickering wildly—as if cheering in exhilaration.
“Ye Qingyi” suddenly sensed something and whirled around in disbelief. A flash of dark cyan surged toward her.
She tried to resist but found she had already lost control of her body. Her eyes filled with unwillingness and terror. “Impossible… You can’t still be alive…”
Dark cyan flames erupted from within, erasing every trace of the “statue’s soul” and burning away her clothes and impurities, revealing her flawless curves and snow-white skin.
Once Su Mo regained control of his body, the first thing he did was retrieve clothes from his white jade ring and cover himself.
In the distance, the real Ye Qingyi and the others noticed the anomaly and rushed over—only to find a pristine, radiant beauty standing there, looking nothing like someone who had survived weeks in the wilderness.
“You…” Ye Qingyi’s jaw dropped in shock.
“Take one more step, and I’ll kill you,” Su Mo said coldly.
But Ye Qingyi ignored the threat and strode forward, tears of joy in her eyes. “There you are. The you just now… wasn’t you.”
“I said I’d kill you. Aren’t you afraid?”
She shook her head, taking his hand and examining him closely. “It’s different. Just now, it didn’t feel like you. I thought you’d been controlled.”
Then she paused, unable to hold back her curiosity. “What happened?”
Su Mo hadn’t expected her to instantly recognize when his soul wasn’t in his body. A flicker of secret delight rose in his heart.
“I was possessed,” he said grimly.
“Possessed?!” she gasped, never imagining such an outcome.
“That statue… There was a soul inside it. That green light that followed the ghostly flames into my body—it must have been its doing.”
“So that’s why only you could see the village earlier, while the rest of us couldn’t?” Ye Qingyi suddenly understood. She remembered thinking Su Mo had been lying at the time.
“Partly, but… not entirely. I don’t really know why.” Su Mo thought back to that infinite dark space and the dark cyan flames that had torn through it.
“Oh, and… I think I awakened an ability.” Excited, he demonstrated for her.
A tiny flame flickered in his palm—for exactly one second—before extinguishing. No matter how hard he tried, it wouldn’t reignite.
“It was burning just fine earlier…”
Ye Qingyi bit her lip, her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
A few dozen meters away, Wen Wenwen held Xiao Bai’s tail, stroking its head while whispering, “Remember, Xiao Bai, in situations like this, you shouldn’t interrupt them…”
Xiao Bai: “#¥%&@$Φ…”*
They say people mature after facing death. Su Mo felt that now. Back when he and Ye Qingyi had discussed their views on the supernatural world, he had admitted his longing for it. But now, he also felt a newfound reverence.
The possession had brought him unimaginable pain, but what he gained far outweighed what he lost.
First, he had awakened an ability and broken through to the Qi Condensation Realm, becoming a true cultivator. Though for some reason, his ability suddenly wasn’t working?
Second, during the struggle against the possession, he had glimpsed a possibility—a way to swap souls back with Ye Qingyi.
If possession allowed one soul to enter another’s body, then what if two people simultaneously attempted to possess each other? Could that force their souls back into their original bodies?
Or perhaps, like the statue’s soul, he could forcibly push Ye Qingyi’s soul into his own body during possession. But that method was too brutal—it might cause irreversible harm.
He had already decided: from now on, he would seek out knowledge about souls. Somewhere, hidden in the world, there had to be a way to swap them back.
Su Mo retrieved several red fruits from his jade ring, handing one to each of them. “Eat up. We might have a tough fight ahead.”
He took a bite first, only to find the fruit’s effects on him had diminished drastically—now it only relieved fatigue and restored stamina.
“Thanks, Qingyi-jie!” Wen Wenwen chirped, happily munching on hers.
After eating one last time, she had managed to keep up with Su Mo and the others on her own strength, no longer a burden to the team.
Now, she was eager to see what new changes this fruit would bring.
“Perfect timing to stretch my limbs,” Ye Qingyi said, her interest piqued at the prospect of a fight.
Only Xiao Bai looked troubled, fiddling with a combat blade nearly as long as itself.
Noticing this, Wen Wenwen leaned in, patting its head reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Xiao Bai. Jiejie will protect you.”
Xiao Bai shot her a disdainful look—one that Wen Wenwen completely missed as she continued rambling.
Less than half an hour after they had rested, the first uninvited guests arrived, drawn by the earlier phenomenon. At the same time, a familiar face appeared on the other side—the undead.
“I didn’t expect them to be the first ones here,” Ye Qingyi remarked, seeming to recognize the newcomers—and surprised by it.
“You know them?”
“Aren’t they your Ye Corporation’s clients? Why are you asking me?” she retorted irritably. “Didn’t think they’d come for this too.”
Su Mo understood now.
“It’s an ancient ruin. Of course they’d be after the treasures, rare materials, and artifacts inside. I’d be tempted too,” he said matter-of-factly.
“True. The dawn of the supernatural era has given those in power a head start—they’ve got more connections and resources, after all.”
The humans and the undead were already clashing. A few gunshots rang out, and several undead collapsed, their heads blown clean off.