Heise Zhao and Gi La ushered Bai Qi into the elders' tent right away. Using the same story about the life-saving treasure as before, Bai Qi's retelling did not change much.

The only thing that he did reveal this time, and had not told before, was that the damage to his Soul could be very severe. Both the man-lynx and the woman-lizard had reached the same conclusion, but hearing it from his lips did make them hang their heads in shame.

The elders weren't thrilled about it either, as it meant that they again had failed in their duties as the hosts.

But if the swarm was something they could not control and should not be held against them, the hunt was.

The elders knew that the scout's report was missing a lot of information and that it could be dangerous. Still, they had sent their guest there and so were responsible for what happened in a no lesser manner than the being.

Even worse, at least in their minds, was the fact that it was the human who saved everyone in the end. After all, who knows what could have happened if a controlled Heise Zhao did arrive at the camp?

And while the two fire-tigers took it calmly, the remaining three elders reacted differently.

Xi Cuo and Xiaoshan Mao had interacted with Bai Qi several times, and their relatives were in friendly relations with him as well. Thus, both elders showed concern and immediately asked if the Beastmen could do anything to help.

As for the only Beast, the milk-colored, feather-adorned snake-elder, it was furious. It hissed and glared around, but finding no one to blame, calmed and apologized as well.

Bai Qi was unsure about the damage, as he had not checked before. He did not plan to do it right away either, choosing to first prepare for any possible issues. The Soul was a true image of a cultivator, and if it was damaged, then as soon as the connection was recovered, the cultivator would also suffer physical damage.

***

Leaving the elders' tent, Bai Qi directly moved to his base and began preparing.

With this in mind, Bai Qi set up the cauldron and began refining two types of pills.

The first one, [Phoenix Fire], was a healing pill meant to restore physical damage. A fire element pill would be absorbed better in Bai Qi's qi, and the 'Ghostflame' would also receive a small benefit because of it.

The second one, [Saint's Reflection over a Blazing Pool], was an Earth-tier pill of the flame element, meant for soul-mending. Initially, Bai Qi planned to go with a simpler common-tier pill. But in the end, he decided otherwise.

Everyone, including his trainees, was notified by the elders to not approach for a couple of days. Thus, except Heise Zhao, who volunteered to keep watch and spent the time acting on Bai Qi's previous instructions, Bai Qi spent an entire day refining without any visitors.

___________________________________________________________________

"I have prepared everything that I could. It's the time!" Bai Qi muttered while sitting down in the center of an array that glowed in a mix of crimson and black.

***

While refining and then preparing the array, Bai Qi had attempted to sense his soul power. And probably for the first time since his half-resurrection, he felt fear.

He had already noticed that his emotions were in disarray, but that was natural when one's Soul was disconnected. At least in Bai Qi's case, after all, he was not the original owner of the body. The fusion of consciousness and Soul that had occurred as he cultivated had solved it before. But now, without a connection to his Soul, Bai Qi lost control partially again.

Still, it wasn't this part that alarmed and then scared Bai Qi. The reason neither was that his soul power felt weaker than a typical 5th level Sage one. The true reason for his fear came from what he had sensed within it. A dark and dreadful presence, one that felt like Bai Qi's own but at the same time did not.

But there was nothing else to do but to grit his teeth and proceed to reconnect with his Soul. Whatever happened next was something he had to face. Otherwise, Bai Qi could not continue to cultivate, and not only because an inner demon or even his future mental state would be affected, no.

A cultivator without a connection with his Soul could never advance further than the initial Soul realm, and if Bai Qi's fear stooped him, that meant he would slowly regress to that level as well.

***

Heise Zhao from the human's words that the process would take several hours and that aura and other uncontrolled Soul aspects could surface from within the barrier surrounded building. But while he did back away slightly and surrounded himself with his aura for protection, he still shivered as a black, mist-like substance began seeping from behind the golden light of the barrier.

It wasn't even powerful, but for some reason, he could not help but feel trepidation as the black mist approached his aura, only to recoil back. Even later, when he was asked, he could not explain the reasons for his fear. He could only say that whatever was hiding inside that mist was something, that if just slightly more powerful could have consumed him, not harmed or killed, no, devoured!

But no matter what he felt, Heise Zhao did not retreat. He had promised to keep an eye and then check on the human's condition, and so he would do.

And he did, after seventeen hours after, the golden barrier disappeared.

"Wu Guang? Wu Guang?" At first, he called, not even allowing himself to use his senses, fearing that he could interfere somehow. But not obtaining any response, he suppressed his aura and slowly moved towards the now unprotected wooden structure.

After another few unanswered attempts, Heise Zhao deeply inhaled, controlled even his inner qi to a minimum, and entered.

But only a few moments after entering, the man-lynx dashed outside and returned a few minutes later, accompanied by the five elders.

___________________________________________________________________

When a cultivator, for some reason, lost their connection and attempted to reconnect, the process would be far different from connecting to one's Soul for the first time. If the first time was awakening something dormant, then the successive times would be more like an attempt to communicate with it.

Usually, the process wasn't a hard one, as one's Soul, in any case, was a part, the paramount, of a cultivator. But for Bai Qi, it turned out to be an unexpected meeting.

Entering his inner world and reaching to the Soul had given no surprises. But when he opened his eyes, he did not find himself in a reflection of his inner world, but somewhere else.

"So I wasn't mistaken." Bai Qi muttered to himself while examining the surroundings. A vast plateau in black and crimson hues. Black was the stone under his legs, and black was the sky above his head. A few crimson bolts of lightning crossed the latter, and crimson was the air around him.

"So where is it?" Bai Qi muttered again, intending to find out just what kind of being had summoned him here. And why was it inside his Soul, his true and original Soul!

As if in response to Bai Qi's questioning, an enormous, hundreds of feet tall silhouette suddenly materialized in front of Bai Qi, making him instinctively fall back. But he quickly recovered his calm and took a few steps forward.

"Fake youngster, your Soul isn't bad. Far better than the original one." A hoarse and rumbling voice surged from everywhere around Bai Qi.

"Demon!" Bai Qi's eyes widened as he, at last, understood everything. Indeed, his soul was his original one, but there was something else inside it. Before, he had not noticed, as a being like this was impossible to notice without summoning one's Soul outside one's body as he did with the Martial Soul activation.

"Demon? I am no mere demon!" The demonic entity roared, and the entire inner world trembled. It was only a few minutes later that it calmed, and continued, "I am the prince of the Kui clan, named after our ancestor, Kui Mulang!"

"Why are you inside my soul, Kui Mulang?" Bai Qi had met several members of the demon race during his past life. And while lower-plane cultivators even deified them, he knew that Demons were nothing more than one of the races. Granted, their powers and looks differed greatly from most of the human-like cultivators, but they weren't deities but just a different form of cultivators.

"Your soul? No, it is your soul that occupied the body where I was deemed to be reborn!" Kui Mulang roared again.

"What?! You mean that Wu Guang, the boy that died and whose body I took over, was your vessel?!" Bai Qi was stunned. Just what joke of the heavens it was that the body he chose to be reborn in was one already occupied by another being?!

"A true joke of the heavens, isn't it?" Kui Mulang suddenly asked calmly, as his enormous body began shrinking until it faced Bai Qi in an equal manner. He then continued, "Your soul is too strong for me to take over, so I had no opportunity to do anything. Until now."

For others, it may appear that Kui Mulang was planning to do something, but Bai Qi knew that it wasn't so. The demon race was indeed cunning and could be said to be evil, but at the same time, they were direct in their actions to an extreme. If Kui Mulang had chosen to meet Bai Qi in place of continuing to hide or making a failed attempt to take over, then he was planning something else.

"So it is your presence I was feeling earlier. And it is your visage the one that has been appearing when I used the incarnations." Bai Qi said more as a statement than a question while he analyzed the flame-covered, flame-eyed, savage visage of the demon. One that was identical to the helm-like cover of his Flaming and 'Ghostflame' incarnation techniques.

"Indeed" The demon nodded.

"...what do you want? I don't believe that you have summoned me here just to introduce yourself." Bai Qi knew that taking over his body was an impossible dream for the demon, as it did not count with anything but its reflection. Bai Qi's Soul had been indeed too strong and had simply absorbed Kui Mulang, limiting it to this inner world.

"What do I want? Nothing. I have been forcefully fused into your soul, and my power is not enough to control it either. But I know who you are, and the knowledge you have. Thus, I want to make a deal."

"A deal? And what if I just force you out?" Bai Qi's Soul was still present, and even though Kui Mulang was attempting to stop the reconnection, it had already begun. Even more, Bai Qi found that his soul wasn't damaged!

"Even after I sacrificed all the bits of soul power I gathered as to deal with the gathering of consciousness from before?"

"You just said that you know about the knowledge I have. Don't try to lie. You did not sacrifice anything but assumed the form of my Martial Soul to get out, even if it was for a few minutes!" Bai Qi immediately rebuked.

"But I did deal with the enemy in front. At least you could listen to my words." As most of the intelligent demons, when scaring Bai Qi did not work, Kui Mulang had turned to negotiation.

"I will listen, but don't expect anything else." Bai Qi shrugged. Now that everything, at least cultivation-related, was resolved, he had regained his usual calmness. He also sensed how the connection with his Soul restoration was going even now. Thus, if the demon wanted to speak, then so be it.

Kui Mulang's terms were nothing unexpected, and even though Bai Qi was reluctant to accept a demon as part of his Soul, he did not intend to refuse it either. After all, it could be a fearsome trump card, at least if Bai Qi found a way to control it.

Kui Mulang knew that he could not separate from Bai Qi, at least if the latter did not do it by himself, and so his deal was more akin to surrender. He would not attempt to harm Bai Qi, on the contrary, help him. In exchange, when Bai Qi reached the realm of the Immortals, he would separate him from his Soul without killing him.

"Attempt to take over anything once again, and I swear to the heavens that I will cleanse my Soul of you." Bai Qi agreed, even though he did warn the demon before leaving the inner world.

___________________________________________________________________

"I wonder how much time has passed." Bai Qi muttered while opening his eyes. An inner world was the dwelling of one's Soul, and no common laws as time applied there. Thus, even though Bai Qi felt that he only spent a couple of hours inside, it could have been days outside.

He found himself lying on a stack of pelts and covered with a couple of them as well. And to Bai Qi's wonder, he was naked.