“What did you say?”
Ding Nan stared at Xian Yuyan in shock, unconsciously reaching out to touch the cheek of the little girl who was clutching his clothes.
Her cheek was soft, smooth, and warm, with a good texture.
Clearly, this was a living life.
How could she be dead?
“I’m not joking. Have you heard of living corpses or walking corpses?”
Xian Yuyan lowered her eyes, looking at the little girl who seemed quite dull.
Ding Nan had indeed heard of them, and quite a lot at that.
In his previous life, he had watched many entertainment movies; after transmigrating, street stall storybooks and ghost stories—these miscellaneous books distinct from cultivation methods—more or less contained elements of “living corpses.”
After all, in this world, there are zombies, which makes people constantly mindful of living corpses.
It’s not that people fear corpses moving and thinking; it’s that they fear lying next to a corpse when it suddenly opens its eyes.
The existence of zombies intensifies people’s fear of death.
“Are you saying she’s a living corpse?”
Ding Nan frowned, but surprisingly, he felt little fear.
“There are two types of living corpses. One is when the body is alive but the soul is weak or decaying; the other is when the body is dead but the soul is strong and forcibly controls the corpse to move.”
Xian Yuyan tilted her head, pointing at the little girl hiding behind Ding Nan, and said, “She belongs to the former.”
“Body alive but soul weak?”
Ding Nan said.
The Danxia Manual and the Flowing Cloud Manual, both first-class cultivation methods, mentioned Nascent Soul Condensation.
That meant condensing one’s own soul, achieving rebirth in the form of a soul body, hence the term “Nascent Soul Condensation.”
Ding Nan knew that only Nascent Soul old monsters had soul bodies, and likewise, only cultivators at the Nascent Soul Stage or above had the conditions to possess another’s body.
The little girl behind him had a faint aura, only at the fourth stage of the Body Tempering Realm.
Clearly, she did not have such conditions.
“In that case, can’t she just rest and recover?” Ding Nan asked puzzledly.
Sleeping in one’s own body could nourish the soul.
Before obtaining any heavenly treasures capable of nurturing the soul, this method of nourishing one’s soul offered the most efficient ratio.
“It’s impossible, because her soul does not belong to her current body. Her body is rejecting her soul.”
“The body is the vessel of the soul; it cannot be separated before reaching the Nascent Soul Stage… Even if separation were possible, the end result is death.”
“It’s not entirely impossible to separate. You should know about Image Recording Stones and printed images, right?”
Xian Yuyan said.
Ding Nan nodded, suddenly realizing the answer.
Seeing the change in Ding Nan’s expression, Xian Yuyan’s eyes shifted slightly.
That expression of sudden enlightenment after the clouds cleared—it didn’t seem fake.
Was it purely through insight?
“Don’t you think it’s a bit far-fetched?”
An Image Recording Stone recorded images; a printed image merely used spray ink to transcribe the image from the stone.
How could an ordinary person immediately make that connection?
Even if they did, most people’s first reaction would be disbelief, a few would be half-convinced, and only a handful would be willing to believe.
And that handful were either called geniuses or lunatics.
That was why Xian Yuyan said what she did.
“Hmm, nothing is impossible. Since spiritual qi can record the traces of a person’s life and their past memories, it naturally can also use spiritual qi to imprint a soul.”
Ding Nan said.
Soulfire was essentially that kind of thing.
Of course, the more crucial point was that Ding Nan was a transmigrator.
Before his transmigration, he had heard that some people were already attempting brain-computer interfaces.
He also knew that human mental activity—the transmission of neurotransmitters between neurons—was itself a process of ion binding and separation.
If one could completely simulate the structure of the brain and replicate the nature and process of bioelectricity within the neurons, could specific memories and experiences be reproduced?
Would that count as resurrection?
Xian Yuyan squinted as she looked at Ding Nan.
“What is it?”
Ding Nan asked puzzledly.
“You’re not deceiving me, are you? Do you actually have past memories?”
Xian Yuyan inquired.
“Memories?”
Ding Nan scratched his head and said, “I do have memories of the past.”
“Oh?”
A cold glint flashed in Xian Yuyan’s eyes.
“Aside from amnesia, everyone remembers things from their childhood, right?”
Ding Nan waved his hand and said, “What’s there to talk about with something like that?”
Xian Yuyan was taken aback.
Ding Nan’s clear eyes held not a trace of panic or deceit, only confusion.
“That’s true. How could your situation involve memories?”
After all, she had gone into Ding Nan’s Spiritual Sea to check.
The clearly demarcated Spiritual Sea, with its scenery and completely different level of spiritual perception, already explained everything.
The Ding Nan before her had a weak spiritual perception, nowhere near the level of the person seated on the throne that she had once faced…
But what if he forcibly simulated two Spiritual Seas with his powerful spiritual perception, intending to deceive her?
Possessing a spiritual perception stronger than that of the Tribulation Transcendence Stage—no one knew what such a powerful soul body could do.
‘If he’s deceiving me, he’ll show his hand one day,’ Xian Yuyan thought to herself.
Listening to her inexplicable words and watching her repeatedly changing expressions and the strange way she looked at him, Ding Nan became even more bewildered.
“Ahem. In any case, this little girl’s situation is that her soul was copied, creating a false soul, and then forcibly stuffed into this body.”
Xian Yuyan put on a serious expression and said.
Ding Nan lowered his head and made eye contact with the little girl.
The little girl’s gaze was dull, her expression wooden.
Ding Nan looked at her for a few seconds before she reacted, but even then, her expression only changed slightly.
“But because her cultivation is limited and her own spiritual qi is insufficient to survive in soul form, her false soul is continuously being worn away.”
“In the coming days, her spirit will grow worse and worse, until she completely loses self-awareness, right?”
“That’s right.”
Xian Yuyan said.
“Is there any way to help her?”
“No.”
Xian Yuyan said.
“Do you understand the Seven Po?”
The Seven Po corresponded to the seven emotions, representing a person’s sentiments.
“I do.” Ding Nan replied briefly.
“Not only is her cultivation insufficient to support her soul, but her spirit itself is incomplete.”
Xian Yuyan said.
“We don’t even know what her original soul looked like.”
Xian Yuyan sighed helplessly, shook her head, and continued.
“For the latter case, it’s actually easier—just eat some soul-nourishing items—but her cultivation can’t hold up… It can’t be replenished.”
The answer was clear.
Ding Nan looked silently at the child before him, who only reached his thigh in height, and suddenly felt a surge of sorrow.
He thought he wouldn’t feel grief.
This wasn’t his first time facing death.
In his previous life, he had seen elderly relatives pass away and had bid them farewell at funerals.
In this life, he had also seen his grandfather—the Ding family patriarch—die.
Occasionally, in the forest outside Qingquan City, he saw corpses that had been rotting for some time.
He had also seen the fossilized remains of humans brought in from outside, turned into spirit stones.
But to see a young life, alive in front of him, already dead, yet still breathing, as if alive, still seeming saveable, yet utterly powerless…
She was just a child, even looking at him with a child’s blankness.
In the end, he was saddened by this.
This little girl warned Ding Nan: if he didn’t desperately enter the city to make a living, he might die; the voices of the weak were small, their strength meager, and they would be trampled underfoot.
This was the cultivation world, a place dominated by clans and powerful families.