"Are you really Little Qian?" asked Xiang Shaoyun while looking straight into her eyes.

After Yao Qian's recovery, the feeling she gave him was different than before, which was the reason for this question. He was sure that Yao Qian had definitely experienced some changes, but he didn't know if she was still the same person.

"Hehe, young master, do you think that I'm no longer me?" asked Yao Qian with an alluring smile.

"I'm not sure," said Xiang Shaoyun.

Yao Qian took two steps forward and said with a smile, "Thank you for asking, young master. I am still the same person. My strengthened soul has merely allowed me to become a true version of myself."

"Is that really so? I can see your powerful life soul. It is much more terrifying than the other two souls. If I'm right, your soul power is even scarier than mine. With your current strength, you can easily reach the Heaven Battling Realm. I really can't wrap my mind around your current condition, and I'm even suspecting that you have been possessed by some other soul," said Xiang Shaoyun.

His gaze was fixed on Yao Qian as he tried to see if she was speaking the truth.

Yao Qian smiled and said, "You're right. If it wasn't for your saint soul fruit, I wouldn't have survived. And I have indeed changed. Have you heard of soul duality?"

After searching his brain for the term, Xiang Shaoyun said with astonishment, "Soul duality? A condition in which someone has two souls?"

The so-called soul duality referred to a condition in which someone was born with two souls. It was a sort of mutation allowing one to split one's mind into two and focus on two different trains of thoughts at the same time. The phenomenon could be used for cultivation and numerous other activities. It was basically the same as having two brains. Additionally, someone with the mutation also obtained some unique abilities.

"That's right. I'm one such person. That was why I was born with an innate soul defect, but that was only one soul. My other soul was too powerful. The two souls couldn't merge, adversely affecting my body. Fortunately, the saint soul pill helped my defect soul grow stronger, allowing the two souls to join into true dual souls. In other words, I might have dual souls, but my dual souls had been incomplete. Do you understand now?" Yao Qian gave a proper explanation.

Her words were very believable. Soul duality was an extremely rare physique. It was not as powerful as the Primal Chaos Physique and Yin Yang Physique, but it was still extremely impressive. Xiang Shaoyun was naturally happy that Yao Qian had a powerful physique like this.

Xiang Shaoyun said, "Since that is the case, you have to treasure your dual souls. It is said that a person with this physique will be able to form a powerful soul clone upon reaching a certain level of cultivation. At one point, they'll even gain the ability to control everything with soul power alone. This is an extremely powerful physique."

"Maybe. But for now, I only want to adapt to my new life. I want to spend more time with grandpa and serve you well, young master," said Yao Qian as she smiled contently.

"Stop joking. I don't need you to serve me. I only hope that you can become a Saint as quickly as possible and help me run the Ziling Sect. That will make me happy," said Xiang Shaoyun. "Alright, go back and get used to your new condition. Tell me if you need anything. You don't need to be too courteous with me."

"Yes. You're the best, young master," said Yao Qian.

After some more idle chatter, Xiang Shaoyun left. Looking at the departing Xiang Shaoyun, Yao Qian sighed inwardly as she thought, Don't worry, young master. I will catch up to you as soon as possible and protect the sect alongside you.

...

The Ziling Sect was slowly getting onto the right track. Little White brought his Demon Sovereigns and entered the Buried Monarch Mountain Range, trying to see if there were powerful demonic beasts they could befriend.

As for Ye Chaomu, after spending a few days sticking to Xiang Shaoyun, she also left with her people. She was on a mission to persuade her master to stay at the Ziling Sect. Failing that, she hoped to at least gain the freedom to stay by Xiang Shaoyun's side.

With Ye Chaomu's departure, the Ziling Sect's strength dropped considerably. Because of that, Xiang Shaoyun couldn't even find the time to focus on cultivation.

Fortunately, the turtle and the toad seemed to be on the verge of ending their cultivation session. A terrifying aura surged out of the cave they were in, and two figures flew out.

One was a radiant gold turtle, and the other was a toad with numerous golden markings running all over his body. The two exuded terrifying auras as their demonic cores emanated powerful energies that instantly flooded the area with a blinding radiance.

The golden radiance was incredibly dazzling, blinding the eyes of the Ziling Sect members. Dense black clouds gathered, and numerous terrifying lightning bolts converged into a fearsome sea of lightning in the sky above the sect.

"W-What is going on? What terrifying lightning bolts! Is a natural disaster happening or something?"

"This is a lightning tribulation! It was attracted to the two golden beings earlier! Two powerful demonic beasts are undergoing tribulation. Can't they go farther away? Doing it here will just drag us all to death with them."

"What level of tribulation is this? It doesn't even feel like the tribulation of some demonic beasts. Is this a saint-grade tribulation?"

"Where is the young master? He needs to make them leave and undergo the tribulation elsewhere!"

…

The Ziling Sect members panicked. A tribulation this powerful was probably too powerful for their formations to block.

Just as the tribulation was about to start, Xiang Shaoyun's voice rang out, "Turtle, toad, piss off and face your tribulation somewhere else. Don't do it here."

It was unknown if the two heard him, but they did leave after that. The sea of lightning in the sky followed them, and shortly after, a rain of lightning started. The lightning bolts were incredibly terrifying, instantly reducing a distant mountain into dust.

The tremors could be felt even in the sect, as though an earthquake was happening. The entire sect shook without stop, and everyone was pale with fright. The flickering lightning bolts seemed different than ordinary lightning bolts. It was clear they weren't regular lightning bolts.

Money, who had been cultivating in seclusion, wore a look of longing when he saw the lightning bolts. However, he didn't dare to actually go and absorb the lightning power since absorbing them would probably kill him. In any case, he was at a crucial point of breaking through to the Demon Sovereign Realm, so he couldn't take this risk.

Xiang Shaoyun felt the same. He had an intense thirst to enter seclusion upon sensing the unique lightning power. Inwardly, he thought, After they are done, it is my turn to enter seclusion and refine the starfall lightning energy.

The starfall lightning was a unique lightning power he had obtained from the inheritance left behind by his previous life. He hadn't gotten the chance to refine it yet.