Female Protagonist Assistance System

Chapter 104 : . Soul Puppets

The outbreak of war caught everyone by surprise. When Gu Xun'er received the message from Gu Yuan, the Medicine Clan had already been completely annihilated.

The Soul Clan swiftly eliminated several powerful forces in succession, striking at their core before the Central Plains could react, and bloodily wiped out the entire Medicine Clan. Not a single one of the thousand clan members of the Medicine Clan survived.

After destroying the Medicine Clan, the Soul Clan didn't pause at all, turning to attack the Flame Clan, which was closest to the Medicine Clan. If the other families hadn't reacted quickly and sent reinforcements to the Flame Clan in time, the Flame Clan would likely have followed the Medicine Clan's fate. Even so, the Flame Clan still suffered heavy casualties and was severely weakened, and even the reinforcements from other families lost many powerful experts.

War broke out instantly.

"This Soul Clan... is truly strange," Gu Xun'er gritted her teeth as she looked at Gu Yuan's letter, saying hatefully. Then, she hesitated for a moment, looked at Yao Chen beside her, and said softly, "My condolences."

Yao Chen's eyes were slightly red, filled with deep-seated hatred.

He indeed had some grievances with the Medicine Clan, but no matter what, it was still his blood clan. To be completely wiped out like this, without a single clan member escaping, how could he swallow this anger?

Xiao Han frowned slightly. She hadn't expected Xiao Yan to act so quickly, directly annihilating the Medicine Clan, and according to Gu Yuan, the Flame Clan was also nearly destroyed.

Eliminating two major families at once, what exactly was Soul Hall relying on?

Raising her hand to embrace Gu Xun'er's waist, Xiao Han said, "Return to the Ancient Clan."

Gu Xun'er nodded. Now they must return to the Ancient Clan to clarify the whole situation and participate in the upcoming battles.

Xiao Han waved her hand, and the space in front of them visibly distorted. Almost within two breaths, the distorted space swallowed the two of them.

At the moment of being swallowed, Yao Chen returned to the warm jade that Xiao Han had given him to nurture his soul, disappearing from the room along with them.

Gu Xun'er only felt her vision blur, and when she regained clarity, they had already arrived in a familiar environment, all within two or three seconds.

Before she could marvel at Xiao Han's mastery of spatial manipulation, Gu Xun'er had just steadied herself when she heard Gu Yuan's voice transmission, asking them to come to the study.

So Xiao Han once again embraced Gu Xun'er and tore open space again, teleporting to the study.

Seeing Xiao Han and Gu Xun'er suddenly appear in the study, Gu Yuan wasn't startled. At this moment, Gu Yuan was talking with the elders of the Ancient Clan. Seeing the two, he waved his hand, ending the conversation and asking the elders to leave first.

When only the three of them remained in the study, Gu Xun'er somewhat impatiently asked, "Father, what's the situation with the Soul Clan? The eight great families have similar foundations and almost equal strength, how did the Soul Clan manage to annihilate the Medicine Clan and severely damage the Flame Clan in one go?"

Gu Yuan, without saying a word, accepted his daughter's urgent series of questions. He was momentarily at a loss for words, waved his hand, and took out a light blue crystal from his storage ring: "This is a memory crystal left by an elder who went to support the Flame Clan. You can take a look."

Gu Xun'er took the memory crystal and infused it with a bit of Dou Qi. As Gu Xun'er's Dou Qi was infused, the memory crystal began to emit faint blue light shadows, which quickly coalesced into a light screen in front of the three of them.

Watching the content playing on the light screen, Gu Xun'er's expression worsened. Although Xiao Han still maintained a cold, expressionless face, her increasingly cold aura indicated that her mood was not good either.

"These people..." Gu Xun'er slowly spoke, "I recognize some of them... but, weren't they already dead?"

"What exactly are these things?"

In the light screen, Soul Hall's people were all wrapped in black robes, surrounding a young man whose appearance was unclear. That young man was commanding an army that seemed endless at a glance, rushing towards the Flame Clan and the people who came to support them.

The army commanded by that young man all had pale faces and unfocused eyes, looking like puppets controlled by strings. These people's strength wasn't particularly high, the lowest being at Dou Wang level and the highest only at Dou Zong level, but their numbers were terrifyingly vast, and they seemed to feel no pain. Gu Xun'er clearly saw several people torn in half, yet they were still crawling towards the Flame Clan members.

Are they still human?

Xiao Han narrowed her eyes slightly. Even among the eight great families of the Central Plains with their profound foundations, memory crystals were rare and precious items. This was because memory crystals could not only record sound and images but also the aura, temperature, and other aspects of the moment, making the viewer feel as if they were actually there. Therefore, Xiao Han almost instantly discovered that the army commanded by that young man all had their "origin" erased from their souls.

The soul is undoubtedly one of the most mysterious things in the world. No one can accurately say what exactly a soul is, what it's composed of, why a person's appearance and personality change after reincarnation, while the soul remains unchanged. The former Xiao Han was also completely in the dark about the realm of souls, but her experience in the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower seemed to awaken some power in her, and she thus learned some secrets about souls.

The most important part of the soul is the "origin". The origin is the essence of the soul. If the origin remains, the soul is immortal and indestructible, and after death, the soul can still go through reincarnation. But if the origin is erased, the soul is equivalent to completely dissipating in the world.

Xiao Han discovered that in the suddenly appearing army of Soul Hall, all had their soul origins erased, equivalent to puppets completely under someone else's control.

Gu Yuan had been observing the reactions of the two. Gu Xun'er's reaction was within his expectations, but Xiao Han's reaction surprised him a bit: "Does Xiao Han know something about this?"

Xiao Han nodded slightly and briefly explained what she knew. However, the topic of souls was taboo, so she only briefly touched upon the issue of soul origins.

Although Xiao Han's explanation was very brief, Gu Yuan still frowned, his expression grave. From Xiao Han's few sentences, he already understood the thorniness of these soul puppets and the current dire situation.

"The only way to deal with such things is to completely annihilate them," Xiao Han said calmly.

Gu Yuan looked somewhat agitated. He slammed his fist on the table: "Soul Hall!"

To actually extract the souls of the dead and turn them into puppets, with such a vast number, how many people must Soul Hall have slaughtered?!

No wonder they could be so arrogant and swiftly destroy the Medicine Clan, it turns out they had such methods. It's possible that even the dead members of the Medicine Clan were extracted and turned into puppets!

"If we allow them to continue like this, this continent will eventually be under their control," Gu Yuan took a deep breath. "Moreover, according to the information from our spies embedded in Soul Hall, the Soul Clan's Clan Leader Soul Emperor Tian and Young Clan Leader Xiao Yan seem to have found a method to break through to Dou God without the Ancestral Awakening Jade and without opening the Ancestral Tomb. If we truly let them succeed..."

Dou God? Xiao Han was slightly stunned and turned her gaze to Gu Xun'er, who was frowning and not speaking beside her.

Sensing Xiao Han's gaze, Gu Xun'er looked up and asked curiously, "Senior Sister?"

Gu Yuan also shifted his gaze to Xiao Han, seeming to want to see what she would say.

Xiao Han pondered for a moment. Currently, Gu Xun'er's karmic fortune had surpassed Xiao Yan's, but for some reason, the identity of the Child of Destiny still fell on Xiao Yan. The system had said before that for Gu Xun'er to replace Xiao Yan as the Child of Destiny, there needed to be a turning point. This turning point... could it be that Gu Xun'er needs to defeat Xiao Yan in a one-on-one situation?

[Ah, I'm not very clear about this either, host. But I think there's a high possibility,] the system responded belatedly after hearing Xiao Han's question.

Raising her hand to rub Gu Xun'er's head, Xiao Han spoke, "Judging from Soul Hall's current actions, we don't have much time left. They will certainly take further action after this. Xun'er, you need to go into seclusion to cultivate."

Gu Xun'er was quite surprised. How did the topic suddenly turn to her?

"Have you forgotten the special nature of the Flame Mantra?" Xiao Han gently tapped Gu Xun'er's head and said softly.

After being stunned for a moment, Gu Xun'er then showed a surprised expression: "But I'm only at Dou Venerate level now. To reach nine-star Dou Saint and attempt to break through to Dou God, wouldn't it take at least two or three years?"

In two or three years, wouldn't Soul Hall have already attacked?

Xiao Han pondered for a moment and said, "It won't take that long."

Gu Xun'er tilted her head slightly to look at her.

"The most important thing for enhancing cultivation using the Flame Mantra is Heterogeneous Flame," Xiao Han slowly began to speak. "I'll find a way to deal with the Heterogeneous Flame issue. As for the location of seclusion..."

Although he didn't know exactly what they were talking about, Gu Yuan keenly caught words like Dou God in their conversation. He instantly understood that Xiao Han's meaning should be that there was some way to help Gu Xun'er break through to Dou God.

Seeing Xiao Han pondering about the location for seclusion, Gu Yuan quickly spoke up: "The Ancient Clan's forbidden area is the best place for seclusion."

"The Ancient Clan's forbidden area?" Gu Xun'er was somewhat surprised. Every major family or force had such a place. These places were generally fraught with danger or preserved something important, and ordinary clan members couldn't enter. The Ancient Clan naturally had one too, and Gu Xun'er had often heard about it, but had never entered.

"The Ancient Clan's forbidden area is the burial place of our ancestors," Gu Yuan said. "The Dou Qi there is several times more concentrated than in the outside world. However, the requirements to enter the forbidden area are very high. In order to ensure that the ancestors could rest in peace, a taboo was established in the forbidden area: non-Ancient Clan members cannot enter, and those without pure Ancient Clan bloodlines cannot enter, otherwise they would explode and die. Xun'er is one of our clan's rare disciples with extremely pure bloodline, so entering the forbidden area should be no problem at all."

Hearing this, Xiao Han nodded: "After I collect the Heterogeneous Flames, Xun'er can start secluded cultivation."

Although she didn't want to leave Xiao Han and go into seclusion alone, Gu Xun'er also knew that now was not the time to be willful. She nodded somewhat reluctantly, then asked, "After I go into seclusion, what does Senior Sister plan to do?"

Xiao Han's eyes turned slightly cold as she said,

"Some people need to pay a price for their actions, don't they?"