"You're not Qingdai. Who are you really?" Ye Lanshan stared intently at Qingdai, her mind racing through countless possibilities.
"No, I am Qingdai, but I'm not Qingdai." Qingdai twisted her neck in an eerie manner, her joints stiff and rigid. She stood up like a zombie, her pupils glowing white, with faint traces of green refracting within that light.
Her expression also showed immense struggle, as if her original consciousness hadn't been completely extinguished.
"Chieftain, don't believe her. The soul inside her body is no longer her own." Ling Chunian watched in horror.
"Not her own? Soul possession—I didn't expect that to happen in this world either." Ye Lanshan eyed Qingdai warily, her hands already moving as she tried to force out the possessing soul.
Ling Chian shook her head. "It's not possession. It's symbiosis."
"Symbiosis? Two souls in one body?"
"Yes, and no—not exactly. It's like those captives earlier. They were a form of symbiosis too."
Ling Chian used the captives as an analogy for Qingdai's current state.
"Is this another new experiment? They get more twisted every time." Feng Qing sneered, clearly nursing a long-standing hatred for that group.
"A new experiment, is that it? But so what?" Ye Lanshan ultimately forced the foreign soul out of Qingdai's body.
Yet it turned out not to be a soul at all—just a wisp of spiritual consciousness. It flew away like the wind, as if rushing back to report, but how could Ye Lanshan let it escape? She flashed forward in a blur and caught the wisp in her palm.
"I think I might know who they are." Mu Xinlian's mind flashed with a maddening scene: a person in strange white clothes, wielding a tiny, unfamiliar weapon, performing something called "surgery" as a form of punishment on people.
"Oh? Who?"
"I've been to the Sunset Mountains before. Back then, the phoenix had just descended, and many sought to claim it. Curious, I went to find it too."
Mu Xinlian sank into her memories. "The phoenix was incredibly irritable back then. Anyone who tried to contract with it was burned to ashes by its flames."
"I was terrified and hid in a cave. Inside, I saw a person in very strange white clothes, holding a weapon I'd never seen before. They were carrying out some kind of punishment. From their words, I heard it was called 'surgery.'"
"Surgery, huh. So there's another transmigrator. A real science fanatic, indeed."
"You know what surgery means? And what's a transmigrator?" Everyone was baffled, never having heard such novel terms.
"Surgery—think of it as a method to heal and save lives. As for fanatics, they're just a term for people like that."
A flicker of intensity passed through Ye Lanshan's eyes. If there was a transmigrator, maybe they knew something.
Like why she had inexplicably ended up in this world. Unlike the novels where the protagonist died before transmigrating, she had been cultivating peacefully, only to open her eyes in an unfamiliar place. That was something she'd never figured out.
It wasn't that she wanted to return to her original world—she had attachments here now, so that was impossible. But she wanted to uncover the truth. The feeling of being manipulated by some invisible hand irritated her to no end.
"Healing and saving lives? But I clearly saw him cut open a living person's stomach, stuff something inside, and then that person died."
"Surgery has successes and failures. It's not just for healing—it's also used for research on the human body. Do you remember which cave it was?"
Ye Lanshan was eager to go see for herself.
"I don't know. I was fleeing blindly and didn't pay attention to my surroundings. Besides, I've been dead for so many years, my memories are fuzzy. And after all this time, the place has changed a lot. I can't recognize the path anymore."
Mu Xinlian shook her head. She couldn't even recall the roads in the Sunset Mountains now, let alone that cave.
"Alright." Ye Lanshan sighed, a hint of regret on her face.
"If you don't treat him soon, he's going to die." Feng Qing pointed out the pale, weak Yue Shu.
"Right, Ye Lanshan, save Yue Shu quickly." Mu Xinlian's focus shifted back to him.
"This is poison?" Ye Lanshan frowned. The poison had already dissolved and mutated with his own toxins, but it was a blessing in disguise—the fused poison was much easier to neutralize than his original one.
She popped a pill into his mouth and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll have all your poison removed by tomorrow."
"Ye Lanshan, don't you care about me at all?" Yun Di's eyes showed hurt. Why couldn't she spare a little more attention for him? They had known each other the longest.
Ye Lanshan felt a wave of speechlessness. When had I not cared about you? If I didn't care, would I have saved you? Would I have expended so much spiritual power to purge your curse poison?
"Of course I care about you. Why else would I have used so much spiritual power just now?"
"Chieftain, leave them to me. I'll help you turn them back into normal people."
Since you've decided to fight those madmen to the end, I'll give you all my abilities and every piece of information I have.
"Yes, Chieftain, trust us with these people. We'll erase every mark those lunatics left on them."
All the Spirit Clan members knelt down. Ye Lanshan raised them with a gentle gesture and cleared her throat. "Men kneel for gold, women kneel for jade. If you truly wish to follow me, remember this: 'Better to die standing than live kneeling.' Even if you live, live with dignity."
If they had groveled before those madmen without an ounce of pride, bowing to anyone slightly stronger like weathervanes, they would surely betray her in the future.
What she needed to do now was restore their dignity, let them live with honor, and ensure they would never betray her, even in death.
The Spirit Clan members were deeply moved. No one had ever told them that even survival should come with dignity. This chieftain was truly one of a kind.
At first, they had submitted to her because of the prophecy in the ancient texts. Now, they submitted from the bottom of their hearts, admiring her, ready to die without ever betraying her.
"Yes! From now on, we will kneel to no one but the Chieftain." Their voices rang out, firm, unified, and confident, as if in that moment they reclaimed the self-respect and confidence they had long lost, shedding the burden of humility they had carried for so long.
"Better to die standing than live kneeling." Feng Qing savored those words, the amusement in his eyes growing stronger. Truly an interesting human—no, more accurately, more interesting by the day.