Facing Chi Yu’s cold, sinister gaze, Huai An shivered, but stubbornly forced himself to stay calm. “What are you supposed to be? Believe it or not, I’ll kill you right now.”

Chi Yu stared at him, his expression dark. “Say that again?”

“So what if I do?” Huai An sneered and stepped forward. “You—”

Slap—

Before he could finish, a sharp crack sounded through the air.

“Say it again.” Chi Yu still wore that emotionless, icy look as he stared at him.

Huai An hadn’t expected another slap. He stumbled back a few steps, clutching his now-swollen face, glaring at Chi Yu with wide, furious eyes. “Fine, you—”

“What about me?” Chi Yu stared at him directly, his gaze cold enough to freeze the air. “In the underworld, even though I don’t hold a high position, no one dares to act so insolently in front of me. Yet you, a mere tree spirit, dare to behave so arrogantly before me and insult my people. Tell me, do you want me to drag you through all eighteen levels of hell, or would you rather be obliterated on the spot?”

Huai An could tell from his words who Chi Yu was — and the fear in his heart only deepened. His earlier bravado collapsed completely.

Meanwhile, behind Chi Yu, Li Xin couldn’t help but curl his lips into a small grin.
Once again, his senior brother had stepped forward to shield him. It felt so good!

It reminded him of when they were little: his senior brother would always protect him like this, standing firmly in front of him. A warm feeling welled up inside.

It seemed Chi Yu had this protective instinct carved into his very bones. Guarding Li Xin was second nature to him — just like when he had volunteered to sacrifice himself to the heavens years ago without a hint of hesitation.

From the moment he picked up Li Xin, their fates had been tied together.

“You… you dare…!” Huai An gritted his teeth, making up his mind to fight to the death.

As he spoke, he lunged at Chi Yu, his arm instantly transforming into a thick tree branch, swinging it at the four of them.

“Senior brother, watch out!” Li Xin reacted quickly, stepping forward and kicking away the thick branch.

Seeing his first attack fail, Huai An transformed his other arm into another thick branch, trying to trap the four by crushing them between the two.

“Chang Wu, Chang You!” Li Xin called out.

The two brothers immediately moved — one on the left, one on the right — to block Huai An’s arms.

Huai An was strong, and the two sides were evenly matched. Li Xin quickly drew out a talisman and flung it toward Huai An’s face.

Huai An, seeing the talisman flying toward him, immediately spat out countless tiny twigs from his mouth, turning them into a rain of arrows aimed at Li Xin and Chi Yu.

Chi Yu flicked his sleeve, sending the Soul-Chasing Disk flying out. Chanting an incantation, the disk grew larger, shielding them and blocking all the incoming “arrows.”
Chi Yu chanted again, and the Soul-Chasing Disk rebounded the “arrows” back toward Huai An, piercing into his body one by one.

Caught off guard, Huai An was riddled with his own branches. Luckily, since these twigs were part of him, he was able to reabsorb them with a bit of effort.

Seeing that Huai An was injured and his strength had weakened, Chang Wu and Chang You immediately seized the chance, gathering all their strength to break his arms.

“Ahhh—!”

With a miserable scream, Huai An staggered backward.

Chi Yu retrieved the Soul-Chasing Disk and, with a leap, kicked the staggering Huai An to the ground.

“You wretched creature,” Chi Yu said coldly, towering over him, “if you dare move again, I’ll make sure you turn to ash.”

Huai An was never good at fighting to begin with, and his spiritual power wasn’t strong. Now captured, he could only submit.

Li Xin walked up behind Chi Yu and whispered, “Senior brother, you’re as formidable as ever. Thank you for protecting me.”

Chi Yu tilted his head slightly and curled the corner of his lips, but to maintain his stern look, he said nothing.

He then questioned Huai An, “When did you merge with that remnant soul? And how did you encounter it?”

Huai An took a deep breath, recalling as he spoke, “It was about two hundred years ago. I had just gained a bit of spiritual awareness when I vaguely noticed another spirit living inside my tree body.
It was very weak — I don’t know how many years it had stayed there. Without realizing it, I grew closer to it, and after another hundred years, we eventually merged into one.”

After listening, Li Xin had a rough idea of the situation. He said to Chi Yu, “Senior brother, it sounds like after the remnant soul was separated from its body, it drifted here and took shelter in this old pagoda tree.
As the tree absorbed spiritual energy over time, it gradually developed a spirit, and eventually, the two fused together.”

Chi Yu nodded. “That makes sense. As the remnant soul absorbed the essence of the sun and moon to heal itself, it nourished the host tree too. No wonder they ended up merging.”

Li Xin narrowed his eyes at Huai An. “Since you wanted to use the remnant soul for a sacrificial ritual to bring back that little yellow marten, you must know how to separate it from your body, right?”

Huai An’s eyes darted around, and he stammered, “I… I don’t know…”

“You don’t know?” Li Xin chuckled coldly. “Fine. Even if you don’t, I have ways of making you figure it out.”

As he spoke, a flame of spiritual energy ignited in Li Xin’s hand, growing taller with his chanting.

Li Xin grinned at Huai An, then turned to look at Huai An’s tree body. “Tell me, would this fire be enough to burn it?”

“Don’t! Don’t mess around!” Huai An cried out, staring in panic at the flame.

He was a tree spirit — if his tree body was destroyed, he’d die too.

Li Xin knew it well — he was forcing Huai An into a choice.

Chi Yu’s voice, heavy and oppressive, followed. “Separate the remnant soul yourself, and I promise you — we’ll take only the remnant soul and leave you alive. How about that?”

Meeting Chi Yu’s cold eyes, Huai An knew he had no choice.

He lowered his head and, after a moment’s thought, let out a sorrowful laugh. “All I wanted was to save my friend. What did I do wrong?
It was the villagers who captured it and nailed it to a living stake. You don’t punish those wicked humans who slaughter spirits — and yet you come here to make things difficult for me?”

“What are you even talking about?” Li Xin lost patience. “Right now, all we’re asking is for you to hand over the remnant soul. Nothing else.”

But Huai An seemed deaf to Li Xin’s words, sinking deeper into his sorrow. “Since I’ve fallen into your hands, I might as well die. Let’s all go down together!”

With that, he raised his hand, ready to destroy his own soul.

Li Xin couldn’t follow the tree spirit’s logic, but seeing Huai An about to self-destruct, he quickly flung a talisman at him, freezing him in place.

Huai An struggled but couldn’t move, glaring at Li Xin. “What are you trying to do?”

“Can’t you understand?” Li Xin asked. “I said, hand over the remnant soul and we’ll spare your life. We never said we’d kill you.”

Huai An sneered. “If I can’t save Xiao Xing, what’s the difference between living and dying? I won’t let you have your way.”

“You…” Li Xin was speechless.

They weren’t even speaking the same language anymore — no matter what he said, it was useless.

Li Xin sighed and turned to Chi Yu. “Senior brother, maybe we should just do it ourselves.”

“You know how?” Chi Yu asked.

“No,” Li Xin answered honestly, “but I have a rough idea.”

“Huh?” Chi Yu was puzzled.

Li Xin explained, “It’s like when people die — the soul naturally separates from the body. If we destroy his tree body, his spiritual form should come out too.
I’m not 100% sure, but it’s worth a try.”

“But if we fail, wouldn’t the remnant soul be lost too?” Chi Yu asked, considering the worst outcome.

“I’ll be careful. If anything looks wrong, I’ll stop immediately,” Li Xin said firmly, looking Chi Yu straight in the eye. “Senior brother, trust me.”

How could Chi Yu not trust him? “Alright, we’ll do it your way.”

“No, no, don’t…” Huai An screamed behind them. “Don’t touch my tree body…”

But Li Xin ignored him completely. A spiritual fire ignited in his hand again, though inside, he was extremely nervous.

He wasn’t confident, because he had never encountered a situation like this before.
He walked under the tree and paused.

“I’ll ask you one last time: can you separate the remnant soul yourself?” Li Xin asked.

He was giving Huai An one last chance — and giving himself a chance too.
After all, he didn’t want Chi Yu to be hurt either — not even his remnant soul.

Tears welled up in Huai An’s eyes. “I… I really can’t…”

Li Xin sighed softly. “Then let me do it.”

At that moment, he somewhat believed that Huai An truly didn’t know — after all, Huai An’s cultivation was shallow, and the merging probably hadn’t been entirely his own will.

Cold sweat seeped from Li Xin’s forehead — at this point, he had no choice but to go all in.

He cast a flame spell, and in an instant, the entire old locust tree was engulfed in a sea of fire.

“No… ah… ahhh…” Huai An could feel the searing heat and burning pain coming from his true form, and he screamed miserably.

For some reason, Chi Yu also felt a faint burning sensation across his body. It wasn’t strong, but it made him very uncomfortable.

It must be because his residual soul, like Huai An’s, was also suffering the agony of being burned alive.

Seeing Huai An rolling all over the ground in pain, Li Xin knew it was almost time. He didn’t care whether Huai An lived or died — what he cared about was Chi Yu’s residual soul.

He ordered Chang Wu and Chang You, “You two keep a close watch on him. The moment you see signs of a soul emerging, cast your spell immediately.”

“Yes, Master Li,” Chang Wu and Chang You responded, positioning themselves firmly on either side of Huai An, never taking their eyes off him.

Li Xin turned to look at Chi Yu. “Senior brother, it won’t be long now.”

“Alright.” Chi Yu forced a smile, enduring the growing discomfort on his body.

Li Xin continued casting spells, the flames relentlessly consuming Huai An’s true form.

After a few minutes, half of Huai An’s body had been reduced to ashes. The entire tree trunk was about to collapse, and Huai An himself lay motionless on the ground.

He muttered weakly, “Xiaoxing, I… I wasn’t strong enough… I wasn’t… strong enough…”

Huai An twitched a few more times, then his body started turning translucent. Seeing this, Chang Wu immediately called out to Li Xin.

“Master Li, look!”

Li Xin turned his head sharply at the sound, his heart in his throat. His greatest fear was that the residual soul would vanish along with Huai An.

Huai An’s spirit body grew more and more transparent. Even Chi Yu couldn’t help feeling anxious, staring at Huai An without blinking.

The air seemed to freeze — so silent it was terrifying — the only sound was the crackling of the burning wood.

The scorched, charred smell mixed with the heat, making cold sweat pour down everyone’s backs.

The tree trunk was nearly reduced to ashes, but apart from Huai An becoming increasingly transparent, there was no other sign of change.

Could it be that the residual soul was fading away too?

Li Xin’s heart filled with panic. Chi Yu also struggled to keep up his calm facade.

No one knew what would happen next.

“Master,” Chang Wu suddenly thought of something and quickly said to Chi Yu, “Why don’t you take out the Soul-Chasing Disk and see if you can sense the residual soul?”

“Alright.” Reminded by him, Chi Yu finally remembered he still had a magical tool.

He hurriedly pulled out the Soul-Chasing Disk, activated it with a spell, and a golden light burst forth, enveloping Huai An’s head.

Everyone’s gaze was fixed on the Soul-Chasing Disk.

The Soul-Chasing Disk spun continuously. The discomfort on Chi Yu’s body also grew worse — he could feel his own residual soul enduring the torment.

But he had to grit his teeth and endure it. He couldn’t let Li Xin or Chang Wu and Chang You see his weakness.

The tree had burned down to a pile of charred remains, and Huai An’s spirit body was almost completely invisible.

The four of them stared at the Soul-Chasing Disk, hardly daring to breathe — especially Li Xin, whose heart had already sunk halfway.

Could it be that his worst fear had come true after all?

What should he do?

His mind was a complete mess.