CHAPTER 2344  A YIN HEART SOUL?

Lin Mu's awakening brought great relief to the group. is the owner.

They had been incredibly worried about him and his condition. After all, they had no idea about the true extent of the damage and what the Withering Dao entering one's body could do. They had horridly purged the baleful energy from their bodies, but that was no were comparable to the amount that had entered Lin Mu.

Not to mention, there was something strange about the energy that didn't match what Yao Changying had used.

The main difference was that what Yao Changying had used was a skill, but what they had fought was very clearly a creature.

Then there was also the fact that this was a creature different from the Chimeric Beasts. There was no doubt about it either, as it didn't show up on the Chimera Radar that Daoist Chu had made.

Considering that, they were at a great loss.

Thankfully, their combined efforts seemed to help Lin Mu gain the advantage he needed and finally purge the Baleful energy within him.

"What…" Lin Mu had a look of confusion on his face as he looked at everyone.

He could see the concern and relief on their faces, but he also noticed that they weren't in the same location as they had been before.

"How're you feeling?" Crown Prince Feng Shun inquired.

"I'm fine… A bit tired, but fine." Lin Mu said, sensing the fatigue within his body. It was different than normal, as both his vitality and qi seemed to be exhausted right now. 'Even my Immortal Essence has fallen to barely twenty five percent of what it used to be.' Lin Mu checked the Apertures within his body, finding them to be lacking.

He did a few more checks on his body, before he finally understood more about his state.

'Looks like the battle against the Four Headed Maggot exhausted all my energy stores… My Vitality was drained due to both the attacks of the creature and the Bloodline figure of the Great Slumber Bear while my Immortal Essence was drained due to the figure of the Tyrant Bull.' Lin Mu analyzed.

Even his Immortal Qi stores had fallen to barely ten percent of his total. The Immortal Qi sea within his Dantian was greatly depleted, while his Nascent Soul floated on top, trying to slowly recover. The battle had inflicted damage onto his Nascent Soul too, and it was something that would not recover as fast as he body did. It was definitely the most injured Lin Mu had been in a long time.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt lucky that he had managed to get out of it without significant backlash.

"Thank you all, for helping me." Lin Mu said with gratitude. "You definitely came in clutch when I needed it." He added.

"What exactly happened?" Lady Kang asked. "Your vitality and Qi was in a disarray the entire time." "I had to combat the Maggot… though it was different." Lin Mu said, before he gave an explanation of all that had happened.

The entire thing was shocking and new to the group, as most of them had never even thought of this before. Lady Kang listened to it seriously, understanding partly what had happened. "To think that creature could force you to have a Spirit Battle." Lady Kang revealed. "It's not something most beings can do." She added.

"So that's what it was?" Qiao De said in surprise. "I've heard of those, but don't those only happen when one imbibes a strong bloodline?" "Indeed." Crown Prince Feng Shun nodded. "But there are other cases when it can happen too."

"Top Grade Immortal Weapons can force one to undergo the same." Ziran said. "After all, they do not just accept anyone as their owner and some might test them before allowing their usage." He explained.

Lin Mu nodded hearing this, having seen it happen before. Though his own experience had also helped in all this, as he had made contact with souls before and even battled as a spirit.

'My fight to suppress the spirit of the Tyrant Bull back then has certainly come in handy.' Lin Mu thought to himself. 'That and the interactions I've had with Afternoon Pine and Ocean Raker in soul form helped too. Same with when I traversed the memories of Ashy.' He realized.

All those had helped him better his control of the soul, and thus allow him to fighter better as a Nascent Soul. If he didn't have those experiences, it was likely that he could have lost even with everyone's help. Perhaps he might not have even lasted the entire duration of the fight, having lost earlier.

'Definitely one of the most dangerous fight's I've had…' Lin Mu reckoned.

"It definitely was." Xukong spoke up, having been observing all this time. "I might not have been able to help you either." He added.

"You saw it senior?" Lin Mu asked in slight surprise.

"I was observing yes. That spirit you fought was certainly not a normal creature… it was the Nascent Soul of the maggot you killed." Xukong explained. "Though it has certainly undergone several modifications… or rather mutations to be accurate." He added.

"No wonder… I couldn't even tell it was a Nascent Soul." Lin Mu said finding it shocking. The Four headed maggot had no properties that made it seem like a Nascent Soul. It didn't have the characteristic look of a Nascent Soul, and neither did it have the aura of one. Plus the way it had formed was also different, having manifested from a mass of grey energy.

If anything, it was more similar to a Bloodline Figure than a real Nascent Soul.

"It's form also didn't match its physical body." Lin Mu realized.

"That's the part which is the most concerning for me too." Xukong agreed. "From what it seems like the physical body of the maggot was not developed to the point of matching the Nascent Soul." "But is that even possible?" Lin Mu questioned. "Shouldn't the Nascent Soul match the appearance and not the other way around?" "Usually yes, but there can be exceptions." Xukong replied. "In this case I feel like the Nascent Soul had been the first one to come into existence rather than the physical body." He added.

Hearing that, a term came to Lin Mu's mind.

"Yin Heart Puppets…" Lin Mu recalled that they were very similar to this.

They too had no physical form at first and existed in the form of energy that was molded into a shape. But the maggot he had fought was a lot different, as its physical body was actually physical. It had also not dispersed back into energy upon being destroyed like it had with the Yin Heart Puppets Lin Mu had fought in the trials.

"The characteristic definitely match the Yin Heart Puppets more than they do to chimeric beasts." Xukong agreed to his hypothesis. "In a way this seems like a more… Advanced version of a Yin Heart Puppet." He stated.

Lin Mu thought over it and found it to be quite accurate.

"It does compensate for some of the disadvantage of the Yin Heart Puppets." Lin Mu muttered.

The Yin Heart Puppets had the advantage of being made en masse and could act as cannon fodder in a battle. Though at the same time destroying them was easy as long as one could target their core energy which would lead to the entire body dissipating.

In the case of the maggot Lin Mu had fought, these factors seemed to have been compensated.

The maggot didn't have a core that could be sensed by Lin Mu, or even if it did it had transformed into another thing entirely.

'If the core energy was converted into the four headed maggot which was a Nascent Soul… it would definitely make it a lot stronger.' Lin Mu analyzed further. 'It would also give it a second chance at surviving and even counterattacking as the Nascent Soul could escape and find a new body.' Though upon thinking the latter, Lin Mu realized it wasn't correct.

"No, rather than finding a new body, it would simply form a new body." Lin Mu understood.

"That very well might be the case." Xukong was thinking the same. "Whatever this is, there's no doubt there is link between it and Yao Changying." Lin Mu stated. "There's no way the forms would be this similar otherwise." He added.

"Yes. I wouldn't be surprised if the people that have entered this Bridge Plane are part of her people too." Xukong was thinking a lot ahead and already considering several possibilities.

Having lived for an unfathomable amount of time, he had experienced too many things. Among them various schemes and plots were as common as dirt and he had seen it all. As such, it didn't take much for Xukong to thinking of what could have happened.

As long as something similar to it had happened in the past he would know of it.