Chapter 19: Minor Soul-Split Art

Outside Xuanqing Temple, Song Xuanqing watched everything that transpired between Old Doctor Song and his son Song Bo.

He didn't bother to interfere.

The killing was done. How the villagers of Song Family Village chose to handle the aftermath was none of his concern.

After sending Xuanmo on his way, Song Xuanqing opened his system panel.

His current Cultivation progress stood at 22.8%. To push it to one hundred percent, he would need to spend another 772 points.

His current Incense Value was clearly not enough for that.

After paying out the 3.2 Incense Value he owed Xuanmo, he had 195 points remaining.

After calculating what he had on hand, Song Xuanqing decided to pour 172 Incense Value into his Cultivation.

That would push his Cultivation progress to 40%, leaving him 23 Incense Value in reserve for emergencies.

With the allocation decided.

Song Xuanqing: System, add the points!!!

As his Cultivation progress advanced, Song Xuanqing's aura began to fluctuate.

His presence grew stronger and stronger.

Only when his Cultivation progress reached the 40% mark he had set did his aura settle back down.

A few minutes later, Song Xuanqing took stock of his current Cultivation and opened his eyes, feeling refreshed and clear-headed.

The weakness from before had been swept away entirely.

He felt like he could use God-Merge right now and go pick a fight with someone!

Suddenly, the system's notification chime rang out in his mind again.

[Host's Cultivation has reached Unranked (40%). Divine Art unlocked: Minor Soul-Split Art.

Minor Soul-Split Art: Splits off a strand of divine consciousness, refined with Cultivation, granting it a fraction of the host's power to roam freely through heaven and earth. (Note: The soul-split's power is determined by the main body and can possess at most one-quarter of the main body's strength. The maximum number that can be refined is determined by the main body's Cultivation. Loss of a soul-split will not damage the main body's foundation, but will cause weakness for a period of time.)

System Tip: While the main body remains within its Domain, the soul-split may travel even greater distances, though certain limitations still apply. The host is encouraged to explore these on their own.]

Song Xuanqing read through the Divine Art's description several times, his eyes lighting up with excitement.

Isn't this basically a clone technique?

What a fantastic Divine Art!

Song Xuanqing had already thought of countless ways to use it — sending the soul-split out to fight while the main body stayed inside the idol, or having both the main body and the soul-split fight together.

Sure, the soul-split was a bit weaker, capped at only one-quarter of the main body's strength.

But with the Soul-Split Art, his range of activity could expand considerably.

Even though Song Xuanqing's Domain was still limited to Song Family Village and his main body's movement was restricted, the soul-split could go much farther in his stead.

If he'd had the Minor Soul-Split Art right when he first transmigrated, he wouldn't have needed to ask Xuanmo for help entering Wolf's Head Mountain to find Song Mugen and his son — he could have used the soul-split to go in himself.

Fortunately, this Divine Art had arrived at just the right time.

And besides, this was only the Minor Soul-Split Art.

Did that mean there was also a Major Soul-Split Art?

He had no idea what the Major Soul-Split Art would be like.

Too bad the system was like a brain-dead robot — it could only pop up notifications and couldn't hold a conversation, otherwise he'd have asked.

With his new Divine Art in hand, Song Xuanqing steadied his aura and immediately set about trying to refine a soul-split.

Perhaps because it was his first time using this Divine Art, Song Xuanqing was far from proficient.

After quite a long while, he managed to laboriously condense a single soul-split.

The soul-split looked exactly like Song Xuanqing, hovering in the air before him, invisible to ordinary mortals.

The moment the soul-split successfully condensed, Song Xuanqing felt a second field of vision open up in his mind.

It was the soul-split's perspective.

Song Xuanqing found it remarkable. He could clearly feel that the soul-split was a part of him — the soul-split was him, and he was the soul-split.

It felt like the soul-split was one of his hands, or one of his feet — simply another part of himself.

The one thing that left Song Xuanqing a little displeased was that condensing this single soul-split had consumed nearly half of his divine power.

True, divine power was a consumable resource that recovered quickly enough.

But this soul-split, which had cost him half his divine power, only possessed one-tenth of his main body's Cultivation!

Using it in a fight would be a terrible trade-off.

He'd be better off just going in himself.

Still, Song Xuanqing's mastery of this Divine Art was still rough. Once he grew more proficient, he should be able to reduce the cost and improve the soul-split's strength.

* * *

Old Doctor Song and Song Bo kept vigil over the two corpses in front of Xuanqing Temple through the entire night.

The night was deep and the dew was heavy; droplets had gathered on both men's hair and clothes.

It wasn't until dawn, when the horizon began to pale, that Old Doctor Song sent Song Bo running to the Village Chief's house to fetch help.

Before long, Song Bo returned with Village Chief Song Tiancheng in tow.

It was clear Song Tiancheng had come in a hurry — his clothes were thrown on haphazardly, his hair was a mess, and he ran after Song Bo to the front of Xuanqing Temple with a face full of anxiety.

At the sight of the two gruesomely dead bodies lying before the temple, Song Tiancheng's face went slightly pale, his lips trembling faintly.

"This… Doctor Song, is what Little Bo said really true?"

Song Bo had already given Song Tiancheng a full account of the previous night's events on the way over.

Song Family Village was small and tucked away deep in the remote mountains. Something like this was virtually unheard of — perhaps once in several years.

Song Tiancheng swallowed hard, struggling to believe it.

Old Doctor Song nodded and recounted the whole story once more.

When he finished, Song Tiancheng rubbed his temples with a pained expression.

What a way to start the morning — something this shocking dropped right in his lap.

Of course, now that he understood what had happened, Song Tiancheng also felt a profound sense of relief.

He turned his gaze toward Xuanqing Temple with eyes full of excitement and reverence, bowed three times, and then spoke.

"From what you've described, we truly owe everything to Lord Xuanqing's protection! I've heard that when these evil-path types appear, they often leave several people dead or even massacre entire villages. If Lord Xuanqing hadn't manifested to protect our village last night, it wouldn't just have been you, Doctor Song — the rest of the village would likely have suffered as well."

Old Doctor Song let out a long sigh and bowed three times alongside him.

"Sigh, who could say otherwise? Thank goodness we have Lord Xuanqing."

"But Village Chief, what do we do with these two bodies? And since they were evil-path practitioners, now that they've died here, won't that bring trouble down on us? I've heard those evil-path types use all sorts of sinister methods."

"Sigh, if I'd known from the start that these two were evil-path people, I never would have taken them in and treated them — no, those boys shouldn't have pulled them out of the river in the first place!"

It was precisely because of these worries that Old Doctor Song had not dealt with the two bodies immediately the night before, choosing instead to wait for Village Chief Song Tiancheng to come and make the call.

Song Tiancheng frowned and swept his gaze over the two bodies on the ground, then said after a moment's thought: "I'll have my son go call the villagers here. Everyone needs to know about this — they need to be more vigilant from now on, and stop pulling just anyone out of the water. Especially those few who fished these two out yesterday."

"As for whether these two evil-path practitioners dying here will bring trouble… sigh, let's hope Lord Xuanqing protects us and nothing comes of it. Either way, if anyone asks, we know nothing!"

Before long, at the Village Chief's summons, a large crowd of villagers had gathered in front of Xuanqing Temple.

After hearing Old Doctor Song and the Village Chief's account, every last one of them broke out in a cold sweat.

The few villagers who had pulled the pair out of the river were especially filled with regret and lingering fear.

"Those damned evil-path scum — if we'd known, we never would have saved them! We should have bashed their heads in with our hoes right then and there!"

"Thank goodness Lord Xuanqing was here to protect us. If those evil-path types had really set their sights on our village, we'd have been finished."

"Exactly. Old Doctor Song's family nearly lost their lives — dragged out into the courtyard in the middle of the night by those two, who knows what they were planning. Thank goodness Lord Xuanqing was here, and that great demon cat under Lord Xuanqing's command was here too!"

"Old Doctor Song and Little Bo said they actually saw Lord Xuanqing manifest last night? Is that true?"

"Shh! Don't be disrespectful toward Lord Xuanqing!"

The villagers crowded around the two bodies, chattering away.

Frightened as they were, now that the crisis had passed, the villagers' spirits had relaxed, and they gave thanks that the two evil-path practitioners had been dealt with by Song Xuanqing.

Song Tiancheng listened to the villagers' clamor, furrowed his brow, and bellowed at the top of his lungs.

"Alright, quiet down! From now on, if anyone asks about these two evil-path practitioners, you say you know nothing — understood? And stop bringing all sorts of strange people into the village!"

The villagers all answered in unison.

Song Tiancheng thought for a moment and said: "Since these two were pulled out of the river, we'll throw them back in the river now. As far as we're concerned, we never laid eyes on these two. Wherever their bodies drift to after that, or whether the fish eat them — we don't know a thing!"

With that, Song Tiancheng pointed to the men who had hauled the pair ashore the day before and told them to throw the bodies back into the river — and to throw them far.