The reason was speculated.
Qin Ye furrowed his brows and muttered, "Three souls and seven spirits fused into a lump. Old Brother Hu San is probably beyond saving."
After that, Qin Ye tried several methods, attempting to separate Hu San Old Master's three souls and seven spirits, but the results were not ideal.
Just as he had speculated.
Hu San Old Master's three souls and seven spirits had completely fused together, unable to distinguish which part was the soul and which was the spirit, fused so perfectly that a new soul had already formed.
And it was a brand-new soul consisting of only a single fused soul.
"With such a soul… Old Brother Hu San, are you still you?" Qin Ye stared at Hu San Old Master inside the cage.
At this time, Hu San Old Master was still tirelessly attacking the heavenly prison cage, showing no sign of fatigue.
Just as Qin Ye questioned out loud and fell into a moment of contemplation, in the distant sky, two elderly figures came stepping through the air. One of them, the elder Li Hanguang, spoke before he even arrived.
"Qin Ye, what are you mumbling about?"
Elder Li Hanguang was holding a horsetail whisk in one hand and a phone with location sharing turned on in the other.
He had followed the location signal to find Qin Ye.
Very soon, as his toes landed lightly on the ground, Elder Li Hanguang stroked his beard and walked toward Qin Ye with a smile.
"Qin Ye, are you studying Hu San Old Master?"
Qin Ye smiled and responded, "Old Man Li, you arrived pretty fast. Xiao Wang, long time no see."
As Qin Ye spoke, he raised his hand and waved at Wang Wenqing, who had arrived with Li.
"Greetings to Lord Qin."
Wang Wenqing bowed deeply to Qin Ye, performing the ancient, respectful ceremony reserved for teachers and elders.
"A thousand years have passed, may Lord Qin still be well."
"Hey, Xiao Wang, even after a thousand years your brain's still this old-fashioned. Didn't I tell you before? No need for all these formal and tedious rituals, especially now that it's the 21st century, okay?"
Qin Ye grabbed Wang Wenqing's hand directly and held it. "When seeing a friend, just shake hands."
As he spoke, he deliberately shook his hand, showing the handshake as a modern greeting.
Wang Wenqing smiled. "Lord Qin is still as easygoing and free as before. Then I'll do this from now on."
He imitated the handshake with Qin Ye, his smiling face full of warmth, without the slightest air of superiority.
In Shenxiao Sect, beyond the mundane world, Wang Wenqing always gave off the impression of dignity and elegance, the style of an ancient prestigious sect.
But only in front of Qin Ye, Wang Wenqing didn't display any such airs, more like a student seeing his teacher, more respect than formality.
"You two, I think your catching up can wait for now." Elder Li Hanguang interrupted at this moment.
"Fellow Daoist Li is right. Lord Qin, we should first discuss the proper business."
Wang Wenqing looked at the heavenly prison cage and continued, "When we arrived, I saw Lord Qin observing the heavenly prison cage. Does that mean you've already started trying to save Hu San Old Master?"
"More or less. Tried a few methods."
"I also saw you observing, Qin Ye. How's the progress? You looked frowning. Is it not going well in some aspect?"
Elder Li Hanguang stepped up to the heavenly prison cage.
At this time, the heavenly prison cage was the size of a birdcage. You could see Hu San Old Master inside at a glance.
"The sealing is no problem. It's just that Old Brother Hu San is very likely unsavable." Qin Ye did not hide anything.
"What exactly do you mean?" Elder Li Hanguang, while speaking, shifted his gaze with Wang Wenqing away from the cage and looked at Qin Ye.
Immediately after, as Qin Ye explained the state of the three souls and seven spirits, Wang Wenqing sighed and said, "This is indeed troublesome. The formation of any living being relies on two things, body and soul. Among them, the soul's three souls and seven spirits are indispensable. Now that they've fused and can't be separated, this no longer qualifies as a normal lifeform."
Qin Ye nodded. "People can have the same body or appearance, but souls can never be the same. The soul carries a person's memories, and memory is the real key that distinguishes one person from another."
"The reason a person can't be replaced is because they have unique memories."
Qin Ye didn't hold back and spoke directly, "Each of the three souls and seven spirits are independent. Under normal circumstances, they are hard to fuse, after all, they each represent different things and have intrinsic differences."
"It's like beans. Green beans, soybeans, black beans, red beans, etc. Although they're all beans, their sizes and colors are different. Even if you mix them together, with some effort, you can still pick them out one by one."
"But Old Brother Hu San's situation is special. His three souls and seven spirits didn't just get mixed like different beans. They were ground into powder and then stirred into one paste."
"Sigh… Based on what Qin Ye described, Hu San Old Master can no longer have his three souls and seven spirits separated." Elder Li Hanguang stroked his beard and sighed deeply.
Qin Ye didn't deny it, replying plainly, "More than just inseparable. Old Brother Hu San's three souls and seven spirits weren't just mixed, they've formed a stable structure under certain factors. How to describe it… it's like covalent bonds in DNA, very stable."
"Trying to separate them would mean destroying the covalent bonds, which also means destroying the DNA, and this DNA is the three souls and seven spirits."
Elder Li Hanguang and Wang Wenqing fell silent upon hearing this.
Though they didn't understand what "covalent bonds" or "DNA" were, they could at least hear Qin Ye's tone and grasp the meaning he wanted to convey.
"Lord Qin, when you mentioned certain factors, did you mean the black liquid?" Wang Wenqing looked to the side.
The moment he heard "certain factors," the black liquid came to mind immediately.
"Yes." Qin Ye replied without hesitation.
"Hu San Old Brother's current soul is inseparable from the black liquid. I remember, Old Man Li, you once told me on the phone that Old Master Liu of the Liu family turned that way after contact with the black liquid, right?"
"Correct." Elder Li Hanguang spoke frankly.
"Back then, Liu family's old master was bound by a fox tail, and black liquid oozed out, eroding both his body and soul. I saw it with my own eyes. That black liquid is extremely bizarre and can erode anything."
"Then that confirms it." Qin Ye showed a look of realization and said, "It's this stuff that caused Old Brother Hu San to become like this. Or maybe we should say, it turned him into another kind of lifeform, a strange lifeform whose soul and body have fully fused."
Wang Wenqing was stunned. "Lord Qin, you mean Old Master Hu San is now both physical body and soul?"
Seeing Qin Ye confirm, Wang Wenqing frowned in realization.
"No wonder Old Master Hu San gave me such an uncomfortable feeling. With his soul and body mixed together, doesn't that mean he's lost the possibility of reincarnation?"
"Exactly. Old Brother Hu San may look alive now, but in fact, he will never transcend ever again."
When Qin Ye said this, Elder Li Hanguang and Wang Wenqing both had complex expressions on their aged faces.
No wonder the aura was so disturbing.
Just think, this is a lifeform with no difference between life and death, forever unable to transcend, stuck in this form forever, unable to die or truly live. No soul means no memory.
How could that not make one uncomfortable?
At this moment, the three of them couldn't help but look toward the heavenly prison cage.
Watching Hu San Old Master still blindly attacking the cage endlessly, one couldn't help but sigh. Who would've thought that Hu San Old Master, who once ruled over the Northeast's demons, would end up like this?
As he pondered, Qin Ye seemed to think of something, looked at Hu San Old Master in the cage, and slowly said, "If Hu San Old Master became like this because of Heaven Court, then we can't rule out the possibility that other immortals and gods of Heaven Court have turned like this too."
Elder Li Hanguang was shocked upon hearing this and quickly nodded.
"If that's the case, no wonder Earth Gods and Mountain Gods have gone missing."
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