【Year 7 — The divine spirit's consciousness has been torn down to a single thin remnant. Lady Qinghua begins attempting to merge with it】

【Year 18 — Lady Qinghua has successfully fused with the divine spirit's consciousness】

"Huh?"

Watching the prompt halt the instant it had appeared, Shen Yi couldn't help but freeze for a moment.

He sank into inner vision.

Within his qi sea, the divine spirit had already been reduced to an empty shell.

He summoned Lady Qinghua out.

She stood before Shen Yi, hands clenched, a fresh trace of fear in her eyes — having merged with the divine spirit's consciousness, it seemed she hadn't come away entirely unaffected.

And in the divine spirit's own memories, its assessment of the young man before her had been remarkably concise.

Stingy. Terrifying!

"Get in." Shen Yi gave a small nod.

Lady Qinghua obediently entered his body, then merged into the divine spirit within his qi sea.

The pale, hazy divine spirit's eyes snapped open.

Shen Yi's spiritual sense stirred faintly, issuing a command to Qinghua, and the divine spirit drifted lightly free of his body, shrinking down to the size of an ordinary person, white robes fluttering, its face bearing a faint resemblance to his own.

This was, by rights, an ability only a Martial Immortal should have possessed.

After feeling it out carefully, Shen Yi found there was both an upside and a downside to it.

The downside was that there was now an extra step in between — he had to issue an order to Qinghua first, and only then would she take control of the divine spirit. It wasn't quite as seamless.

The upside, on the other hand—

Shen Yi rose to his feet and looked over to his side.

The divine spirit looked back at him in turn.

A single inner core, now giving rise to both a Mixed Origin cultivator and a Martial Immortal at once — and able to act simultaneously, no less. Going forward, in any fight, that counted as one more killing move in his arsenal.

"Master..."

Lady Qinghua began to…