Immediately, Gongsun Sheng sensed two blinding lights ignite in the blackness, like twin stars, causing his eyes to throb with a faint ache.

"A rising talent to be feared, a rising talent to be feared!" Gongsun Sheng mumbled, striving to make out Ye Jingyu's features, but beyond those dark eyes, kinder than the stars themselves, he could discern nothing else.

"Master, this young man is certainly no ordinary figure; should we perhaps..." the old steward, Xu, murmured, feeling the intense gaze of Ye Jingyu and releasing a faint killing aura from within his body.

So young, yet accompanied by a Martial Saint, coupled with that confident look—the potential of such an individual was unimaginable. Since he had come to the Gongsun family to cause trouble without cause, he could not be a friend; it would be best to eliminate such a person swiftly.

"No, no, no. I only wish to know who he is and why he has come here. Anyone capable of commanding a Martial Saint must not be alone; he surely has powerful backing. Our Gongsun family has no great enemies, so there is no need to provoke such a formidable foe. Let us watch quietly and see how they manage to fight their way out against such a formidable force," Gongsun Sheng interrupted Xu decisively. He cared little for the deaths of a few Violent Apes, nor did he care about losing some Innate Martial Masters.

The Gongsun family was vast and wealthy; the loss of a few Innate Martial Masters meant nothing.

Indeed, he paid little mind to the life or death of Leng Feng or Yu Wushuang. As the Medical Saint, he had saved countless masters in his life; as long as he wished, there were innumerable experts willing to die for him, making such casualties irrelevant.

As long as they weren't Saint-level powerhouses, they meant nothing to a major family like theirs.

At this moment, the iron sword in Bing Ming's hand flared with a massive sword gleam. Facing these incredibly fast and powerful Violent Apes, even with his Martial Saint cultivation, he could not gain the slightest advantage, as the sheer number of the apes was too great, too many.

Ye Jingyu still showed no intention of fighting. He simply walked forward step by step, his obsidian eyes now flashing with streaks of light, resembling a nebula in continuous rotation.

Within his body, a translucent shadow drifted forth, and beneath this translucent shadow lay another dark shadow—not his own reflection, but his Earth Soul.

His Heavenly Soul had fully materialized, yet the Earth Soul continued to surge toward the scattered soul energy.

At that moment, another Violent Ape lunged forward. Bing Ming's figure flashed, and with a slight twitch of his long sword, a water-blue sword gleam illuminated the entire night sky, ready to cleave the ape. But another ape immediately charged in...

Bing Ming, resigned, swung his long sword repeatedly, weaving a net of sharp sword qi that enveloped the two Violent Apes. Yet, more apes rushed forward.

A sound of "Chih! Chih! Chih!" erupted. The foremost two Violent Apes were shredded into fine mist by the sword qi; their tough hides yielded like tofu under the Martial Saint's attack.

Two Yin Souls soared out from the shattered remains, and the Earth Soul, which had been lurking beneath the Heavenly Soul, immediately pounced, enveloping and devouring them completely in an instant.

"Thirty-six now; thirteen more souls needed. Bing Ming, exert your full power and help me complete this stage!" From the moment the first ape was slain, Ye Jingyu's Earth Soul began consuming the souls equivalent to Grandmaster experts. It had now consumed thirty-six, and the Earth Soul had grown considerably stronger. Ye Jingyu estimated that with seventy-seven forty-nine souls, the Earth Soul would fully materialize, and at that point, the ninth stage of his Body Nurturing Art would reach great completion.

"Understood!" Hearing Ye Jingyu, and though he didn't know what this "stage" represented, Bing Ming knew Ye Jingyu required thirteen more souls. With a cold snort, his body flashed, splitting off one Bing Ming, then a second, then a third...

In the blink of an eye, thirteen figures materialized in the night sky, each gripping a long sword.

"Piaoruo Shuangyin Sword!" A cold snort echoed simultaneously from the thirteen figures. Thirteen sword gleams ignited at once, like thirteen flood dragons, slamming down upon thirteen Violent Apes.

The surrounding apes sensed the terrifying sword qi and instinctively tried to evade, especially those targeted by the thirteen figures, retreating backward. But the thirteen sword gleams continuously surged, finally stretching dozens of zhang long, completely submerging the thirteen Violent Apes.

Faced with that brilliant sword light, these apes, capable of tearing metal and shattering stone, were like moths drawn to a flame, instantly engulfed. Ye Jingyu's Samsara Eye witnessed thirteen black silhouettes rushing out.

The Earth Soul, long waiting, swooped down, much like a starving man who hadn't eaten for days suddenly encountering a bounty of delicious food, swallowing those thirteen souls clean in just a few bites.

That dark shadow slowly coalesced, eventually forming a man identical to Ye Jingyu, though still semi-transparent. The Heavenly Soul floating in the sky then swooped down, rushing toward the Earth Soul as if meeting its dearest companion.

But the two principal souls did not embrace; instead, they fused entirely. The originally translucent body gradually became clear, and finally, a man who looked exactly like Ye Jingyu appeared before him.

Soul fully drawn out—this was the mark of a Soul Immortal. In other words, Ye Jingyu had broken through to the Soul Immortal realm.

However, Ye Jingyu knew this differed significantly from the conventional understanding of a Soul Immortal. Any Soul Master, upon reaching the Soul Immortal realm, could have their entire soul emerge, leaving behind an empty shell. But he was not like that; only his Heavenly and Earth Souls had exited to form another distinct spirit, while his Life Soul and Seven Aperture Souls remained within. The Life Soul was the root of a person, governing thought, consciousness, and action—the very core of one's being.

This meant that as long as the Life Soul remained, he was still him, still in control of himself.

As for the Heavenly and Earth Souls merging, they formed a unique individual—a distinct entity controlled by the Life Soul. In essence, at this moment, the Heaven and Earth Souls constituted a living Soul Immortal.

And Ye Jingyu remained the Ye Jingyu from before, possessing powerful Martial Dao cultivation at the Grandmaster level, while his Soul Power had been completely channeled into the individual formed by the Heaven and Earth Souls.