Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

"Don't come any closer."

Who are you?

Wu Bao huddled in a corner of the cabin wall, her small body curled up in a ball, her hands tightly wrapped around her knees, her knuckles white from the effort.

Those clear black pupils held no awareness, no dependence, only the extreme vigilance of a young beast driven to the brink of despair.

Sanbao was the first to react, breaking free from Jiang Yining's hand and rushing forward.

"Fifth Sister! It's me! Third Sister! You just called me 'elder sister,' have you forgotten?"

Wu Bao let out a scream.

The scream was thin and sharp, like a silver needle piercing the eardrums of everyone present.

Nine illusory fox tails exploded behind her, and the alluring silver waves spread uncontrollably in all directions.

Sanbao was hit head-on by that wave, staggered, and his heterochromatic eyes, one black and one red, became misty.

But she gritted her teeth and didn't collapse.

The dark red aura of the Chaos Demon Body rose from its surface, forcefully blocking the enchantment law.

"Fifth Sister, wake up!" Sanbao took another step forward.

Wu Bao's reaction was even more intense. He slid to the side against the cabin wall, his fingernails scraping against the cold metal wall with a harsh sound.

"Don't come near me... the aura emanating from you is terrifying..."

Wu Bao's voice trembled, and his eyes were filled with tears, but not tears of grievance, but tears of fear.

The veins on the back of Da Bao's hand, which was gripping the Anning Heavy Sword, bulged, and his purple-gold pupils were as dark as the sky before a storm, but he did not move.

Sibao stood there holding the golden abacus, his silver Heavenly Eye flashing slightly, his lips pressed into a straight line.

Jiang Yining reached out and firmly grabbed Sanbao by the back of her collar, pulling her back to her side.

"Don't rush."

"I'm not in a hurry!" Sanbao's tears fell in a steady stream, his little fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. "Mommy, look at her! She doesn't even recognize me anymore! It's all those wicked foxes' fault! They made my sister stupid!"

Sanbao cried and stomped his feet in place, making the deck of the fairy boat vibrate.

"I'm going back and dig up that old hag's grave too!"

Jiang Yining squatted down, placed her palm on the back of Sanbao's head, and gently rubbed the top of her head with her fingertips.

"The Three Treasures".

Sanbao's sobs were choked with emotion.

"What your sister fears most right now is intense emotional fluctuations. The more anxious you are, the more scared she will become."

Jiang Yining's voice was not loud, but it carried an irresistible calmness.

Sanbao sniffed, tugged at Jiang Yining's sleeve in a wronged manner, buried her face in her arm, and cried silently.

Jiang Yining stood up and glanced at everyone in the cabin.

"Situ Kong, come here."

Situ Kong dragged his battered body from the corner, his meager spiritual energy, a meager early-stage Golden Core cultivator, flowing intermittently through his meridians, his face as pale as a sheet of paper.

"Ning'er, although my Heavenly Secret Body is severely damaged, I can still barely cast a divination..."

"Shut up, I didn't ask you to cast a divination." Jiang Yining didn't even glance at him, turning to Gu Qinghan and saying, "You examine Wu Bao's soul."

Gu Qinghan had already walked to a position three steps away from Wu Bao, squatted down, placed the broken sword on the ground, and raised her hands to indicate that she had no ill intentions.

Instead of directly releasing his divine sense to investigate, he first transformed the gentle pure yang essence at his fingertips into a ball of pale golden warm light, which he held in his palm.

"Little girl, I won't come near you. Look at this light, isn't it warm?"

Wu Bao stared warily at the ball of light, his body still trembling, but the screams stopped.

Using the warm light, Gu Qinghan quietly released a wisp of her divine sense, probing into the outer perimeter of the Five Treasures' souls along the residual demonic energy fluctuations in the air.

His brow furrowed.

A rare solemn expression appeared on that usually cold and aloof face.

"How is it?" Jiang Yining asked.

Gu Qinghan withdrew his divine sense, slowly stood up, walked to Jiang Yining's side, and lowered his voice.

"Qingqiu's brainwashing technique is not a simple memory sealing; it directly alters the deep emotional cognition of the soul."

"Her memory remains, but all emotional connections with her family have been replaced by fear and rejection."

"In other words, she remembers your face, but instinctively feels that you are an enemy."

Jiang Yining's eyelashes drooped slightly.

Feng Liuyun leaned against the cabin door, silently turning the folding fan halfway between her fingers.

"Then we'll use medicine to counteract it."

"It's not that simple." Gu Qinghan shook his head, his frosty eyes reflecting the small, curled-up figure of Wu Bao. "It's a cognitive alteration at the soul level. Ordinary soul-purifying medicine can only clear the surface toxins; the real root of the problem lies in the layer of bloodline resonance."

"Speak like a human being," Jiang Yining said calmly.

Gu Qinghan glanced at her, his voice lowering.

"To completely eliminate the remaining poison, a rare medicinal ingredient is needed."

"The heart's blood of the nine-tailed celestial fox."

"Moreover, it must be the heart's blood of a close relative of the Five Treasures in order to reactivate the frozen emotions and cognition deep within her soul."

There was a moment of silence inside the cabin.

Feng Liuyun's folding fan stopped turning.

Da Bao's purple-gold eyes slowly moved toward the simple wooden couch deep inside the cabin.

All eyes were on the silver-haired man lying unconscious on the bed, his body wrapped in bandages.

Bai Ze's face was ashen, his breathing so weak it was like a spider's thread about to snap, and dark blood was still seeping from the wounds on his seven broken fox tails.

Sanbao lifted his head from Jiang Yining's embrace, hastily wiped away his tears with his sleeve, and glared at Bai Ze with a red nose.

"Then wake him up!"

"His demonic soul is almost gone, and we can't just take a single drop of his heart's blood." Gu Qinghan's voice carried an unusual hesitation. "If we forcibly extract his heart's blood in his current state, he might just die from exhaustion."

Jiang Yining did not speak.

She glanced down at Wu Bao, who was trembling in the corner, then turned to look at Bai Ze, who was dying on the bed.

Her purplish-gold eyes churned with emotions that only she knew.

She walked to Bai Ze's bedside, placed her palm on his chest, and let the chaotic life force flow into him continuously.

Sanbao followed behind, tiptoeing to reach Bai Ze's fingers hanging by the bed, and whispered, "Fox Daddy, wake up, Fifth Sister doesn't recognize me..."

Bai Ze's eyelashes trembled, but he didn't open his eyes.

Jiang Yining increased her output, and the purple-gold light surged through Bai Ze's body, stitching his nearly collapsed demon soul back together piece by piece.

Gu Qinghan stood behind Jiang Yining, his frosty eyes fixed on her fingertips, which trembled slightly as she channeled her life force. His lips moved, but he ultimately said nothing.

The third hour passed.

Bai Ze's breathing finally changed from a faint, dying breath to a steady, rhythmic flow.

The golden demonic eyes slowly opened, their focus wandering aimlessly across the ceiling for a long time before finally managing to fix on the face before them.

He saw Jiang Yining.

A weak, almost transparent smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"Ning'er..."

Jiang Yining withdrew her hand: "Our daughter needs your heart's blood as a medicinal ingredient."

In Bai Ze's golden demonic eyes, the light gradually faded and then gradually reignited.

He raised his still trembling hand and bit his wrist.

Dark red blood from the heart dripped into the white jade bowl handed to him by Jiang Yining, each drop carrying the rich aura of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox.

Bai Ze's face grew paler at a visible speed, and his golden demonic eyes began to lose focus, but he gritted his teeth and did not close his wound.

"Let me hold her."

Bai Ze's voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible, and his golden eyes strained to turn to the small figure huddled in the corner of the cabin.

Just for a moment.

Wu Bao huddled in the corner, looking at the strange man covered in blood.

Her body was still trembling, with nine illusory fox tails tightly tucked behind her.

His nose twitched slightly, as if he had caught something familiar in the air.

That was the most primal resonance deep within the bloodline of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox, an instinct that no brainwashing technique could completely erase.

Wu Bao tilted his head, and in his black pupils, the first tiny crack appeared in the ice of fear.

"Your scent..."

Wu Bao's dry, cracked little mouth twitched, its voice as soft as a dream.

"I feel like I've smelled this somewhere before."