I'm just an ornamental fish in the water.

Jiang Li frowned as she looked at the soul in Lady Luoshui's hand.

A flawed soul, even when outwardly manifested, is merely a blurry, jumbled mess.

"That's right, it's just a part of a soul."

Lady Luoshui nodded slightly and said softly, "Moreover, they are not related to each other."

"What? How is this possible!"

Jiang Li's eyes widened, and a chill crept into her gaze as she looked at the fragmented soul.

For cultivators who can control their own essence, energy, and spirit, the splitting of the soul is not a difficult thing, but ordinary cultivators would never do it.

Because whether one is a cultivator of the righteous path or the evil path, what they pursue is "perfection".

However, the perfection that one seeks to achieve through righteous cultivation begins with oneself and involves exploring one's own inner world.

Those who practice unorthodox methods often add many things to themselves.

Evil energy, demonic energy, resentment, malevolent energy...

Even in unorthodox cultivation, the focus is often on adding something to the soul to gain greater power, while the resulting drawbacks are often ignored. Or perhaps that's precisely what unorthodox paths seek.

However, even most evil cultivators would not split their souls.

Even if they did that, although it was surprising, it didn't seem like much when you thought that it was something that evil people could do.

What shocked Jiang Li the most was the conclusion given by Lady Luoshui.

What does it mean that this split soul has no connection with other soul fragments?

This is not an ordinary split of the soul, but a complete separation!

Unorthodox methods do indeed involve separating a part of the soul to create an avatar, or to house it within a magical artifact.

But this treats the soul more as a tool than something done so thoroughly.

Although Lady Du's soul was also split off to refine her clone, it was a complete separation.

Each fragment of the soul is a separate individual!

It might not sound like much, but the cruelty and horror hidden within sent chills down Jiang Li's spine.

"I have never seen such an evil method before." Lady Luoshui exclaimed in surprise, "With such a complete split, even I cannot follow this incomplete soul to find the other soul fragments."

"It looks extremely well-hidden, even a desperate attempt to escape by cutting off its tail wouldn't be possible, but the hidden dangers are also enormous..."

Jiang Li also recovered from her shock and said softly, "It's not hard to understand why someone who can create such evil things as demonic bodies and ghostly souls would be so extreme towards himself. He really is an evil cultivator."

"evil ways……"

Lady Luoshui murmured those two words softly, lost in thought.

Jiang Li carefully looked at Lady Luo Shui's profile, opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she didn't ask.

"Li'er, let's go."

Lady Luoshui gently touched the stream in front of her.

Suddenly, a whirlpool appeared on the surface of the water.

The blessing from Lady Luoshui on Jiang Li has not disappeared, or rather, she is still within Lady Luoshui's domain.

Therefore, Jiang Li could see that this vortex seemed to lead directly to the Luoshui Divine Palace.

"Your Majesty, are we not going to continue the investigation?" Jiang Li couldn't help but ask.

"That's enough."

Lady Luoshui gently shook her head and said, "It is enough to know that the evil creature was not born this way, but was created later."

Is this all Your Majesty needs to confirm?

That's why they went to such lengths, even resorting to personal violence...

Jiang Li was filled with a myriad of thoughts.

With the Empress's experience and knowledge, upon learning of this strange and evil creature, she should have been able to deduce that such an wicked and bizarre thing could not possibly have been born naturally.

But she still chose to see for herself, even going so far as to leave the Luo River and condescend to personally search for the carcass...

It's as if the empress needs to see and witness it with her own eyes before she can feel at ease?

Are you at ease?

Jiang Li pondered silently in her heart.

At this moment, Lady Luoshui seemed to sense something, slightly raised her head to look, and then said, "The Ghost Judge of the City God's Palace and Lord Wen of the Thunder Department have arrived. The rest is no longer related to Luoshui." As she spoke, Lady Luoshui looked at Jiang Li and said softly, "Thank you for your hard work this time."

"Your Majesty, you are too kind. This is what Xiaoyuer should do."

Jiang Li chuckled.

Lady Luoshui smiled and said, "Let's go back to Luoshui, hmm..."

The Empress paused for a moment and looked Jiang Li up and down.

"Your Majesty?"

Jiang Li blinked.

"You should also improve your skills."

As she spoke, Lady Luoshui stepped into the whirlpool.

"I have nothing to do today, so I'll tell you some koans."

…………

A moment later, in the quiet chamber of the rear hall of the Luoshui Divine Palace. [The rest of the text appears to be a list of characters and symbols, possibly a corrupted file or a corrupted file. A direct translation isn't meaningful without further context.]

Lady Luoshui sat upright on the cloud platform, with Jiang Li sitting cross-legged on a futon in front of her.

"What do you think you're still lacking in your current spiritual practice?"

Lady Luoshui asked with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Li thought for a moment and said with a wry smile, "Your Majesty, Little Fish seems to lack nothing; on the contrary... he has too much..."

Upon closer inspection, Jiang Li now possesses quite a lot of items.

Wuzhiqi's spiritual foundation building, Fudan's discovery of the human body's great medicine within one's own inner world, Taofu breathing method to make up for the shortcomings of the water element, and the Four Rivers True Form Diagram to fill in the gaps.

Oh, and there's also a complete Taiping Jing (Scripture of Great Peace).

Each of these items is closely related to cultivation and can help Jiang Li advance further on her cultivation path.

The question now is, which of these things is important and which can be put aside for the time being?

Lady Luoshui smiled knowingly and said, "I underestimated you. I forgot that you have always been very clear about yourself."

"Ordinary cultivators, when they first begin their cultivation and acquire supernatural powers and spells, often develop ambition, feeling that they are the most talented one in the world." "As a result, they want everything, but in the end, they only end up with a messy foundation, needlessly cutting off their path forward."

Jiang Li blinked, didn't speak, but scratched her head and asked, "Then, Your Highness, where should we begin with Xiaoyuer?"

The Goddess of Luoshui was prepared for this.

"Although the Peach Blossom Breathing Technique is of a very high rank, it is ultimately incomplete. It is acceptable as an auxiliary technique, but there is no need to focus on it too much for the time being."

"The method of talisman pills is a profound and subtle supernatural power. Once condensed, it operates spontaneously at all times and does not need to be specially activated."

"As for the Taiping Jing..."

At this point, Lady Luoshui paused for a moment and said softly, "For now, it's best not to delve too deeply. If you start cultivating now, you'll easily be influenced by the Great Teacher's teachings."

"While that is indeed a true path to heaven, it is ultimately not your own path. Only when your cultivation has deepened and your understanding has increased can you comprehend it from a higher perspective."

Jiang Li nodded knowingly.

After Lady Luoshui's process of elimination, only Wuzhiqi Lingyun, the foundation, remained, along with...

"Does Your Majesty want Little Fish to first refine the True Form Diagram of the Four Rivers?"

Jiang Li asked tentatively. Lady Luoshui nodded slightly.

"The True Form Diagram of the Four Rivers and the method of talismanic alchemy both originated from the True Man Ge Xuan. The method practiced by the True Man Ge Xuan is different from that of the Great Sage Teacher."

"The Way of the Great Teacher is too extreme, while the Way of Ge Xuan is like water, which is of the highest good and will not affect your future."

"Moreover, you already possess the spiritual essence of Wuzhiqi, which will make your comprehension of the Huai River, one of the Four Rivers, much more effective."

"In this sermon, I will first help you complete the Huai River in the True Form Diagram of the Four Rivers."