Indeed, that was the case. When Lu Ye pushed open the second grand door and entered Xianyuan City, Amber immediately sensed something unusual.
Lu Ye seemed like nothing more than an empty shell.
At first, she thought that something terrible had happened to Lu Ye and wailed bitterly, but she soon realized that the situation was not as severe as she had thought.
Because she and Amber were still alive, this meant that Lu Ye wasn't dead.
However, the situation was not optimistic. Lu Ye's aura was extremely weak, so weak that it was almost undetectable unless one concentrated hard.
Over the past few days, Yiyi had tried every possible method to awaken Lu Ye, but with little success.
Until now, she distinctly felt it... Lu Ye had come back!
The weak aura that seemed likely to extinguish at any moment was visibly growing stronger, and the shell-like body also now had a soul.
She kept calling Lu Ye's name, her pleading voice piercing through the invisible barrier, reaching the lake in his heart, and creating ripples in Lu Ye's sea of consciousness. As the ripples spread, Lu Ye's consciousness rapidly revived, gradually figuring out his situation.
It was unknown how much time had passed before he finally regained a sliver of control over his body and struggled to open his eyes, immediately seeing Yiyi's face kneeling in front of him, full of anxiety and concern. Her eyes were red, and if not for being a spiritual body, tears would have surely streaked down her face.
"Lu Ye!" their eyes met, and Yiyi exclaimed joyfully, "How are you? What happened?"
Lu Ye's lips moved, and after trying for a long time, he finally managed to produce a hoarse voice, "Don't worry…"
He had wanted to reassure Yiyi with a few more words, but at this moment, his control over his physical body was unprecedentedly weak, making it difficult for him to say more.
Fortunately, they were inside a guest room of Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union, where there was no danger. If this had happened in the wilderness, the prospects would have been grim.
He closed his eyes and continued to adjust and recuperate.
As time passed, the incompatibility between his psyche and body eased significantly. At this moment, Lu Ye couldn't help but feel the illusion of having been bedridden for a long time and finally regaining control over his body.
Remembering Ji Yuan's previous words, he quickly took out a jade vial filled with soul water from his storage space and swallowed a drop.
Originally tired after his psyche had returned, Lu Ye felt the fatigue dissipate rapidly once the soul water took effect.
He took a deep breath, having finally passed through the most difficult moment.
Yiyi had remained by his side all along, and Amber too, looking at him with eyes full of concern. Searᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
Lu Ye reached out and stroked Amber's head, looking at Yiyi and saying, "I'm alright now."
"What on earth happened? Did you encounter some mishap in your cultivation... Did you become possessed?" Yiyi wildly guessed.
Becoming possessed was a rare occurrence for Nine Provinces cultivators because their cultivation was ultimately a systematic process, and very few would become possessed if they did not recklessly attempt any special cultivation methods.
"It's a long story." Lu Ye sighed. Who could have imagined that he had just impulsively decided to temper himself in the Mirage Realm, only to end up in Xianyuan City and participate in a war against an Insect Race invasion?
In front of Yiyi, there was no need for any secrets.
So, Lu Ye briefly recounted his recent experiences. Yiyi was quite shocked to hear that Lu Ye had entered Xianyuan City again and that the situation in the city was completely different from their last visit, with the entire city harboring huge secrets.
Especially when she heard that Liu Datong, Yooi Qing, and others had fought selflessly to escort Lu Ye back to the base, sacrificing themselves, the young girl couldn't help but redden her eyes again.
Upon learning that the spiritual bodies in Xianyuan City were immortal and the seemingly annihilated Butcher squad had come back to life, the young girl finally wore a smile.
"In short, the City Lord of Xianyuan City said that my cultivation hasn't reached the Divine Sea Realm, so a prolonged disembodiment of my psyche could lead to incompatibility between my psyche and body. He suggested that I stabilize my psyche with soul water for a while, so there's nothing major to worry about."
Yiyi nodded, "Then you should rest well for a while."
"Hmm," Lu Ye nodded and then patted his stomach, "I'm a bit hungry."
Yiyi quickly got up, "I'll have someone bring in some food."
Saying this, she left the guest room.
The service at Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union was still impeccable; the cultivators staying here almost got any service they could desire.
In just a short time, delicious food was brought in, also including fresh demon beast meat for Amber.
A man and a tiger devoured their meal like a whirlwind.
Lu Ye then took out several jade vials filled with soul water and handed them to Yiyi.
Yiyi was a spiritual body and, although her strength increased with Amber's, with the help of soul water, her psyche could continuously grow stronger.
It could be said that soul water was even more beneficial to her than to Lu Ye.
With soul water to strengthen the Psyche Force and dragon scales to enhance the body, these two were essential foundations for any cultivator, allowing Lu Ye to keep overcoming enemies above his level.
And with a strong foundation, cultivation became much easier, thus creating a positive cycle.
Having eaten his fill, Lu Ye sat at ease and closed his eyes to rest his spirit.
He was not cultivating nor reading.
After an unknown period of time, Yiyi's voice suddenly rang out, "Lu Ye!"
Startled, Lu Ye quickly opened his eyes, only to find his perspective oddly high, as if he had unknowingly taken flight and was now several feet above the ground.
Below him, Yiyi looked up worriedly, and Amber also stared with wide eyes, glancing back and forth between him and the surroundings.
Following Amber's gaze, Lu Ye was shocked to see a very familiar figure.
Upon closer inspection, Lu Ye jumped — the figure was none other than himself!
What was going on?
Lu Ye was at a loss when suddenly, his field of view twisted, and an irresistible pulling force emerged, plunging him back down into his own body.
Slowly opening his eyes, Lu Ye gradually realized what had happened.
His psyche had left his body again, and he hadn't noticed it happening.
Ji Yuan was right. His cultivation had not reached the Divine Sea, and prolonged separation of body and psyche indeed caused disharmony between them.
If Yiyi hadn't called out just now, he wouldn't have noticed at all.
However, this ultimately wasn't a serious problem.
Over the next few days, Lu Ye experienced his psyche involuntarily leaving his body several times, sometimes while meditating, and sometimes while walking. As he walked, there would suddenly come a thump from behind, and turning his head, he'd find his body collapsed on the ground.
More often, he experienced a sudden loss of control over his body, his movements becoming uncoordinated.
These incidents over the last few days were somewhat bizarre, and it's safe to say that not even cultivators in the Cloud River Realm or even in the True Lake or Divine Sea Realms might have undergone such experiences.
This kind of change had a significant impact on a cultivator.
Cultivators often found themselves in conflicts, and if such a thing happened during a fight, all the lives in the world would not suffice.
Lu Ye took a drop of soul water daily to stabilize his psyche, and after several days, such incidents became less frequent until they stopped occurring altogether.
Not feeling reassured, Lu Ye stayed a few more days within the Heaven's Augury Mercantile Union before he was sure the sudden separation of his psyche from his body would not reoccur.
He could feel his psyche had reintegrated with his body and sensed that his psyche had strengthened after his experiences in Xianyuan City.
After all, in Xianyuan City, he had soaked in the soul pool once again.
For other cultivators, a stronger psyche was undoubtedly beneficial.
Initially, Lu Ye was also delighted. Throughout his journey of cultivation, with his strong psyche, he had advantages other cultivators did not, such as perceiving sudden attacks with greater acuity and faster reaction times.
Another example was the Mental Eye Secret Technique that Xia Liang had taught him; without sufficient Psyche Force, he would not have been able to learn it so swiftly.
But Lu Ye gradually noticed something was amiss!
His Psyche Force was becoming too strong, to the point it almost surpassed his own cultivation level by a major realm.
This might not necessarily be a good thing.
If one considered the body as a container and the psyche as the water it holds, the normal growth of cultivators involves the container and the water increasing in sync. As cultivators grow, the body, this container, will always be able to hold the psyche.
However, his case was different. His Psyche Force grew faster than his body improved. In simple terms, the body as a container was trying to hold more than it should and was under more stress than it should endure.
The most severe consequence might be that the container shatters, which means either the container breaks, or the water overflows.
The reason this had not happened yet was mainly because of Lu Ye's sufficiently strong physique. He had long used the blood Qi energy in dragon scales to enhance his physicality, making his physique comparable to that of a physique cultivator at the same level.
He also often consumed demon beast meat, using the Bestial Gluttony Feast to supplement his blood Qi.
In the Nine Provinces cultivation world, there had never been a case like Lu Ye's, where someone's psyche was stronger than their body by an entire major realm!
So, after body and psyche were realigned successfully, Lu Ye faintly sensed the hidden dangers in his condition.
There was a simple solution to this dilemma — increase his cultivation and expand the container's capacity.
Originally, he had the opportunity, with over three hundred thousand battle merits to exchange for more than twenty gold-hued spirit fortune sticks, which could have elevated his cultivation to the Cloud River Level 8-9 range in one stroke.
However, the battle merits he had gained in Xianyuan City were all exchanged for soul water.
In the long run, the value of soul water was much greater than that of gold-hued spirit fortune sticks, but it unfortunately could not alleviate the immediate thirst...
Luckily, Lu Ye knew of a place where he could quickly elevate his cultivation.