Death... and me

Rean went for Lita first, as it seemed like she was in worse shape. "There we go."

'Life Style, Fourth Form, Purification!'

Immediately, Roan's Dark Element entered Lita's body, followed by Rean's Light Element. Both of them followed the meridians, quickly finding the Soul Power thing that was damaging her meridians. After that, Rean controlled the Dark Element to eliminate that worm-like Soul Power.

*Arrrgh!*

However, as soon as the Dark Element started to destroy it, the worm, together with the others present in the other meridians, acted together, going on a rampage. Seeing that, Rean immediately retracted the Dark Element. A few seconds later, the worms stopped their rampage. Only then did Lita's expression ease a bit after that.

"These things are more complicated than I expected. They went on a rampage when I started to destroy them. Not only that, because they are connected to her dantian through her meridians, the dantian was what suffered the greatest burden. I can't destroy them quick enough. Even if I can destroy them, I'm not sure if it'll have a detrimental effect on her cultivation."

Lita obviously heard all of that, asking in response, "Is there no way around it?"

Rean narrowed his eyes for a moment before he got an idea. "Not all your meridians have been infected with these worm-like Soul Power things. Let's do it like this. I'll send my skill through your meridians into your dantian, so I'll need you to let my power course through it. From there, I'll start to destroy the worm things. I'll basically work from inside out."

"This..." Lita was obviously concerned about that. Opening one's dantian to a foreign power. One would need to be desperate to do such a thing. After all, it also meant anyone would be able to destroy the cultivator's foundation, as well as their Nascent Soul.

Roan glanced at Lita after that. "Your dantian is already in a precarious state as it is. Rean won't insist, but I don't think you have a better choice."

Krikei agreed with Roan. "Lita, you need to go for it."

The pain caused by the worms continued as Lita finally gritted her teeth. "Fine! It's do or die."

Rean nodded in response. "Then, let's start."

'Life Style, Fourth Form, Purification!'

This time, Rean sent Dark and Light Elements through the healthy meridians, quickly arriving at Lita's dantian. Because she didn't resist it, both of them entered her dantian without many issues through the openings.

Rean was quite surprised by what he saw. "No wonder the things acted so roughly when I tried to eliminate them. They all have a core." Rean looked at what seemed to be the head of those Soul Power worms. Those heads could also be said to be their cores. "They're attaching themselves to her Divine Energy pool, using it to grow stronger."

Rean then warned Lita, "This probably gonna hurt quite a lot, so you better be prepared."

Lita nodded. "Just get over with it."

Rean then glanced at Roan, who understood what he meant.

'Death Style, First Energy Form, Shadow Bind!'

Lita was then held by Roan's Shadow Binds, unable to move a muscle. "Don't worry. I'm only holding you in place so that you won't try anything during it."

Immediately after, Rean sent Roan's Dark Element into the Divine Energy Pool and ultimately attacked the worms' heads and cores.

"Ahhhhhh!"

Sure enough, Lita tried to contort in pain, but Roan's binds firmly held her in place as Rean worked. The pain was due to the danger the Soul Power worms felt. As a result, they tried to attack her meridians since Rean prevented them from doing anything else with her Divine Energy pool or dantian.

In fact, Rean expected her meridians to be damaged beyond repair by the time he finished... well, beyond repair for someone else. For Rean's healing skill, he was very confident he could make them recover.

Lita screamed and contorted for a whole ten minutes before the pain finally began to subside. It might have been just ten minutes, but for her, it was an eternity. That's because Roan's Dark Element was also used. As mentioned before, it ate life force, and the life force in the dantian wasn't an exception. If not for Rean protecting her dantian with Light Element, Roan's Dark Element would have destroyed Lita's dantian before the worms did.

Fifteen minutes later, Rean finally finished destroying the cores of the Soul Power worms. "Phew... you can let her go, Roan. I'm done with them."

Roan nodded before waving his hand. Soon after, the Shadow Binds disappeared as if they had never been there. It's just that Lita didn't seem to look well.

Rean nodded in response. "After I destroyed their cores, the rest of the worms' bodies dissolved into pure Soul Power. There was no need to destroy the rest."

Krikei couldn't help but mention, "Still, her meridians..."

Krikei wasn't the only one who thought about it. The place around Roan's group was full of people and demon beasts who were caught by the same trap. They were all watching as Rean worked on Lita, hoping he would succeed so that they could ask for help. However, because of what happened to Lita's meridians, they didn't know if it was worth the trade.

"Hahaha!" Rean just laughed in response, though. "Roan, give me one of the nutrient pills."

Roan nodded and threw a pill to Lita.

"What is this?" Lita, who seemed to be in a sorry state, asked.

"Just swallow it. I'm going to heal your damaged meridians now," Rean explained.

"You can do that?!" Let alone Lita, everyone around was shocked by that claim.

Rean just smiled as he waited for Lita to make her decision. Well, Lita had come this far already, so she simply swallowed the pill straight away. Following that, Rean used his Instant Recovery skill to regrow or heal the damaged parts of her meridians. If anything, Roan's pill's ability to clean the impurities of the meridians made them a lot stronger than before after Rean was done with it.