Lin Qian's words left everyone stunned.
The mysterious situation with the Blackblade Fish Clan had puzzled everyone for a long time. No matter how much they thought about it, they couldn't figure it out.
Now, Lin Qian suddenly claimed to know the truth behind the Blackblade Fish Clan's situation, naturally sparking their curiosity and making them eager to hear the answer.
"Formless Clan, have you heard of them?" Lin Qian asked in a deep voice, seeing that everyone had gathered around.
Ye Xin looked confused, clearly not familiar with the Formless Clan. The same expression was mirrored on the faces of Zhang Qi and Zhang Wenxuan, who had no idea what the Formless Clan was.
Zhang Zide frowned and murmured, "Formless Clan... I've heard of them. They're supposed to be a race without physical form."
However, Li Yunfeng's reaction was much more intense. His expression grew serious as he approached Lin Qian and asked, "Brother Lin, are you sure it's the Formless Clan? If it really is them, things could get much more complicated."
"More complicated? This race might be a bit unsettling, but I wouldn't say they're that troublesome..." Lin Qian began, then suddenly realized something. "For you, maybe they are troublesome, but for me, not so much."
Li Yunfeng shook his head lightly and explained, "Brother Lin, your talent is extraordinary, and your combat strength far exceeds your level. However, when it comes to the Formless Clan, that advantage of yours might be completely nullified."
"Brother Li, could you explain what makes the Formless Clan so dangerous?" Ye Xin asked, recognizing the concern in Li Yunfeng's tone. She realized he must know the details about this mysterious race.
Li Yunfeng nodded and began, "My grandfather mentioned them once. When he was young, he followed a certain individual and participated in a grand gathering, where he encountered many races, including the Formless Clan."
Hearing this, everyone was shocked. The person Li Yunfeng referred to as his grandfather was none other than Zhou Yian, the former sect master of the Xiaoyao Sect, renowned for his fame and strength.
Zhang Zide remembered his grandfather, Zhang Tianxin, mentioning Zhou Yian and still vividly recalling what he had said.
"Don't be fooled by the fact that I address Zhou as a peer and that we share a deep friendship. I am not on his level. If it came to a life-and-death battle, I wouldn't last a cup of tea!"
"It's not just Zhou. Yang Guixiang from the Blood Spirit Valley and Fang Shuixuan from the Twin Extremes Hall are also on that level."
It was surprising to think that such powerful and talented figures once followed someone else. Naturally, this made everyone curious about who Zhou Yian had followed and what kind of remarkable individual they must have been.
Before they could dwell on this thought, Li Yunfeng's voice pulled them back to the present, refocusing their attention on him.
"According to my grandfather, the Formless Clan is a very unique race. They are born with exceptionally strong souls and formidable soul power, but their physical bodies are extremely weak," Li Yunfeng explained, his face reflecting the gravity of the situation.
As Li Yunfeng continued, the others gradually gained a clearer understanding of the Formless Clan.
As he described, the Formless Clan had incredibly weak bodies but immensely powerful souls and soul power. As their cultivation progressed, their soul power would grow even stronger, but their physical bodies couldn't keep up.
Most races had their own unique traits, and while soul power and physical strength might not be perfectly balanced, there was always a basic level of harmony between them.
But the Formless Clan was different. Their soul power constantly outpaced their physical strength. For example, a Formless Clan member's soul power at the Life and Death Realm might be equivalent to the Essence Refinement Realm in terms of physical strength, creating a vast disparity.
This imbalance led to a severe consequence: their bodies could no longer sustain their powerful souls, eventually causing their physical forms to collapse entirely.
In the end, the Formless Clan found a solution—by seizing the bodies of other races, they could avoid the fate of bodily collapse.
"This race is indeed troublesome, and their powerful souls are what you need to be most cautious of," Li Yunfeng continued, his face showing a deep sense of dread. "As for soul-related matters, Zhang Zide and I, having reached the Heart Realm, have tempered our souls and might not need to worry too much. But for the rest of you..."
Li Yunfeng's words left the others feeling concerned, but Lin Qian remained unfazed. Ye Xin, standing beside him, was also relatively calm.
Lin Qian's soul strength was beyond ordinary comprehension, and Ye Xin, having absorbed and refined Nan Xin's soul essence, also possessed a remarkably strong soul.
Like the Swift-Hidden Clan's presence, Ye Xin could easily sense the Formless Clan, though her detection range wasn't as extensive as Lin Qian's. While Lin Qian could feel every detail, Ye Xin could only sense general locations.
"If Grandmaster Zhou had already encountered the Formless Clan and dealt with them, why didn't he recognize them when we found the Blackblade Fish Clan's corpses?" Zhang Zide asked, puzzled as he looked at Li Yunfeng.
Li Yunfeng shook his head and replied, "Grandfather only had brief contact with them. The corpses we encountered were likely the remains of bodies they had seized. Grandfather didn't know how they swapped bodies, so it's understandable he didn't recognize them."
Li Yunfeng also found it strange that the Formless Clan would leave behind the bodies they had taken.
"That's because the Formless Clan doesn't simply take over the physical body; they extract the life essence from it," Lin Qian suddenly interjected.
Seeing the others turn their attention to him, Lin Qian explained the information he had obtained from the Swift-Hidden Clan through the truth serum.
The Formless Clan's method involved destroying the soul of the target body, then using their own soul power to melt the body into essence and infuse it into their own heart. They would then absorb the life essence, leaving behind a lifeless shell that resembled a corpse without any vitality.
The reason the corpses had mysteriously disappeared earlier was because they were nothing more than empty shells. After analyzing the information from the Formless Clan, Zhuge Ming concluded that the strong currents in that area had crushed the hollow shells into powder, making it seem as if they had suddenly vanished.
As for the supposedly dead one-armed Blackblade Fish Clan member, the explanation was even simpler.
All the Formless Clan had to do was extract a bit of life essence and transfer it into another Blackblade Fish Clan member, transforming their appearance.
It was clear now that the one who had been killed was not the real one-armed Blackblade Fish Clan member but merely a decoy.
No, to be precise, the one who had originally taken the treasures had been a Formless Clan member who had seized the body of the one-armed Blackblade Fish Clan member.