While Ma Xiaotao used her head soul bone skill to attack the leading Golden Flame Bird, Xu Zihuang also controlled five of his golden-silver tentacles to kill the other five ten-thousand-year Golden Flame Birds.
Five voids shattered and closed. The five tentacles that emerged from them strangely faded gradually, turning into light and shadow before dissipating.
But in the next instant, those five tentacles drilled out from the sky thousands of meters away, precisely lashing the bodies of those five ten-thousand-year Golden Flame Birds.
These five Golden Flame Birds, whose cultivation was at most just over twenty thousand years, had no room to resist. The golden patterns on the tentacles flashed, and their mental worlds were instantly destroyed by the powerful mental shock explosion ability.
If Xu Zihuang wished, he could even devour the mental power and souls of these five ten-thousand-year Golden Flame Birds through Soul Touch. But he disdained enhancing himself in such a way; external forces were external forces after all, and they could never be as stable as the realm gained through one's own bitter cultivation. Moreover, mental power and soul were too important for a soul master; doing so might lead to unforeseen mistakes.
Those evil soul masters were so paranoid and insane precisely because of such cultivation methods.
Similarly, falling here were the Golden Flame Birds below ten-thousand-year cultivation. Affected by various mental control soul skills from the mental stance, they lost control of their bodies and sank into the sea one after another.
It could be said that Xu Zihuang single-handedly crushed this powerful flock. Even if it were Zhang Lexuan or Han Ruoruo, elite Soul Douluo from Shrek Academy's inner court, they might not have done better than him. It wasn't that his current individual strength far surpassed Zhang Lexuan and Han Ruoruo, but rather that the mental attributes of soul masters were too special.
His mental power had reached the tangible and qualitative realm, and he had recently obtained four hundred-thousand-year-level mental attribute soul skills. Even an ordinary Titled Douluo facing him would likely find it quite troublesome.
Of course, the chance of him defeating a Titled Douluo-level powerhouse head-on was low; the gap in soul power cultivation was there. But if he used all his trump cards, he was confident he could retreat unscathed in front of a Titled Douluo.
The two beams of deep blue light spurting from Ma Xiaotao's eyes penetrated the head of the leading Golden Flame Bird and extended dozens of meters further, condensing without dispersing. The pinpoint mental attack caused no physical damage to the bird's body but completely erased its divine soul on the mental level.
Under normal circumstances, this Golden Flame Bird with sixty-five thousand years of cultivation might have resisted with its own powerful innate soul skills, but unfortunately, it had already been severely injured by Xu Zihuang's hundred-thousand-year soul ring skill, Soul Touch, when its mental sea defense was at its weakest.
The dazzling golden light bursting from the Golden Flame Bird's body suddenly converged, and its golden eyes lost their luster. Thick black light gradually condensed above its body, forming a profound black soul ring. Then, a small bone entirely brilliant gold, like a golden crystal, slowly separated from its body, rising slowly and floating in the center of that black soul ring.
Without doubt, this was a soul bone, and an extremely high-quality right arm bone at that.
Xu Zihuang's figure drifted downward. Before that, he had already taken out the Demon Whale Ship, stepping on it as it fell heavily onto the sea surface from the air.
The surging waves and the sound of the Demon Whale Ship attracted Ma Xiaotao's gaze. By then, Xu Zihuang was already piloting the Demon Whale Ship past Ma Xiaotao, using Soul Touch to pull the Golden Flame Bird and the soul bone toward them.
"Senior Sister Xiaotao, it's not safe to absorb a soul ring on the open sea. Let's go to the island where the flock of Golden Flame Birds nested."
As he spoke, Xu Zihuang placed the Golden Flame Bird's corpse horizontally on the space behind the Demon Whale Ship. As for the soul bone, he stored it in his storage soul tool.
Ma Xiaotao had no objections to Yu Tianhuang's arrangement. When a soul master absorbs a soul ring, they must withstand the violent impact of the soul ring's power, so a stable place is indeed needed. A massive iceberg could work, but the icebergs within dozens of kilometers had all shattered under the waves' impact. In that case, only the island was suitable.
Moreover, she had long ago fused a right arm soul bone and had no interest in the one dropped by the Golden Flame Bird.
But witnessing Yu Tianhuang's incredibly shocking soul ring configuration and powerful individual strength firsthand gave her an unreal, illusory feeling. Even as she subconsciously flapped her golden-red flame wings behind her to follow the Demon Whale Ship, she remained silent, lightly biting her red lips.
This stinking brat's current strength...
Proud by nature, she once again felt a strong sense of defeat from Yu Tianhuang.
Ma Xiaotao knew that even if she fused this Golden Flame Bird's soul ring and advanced to Soul Sage, she would still not be Yu Tianhuang's opponent. Five black and one red, such a soul ring configuration more than compensated for the soul power gap of less than ten levels between them.
The island where the Golden Flame Birds lived was only about sixty kilometers from their current sea area. This nearby sea region was the territory of that Giant Demon Whale and the Golden Flame Bird flock, so they encountered no other soul beasts along the way. Traveling at full speed, in less than half an hour, Xu Zihuang and Ma Xiaotao arrived one after another.
The island was crescent-shaped, with jagged rocks around it. Due to the special climate of this icy sea, there were almost no plants on the island. In the center stood irregular stone pillars, varying in height from over ten meters to dozens of meters. This was the island's most distinctive feature.
The flock of Golden Flame Birds had gone all out earlier. Without them, the island felt quite desolate, with only the howling sea wind and waves crashing against the rocks.
Xu Zihuang put away the Demon Whale Ship and threw the Golden Flame Bird's corpse onto the reefs at the island's edge. After a soul beast dies, its soul ring can persist for one hour without dissipating. That profound black soul ring still emitted an oppressive aura.
Ma Xiaotao's flame wings behind her dissipated as she landed beside Xu Zihuang.
Xu Zihuang turned to Ma Xiaotao and asked, "Senior Sister Xiaotao, with your physical strength, absorbing this Golden Flame Bird's soul ring should be no problem, right?"
"Stinking brat, who are you looking down on?" Ma Xiaotao's brows immediately furrowed, glaring with her pink eyes. Though her evil fire problem was resolved, her temper remained as explosive as ever.
This was purely her personality. It wasn't that she felt Xu Zihuang owed her for accepting this favor, but rather that she would remember it in her heart and repay it with actions in the future.
After speaking, Ma Xiaotao casually lifted the Golden Flame Bird's corpse and flew toward the stone pillar area in the island's center. But just as she reached mid-air, she suddenly turned back to look at Xu Zihuang.
"During the time I was away, did anything important happen at the academy?"
"Senior Sister Xiaotao, time is pressing now. Let's talk after you absorb the soul ring." Xu Zihuang calmly shook his head. Given Ma Xiaotao's personality, it wasn't suitable to tell her about Elder Mu's passing now.
Seeing Xu Zihuang's normal expression, Ma Xiaotao didn't think much of it. She flew toward the center again, but this time she paused once more, asking unnaturally.
"How is your relationship with Ning Tian now?"
"Pretty good." Xu Zihuang was stunned for a moment, then replied with an inexplicable expression.
"Pretty good?" Ma Xiaotao looked deeply at Xu Zihuang but didn't pursue it further. Her flame wings flapped again as she left.
For some reason, she always felt Yu Tianhuang wasn't someone who stayed put. Yu Tianhuang performed too perfectly in every aspect.
But her question wasn't entirely because of that.
Ma Xiaotao went to the island's center to begin fusing the soul ring. Xu Zihuang scouted around the island. The island's area was slightly smaller than Shrek Academy's Sea God Island, and soon, he finished scouting and arrived at the central stone pillar area.
Ma Xiaotao was sitting cross-legged on a smooth rock, guiding the Golden Flame Bird's soul ring to fuse with herself. Though the sixty-five-thousand-year soul ring fiercely impacted her body, Xu Zihuang could see that it was still within her tolerance.
Xu Zihuang lightly tapped his toes and sat atop an especially thick stone pillar. The view here was broad, taking in the entire island's panorama. The mental attribute soul core at his brow automatically absorbed the world's vital energy, helping him recover consumed mental power and soul power. Gazing into the distance, he began carefully recalling his insights from using Soul Touch earlier.
The Soul Touch skill indeed came from that hundred-thousand-year pure mental-type Evil Eye Tyrant, but like the mental stance, his Soul Touch had a more special effect: control over spatial power.
Within the range his mental power could extend, those sixteen golden-silver tentacles could drill out from anywhere by shattering the void. Of course, the farther the tentacles emerged from the void relative to him, the greater the consumption of his soul power and mental power.
These insights would greatly benefit him in condensing his second and even third soul cores in the future.
Tian Meng, who understood this, quite liked the low-temperature environment of this icy sea and was unusually energetic.
"Zihuang, your Golden Pupil martial soul innately possesses time and space attributes. In that case, that old Evil Eye as your Golden Pupil martial soul's ninth soul ring couldn't be more suitable. The Spacetime Light comprehended even made that bastard Di Tian suffer a considerable loss."
Back when the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler challenged the Beast God Di Tian, Tian Meng was one of the witnesses. In fact, the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler had come specifically to seize it.
If the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler with seventy-nine thousand years of cultivation had successfully devoured Tian Meng, it might really have had a chance to touch that level.
Tian Meng spoke lightly, but Xu Zihuang knew the difficulty well. His first martial soul, Golden Pupil, and second martial soul, Purple Inferno Thunder Prison Dragon, ideally wanted the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler and Beast God Di Tian as their ninth soul rings.
In other words, to turn the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler and Beast God Di Tian into his soul rings, he would need strength comparable to these two peak soul beast powerhouses by the time his soul power reached level ninety.
Even with his extraordinary talent, he had little confidence in that.
But Tian Meng's words reminded him.
"Tian Meng, transmit the scene of the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler using Spacetime Light to me."
Tian Meng instantly understood Xu Zihuang's intent.
"Zihuang, you want to?" As it spoke excitedly, it quickly transmitted that part of its memory through mental power to Xu Zihuang.
Xu Zihuang's gaze was profound.
"I'm not sure what I can achieve from this. But I think the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler's mastery of time and space power might give me some inspiration."
....
At the same time, on a branch vein of the Jingyang Mountain Range.
After Bei Bei and Tang Ya led Huo Yuhao in searching for several days, they finally encountered a suitable target.
Appearing in their sight was a wolf-type soul beast less than one and a half meters long, covered in silver-white fur, emitting low growls from its mouth as it warily looked at the three.
This was a Silver Wolf with around one thousand five hundred years of cultivation.
Tang Ya said eagerly, "Bei Bei, let me do it."
Bei Bei nodded with a smile. Tang Ya was now a Soul King-level powerhouse; dealing with a thousand-year soul beast was naturally no issue.
Huo Yuhao, standing behind Bei Bei and Tang Ya, also had shining eyes. No matter the resentment in his heart, this thousand-year Silver Wolf was indeed very suitable as his third soul ring, and he was happy about it. After searching for so many days, he had long been impatient.
In excitement, he released his Spirit Eyes martial soul. Two slightly dim yellow soul rings rose from his feet.
His first two soul rings came from a two-hundred-year Fear Demon Dragon and a two-hundred-year Purple Spirit Fox, both quite powerful mental attribute soul beasts. Unfortunately, their years were only two hundred.
"Teacher Xiaoya, I'll help you!" Huo Yuhao shouted lowly, lighting his second soul ring.
Second soul skill: Mental Weakness. But limited by the soul ring's years, it could only affect a single target with a limited range.
Golden light appeared in his Spirit Eyes, and a circle of pure white halo fell on the thousand-year Silver Wolf.
But Huo Yuhao clearly underestimated the mental strength of this thousand-year Silver Wolf. The next instant, he suffered soul skill backlash; the stinging pain in his mental sea made him groan and sit awkwardly on the ground.
Fortunately, the backlash wasn't too severe, so he didn't lose consciousness immediately.
"Yuhao?!" Tang Ya looked at Huo Yuhao with concern. The thousand-year Silver Wolf, enraged by Huo Yuhao's skill, had already attacked.
Its silver fur suddenly shone brightly, and it spat a silver light ball toward Bei Bei, Tang Ya, and Huo Yuhao.
The silver light ball approached silently, then turned into dozens of wind blades in the air, less than ten meters from them.
Bei Bei calmly protected Huo Yuhao behind him, exchanging glances with Tang Ya.
Their tacit understanding was profound; Tang Ya instantly understood Bei Bei's meaning.
Two yellow, two purple, one black, and five soul rings appeared around her almost simultaneously. Her purple third soul ring shone.
A blue-black Blue Silver Cage suddenly imprisoned the thousand-year Silver Wolf without warning, and her right arm was covered in a layer of crimson light, extending to the Blue Silver Grass rising from behind her.
When Tang Ya fused a hundred-year Ghost Vine at level twenty, her Blue Silver Grass gained inch-long spikes that could appear at her will. The crimson light condensed on these spikes, deepening in color to purple. The next moment, countless purple light points shot toward the thousand-year Silver Wolf in the Blue Silver Cage.
Ten-thousand-year Crimson Flame Thorn right arm bone skill: Thorn Rain!
Under Tang Ya and Bei Bei's surprised gazes, a six-colored halo bloomed from the thousand-year Silver Wolf.
When the countless purple light points from Thorn Rain landed on it, they broke through several layers of light shields in succession.
Rippling water waves, soaring flames, sturdy barriers, rapid wind whirl, light screen, and dark curtain.
Though the thousand-year Silver Wolf was still blasted over ten meters by Tang Ya's ten-thousand-year soul bone skill Thorn Rain, losing resistance, the power of Thorn Rain was blocked by nearly half by those six layers of shields.
Bei Bei, who casually blocked the dozens of wind blades, said thoughtfully.
"Tianhuang was right; this Silver Wolf does have something unique. It likely controls various elements through powerful mental power."
Tang Ya felt it even more deeply than Bei Bei. If it had been a Silver Wolf over five thousand years, it might really have escaped her right arm soul bone skill Thorn Rain unscathed.
But she didn't dwell on it, smiling happily.
"It seems this Silver Wolf will likely give Yuhao a quite powerful soul skill."
Behind them, Huo Yuhao, sitting on the ground, clenched his fists, his eyes under black hair particularly gloomy. In front of ordinary people, he might be a noble soul master, but compared to Bei Bei, Tang Ya, and other inner court disciples of Shrek Academy, what was he?
Every time he slightly regained confidence, cruel reality destroyed it.
"Yuhao, hurry and absorb its soul ring. Bei Bei and I will guard you!"
Only when Tang Ya reminded him did Huo Yuhao stand, restrain his emotions, and end the thousand-year Silver Wolf's life with his dagger as if venting.
Noticing Huo Yuhao's abnormality, Bei Bei raised a brow but said nothing.
However, during absorption, another issue arose for Huo Yuhao. His physical talent was too poor, and his second soul ring's years were too low; under the purple thousand-year soul ring's energy impact, his body trembled uncontrollably. Even blood flowed from his mouth and nose. He held on purely by a belief in his heart.
In comparison, on the distant island thousands of kilometers away, Ma Xiaotao, absorbing her soul ring, had much steadier breath.
Her deep foundation allowed her pass the most dangerous moment of absorbing beyond her limit, but it still took nearly ten hours, from morning to deep night.
Xu Zihuang also sat cross-legged, cultivating atop the stone pillar.
Neither Xu Zihuang nor Ma Xiaotao knew that an uninvited guest had arrived in the sea area they left earlier.
Though the Giant Demon Whale had fallen, its domineering and ferocious aura still kept nearby sea soul beasts away. But there was one exception.
The silver moon shifted lightly, sprinkling moonlight. The deep blue sea surface carried a faint silver glow.
Suddenly, a white dorsal fin emerged far on the sea, shining silver. If not looked at carefully, one might think it a gorgeous silver scale.
The silver dorsal fin parted the waves like a silver arrow heading straight for the Giant Demon Whale's corpse.
Under the moonlight, the fin's owner was clearly a sleek shark with a white, beautifully streamlined body, swimming incredibly fast.
A flash of anthropomorphic curiosity passed in its silver eyes, then it leaped joyfully from the water, stretching its body and biting heartily into the Giant Demon Whale's soft tongue.
"Mom still says the outer seas are dangerous. I didn't encounter any danger on my way! Hmph! As if I don't know, she just wants to trick me into not running around and make up reasons!"
A pleasant female voice rang out abruptly. If someone were here, they would surely be startled.
Speaking human words was a sign of a hundred-thousand-year soul beast.
But judging by the aura, this white shark soul beast itself did not have a hundred-thousand-year cultivation. Her race was none other than the Demon Soul Great White Shark, one of the ocean's three overlords alongside the Deep Sea Demon Whale and Evil Demon Orca!
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