Star Dou Great Forest, outer area of the mixed zone.
The group had retreated from the depths of the mixed zone, near the core area, all the way to this place. Along the way, Xu Zihuang had also extended his spiritual power to locate a suitable soul beast for Dai Luoli.
A streak of brilliant golden light flashed past. That soul beast warily turned its body, its four limbs slightly bowing as it faced the group. As it shifted and darted, its speed was extremely fast. From time to time, low, deep roars emanated from its mouth, causing the air to tremble faintly.
In terms of appearance, this soul beast somewhat resembled a lion. However, its body was truly rather small, its length was less than one meter, and its shoulder height was only about fifty centimeters. Its head was disproportionately large, occupying at least one-third of its body. Around its neck grew a thick mane of brilliant golden fur, with the color gradually deepening from head to tail. By the time it reached the tail, the color had completely turned to vivid crimson.
With such distinctive features, everyone present recognized the soul beast's identity at a glance.
Shocking Heavenly Roar, a lion-type soul beast renowned for excelling in speed and sound wave attacks.
Although the Shocking Heavenly Roar was far from comparable to the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear, it still belonged to the second tier of powerful soul beasts. Their strongest innate soul skill shared the same name as themselves: Shocking Heavenly Roar. It was precisely thanks to this formidable innate soul skill that they could leap into the second tier among soul beasts.
"Luoli, after your martial soul mutated, your speed became far greater than that of an ordinary White Tiger martial soul, gaining an additional sense of agility and grace. This Shocking Heavenly Roar's attributes match perfectly with yours, and its innate soul skill is a ranged attack that combines offense and control, exactly what you currently need. After this Shocking Heavenly Roar's soul ring merges with your martial soul, your soul skill should undergo a certain degree of variation and very likely incorporate spiritual-attribute attacks."
Xu Zihuang explained to Dai Luoli, "The only thing to consider now is that this Shocking Heavenly Roar's cultivation has already exceeded five thousand years, so absorbing it may present some difficulty. However, with the Black Tortoise Divine Pill I gave you last time, your physical condition is definitely not an issue. But during the process of absorbing the soul ring, you must maintain clarity of mind; this part can only depend on you yourself."
"Brother Yu, I understand."
Dai Luoli nodded firmly with a resolute expression.
"I will definitely succeed in completing the fusion."
"Good! That's the spirit!" Li Yongyue praised, reaching out his right hand to heavily pat Dai Luoli on the shoulder.
"Watch your Brother Li take down this Shocking Heavenly Roar for you."
Just as Li Yongyue finished speaking, he suddenly remembered Zhang Lexuan's earlier reprimand of Wang Qiu'er, and the smile on his face instantly froze.
"Senior Sister…"
"The Shocking Heavenly Roar's innate soul skill is quite troublesome. Tianhuang, you assist Li Yongyue."
Zhang Lexuan gave a slight smile, appearing no different from usual. There was absolutely none of the severity she had shown when scolding Wang Qiu'er earlier.
"Senior Li."
Xu Zihuang understood tacitly and reminded Li Yongyue with a word. His deep purple eyes instantly transformed into brilliant gold. His gaze sharpened, and strange dark red ripples swept across. At the same time, a clear cracking sound rang out abruptly.
The Shocking Heavenly Roar, which had been emitting low roars, suddenly fell silent. Its eyes revealed an almost human-like expression of shock and pain. It repeatedly attempted to roar, yet strangely could produce no sound.
Li Yongyue was momentarily stunned, then quickly reacted. His figure flashed, and the crescent blades in his hands had already multiplied into thousands. In the next instant, he appeared behind the Shocking Heavenly Roar, while the soul beast's movements were completely frozen. Countless wounds spurted blood, and it collapsed feebly to the ground.
Li Yongyue said in a low voice, "Luoli!"
"Yes!"
Dai Luoli hurriedly released his martial soul and stepped forward quickly. His right hand slammed down fiercely, and blood-red tiger claws pierced into the Shocking Heavenly Roar's head.
A circle of luxurious, deep purple soul ring slowly condensed above the Shocking Heavenly Roar's corpse.
Dai Luoli did not hesitate. He immediately sat cross-legged and began guiding the soul ring with his soul power to start the fusion process.
Everyone stood guard around Dai Luoli. Li Yongyue was positioned right beside Xu Zihuang on the other side. He gave Xu Zihuang a slight nod. Of course, he could tell what Yu Tianhuang had done earlier—it was clearly using a soul skill to destroy that Shocking Heavenly Roar's vocal cords.
Xu Zihuang also returned a smile to Li Yongyue.
For soul masters, when killing a soul beast to absorb its soul ring, the most likely outcome was to obtain the soul beast's strongest innate soul skill. Although the soul ring would undergo some changes when combining with different martial souls, the core was generally similar. The more powerful a soul master's martial soul, the more beneficial the variation in the soul skill obtained from absorbing the soul ring usually becomes.
Dai Luoli was precisely in this situation.
Just as Xu Zihuang had said, Dai Luoli's fourth soul ring soul skill was based on the Shocking Heavenly Roar, but this ranged sound wave soul skill also incorporated spiritual-attribute attack effects.
Not only Dai Luoli, on this trip, aside from Zhang Lexuan and Ning Tian, who did not need to obtain soul rings for advancement, everyone else had reaped considerable gains.
After refining the medicinal effects of the Black Tortoise Divine Pill, the potential within his martial soul's origin was once again stimulated. Dai Luoli's physical quality and spiritual power intensity received a tremendous boost. This Shocking Heavenly Roar's cultivation was around five thousand five hundred years, yet Dai Luoli only spent less than three hours absorbing its soul ring.
Throughout the entire process, several soul beasts approached, but they were all existences that posed no threat to the group.
Once Dai Luoli finished absorbing the soul ring, this journey to the Star Dou Great Forest could be considered perfectly concluded. Without lingering any longer in the Star Dou Great Forest, Zhang Lexuan immediately led everyone to withdraw.
Wang Qiu'er remained as silent and withdrawn as ever, not interacting with the others. The impression she left on everyone was far from good, and with her distant, indifferent expression that kept people a thousand miles away, naturally, no one would go looking for awkwardness.
After traveling for half a day, that very night, the group finally returned to Shrek Academy.
Upon arriving at Sea God's Island, everyone parted ways. Xu Zihuang, however, was brought by Elder Song to Sea God's Pavilion to meet Elder Xuan.
On the first floor hall of Sea God's Pavilion, just like last time, only Elder Xuan, Elder Song, and Xu Zihuang were present.
Elder Xuan sat in the head position, with his wine gourd placed beside him. However, judging by his current appearance, after learning that Elder Song and Yu Tianhuang were coming, he had clearly tidied himself up.
Together with Elder Song seated to his right, they quietly listened to Xu Zihuang recount the events of exterminating the Zhongli trio and capturing the Thunder Beast. The Thunder Beast sat on Xu Zihuang's shoulder, completely still and very obedient.
After a long while, Elder Xuan let out a heavy sigh.
"Three evil soul masters at the Soul Douluo level. Elder Mu was right; those evil soul masters have truly begun to form a force."
What weighed most heavily on his heart was that the Dragon Emperor Douluo Long Xiaoyao was very likely standing behind that group of evil soul masters.
"In the near future, we may face considerable trouble. When the next Sea God's Pavilion meeting is convened, we can discuss these evil soul masters in detail. Evil soul masters of this level of cultivation are no longer something ordinary supervisory corps members can handle. We must treat this cautiously. Tianhuang, first tell us about that ability you obtained from the Thunder Prison Vine."
Revealing everything about spirit souls would easily involve many more matters, for example, the true identity of Ye Guyi. However, under the current circumstances, Xu Zihuang had no choice but to disclose certain information.
On the way back to Shrek Academy, he had already prepared these explanations.
Xu Zihuang met Elder Xuan's gaze and spoke words that stirred a thousand waves with a single sentence.
"Elder Xuan, that hundred-thousand-year Thunder Prison Vine actually took the initiative to fuse with me."
"What?!" Elder Xuan immediately widened his eyes. Elder Song beside him also showed a thoughtful expression.
Xu Zihuang continued to explain, "Because that Thunder Prison Vine knew it could not break through the hundred-thousand-year bottleneck and would perish under the lightning tribulation, it chose to gamble everything. While preserving its own spiritual consciousness, it took the initiative to complete the fusion with me. Perhaps because the Thunder Prison Vine is a rather special type of soul beast, it seems capable of being driven by me in the form of an energy body. The ability I have to absorb lightning power was obtained in this way."
Elder Xuan and Elder Song both fell silent, but the light in their eyes grew increasingly intense.
"If this method could be popularized, it might truly alleviate the tense relationship between human soul masters and soul beasts," Elder Song could not help but sigh.
Elder Xuan gave a wry smile and shook his head.
"But the vast majority of soul beasts are extremely hostile toward us humans; this situation is far too difficult to replicate. Moreover, whether Thunder Prison Vine's spiritual consciousness can remain intact is still unknown. There are too many uncertainties."
Immediately afterward, Xu Zihuang painted another grand picture for Elder Xuan and Elder Song.
"No, Elder Xuan. I can sense that the Thunder Prison Vine's spiritual consciousness is currently being nurtured in my sea of consciousness. Its spiritual consciousness should recover without issue. Moreover, I have a vague feeling that once it awakens, it may very well grant me a second soul ring."
"Tianhuang, are you certain?!" Elder Xuan and Elder Song's gazes instantly focused on Xu Zihuang. The sudden burst of pressure in that moment caused even the Thunder Beast, whose cultivation approached a hundred thousand years, to tremble slightly.
Although Xu Zihuang knew that spirit souls could grant their hosts multiple soul rings, before the spirit soul system was perfected, only soul beasts above a hundred thousand years should possess such an ability, like the Snow Empress, Ice Bear King Skydream, and Eight-Cornered Mysterious Ice Grass from his previous life's memories.
When the Thunder Prison Vine fused with him, it was not yet a true hundred-thousand-year soul beast. Therefore, whether it could grant him another soul ring was something he himself was uncertain about.
"Elder Xuan, I cannot yet give a definite answer for the time being. I will only know for certain once the Thunder Prison Vine's spiritual consciousness awakens. However, I can be sure that this special form of fusion is something that can be replicated through a method. I can record the details and hand them over to the academy for the academy to conduct experiments and trials."
These words of his did not sound false. In the future, he would indeed hand over the method of spirit soul fusion to Shrek Academy, but the prerequisite was that by then, he had already unified the continent, and Shrek Academy no longer held its current transcendent status.
Hearing Xu Zihuang's words, Elder Xuan and Elder Song's eyes lit up once more. The two exchanged a glance and secretly nodded.
Elder Xuan said with gratification, "The fusion between the Thunder Prison Vine and you occurred under special circumstances. I believe the preservation of the Thunder Prison Vine's spiritual consciousness must be closely related to your powerful spiritual power. Ordinary soul masters may not necessarily achieve the same. But if this research can continue, perhaps one day in the future it really could replace soul rings. Regardless, at least we now have a direction for research."
"However, Tianhuang, you don't need to overthink it right now. Wait until the Thunder Prison Vine's spiritual consciousness awakens, and there are more reference points before recording it. Now I have another matter to discuss with you."
"Elder Xuan, are you referring to Senior Brother Bei and the others representing the Tang Sect to participate in the All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Duelling Competition?" Xu Zihuang subconsciously asked in return.
Elder Xuan chuckled.
"It seems you've already heard some things from Bei Bei. That's correct, for the upcoming All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Duelling Competition, Bei Bei and the others may represent the Tang Sect in the competition. The specifics will still depend on their own wishes. As for you, you will participate as the captain of this session's Shrek team representing the academy. The rules for this session's All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Duelling Competition have already been confirmed to change. The age limit remains under twenty, but it now allows the participation of major sects across the continent. It has been changed to the All-Continent Youth Soul Master Competition."
"For this All-Continent Youth Soul Master Competition, the number of participating teams will greatly increase, and the competition will be far more intense."
"Elder Xuan, rest assured. With me here, the Shrek team is invincible."
The arrogant words, when spoken by Xu Zihuang, sounded perfectly natural and justified.
"I have never doubted that." Elder Xuan replied with a wry laugh, then his expression turned solemn once more.
"However, the fact that the Sun Moon Empire suddenly changed the competition format gives me an ominous premonition. If any unexpected incidents occur, remember to prioritize your own safety above all else. Lexuan will be leading the team at that time—consult with her on any matters. We will also follow secretly."
"Alright, Tianhuang, you should go back and rest early. That Thunder Beast has cultivation close to a hundred thousand years after all, don't let it cause any trouble."
Fortunately, it was Yu Tianhuang whose abilities could completely suppress the Thunder Beast. If it were anyone else, Elder Xuan would absolutely not permit them to carry a soul beast of this level running around near Shrek City.
Because this would not only bring danger to themselves but also threaten the people inside Shrek City.
"Yes!" Xu Zihuang respectfully saluted Elder Xuan and Elder Song before turning and leaving Sea God's Pavilion.
The clear, cold moonlight and the starry sky poured down like a hazy veil enveloping the entire Sea God's Island.
Ning Tian had been waiting outside Sea God's Pavilion the whole time. Seeing Xu Zihuang walk out from within, she quickly stepped forward to meet him.
"Tianhuang, what did Elder Xuan and the others say about how to handle this Thunder Beast?"
"Elder Xuan said to just watch it and not let it cause any trouble." Xu Zihuang naturally wrapped his arms around Ning Tian and gave a gentle smile before soaring into the air toward the outside of Shrek Academy.
The Thunder Beast, which had been trembling slightly in front of Elder Xuan earlier, instantly regained its vitality. Standing on Xu Zihuang's shoulder, it fawningly wagged its tail at Ning Tian.
"Squeak squeak squeak!"
Ning Tian extended her slender jade finger and lightly tapped the Thunder Beast's head a few times, her eyes filled with a smiling expression.
The fact that the little rat was only this intimate with her and Yu Tianhuang gave her the feeling of truly being its mistress.
The little rat really knew how to behave.
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