. The shop's ambiance was indeed rustic, and on this bright summer day, mosquitoes were plentiful.
To the left of the entrance was an antique incense burner, from which wisps of purple smoke rose under the sunlight, carrying a faint sandalwood scent that further enhanced the shop's antique atmosphere and also repelled the mosquitoes.
In this scene, Ma Hongjun felt an urge to recite a poem:
"Sunlight on the incense burner produces purple smoke."
However, seeing the old driver Flander reclining in a wooden beanbag chair with his eyes closed, Ma Hongjun suppressed the urge.
He was afraid the old driver might suddenly stand up and ask, "
Who is Zhao Xianglu?"
In that case, he could only reply, "
Purple smoke, damn it."
A series of unusual energy fluctuations emanating from the three walls caught Ma Hongjun's attention.
Soul tools all possess soul power fluctuations; if not used and bound to one's own soul power, they will release soul power outwards.
"Dean!"
Flander opened his eyes, adjusted his black-rimmed crystal glasses, and his eyelids twitched.
"It's been two days, and you still haven't gone back? You didn't even come to say hello."
Hearing Flander's cold questioning, Dai Mubai quickly replied, "Well, Hongjun's 'evil fire' is too strong, he's been doing it for two days."
"You..."
Ma Hongjun stared at Dai Mubai with wide eyes. What kind of brother was this?
But he didn't dare to refute. Apart from meals, conversations, and trips to the grove, he seemed to have barely slept for the past two days.
"Oh, Hongjun, how about it? Does this fighting method work to get rid of 'evil fire'?"
Ma Hongjun's face darkened. Talking about this kind of topic with this old man made him feel extremely ashamed.
"That dean, he's useful, very useful! I won't go into details.
Also, Mu Bai found a tigress, a black one at that. He
wants to bring her back to the academy. He wanted to ask the dean if you agree.
Mu Bai, could you talk to the dean about it?"
Ma Hongjun quickly changed the subject, ignoring Dai Mu Bai's murderous glare, and leisurely looked at the three walls, examining these old artifacts, hoping to find a treasure.
Flander suddenly sat up, looking at Dai Mu Bai.
"You want a black one too? Mu Bai, when did your tastes become so heavy? Tell me!"
Ma Hongjun exclaimed inwardly, "Holy crap, this old driver from another world is driving again!"
Dai Mu Bai rolled his eyes, his breathing becoming labored.
"Dean, her name is Xiang Chengxian, she's only fifteen years old, and she's from the Xiang family with the Black Tiger Martial Soul..."
Dai Mu Bai began to tell Flander about Xiang Chengxian.
Meanwhile, Ma Hongjun had already begun his treasure hunt. The three walls were covered with items, all of which looked very old and had a strong sense of history, but there weren't many that could emit soul power fluctuations.
Most soul tools in the Douluo Continent today lack offensive capabilities, serving only as simple auxiliary tools, and are extremely rare.
Their manufacturing methods have been lost, hence their antique-like appearance.
Essentially, valuable soul tools are primarily storage devices.
Aside from a few that resemble soul tools, the rest are various strangely shaped objects—stones, crystals, bone artifacts, remnants of weapons, etc.—most of which Ma Hongjun couldn't decipher.
Ma Hongjun was searching for a crystal, hoping to find the one with the plate-like crystal.
However, at that moment, the Dragon Soul Spear suddenly appeared automatically without being summoned, accompanied by a golden dragon shadow along with the silver shaft. As if
sensing something, the golden dragon shadow guided Ma Hongjun's hand, and the tip of the Dragon Soul Spear pointed at a fist-sized, flesh-colored stone. The
dragon's head opened its mouth and took the stone in.
Wisps of blood energy appeared from the blood-red stone, absorbed by the dragon shadow and integrated into the silver spear.
In a short while, the blood-red stone transformed into white jade.
After absorbing the blood energy, the Dragon Soul Spear subtly changed, consuming less soul power. Other changes required further investigation.
The appearance of the Dragon Soul Spear caused a strong fluctuation of soul power. Flander and Dai Mubai both looked over, but they still couldn't see the golden dragon shadow; they only saw Ma Hongjun pointing his silver spear at a white jade stone.
However, Flander was surprised because he knew clearly that the stone wasn't white.
"Dean, what kind of stone is this? Where did you get it?"
"I found this stone at a street stall. I bought it because of its excellent texture and the blood-red stain that looked ancient, not something man-made.
The stall owner called it Dragon Blood Jade, jade stained with dragon blood. I didn't believe him then, but now I think it's quite true. So, my hundred gold soul coins weren't wasted.
As for your silver spear martial soul, it's incredible that it can absorb the blood energy inside. A martial
soul that can devour energy in reality is very rare. Your silver spear is a mutated martial soul, no wonder."
A mutated martial soul is essentially a completely new type of martial soul, fraught with uncertainty. It can directly affect physical objects. Including you, I've only seen two, and only heard of two.
However, your silver spear is clearly a benign mutation. The other one I saw wasn't so lucky; his martial soul…"
Flander's expression faltered as he spoke, lost in thought, a hint of regret in his voice.
From Ma Hongjun's martial soul, he thought of his former partner, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang. Grandmaster's martial soul was a mutated martial soul, a beast martial soul capable of detaching from the body and appearing independently. It could even consume real-world carrots for energy.
This was similar to Ma Hongjun's silver spear. He lamented why Xiaogang's martial soul couldn't become as powerful as Ma Hongjun's, instead becoming quite bizarre.
Flander didn't press further; Ma Hongjun couldn't really explain it either, only attributing it all to mutation. The mystery of martial spirits had been unleashed.
However, this also allowed Ma Hongjun to better understand the Dragon Soul Spear. The Dragon Soul Spear could absorb not only the power of spirit rings but also other forms of material energy.
This delighted Ma Hongjun. If it could only absorb spirit beast spirit rings to become stronger, it would be quite difficult. Leaving aside the fact that powerful spirit beasts were extremely dangerous to hunt,
Ma Hongjun was very reluctant to do such a thing—to kill countless innocent spirit beasts for the sake of power. He was unwilling to do so. Moreover
, excessive killing could affect one's mind, making one twisted, especially this kind of irrational, insane killing.
This was very different from killing to hunt spirit rings, because the relationship between spirit masters, spirit beasts, and spirit rings... This is the natural law of this world.
If Ma Hongjun were to indiscriminately slaughter soul beasts for the sake of making the Dragon Soul Spear stronger, it would be like cultivating demonic arts—ultimately turning into a bloodthirsty beast for power.
Moreover, Ma Ming's injury made him even more aware of this issue. Excessively absorbing the power of soul rings and slaughtering soul beasts would be breaking the rules of this world and would backfire!
Therefore, for the past three years, although he had many opportunities to hunt soul beasts, Ma Hongjun had refrained from doing so. He wouldn't become a slave to power unless absolutely necessary.
Although the Dragon Soul Spear consumes a lot of soul power, as his soul power increases and his cultivation level rises, it's also a process of becoming stronger. The Dragon Soul Spear was slowly growing under the nourishment of his powerful soul energy.
So there was no need to rush it; one step at a time. The power needed to be gradually solidified, and this process of improvement was also a process of strengthening the connection between him and the Dragon Soul Spear. The Dragon Soul Spear wasn't an ordinary martial soul; Ma Hongjun had always regarded it as a divine weapon.
He could look for special material energies in the future; the Dragon Soul Spear's spirit would automatically sense them, so he wouldn't miss out if he encountered them. Ma Hongjun pondered this.
Flander and Dai Mubai returned to their conversation about Xiang Chengxian.
Ma Hongjun also put away the Dragon Soul Spear and began searching again.
Walking to the wall, Ma Hongjun's gaze fell on a crystal the size of a human head! " This
should be it!" (End of Chapter)