Squelch!
Cr-crack!
At that very moment, the clothes on Meng Yiran's back were instantly shredded. Accompanied by the sound of tearing fabric, eight translucent blue spider legs erupted from her spine!
Feeling the strange sensation behind her, Meng Yiran instinctively tried to look back. What she saw made her heart stop.
"AHHHHHH!!!!"
Indeed, Meng Yiran was terrified by her own External Spirit Bone.
"Yiran!" "Granddaughter!"
Duke Long and the Snake Grandmother had never seen such a thing. Looking at the abnormality on their granddaughter's body, their aging eyes were filled with panic.
"Tsk, I didn't think it would actually appear," Fu Ye whispered softly. Zhu Zhuqing looked at him with curiosity. Actually? Actually what?
"Alright, everyone stay calm."
Fu Ye walked over to Meng Yiran. She currently had zero control over the Eight Spider Lances; the blue legs were flailing wildly in front of her. However, such an erratic attack was nothing to Fu Ye.
With a casual wave of his hand, the spirit bone was pinned in place. He then reached out and tapped three mysterious acupoints on Meng Yiran's body. Miraculously, the eight legs retracted automatically. With a final mechanical click, Meng Yiran finally finished the fusion with the spirit bone.
"Little girl, your luck is quite good. You managed to absorb an External Spirit Bone," Fu Ye said, gently pinching her chin.
Meng Yiran's soul power had dropped by forty percent just from retracting the bone. This was the downside of an External Spirit Bone in the early stages; while it provided a 100% attribute boost when active, it consumed a massive amount of energy to retract. In the original story, Tang San didn't overcome this drawback until his lances evolved into the Eight Sea God Wings. For now, it was like a "God Mode" with a heavy cost.
"An External Spirit Bone!"
Duke Long and the Snake Grandmother became even more tense. They had heard the term, but this was their first time seeing one—and it was on their granddaughter!
"No need to be so nervous," Fu Ye said helplessly, noticing their "guarding against a thief" expressions. "Once an External Spirit Bone is fully fused, it cannot be taken away. And I just helped her complete that fusion."
"I... I have this..." Meng Yiran was still in disbelief. She knew about spirit bones, but "External" ones were a myth to her.
"Don't take your luck for granted. This is a super spirit bone that every Spirit Master dreams of. Its true value is no less than a hundred-thousand-year spirit bone."
Hearing this, Meng Yiran's pupils shrank. These "ugly spider legs" were worth as much as a 100,000-year bone?!
Three minutes later.
"Hello, nice to meet you again. I am Meng Yiran, Martial Soul: Snake Staff." "Mhm. I am Zhu Zhuqing, Martial Soul: Hell Civet."
Fu Ye held his "little cat" in his arms while carrying Meng Yiran by the back of her collar to travel. There had to be a distinction between a wife and a student, after all.
They moved toward Heaven Dou City at a blistering speed. Thanks to Fu Ye's soul power shield, the girls felt no wind resistance. Before long, Fu Ye's system navigation located Xiao Wu and the others.
In the city, a greasy, obese middle-aged noble in expensive silks—accompanied by a Spirit Emperor bodyguard and dozens of Spirit Ancestor thugs—was leering at the Tianshui team members who had just finished their match. Shui Bing'er and Xiao Wu had already noticed them.
"Hey, little beauties, you all look so fresh. Why don't you come back with Uncle to—"
Squelch!! x12
Before the man could finish, tall figures shrouded in black mist erupted from the shadows beneath Xiao Wu's feet. In an instant, black holes appeared where the hearts of every noble and thug should have been. Their organs vanished without a trace.
The Limit Douluo-level Black-Armor Puppets had sensed a threat to Xiao Wu and acted preemptively to annihilate the "unstable factors" in their cradle.
The surrounding crowd and other nobles, who had been waiting for a show, recoiled in horror as they saw shadows burst from a young girl's feet and instantly slaughter a dozen people. What terrified them more was noticing that every girl in the group had nine pairs of crimson eyes staring out from their shadows. If one shadow was this horrific, what would happen if all of them unleashed their hidden protectors?
The remaining aristocrats broke into a cold sweat. But before they could react, a dozen more black shadows lunged into the crowd.
Squelch! Squelch!
It was a one-sided slaughter. Guided by the system's precision, the 100% loyal puppets executed every noble who had expressed an intent to participate in the "conspiracy."
Blood and flesh flew everywhere. Shui Bing'er and the others were stunned by the brutality, but Xiao Wu, having seen much worse, guessed these were the protective measures Fu Ye had left for them. Fortunately, the "corrupt nobles" had already cleared out the commoners to corner the girls, so their deaths went unnoticed by the public.
"Sister Xiao Wu, they are..."
Shui Bing'er, the captain, was the first to snap out of it. Before Xiao Wu could answer, a familiar figure appeared.
"Tsk, finally couldn't hold back anymore? I thought you guys had given up."
It was Fu Ye. He had used the trackers on the puppets to find them. He glanced around at the "fallen" crowd—those who had triggered the puppets' kill-orders.
"Brother Fu Ye! You're back!"
Shui Bing'er was the first to react, giving him a tight bear hug and then glancing playfully at Zhu Zhuqing. Her eyes seemed to say: You've had Brother Fu Ye to yourself for four days; now it's my turn to take over.