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"Unwell? No, not at all…"
Bai Chen hesitated for a moment before saying, "It just feels very strange. How to put it… like I've eaten too much and I'm stuffed?"
Since awakening his Dark Demon Tiger martial soul, this was the first time he had ever felt this way.
"Pfft… hahaha."
Hearing that, Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang couldn't help but burst out laughing with delight.
"Stuffed, is it? That's quite the vivid metaphor — though actually it's not too far from the truth. The reason you feel this way is because while you were absorbing the Void-Space Vine, I took advantage of the moment and used the vine's devour power along with your own to inject a massive amount of natural elemental energy into your body. I sensed that your situation is special — it couldn't directly raise your soul power level through this method — so I channeled all of it into elevating your innate potential instead."
"Thank you, Senior."
Bai Chen quickly expressed his gratitude. Potential was not something that was easy to raise at all. Even soul masters who awakened the same martial soul still had differences in potential, and what Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang had just done was essentially directly help him elevate this quality — something that was of immeasurable importance to him.
"No need to be so formal. From here on out, we're companions. It's only natural that I do this."
Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang smiled faintly. He led them to the spring beside the Two-Sense Ice-Fire Eyes, where a great purple flower stood. Bai Chen could tell at a glance that this was Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang's true form.
Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang reached out his hand, and his enormous true body instantly transformed into a stream of purple light that fell onto his palm. Having done all this, he turned to look at Zang Xin, who was not far away, and said, "Alright, Zang brother — let's be on our way. Find this child a suitable third soul ring."
After speaking, he glanced back once more at the Ice-Fire Two-Sense Eyes, and a trace of reluctance flashed in his gaze — but in the end he turned his head and walked toward the exit.
Bai Chen and Zang Xin exchanged a glance and fell in behind Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang. When Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang approached the poison formation, the dense array seemed to encounter something terrifying and immediately parted to both sides, clearing a path for them. Because Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang had merged with the You Xiang Qi Luo herb, he himself possessed the power to suppress ten thousand poisons — nothing in this world could threaten him with venom.
Bai Chen and Zang Xin followed behind Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang, passing through the poison formation and the poison marshland. When they reached the edge of the Setting Sun Forest, Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang suddenly stopped and beckoned to Bai Chen.
"Come. Let me attach myself to your body."
Bai Chen obediently came and stood before him. Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang raised his hand and lightly tapped Bai Chen's forehead, pressing his now-miniaturized body against Bai Chen's brow. Moments later, Bai Chen only felt a warmth at his glabella, and the shrunken Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang melded into his body. At the same time, Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang's voice rang out in his mind.
"How is it — can you hear me?"
"Yes, Senior."
"Good."
Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang explained, "If outsiders were to learn of my existence, they would surely stop at nothing to seize me — so I've merged directly into your body. Unless you encounter a life-or-death crisis that you truly cannot resolve on your own, I will not intervene, because doing so would instead drag you into even greater danger. Understood?"
"Understood."
Hearing Bai Chen's reply so cleanly and without hesitation, Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang's voice carried a note of satisfaction. He said with a smile, "Good. Don't worry — with your current ability, it won't take very long before you can complete the full fusion with me."
After being boosted by the ten-thousand-year Sky-Piercing Chrysanthemum and the ten-thousand-year Void-Space Vine, Bai Chen's physical strength had reached the Soul Saint level, and his spirit power had also risen to the upper echelon of the Nether Sea realm. At his current rate of growth, he would achieve full fusion with Qi Luo Yu Jin Xiang at the Soul Saint level at the latest.
With the attachment complete, the purple-robed man who had remained outside also dissolved directly into specks of purple light that slowly dispersed into the air.
Bai Chen stretched his body, feeling the terrifying power now contained within him, and smiled contentedly. He turned to Zang Xin and asked, "Master, where are we going to obtain the third soul ring — at sea?"
"No."
Zang Xin shook his head.
"The strength of sea soul beasts is truly terrifying. To this day, humanity has still not conquered the ocean — the obstruction of sea soul beasts is a significant reason why. Even in the near-shore areas of the extreme north alone, there are multiple beings whose power approaches that of Snow Emperor. The overall might of sea soul beasts simply cannot be compared to land soul beasts. Aside from existences like Hades Emperor Halossar, who are both immensely strong and utterly fearless of death, no one dares to casually go stir up trouble with sea soul beasts."
"If Bai Chen needs only a thousand-year ring for his third soul ring that's one thing — but unfortunately he needs a ten-thousand-year one. You saw what happened after Tang舞麟killed a ten-thousand-year sea soul beast — it immediately drew a beast-level creature and two more ten-thousand-year soul beasts. That was actually getting off relatively lightly. If it had drawn something at the level of the Sea Princess, things would have become truly unmanageable."
"We're heading to Star Dou Great Forest."
"Star Dou Great Forest?"
Hearing that, Bai Chen couldn't help but freeze. Sea soul beasts might be overwhelmingly powerful, but the pack of fierce beasts inside Star Dou Great Forest was no pushover either.
"That's right — Star Dou Great Forest."
Zang Xin said cheerfully, "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."
He then explained the specifics to Bai Chen.
Three thousand years ago, after the final great battle between soul beasts and humanity, humans had constructed a Star Dou Fortress encircling Star Dou Great Forest. This fortress was equipped with countless pieces of humanity's most advanced technology — even if the soul beasts were to launch a collective assault, breaking through these technological defenses would still take a considerable amount of time, and that window was more than enough for humanity's strongest fighters to arrive on scene. The result was that humanity used this fortress to essentially pen the soul beasts in like a managed reserve.
Spirit Hall would occasionally sell high-priced tickets allowing humans to enter Star Dou Great Forest to hunt soul beasts — because aside from the extremely dangerous sea, only here could one find soul beasts of higher age ranks. Although Star Dou Great Forest was not without beast-level creatures, the pack consciousness of these beasts was nowhere near as strong as that of sea soul beasts. It was generally unlikely that killing one ten-thousand-year soul beast would draw out a wave of a hundred ten-thousand-year beasts in retaliation — and so quite a few high-level soul masters actually preferred this place over the sea.
According to intelligence Zang Xin had gathered, Spirit Hall would in fact distribute a portion of the profit earned from ticket sales to buy rare natural treasures to send to the soul beasts — and so the soul beasts largely turned a blind eye to Spirit Hall's business arrangements here. After all, the soul beasts had no desire to break outright with humanity either. As long as things didn't go too far, they were willing to make a certain degree of concessions.