Just as Feng Piaoling thought he could attract the sacrifice of the Skydream Ice Worm, the other party's sudden voice caused his expression to turn grim.
"What powerful spiritual power, and a twin martial soul to boot. It's a pity neither of them are of the spiritual attribute. What a waste, truly a waste. If I could cry, I'd be shedding floods of tears right now."
Feng Piaoling's face instantly darkened like stagnant water, and this was no act.
He knew that since his martial souls weren't of the spiritual attribute, the Skydream Ice Worm wouldn't necessarily take a fancy to him. To this end, he had made extensive preparations. While elevating himself, he had specifically arranged for Huo Yuhao to absorb a ten-year non-spiritual attribute Wind Baboon soul ring to weaken him.
Yet, when the Skydream Ice Worm spoke the words rejecting him, he still nearly suffered a total breakdown.
No, calm down, stay calm. Since this worm won't choose me, then I absolutely cannot miss out on its shed skin and Electrolux.
These thoughts flashed through Feng Piaoling's mind in a mere instant. By then, the Skydream Ice Worm had already burrowed out from the ground ahead, revealing its obese body—over a meter in diameter and seven meters long, adorned with ten golden rings.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, brother isn't going to hurt you..."
The Skydream Ice Worm was about to say more when Feng Piaoling unleashed the dozen or so Fire Bullet Talismans he held in his hand.
In a wash of red light, over a dozen basketball-sized fireballs swarmed out from his hand, shooting directly toward the densely packed area opposite him.
Meanwhile, he had already retracted his Azure Lotus Sword martial soul. His left hand gripped the scabbard of the Thunder Tribulation Sword at his waist. After a flash of blue light, the pitch-black scabbard released a layer of blue-violet lightning protection, shielding both himself and the Huo Yuhao who was currently absorbing a soul ring.
"Holy crap..."
The Skydream Ice Worm hadn't expected the opponent to be so lacking in martial virtue, using the moment it was speaking to deceive and sneak-attack a million-year-old baby silkworm like itself.
Caught off guard, it took over a dozen fireballs right to the face.
A series of thunderous explosions erupted, and blinding red light flashed before its eyes, rendering the Skydream Ice Worm momentarily blind. A vast patch of vegetation was blasted into fragments and reduced to ash. The Skydream Ice Worm's white skin, marked with ten golden rings, held out for only a few seconds before painfully splitting open, revealing a chilling, milky-white fluid.
Its entire obese body was sent flying by the blast. The spot where it had been was now pockmarked with jagged craters, half a meter deep and over a meter in diameter, which instantly turned into a sea of fire.
Fortunately, the Skydream Ice Worm possessed the ice attribute and could withstand the flames of the Fire Bullet Talismans, suffering only the impact of the explosions. Otherwise, that strike just now would have certainly made it the first million-year soul beast in history to be solo-killed by a quasi-Soul Elder.
Why say ten-thousand-year? Because up until now, no quasi-Soul Elder had ever been able to solo a ten-thousand-year soul beast, let alone a hundred-thousand-year or a million-year one.
"It seems this worm truly has a million years of cultivation for nothing; aside from its spiritual power, it is utterly useless."
Feng Piaoling murmured inwardly, yet his movements were decisive. He casually placed the Thunder Tribulation scabbard—which was sustaining the protective shield—beside Huo Yuhao to "protect" him. Simultaneously, stepping with the "Shadow Clone" technique, the Thunder Tribulation Sword at his waist instantly cleared its sheath.
Whoosh!
With a flicker of his silhouette, Feng Piaoling actually took to the air, gliding over twenty meters like a ghost as he lunged fiercely at the Skydream Ice Worm.
"Damn it, again?!" Battered and disheveled, the Skydream Ice Worm relied on its powerful spiritual power to narrowly dodge Feng Piaoling's lethal strike.
However, a large tree behind it was severed in two with a sharp crack.
Feng Piaoling flicked his wrist. Azure sword light wreathed in lightning arcs danced like falling petals in the wind, a dazzling and disorienting display. This was the strongest strike of the Nine Gale Swords—"Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon."
"Curse you, brother is angry!"
The Skydream Ice Worm never expected Feng Piaoling to strike so fast and so ruthlessly, every move aimed at taking its life. It stopped holding back and released a Soul Shock, intending to wipe out this human who sought to kill it right then and there.
As for fleeing, it hadn't considered it. It had finally encountered a human with a spiritual attribute martial soul, and with its time running out, it didn't want to miss this chance.
Feng Piaoling had long been on guard against the worm's attacks. His mind was in a state of high tension, and his Heaven-Reaching Magic Eyes were constantly active. Seeing signs of the opponent's soul power converging, he immediately slapped his chest, which instantly glowed with an earthy yellow light.
Hidden there was an Earth Escape Talisman, his second soul skill, hunted from an extremely rare two-thousand-five-hundred-year Earth Armored Dragon. It allowed him to travel freely through the earth and could be stored for twenty-four hours. He manufactured an Earth Escape Talisman every day and kept it on his chest to save his life at any moment.
The spiritual attack launched by the Skydream Ice Worm was not only a mental strike but also contained the ice attribute. In the original story, it had easily subdued a rampaging Ma Xiaotao, who was over level sixty.
The azure sword light wreathed in lightning from "Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon" was formidable enough to rival a ten-thousand-year soul skill, but the moment it was unleashed, it was frozen by the chilling air of the Soul Shock and then shattered into pieces.
Taking advantage of this, Feng Piaoling had already vanished into the ground. Subsequently, the frigid beam of the Soul Shock passed through the position where he had just been, freezing a large area.
"He actually escaped by burrowing! Damn it, brother is fuming!"
The Skydream Ice Worm, having just suffered a major loss, was so depressed it wanted to vomit blood. Chasing was out of the question; the opponent's speed seemed absurdly fast, already exceeding the range of its spiritual detection.
Afterward, it turned its gaze toward Huo Yuhao. "Even with that cunning brat's help, you actually chose to absorb a ten-year Wind Baboon soul ring. I really don't know what you were thinking. But it doesn't matter; with brother here, even if it's a ten-year soul ring, I can still upgrade it to a hundred thousand years for you in the future."
With those words, the Skydream Ice Worm began its sacrifice.
An invisible wave of spiritual energy radiated outward from the Skydream Ice Worm as it sacrificed itself to Huo Yuhao. The terrifying spiritual power covered every corner within a hundred-mile radius almost instantly.
Bei Bei and Tang Ya, who had previously encountered them and were trying to catch up to invite Huo Yuhao and Feng Piaoling to join the Tang Sect, fell into a brief daze when they were swept by this spiritual wave. The mental shock didn't possess great destructive power, but it was capable of depriving all living beings of their ability to think for a short duration.
Feng Piaoling, hidden underground, was naturally affected as well.
Fortunately, he was well-prepared. Before leaving the Sun Moon Empire, in his capacity as Xu Tianran's confidant, he had endured the humiliation of asking the Holy Ghost Cult for a piece of Level 9 Soul Tool—the "Spiritual Barrier." This was also the reason why the Skydream Ice Worm thought he had left and failed to detect him.
(Note: Some readers might find this confusing; consider it a minor foreshadowing to be explained later.)
Of course, there was a price. And that price, to Feng Piaoling, was exactly what he valued least: he simply needed to scout a Holy Maiden for the Holy Ghost Cult within a year.
With the Level 9 Soul Tool Spiritual Barrier and Feng Piaoling's own powerful spiritual strength, the mental shock produced by the Skydream Ice Worm's sacrifice did not have much of an impact on him.
Feng Piaoling continuously monitored his surroundings with his spiritual power while simultaneously activating his Heaven-Reaching Magic Eyes.