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**
A few minutes after Jia Na's death.
Ye Lingling and the Shi brothers finally returned to normal.
"That was terrifying. I really thought I was going to die just now." Ye Lingling patted her chest, deeply shaken by the lingering fear, her pretty face beneath her veil completely devoid of color.
"Indeed. Under that petrification, none of us could even breathe." Shi Mo felt an instinctive terror toward that kind of crowd-control.
Under such a horrifying control-system soul skill, how were they still alive?
"Xiao Lin, that kind of soul skill is simply too illogical. Is that even reasonable?" At this moment, though a trace of lingering fear still flickered across Shi Mo's face, it was heavily outweighed by a deep yearning for Jia Na's soul skill.
Wasn't a soul skill like that far superior to their focus on pure defense? As long as you completely immobilized the opponent, wouldn't that achieve an absolute defense anyway?
"That fellow's soul skill was indeed out of the ordinary. I suspect it was due to the assistance of a soul bone." Seeing them ask, Xiao Lin voiced his own conjecture.
It was highly probable that the soul bone had fused several of that fallen degenerate's soul skills together, which produced such an exaggerated effect.
As he spoke, Xiao Lin even tried to pitch the dropped right leg soul bone to everyone. However, although desire was clearly written all over their faces, none of them spoke up to claim it.
For one, this was a soul bone Xiao Lin had obtained by defeating the enemy himself; if Tang San and the others also wanted it, wouldn't they be snatching away something meant for his own people?
Secondly, for someone like Ye Lingling, her current soul skills consisted solely of area-of-effect healing. Whether she fused her skills or not didn't hold any significant meaning for her.
Meanwhile, the two brothers, Shi Mo and Shi Mo, still didn't know which path they were going to take in the future. Xiao Lin had previously told them that the two of them could tread upon completely distinct evolutionary paths.
One could pursue the powerful Black Turtle martial soul—a formidable martial soul that combined powerful crowd-control, defense, and offense all into one.
The other could pursue the powerful Dragon Turtle martial soul—the Dragon King's son, Bi Xi—which also possessed the mighty capabilities of the Black Turtle martial soul, but additionally held the ultimate strength capable of moving mountains and filling oceans.
Because it was impossible for the soul beasts in nature to always come in identical pairs, the two brothers currently had no idea who would take the Black Turtle path and who would take the Dragon Turtle path.
Consequently, they didn't know who should take this "Fusion" right leg soul bone either. Left with no other choice, since none of them wanted it for the time being, Xiao Lin decided to keep it for his own research.
He was highly interested in the "Fusion" concept contained within.
During the past five years at Nuoding Academy, Xiao Lin, Tang San, and Xiao Wu had all trodden down completely different paths of cultivation.
For instance, Xiao Lin had chosen the path of Soul Core Synchronization. Soul skills like Heart of Blazing Flames were precisely developed by him so that, once he achieved complete mastery over them, he could use them to condense a Soul Core.
The explosive power generated by Soul Core Synchronization was incredibly violent, not at all inferior to the Clear Sky Clan's Ring Bursting technique. How many soul rings could an ordinary person even have?
On the other hand, he could produce as many low-tier versions of "Soul Cores" via his Heart of Blazing Flames as he wanted.
As long as his physical body could endure it, and his Vajra Imperishable soul power and vitality could withstand the strain, he could keep pushing the limits. Meanwhile, the path Tang San trod was Ring Fusion.
This was the path Xiao Lin had intentionally chosen for Tang San.
Because Xiao Lin knew that the Clear Sky Clan possessed the Ring Bursting technique, if Tang San first fused his rings together before performing a Ring Burst, the resulting destructive power of the Ring Burst would undoubtedly be utterly monstrous.
Not to mention, Tang San was destined to possess eighteen soul rings in the future.
Because Tang San's soul ring selections all heavily favored vitality, the soul skills inherently shared a deep underlying connection. The sheer power generated from bursting his rings after a Ring Fusion would be completely unimaginable.
As for Xiao Wu, Xiao Lin had originally intended for her to choose Ring Fusion just like Tang San. After all, Xiao Wu's soul rings were all condensed by herself from her own cultivation, which would make the process of Ring Fusion a bit more convenient.
However, Xiao Wu eventually carved out an entirely different path for herself.
An ultimate mechanical response, a state of absolute passivity. To put it simply, she utilized the unique advantage of her self-condensed soul rings to incorporate anti-idiot fail-safe formations into every single one of her soul skills.
By relying on the passive alerts of her soul power formations and using her soul skills to drastically enhance her reflex arcs, she forced herself into a state of "one hundred percent evasion." On the surface, the path Xiao Wu chose seemed the most ordinary.
In reality, with Xiao Wu setting it up like this, even Xiao Lin wouldn't know how to inflict any effective damage on her. Teleportation could automatically trigger an evasion, her future Invincible Golden Body would function the same way, and her Void skill would be no exception.
Xiao Wu had even discussed her future soul rings with Xiao Lin. For example, she considered acquiring an invisible clone to block all incoming damage for her—essentially a variation of Uchiha Madara's Limbo Clone.
At that time, Xiao Lin had simply assumed that Xiao Wu was just purely terrified of dying—a genius who was afraid of death, yet somehow managed to come up with such a brilliantly profound concept.
The only pity was that Xiao Wu couldn't master deadly toxins, so she couldn't utilize a Substitute-Protect-Toxic strategy.
Although Xiao Lin hadn't explicitly specialized in deep fusion mechanics himself, he still understood a fair share about Soul Ring Fusion Skills. Therefore, Xiao Lin highly anticipated being able to discover a brand-new path from this soul bone.
After all, fusion wasn't just limited to fusing soul skills. Soul Masters could fuse together, martial souls could fuse together, and it wasn't impossible for soul beasts either. There was also the fusion of martial souls and soul tools, and so on and so forth.
Xiao Lin had merely let his mind wander a bit, yet his casual musings already completely outclassed the local natives by countless years.
"Alright then, Xiao Lin, can we head back now?" Just as Xiao Lin was lost in thought, Ye Lingling, who could no longer withstand the biting cold of the Far North, shuddered violently and asked through chattering teeth.
"We can." Xiao Lin pondered for a moment.
Detouring around Aurora Town and heading straight back to the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy seemed like the right move now.
"Want to leave? Did you bother asking us first?"
Just as the words left Xiao Lin's mouth, an incredibly deep, ancient voice reverberated near the ears of Xiao Lin and his companion. Xiao Lin and the others turned around in shock. In an instant, the eyes of all five individuals widened.
The enemy before them wasn't just a single person—there were four of them!
Furthermore, judging by the intense fluctuations of their soul power, nearly all of them were powerhouse Soul Emperors.
Damn it!
For a moment, Xiao Lin was completely at a loss as to what to do.
Given enough time, and as long as the opponents couldn't fly, he had the confidence to beat one Soul Emperor to death, and then launch a sneak attack to take down another.
But what about the remaining ones? Tang Ni could tie down one Soul Emperor.
As for Ye Lingling and the others...
No, wait, what am I thinking? Tang Ni was only an ordinary Soul Ancestor right now.
Confronted by these four older men who were staring at them with playful, mocking grins, large beads of sweat instantly rolled down Xiao Lin's face.
No... how could the enemy have tracked them in this exact direction? Moreover, how could the enemy's speed be this fast? The only logical explanation was that the moment they killed the very first wave of attackers, the enemy headquarters had immediately dispatched these four cadres.
Thinking up to this point, a desperate plan formed in Xiao Lin's mind.
"Everyone, listen to me. We aren't completely without hope. I still have a way."
"A way?" Hearing Xiao Lin's words, a faint glimmer of hope inexplicably surged within the hearts of the group, who had just been on the verge of despair.
Ye Lingling and the others looked at Xiao Lin with bated breath.
Could another miracle really happen?
"A way?"
Further away, the sharp hearing of the Soul Emperors allowed them to catch every single word.
When they heard the murmurs from Xiao Lin's side, they couldn't help but sneer in ridicule. Faced with the four of them acting together as the top cadres, these brats actually didn't choose to beg for mercy, but were instead thinking of a counterattack? A way?
However, in the very next second, something entirely unexpected happened to the four cadres.
Without even a single moment of verbal communication, all five youngsters turned around simultaneously and fled at full speed into the deepest depths of the Far North!
"They're that decisive?"
Bei Te stroked his graying beard, though he didn't immediately give chase.
Several days of continuous forced marching had already pushed these old men to their physical limits. It wasn't that their soul power was lacking; rather, their aging bodies simply couldn't compare to the vitality of the youth.
"What's the plan?" Ang Shi grew anxious.
He was fully capable of giving chase right now, unlike an old man like Bei Te. However, he didn't dare to pursue them deep into the wilderness entirely on his own. Several people from their base had already turned up dead.
The combat strength of Xiao Lin's five-person team had already earned their respect.
"What is there to fear? With your abilities, is it even possible for them to escape your grasp?" Bu Luo Ke let out a cold snort, crossing his arms with a look of utter disdain.
"The Far North will be their final resting place."
**
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your support! If you enjoy my work, you can check out my Patreon—there are 100+ early access and exclusive content. I update 5 advanced chapter from Monday-Saturday
www.patreon.com/c/FanficTranslator
I truly appreciate it!