stonecrandall Chapter 4 The Mysterious Tortoise and Level 6 Soul Guide
Chapter 4 The Mysterious Tortoise and Level 6 Soul Guide
Xu Yingluo was immediately taken aback and quickly asked:
"How is that possible? Xixi, you are the second most talented person in our sect. Among the younger generation, apart from Xiaoshitou, your Xuanwu bloodline is the most concentrated. Could it be that he has the ultimate martial soul?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, she couldn't help but shake her head and chuckle. An ultimate martial spirit is a once-in-a-millennium occurrence; how could one encounter it so easily?
Xu Yuanxi smiled and said:
"I don't know, we'll find out when we encounter the battle tomorrow. Since he dares to hunt souls alone, he must have some skill. Let's get some rest, we still need to find the habitat of that displacement worm tomorrow. I wonder what's in there that makes Elder Yunxiao so nervous."
"Who knows? Let's not think about that anymore, let's get some rest."
Xu Yingluo spoke calmly, but a strange glint flashed in her eyes.
"Okay, let's sleep then. Sister Luoluo, can I hold you while we sleep?"
"Stop fooling around..."
Inside the tent on the other side, Kong Tianxu listened intently, and only after confirming that the other party had not made any further sounds did the lustrous sheen covering his earlobe quietly fade away.
Xu Yunxiao's Xuanming Power, wielded with the power of a Soul Saint, had a fairly good soundproofing effect, but it ultimately could not completely block out the sound, which was all picked up by his extraordinary hearing enhanced by his martial soul.
Xuanwu bloodline... It really is the Xuanming Sect.
He understood. Although he had seen many characters from the original work over the years, this was the first time he had encountered one related to the main characters, which made him feel quite novel.
Shaking his head to stop thinking about it, he continued to embed the four silver metal beads, each the size of a longan, into the specific grooves on the wrist guard of his hidden blade. With a slight exertion of his left hand, accompanied by an almost inaudible click of a mechanism, the incomparably sharp blade suddenly sprang out. A hazy four-colored halo swirled and flowed among the intricate and mysterious patterns on the blade, emanating a heart-stopping energy fluctuation.
However, strangely enough, although it is clearly a hidden blade, the grooved base shows a reverse inscription unique to long-range soul tools.
Level 6 melee soul tool - Elemental Creed.
He designed and manufactured everything independently, and some of his ideas were even beyond the comprehension of Kong Deming. As the only grandson of the strongest Soul Master in the world, he truly went all out by combining the power of his Martial Soul with the Soul Tool.
"These people seem to be hiding something; it's best to be careful."
The sword blade was like a mirror, reflecting half of his face clearly. Kong Tianxu narrowed his eyes as he watched the dazzling sword light about to burst forth.
Hopefully they won't do anything stupid.
……
Nothing happened that night. This place was quite a distance from the starry sky, and the Xuanming Sect had also sprinkled some beast-repelling powder beforehand, so no soul beasts came to disturb them.
The next morning, Kong Tianxu got up early and got ready. While he was having breakfast, Xu Yunxiao and the others emerged from their tents. Fortunately, they were quick and finished packing in no time. Kong Tianxu put on a relatively loose-fitting casual outfit, and the group of eight set off together.
Apart from Xu Yunxiao, the rest of the team members rarely spoke. Even the most talkative Xu Yuanxi seemed hesitant to be too active in front of Xu Yunxiao, only occasionally whispering to Xu Yingluo.
Of the eight, Xu Yunxiao, who had the highest cultivation level, naturally took the lead, while the other four men formed a diamond shape behind them, protecting the two girls and Kong Tianxu in the center.
From what I can see, Kong Tianxu thinks that these people are quite reasonable. They didn't press him about his martial soul and soul skills, nor did they make him walk in front of them to clear the way.
Of course, this could also be interpreted as them wanting to better monitor their own movements and not taking their revealed Great Soul Master cultivation level seriously.
As dawn broke, the group had already entered the Star Dou Great Forest. Xu Yunxiao continued walking, but still spoke in a deep voice:
"Ahead lies the Star Dou Great Forest. I must remind everyone that the Star Dou Great Forest has become increasingly dangerous in recent years, with even ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts appearing on the outskirts. Therefore, none of you can afford to be careless. I will continue to lead the way. Tian Xu, you stay behind me and be ready to assist me at any time. Yingluo and Yuanxi, you two come together too. The rest of you, maintain formation."
"Yes," the other four men replied in unison.
Of the four, the one who caught Kong Tianxu's attention the most was Ye Handong, who stood at the very back. He was the strongest person besides Xu Yunxiao, possessing the cultivation of a Soul Emperor. It seemed that Xu Yunxiao trusted him quite a bit.
Kong Tianxu naturally had no objection to this arrangement. With a Soul Saint-level expert who might possess a top-tier Martial Soul leading the way, he felt even less pressure.
After giving these instructions, Xu Yunxiao let out a soft shout, and his muscles swelled up rapidly, making him appear larger and stretching his black clothes taut.
Most notably, in his right hand, there was a black tortoise-shell shield with a diameter of about two and a half meters, covered with a dense dark light, exuding a heavy texture.
The Xuanming Sect's most powerful martial spirit is the Xuanming Turtle.
Although it is a mutated form, its lineage is quite ancient. Originally a beast spirit, it can transform into a shield-like form similar to a weapon spirit, capable of both offense and defense. This is a spirit talent rather than a spirit skill. The fact that it possesses this innate ability means that the spirit is of extremely high quality, and this alone is enough to place the Xuanming Turtle among the top-tier spirits.
This also shows how powerful Kong Tianxu's two martial souls are, which is a fundamental difference in the foundation of martial souls.
The dark light filled the air, but it couldn't stop Kong Tianxu from peeking. His second martial soul was quietly released, and his eyes, now with a brighter sheen, saw through the dense dark light to see the number of soul rings that Xu Yunxiao had created due to the release of his martial soul.
Exactly seven, no more, no less: two yellow, three purple, and two black. While not the optimal soul ring combination, it's still quite formidable.
The first of his seven spirit rings, a century-old yellow ring, lit up, and the black light on his tortoise-shell shield instantly doubled in intensity. A huge but not powerful black ripple spread out from the shield in an instant.
These water-like ripples appeared harmless on the surface, but after drifting out, they spread extremely far and quickly disappeared into the dense forest.
The first soul skill, is this their ripple detection method? Kong Tianxu could vaguely guess that this soul skill was similar to the ultrasonic detection of bat-type martial souls. Once the ripples came into contact with something, Xu Yunxiao should be able to make a judgment based on the different feedback.
Although he didn't have the same level of X-ray vision as Xu Yunxiao, with his cultivation level, the range he could perceive was much greater.
Moreover, based on Xu Sanshi's performance in the original work, this should be a control-type soul skill, because the soul skills of martial souls that have been passed down for a long time will be relatively fixed. In other words, this is a skill that he developed on his own.
"Let's go."
Some of the ripples that had initially dispersed had returned, and Xu Yunxiao's voice came from ahead. It seemed that Kong Tianxu had returned to the previous times when he was hunting souls, and he didn't need to do anything more, he just needed to keep moving forward.
Xu Yunxiao led the group, constantly changing their route, and their speed was not much slower than Kong Tianxu's solo journey. During this time, they did not even encounter any attacks from soul beasts.
In less than an hour, they had already penetrated more than twenty kilometers into the Star Dou Great Forest. And this was already close to the boundary of the mixed zone.
After walking about another kilometer, Xu Yunxiao paused, turned around, and said solemnly:
"We've entered the mixed zone of the Star Dou Great Forest. The abilities of the soul beasts in the mixed zone are even more bizarre, which might catch us off guard and prevent us from providing timely assistance. Everyone, please be careful. To avoid angering some sensitive soul beasts, I need to narrow down the detection range and prepare for battle."
With that, he made a gesture and continued walking without looking back. This group once again demonstrated the extremely high quality of a top-tier hidden sect; their formation quickly contracted, yet they still maintained a distance of more than three meters between each person.
To Kong Tianxu's slight surprise, a mysterious aura emanated from their formation as they moved in perfect unison.
Similarly, Xu Yingluo and Xu Yuanxi did not miss the opportunity to observe Kong Tianxu. Their cultivation was at least at the Quasi-Soul Sect level, and traveling in this environment was not easy for them. However, Kong Tianxu followed behind Xu Yunxiao at a steady pace, without showing any signs of fatigue or fear. It seemed that this was not his first time entering the Star Dou Great Forest.
Xu Yunxiao's warning quickly became a reality. The group hadn't gone far when suddenly, Xu Yunxiao stopped in his tracks, and black tide surged on the Xuanming Shield.
Ghostly figures emerged from the dense forest from all directions, gathering towards the group of eight. These figures moved with incredible speed, traversing the forest without making a sound, and quickly surrounded Kong Tianxu and his group of eight as if they were organized.