Can You Really Just Cut Off Your Ancestors' Fight?

Qin Zhaoye lay behind the slope, the bronze scroll in his palm opened a crack. Line after line of golden annotations from the Eye of Historical Observation surfaced.

Beside a rotting log at the foot of the slope lay a Thousand-Year shadow-type Soul Beast, its dark brown fur almost blending into the night.

"It hides by slipping through shadows in the woods, then bites from a blind spot when its prey takes a breath?"

Qin Zhaoye murmured the words, then closed the pages. "No wonder it's ruled the Western Suburbs Hunting Ground for years. Even an ordinary Soul Elder would have to give it a wide berth."

As if it had sensed a stranger's presence, the spot beside the rotting log was suddenly empty.

The beast's massive body melted into the shadows of the trees on the ground. It did not so much as bend a blade of grass, and in the blink of an eye, it was gone.

Qin Zhaoye stood without moving. The Ever-Bright Bamboo Slip Art circulated within him, and level twenty-nine Soul Power surged through his meridians, only a hair's breadth from the great hurdle at level thirty.

The first purple Soul Ring at his feet lit up.

"First-ring Soul Skill, Historical Brush Errata!"

Half a breath before the shadow of the old locust tree behind him stirred, several golden lines had already leaped onto the scroll's pages, marking the landing point of the shadowy claws' attack with perfect clarity.

A foul gust burst against the back of his neck.

Without looking back, Qin Zhaoye followed up with a flash of the second purple Soul Ring at his feet.

"Second-ring Soul Skill, Folded Page!"

His figure vanished into thin air. In the blink of an eye, he was behind an ancient pine a hundred feet away, perfectly positioned in the blind spot at the Soul Beast's flank, after its lunge had missed and before it could muster fresh strength.

Having missed its strike, the Thousand-Year Soul Beast's eyes blazed with vicious light. Its four claws shattered rock as it landed, and its body withdrew toward the tree's shadow again.

"You're inside my page now, and you still want to burrow into the shadows?"

Qin Zhaoye held down the scroll with his left hand. Historical Brush Errata played out the directions in which the Soul Beast might escape. While Folded Page was cooling down, he crushed a dry branch under his right foot and rushed in close.

Using the closed bronze scroll as a short cudgel, he brought it down hard on that tiny patch of ground where the tree shadows met!

Thud! The blow shook the Soul Beast out of the shadows and into view. Stung by pain, it opened its mouth and spewed a thick, inky black mist, sweeping a claw toward Qin Zhaoye's waist and abdomen.

Qin Zhaoye used the momentum to slide back half a step. Reaching into the case on his back with his left hand, he drew out a stack of torn cultivation manual pages he had recovered a few days earlier from a former-dynasty Soul Master's hidden cache in the western suburbs.

"I've spent a few days practicing the armor-piercing killing move from that former-dynasty cache. You'll do nicely for a test."

This killing move concentrated all the Soul Power in one's body into a single line of sharp force, making it ideal for piercing protective black Qi.

As the sharp claws swept toward him, Folded Page's cooldown had just ended, allowing him to activate it again. Qin Zhaoye flickered straight inside the black mist, closing in against the left side of the Soul Beast's chest.

The golden lines of Historical Brush Errata pinned down the faint rise and fall where the Soul Beast's chest met its abdomen.

"So this is the vital point where you breathe!"

Qin Zhaoye held two fingers together like a blade. Level twenty-nine Soul Power surged along the route of the killing move from the torn pages, condensing into an inch-long edge of dark gold at his fingertips. He thrust it fiercely into the Soul Beast's chest!

Puchi!

The protective black Qi tore apart, and the dark-gold edge pierced straight into the breathing nexus.

The Thousand-Year shadow-type Soul Beast's roar caught in its throat. Its massive body plowed a long furrow in the ground, and it died on the spot.

Soul Power flowed back into his meridians. Qin Zhaoye felt a thunderous jolt in his dantian as his Soul Power, already at the peak of level twenty-nine, filled completely and struck the great hurdle of level thirty full-on!

A deep purple Thousand-Year Soul Ring rose above the Soul Beast's corpse.

"Third ring, take your place."

Qin Zhaoye sat cross-legged on the spot and circulated his cultivation art, drawing the purple ring down.

Scalding Soul Power surged through his body. The level-thirty barrier shattered, and his cultivation climbed straight to level thirty-one. His third Soul Skill, "Chapter Severing," was engraved deep within the scroll.

He had only just opened his eyes and had yet to get up and test it when messages from the public chat appeared on the bronze scroll in his palm.

In the group, the long-distance battle of barbs between Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue had just passed its first round.

[Qian Renxue: Some people stamp their own death notice "read" and think that settles their defeat in the Battle of Godhood? You played a great hand all the way to total defeat, and you still have the nerve to criticize my moves.]

[Bibi Dong: You hid in the shadows reviewing mortal memorials for over a decade and never even reached the threshold of the divine trials. What qualifies you to talk about winning and losing? If you hadn't lost everything in Heaven Dou, how would Spirit Hall have come under attack from both sides?]

[Qian Renxue: At least my operation in Heaven Dou was watertight. Unlike the one in the Pope's palace, who couldn't even find out how many people around her harbored divided loyalties. And your grand plan for passing on your position was an even bigger joke!]

The two jabbed at each other from afar over the Angel God Roadmap and the death-notice post. The flames looked ready to spread to the old, unspoken grievance of their blood ties as mother and daughter.

Just then, Qin Zhaoye heard a flurry of movement from deep in the woods.

Another shadow-type Soul Beast of the same kind had followed the scent of blood. It sprang from behind a bush, saw that its companion was dead, and kicked off the ground with all four feet, pouncing through the air. Black light compressed rapidly in its throat, and its pouncing Soul Skill was about to blast down at him!

"Perfect timing. Saves me from finding another target to test it on."

Qin Zhaoye stood up. The third Soul Ring he had just acquired blazed purple at his feet.

"Third-ring Soul Skill, Chapter Severing!"

Chapter Severing was meant to cut off a Soul Skill an opponent was in the middle of using. If the opponent was more than ten levels above him, it could only delay them for half a breath. But the beast before him? It was only at the same level!

The bronze scroll snapped shut in midair with a crack, and the Soul Power circuit in the air was cut off outright.

The shadow-type Soul Beast jolted in mid-pounce. The ball of black light charged to its limit in its throat dispersed on the spot, and an entire Soul Skill was forcibly stuffed right back down its gullet.

The backlash from its Soul Power left it unable even to cry out. It plunged from the air and slammed its forehead hard against a bluestone. After it scrambled up, it tucked its tail between its legs and bolted into the depths of the forest, not daring to look back.

At that same moment, the public chat of the Myriad Ages Douluo Group flickered.

[Group Hub: Qin Zhaoye, the greatest source of deviation in the First Era, has been detected hunting for his third Soul Ring at the Suotuo Western Suburbs Hunting Ground. The first live demonstration of his new skill has been automatically recorded, and the live footage has been posted in the public chat.]

In the footage, the Thousand-Year Soul Beast leaped into the air. The black light in its mouth had only just lit up when it went out, and the beast plunged stiffly into the mud.

Tang Wulin dragged the progress bar of the live footage back and forth. He captured the scene of the Soul Beast swallowing its Soul Skill and falling, frame by frame, and saved the screenshots in a newly created collection titled "Ancestral Operations Manual."

[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Holy shit! That Thousand-Year Soul Beast had its ultimate move charged all the way to its throat, and he just flipped his book and snuffed it out? Are our ancestors this reasonable when they fight? He says cut it off, and it's cut off?!]

Lan Xuanyu immediately pulled up the historical database and compared the records, then casually tossed the research post he had just typed into the public chat.

[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Just finished looking through the Soul Skill volume of the Official History of the First Era! There's no such hard-interrupt skill among Soul Elders in their early thirties anywhere in the official history! Other people can restrict movement at most, but he went and snipped the skill circuit outright. He's a caster's natural enemy, no question!]

Less than two seconds later, another message appeared from Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion.

[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: All three rings are purple, and he's got a divine skill that forces people to shut up. If anyone trades moves with him in the future, won't they suffer internal injuries from holding it all in?]

Deep in the Heaven Dou palace, Qian Renxue was staring at Bibi Dong's reply. She had already typed half a vicious retort into the input box, the kind that struck right at the mortal weakness between mother and daughter.

The live footage that popped up in the public chat caught her eye. She glanced at the Soul Beast whose attack had sputtered out in midair and gave a soft snort. "A rare and overbearing Soul Skill, I'll give it that."

She was just about to send the line bringing up her blood ties in the Pope's palace. And Bibi Dong? She too had already gone cold-faced and was preparing to lash out.

On the mountain path back, Qin Zhaoye glanced at the public chat. The smell of gunpowder was about to cross the line. If the quarrel continued, wouldn't the mother and daughter's old grievances be dragged out before the whole group? So he raised a hand and checked "lock topic" on the moderator bar.

[Group Leader: One topic per session. Please book a separate session for blood-tie disputes.]

In the Pope's palace, Bibi Dong looked at the notice that the offshoot thread had been locked and muttered coldly, "A separate session, is it?"

Deep in the Heaven Dou palace, Qian Renxue deleted the words in the input box one by one. Though she and Bibi Dong were ten thousand miles apart, each of them had taken note of this debt in the history books.

After Qin Zhaoye put away the moderator bar, a line of golden text appeared on the scroll.

[Golden notice: Popularity settlement for the First Era Soul Ring hunt livestream and the interrupt-skill research post. Group Leader credited with 400 Talking Capital.]

After tonight, the Western Suburbs Hunting Ground had one fewer Thousand-Year overlord. And him? He was now a level thirty-one Soul Elder with three rings.

Suotuo City's west gate was just ahead when Qin Zhaoye suddenly heard a succession of notification chimes from the bronze scroll in his palm!

[Group Hub: The new archaeology session topic, "Future Roster of the Shrek Seven Devils," has reached the popularity threshold for opening. A roster preview is now available!]

In the center of the public chat, seven names flashed past side by side: Tang San, Xiao Wu, Dai Mubai, Oscar, Ma Hongjun, Ning Rongrong, and Zhu Zhuqing.

In a dormitory at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy, Tang San saw his own name in first place. His gaze moved down and fixed on the second name, right beside his.

Xiao Wu.

How could he not recognize that name? But how could the little girl who had shared Dorm Seven with him for six years and followed him around calling him "brother" every day be on the Shrek Seven Monsters' roster, and in second place at that?

He hesitated for a while, then typed a line in the group.

[Tang San: Who is this "Xiao Wu"?]