Flowers bloomed in two places, each telling its own tale.
June 18th.
Deep within Shaolin Mountain, Chen Yu and Chen Jianjun, grandfather and grandson, had arrived two days ago at a gathering place of Azure Gale Grey Wolves, only to find that all the wolves there had vanished. There were leftover carcasses from the wolf pack's meals, and judging by the situation, it had been at least half a year.
They could only search for other Wind Attribute soul beasts. After two days, they had gained nothing. Never mind that soul beasts in these rugged mountains were not so easy to come across; even when they did, the age was either too high or too low. After all, beasts around fifteen hundred years old were not something one could just happen to find.
"Jianjun, how about this? We'll look around here again today. If there's nothing suitable, tomorrow we'll go to Da Lin Mountain. The mountains there are taller and more perilous than Shaolin Mountain, and there are more canyons too. If it's avian soul beasts, there should be more there than here."
The two talked as they walked, arriving at the edge of the mountain forest.
"All right, Grandpa. I'm sure I'll run into something even better."
Before his words had faded, an eagle's cry suddenly rang out, and the figure of a flying bird lunged over from the distance at high speed. It was a Great Peng, cyan all over, with only its beak and claws a bluish purple.
"Jianjun, this is a mutated Wind Shadow Peng, a Lightning Wind Shadow Peng. Its main attribute is wind, with lightning as a secondary attribute. To judge its age, you only need to look at its wingspan. This one is about one zhang five or six chi long, roughly five meters, making it around sixteen hundred years old. It's just right for you."
The Wind Shadow Peng itself was an upper-rank avian species. It excelled at flight, was fierce and ferocious, and the sharp cutting nature brought by its Wind Attribute made it extremely dangerous and very troublesome to deal with.
As for the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng, the Lightning Attribute it brought not only greatly increased its speed, but also its attack power, raising it to another level. It could be called a king-tier existence among birds.
At this moment, in its eyes, that old man posed no threat at all, while this sturdy child standing one meter sixty tall seemed dangerous instead, so it first attacked Chen Jianjun.
"Yes. This is even better than a Shuttle Light Sparrow or a White-Headed Gyrfalcon. Grandpa, let me handle it myself first."
"Good. Then grandpa will look forward to seeing it." After Chen Yu finished speaking, he retreated several zhang.
Chen Jianjun was extremely excited. He then activated his martial soul. The Seven Kill Sword was four feet three inches long, three inches wide, and had a hilt one foot two inches long. It was a longsword with a bright silver blade, a blue spine, an ancient simplicity with substance to it, and a clear blue glow throughout, as though carved from crystal. Its killing intent was razor-sharp, and two yellow soul rings appeared around him.
"First Soul Skill, Sword Power."
Sword Power was a State Skill that increased a Soul Master's attack, strength, and Soul Power by 50%.
It happened in a flash.
Several hundred meters closed in an instant. A wind blade sliced over with the flap of its wing, sending grass and soil flying.
Chen Jianjun activated Sword Shadow Body, and the shadow of a sword appeared behind him. He flipped like a sparrowhawk, dodging the attack, then immediately struck backhanded, the sword cutting toward the Great Peng's wing, only for it to evade with a sideways flight.
Seeing this, Chen Jianjun released the Seven Kill Sword from his hand, sending it flying to stab at the Great Peng. In a split second, the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng turned, pecked the sword tip with its beak, knocked back the Seven Kill Sword, then swept its wings, sending several cyan feathers hurtling over.
Chen Jianjun recalled the Seven Kill Sword, blocking the feather attack with a horizontal blade. Blue light flashed beneath his feet as he launched Sword Step, arriving before the Great Peng in just a few steps, then chopped down with both hands in a move like Mount Tai crushing down from above.
At that dangerous moment, a small purple orb jutted out from the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng's beak and struck the sword. With a muffled bang, Chen Jianjun was bounced away and landed several meters off. Seizing this chance, it shot straight up a hundred meters into the clouds, then spiraled down in a dive.
"Second Soul Skill—Rigid Sword."
Rigid Sword. As the second yellow soul ring shone, the Seven Kill Sword enlarged by half, and the blue glow on the blade became even brighter. This soul skill enhanced the martial soul itself, making the Seven Kill Sword sturdier, sharper, and heavier with killing intent.
Chen Jianjun roared, "Slash!" He leaped upward, and the Seven Kill Sword in both hands cut out a half-moon-shaped blue sword beam that shot straight toward the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng. The sword beam was incomparably violent, yet also peerlessly sharp.
At this moment, the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng was only about twenty meters away from him. Seeing the sword beam slash over, another piercing eagle cry rang out. It fanned both wings, and specks of cyan light emerged around its body.
The instant the cyan light flared, a massive cross-shaped wind blade howled toward Chen Jianjun.
The two streams of Soul Power collided in midair and annihilated each other. Blue and cyan Soul Power scattered in all directions, and ripples of air surged out wave after wave.
Chen Jianjun retreated three heavy steps. It seemed that facing this top-tier soul beast alone still left him slightly at a disadvantage.
A breath later, the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng once again shot straight into the sky, then turned and madly beat its wings. One cyan energy feather arrow after another appeared around it, and immediately, a feather-arrow tornado Combination Skill three zhang in diameter condensed and spun, lunging toward Chen Jianjun. It was easy to imagine that if this incomparably sharp tornado struck him, Chen Jianjun would certainly be shredded into chunks of flesh.
Judging from its range, even the Old Master some distance behind Chen Jianjun was within the attack radius.
"Second Soul Skill—Rigid Sword Modified: Thousand-Mile Assault."
Chen Jianjun activated Sword Step's "Starfall Thunder Strike." Blue Soul Power surged over his entire body, forming a soul cloak that wrapped around him, greatly increasing both attack and defense. He advanced with ferocious speed, and the blue light of the Seven Kill Sword soared into the sky.
From this, one could see that Chen Jianjun, a strength-leaning Power Attack Type Soul Master, was a genius. Not only was his attack fierce, he could also draw inferences and improve his soul skills. As expected of a direct inheritor of the Seven Kill Sword.
Bang bang bang!
The two streams of Soul Power still canceled each other out. The shockwave surged several zhang away, and the nearby saplings instantly turned into streaks of powder, scattering with the wind. But according to the iron law that one never died amid dust filling the sky, Chen Jianjun merely dropped down and spat out a small mouthful of blood.
At the same time, although the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng's wings were in disarray, it charged upward again, wheeled around, and dove down. A third eagle cry pierced straight into the sky.
This time, its speed was even faster. Not only cyan light, but purple light too, formed a blue-purple tornado. Each cyan feather arrow danced with strands of purple lightning, its power clearly much greater than before. This was clearly wind and thunder erupting together, the skies changing color under their force. A wave of pressure swept over, making the old man's expression turn grave.
"Jianjun, that's enough. This beast is using its ultimate move. It'll be very hard for you to block it. Let grandpa do it."
As Chen Yu finished speaking, a deep purple soul ring flashed out from his body. This was already a soul skill of six or seven thousand years.
"Fourth Soul Skill—Sword Dance Lotus."
A lotus five zhang wide suddenly appeared above the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng's head. It was a sword lotus, appearing deep and vast, yet incomparably pure and noble.
Not only did the tornado around the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng vanish, it was also fixed in midair, unable to move. Because of the abrupt stop, blood burst all over its body.
Then the sword lotus slowly pressed down, and the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng fell to the ground with it. This was an offensive and defensive soul skill that locked on and suppressed. Fortunately, it was no longer very high above the ground at the time, or it might have fallen straight to its death.
It looked at the middle-aged man with crane-white hair and a youthful face who had suddenly appeared before its eyes, nine soul rings—"yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black"—spiraling out around him, and despair showed in its eyes.
Yes, Chen Yu was a Titled Douluo standing at the peak of Soul Masters, looking down upon all beneath heaven.
"Jianjun, regulate your breathing first, then come over and kill it to absorb the soul ring." After he spoke, grandpa brought the index and middle fingers of his right hand together and tapped twice. Pop, pop. A bloody hole exploded in each of the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng's wings. They were clearly crippled.
This was none other than the Chen Clan's Unparalleled Sword Finger, an inherited secret technique similar to the Six Meridian Divine Sword.
June 19th, evening.
When Chen Yu and Chen Jianjun hurried back, the family was eating dinner.
"Father, you're back." Chen Xun and Ye Xiuxin quickly stood to greet the Old Master.
"Hello, Grandpa. Brother, did you find the pack of Azure Gale Grey Wolves you had your eye on?" Chen Xiaojun looked at Chen Jianjun's expression. The result must have been pretty good!
"Haha, we didn't find the Azure Gale Grey Wolves, but we ran into something even better—a sixteen-hundred-year-old Lightning Wind Shadow Peng."
"A Lightning Wind Shadow Peng?"
"That kind of soul beast is extremely rare. It's pretty much one of the very top upper-tier soul beasts among those of the same rank—a Ninth Grade Soul Beast. You could call it king-level, inferior only to those legendary super-grade soul beasts. Your brother here nearly fell into its hands. If grandpa hadn't stepped in, I might not have made it back," Chen Jianjun said with a sigh.
"Then congratulations are in order. What powerful soul skill did it give you? Looks like you're pretty satisfied, Brother."
"Haha, of course I am. This top-quality thousand-year third soul ring not only made my Seven Kill Sword even sharper, but greatly improved my physique as well. Even without activating a soul skill, I'm confident I could cut through a tree as thick as two people with one sword strike.
"When I activate the soul skill, for ten minutes, my speed, attack, and strength increase by one hundred percent. It also carries both wind and lightning attributes—wind's cutting breakthrough, and lightning's destructive paralysis. My strength has risen greatly.
"Grandpa said that now I'm a Soul Elder, once I cultivate the Sword Control Technique in the future, the Seven Kill Sword empowered by this soul skill will be even faster and receive an even greater boost. Aside from some extremely fast Agility Attack Type Soul Masters, other soul masters—even those at the Soul Ancestor level—might not necessarily be able to dodge it." As his brother spoke, he couldn't help grinning.
"What a powerful soul skill," Chen Xiaojun praised.
Chen Xun laughed heartily. "Haha, son, congratulations. It really is a top-grade skill. From now on, you can fight both up close and from range, and it even carries two attributes. That's very rare."
"Father, please sit. Jianjun, sit down and eat first. Mom will add a few more dishes for you." Ye Xiuxin smiled until her eyes narrowed, then walked toward the kitchen.
"All right, enough small talk." Chen Xiaojun had been staring at Chen Jianjun the whole time, his eyes gleaming. "Did you bring back the Lightning Wind Shadow Peng's body?"
"Grandpa brought it. Why?"
"Mom, tomorrow our family's adding two roasted Great Peng wings—one secret-recipe, one mildly spicy!" Chen Xiaojun shouted toward Ye Xiuxin in the kitchen.
"..."
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