Scarlet's Sword Soul

Hearing that the Sea Emperor had resolved the matter so quickly, Scarlet was taken aback for a moment before speaking, "Our Heterochromatic Eye Clan, ordinary members can skip one major rank to absorb a sword soul, which is a leap of seven minor ranks. But I am stronger, I can skip ten minor ranks. My current sword soul strength is at the Peak-rank God Pinnacle, and ten minor ranks above that is the Three-Star Half-Step True God."

"What powerful supernatural abilities!" Liliath exclaimed from the side. She always envied others, but in reality, her special eye ability was what was truly enviable.

"If I acquire the sword soul of a three-star Half-Step True God, my Combat Strength should be Four-Star Half-Step True God. At that time, Gu Ding, your ranking on the Black Iron Prodigy Ranking should not be higher than mine." Scarlet held her sword with both hands, pretending to be an expert.

"Then we won't help you look..." Gu Ding chuckled, touching his nose.

"No, I was just kidding." Scarlet couldn't keep up the act anymore; he hadn't expected Gu Ding to pull this stunt.

"By the way, what is that Black Iron Prodigy Ranking?" Gu Ding couldn't help but ask.

Upon hearing this, not only Scarlet, but also Liliath and Dokter looked at her with disdain.

"Yeah, what's that Ranking List? I've never heard of it before." Elsa chimed in, managing to ease Gu Ding's embarrassment.

"Gu Ding, what are you doing? Don't you even know about the Black Iron Ranking List? Elsa only knows how to eat all day, it's normal that she doesn't know about this ranking, but how could you not know about it?" Liliath made an excuse for Elsa.

"Uh, maybe it's because I spend most of my time cultivating." Gu Ding scratched his forehead with one finger, muttering to himself, "Does being a glutton absolve me of responsibility?"

"Alright," Liliath thought about it carefully, and it seemed that Gu Ding did indeed spend most of his time cultivating. She had no choice but to reluctantly accept Gu Ding's reason. "Then let's travel as we go, and I'll explain it to you as we go."

The group leaped onto the back of the Golden Skeleton and left the lake.

" In the Universe Sea, the highest publicly available rankings only go up to the Demigod Prodigy Ranking. These are rankings that even ordinary people have the authority to view. However, the rankings are not accessible to those below the god level. Only those whose cultivation has reached the god level can view them."

"There are five lists above the level of gods, from lowest to highest: the Black Iron Prodigy Ranking, the Bronze Prodigy Ranking, the Silver Prodigy Ranking, the Gold Prodigy Ranking, and the Platinum Prodigy Rising Cloud Ranking. The Black Iron Prodigy Ranking consists of Low-rank God. The Bronze Prodigy Ranking consists of higher-level gods, and so on. The Platinum Prodigy Rising Cloud Ranking corresponds to Half-Step True God. This ranking should have existed since ancient times, hence the names from Iron to Platinum."

"From the Iron to the Gold Level Ranking List, there are only three thousand spots. Only the three thousand strongest people in the Universe Sea can be included in the list. The Platinum Prodigy Rising Cloud Ranking, on the other hand, has ten thousand spots, which is the biggest difference. Moreover, the Platinum Prodigy Rising Cloud Ranking is not open to those below the Half-Step True God level; only Half-Step True God have the authority to view it."

"These lists don't actually contain much information. They only show names, ages, genders, and cultivation levels. They don't even indicate the factions affiliations of or the specific strength levels."

"Although I haven't seen this list, I personally think that with our current strength, we should have no problem ranking in the top fifty of the Black Iron Prodigy List. As for Gu Ding, he should be able to secure a spot in the top ten. After all, unlike demigods, Low-rank God have five minor ranks. We are currently only at the one-star level, while most people on the list should be at the five-star level. Once Gu Ding reaches the Five-Star Low-rank God, he will definitely be number one."

When Liliath said this, she had no idea that Gu Ding was already number one on the Black Iron Prodigy Ranking, and that she herself was also among the top ten.

"My opinion is similar to Lily's." Dokter nodded in agreement, clearly familiar with the list. "It's said that the top fifty on the Black Iron Prodigy Ranking all have the strength of Half-Step True God, so we should all be able to rank in the top fifty."

"Only in the top fifty..." Elsa puffed out her cheeks, clearly dissatisfied with the result.

Two days later, guided by the Sea Emperor, the group arrived at a canyon.

"Scarlet needs to find the Sword Soul. Deep in this canyon, there is a three-star Half-Step True God vengeful spirit who cultivates the sword path, and its Sword Dao Domain has already reached the Lesser Enlightenment Realm the Clarity Realm, which is the highest level of Sword Dao Domain I have searched for. However, before that, we need to clear out the other vengeful spirits, which number about 200,000. If I'm not mistaken, a small-scale battle should have taken place here, which is why there are so many vengeful spirits gathered here."

The Sea Emperor didn't find the vengeful spirit practicing swordsmanship very easily, because he simply followed the aura of Sword Dao Domain. Throughout the entire ruins, there were only about three hundred locations possessing the aura of Sword Dao Domain; after eliminating locations according to cultivation level, he easily found the canyon.

"Thank you so much!" Scarlet's words of gratitude came from the bottom of his heart, because his strength was closely related to the strength of his sword spirit. Although he had improved his cultivation level before, his Combat Strength hadn't actually increased much because his sword spirit was still the same. But if he obtained this sword spirit, not only would his Combat Strength increase, but even his Sword Dao Domain would improve, and the benefits to his overall strength would be self-evident.

"Let's start cleaning now!" Liliath was full of energy; these vengeful spirits were like nourishment to her.

Riding on the back of the Golden Skeleton, the group charged into the canyon. Liliath 'Purgatory Fire swept out, and wherever it passed, the vengeful spirits vanished.

The soul power of Yi Dudu continuously fed back into Liliath's body through the Purgatory Fire. With the enhancement of her eyes, her Purgatory Fire could now even kill One-Star Half-Step True God, which could be described as extremely domineering.

Gu Ding didn't interfere in Liliath's battle; only Liliath and Dokter were involved on the back of the Golden Skeleton. However, Dokter used his throwing knives to kill those who had slipped through Liliath's fingers.

The Golden Skeleton carried the group deeper and deeper. In less than four hours, most of the more than 200,000 vengeful spirits were killed by Liliath. The remaining less than 20% of the vengeful spirits chose to scatter and flee after witnessing Liliath's massacre.

Reaching the deepest part of the canyon, the group finally saw the colossal vengeful spirit, tens of thousands of meters tall. It still wore a black robe, floating without feet, but with one arm gripping a black longsword that appeared to be formed from ethereal matter. Above its platinum mask, Black Hole eye sockets gazed towards their location.

Without the slightest fear, Scarlet Soared into the air and flew towards the vengeful spirit.

When they reached within a hundred meters of the vengeful spirit, the spirit suddenly moved, its long sword slashing towards the Scarlet, causing Gu Ding to frown.

Gu Ding was about to help, but was stopped by the Sea Emperor. "Don't panic, let him handle it himself. Only step in if he really can't manage!"

Seeing Scarlet's next move, Liliath exclaimed in surprise, "What is he doing?!"

Scarlet completely ignored the vengeful spirit's attack and continued flying to a height level with the spirit's face, its eyes meeting the spirit's eyes.

Just as the black longsword was about to fall, the vengeful spirit suddenly stopped.

Gu Ding and the others looked at this scene with some confusion, completely unaware of what had happened.

Only Liliath noticed that a faint Black Radiance had flashed in Scarlet's eyes just now, so small as to be almost imperceptible. She continued to silently observe Scarlet's movements.

What happened next was also terrifying, because everyone saw that Scarlet opened its mouth, and the vengeful spirit turned into black mist and flew into Scarlet's mouth.

This scene felt somewhat familiar to Gu Ding, as it was exactly the same as the previous instance of a vengeful spirit possessing him. However, the difference was that this time, Scarlet actively absorbed the vengeful spirit, while last time Gu Ding was completely forced into it.

What happened next was something Gu Ding and the others couldn't see from the outside; it occurred within the Soul Space. They only saw Scarlet hovering in mid-air with her eyes closed, much like Gu Ding's previous experience.

Within the Scarlet Soul Space, a vengeful spirit tens of thousands of meters tall was present, but it was now bound by countless black chains.

The vengeful spirit kept letting out piercing roars and struggling frantically, but all to no avail. Occasionally, one or two chains would break, but new chains would immediately be added to bind it tightly, leaving only a masked head exposed.

Within the Soul Space, a gigantic eye slowly floated towards the vengeful spirit, a beam of white light shooting from it and sweeping across the creature. The spirit's aura gradually faded, and within the eye, a dark shadow slowly took shape. After a long while, the shadow within the eye slowly raised its head, revealing itself to be the shrunken version of the vengeful spirit that had been sealed away.

Scarlet walked towards that eye, and two beams of white light shot out from the eye and entered Scarlet's eyes. In Scarlet's mind, one memory scene after another appeared.

After a long while, he placed one hand on his pupil. The vengeful spirit sealed within the pupil was slowly released, returning to its original size, but its aura was clearly different.

"Things went fairly smoothly. I got the inheritance, and the sword soul transformation was successful." Scarlet muttered to herself before withdrawing her consciousness from the Soul Space and returning to her physical body.

Seeing that Scarlet suddenly opened her eyes, Gu Ding and the others quickly gathered around.

"How did it go? Did it succeed?" Liliath was the first to ask.

"If I fail, my body will be possessed by that vengeful spirit." Scarlet smiled faintly. "My Combat Strength has increased a lot, but I still need some time to practice adapting to this powerful Combat Strength."

Unbeknownst to Gu Ding and the others, the moment Scarlet opened her eyes, Scarlet ranking on the Black Iron Prodigy Ranking outside the ruins had jumped from eighteenth to second...

~~~

[Third update delivered. It's so cold. I'm going downstairs to the supermarket to buy another blanket... yeah~~] (To be continued...)