Amaterasu Brings Warmth (Please Keep Reading)

Lu Xinjin stared blankly at the Advisor before him, who was so frantic he could barely speak clearly.

"Hiss, the Marquis Mansion? That thing can stand up?"

"Don't panic. I've been a city lord for decades. What haven't I seen?"

"As my Advisor, you're panicking over such a tiny matter!"

"I'm starting to question whether letting you join the City Lord's Mansion was the right decision!"

Lu Xinjin casually grabbed a coat from nearby and draped it over himself. Without even putting on shoes, he headed up to the observation deck to see what was going on.

He had assumed some Soul Master was causing trouble, but the sight before him left him utterly stunned.

Its head was the Marquis Mansion itself. Blue flames burned within its two doors, which were presumably its eyes.

Its body was made of jade, White Spirit Jade. It was extremely expensive and had excellent Soul Power conductivity, so many Soul Engineers liked using it to carve Core Arrays.

Moreover, it felt warm and smooth in one's hand, and its pure white color carried an air of elegance, making it highly sought after by many nobles.

Lu Xinjin's mouth fell open as he looked up at the giant before him. He recognized at a glance that it truly was the Marquis Mansion.

After all, no building in all of Xilu City could match the Marquis Mansion's splendor.

Nor did this giant emit the aura of a Soul Beast, or even any trace of life. It was simply a pile of moving stones.

"I've lived this long, and this is the first time I've ever seen something like this."

As far as Lu Xinjin could see, quite a few Soul Masters had already surrounded and attacked the bizarre giant.

The strongest among them was a Soul King with two yellow and three purple Soul Rings. Among independent Soul Masters, that was considered one of the finest configurations.

Watching the Soul King hold his own against the giant, Lu Xinjin roughly gauged its level of strength.

"Its strength and defense are at the Soul Emperor level, but it's far too slow."

"It only looks intimidating!"

"Watch me crush it with brute force!"

"Martial Soul Possession!"

Lu Xinjin flung off his coat and immediately activated his Martial Soul. His muscles swelled, his body abruptly expanding to two and a half meters tall as brown fur covered him.

The optimal configuration of two yellow, two purple, and three black Soul Rings revolved around his body.

His Martial Soul was the Great Strength Vajra Bear, the same Martial Soul Zhao Wuji had possessed Ten Thousand Years Ago.

Then his Fifth Soul Ring began to glow, and the bizarre giant was directly bound in place, unable to move.

White Spirit Jade began to crack with an ear-splitting sound.

This was his Fifth Soul Skill, Gravity Crush.

Soon after, his sixth Soul Ring flashed fiercely. He gathered strength in his legs, then leaped violently into the air, the immense force instantly destroying the entire observation deck.

Countless clouds of dust drifted over the city with the western wind, while Lu Xinjin transformed into a brownish-yellow meteor hundreds of meters above the ground and smashed viciously toward the bizarre giant.

This was his signature Soul Skill, Meteor Fall.

No Soul Master of the same rank dared receive this move head-on!

The bright yellow meteor pierced straight through the bizarre giant's head. Countless precious timbers and rare jade stones from the Marquis Mansion were blasted across the entire city.

With that blow, even the Marquis's corpse was gone.

The meteor smashed a crater hundreds of meters wide and ten meters deep into the ground. The core district of Xilu City seemed to have endured an eighth-level earthquake and was reduced directly to ruins.

Lu Xinjin shook the dust from his shoulders in the crater without even looking back. He was certain that he had destroyed the bizarre giant's head and most of its body.

If that thing could still move, he would eat every piece of jade on the ground right there.

However, he did not know one thing: the bizarre giant was a pseudo-living creature created by Huo Yuhao using the Spiritual Endowment Soul Skill.

What drove its movements was not a brain, but the Spiritual Power within its body.

Therefore, even after its head and most of its body had been blown apart, the bizarre giant did not stop moving.

It swung its only remaining massive hand viciously at Lu Xinjin.

Lu Xinjin's Spiritual Power screamed warnings. His pupils suddenly contracted.

He hurriedly activated his First Soul Skill, Immovable Ming King Body.

Golden Light blazed from his body. With both palms raised toward the sky, he desperately withstood the bizarre giant's huge hand.

Lu Xinjin was truly enraged now. His second and fourth Soul Rings lit up in succession.

Both were enhancement Soul Skills. Under the tremendous self-enhancement, Lu Xinjin tore apart the bizarre giant's hand.

Then he watched helplessly as the bizarre giant hopped on its one remaining leg and crashed into the City Lord's Mansion.

Watching the City Lord's Mansion he had painstakingly built over most of his life become ruins in an instant, Lu Xinjin felt no different from a dead man.

Some people died at sixty and were not buried until one hundred and twenty.

"Aah!!!"

"My Medicinal Herbs, my treasures!!!"

Lu Xinjin dropped to his knees and howled at the sky. His City Lord's Mansion stored the wealth he had accumulated over the years by relentlessly exploiting Xilu City.

Much of it consisted of living Rare Herbs, as well as treasures such as Whale Rubber.

The items stored inside Storage Soul Tools should be fine, but everything that could not be stored inside was probably ruined.

At that moment, Lu Xinjin felt that he had wasted most of his life. He had no idea how long it would take to squeeze these losses back out of Xilu City's commoners.

Meanwhile, the Spiritual Power inside the bizarre giant had been exhausted, and it returned to being nothing more than a pile of dead matter.

From a distant high-rise building, Huo Yuhao watched everything coldly.

Then he activated Kamui and arrived behind Lu Xinjin.

Sensing someone behind him, Lu Xinjin turned and roared angrily.

"Damn it, can't you see I'm in a foul mood right now?!!"

Huo Yuhao could not be bothered to waste words on him.

"Tsukuyomi!"

"Amaterasu!"

Tsukuyomi struck instantly, slicing him into mincemeat with blades in the mental world.

In the real world, Amaterasu ignited his body.

Extremely high-temperature black flames burned across Lu Xinjin's body. His Soul Power rapidly drained away, while his Martial Soul slowly emerged behind him and let out a mournful cry.

He was now suffering simultaneous torment of both mind and body.

Huo Yuhao deliberately used Kagutsuchi to control Amaterasu, making it burn Lu Xinjin's Soul Power before his flesh so that he would not die too quickly.

Lu Xinjin felt as if he were in Hell. No, compared to this place, Hell was practically paradise.

He did not even know which pain had made him scream.

Perhaps it was the mental pain, perhaps the physical pain.

Before long, he could no longer make a sound. His Soul Power had been exhausted, leaving him unable to resist Amaterasu's flames, and Amaterasu began burning his flesh.

The extreme heat instantly destroyed his vocal cords before slowly turning him into a charred lump.

Huo Yuhao extinguished Amaterasu with Kagutsuchi, leaving behind Lu Xinjin's remains as a warning.

The reason Huo Yuhao wanted to kill him was because this human-shaped creature did nothing but inhuman things.

After Passion Sect was established, many merchants had voluntarily come seeking protection and paid a large sum of money.

Even some commoners had paid in hopes that Passion Sect would protect them.

Naturally, Passion Sect did not charge commoners exorbitant fees. It only charged five Silver Soul Coins per quarter, then had them help Passion Sect handle miscellaneous matters each month. Passion Sect even paid them wages.

Through these merchants and commoners, Huo Yuhao learned that the taxes in Xilu City were so outrageous that even the U.S. Internal Revenue Service would send people here to study them.

Taxes here had already been collected a hundred years in advance, along with a pile of absurd taxes.

For example, rainwater tax, walking tax, sleeping tax, public toilet tax, and so on.

They came up with every possible method to sustainably bleed commoners and merchants dry.

As for resistance, it was not as though no one had tried. The result was Lu Xinjin's exceptionally brutal Gravity Crush.

So whether for Passion Sect to flourish here or for the sake of his own moral bottom line, this beast could not be allowed to live.

As for the other three Soul Saints, Huo Yuhao planned to visit them one by one and bring them some warmth.

If they knew what was good for them, Huo Yuhao could let them become city lord. In Xilu City, whoever had the bigger fist became city lord. The Heaven Dou Empire was merely an organization that issued certificates.

Shrek only cared whether the new city lord would continue paying tribute. If they were willing to do so, Shrek could not be bothered to interfere.

Lu Xinjin had become city lord precisely because he killed the previous one and was willing to pay tribute to Shrek.

If they did not know what was good for them, then Amaterasu truly was quite warm as well.

As always, thank you, everyone, for keeping up with the story and for the monthly tickets. This little rat will keep sticking his butt out, OzR.