Petrifying Martial Soul

A towering ancient tree appeared in Luo Hao's field of vision. Ten people holding hands could barely encircle its trunk, and it stood dozens of meters tall, its branches and leaves blotting out the sky.

Luo Hao abruptly stopped and let go of Mu Yu Die. His expression turned grave as he stared at the ancient tree, his face shifting between light and shadow as if he were facing a major decision.

Zhao Xin, Di Ya Lan, and Hu Long came to a halt in front of the tree. Their expressions also changed slightly, as though they all knew this place was far from ordinary.

Shi Yan furrowed his brows and stared at the enormous Sky Gazing Tree in silence.

Luo Hao drew a deep breath and turned to face everyone. In a low voice, he said, "The road to the right of the Sky Gazing Tree sees very few demonic beasts. Most caravans and Martial Artists crossing the Gloomy Forest choose that route. It's very safe; even when you run into demonic beasts, they're usually low-level ones, like first- or second-level beasts. And it's closer to the Merchant Alliance, only about ten days away."

Zhao Xin and the others nodded lightly, clearly familiar with the situation.

After a pause, Luo Hao's expression turned solemn. "But the road to the left of the Sky Gazing Tree is completely different! It's much longer, and demonic beasts roam everywhere. Plenty of desperate Martial Artists and mercenaries also haunt it. Anyone bold enough to take that road is no easy mark. Living amid danger for so long, those people act without restraint and answer to no one. If we go that way, we'll have to watch out not only for demonic beasts but also for those reckless Martial Artists and mercenaries. Especially since our party has two beautiful young ladies..."

"Hmph! If anyone dares set their sights on me, I'll cut off every hope they have!" Di Ya Lan made a slicing motion with her left hand, her beautiful eyes gleaming with cold light.

"Uncle Luo, what do you mean?" Zhao Xin asked cautiously.

"If we take the safe route on the right, the people from Dark Nether will catch up again in a day at most. Then we'll have another hard fight on our hands." Luo Hao's face darkened, and he spoke with helplessness. "Who knows if we'll be so lucky next time? What's more, their reinforcements may have arrived. If we run into them again, we could be in serious danger..."

"What if we take the left?" Hu Long chimed in.

"Demonic beasts roam the left-hand road, and ruthless Martial Artists and mercenaries show up all the time. We'll face the beasts and might also be attacked by Martial Artists driven nearly mad by the pressure. But Dark Nether will face the same dangers," Luo Hao said. "They have a bad reputation. There may not be many people in the Blazing Fire Empire who dare oppose them, but out there, they'll have no shortage of enemies. If they happen to run into a high-level demonic beast, their whole group could be wiped out..."

Luo Hao laid out the situation, then gave his opinion. "If we take the right, we won't be attacked by demonic beasts or other Martial Artists, but we'll face the major threat of Dark Nether. If we take the left, we'll face attacks from beasts and Martial Artists, but Dark Nether could fare even worse than us. We may have a better chance of escaping if we go left."

"Let's go left!" Mu Yu Die decided at once.

"All right." Luo Hao nodded immediately, then gave Shi Yan one last look. "Little brother, you can still leave now. If you don't go soon... it'll be too late."

"I'm going with you." Shi Yan had already made up his mind. There was a reckless streak in his nature; otherwise, he wouldn't have spent ten years immersed in extreme sports, those games of death.

When Luo Hao spoke of the dangers to the left, Shi Yan had already felt excitement stirring within him.

Luo Hao nodded and waved them on. "All right, let's go. From this moment on, everyone stays twice as alert!"

An hour later.

Mo Chao Ge and the Martial Artists of the Mo Family also stopped in front of the Sky Gazing Tree.

"Second Uncle, which road will they choose?" Mo Yan Yu asked.

"I'll pursue them on the right. If I haven't returned in two hours, follow me. If I still haven't caught up with them by then, they must have taken the left." Mo Chao Ge thought it over, told the others to wait there, then sped off alone along the left-hand road.

An hour and a half later, Mo Chao Ge returned with a dark expression. "I haven't seen a trace of them. They actually dared take the left. Everyone, be careful! Demonic beasts and madmen roam that road, so don't let your guard down. Remember, don't make enemies of those Martial Artists and mercenaries lightly. Anyone who'd risk their life for money by hunting demonic beasts is a desperate lunatic. They don't fear death, so don't provoke them."

"Yes!"

"Let's go!"

Three Sabertooth Rhinos ambled along the creek. They were third-level demonic beasts, their backs shimmering with silver light and their tusks jutting from their mouths like swords. Ferocious gleams shone in their fist-sized brown eyes. Their hides were caked in thick mud, a natural layer of armor so hard that ordinary blades couldn't cut through it.

The three Sabertooth Rhinos stopped now and then to drink from the creek, their fierce eyes sweeping their surroundings as if searching for prey.

In the trees not far away, Luo Hao gestured for everyone to stay quiet.

Only after the three Sabertooth Rhinos had slowly moved off did Luo Hao let out a breath of relief. "Sabertooth Rhinos are third-level demonic beasts, equivalent to Martial Artists in the Human Realm. They move with incredible speed, and their tusks are razor-sharp. A low-level Martial Artist who gets rammed by one will either die or be crippled!"

Shi Yan's icy gaze lingered on the Sabertooth Rhinos as they disappeared. His expression showed that he was more than interested in taking them on.

"Our goal this time is to protect Xiao Die, not hunt the demonic beasts here. I hope everyone keeps that in mind and doesn't go looking for trouble." Luo Hao seemed to have guessed what Shi Yan was thinking and casually reminded him.

Shi Yan grinned and nodded to show he understood.

"Let's go. We need to be careful here. Don't rush, and keep an eye on our surroundings. Avoid running into demonic beasts or Martial Artists whenever possible, and spare ourselves unnecessary trouble." Luo Hao gave another reminder, then led the way onward.

Night fell quietly.

Beside a large, leafy tree by the creek, Zhao Xin and the others spread out, watchful as they scanned their surroundings to make sure no demonic beasts would suddenly appear.

Shi Yan sat cross-legged on the damp ground, his expression solemn.

A fierce urge to kill coiled through his heart like clouds of smoke, leaving him desperate to vent it. The vital essence he had obtained from the two Nether Star Envoys had reached the critical point of purification, making him restless and irritable.

Luo Hao stayed at Mu Yu Die's side, watching Shi Yan with a constant frown, afraid he might do something out of the ordinary.

Mu Yu Die's expression was cool and detached. She watched Shi Yan for a while, and when his face began to twist into a ferocious expression, she slowly sat down and placed her zither across her graceful, curved legs. Then she began to play.

As soon as the zither sounded, the restless thoughts rising in Shi Yan's heart seemed to be soothed by a cool, strange force. They slowly ebbed away.

Holding his breath and concentrating, Shi Yan circulated his essence and began his cycle of cultivation.

An hour later, a warm current welled up from the acupoints throughout his body.

Shi Yan jolted.

He suddenly felt as if his body were desperately hungry. This time, the strange power that surged from his acupoints had not yet reached the essence in his lower abdomen before his muscle cells and bones absorbed it. The warm current flowed into his flesh and bones, taking root there.

In just a few breaths, the strange warmth from his acupoints had spread throughout his flesh and bones, leaving him utterly astonished.

A thought stirred, and Shi Yan tried to sense the warmth deep within his flesh and bones.

"Boom!"

A thunderous roar echoed in his mind. The next instant, Shi Yan suddenly felt his body undergo a strange transformation.

He flung his eyes open in shock and discovered, to his horror, that his exposed arm was slowly turning ash gray.

Petrification!

Shi Yan stared in stunned disbelief. He hurriedly stopped thinking about the strange change and withdrew his awareness from his body.

At the shift in his thoughts, his body, which had nearly turned to stone, quickly returned to normal, its skin once again the color of ordinary flesh.

He quietly focused his gaze ahead and saw Luo Hao and Mu Yu Die whispering behind a tree not far away. They hadn't noticed him.

Relieved, Shi Yan's eyes glimmered with delight, and he chuckled inwardly.

The signs of his body turning to stone clearly meant the Shi Family's Petrifying Martial Soul had awakened!

This Martial Soul belonged exclusively to the Shi Family. As one's cultivation advanced, it would grow ever more powerful, until eventually the body could withstand blades and bullets and remain unafraid of violent surges of essence.

Shi Yan had thought he'd been born without this Martial Soul. He never expected it to awaken suddenly after he broke through to the Innate Realm. He was overjoyed.

The Petrifying Martial Soul was extremely useful in battle. Once petrified, his body would be as hard as stone without losing any agility, enough to raise his strength by a considerable margin.

Besides petrification, he had already confirmed that his body possessed another ability: the Undying Martial Soul, which could heal him. The two Martial Souls complemented each other. If he cultivated them to their limits, even he couldn't imagine what astonishing state his body might reach.

"That's not right!" Shi Yan furrowed his brows, thinking to himself. "Don't Martial Souls usually manifest soon after birth? I'm already seventeen, and mine can still awaken? That's strange. Could it be connected to the strange energy leaking from my acupoints?"

Vaguely, he realized that the gradual awakening of his two Martial Souls—the Petrifying Martial Soul and the Undying Martial Soul—might be connected to the blood in the blood pool and the changes in his acupoints.

Shi Yan felt that the strange warm current welling out of his acupoints seemed capable of stimulating the Martial Souls within him. At the thought, his blood seemed to boil, and he nearly wanted to roar aloud to express his excitement.

Martial Souls were innate. They usually grew stronger only as one's cultivation advanced. Beyond that, there were almost no other ways to increase their power.

Martial Souls were the talent Martial Artists took the greatest pride in, and a key factor in determining their strength. Martial Artists practiced hard and sought breakthroughs in the hope that their Martial Souls would grow stronger. But...

Even when one's cultivation advanced, a Martial Soul's growth was limited by all kinds of restrictions.

On the Divine Grace Continent, even the legendary God Grade alchemists could barely refine pills that worked on common Martial Souls. Those pills were the rarest and most precious divine treasures on the continent, and existed only in legends.

Yet even those pills could only strengthen a Martial Soul by a limited amount. Martial Souls were innate talents—not something that could be easily changed.

But the strange warm current flowing from Shi Yan's acupoints seemed to defy the laws of heaven and earth. It appeared to be capable of catalyzing Martial Souls and strengthening this innate ability!