Douluo: My Martial Soul Is My Own Fiancee 37

"Reporting to the Marquis, yes."

Judging by the address, this was a Marquis of the Sun Moon Empire. Behind the Marquis stood a gaunt, middle-aged man, his eyes filled with absolute calm.

"Are you certain this lake can block that bitch's family's Guest Elder Xun?"

The Marquis looked at the clear water in the valley and spoke gloomily. How could this possibly be reliable?

Half a month ago, he had returned from the border defense line, intending to give his wife a surprise, but unexpectedly... his wife had given him a surprise first.

His wife was actually dallying with their own household guest elder. In a fit of rage, he killed the guest elder on the spot and confronted his wife.

His wife had been arrogant and overbearing, stating bluntly: "I have fallen for someone else, so what? Will you kill me? Do you dare?"

This sentence made him lose all control, and then, in a moment of impulse...

When his wife's blood splattered onto him, he finally realized he had done something he shouldn't have.

His wife's grandfather was a Duke! His own title as Marquis was inseparable from the help of his wife's grandfather.

The Duke doted on this granddaughter immensely; if he found out that he had killed her, he would definitely meet a miserable end.

As long as the Duke didn't find out, he could destroy the evidence and concoct a lie. It sounded easy, but the power of a Duke was not to be underestimated.

From what he knew, the Duke's household had a guest elder whose real name was unknown. The Duke usually referred to him as Guest Elder Xun. He was the Duke's right-hand man, a control-type soul master whose Martial Soul was a compass, yet he possessed several headache-inducing soul skills.

Tracking: Regardless of whether the target was dead or alive, as long as there was a medium—an object stained with the target's aura—he could find them. If the person was dead, he would find the location of the corpse; even if the body was disposed of, he would find the last place the corpse had appeared.

Retrospection: On the premise of tracking, if the target was dead, he could manifest the scene of their death.

You have to ask, why would a control-type soul master have such soul skills?

Of course, there were limitations: the soul power level of the person being tracked could not exceed Guest Elder Xun's by two major ranks.

Guest Elder Xun was a very secretive existence—in other words, he was the Duke's shadow. If not for his wife, he wouldn't even have known about him, though he had been fortunate enough to see him once.

He was a sturdy old man, a Spirit Douluo, which meant his tracking soul skills could only target those at the Spirit Emperor level at most.

And his wife just happened to be a Spirit Emperor...

Two days passed quickly, and he was filled with worry and a splitting headache. It was then that the gaunt middle-aged man beside him found him and stated exactly what he had done.

Shock was inevitable, because he had clearly wiped out everyone who had seen the incident. Who would have thought...

Then, the gaunt middle-aged man told him he had a way to render Guest Elder Xun's tracking and retrospection soul skills useless.

More shock. He had mentioned that Guest Elder Xun was a shadow figure and that very few people knew about him, so... how did this gaunt man know?

But what other choice did he have? The gaunt middle-aged man was named Feng Wei, a Spirit Douluo, while he was only a Spirit Saint. With no other options, he agreed to Feng Wei's demands.

And so, Feng Wei brought him here.

"Of course, Marquis. Time will tell, won't it?" Feng Wei smiled hypocritically.

"Hmm."

The Marquis seethed with anger; this was essentially a scam! You say it, and I'm supposed to believe it? A mysterious land appearing in West Mountain after some bullshit ritual? He had grown up in Sun Moon City his whole life; how had he never heard of it?

However, he had no choice, as his life was in the other man's hands.

He hoped Feng Wei's method would work.

In reality, Feng Wei was also somewhat skeptical, as this was what a titled elder in the sect had told him. He was only responsible for guiding this young Marquis.

The Marquis said nothing more, taking seven sacks from his Soul Guidance Ring and tossing them into the center of the lake.

It wasn't just that pair of adulterers; it was everyone who had seen the incident back then.

Feng Wei extended a finger, black light shimmering, piercing through the seven sacks in succession as blood began to flow out.

The Marquis didn't ask; he just watched as the sacks sank into the center of the lake, the blood staining the water red.

"Marquis, let's leave as well. Otherwise, after an hour passes, we won't be able to get out." Feng Wei still trusted the sect elder.

"Fine, let's go."

With that, the two flew away.

A few minutes after they left, the lake rippled, and as the blood slowly faded, golden and silver light emerged.

When Huo Yuhao was drawn into the Valley of Love and Emotion, he had once thought of the legend of the Love God, one part of which stated: Because of her lover's betrayal, the Love God hated those who betrayed their feelings intensely. Once such a person fell into the Sun Moon Lake of the Valley of Love and Emotion, it would ignite her fury, thereby triggering the trial of love and emotion.

"Such a person"—his wife alone was enough.

She and the Marquis had once made vows of eternal love!

Moreover, among the guest elder and those killed for having seen the incident, there were inevitably others who were "such people."

Once the Valley of Love and Emotion was triggered, for an hour, as long as one was within West Mountain, neither god nor ghost could escape...

Just as the hour was nearly up, the elderly Spirit Saint brought Zheng Li and the others into West Mountain.

Crossing this West Mountain range would not have been fast even for the Spirit Saint alone, let alone while bringing Zheng Li and the others.

And so, the trial of love and emotion began.

Consciousness returned.

Zheng Li arrived in a translucent world where everything around him seemed to be made of gold and silver crystal. He was inside a bubble, standing upon a massive circular platform.

It matched up with Zheng Li's hazy memories.

There were eight platforms beneath his feet in total, but the people were not all present.

Of the five members of the Holy Cult who had kidnapped them, only the Spirit Saint elder was there.

Seeing him, Zheng Li felt a bit puzzled; he remembered that those who were too old would be judged as having no possibility of romantic love, right? Wasn't that the case for Elder Xuan?

Actually, he had misremembered; in the original story, Elder Xuan was the first to be eliminated, and that was the reason why. However, Xian Lin'er and the other Sea God Pavilion elders who were present at the time had not mentioned it.

It was just that Nan Qiuqiu and Jing Ziyan were also there at the time, though they had gone through a different trial of love.

Neither Tian Meng nor the Ice Emperor in Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness had escaped it either.

So, were they treated according to different categories?

Were the others not placed in the same category as Zheng Li?

Zheng Li was not sure.

In fact, the other four from the Holy Cult had already been eliminated; the judgment given by the Valley of Love and Emotion was simple: no true self!

Other children of the same age as Zheng Li were placed into a different category because they had no lovers.

Zheng Li scanned the bubbles on the other circular platforms.

He discovered that, apart from the Spirit Saint elder, Wang Xin'er, the two middle-aged men, and the middle-aged woman were all there.

Two question marks seemed to appear on Zheng Li's forehead.

"Does this little girl Wang Xin'er, who isn't even eight years old, have to be questioned about love too?"

Could it be that this little girl had a lover?

If she did, at this age...

Hmm...

What was he doing when he was seven years old?

Chapter 44, touch it again...

"This little girl... isn't she awake?"

Zheng Li was surprised when he looked at the bubble where Wang Xin'er was, because her eyes were closed and she hadn't opened them once, making Zheng Li have to wonder if she had fallen asleep.

No sound could be transmitted from within the bubbles.

At this moment, a dense golden mist appeared, and a golden light resembling the hour hand of a clock emerged from the center of their circular platforms, immediately beginning to rotate.

"Random selection? There isn't even a prompt?"

After Zheng Li muttered this, the golden light stopped at the small circular platform where the Spirit Saint elder was.

The bubble on the small circular platform rose and shattered.

"Valley of Love and Emotion, Truth or Dare, begin."

A calm voice rang out, neither male nor female... it was impossible to distinguish the gender.

"Do you have someone you love? If you do not answer within three seconds, the punishment is death."

The Spirit Saint elder's withered face was filled with shock; he found that he could not use his Spirit Power at all.

Hearing the question from this calm voice, the Spirit Saint elder thought of Zheng Li's words; that child seemed to know something, should he listen?

"Three seconds have passed, the punishment is death!"

At this moment, the calm voice spoke; although it was calm, it carried a cold tone.

Unfortunately, the others could not hear their conversation, nor could they see each other.

The Spirit Saint elder: "!!?"

He hurriedly opened his mouth to say something, but a flash of gold and silver light flickered, and the Spirit Saint elder's body simply vanished, leaving nothing behind...

In a dreamlike space of gold and silver, dense dual-colored mist almost filled the entire area.

Within the mist was a blurry figure, its form hazy, let alone being able to see its face clearly.

The figure muttered to itself: "Setting aside the disgusting power, didn't he also cheat multiple times before his wife ran away..."

The voice was the same as the one in the transparent space; it was impossible to distinguish between male and female, it must have been the same voice.

"Continue..."

The clock-hand-shaped golden light rotated rapidly once more, and after stopping, it landed on the middle-aged woman.

Golden light shone, the small circular platform rose, and the bubble shattered along with it.

"Do you have someone you love?"

"Hm?" The middle-aged woman was slightly stunned.

"Do you have someone you love? If you do not answer within three seconds, the punishment is death." The calm voice asked again.

At this moment, she also thought of Zheng Li's words; should she tell the truth? But...

She glanced at her husband in another bubble, and after a moment of silence, she replied: "Yes."

"Who is it?"

"Chen Biao."

As the middle-aged woman's voice fell, another small circular platform rose amidst golden light. The middle-aged man inside the bubble heard their questioning, and after the bubble shattered, the man named Chen Biao landed on the small platform. He looked around in a daze before his gaze landed on the middle-aged woman, and he exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Wife!"

Hearing his wife say she loved him, he was naturally happy.

At the same time, he knew clearly that this mysterious place could not be resisted.

This was because his own Spirit Power and Martial Soul were sealed, and even more so, because of his helplessness.

The middle-aged woman gave him a forced smile, and seeing this, he had a bad premonition...

Sure enough...

The calm voice continued to ask: "Is it him?"

"Yes."

"Is he the person you love the most?"

After this question was asked, the middle-aged woman froze, unable to speak for a moment.

"If you do not answer, the punishment is death."

The middle-aged woman remained silent, and seeing his wife like this, how could Chen Biao not understand? His heart sank to the bottom of the abyss.

"Must you ask such a cruel question?" the middle-aged woman demanded.

"If you do not answer within three seconds, the punishment is death." The calm voice had grown much colder.