Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine

"I'm not sure about the specifics, but there are some rumors that Miss Tang Ya's Blue Silver Grass seems to be especially good at controlling elements. They say that's also why Director chose a Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine as her Soul Beast. Mental strength is an important measure for Soul Masters who work with elements."

"After all, she's the only daughter of the Director of the Crafting Bureau. These are just rumors circulating among us Spirit Hall employees. Director surely wouldn't want Miss Tang Ya to enter the Soul Master World so soon. The fact that the Crafting Bureau failed to keep them completely under wraps is already a major blunder."

Huo Yuhao paid no attention to the latter part of Wang Hong's words, but he might have already figured out something about Tang Ya's Martial Soul.

One half of the Dragon God, the Silver Dragon King, who excelled at controlling elements!

Huo Yuhao instinctively felt there was some connection between the two, but this insignificant clue alone wasn't enough for him to make a judgment.

After all, in the Divine Realm, the Silver Dragon King was nothing more than a distant legend.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence.

Huo Yuhao tried to toss the unnecessary thoughts out of his head. He'd better think about how to complete the task ahead.

"Brother Sky Dream, Brother Sky Dream, are you awake?"

After several months, Huo Yuhao finally woke Sky Dream again. The moment he entered his Sea of Consciousness, he was greeted by a steady snore.

"Hm...? Who's calling me?" Sky Dream opened his eyes groggily and let out a huge yawn. Honestly, this was the most comfortable sleep he'd had since those guys captured him in the Star Dou Forest—even more comfortable than the time he'd slept in the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Marrow.

Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness was filled with an immense amount of high-quality spiritual power. The bed made from it was as soft as a cloud, and not only was it springy, it also nourished the soul and mental strength Sky Dream had depleted to seal away his Soul Power.

Honestly, he was starting to think he didn't want to share this haven with the other Soul Beasts.

"Brother Sky Dream, I need your help. I've encountered a very troublesome spirit-type Soul Beast, and I'm worried I might not be able to handle it..."

"A spirit-type Soul Beast? You can't handle it even with the Soul Ring I gave you?" Huo Yuhao's words immediately piqued Sky Dream's interest.

A spirit-type Soul Beast? Was there really one on this continent stronger than Sky Dream Ice Silkworm?

See? When Huo Yuhao ran into a tough situation like this, wasn't he thinking of Sky Dream first?

"Tell me about it. What's this Soul Beast like?" Sky Dream said, reclining on a lounge chair凝聚from spiritual power.

"This Soul Beast is called a Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine, a variant of the Ghost Vine that specializes in spiritual power. Its body is so fragile that even an ordinary person could injure it, but despite being only a hundred years old, it can threaten a Soul King."

"A Soul King... As far as I remember, your human Soul Masters can already absorb Soul Rings produced by Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts at that level, right?" Sky Dream thought for a moment. Huo Yuhao nodded.

"Mm... Yuhao, you've run into a tough one!"

Sky Dream's tone had turned markedly serious, and he stopped lounging so casually.

"A hundred-year Soul Beast that can threaten a Soul Master with a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring... I can't say I've seen many of those. Back in my homeland, the Far North, there would only be two possible outcomes."

"Either it would grow into a ruler capable of dominating the entire frozen wasteland... or its whole species would be wiped out by the wasteland before it could mature."

"Yuhao, you might not be able to imagine just how absurdly powerful the Soul Beast you described is..." Sky Dream thought for a moment, then continued:

"A human Soul Master with a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring is roughly equal to a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. In other words, a hundred-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine can match a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. If it were allowed to grow into a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, I can guarantee it could dominate a Soul Beast gathering place where Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts live, and might even threaten several of them at once!"

"Honestly, you're unbelievably unlucky to have run into one... If Soul Beasts like this really existed, then even a tribe of Ten-Year Soul Beasts would be purged by those guys, let alone a hundred-year one. Their very existence threatens the entire Soul Beast habitat."

After hearing Sky Dream's words, Huo Yuhao fell silent.

He'd only come to ask Sky Dream for some advice, but he hadn't expected such serious consequences to be lurking behind this.

"Forget it. This isn't something you need to worry about right now. Anyway, you're trying to hunt this Soul Beast, right?" Sky Dream shifted around. He didn't want to get dragged into this. He had a god to create, and what the hell did the balance of the Soul Beast Realm have to do with him?

Had the Soul Beasts who'd treated him like a lump of Soul Power to absorb ever cared about him?

Instead of worrying about that, he might as well help Huo Yuhao figure out how to deal with the thing.

"Let me think. Your Spirit Genesis God currently has three effects: Spirit Detection, Spirit Deceleration, and Spirit Acceleration, right...? From what you've said, that Soul Beast's main ability is creating lifelike illusions, but illusions actually come in two types."

"One type is attached to the real world, where those who enter the illusion remain conscious. The other is attached to the spiritual world, where those who enter it are generally unconscious in the real world."

As he explained, Sky Dream used spiritual power to make two little human figures, one awake and one asleep, so Huo Yuhao could understand more easily.

Huo Yuhao nodded repeatedly to show that he understood.

"Based on your description, I think the illusion the Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine uses is probably a combination of the two. First, it uses an illusion attached to the real world to lure Soul Beasts and people closer. Once they're close enough, it switches to an illusion that exists in the real world. Its victims might realize they're inside an illusion, but by then, they've probably already been entangled by its vines and turned into nourishment."

"Although that sounds reasonable, I still have to remind you that this is only my guess. The real situation might be different, but it should work as a general reference."

As Sky Dream spoke, Huo Yuhao fell into thought.

Just then, however, Huo Yuhao and Sky Dream both sensed something was wrong.

The Sea of Consciousness trembled faintly. It might have been hard to notice by feeling alone, but inside the Sea of Consciousness, spiritual power magnified the tremor into ripples visible to the naked eye.

The source of those ripples was a strand of spiritual power trying to break in!

"Yuhao, Yuhao!" Wang Hong held the unconscious Huo Yuhao in his arms. The two of them were inside a transparent Bubble, while outside it, countless thick, dark-green branches were straining to pierce the seemingly fragile Bubble.

Nearby lay the unconscious Sky Soul Horse, along with the Soul Guidance Flying Carriage, which had been smashed to pieces.