Northern Sun Moon Empire, outskirts of Tantu Forest:
Tantu Forest, in the northern part of the Sun Moon Empire, was the empire's second-largest Soul Beast forest. It faced the empire's largest forest, Evil Demon Forest, in the south. The forest bordered the northern sea and had a cold climate year-round. Most of the Soul Beasts living there were highly resistant to the cold. Though its powerful Soul Beasts were no match for those in Evil Demon Forest, they were still forces to be reckoned with.
Even at Kong Dehan's flying speed, it took him three full days of rushing at top speed with Xu Mochen before they reached their destination. It was a pleasant valley filled with birdsong and flowers, with mist curling around the surrounding mountains. The valley was lush with plants, and precious medicinal herbs were everywhere. A spiritual spring cascaded down the mountainside, striking the rocks below and sending up a series of pleasant splashes.
At the very center of this valley, which looked like a fairyland, stood an enormous ancient tree that towered into the clouds! Only after Xu Mochen landed in front of it did he realize that the tree's interior had been converted into a research laboratory!
Kong Dehan politely approached the towering ancient tree, gently knocked on its door, and called out, "Old Cang, open up. As agreed, His Highness the Crown Prince is here. If you keep putting this off, I'll be the first to object!"
"All right, all right, I'm coming. What's the hurry? I've still got a pile of experiments to finish." As a somewhat languid voice came from the treehouse laboratory, its door slowly swung open, revealing an old man wearing square glasses and a white lab coat.
The old man looked to be in his seventies or eighties. His hair and beard were white, he was balding, and his face was stern and weathered. Yet his eyes were as deep as a vast galaxy! Though he stood only about five feet tall and was slightly hunched, he somehow gave off the feeling that he was hiding tremendous power. Xu Mochen even sensed an invisible pressure coming from him!
This old man's strength must be extraordinary! Even if he's a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast who has taken human form, he must have at least rank 90 strength by now! Xu Mochen thought to himself.
The old man known as Old Cang first glared at Kong Dehan in annoyance, then grumbled, "Old Kong, I'm not trying to be difficult, but you're wasting your time! Artificial Soul Rings? A seven-year-old kid probably doesn't even understand the principles behind Martial Soul cultivation. And now he's dreaming up wild ideas? I've been researching Artificial Soul Rings for ages. If I could make one, I would've done it already! Why would I need this brat to remind me?"
Without waiting for Kong Dehan to argue, the old man turned to the seven-year-old Xu Mochen standing beside him. "So, little fellow, you're the one with the wild ideas... What!"
Had he not looked closely, the old man would have merely glanced at this presumptuous "young lord" out of curiosity. Instead, he was immediately stunned. He seemed to become a different person altogether, striding straight up to Xu Mochen without a word and scrutinizing him from head to toe. His sharp gaze seemed as if it would pierce right through Xu Mochen, making him feel distinctly uncomfortable.
"Old Cang! You mustn't be rude to His Highness the Crown Prince!" Seeing this, Old Kong flew into a rage and was about to step in. But the old man had already backed away a few steps on his own, then gently closed his eyes and began thinking in silence, as if he had entered a deep state of cultivation, sensing something carefully.
After more than ten seconds, the old man slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of stale air. Just as Kong Dehan and Xu Mochen were wondering what was going on, he slowly said, "No wonder you bear the inheritance of the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King! It seems the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King has an heir worthy of carrying on his legacy! Old Kong, you told me your Martial Soul was only the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon! If you really have inherited some of the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King's legacy, then perhaps you really can help me."
Xu Mochen wasn't surprised by those words at first. Instead, he tentatively glanced at Kong Dehan beside him. A flash of shock crossed Kong Dehan's face, and he could only shake his head with a wry smile. "As expected of a top talent in genetic and soul research. I'd planned to tell you all this when the time was right, but it seems there's no need now."
Only then did Xu Mochen react, surprise flashing across his face. His Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King Martial Soul had been disguised using a secret art taught by his ancestor! No matter how capable someone was, even if they were a powerful Soul Master with an intimate understanding of the Sun Moon Empire's Martial Soul inheritance, seeing his Martial Soul would only make them take it for the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon! And besides, he hadn't even released his Martial Soul yet!
Yet this old man, who had met him less than two minutes ago, had seen through his true Martial Soul with a single remark! He had thought Kong Dehan had told him the secret, but now it was clear that Kong Dehan had kept it from him!
The old man had seen through the true Martial Soul concealed by his ancestor's concealment art. That was terrifying! Could it be that, like the "Grandmaster" in the original story, who guessed Tang San had Twin Martial Souls based on his Innate Full Soul Power and Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, he had simply gotten lucky?
Grandmaster had guessed that Tang San had Twin Martial Souls, and his reasoning was bizarre: Blue Silver Grass was extremely weak, yet Tang San had Innate Soul Power, so he must have another Martial Soul capable of granting him Innate Full Soul Power! But the entire Douluo series made one basic principle clear: the two Martial Souls of any person born with Twin Martial Souls had to be similar in quality!
Although Xu Mochen still didn't know why the Martial Souls of those born with Twin Martial Souls had to be so similar in quality, one thing was certain: no one born with Twin Martial Souls could have one Martial Soul with almost no Soul Power—a Trash Martial Soul—and another that was a top-tier Martial Soul with Innate Full Soul Power!
The original story also said that Tang San himself knew his Innate Soul Power came from the Mysterious Heaven Skill. Before his Martial Soul Awakening at six, Tang San had felt that his cultivation of the Mysterious Heaven Skill had inexplicably hit a bottleneck and could go no further. It could be concluded that his Martial Soul had not yet awakened, creating a bottleneck in his Soul Power cultivation. As a result, after Tang San cultivated his Innate Soul Power to that bottleneck, he made no further progress!
So all that could be said was that Grandmaster had been absurdly lucky! But Tang San knew where his Innate Soul Power came from, and he knew Grandmaster had guessed the truth about his Twin Martial Souls by sheer luck. Yet he still pretended to be convinced by "Grandmaster's" theory about Twin Martial Souls. The significance behind that was worth pondering.
Facing Xu Mochen's somewhat appraising and doubtful gaze, the old man simply smiled calmly. "What? You think I guessed right by luck? Your Martial Soul was disguised so well, so how could I see through it with a single remark? It's actually not that difficult to explain. I once met your ancestor, the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King! He may not have paid any attention to me, and might not even remember me, but I still remember his uniquely proud will to this day. I see a shadow of him in you."
He spoke calmly, yet his words left Xu Mochen and Kong Dehan deeply shaken: this ten-thousand-year-old Soul Beast who had taken human form had actually met their ancestor! This was the first time Kong Dehan had ever heard him mention it! Judging by his age, their ancestor had descended upon the Sun Moon Continent a little over twenty thousand years ago. Given the old man's cultivation, he really could have met their ancestor back then!
But the founding ancestor of the Sun Moon Empire had been as elusive as a divine dragon, glimpsed only in passing. Even the imperial history of the Sun Moon Empire recorded very few people who had truly seen him in person. In many cases, the ancestor had communicated with the outside world by sending out a wisp of his soul. If Old Cang really had met the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King, then he had certainly been extraordinarily lucky.
As if he had noticed the astonishment in their eyes, the old man patiently began telling his story. "My Soul Beast form is the Cangming Turtle. I can walk on land, swim in water, and fly through the sky."
"Though our clan isn't strong in battle, we live long lives and have powerful defenses. We also have certain healing and enhancement talents. What's more, we can communicate with nature and absorb the essence of the sun, moon, and heavens. We also carry the bloodline of the Xuanwu clan, one of the Five Elemental Divine Beast clans. It's only a distant branch, and the bloodline is rather thin, but it's still something to be proud of."
"Though I have a hundred thousand years of cultivation, that doesn't mean I've actually lived for a hundred thousand years! Soul Beasts, like Soul Masters, can cultivate and draw Soul Power from the outside world to increase their strength. So almost all Soul Beasts have cultivation ages considerably higher than their actual ages! For instance, I'm only a little over thirty thousand years old."
"More than twenty thousand years ago, I was only a Soul Beast with fifty thousand years of cultivation. Back then, your human race was still living in clans, eating raw meat and drinking blood. At the time, the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King was leading two women to Tantu Forest to hunt Soul Beasts, and I happened to run into the three of them there.
"Among those three powerful beings, the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King had suppressed his cultivation to rank ninety-something, while the two women had only just reached rank seventy. They had come to find suitable Soul Rings! Unfortunately for me, my Cangming Turtle form could absorb the essence of the sun, moon, and heavens. I was practically a perfect match for the women's Blazing Sun and Silver Moon Martial Souls! And with my cultivation at just the right level, absorbing my Soul Ring would have been no trouble at all with the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King's help!"
"Just when I thought I was doomed and had completely lost hope, the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King saw that I carried the bloodline of Xuanwu! Perhaps he had a close relationship with the Xuanwu clan. In the end, not only did he spare my life, he used his divine power to awaken more of my intelligence. He spoke with me for quite some time and taught me a great deal about humans. That was when I first learned about the colorful world beyond the forest. It was also then that I began thinking of taking human form, venturing into the outside world, and seeing a different world beyond the great forest!"
"Later, after I had grown into a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast and taken human form, I officially entered the human world and enrolled in a human school, where I studied all kinds of advanced knowledge. My interest in researching Soul Masters and Soul Beasts led me to pursue that field. Of course, for my research and experiments, I also made many trips to explore the Soul Beast forests throughout the Sun Moon Empire."
"Then, once while exploring Evil Demon Forest, I ran into the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign's son: an Evil Eye Tyrant with six thousand years of cultivation. That fellow saw through my true identity and wanted to kill me and use me as a tonic! If Kong Dehan hadn't happened to show up with this person and helped me escape, I'd probably have left my life there."
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