Their hands clasped.
In the unseen realm, the Heavenly Phoenix Martial Soul, which had been incessantly chirping in urging cries, finally settled within Leng Yaozhu's phoenix eyes...
A different kind of affinity arose between their palms, like the balance between life and death.
Heavenly Phoenix Douluo greatly enjoyed this contact on the level of Martial Souls.
She even wondered whether she might possibly form a Martial Soul Fusion Skill with the purple-haired boy before her.
Ever since they had met, she had noticed that her Heavenly Phoenix Martial Soul's reaction to the Amethyst Dragon Martial Soul was strikingly similar to the Martial Soul compatibility resonance recorded in textbooks.
Yet the thought flashed through her mind and vanished without further consideration.
Because of planar suppression, once all Soul Masters reached their limits, Martial Soul Fusion Skills were no longer possible.
For this, one could refer to the legendary pair of Spirit Ice Douluo and Winter Butterfly Douluo in the Spirit Pagoda's historical records.
After receiving power transmissions from Dragon Emperor Douluo and Death God Douluo, they had both reached the cultivation of Super Douluo. Though their Martial Souls possessed one hundred percent compatibility, they had still been unable to combine them into a Martial Soul Fusion Skill even once under the plane's restrictions.
Even setting aside the plane's restrictions, in terms of personal feelings...
Leng Yaozhu would never cultivate a Martial Soul Fusion Skill with any man, unless that man was—Yun Ming.
Of course, compared to Heavenly Phoenix Douluo's turbulent inner thoughts...
Long Zijin appeared exceptionally calm, even with sorrow in his eyes. "Phoenix..."
"Now that we're friends, can I call you Yaozhu?"
That question startled Leng Yaozhu out of her absorption in the Martial Soul's changes.
"This..."
If such a young child had called her by a pet name under normal circumstances, she would certainly have refused outright. After all, her status as vice tower master stood here.
But when she looked up at the blond man in the upper right, a Quasi-God, then at this peerless genius with Ultimate Strength before her, both of whom would soon fall under her command...
Leng Yaozhu simply steeled herself and nodded warmly. "Of course, Zijin."
She immediately struck while the iron was hot and asked, "Then may big sister ask where exactly you come from?"
She had been asking the Holy Dragon King that question all along, but she had never received so much as a single reply.
"Dragon..." Long Zijin had almost said Dragon Tomb, but then felt it was inappropriate.
So he gave the location of Dragon Tomb instead. "Star Luo Continent."
"Star Luo Continent?" Leng Yaozhu pondered briefly.
She immediately thought of the Mountain Dragon inheritor who had recently risen to fame among Star Luo's young Soul Masters like the sun at noon: the fourth prince, Long Yue.
Thus, she widened her eyes. "You're from the Star Luo Imperial Family?"
But Long Zijin shook his head, hesitating slightly. "No. Um... I can't tell you that for now."
"Hah..." Though Leng Yaozhu was somewhat disappointed, she maintained her smile. "It's all right. Everyone has their own secrets. Sorry for being presumptuous."
"Next, I'll arrange identity cards and accommodations for the two of you as soon as possible. Is there anything else you need my help with?"
At this point, Long Zijin finally revealed another purpose for visiting Shrek City, aside from searching for a second Soul Spirit: "I want to trouble you to find a treasure herb."
"Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng."
That was right. Finding a second god spirit was merely the grand long-term goal of this trip to Shrek City.
The urgent matter was obtaining a treasure-herb-grade Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng to forge the Third God Ring.
As everyone knew, Lovesick Heartbreak Red possessed three great traits: reversing life and death, testing true feelings, and remaining undefeated and imperishable.
After becoming a Martial Soul, shaping rings around those three traits could produce three God Rank soul skills.
Among them:
The mouthful of crow's blood deep within its flower core could become the world's greatest support-type soul skill, capable of reversing life and death.
The spiritual illusion contained within Crow-Absolute Stone could become the world's greatest control-type soul skill, striking directly at one's true heart.
Once the flower bloomed, its trait of remaining imperishable alongside heaven and earth could become the world's greatest defensive soul skill.
The first God Ring had been formed after he signed a Soul Spirit contract with the Goddess of Love, using her help to shape Lovesick Heartbreak Red's life attribute into the First God Skill.
The second God Ring had been formed at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, where he obtained another Lovesick Heartbreak Red and had the Goddess of Love reclaim a trace of her obsession from before her divine fall, thereby shaping a spiritual-attribute Second God Skill.
The third God Ring...
Long Zijin was now nearing level thirty in Soul Power cultivation, yet he no longer had a hundred-thousand-year Lovesick Heartbreak Red to assist him. Therefore, he could not shape the ability to remain imperishable alongside heaven and earth into the Third God Ring and Third God Skill.
But the difficulty of making a meal without rice could not stump the Dragon Emperor, who possessed world-shaking wisdom.
He found a solution in the Tang Sect's Mysterious Heaven Hundred Treasures Record and Biography of the Seven Gods.
—Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng.
A dragon-type treasure herb of the gemstone variety, it was exceptionally compatible with the Amethyst Dragon Martial Soul.
Most importantly, according to the records, Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng of the seventh to ninth grade could complement twelve-grade Lovesick Heartbreak Red, each assisting the other.
Therefore, Long Zijin merely needed to find a treasure-herb-grade Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng and replicate the steps Tang San had used to help Xiao Wu cultivate an indestructible diamond body.
By then, not only would he be able to shape the Third God Ring and obtain the Third God Skill.
He could also raise the Flower Immortal Body from a Second-Level God's Legacy to a First-Level God's Legacy, reaching the same level as Thunderous Hell-Prison Vine.
According to the plan Long Zijin had made while still in Dragon Tomb...
He had originally intended for the Sun Lineage of the Xu Family to have the Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng fully prepared before they guided his dragon soul through divine descent.
That way, the instant he successfully reincarnated, he could complete the Flower Immortal Body and attain the perfect level of a "First-Level God grade."
But things did not go as planned.
The Sun Lineage was restrained by the White Tiger Lineage and simply could not conduct a large-scale search.
Thus, Long Zijin could only join the Spirit Pagoda and place his hopes on Heavenly Phoenix Douluo, whose influence was greater, to obtain this urgently needed herb.
That was the second of his three major objectives in visiting Shrek City.
"Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng? And it must be of the seventh to ninth grade..."
Leng Yaozhu found herself in a difficult position.
She could not help asking, "Do you need it very urgently?"
Long Zijin answered, "Yes. My constitution still has flaws. At minimum, I need a Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng to make up for them."
Leng Yaozhu nodded. "I'll do my best to find one as quickly as possible, but whether I can find it... that can only depend on fate."
"Because this kind of treasure herb has only appeared once in our continent's historical records, and it came from an external force—the Tang Sect's Min Hall. That was twenty thousand years ago."
Long Zijin nodded to show his understanding and gave her reassurance: whether or not she found the Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng, he and Old Di were already members of the Spirit Pagoda.
"If there's nothing else, I'll first take the two of you to the high-class residential district." Leng Yaozhu rose to her feet.
"No, no." Long Zijin shook his head. "Could you take me to the forging room first? I'll need to use it for quite some time."
"No problem. This way, please." Leng Yaozhu led the two of them out of the reception room.