If the Blue Silver Emperor absorbing life-attributed plants scored a hundred points, and life-attributed animal Soul Beasts or plants without life attributes that wouldn't harm one's origin scored eighty, then...
The Datura Snake probably scored around fifty. After all, a Soul Master needed more than just a Martial Soul; their own physical condition mattered too.
The silver shuttle snake probably wouldn't even score twenty. It had nothing but drawbacks and not a single benefit,
whether it was the weak boost its body gave a Soul Master, the increase in Martial Soul evolution from an incompatible attribute, or the Soul Skill it might produce. It was all a complete mess—not even worth looking at.
Gu Yue pulled two silver shuttle snakes from their nest, one large and one small. The larger one was over five hundred years old, while the smaller one was only ninety.
She quickly made her way to the path Yu Xiaogang would take and lay in wait.
As she waited, she thought of something, and an odd smile crept across her lips.
"How did Xiao Tian smile in his past life again?
Heh heh heh? No, no.
Gah gah gah? Still wrong.
Heh heh heh? Even worse."
"Ke ke ke, that's it, that's the feeling. Ke ke ke, ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke..."
After laughing for a while, she suddenly felt something was off. She hastily reined in her smile and put on a serious expression again.
She thought to herself:
"Uh, I'm the mighty Silver Dragon King. How could I be so frivolous? I must have been influenced by memories from my past life.
"Mm, the latter half of those memories is all from after I merged with Na'er, and quite a few of them are directly from my clone, Na'er.
"Damn Na'er. Even after being reborn, she still hasn't forgotten to influence my true self."
The beginner Soul Hunting Forest wasn't very large. By sunset, Yu Xiaogang and Tang San had made their way, stopping and starting, into the mixed zone of ten-year and century-old Soul Beasts.
Luo Sanpao walked ahead, sniffing here and there and swishing his tail as he occasionally let out a couple of oinking squeals.
Maybe it was because of his farting Soul Skill, but this fellow had a very keen sense of smell and could be used as a scout.
They happened upon a century-old poison frog. Luo Sanpao immediately stopped, his eyes wary as he let out a low call to alert his master.
They'd come across similar situations plenty of times on the way. Gangzi casually glanced over, then immediately understood what he was looking at and, out of habit, began reciting from the Soul Beast compendium.
"A Arrow-Tongue Poison Frog. Judging by its size and the color of the spots on its skin, it's probably over a hundred years old but under two hundred.
"This Soul Beast is highly aggressive, but it's generally only interested in insects. Unless you enter its territory, it won't bother anyone.
"Unfortunately, its poison is rather ordinary and only useful for defense. Otherwise, it would qualify as your Soul Ring.
"Sānpaō, come back. We'll go around it."
As Yu Xiaogang explained, Sanzi offered him a look of gratitude and admiration at just the right moment.
He was genuinely quite satisfied, too. Being apprenticed to different types of teachers led to vastly different treatment. This teacher was clearly the sort who was willing to guide his juniors, and he wasn't bad-tempered either.
He really had been lucky.
Once Gangzi finished, Tang San hurriedly asked:
"Teacher, could a poison frog also become a Soul Ring for Blue Silver Grass? It's an animal Soul Beast, but my Martial Soul is a plant. Wouldn't that cause a conflict?"
Curious about Soul Master Martial Souls and Soul Rings, he couldn't help asking questions as soon as they came to mind. He was eager to learn.
Yu Xiaogang smiled faintly.
"Do you remember what I told you yesterday?
"Among the Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul that I've researched and proposed, there's one called..."
"The Martial Soul Mimicry Theory."
"Exactly, the Martial Soul Mimicry Theory. Xiao San, you have a good memory.
"Plant Martial Souls don't necessarily have to absorb Soul Rings from plant Soul Beasts, and the same goes for Beast Martial Souls.
"Under certain conditions, the two can be interchangeable.
"Blue Silver Grass may be useless, but precisely because it's so weak, it doesn't develop any resistance. It can only passively absorb the attributes of any Soul Ring attached to it.
"That makes it a perfect fit."
"That's because life attributes naturally have the ability to carry other attributes and can coexist with most of them without interfering with one another, right?
"Besides, poison attributes are precisely one of the few that can't coexist. The two would only wear each other down. Either the former would wipe out the latter, or the latter would extinguish the former."
Gu Yue couldn't help grumbling inwardly.
"Still, if you're teaching Tang San, by all means, lay it on thick. I'd even applaud you if you gave Blue Silver Emperor a fire attribute.
"Too bad that, stupid as Bie San is, he probably wouldn't accept a fire attribute. Otherwise..."
Before long, the two finally reached the ambush site.
The silver shuttle snakes naturally had little scent, and a layer of spiritual power had sealed away every trace of their aura. Luo Sanpao didn't notice a thing as he walked straight over their heads.
Gangzi led Tang San along the safe route Luo Sanpao had scouted, sticking closely to it and rarely straying.
Nothing happened as Yu Xiaogang passed by. But the instant Tang San put his foot down,
the five-hundred-year-old silver shuttle snake shot out of its hole under Gu Yue's control, bursting through the grass above it and lunging at Tang San's calf with blinding speed.
The moment its fangs pierced flesh, it injected poison—nearly half its maximum supply.
Gu Yue had calculated that if she used more than that, Bie San might croak on the spot. Besides, she had to save some for Yu Xiaogang, too, to give him a little surprise.
The master and disciple had to share the rain and dew equally.
After landing its strike, the silver shuttle snake didn't hesitate for an instant. It immediately darted away, darting along like a shuttle and tracing a graceful arc.
Only when it felt it had reached a reasonably safe distance did it raise its head and watch them from afar.
The instant the silver shuttle snake sprang out, the film of spiritual power sealing away its aura and scent broke apart.
Tang San's expression changed drastically as he sensed Soul Power beneath his feet and heard a noise.
A professional assassin's instincts and vigilance were indeed far sharper than those of ordinary people—even ordinary Soul Masters.
But the silver shuttle snake had been less than thirty centimeters from his calf. Its carefully planned attack had erupted with astonishing speed. Tang San only noticed the movement after it had already happened, and there was no time to react.
The thought had only just crossed his mind, and before Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track could even activate, a sharp pain had already flared in the part of his calf richest in muscles and blood vessels.
Along with the pain came a tingling numbness that rapidly spread along his meridians and blood vessels, up his entire leg.
As a Soul Beast, the silver shuttle snake's poison was naturally no ordinary poison. It was a Soul Power toxin.
It could spread throughout the body through either Soul Power or the blood.
"Not good. It's poison—and highly toxic."
Without even seeing or identifying the exact kind of snake, Tang San felt the swelling around the wound and how quickly the strange sensation was spreading. His heart jolted again.
As an expert in poisons, he knew all too well how terrifying a toxin with this rate of spread could be. One wrong move, and his life could be in danger.
Bie San had no time to think. His fingers immediately jabbed sharply at several spots around his knee, thigh, and upper leg, quickly sealing his meridians.
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