When that warm energy flowed into his Martial Soul Origin, a sudden transformation took place!
The power of light that had originally dwelled within the shadow seemed to have found the most delicious nourishment imaginable, and began devouring the energy like mad.
Ye Feng's Shadow Martial Soul began to surge violently. The shadow itself grew deeper and more solid, as though it could devour all light.
Meanwhile, the light within it erupted in a dazzling golden radiance unlike anything before!
It was no longer an ordinary gold, but one imbued with a sacred, imposing, inviolable quality, as though it were the very heart of the sun!
Ye Feng could clearly feel that, just as his teacher had said, the light attribute of his Martial Soul had improved by at least twenty percent!
This was practically a divine treasure!
After a long while, the light faded, and everything returned to stillness.
Ye Feng slowly opened his eyes. A pure gold gleam flashed across them.
"How do you feel?"
Yue Guan asked.
"Better than ever!"
Ye Feng stood up and respectfully bowed to Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo.
"Thank you, teacher and uncle, for bestowing this great fortune upon me!"
"Mm."
Ghost Douluo gave a single, quiet hum. His silhouette flickered, then merged into the shadows once more and vanished.
Yue Guan waved a hand.
"You're my only disciple. You deserve all of this.
Get some rest and consolidate what you gained today. Your uncle and I will head back first."
"I'll see you off, teacher! I'll see you off, uncle!"
Only after watching Yue Guan leave the courtyard did Ye Feng let out a long breath and return to his room.
After leaving the courtyard, Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo walked side by side along the quiet streets of Spirit City.
"Chrysanthemum Guan, you really plan to keep Xiao Feng hidden away like this?"
Ghost Douluo's hoarse voice sounded in the night.
Yue Guan stopped in his tracks and looked up at the bright moon hanging overhead. He let out a sigh so faint it was almost inaudible.
"Alas! Old Ghost, we've lost our freedom. Do you really want Xiao Feng to lose his, too?"
His voice carried a trace of sorrow and helplessness he could barely conceal.
"Besides, with Xiao Feng's talent, even if he absorbs a thousand-year second Soul Ring, he still won't earn His Holiness the Pope's attention."
"An innate soul power of level seven will never amount to much in her eyes. At best... he'll just be a specimen for Nana and Xie Yue to study!"
At the mention of "her," even Yue Guan's languid manner grew more restrained.
Ghost Douluo's figure wavered faintly in the shadows.
"Mm!"
That single word meant he agreed completely.
Ghost Douluo understood His Holiness the Pope's ways better than anyone.
"As for what comes next, we'll take it one step at a time."
Yue Guan returned to his usual lazy manner, as though the heaviness of a moment ago had been an illusion.
In his room, Ye Feng lay on the soft bed, sensing the changes in his Martial Soul as his mind raced through the possibilities.
His teacher and uncle Ghost Douluo had treated him with genuine kindness.
He had to repay that weighty debt of gratitude!
And the best way to repay them was to change the tragic fates they had suffered in his original life!
The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!
That was the only way to break the deadlock!
But how could he bring them there?
Storming in and taking it by force wasn't realistic. Even a rabbit would bite when cornered, let alone Old Poison, Dugu Bo.
If they drove him into a corner, he might choose to go down in a blaze of glory and destroy all the Immortal Herbs. Then Ye Feng wouldn't even have a place to cry.
Should he just negotiate with Dugu Bo?
Ye Feng shook his head. He dismissed the idea as soon as it came to him.
That would probably be difficult! He couldn't cure poison, and his teacher likely couldn't either!
Dugu Bo was suspicious by nature and a loner. Why would he trust a stranger who was also his enemy's disciple? And why would he share what he treasured most with someone else?
It seemed he could only plan things one step at a time!
First, and most importantly, he had to increase his teacher and uncle Ghost Douluo's strength!
Once they reached level ninety-six or ninety-seven, they could use their Martial Soul Fusion Skill, "Polar Static Domain." Tsk, the power of that would be unimaginable!
Even against a level-ninety-nine Peerless Douluo, they might still have a fighting chance!
But then there was another problem.
Immortal Herbs weren't necessarily enough to help them break through quickly. At the Titled Douluo level, advancing by even a single rank was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
They would also need Soul Bones! And insight! Of course, for a cheat like Tang San, what need was there for insight? He could just level up through divine trials—it was no different from eating or drinking!
With a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone to boost them, it'd be a done deal!
But for ordinary people, it was different.
If they couldn't gain insight, they'd have to force a breakthrough with a high-year Soul Bone!
And at the Titled Douluo level, Soul Bones under fifty thousand years weren't worth a damn anymore.
Unless... they happened to obtain a Soul Bone perfectly suited to their own attributes when hunting a Soul Beast for its Soul Ring.
But such things were rare and could not be sought.
Wait!
Rare and could not be sought?
A flash of inspiration suddenly streaked through Ye Feng's mind!
He suddenly remembered a Soul Beast, a one-of-a-kind oddity on Douluo Continent that appeared only once in ten thousand years!
It was powerful, exceptionally intelligent, and, most importantly, when it died, the chance of it dropping an inner core was... one hundred percent!
Huh? I've got it. Wasn't the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger...
Its dark attribute suited Ghost Douluo perfectly. After eating the Immortal Herbs and adding this to the mix, he could force a breakthrough even if he failed to gain insight!
As for his teacher! There was also a White-Eyed Demon Tiger King in Sunset Forest, and it was seventy thousand years old! It seemed to have a left or right... Soul Bone! That would suit his teacher perfectly!
But how could he tell his teacher and uncle Ghost Douluo about the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger and the White-Eyed Demon Tiger King in a way that made sense?
The thought circled in Ye Feng's mind like a tangled knot that wouldn't come undone.
Just tell them outright?
"Teacher, I know there's a Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, a once-in-ten-thousand-years beast, in the core area of Star Dou Great Forest. It's guaranteed to drop an inner core when it dies, and its attributes perfectly match uncle Ghost Douluo's. Let's go kill it!"
"And there's a seventy-thousand-year-old White-Eyed Demon Tiger King in Sunset Forest. It has a top-grade Soul Bone that's practically tailor-made for you!"
Ye Feng could almost imagine Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo's reactions.
They wouldn't be delighted at all. They'd only scrutinize him from head to toe as if he were a monster, dissecting every part of him with their eyes.
How could a boy in his teens, far away in Spirit City, know all about specific Soul Beasts in two forbidden lands thousands of miles away? How could he even know such secrets as their Soul Bones and inner cores?
This was beyond anything talent could explain.
Either there was some terrifying being behind him, someone even a Titled Douluo couldn't reach.
Or he wasn't human himself.
Either suspicion would plant a thorn between them that could never be pulled out.
Their trust would collapse in an instant. Everything he had now, including the affection between master and disciple, would vanish like a soap bubble.
What's more, a ferocious beast like the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had a domain so absurdly powerful it was arguably the strongest on the entire continent.
Even Tang Hao at his peak would meet his end if he faced it alone. Sure, Tang Hao acted like a big shot, but if he went back to looking six years old, he'd be dead! Not everyone was Tang San, with his Hidden Weapons and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track footwork!
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