Jiang Li flipped his wrist, and a talisman appeared in his palm out of thin air.
The Edict Talisman.
It was one of the many treasures he had accumulated over a hundred thousand years of check-ins. It allowed him to borrow the laws of heaven and earth, drawing on the forces of nature and wielding them as his own.
What Jiang Li intended to do now was borrow a wisp of the purest lunar essence from the sky and plant it inside Xiao Wu's Moon Martial Soul.
The instant he crushed the talisman, the sky above the entire Star Dou Forest abruptly darkened.
Though it was broad daylight, an invisible force seemed to veil the sunlight overhead.
A bright full moon appeared in the heavens out of nowhere. Moonlight poured down like a waterfall, piercing the layers of treetops and gathering above the courtyard into a pillar of silvery-white light.
The pillar fell squarely upon the phantom moon behind Xiao Wu.
Then Jiang Li turned his hand once more, and a seed appeared in his palm.
The seed was no bigger than his thumb. It gleamed silver-white, its surface covered in fine patterns, with moonlight seeming to flow faintly within it.
A closer look revealed a surging vitality so overwhelming it was almost suffocating. It seemed that if the seed were buried in the earth, it could grow into a towering tree in the blink of an eye.
The Laurel Tree Seed.
It had come from a sign-in reward Jiang Li had long since forgotten. Supposedly, it was a seedling of a divine tree from somewhere that had vanished into the river of history.
The laurel tree fed on moonlight and took root in heaven and earth. Once rooted, it could not be shaken. It was a vessel for the purest yin power in the world.
Jiang Li flicked his finger. The silver-white seed turned into a streak of light and shot straight into the phantom moon behind Xiao Wu.
In an instant, heaven and earth changed color.
The phantom moon shook violently, then began to grow at a speed visible to the naked eye.
A silvery-white tree burst from the center of the moon. Its roots plunged deep into the moonlight, while its trunk stretched upward at an astonishing speed and its branches unfurled.
Every leaf was the color of moonlight, and every branch shimmered with a gentle silver radiance. The faint scent of osmanthus drifted through the air, cool and distant, yet refreshing to the spirit.
The laurel tree.
It was the companion of Xiao Wu's Moon Martial Soul, and a tangible symbol formed when the power of the moon had been strengthened to its utmost.
Inside Xiao Wu, a second Martial Soul space had fully taken shape beside her Soft Bone Charm Rabbit Martial Soul.
It was a magnificent sight: a bright moon and a laurel tree shining together. It stood equal to her first Martial Soul, neither interfering with the other, yet somehow resonating with it.
Twin Martial Souls!
And not ordinary Twin Martial Souls, but top-tier ones, doubly strengthened by Jiang Li with the Edict Talisman and the Laurel Tree Seed.
Xiao Wu's Soul Power Level surged again.
Her Soul Power, which had only just stabilized at level forty-five, shot up another notch the instant the laurel tree entered her body, finally settling at a new height.
She had yet to break through to level forty-six, but she was already just a hair's breadth away. After a period of consolidation, the breakthrough would come naturally.
Yet the increase in her level was only the least remarkable benefit.
What truly transformed Xiao Wu was the new ability the laurel tree had given her.
Her original first Soul Skill, Charm, had undergone a qualitative change with the laurel tree's help.
Once limited to a single target, the ability had now expanded into a Domain covering a vast area.
Xiao Wu closed her eyes and focused her thoughts.
A faint silver radiance spread out from beneath her feet, covering an area dozens of yards across.
Within the glow, a bright moon hung high overhead, and the phantom of a laurel tree shimmered in and out of view in the moonlight.
The scent of osmanthus drifted through the air in wisps, cool and alluring.
A Domain!
This was a power only Titled Douluo-level experts were qualified to touch.
On the Douluo Continent, a Domain was even more significant than a Soul Ring.
A Titled Douluo with a Domain could easily crush an opponent of the same level who lacked one.
And Xiao Wu, a Soul Ancestor who had yet to reach level fifty, had already gained a Domain of her own!
The effects of the Laurel Domain were terrifyingly overbearing.
Enemies within its range would be insidiously consumed by the laurel tree's power of illusion.
They would fall into endless hallucinations, unable to tell truth from falsehood in anything before their eyes.
Comrades became enemies, enemies became comrades, the road ahead became the Abyss, and retreat became a clear path...
Soul Masters with weaker mental strength might even lose all sense of friend and foe on the spot and turn their blades on the companions beside them.
How many times more overbearing was this than Xiao Wu's original Charm Soul Skill? Tenfold? A hundredfold?
In a group battle, this single Domain could decide the course of the entire fight.
The Laurel Domain also had another hidden trait: under moonlight, its effects doubled.
If Xiao Wu fought at night, activating Moon Stealth and the Laurel Domain together, she would become the most terrifying phantom on the battlefield.
Her enemies might not even see her shadow before they slaughtered one another in their hallucinations.
From this moment on, Xiao Wu's entire style of combat had transformed.
The Soft Bone Charm Rabbit gave her the ability to fight at close range and her signature flexible techniques. The Moon Martial Soul gave her peerless concealment and a comprehensive boost to her physical attributes. The Laurel Domain gave her wide-area crowd control and command of the battlefield.
All three fused perfectly within her, inseparable and mutually reinforcing.
Even some Soul Douluo would have to think twice about whether they could withstand Xiao Wu's first surprise attack if they ran into her at night!
Feeling the power within her, Xiao Wu finally understood just how terrifying Jiang Li truly was.
He was like a towering mountain stretching between heaven and earth. She could see only the clouds swirling around its base, never the view from its summit.
Her father truly was worthy of being able to resurrect someone with a casual wave of his hand—and of being called a taboo by every terrifying Soul Beast in the Star Dou Forest!
"Dad."
Xiao Wu looked up at Jiang Li, her moonlit eyes filled with resolve.
"Should I start training now, then go avenge Mom?"
Her gaze burned as it fixed on the tightly shut stone door in the courtyard.
Not long ago, she had watched Jiang Li open that stone door with her own eyes. For an instant, she had glimpsed the rift into the Abyss.
Though the sight had lasted only a moment, it had left a deep impression on her.
That aura was utterly unlike anything on the Douluo Continent, steeped in evil and destruction. It had made her soul tremble instinctively.
She had never seen what an Abyssal creature looked like, but that brief glimpse of its aura alone was enough to tell her that such beings were more terrifying than any Soul Beast on the Douluo Continent.
If she could train in there, she would surely become powerful!
But at Xiao Wu's words, Jiang Li's lips curled into a teasing smile.
"Train?"
"Have you misunderstood something?"
Xiao Wu stared at him blankly and blinked.
"If I had to make you train for a year or two just to take on Spirit Hall, I might as well give up on living!"
"Tomorrow, I'll have you storm Spirit Hall!"
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