Second Soul Spirit. Na'er: I Have a Plan!

On the third day after completing her Gold-Grade Awakening, Li Chen formally bid farewell to Mu Ye.

As usual, Mu Ye simmered a pot of chicken soup and only let Li Chen leave after watching him drink three bowls.

Zhen Hua escorted Li Chen to the entrance of the association, patted his shoulder, and told him not to neglect his forging. The next time Li Chen came to Heaven Dou City, Zhen Hua would personally inspect his progress. Advancing from the sixth rank to the seventh was not something he could accomplish by coasting on old foundations.

Li Chen nodded in agreement, bowed to both elders, then turned and left.

On his way back to Spirit Pagoda Headquarters, he made a detour to Leng Qiu's residence.

Leng Qiu was watering flowers in the courtyard. Seeing him arrive, he set down the watering can, went inside, and brought out several bottles of pills for him.

Li Chen thanked him. Leng Qiu waved a hand, reminded him to be careful on the road, and went back to watering the flowers.

Heaven Dou City's Central Station, afternoon.

Gu Yue and Na'er had already been waiting in the departure hall for half an hour.

Na'er wore a brand-new light-gold dress and spun around several times in front of Gu Yue.

Gu Yue sat quietly on a bench reading, completely ignoring her new dress.

When Li Chen entered the departure hall, Na'er was in the middle of her fifth spin.

"Li Chen! Do you think my dress looks good?"

"It looks good." Without even looking, Li Chen headed straight for the ticket window to check in.

Na'er did not care about his perfunctory answer. Her attention had already shifted. "Where's your Battle Armor? Put it on and let me see."

"It's on me. We'll talk after we board."

The Soul Guidance Train route from Heaven Dou City to Shrek City was one of the busiest on the continent.

The three bought business-class tickets. Li Chen chose an aisle seat, Gu Yue sat by the window, and Na'er sat in the middle.

The train slowly began moving. Na'er kept pestering Li Chen to show her his Battle Armor, while Li Chen leaned against his seat with his eyes closed, unmoved.

Na'er puffed out her cheeks and turned to Gu Yue for help.

Gu Yue turned a page without raising her head. "He's right."

"You didn't even look up!"

"I don't need to look up to know."

Huffing angrily, Na'er opened a packet of grilled fish strips and began eating by herself.

After roughly half an hour of travel, the train briefly stopped at an intermediate station.

A few passengers boarded from the platform, including two young men who entered the carriage one after the other.

The young man in front had a well-proportioned build and delicate features. He wore the Tang Sect's standard combat uniform, with an outer disciple badge pinned to his chest.

Behind him followed a man in an Eastsea Academy uniform, his expression cautious.

The moment the two stepped into the carriage, Li Chen opened his eyes.

His gaze rested on Tang Wulin for a moment, then swept over the person beside him before he closed his eyes again.

His spiritual power caught fragments of Tang Wulin's quiet conversation with the man after they sat down.

A scene from the original story involving Tang Wulin riding a train surfaced in Li Chen's mind. He really had guts, daring to board the killer's train.

The train continued onward.

As Na'er ate her fifth grilled fish strip, the train announcement was suddenly interrupted by a shrill burst of electrical static.

Immediately afterward, a sinister voice replaced the announcer's gentle tone and exploded through the loudspeaker Soul Tools in every carriage.

"None of the stations this train passes through today will stop until we've finished what we came here to do. I advise everyone to sit quietly in your seats and not move around. If anyone wants to play the hero, heh heh heh heh..."

A muffled thud came over the broadcast, followed by a brief scream cut short.

The sinister voice continued, now carrying a hint of cold amusement. "That attendant just tried to sound the alarm, so he's gone to rest early. Please cooperate, everyone."

The broadcast cut off. The entire train fell into brief, deathly silence before panicked screams erupted everywhere.

Several clouds of dark-green poisonous mist poured out from the connection between the fifth and sixth carriages, spreading down the aisle.

Li Chen and the other two did not move.

Biting into a grilled fish strip, Na'er said indistinctly, "That voice sounds awful."

Gu Yue closed her book and tilted her head slightly. A faint elemental ripple spread from her body. Moments later, she reported the results of her scan. "Five people total. The leader is a Soul King, and the other four are Soul Ancestors. Two are in the fifth carriage, two in the sixth, and the leader is in the driver's cabin. Tang Wulin's side has already started preparing to act."

"Isn't he only two-ringed? Can he handle it? Let's make our move and wipe them all out while we're at it." Na'er stuffed the grilled fish strips into the snack bag, stood up, and rolled her wrists.

Li Chen spread out his spiritual power, precisely locking onto the five Evil Soul Masters. His tone was as calm as if he were assigning household chores. "The two in the sixth carriage are yours. Gu Yue gets the two in the fifth. I'll take the one in the driver's cabin. Gu Yue, isolate the passengers in the fifth carriage first."

Na'er said excitedly, "I'll take the initiative and attack!!!"

As soon as she spoke, Gu Yue lightly traced the air with her right index finger. Two compressed wind walls simultaneously sealed off the connections at the front and back of the fifth carriage.

She spread her fingers slightly, and the windows on both sides of the carriage shattered together. Gale-force winds rushed in and swept all the spreading poison mist out the windows.

Visibility inside the carriage instantly returned, revealing two Evil Soul Masters standing in the middle of the aisle, just about to release their martial souls.

They wore dark-gray cloaks. One was a bald, muscular man whose martial soul was a completely black Poison Scorpion. The other was tall and thin, with dark-green corrosive poison mist gathering in his hands.

The tall, thin man reacted the fastest. With a shove of both hands, the poison mist became a green arrow that shot straight for Gu Yue's face.

Gu Yue did not even move her feet. A wind-element barrier condensed out of thin air, and the moment the poison mist struck it, dense wind blades shredded it into fragments.

She turned her right hand, and a water sphere formed above the tall man's head before crashing down. Her left hand followed, freezing the water instantly and sealing the entire man inside a two-inch-thick shell of ice, leaving only his head exposed.

The bald man let out a furious roar. A Poison Scorpion phantom emerged behind him, its tail turning into countless afterimages that stabbed toward Gu Yue.

Without even turning her head, Gu Yue caused the metal floor beneath her feet to suddenly rise. Earth elements twisted the metal framework into a curved shield.

Then a compressed wind blade shot from her fingertips, curving around the shield and striking the Poison Scorpion martial soul with precision, knocking its tail three inches off course.

"Na'er?" Gu Yue called.

A golden figure rushed in from the fourth carriage, so fast that it left an afterimage in the aisle.

Na'er stomped her right foot into the floor, fully unleashing the physical strength of her Golden Dragon King Bloodline.

Her left fist shot straight out and slammed into the bald man's Poison Scorpion shield. Cracks instantly covered its surface before it shattered with a bang.

The force of her punch pierced through the shield, blasting the bald man away. He smashed through the automatic door and crashed heavily into the sixth carriage.

He struggled to get up, but his blood and qi churned violently in his chest, and he spat out a mouthful of black blood.

Na'er did not stop. Using the momentum from her punch, she turned and charged into the sixth carriage.

There were two more Evil Soul Masters inside. One was sticking dark-purple talismans onto the carriage wall, while the other suddenly burst into flames and charged at Na'er like a firecracker.

Na'er swept out her right fist. Five golden finger winds carved clear trails through the air, shredding the talismans in the other Evil Soul Master's hands to pieces and sending him flying into a seat.

The other firecracker had just rushed forward when Na'er's fists were already before him. Her right and left fists struck at the same time, her left fist dealing high damage and her right fist dealing even higher damage.

Two utterly different forces met in his chest. He gave a muffled groan and collapsed to the floor, his eyes rolling back.

Meanwhile, Li Chen had already entered the driver's cabin.

Inside, a gaunt middle-aged man had one hand around the train conductor's throat while his other hand rested on the control console.

His Soul Power fluctuations were the strongest among the five. He was a level fifty-three Soul King.

The fingers of his right hand had already transformed into dark-purple claws, and the mist seeping from their tips was corroding the console's metal panels.

"You're the leader?" Li Chen asked with complete certainty.

The gaunt man turned around and narrowed his eyes as he sized Li Chen up.

His senses told him that the young man before him was merely a pseudo-Soul Ancestor. His three-ring Soul Power fluctuations were a full two realms below his own.

A cruel smile curved across his lips. He released the conductor's throat and clawed at Li Chen's face, dark-purple evil soul power forming a claw shadow.

Li Chen raised his right hand and spread his fingers slightly. First Soul Skill, Fate Verdict.

Invisible power of law spread from his palm and precisely pressed down on the gaunt man's Soul Power circulation nodes.

The claw shadow suddenly slowed three feet from Li Chen's face, its dark-purple glow rapidly dimming.

The gaunt man felt as if something had forcibly pinned down the Soul Power within his body, reducing its circulation speed by forty percent.

His expression changed. His fifth soul ring lit up as he unleashed his Evil Tiger Demon Body.

A dark-purple evil tiger phantom emerged behind him and opened its bloody maw, blasting a foul-smelling evil soul shockwave toward Li Chen.

Li Chen curled his right hand slightly. Second Soul Skill, Fate Mastery.

He took a step forward and passed straight through the front of the evil soul shockwave. The incoming shockwave collapsed explosively behind him.

The gaunt man's pupils contracted sharply. Fate Mastery's suppression was even stronger than Fate Verdict's, directly sealing off his Soul Power circulation completely. Even his Evil Tiger Demon Body lost control in an instant.

A trace of madness flashed through his eyes. The Soul Power core in his dantian suddenly swelled—he was going to self-destruct.

Seeing this, Li Chen suddenly came up with a clever little idea and condensed a sword from the Power of Death.

"Despair-Wielding Sword!" The sword tip pierced his skin, and the Law of Death flooded into his sea of consciousness, forcibly suppressing the self-destructing Soul Power core back into calm.

He withdrew the sword, then stabbed him again.

"I already wielded the sword. Why aren't you desperate yet???"

At those words, the gaunt man dropped to his knees, trembling all over as the madness in his eyes completely crumbled.

From beginning to end, the battle had lasted only a few minutes.

The attendants shakily crawled out from beneath the seats and used their communicators to notify the conductor.

Ten minutes later, the train made an emergency stop at the next station.

The local City Defense Army had already received the news and was waiting on the platform. The five Evil Soul Masters were bound hand and foot and escorted off the train.

After verifying their identities, the City Defense Army captain sucked in a cold breath. The tall, thin man frozen into an ice block was an Evil Soul Master with a bounty of three hundred thousand Federation Credits. Together with his companions and their Soul King leader, they had caught five big fish in one net.

After examining the dark-purple talismans, the technicians reported with pale faces, "This is an Evil Soul Sacrifice Array. Once all twelve carriages are covered, every living being aboard the train will be forcibly drained of Soul Power and converted into energy for Evil Soul Crystals."

"Brother, please leave your name." The City Defense Army captain took out a notebook.

"Li Chen."

The captain's pen paused. He looked up and carefully examined Li Chen twice, then glanced at Gu Yue, who was straightening her cuffs behind him, and Na'er, who had a grilled fish strip in her mouth. His throat visibly bobbed.

He asked nothing more. Snapping his notebook shut, he saluted and turned away. Na'er craned her neck behind him. "What's wrong with him?"

"Li Chen was pretty famous recently. He might have recognized him," Gu Yue said.

The three boarded the train again.

After returning to their seats, Na'er finally remembered what she had been doing and once again pestered Li Chen to show her his Battle Armor.

Li Chen did not refuse this time. He raised his right hand slightly, and a pitch-black armguard appeared over his arm, its surface flowing with fine interwoven patterns of gold and silver.

Na'er reached out and touched the armguard. Her fingertips felt the cool touch of metal and a gentle reflux of Soul Power.

"As expected of Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua's work. Want to put on the full set and try it?"

"It's inconvenient in the carriage." Li Chen withdrew his Battle Armor, and the armguard merged back into his body.

About half an hour later, the automatic door at the front of the carriage slid open, and Tang Wulin entered.

His gaze swept over the ice shards and scorched carpet that had yet to be cleaned up in the fifth carriage. Then he looked at the ice pits Gu Yue had created, which had not yet melted. His expression went from cautious to confused, then finally turned into an extraordinarily subtle and complicated mix of frustration and helplessness.

"You again?" Tang Wulin's voice carried the resigned feeling of someone toyed with by fate.

Na'er was eating grilled fish strips. Hearing him, she looked up. "Huh? Tang Wulin! What are you doing here?"

Tang Wulin took a deep breath.

He truly had every reason to feel complicated. Back at the East Sea Spirit Pagoda, he and his companions had been thoroughly beaten by Na'er.

After that incident, Teacher Wu Zhangkong had dragged him off for special training. With his mutated Blue Silver Grass and the Clear Sky Hammer he later awakened, he possessed Twin Martial Souls. Though he was currently only a two-ring Soul Grandmaster, the Tang Sect had already recognized his potential and exceptionally admitted him early as an outer disciple.

Today was his first independent mission. Intelligence had said that Evil Soul Masters had targeted this train. He had originally planned to observe them secretly and determine their capabilities before joining forces with the City Defense Army to capture them all when the train reached Shrek City.

But not long after he boarded, an attendant told him that several people had casually dealt with the Evil Soul Masters already. When he came over to look, it was Li Chen and the others again.

"I'm here this time to carry out a Tang Sect mission." Tang Wulin tried to make his tone sound more professional. "The intelligence said Evil Soul Masters on this train were planning a blood sacrifice. I've been tracking them for days..."

"Oh, then you don't need to track them anymore." Na'er pointed out the window. "They're all tied up. Want to go down and take a photo with them?"

Tang Wulin looked at Li Chen. Li Chen leaned against his seat with his eyes closed and did not even open them. "Everything she said is true."

Tang Wulin sighed and resignedly sat in an empty seat opposite the three of them. He took a little notebook from his chest and wrote several lines.

After finishing, he looked up at the three of them. In the end, he still could not hold it in. "How did you happen to be on this train?"

"We were returning from Heaven Dou City to Spirit Pagoda Headquarters. It was on the way." Gu Yue turned a page.

"So you casually wiped out the mission target I'd been tracking for days because it was on the way." Tang Wulin's tone carried a helpless calm.

"How about writing in your report that you assisted us in catching them? At least you can say you participated." Na'er handed him a grilled fish strip.

Tang Wulin took the fish strip and chewed twice. "Wait, what do you mean, 'assisted'? I didn't even make a move."

"You assisted spiritually," Na'er said seriously.

Tang Wulin said nothing more and went to sit a short distance away.

The train arrived in Shrek City at dusk. Tang Wulin said goodbye to the three at the exit. He still had to return to the Tang Sect to submit his mission report, though the main contents of that report would most likely become, "The target was intercepted by others first. I witnessed the entire event."

After walking a few steps, he suddenly turned back to look at Na'er. "The next time we meet, I'll be stronger than I am now."

Tang Wulin turned and strode into the crowd leaving the station.

Na'er watched his retreating figure and stuffed the last grilled fish strip into her mouth. "He really has improved quickly. He has Twin Martial Souls and works this hard. The Tang Sect found itself a treasure."

Gu Yue closed her book and stood up. "Let's go. Teacher is waiting."