Those words were spoken softly, but with unwavering resolve.
Before Hu Liena could react, Su Ming pulled the Pope Token Bibi Dong had given him from his robes.
Then he walked up to the door of a Grade A Mimicry Cultivation Room.
He inserted the token into the slot in the door.
"Click—"
With the heavy clatter of interlocking mechanisms, the doors slowly slid apart.
Without even looking back, Su Ming pulled out the token and strode straight inside.
Watching Su Ming's cold figure disappear, the three of them exchanged glances.
Yan was the first to lose his patience.
"That brat's got a little too much of an attitude, doesn't he?! He only just came to Spirit Hall today—he hasn't even warmed his seat, and already he's acting like he's better than everyone. Who does he think he is?"
Xie Yue frowned slightly, too.
This newcomer really was a bit of a lone wolf.
But he wasn't particularly bothered. Instead, he urged Yan to calm down. "All right, quit shouting. If he's got the strength to back it up, there'll be plenty of people to bring him back down to earth."
Yan looked at Hu Liena.
Hu Liena's lips curled slightly. "Geniuses are always like that."
Seeing Hu Liena's attitude, Yan's face darkened further, and his resentment toward Su Ming grew stronger.
Meanwhile, inside the Mimicry Cultivation Room.
The room covered more than a hundred square meters, and all kinds of Soul Power ores were embedded in the walls and floor.
Once the mimicry was activated, the energy density throughout the room became almost suffocating.
Fire elements surged through the air, mixed with an extremely cold, evil energy. The two forces converged, forming a heavy, violent pressure as thick as syrup.
A Mimicry Cultivation Room automatically created the optimal training environment based on the user's Martial Soul attributes.
But Su Ming didn't want an environment with dual attributes.
He controlled the mimicry environment and changed it.
The fire attribute vanished, replaced entirely by a pure evil-attribute environment.
Everything around him turned sinister and cold, as if it could freeze a person's soul.
Su Ming immediately sat cross-legged and summoned his Martial Soul.
The phantom of the Evil Fire Phoenix appeared behind him.
Su Ming tried to activate Devour of Writing. As soon as he did, he discovered that the evil attribute within his body had reached perfect harmony with the evil attribute in the surrounding environment.
With the two energies merging, the devouring of the fire attribute in his Martial Soul Origin became even more rapid!
At this rate, it wouldn't be long before he completely devoured the fire attribute origin!
Su Ming was delighted. This truly was the strongest force on the continent.
He could hardly imagine how that bunch at Shrek, who trained by running, could possibly be stronger than the Golden Generation.
Had it all really been made up?
Time passed quickly.
Before long, three years had gone by.
During those three years, Su Ming was either training or on his way to train.
During the day, he attended classes at Spirit Hall Primary Academy as usual. As soon as school let out, he would rush straight into the Mimicry Cultivation Room to practice Evil Devour.
For three years, he never missed a day.
At last, on the day he turned twelve, his evil attribute had come to occupy 99.9 percent of his Martial Soul's attributes!
But a problem arose.
As he continued devouring the evil attribute, he simply couldn't devour the final 0.01 percent.
It was like a stubborn stain. No matter what Su Ming tried to remove it, nothing worked.
Su Ming asked his schoolteacher, who suggested he consult the dean.
Su Ming went to the dean, who suggested he ask one of the elders in the Elder Hall.
So Su Ming went straight to Bibi Dong.
Pope Palace.
Study.
Bibi Dong was handling official business.
A maid stood nearby, attending to her.
Just then, another maid came to report that Su Ming had requested an audience.
Hearing that Su Ming was asking to see her, a flicker of surprise crossed her eyes.
As far as she could remember, this was the first time Su Ming had sought her out in three years.
"Let him in."
"Yes."
Soon, Su Ming entered.
At twelve, he had grown into a handsome young man.
He was tall and slender, with sharply defined features. His dark eyes held a maturity beyond his years, yet still gleamed with the sharpness of youth.
"Greetings, Your Holiness the Pope."
"You may rise."
Bibi Dong pointed to the chair beside her, signaling for Su Ming to sit, then asked, "I heard you've reached level thirty. Impressive. But you still haven't obtained a Soul Ring. Why?"
Su Ming explained, "I'm at the final stage of devouring my Martial Soul's attributes. I want to completely devour the fire attribute before I add a Soul Ring."
Bibi Dong nodded. "Mm. A pure Martial Soul attribute can indeed bring greater power to a Soul Ring. But you should hurry. You can't afford to waste too much time."
"Yes." Su Ming nodded.
Only then did Bibi Dong get to the point. "Tell me, why did you come to see me? This is the first time you've sought me out in three years, so you must have run into a problem you can't solve. Let me guess... it has to do with devouring your Martial Soul's attributes."
A glint appeared in Su Ming's eyes.
As expected of Bibi Dong—she had guessed the reason at a glance.
He nodded at once. "That's right. A few days ago, I discovered that no matter what I do, I can't devour the last trace of the fire attribute."
"I've tried several different methods, but none worked. So I came to ask what the reason might be and how I can solve it."
Bibi Dong looked as if she had expected this. She stood and gazed out the window. "Su Ming, you still underestimate how the Martial Soul is structured. What you've encountered is an intractable knot involving your Martial Soul Origin."
"A knot?" Su Ming frowned, confused.
Bibi Dong glanced at the maid, who held a bowl of sugar water.
She scooped up a spoonful of sugar and dropped it into the bowl.
The sugar dissolved in the water, making the drink sweeter.
Looking at Su Ming, Bibi Dong explained, "If we compare the fire attribute of your Martial Soul to this bowl of 'water,' then the evil attribute you've cultivated over the past six years is the 'sugar.' You've kept adding spoonfuls of sugar to the water. It dissolves, and the whole bowl does indeed become sweeter."
Bibi Dong paused. "But you've forgotten that the sugar has already dissolved in the water. You could pour in as much ink as you liked; it would only make the sugar water sweeter. It wouldn't make the water cease to exist."
"That's your situation now. The evil and fire of the Evil Fire Phoenix have long since fused together to become the origin of your Martial Soul. No matter how much you try to devour it by yourself, you're only increasing the 'sugar content' of the evil attribute. You can't remove the last of the 'water'—the fire attribute."
As Su Ming listened to Bibi Dong's explanation, his gaze flickered slightly.
He seemed to understand.
Evil and fire had always been one. That was why it was called the Evil Fire Phoenix!
For the Evil Fire Phoenix to become either the Fire Phoenix or the Evil Phoenix would be a fundamental transformation!
Bibi Dong continued, "And if you want this bowl of sugar water to become completely pure white sugar, you must use an external flame to evaporate all the water inside!"
"That evaporation process is the solution you need. You can think of it as absolute external force—enough to completely erase the fire attribute. Do you understand?"