Watch Closely, This Next Sword Will Be Handsome!

"Senior, watch closely. This next sword will be handsome!"

The three Ye Qings raised their right hands at the same time.

Their third Soul Rings lit up simultaneously.

Seventy-two Green Lotus petals trembled at the same instant, and the petals of all three detached from their lotus platforms.

Two hundred and sixteen azure lotus petals shot into the sky, transforming beneath the sunlight into two hundred and sixteen longswords flowing with green light.

The sky-full of Green Lotus Swords hovered like a torrential downpour above the three of them.

Their sword tips all pointed toward the encircling pack of Ice-Fire Demon Wolves.

The leading three-meter-tall demon wolf halted, fear flashing through its beastly eyes for the first time.

"Green Lotus Sword Song!"

The three Ye Qings spoke together, their overlapping voices resounding through the forest.

Their fingers descended at once.

The two hundred and sixteen Green Lotus Swords fell like meteors, dragging long trails of green flame across the sky.

Before the sword formation even descended, the extreme cold and extreme heat of the Chaos Green Flame had already left twisting ripples in the air.

The wolf pack wanted to flee.

But it was too late.

The rain of swords poured down!

The Ice-Fire Demon Wolves were trapped within the sword formation created by the sky-full of Green Lotus Swords.

The blades darted and slashed at an inconceivable speed.

The extreme cold of the Chaos Green Flame froze flesh and blood, while its extreme heat burned away all life.

Within three breaths, all seven ten-thousand-year demon wolves fell to the ground.

Not a single one managed to break out of the sword formation by even half a step.

The rain of swords ceased.

The two hundred and sixteen Green Lotus Swords turned into streams of light and flew back, merging once more into the phantom image of the Chaos Green Lotus behind Ye Qing.

The incarnation on the left and the incarnation on the right dispersed at the same time, turning into two streaks of green light that entered the main body.

Ye Qing patted the nonexistent dust from his hands.

Then he turned to Dugu Bo with a brilliantly sunny smile.

"Done."

"..."

Dugu Bo fell silent.

He looked at the demon wolf corpses covering the ground, each one cut with neat precision by the Green Lotus Swords.

Then he looked at Ye Qing's carefree, smiling face.

The scene from moments ago kept replaying in his mind.

Two hundred and sixteen Green Lotus Swords had fallen at once, slaughtering seventeen or eighteen ten-thousand-year Ice-Fire Demon Wolves within three breaths.

Those demon wolves might have possessed less than thirty thousand years of cultivation.

But they were still genuine ten-thousand-year soul beasts.

"Senior, why are you looking at me like I'm some kind of monster?"

Ye Qing walked over and said,

"How was my youth-edition Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin? Cool or not?"

There was thirty percent smugness and seventy percent punchable arrogance in his tone.

Dugu Bo's eye twitched, but he did not respond.

He wanted to say, "Cool my ass," but the words would not come out.

That scene really had been so cool that even his old bones had felt their blood stir.

"Kid."

There was a complicated emotion in Dugu Bo's voice, one he had not even noticed himself.

"This talent of yours, these Double Soul Rings, truly is..."

He paused, seemingly searching for an appropriate word.

"Ridiculous."

Ye Qing grinned. "Senior, your vocabulary for praising people is honestly a little lacking."

Dugu Bo glared at him irritably, but he could not hide the appreciation in his eyes.

"What was that seventh soul skill of yours called again?"

"One Qi Transforms Three Purities."

Ye Qing patted the nonexistent dust from his robes. "But honestly, Senior, while this soul skill is powerful, I still feel like two incarnations are too few."

"If I could split into as many incarnations as there are lotus petals, I could directly summon an entire platoon of Ye Qings for a group fight."

"...Just shut up."

Dugu Bo cut him off irritably.

But another matter was already beginning to occupy his thoughts.

This brat's seventh Soul Ring was already ninety thousand years. Wouldn't his eighth Soul Ring, and even his ninth and tenth Soul Rings afterward, all have to start at that level?

He now had the Snowy Swan Kiss. Poisoning eighty- or ninety-thousand-year soul beasts to death would not be a problem.

But the problem was finding them!

Rare-attribute soul beasts that were seventy or eighty thousand years old were not roadside weeds. How could they be so easy to encounter?

In this Star Dou Great Forest, he had practically run his legs off just to find a seventy-thousand-year Crimson Flame Ancient Tree.

And then he had unexpectedly gotten a ninety-thousand-year Ice-Fire Demon Wolf as well.

There would not be so many windfalls waiting for them in the future.

Dugu Bo sighed for no reason, thinking, Should I just let Yanyan have him?

Of course, he snuffed out that thought in less than a second.

Pah, what was he thinking?

This grandson-in-law might be troublesome, but he was indeed a once-in-a-million talent.

Old Poison spent five minutes giving himself a mental pep talk.

After confirming that the entire Ice-Fire Demon Wolf pack was dead, Ye Qing dispelled One Qi Transforms Three Purities.

He could not help lowering his head to look at his hands, the curve of his lips impossible to suppress.

That youth-edition Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin just now had been far too cool.

Even recalling the sight of two hundred and sixteen Green Lotus Swords forming a sword formation in midair made his blood boil.

"If Yanzi had been watching from the side, she'd definitely have added an extra drumstick to my dinner tonight."

Dugu Bo put his stern expression back on.

"Enough. Stop admiring yourself here."

"Hurry up and see whether there are any Soul Bones among the wolves. Once we're done, we're leaving."

Ye Qing shrugged and remained standing where he was.

He had absolutely no hopes of finding Soul Bones among the wolf corpses.

Soul Bones were notoriously dependent on luck.

Today, he had already gotten one External Soul Bone and one seventy-thousand-year Torso Bone.

His luck had already exploded once.

There was no way it could explode again so outrageously.

Seeing that he was not moving, Dugu Bo went to search himself.

As Ye Qing was thinking, his gaze was suddenly drawn to the fallen crown of the Crimson Flame Ancient Tree.

The enormous tree, over twenty meters tall, had broken into several sections and lay scattered across the ground.

At the top of the largest section of canopy, interwoven branches formed a natural hollow.

Right in the center of that hollow grew a single, lonely fruit.

The fruit was slightly smaller than a fist.

It was crimson all over like agate, its surface covered in fine flame-like patterns.

Faint streams of light flowed through those patterns, like magma moving beneath its skin.

The entire fruit emitted a gentle yet pure fire-element fluctuation, making it especially conspicuous amid the charred wreckage.

"What is this?"

Ye Qing hurried over, crouching beside the canopy to inspect it closely.

He did not seem to recall anything like this appearing in the original work he had read in his previous life.

A fruit borne by a seventy-thousand-year plant-type soul beast could not possibly be an ordinary fruit, could it?

He reached out and touched the fruit's surface.

It felt warm to the touch, its skin smooth yet tough, as though covered by a thin layer of horn-like membrane.

That gentle fire element flowed from his fingertips into his body, actually causing the Chaos Green Flame within him to stir slightly.

"Looks like good stuff."

Ye Qing made his decision immediately. He carefully plucked the fruit from the canopy and stored it in the Ruyi Hundred Treasure Pouch.

Ye Qing patted the pouch at his waist in satisfaction.

He thought, This trip to the Star Dou Great Forest got me a Soul Ring, a Soul Bone, and even a fruit whose purpose I don't know.

He had just stood up.

When he heard Dugu Bo's cursing voice from nearby.

"Damn it! What rotten luck!"

Ye Qing turned to look.

Dugu Bo emerged from the pile of wolf corpses with a dark expression.

His hands were empty, a few wolf hairs clinging to his sleeves, and his face was so sour it could have fumigated an entire room to death.

"No Soul Bones?"

Ye Qing asked an obvious question.

"None!"

Dugu Bo's tone was explosive enough to be used as cannon fire.

"Seventeen ten-thousand-year soul beasts, and not a single Soul Bone dropped. Nothing but empty air!"

He glared at Ye Qing, resentment filling his old green eyes.

"You brat definitely sucked all my luck dry!"

"That External Soul Bone and that Torso Bone on you should have been mine!"

Ye Qing could not help rolling his eyes.

"Senior, whether Soul Bones drop depends entirely on luck. What does that have to do with me?"

"How does it not?"

"You used up all the luck earlier, so there was nothing left but blanks!"

Ye Qing: "..."

He decided not to argue with this furious old man.

After all, discussing luck with someone unlucky enough to search seventeen ten-thousand-year soul beasts without finding so much as a hair was no different from dancing in a minefield.

He decisively changed the subject. "Senior, should we continue helping this junior search for my eighth Soul Ring, or return to Heaven Dou City first?"

At that, Dugu Bo's mouth twitched again.

The eighth Soul Ring?

Wouldn't that thing have to aim for ninety thousand years, or even a hundred thousand?

He took a deep breath, suppressing the complaints filling his stomach, and squeezed out five words through clenched teeth. "Return. Right now."

"Huh? We're not looking anymore?"

"Look for shit!"

Dugu Bo flicked his sleeve.

Green Soul Power surged around him, and he had already risen into the air.

"If these old bones keep searching with you, I'll leave my life in the Star Dou Great Forest!"