After all, the Evil Soul Master who slaughtered Wind Snow Village had a Martial Soul called the Ten Thousand Soul Banner. At most, it could suck out people's souls; there wasn't anything particularly bloody about it.
But what about everything on the road before them?
Tsk, tsk, tsk. To put it this way, several whole chicken cutlets had been violently torn apart and lay tragically in a huge puddle of ketchup.
The corner of his mouth twitched. Realizing he'd thought of something he shouldn't have, Xue Mingqing closed his eyes.
He looked at Wang Chao beside him, whose expression was grave and unsmiling.
"What happened here?"
Hearing Xue Mingqing's question, Wang Chao shook his head with a somber expression.
"I don't know, but another caravan probably ran into a Soul Beast attack."
At that, Xue Mingqing nodded in agreement.
After all—
He looked at the mangled "chicken cutlets," and the corner of his mouth twitched again.
When you killed someone, wasn't it usually enough to just cut them down and leave? Who went around chopping people into pieces?
If a Soul Beast hadn't done this, what kind of grudge would make someone go that far?
His gaze swept over the area, then Xue Mingqing suddenly froze.
Among the blood and carnage covering the ground, he'd spotted a highly distinctive emblem.
The emblem of the Nine-Section Glazed Pagoda.
The people in this caravan that had been attacked belonged to the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect!
Realizing this, Xue Mingqing raised an eyebrow. During the Peerless Tang Sect era, the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect had always been immensely wealthy.
If there were any survivors nearby, and they were direct descendants of the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect...
Xue Mingqing didn't even dare imagine how generous the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's reward would be!
After all, even as Blizzard City's young lord and Xue Ningxian's adopted son, he didn't have much cash at his disposal.
If he could earn a bit of "extra income," it would be the best thing imaginable.
Having weighed the pros and cons, Xue Mingqing turned to Wang Chao and asked amiably,
"Uncle Wang, could I trouble you to have the men search the area and see if there are any survivors?"
Wang Chao nodded. Xue Ningxian had already instructed him that he shouldn't refuse Xue Mingqing's requests as long as they were reasonable.
Turning around, Wang Chao swept a hand through the air.
"You all heard him! Move out and see if there are any survivors!"
At his words, the mercenaries who had surrounded the carriage immediately got moving. Including Wang Chao, there were six of them, and each headed off in a different direction to search.
As for Xue Mingqing, he watched the "chicken cutlets" and rubbed his chin.
He walked over slowly and reached toward one of them.
He wanted to check their injuries. Maybe he could tell what kind of Soul Beast had caused them.
But before he could touch one, Feng Qingyang's bewitching voice rang out again in his Spirit Sea.
"Don't bother looking. They were killed by a Four-Eyed Demon Fox."
At that, Xue Mingqing raised an eyebrow and asked the voice in his mind,
"Teacher, how do you know? We only just came across them. Why do you sound like you knew all along?"
After Xue Mingqing spoke, Feng Qingyang, who usually replied almost instantly, didn't answer right away this time.
After a long silence, Feng Qingyang's voice still didn't sound again.
Xue Mingqing's brows knitted slightly. It wasn't that he was unhappy with Feng Qingyang, but...
He was growing more and more curious about Feng Qingyang's origins.
After all, neither Douluo I nor Douluo II had ever mentioned anyone called Feng Qingyang.
With his wind-attribute power and sinister, morally ambiguous methods, and the fact that he'd been in Xue Mingqing's mind ever since the day he crossed over, there was no way he was a native of the Douluo world.
Could it be...
Feng Qingyang, like him, had come from another world?
Realizing this, Xue Mingqing's eyes lit up. He cleared his throat, about to keep probing.
But just as he was about to speak, a mercenary's gruff voice rang out from not far behind him.
"Young master! Brother Wang! We found a survivor!"
At that, Xue Mingqing raised an eyebrow and briefly closed his eyes, swallowing the words he'd planned to use to test Feng Qingyang.
He turned and looked in the direction of the voice.
At a glance, Xue Mingqing saw—
A burly mercenary was slowly helping a blood-soaked, disheveled young woman toward them.
The young woman was a head taller than Xue Mingqing. Her clothes were drenched in blood, their original color impossible to make out.
Dust clung to her waist-length silver hair, and grime obscured her small face, leaving only a pair of beautiful, ruby-red eyes clearly visible.
At that moment, however, her stunning eyes were filled with an overwhelming, undiluted fear and unease.
Seeing this, Xue Mingqing's youthful brows, which nevertheless carried a mature air, drew together slightly.
He stepped forward and looked at the mercenary supporting the young woman.
"Brother Ma, what happened to her? Where did you find her?"
Ma Han, who was supporting the young woman, sighed and shook his head.
"I didn't find her. She heard our voices and crawled out of the pile of bodies herself."
Hearing Ma Han's explanation, Xue Mingqing's eyes widened involuntarily. He turned toward the young woman, whose body was still trembling slightly.
He didn't say anything, but the question was plain on his face—
How did a frail young woman like you survive such a brutal attack?
The young woman pressed her lips together and raised a delicate, pale hand, revealing something.
"My name is Ning Yurong... I only survived because of this..."
At that, Xue Mingqing lowered his gaze and saw a broken Soul Tool lying in Ning Yurong's hand.
Seeing it, the doubts in Xue Mingqing's mind vanished.
He recognized it. It was the Invincible Shield, which could withstand a strike from an Eight-Ring Soul Douluo. No wonder Ning Yurong had been the only survivor.
"Little girl, do you know what attacked you?"
Wang Chao had also come over. He'd already confirmed that Ning Yurong was the only survivor in the entire Nine Treasures Caravan.
Everyone else had perished.
Faced with such a tragic scene, he had to be cautious as the strongest person among them.
At the very least, he needed to find out what had attacked the Nine Treasures Caravan.
At the sound of his voice, Ning Yurong's body trembled as if she'd recalled something terrifying.
She briefly closed her eyes, trying to hold back the redness in them, and spoke in a hoarse, strained voice.
"It was a fox Soul Beast with four eyes..."
"It was so fast. I only saw a flash of blood, and then they, they..."
By then, Ning Yurong's voice had broken into a choked sob. She couldn't continue.
Crystal-clear tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down, tracing the graceful curves of her face. They washed away some of the grime, revealing smooth, fair skin.
Seeing this, Xue Mingqing raised an eyebrow.
A four-eyed fox. Wasn't that the Four-Eyed Demon Fox Feng Qingyang had mentioned? Feng Qingyang had actually been right.
Was this Feng Qingyang's ability to foresee the future... or was it...?
His eyes narrowed as his thoughts sank deeper, and Xue Mingqing was about to launch into a full-on brainstorm.
"That little girl's quite pretty. Have you considered bringing her back to raise as your child bride?"
Feng Qingyang's voice sounded at just the right moment, interrupting his thoughts.
Hearing it, Xue Mingqing instinctively blinked.
He looked at Ning Yurong—
Although her face was hard to make out, her tall figure, fair skin, and just-emerging curves clearly marked her as a beauty in the making.
For a moment, Xue Mingqing really did consider acting on the idea.
But—
It was only a passing thought.
He coughed and suppressed the slight stirrings in his heart.
"Don't say that. I'm an honorable gentleman!"
Before you continue