Song Mu hurriedly pushed open the dormitory door, climbed onto his bed, and immediately sat cross-legged. Then, with a thought, he summoned his Panel Martial Soul.
Just as he'd expected, the Panel Martial Soul had changed slightly.
The familiar prompt no longer appeared in the center of the screen, and several options at the bottom had lit up: My Profile, Team, Soul Beast Warehouse, Backpack, Quests, and Shop.
The Soul Beasts he'd caught just now should be in the Soul Beast Warehouse, right? As he wondered, Song Mu focused his attention on that option.
The panel changed at once. It was divided into three sections. The area on the far left held the Spirit Box, where Soul Beasts were stored. Each box had thirty slots, meaning it could hold thirty Soul Beasts. At the moment, he had only one box.
The center section was reserved for displaying a Soul Beast's appearance.
The far-right section showed the Soul Beast's basic information and skills. There were also options to learn skills and edit skills, but they were both dimmed and couldn't be selected.
It seemed his Martial Soul had only awakened initially. There were still more functions he could unlock.
Song Mu turned his gaze to the Soul Beast box and saw a young woman's portrait in the first slot.
Why was it a human? Could his Martial Soul really catch people?
Puzzled, Song Mu selected the slot.
The center and right sections changed. A 3D image of the young woman appeared in the center. Her pale-blue hair fell over her shoulders, her eyes were closed, and she wore a white dress.
Song Mu's first impression was that she was beautiful—not the kind of beauty that was especially alluring, but the same kind of beauty as the sunset he'd seen for the first time in his previous life.
Could he only see her from one side? Song Mu tried turning the image. It worked: he could rotate it not only from side to side, but up and down as well.
His gaze shifted again, settling on the section at the far right.
The words at the top made him realize that his Martial Soul had still caught a Soul Beast. They read: Light Goddess Butterfly (Humanoid).
It was a Humanoid Spirit Beast! Only a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast could take human form. That meant he wouldn't need to spend resources on her—she could grow on her own from here.
Continuing down, he saw a description of the Soul Beast: "Forced into humanoid form during infancy. Body destroyed, soul preserved intact."
After reading it, Song Mu was full of questions. Then it hit him: this Soul Beast had been caught from Wang Dong.
The answer was obvious. The Light Goddess Butterfly had been forced by Tang San to take human form, its soul extracted and stuffed into Wang Dong's body.
Why would he do that? Song Mu had a few guesses.
Wang Dong was actually a girl. Her real name was Tang Wutong, and in the original story, she married the protagonist, Huo Yuhao, and entered the Divine Realm with him.
But during Huo Yuhao's growth, when Wang Dong revealed her gender, she claimed her name was Wang Dong'er, not Tang Wutong.
Later, when Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er entered the Valley of Love and Emotion, Wang Dong'er chose to take her own life to save him.
Huo Yuhao used a reward to save Wang Dong'er, but she remained unconscious, so he had no choice but to send her back to the Clear Sky Sect.
When Wang Dong'er woke again, she said her name was Tang Wutong, and her personality was completely different from Wang Dong'er's before.
In his previous life, a reader of Peerless Tang Sect had offered an explanation for this plot.
He'd said that Tang San had split his own daughter's soul into three pieces in order to make Huo Yuhao his dog. He kept one piece himself, left another in his daughter's body under the alias Wang Dong'er so she could interact with Huo Yuhao, and stuffed the third into the Auspicious Beast in the Star Dou Forest.
But now, it seemed that theory wasn't entirely correct.
From the information on the panel, Song Mu knew that this was the complete soul of a Light Goddess Butterfly Soul Beast.
Besides, given Tang San's abilities, he'd used the same Mysterious Heaven Skill from the moment he first arrived on Douluo Continent until after he died and reincarnated on the Fairy Continent—and he'd never come up with a single innovation.
Tang San couldn't have split one soul into three, made each piece indistinguishable from a normal person, then merged all three back together to create a person.
So the correct sequence was probably this: Tang San had found a Light Goddess Butterfly Soul Beast somewhere and used divine power to force it into humanoid form.
Then Tang San sealed away his daughter's original soul, stuffed the Light Goddess Butterfly's soul into Tang Wutong's body, and let it temporarily control her.
He'd also left behind a trace of divine consciousness to prevent the Light Goddess Butterfly's soul from harming Tang Wutong's. On top of that, he'd added all sorts of miscellaneous restrictions, such as making the Light Goddess Butterfly strongly averse to Soul Tools.
Song Mu raised a hand and rubbed his chin.
"But that does make sense. Still, why do it?"
Perhaps Tang San knew what kind of personality his daughter had. If he'd sent her to meet Huo Yuhao, it would have been a miracle if they hadn't become enemies. How could they possibly have become lovers?
The Light Goddess Butterfly, on the other hand, was mild-tempered, so it would have been much easier for her to get along with Huo Yuhao. And with a little meddling from Tang San's divine consciousness, he could arrange a Martial Soul Fusion Skill between them. Wouldn't that make it easy for them to become a couple?
In that case, what he'd caught was actually Wang Dong'er, while the one currently controlling Wang Dong's body was Tang Wutong, right?
When Song Mu caught Wang Dong'er downstairs at the dormitory, nothing had happened. So Tang San's divine consciousness was most likely dormant. It wouldn't wake unless Wang Dong was in danger.
When Tang San's divine consciousness woke up, he would definitely notice that the Light Goddess Butterfly's soul was gone. That was when he'd pay attention to Song Mu.
Should he run? That was Song Mu's first thought.
But then he came to his senses. If Tang San could simply kill him outright, it wouldn't matter where Song Mu ran.
"I've really landed myself in a huge mess."
But he didn't regret it. Even if Song Mu had another chance, he'd still choose to catch Wang Dong'er.
Ever since the day his Martial Soul had first awakened, he'd had a vague feeling that once it fully awakened, it would be incredible.
Being unable to awaken it properly for so long had been like making a starving beggar sit in front of a banquet table piled high with delicious food, only to forbid him from taking even one bite. Song Mu had endured that feeling for a full six years!
Song Mu's determination to awaken his Martial Soul wasn't just because it was useless unless it fully awakened. Part of the reason was Chen Yunlin.
Ever since Chen Yunlin had taken him in as a sworn younger brother, he'd gone to great lengths to help awaken Song Mu's Martial Soul. He'd even cared more about it than Song Mu himself.
At first, Song Mu had assumed Chen Yunlin saw him as a talented young man with potential, someone who could be useful to him once he grew up.
But as the days passed, Chen Yunlin continued to treat him just as he always had, and Song Mu came to accept him from the bottom of his heart as his big brother.
Awakening his Martial Soul was no longer just his own wish.
Fortunately, his Martial Soul had awakened successfully. Though it had also drawn Tang San's attention, there was no need to worry too much.
If Tang San could simply kill him outright, worrying wouldn't help anyway.
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