Copying the Space-Time Dragon Trait! Gu Yue Wanted to Kill Xie Xie: Why Not Give Me Those Seven Hundred Million!

Lin An fell silent for a moment.

He turned to look out through the floor-to-ceiling window.

"Pagoda Master Leng."

His voice was soft, but every word was clear.

"Look at this city. People come and go, all chasing profit."

"But there are always things that Federal Credits can't buy."

He withdrew his gaze and looked at Leng Yaozhu.

"For example—potential."

"And what I want to buy is Xie Xie's potential."

Xie Xie abruptly raised his head.

His eyes instantly reddened.

Potential.

Lin An was actually willing to spend seven hundred million just to buy his "potential."

Dad! My own flesh-and-blood dad! No! Even better than my own dad!

Leng Yaozhu fell silent as well.

She turned to look at Xie Xie.

She had heard of this boy.

With twin martial souls, he counted as something of a young prodigy at Eastsea Academy.

But among true geniuses, he was nothing special.

Twin martial souls sounded impressive, but everyone's spiritual power was limited, as was the number of soul rings they could accommodate.

Having two martial souls would only divide one's attention. Bite off too much, and you couldn't chew it all.

Still—

She glanced again at Lin An's calm profile.

When the boy spoke those words, there hadn't been a trace of falsehood in his eyes.

He truly believed there was something worth uncovering in this boy named Xie Xie.

So be it.

As long as the money comes through.

She rose and personally led the three of them deeper into the Spirit Pagoda.

There was a room there covered in formation markings.

Lin An readily paid the remaining balance.

Seven hundred million Federal Credits, paid in full.

When the payment notification sounded, Gu Yue felt her heart shatter.

She stared at the number, then glanced at Xie Xie beside her, his face full of gratitude. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.

Seven hundred million.

Why couldn't he have given me those seven hundred million?

She turned to stare at Xie Xie, a dangerous light churning in her violet eyes.

Maybe... I should find a chance to kill him?

And get those seven hundred million back?

Gu Yue's stare made Xie Xie's scalp prickle.

A chill shot up his spine.

He instinctively edged behind Lin An, lowering his head and not daring to make a sound.

Leng Yaozhu took the Empty Cicada out of its sealed box.

The instant the seal was lifted, a savage pressure swept out like a tsunami.

Xie Xie's face went white.

T-ten thousand years.

This pressure definitely belonged to something over ten thousand years old.

As he felt that pressure threatening to crush him, his legs began to weaken.

"Seriously?"

He turned to Lin An, his expression more miserable than if he had been crying.

"You want me to absorb this thing at rank twenty?"

Rank twenty. A Soul Grandmaster.

The theoretical limit for a soul ring was a hundred years.

Even absorbing a Thousand-Year Soul Ring meant exceeding that limit, with a success rate below ten percent.

A Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring?

That was outright suicide.

"I believe in you."

Lin An's voice was calm and certain.

He looked at Xie Xie and spoke each word distinctly.

"Don't underestimate your own potential!"

Xie Xie opened his mouth.

He wanted to say it was impossible, that he would be throwing his life away, that those seven hundred million would go straight down the drain.

But when he met Lin An's clear eyes, every word caught in his throat.

"You believe in me... Of course I'm touched."

His smile looked more miserable than tears, yet his eyes had reddened.

"But I don't think I have that kind of potential."

Despite saying that, he took a deep breath and stepped toward the formation's core at the center of the room.

Lin An had already paid.

He couldn't back down.

Leng Yaozhu activated the sealing formation.

Countless runes rose from the floor, weaving a net of light in the air that enveloped Xie Xie and the Empty Cicada.

The absorption began.

What happened next surprised everyone.

According to the original plan, Leng Yaozhu should have sealed most of the Empty Cicada's power, leaving only a small portion for Xie Xie to absorb.

Yet this soul beast unexpectedly proved extremely compatible with Xie Xie.

Rather than spilling out, most of its power was actively absorbed by Xie Xie's body.

His bloodline was boiling.

Awakening.

A mysterious fluctuation spread from within him, resonating with the power of space and time within the Empty Cicada.

The surrounding space began to warp, and the flow of time alternated between fast and slow.

Xie Xie's body endured pain beyond what most people could imagine.

The essence of the ten-thousand-year soul spirit was reshaping his meridians, bones, and flesh.

He gritted his teeth, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, but never collapsed.

Leng Yaozhu's expression shifted from calm to surprise, then from surprise to solemnity.

This boy's bloodline... Something's wrong.

These aren't ordinary twin martial souls.

This is the aura of a dragon.

She abruptly turned to look at Lin An, a knowing gleam flashing in her eyes.

So that's it.

No wonder he was willing to spend seven hundred million.

This boy knew from the very beginning what was hidden within Xie Xie.

The absorption continued for a full four hours.

When the final wisp of space-time power merged into his body, Xie Xie's eyes snapped open.

A streak of silver light flashed through his eyes, so fast it could have been an illusion.

He looked down at his hands, then raised his head, his face dazed.

"I... succeeded?"

The moment he spoke, an unprecedented surge of excitement washed over him.

His soul ring abruptly appeared.

It wasn't the yellow of a hundred-year soul ring, nor the purple of a Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

It was black.

A Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring!

The pitch-black soul ring slowly revolved within the room, its pressure making the air grow still.

Catalyzed by his bloodline awakening, the soul ring mutated together with his second martial soul, evolving an entirely new soul skill.

Xie Xie willed it into action.

—and vanished.

It wasn't invisibility. It wasn't acceleration.

He had vanished completely from everyone's perception.

Leng Yaozhu's pupils contracted slightly.

Her eyes were clearly open, and Xie Xie was clearly standing right where he had been, yet her brain was telling her—there was nothing there.

This person doesn't exist.

You don't need to remember him.

Even the spiritual power of an Ultimate Douluo required deliberate concentration to break through this effect.

An ordinary Soul Master would likely die from his stab without even knowing how it had happened.

This was an assassination soul skill of the highest caliber.

Xie Xie reappeared, the dazed look on his face replaced by wild delight.

"What an incredible soul skill!"

He waved his dagger, carving trails of afterimages through the air.

"I feel like I could stab anyone now and still get away unscathed!"

No one paid him any attention.

Lin An stood quietly in place.

The instant Xie Xie's bloodline awakened, the view before his eyes changed.

Three lines of text that only he could see appeared in the air.

[Trait detected: Space-Time Dragon Lv1—activated.]

[Copying trait...]

[Warning! Higher-order linked trait detected—]

[Target energy tier too high! Unknown risk!]

The entire world abruptly lost its color.

Black.

White.

Every color drained away in an instant, as though someone had immersed the entire world in photographic developer.

Sound vanished too.

Leng Yaozhu's breathing, Xie Xie's excited voice, Gu Yue's footsteps against the floor—all vanished.

Dead silence drowned every sense like a rising tide.

And that wasn't all.

The air stopped moving.

Xie Xie's raised hand froze in midair.

Leng Yaozhu's slightly furrowed brow remained fixed on her face.

Everything stood still. Even light itself had lost the ability to flow.

Then he felt it.

A hand.

An utterly icy hand was gently stroking his face.

That touch felt as though it had reached out from the deepest layers of ice.

It carried a bone-piercing chill, penetrating his skin and reaching straight into the depths of his soul.