The wound on his right hand healed faster than he had expected. It was completely gone in three days, without even leaving a scar.
Over the next three months, Xiao Hongchen followed his cultivation plan step by step. He devoted most of his time to body tempering, metal manipulation, and meditation, and spent just one morning each day working with Teacher Xuan on the Sealed Milk Bottle project.
Even so, he had replaced all the Soul Cannons on his body with Level 5 models.
On top of that, he could now open the Undead Semi-Plane and had mastered some of the most basic Necromancy.
To help temper his body, he had also specifically asked his butler, Pin Hongchen, to bid on quite a lot of Whale Rubber.
It was baffling that the original owner had never taken any before. If he had already relied on medicinal aids to absorb Soul Rings beyond his limits, why hadn't he used Whale Rubber to build a foundation in advance?
Measurements taken with Soul Guidance instruments showed that his body could now withstand a Soul Ring of more than forty thousand years. His Soul Power had finally reached Rank 50, too.
It was time to begin the hunt.
After he told his grandfather the good news that he had broken through to Rank 50, Jing Hongchen took him out of Ming Capital that very day.
While Xiao Hongchen was still working to overcome the bottleneck, Jing Hongchen had already sent three Level 7 Soul Engineers from Mingde Hall to the Jingyang Mountain Range to find a suitable Soul Beast for him.
They had settled on a target: a Quicksilver Morph Beast with forty thousand years of cultivation. It belonged to the same species as the Soul Beast the original owner had absorbed for his fifth Soul Ring, but after feeding on mercury for years, it had mutated into a new species.
These Soul Beasts lived in mineral veins rich in rare metals, where they could shape their bodies into all kinds of strange forms.
When faced with danger, they could briefly turn their bodies into liquid mercury, making themselves immune to physical attacks. They could also transform into a raging torrent of liquid mercury and devour their enemies.
Anyone devoured would suffer mercury poisoning that seeped into their bones, while their Soul Power steadily dissipated. They were extremely difficult to deal with.
It was thanks to this life-saving ability that the beast had escaped the hunt by the three Level 7 Soul Engineers.
Fortunately, they had planted a tracking marker in the mercury flow. No matter how the Quicksilver Morph Beast changed its shape, the marker continued to send out its location.
Xiao Hongchen was heading to the beast's current hiding place.
With Jing Hongchen flying at top speed, the grandfather and grandson soon entered the Jingyang Mountain Range.
From high above, the mountain range looked like a giant spider—or perhaps an eight-legged octopus crouched on the earth. It was gloomy and magnificent, its splendor shot through with undisguised ferocity.
Though both were habitats for Soul Beasts, this place gave Xiao Hongchen a completely different feeling from the Star Dou Great Forest.
The Star Dou Great Forest was deep and boundless, ancient and silent.
But the Jingyang Mountain Range was different. Every ridge looked like a bristling mane, every stretch of dense forest like a row of snarling fangs.
Perhaps its foundations could not compare to those of the Star Dou Great Forest, but it was more aggressive, more brazen.
Jing Hongchen flew with him over six mountain peaks before slowly stopping near the seventh.
They were now in the core region of the Jingyang Mountain Range, where only ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts and a few exceptionally gifted thousand-year Soul Beasts could live.
Hovering in midair, Jing Hongchen fixed his gaze on a hidden valley below and said in a low voice:
"Found it. It's right there."
As soon as he finished speaking, a silver-gray shape slowly emerged. It had clearly sensed the intruders.
The massive Quicksilver Morph Beast was made entirely of flowing liquid mercury, its surface constantly changing shape.
It had no fixed outer shell. Its entire body writhed faintly, like a mass of living liquid metal, and radiated a cold, dangerous aura.
In the next instant, its body liquefied all at once, turning into a surging silver torrent that rushed toward them.
Jing Hongchen's eyes narrowed. He raised his right hand, and a brilliant golden barrier instantly unfolded.
The liquid torrent slammed into it with a piercing hiss. The highly toxic mercury flow kept corroding the barrier, but it could not break through Jing Hongchen's defenses.
The repelled liquid swiftly reformed in midair into a vicious giant mercury serpent. It opened its huge, spike-lined maw and lunged again.
Xiao Hongchen's gaze sharpened slightly as he said in a low voice:
"Grandpa, its liquid form can make it immune to most physical attacks, and it can release mercury poison... We have to disrupt its rhythm when it changes shape."
Jing Hongchen nodded and unleashed his Rank 94 Soul Power without holding anything back. Its crushing pressure bore down like a mountain.
He raised a finger and sent a streak of golden Soul Power stabbing toward the Quicksilver Morph Beast like a spear, aiming straight for its core.
Sensing the danger, the Quicksilver Morph Beast instantly split into dozens of tiny streams of mercury, trying to slip around the attack from different angles.
Jing Hongchen gave a cold snort and unleashed his Soul Power. The golden barrier expanded in an instant, enclosing every stream of mercury and forcibly suppressing its liquid transformation.
The Quicksilver Morph Beast let out an angry growl. Its surface churned violently, but it still could not escape the suppression of Jing Hongchen's Soul Power.
Its form kept switching between solid and liquid, but each transformation grew more sluggish.
Standing to one side, Xiao Hongchen did not rush to act. Instead, he carefully observed the Soul Beast's traits.
"As expected... its weakness is the point where it shapes its core. If I disrupt the rhythm of its liquid reformation, it won't be able to quickly solidify and counterattack."
Xiao Hongchen's gaze gradually sharpened. He did not hesitate.
He stamped his right foot against the ground. A full hundred Level 5 Soul Cannons instantly appeared behind him, all the latest models he had upgraded himself at Mingde Hall. Every muzzle shone with a blinding golden light.
"Combine!"
He uttered a low command.
The Soul Cannons swiftly moved and reassembled in midair, as though an invisible hand were forcibly joining them together.
Their barrels interlocked, their Core Arrays resonated with one another, and the Soul Power fluctuations that had been scattered across them piled up frantically, converging into a terrifying torrent of energy.
The muzzles pointed in one direction. Their golden beams gradually merged, eventually forming a gigantic Super Energy-Gathering Soul Cannon more than three meters in diameter.
Jing Hongchen's pupils contracted slightly. He praised it in a low voice:
"Well done... That's already more powerful than an ordinary Level 7 Soul Cannon."
The Quicksilver Morph Beast seemed to sense the deadly threat, too. Its body frantically liquefied into a silver torrent, trying to evade the attack in liquid form.
But under the suppression of Jing Hongchen's Rank 94 Soul Power, it could not move.
Xiao Hongchen pointed forward with his right hand. His voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable authority:
"Blow it away."
The muzzle of the Super Energy-Gathering Soul Cannon abruptly lit up with a blinding golden-red beam.
In that instant, the entire valley was illuminated as brightly as day.
The beam tore through the air with world-shattering force and struck the core of the Quicksilver Morph Beast's liquid body in an instant.
"BOOM—!!!"
A deafening explosion rang out.
The Quicksilver Morph Beast could not maintain its form under that blow. Most of its mercury evaporated in an instant, and its core was pierced straight through. Toxic silver-gray liquid splattered everywhere, only to vaporize swiftly in the golden-red beam's aftershock.
It let out one final, piercing shriek. Its whole body twisted violently, then slumped helplessly, collapsing into a pool of flowing silver-gray liquid.
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