Leng Yaozhu looked at Na'er with satisfaction.
"Thank you, Teacher."
Na'er gave a well-behaved bow, then turned to Yang Fan and gave him a goofy smile.
Being a disciple wasn't important. What mattered was not letting Brother get too far away from her. That was what Na'er thought.
Leng Yaozhu stood and looked at Yang Fan, her eyes sizing him up.
"I heard Senior Longyuan say you're still missing a Soul Spirit. I'll make an exception and take you to choose one from the Spirit Pagoda's rare Soul Spirit vault."
"Thank you for your generosity, Vice Tower Master Leng."
Yang Fan cupped his hands in a calm salute. He hadn't expected Leng Yaozhu to be a cold-on-the-outside, warm-on-the-inside sort of person. She had clearly said she wouldn't provide him with resources.
Even with Di Tian's influence, the chance to choose from the Spirit Pagoda's rare Soul Spirit vault was far too valuable.
"I hope your eye for talent and your strength live up to your performance."
Leng Yaozhu was indeed paying a steep price this time. She had originally planned to find Yang Fan some ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Spirits to choose from, just to fulfill her agreement with Longyuan. But she hadn't expected that, because of Na'er's request, she would take Yang Fan on as well.
The Spirit Pagoda had many factions, with interests tangled together like a web. Even in her position as Vice Tower Master, she was allowed to apply to enter the rare Soul Spirit vault only once a year.
Leng Yaozhu also had other plans for her direct disciple, Na'er.
She had watched the recording of Na'er's Martial Soul Awakening. Her disciple had a special constitution, and a simple Martial Soul Awakening wouldn't be enough to fully guide the power within her. It would be better to use a secret Spirit Pagoda technique to create a Soul Spirit tied to her bloodline and develop her potential further.
By now, Bi Ji and Leng Yaozhu had become close friends, walking arm in arm as they chatted and laughed.
Na'er looked at Bi Ji, then at the teacher she had just gained. Following their example, she hooked her arm through Yang Fan's.
That wasn't what I meant...
I was just curious because I hadn't seen two beauties cuddling up to each other in ages.
The four of them talked and laughed as they headed straight for the depths of the Spirit Pagoda Headquarters.
Leng Yaozhu led them away from the public areas with practiced ease and brought them to a red elevator with no markings, at the far end of the hall.
She swiped a special badge bearing the Phoenix Martial Soul over the sensor. The elevator doors slid open without a sound.
"The Soul Spirit vault isn't aboveground. It's on the tenth basement level of the headquarters, and it's one of the Spirit Pagoda's most important reserves."
Leng Yaozhu led everyone into the elevator. As the sensation of weightlessness swept over them, it began to descend at incredible speed.
With a soft chime, the heavy metal doors slid open to either side.
They stepped into the Soul Spirit vault, where the light of blue Soul Guidance Lamps fell across rows of towering transparent stasis pods.
As expected of a faction with a legacy spanning ten thousand years, Yang Fan thought with a quiet sigh.
Leng Yaozhu led them to the mental power testing platform in the center and instructed Yang Fan, "Relax your mind. Let your whole body go limp."
As she spoke, she slowly lowered a metal helmet over Yang Fan's head.
"You might feel a little dizzy in a moment. That's normal."
Yang Fan closed his eyes as instructed.
When the instrument started, his mind grew faintly heavy. An invisible ripple spread outward from his spiritual sea.
Along with a low hum, the gauge atop the Soul Guidance device shot upward, and a piercing hint of purple appeared in its blue glow.
The number leaped from single digits past the hundreds, then stopped dead at "555."
"555 points!"
Leng Yaozhu drew in a sharp breath, shock in her beautiful eyes.
She whipped around to look at Yang Fan as though he were some kind of monster.
From 0 to 100 was the Spirit Origin Realm; 101 to 500 was the Spirit Connection Realm; and 501 to 5,000 was the Spirit Sea Realm.
This boy, who wasn't even twelve, had stepped straight past the Spirit Connection Realm and entered the Spirit Sea Realm!
The Spirit Sea Realm meant Yang Fan was fully capable of absorbing a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Spirit. Most Soul Masters wouldn't even dare dream of that.
How many Soul Rings did he have? He wasn't even at two yet.
Wait... Two Soul Rings. Unless he'd absorbed defective or ten-year Soul Rings, did that mean his First Soul Ring came from a real Soul Beast?!
Was this the strength of a hidden family? Aside from the few Soul Beast habitats strictly controlled by the Federation, real Soul Beasts were now rarely seen on the mainland. That was also why the Spirit Pagoda held such a high position.
Unless they wanted to provoke those ferocious Sea Soul Beasts, no Soul Master could do without the Spirit Pagoda's Soul Spirits. There were always people willing to take even defective Soul Spirits.
Before Leng Yaozhu could recover from her shock, Yang Fan had already taken off the helmet and walked toward the Soul Spirit selection area.
His gaze swept over row upon row of Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Spirits, each radiating immense pressure and dazzling light.
The Soul Spirits seemed to sense the aura of the Dragon God Reverse Scale at Yang Fan's heart. One after another, they gave off faint hums inside their stasis pods, as though submitting—or trembling in fear.
Yet Yang Fan didn't even pause. He walked straight past them.
As expected of the Dragon God. Even a scale stripped of its energy by the passage of time still had such power.
Di Tian had really gone all out. This truly was a treasure.
As long as he didn't plan to betray the Soul Beast Clan, this scale was no less than a divine artifact to him.
Without realizing it, Yang Fan had summoned his Martial Soul. Ever since entering this room, he'd felt it stirring, as if it were interested in something inside.
At last, his gaze settled on a dusty stasis pod at the deepest end of the vault.
"You're choosing that one?"
Leng Yaozhu followed his gaze, her brows immediately drawing together.
It was a thousand-year Soul Spirit. Not only was its light dim, but a glaring red label marked "Experimental Defect" had been stuck to the outside of its stasis pod.
Soul Spirits like this usually came with various side effects. Within the Spirit Pagoda, they were regarded as dangerous junk.
"This is the Silver Mirror Beast. The Spirit Pagoda poured tremendous resources into it, using the latest technology to combine the genes of a Silver Shadow Beast and a Mirror Shadow Beast. There's only one in the entire mainland."
Leng Yaozhu lightly tapped the stasis pod with a fingertip, regret in her voice.
"But it's a failed creation. No matter how old it becomes, it can only ever provide two Soul Rings, and its Soul Skills are locked to 'Soul Skill Replication' and 'Martial Soul Replication.'"
She turned to him, her beautiful eyes grave.
"Most dangerously, its requirements for mental power are extremely strict. Though it's only a thousand years old, you still need the mental power of the Spirit Sea Realm just to barely absorb it. And the power of these two Soul Skills depends entirely on the Soul Master's mental power and the Soul Ring's age. For ordinary Soul Masters, it's useless, yet too good to throw away."
"With your talent for mental power, you're fully qualified to challenge an Indomitable Soul Spirit, or even a more unusual Inheritance Soul Spirit. Their value for the cost is far better."
Leng Yaozhu let out a soft sigh and tried to dissuade him gently.
"The Spirit Pagoda's senior leadership has decided to archive it as a failed creation and stop producing it. Do you really want to choose it?"
Yang Fan didn't see it that way.
Its high mental power requirement, its limit of two Soul Rings, and its Soul Ring effects depending on both age and mental power did make it a poor choice for other people.
But his Martial Soul talent could increase his mental power, and once he traveled further along the timeline, Ferocious Beast Soul Rings wouldn't be hard to come by.
The only reason he'd chosen to absorb a Soul Spirit in this era was that he had no better option.
Based on his experience traveling through time this time, Yang Fan guessed that he would arrive in the Age of the Peerless Tang Sect around the time Huo Yuhao awakened his Martial Soul at six years old.
What Ferocious Beast would offer itself to him back then? He didn't think he was the Chosen One, either—the kind who could part his lips and have Soul Beasts willingly become his Soul Spirits.
He knew himself well.
He could get stronger just by developing his strength, and collecting divine artifact fragments might give him a chance to become a god and live forever. Why risk his life? He would deal with Ferocious Beast Soul Spirits once he was strong enough.