"All right. Since you've made up your mind, I won't try to talk you out of it. If anything goes wrong, you'll be responsible for the consequences."
Leng Yaozhu looked at Yang Fan's resolute gaze and sighed helplessly.
She turned and walked over to the control panel, entering the password for the highest-level authorization.
With a soft hiss, the red seals on the hibernation chamber automatically disengaged, and its heavy metal doors slowly slid open to either side.
A bone-chilling resentment swept out like a flood bursting through a dam.
The temperature throughout the storage vault plummeted. Bi Ji instinctively shielded Na'er behind her.
"Roar—!"
A hideous phantom appeared. Its body was long and lithe, covered from head to toe in silvery scales that shimmered like liquid mercury.
Seeing Yang Fan before it, the Silver Mirror Beast opened its cavernous jaws and lunged straight for his spiritual sea, biting down viciously.
"Hold on to your mind!"
Leng Yaozhu's hands swiftly formed seals, ready to forcibly sever the fusion ritual at any moment.
Faced with a backlash powerful enough to shatter an ordinary Soul Master's mind in an instant, Yang Fan remained calm, sitting cross-legged in the center of the Magic Array.
"You're just a Thousand-Year Soul Spirit. How dare you squeal and yap in front of me?"
A brilliant purplish-red light suddenly shone from between Yang Fan's brows. His spiritual power poured out like a vast, boundless sea!
"Boom!"
Two forces collided within his spiritual sea.
The phantom, which had been charging with such ferocity, struck an insurmountable wall the instant it touched Yang Fan's spiritual power.
Its fearsome resentment, the source of its pride, was instantly torn to shreds under the overwhelming force of his spiritual power, like a guttering candle in the wind.
"Wuu..."
The beastly phantom let out a mournful cry. Its hideous form began to twist violently and shrink.
Bathed in the Soul Guidance Array's blue glow, the Silver Mirror Beast's spirit form slowly appeared within Yang Fan's spiritual sea.
Reshaped by the laws of Soul Spirits, it shed its original, terrifying fangs and thick, grotesque limbs, becoming a small creature covered in fine silver scales like liquid mercury.
Its eyes, like tiny mirrors, no longer held that spine-chilling resentment. Instead, they shone with the innocent clarity of a newborn.
Deep within those mirror-like eyes, countless tiny specks of light seemed to slowly drift, reflecting Yang Fan's face.
It gently swished its short tail and let out a soft whimper, like a puppy's.
It affectionately nuzzled the edge of Yang Fan's spiritual sea, its lively, docile manner tugging at the heartstrings.
"Weng~"
The Soul Guidance Array beneath Yang Fan erupted in dazzling light.
Then, a brilliant purple Soul Ring slowly rose from beneath his feet and appeared above the five-hundred-and-ten-year-old yellow First Soul Ring that had appeared there at some point.
"My Second Soul Ring is finally complete."
Yang Fan felt the new power coursing through him and spoke softly.
Leng Yaozhu stood frozen in place, watching the young man at the center of the Magic Array, astonishment in her eyes.
She had thought she was about to witness a desperate rescue, but Yang Fan had instead subdued the synthetic Soul Spirit, whose absorption difficulty rivaled that of the Indomitable Soul Spirit, with near-overwhelming force.
"Is... is this really the good-for-nothing shown in the records?"
Leng Yaozhu murmured to herself.
Her gaze fell involuntarily on the two Soul Rings, purple and yellow, slowly revolving beneath Yang Fan's feet.
When her spiritual power habitually swept over Yang Fan's meridians, even her voice changed.
"Level twenty-eight? You actually broke through straight to level twenty-eight?"
This completely upended everything Leng Yaozhu knew about a Soul Master's cultivation.
Soul Spirits could provide Soul Rings, of course, but the boost to Soul Power was clearly smaller than the increase gained by obtaining a Soul Ring from hunting a Soul Beast.
A Thousand-Year Soul Spirit could raise a Soul Master's Soul Power by, at most, one or two levels.
Yet Yang Fan had not only crossed the major threshold at level twenty without the slightest obstacle, he had surged all the way to level twenty-eight—a full ten-level increase in Soul Power!
"Could it be that you deliberately stayed at level twenty for many years? You really are a genius!"
Leng Yaozhu's eyes widened as her mind raced through every possibility, but none of them seemed to hold up.
It was possible to cultivate without obtaining a Soul Ring, but no one chose to spend so long accumulating power that way. There was no benefit to it.
Or was Yang Fan's Martial Soul simply extraordinary? Did he have some kind of special constitution?
Faced with Leng Yaozhu's questions, Yang Fan slowly reined in his aura, suppressing the surging, oceanic power within him and returning it to his dantian.
Yang Fan kept his expression calm on the surface, even wearing a suitably bewildered look.
Yang Fan lowered his eyes slightly, feeling the waves of warmth radiating from his heart.
That was the Dragon God Reverse Scale Di Tian had personally fused into his body!
At that moment, the scale was sending streams of warmth from his heart, forcefully transforming and strengthening his body.
Not only that, but the supreme-grade Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue he had consumed before transmigrating had also been drawn out just now by the Dragon God Reverse Scale.
It was like a black hole, perfectly helping Yang Fan digest the medicinal power of the Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue lying dormant within him!
That was what had produced this terrifying leap across multiple levels.
"Master, perhaps my Martial Soul is exceptionally compatible with this Soul Spirit, which triggered some unknown mutation."
Yang Fan raised his head and explained softly, his words half true and half false.
He wasn't lying. The Silver Mirror Beast really was highly compatible with his Martial Soul. With the Dragon God Reverse Scale lending its power, he felt that his Martial Soul's quality and cultivation talent had both risen to around the level of an innate rank-eight talent.
Leng Yaozhu drew a deep breath and looked at Yang Fan. Along with her astonishment, her eyes held a touch of fervor.
"Good... what a fine Martial Soul Mutation."
Leng Yaozhu murmured to herself, the corners of her mouth curling into a dazzling smile.
It was a good thing she had taken him in as a nominal disciple. His talent might not have been as dazzling as Yun Ming's back in the day, but it was still decent. At least he wasn't a good-for-nothing.
At the very least, she wouldn't be embarrassed in front of that Ya Li.
"What Soul Skill did you get? Martial Soul Replication or Soul Skill Replication?"
Leng Yaozhu tried to suppress her astonishment as she asked. She hadn't expected the "bonus" that came with taking Na'er as her disciple to be so special.
"Soul Skill Replication is also called Mental Imprint. Each time my spiritual realm advances, I can copy one more Soul Skill within the Silver Mirror Beast's age limit. I'm at the Spirit Sea Realm now, so I can copy and store three Soul Skills."
Yang Fan was composed. He calmly said something astonishing in a matter-of-fact tone.
Perhaps because the Silver Mirror Beast was a synthetic Soul Spirit with a lifespan of only around eleven hundred years, Soul Skill Replication had certain flaws. Its copied Soul Skills were probably only sixty percent as powerful as the originals.
In another era, this Soul Skill might have been somewhat useless. But this was the era of Legend of the Dragon King, an age when Soul Spirits could be upgraded!
Sixty percent at a thousand years—but what about ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or even a million years?
"Your family really is full of hidden talents, Your Excellency Feiyi. There's you, a Life-type Titled Douluo, and the obscure demigod Your Excellency Longyuan. Even your family's younger generation is exceptionally gifted."
Bi Ji smiled faintly and didn't reply.
Isn't your family so powerful because of you humans? Those with low ranks and poor talent have all been turned into Soul Spirits. Only the last few embers remain, sheltered by the Ferocious Beasts.
And the two juniors you just mentioned? One is our Lord, while the other is a transmigrator with as many secrets as the Sea God. How could their talents not be exceptional?
Even Yun Ming, whom you once had a crush on—or openly loved, if you prefer—probably didn't have talent as good as theirs.