Dark Iron Blade's Unexpected Changes!

Just as Ye Luochen relaxed his mind, withdrew his soul power, and prepared to leave, an unexpected change occurred.

The Dark Iron Blade, which should have merged back into his body along with his receding soul power, suddenly erupted with light.

"Hm?"

Sensing the anomaly in his martial soul, Ye Luochen was taken aback, his brows knitting together instantly.

He then drove his soul power once more, attempting to suppress this inexplicable disturbance and force the Dark Iron Blade back into his body.

However, no matter how hard he tried, the Dark Iron Blade remained completely unmoved.

Not only that, but the blade, which had previously only been glowing, began to emit a series of humming sounds.

The entire blade began to vibrate along with the noise.

Xuan Ziwen naturally took in this scene, quickly stepping forward to ask, "What's wrong?"

While continuing his efforts to retract his martial soul, Ye Luochen replied, "I'm not sure. My martial soul is acting very strangely right now; it's refusing to obey me, as if it's resisting being pulled back into my body."

"Resisting? Has this ever happened before?" Xuan Ziwen continued to ask.

Ye Luochen shook his head.

Although the quality of his martial soul was not particularly high, it was precisely because of this that he had poured countless sweat and effort into his training just to keep pace with others.

Through this dedication, Ye Luochen's control over his martial soul had long since reached the point of perfect fluidity.

How could such a bizarre situation arise now?

Seeing Ye Luochen shake his head, Xuan Ziwen's brows furrowed as well.

Although he was an eighth-rank soul engineer and had reached the Soul Douluo level—a very respectable soul power rank—his level had been built up primarily through various medicinal herbs and secret techniques, rather than his own arduous cultivation.

His goal had merely been to possess enough soul power to operate soul tools of that rank.

In his daily life, he rarely even utilized his martial soul or soul skills.

Therefore, faced with the strange situation occurring with Ye Luochen's martial soul, Xuan Ziwen was completely at a loss.

"I'll go find the Hall Master!"

Xuan Ziwen let out a low shout and lifted his leg, preparing to walk out.

The Hall Master, Jing Hongchen, was a powerhouse at the Title Douluo level.

That realm could never be reached through shortcuts or unorthodox methods, and his understanding of martial souls was absolutely top-tier.

However, before he could take a step, he saw a new anomaly emerge from the Dark Iron Blade in Ye Luochen's palm.

As the Dark Iron Blade vibrated incessantly, a faint, ethereal gravitational force began to radiate from its blade.

At first, it was very weak.

But in just a few moments, it was already strong enough to pull light metal debris from the surroundings toward the blade.

Ye Luochen's face began to show signs of struggle, as if he were enduring some kind of immense pressure.

Seeing this, Xuan Ziwen's brows tightened even further.

Such a bizarre scene left him unsure of what he should do.

If he stayed, he didn't know how to help.

If he went to fetch reinforcements, he worried that something might happen to Ye Luochen in the meantime.

"Forget it, I'll take the risk."

After a moment of hesitation, Xuan Ziwen gritted his teeth, turned back around, and walked toward Ye Luochen.

"Luochen, I'm going to use my soul power to try and isolate your martial soul from the outside world. I hope it helps."

As he spoke, Xuan Ziwen raised his palm, and milky-white soul power condensed within it, beginning to drift uncertainly toward Ye Luochen.

But before Xuan Ziwen's soul power could touch him, Ye Luochen's voice rang out.

His face still bore a look of struggle, as if he were contending with some kind of force.

"Wait, Teacher Xuan, I'm starting to feel the emotions of my martial soul."

Hearing this, Xuan Ziwen's hand paused in mid-air.

"The emotions of your martial soul? What kind of emotions?"

In truth, he wanted to ask how a martial soul could have "emotions" at all—was a martial soul not merely a tool to be wielded by its master?

But it was clearly not the time to ask such things.

Besides, he feared that when it came to research on martial souls, he might not even be as knowledgeable as the Ye Luochen standing before him.

The other party likely had a reason for saying that.

"Longing."

Ye Luochen frowned.

"My Dark Iron Blade keeps conveying a sense of longing to me."

Hearing this, Xuan Ziwen asked in confusion:

"Longing? What is it longing for?"

Ye Luochen closed his eyes, shutting out all external distractions, and after a focused effort to perceive, he slowly opened them again.

He cast his gaze toward the soul tool testing bench not far in front of him.

More accurately, he was looking at the Stamping Machine Tool that had just been crafted on the testing bench.

"The Dark Iron Blade is longing for it."

Watching where Ye Luochen's gaze fell and hearing those words, Xuan Ziwen felt even more confused and bewildered.

What did it mean for the Dark Iron Blade to be longing for this Stamping Machine Tool?

Before he could ask, Ye Luochen made a new move.

He stepped forward, beginning to approach the soul tool testing bench.

"I don't know what will happen either, but judging by the emotions and sensations my martial soul is giving me, this is exactly what it wants to do."

"Teacher Xuan, please guard me."

As he spoke, Ye Luochen gripped the Dark Iron Blade, which was still humming, vibrating, and emitting an eerie suction force, and reached it toward the Stamping Machine Tool on the testing bench.

Seeing this, Xuan Ziwen was completely stunned.

What was even happening?

Guard him? How was he supposed to know how to guard someone?

But the arrow was already on the string and had to be fired; things had reached this point, and there was no sense in worrying about trivialities anymore.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet.

Xuan Ziwen gritted his teeth, stepped forward quickly, and then...

He stood a little closer to Ye Luochen.

He had no other options, brother, no other options.

He truly didn't know how to provide protection, so he could only get closer; if something happened, he would be able to act faster to pull Ye Luochen out.

As Ye Luochen's arm continued to extend, the vibrations of the Dark Iron Blade became increasingly violent.

Whether it was because the distance had shortened or not, this time, Xuan Ziwen actually seemed to faintly perceive that this small, pitch-black blade was constantly radiating emotions of longing, and even joy.

Finally, the blade touched the Stamping Machine Tool.

The moment they made contact, the light on the blade instantly became blindingly bright.

A suction force, countless times more powerful than before, erupted from the blade.

A gap appeared instantly at the spot where the Stamping Machine Tool touched the blade.

Eerily, although this suction force was immense, it seemed to have locked onto a specific target, no longer pulling at everything in the surroundings as it had before.

Instead, it seemed to act solely upon the Stamping Machine Tool.

Even more bizarrely, the portion of metal that was sucked away from the gap flowed directly along the tip of the blade and merged into the body of the weapon.

The next moment, more and more metal was pulled by the suction, forcibly detaching from the Stamping Machine Tool.

It began to flow continuously along the tip of the blade, merging into the weapon.