Unspoken Rules

Watching the "Dryland Sand Lizard" flee in panic, Yao Qi had no intention of chasing after it to kill it all.

After turning around and putting the "Qian Jun Staff" back into his Storage Soul Tool, he then deactivated his Martial Soul possession state.

For Yao Qi, the "Qian Jun Staff" is good, but it can only be used freely after the Martial Soul is attached to him and the "Second Soul Skill - Raging Ape's Wrath" is used, and his power is increased by 150%.

Under normal circumstances, he could only barely lift the "Qian Jun Staff" weighing over 1,200 pounds.

In other words, after breaking through to the Soul Saint, his physical attributes were greatly enhanced by the tempering of Soul Power. Otherwise, if he were still the Soul Emperor, he might not have been able to lift the "Qian Jun Staff" divine weapon with his physical strength alone without the support of Soul Power power.

However, to be honest, after acquiring the "Qian Jun Staff," Yao Qi was able to unleash combat power that was originally only achievable with his third and Fourth Soul Skill Second Soul Skill at the hundred-year level.

Yao Qi had previously conducted a private test. If he used the "Qian Jun Staff" in his Martial Soul Avatar state, given the "Qian Jun Staff's" excellent transmission characteristics of Soul Power, as well as its superb weight and toughness, it would be hard to say whether he could fight against Soul Douluo, but among Soul Saint, he felt that he could go toe-to-toe with the direct descendants of the Tang Family family of the [Clear Sky Sect]!

"Let's continue on our way—" Yao Qi said casually as he walked up to the Tie Futu and the others.

If one hadn't witnessed his ferocious fighting stance firsthand, anyone would have assumed that this tall, lean man with a muscular build was a disciplined and composed soldier.

"Good!"

Tie Futu nodded, waved to Lou Gao and the others, and said, "Let's go! Follow in Bishop Yao Qi's footsteps—!"

The group of eight continued their journey into the depths of the desert, resuming their trip which had been unexpectedly interrupted.

At the very back of the group, three figures clad in cyan armor stood close together, wary of their surroundings, and began to whisper amongst themselves.

"Brother Yi ~" Ah Yin glanced at Yao Qi at the front of the group and whispered to Ling Yi, "Just now, why didn't that Bishop Yao Qi kill the ' Dryland Sand Lizard ' that ambushed us?"

"Even without Soul Ring, isn't it still possible for Soul Bone to appear?"

When she asked this question, Ah Yin put her mouth close to Ling Yi's ear and tried her best to keep her voice very low, as if she was afraid that others would hear it, including Yang Shelly who was next to her.

At the same time, whether it was because she was too close to Ling Yi and thus shy, or because she was nervous for some other reason, her voice trembled slightly when she said the words "Soul Ring" and "Soul Bone".

From a third-person perspective, Ling Yi understood Ah Yin's underlying meaning. He first stared at Ah Yin meaningfully for a few seconds, and when the little girl couldn't help but look away, Ling Yi took out a palm-sized bat statue.

The "Sound-Eating Bat Statue" was obtained from an auction in Gengxin City and can capture all sounds within a three-meter radius.

To others in the Douluo Continent, this was a rather useless Soul Tool.

What use is this thing?

On your wedding night, do you prevent others from eavesdropping?

Therefore, at the auction, many people showed little interest in this Soul Tool, only raising their paddles a few times before Ling Yi won it for a price not much higher than the starting bid.

Those Soul Master holding up signs might simply want to collect a Soul Tool, or they might want to use the small-scale silence effect to achieve stealth.

After all, whether it's an assassin, a killer, or a spy keeping watch, having this Soul Tool makes them much more effective.

Of course, Soul Master who can serve as assassins and spies will also have similar stealth effects in their Martial Soul and Soul Skill as this "Sound-Eating Bat Statue".

Ling Yi is different from these people. He simply enriches his database of Soul Guidance Array Patterns. As for whether he can create a super-large "silent array diagram" in the future to make all Soul Skill that require soul incantations dud, he does not insist on it.

But I digress. Let's get back to the main point.

"The answer to this question was actually found at the entrance to the beginner Soul Hunting Forest where we first met."

Ling Yi took out the "Sound-Eating Bat Statue" and casually activated its sound-absorbing function. His voice rang out within a three-meter radius of him, becoming louder the closer the person was to him. Beyond a meter, the voice became as faint as a whisper in his ear.

Ah Yin subconsciously raised her head and looked at Ah Gu's back, which was now more than three meters away. Then her gaze lingered on the "Sound-Eating Bat Statue" held in Ling Yi's palm before she turned her attention to Ling Yi's words.

"Brother Yi, are you referring to... what those guards outside the Soul Hunting Forest told us: 'Don't kill Soul Beast that aren't our targets unless absolutely necessary'?"

As Ah Yin reminisced, her expression seemed as if it were just yesterday.

"Yes." Ling Yi nodded, turned to Yang Shelly, who had sensed something and leaned closer to him, smiled, and continued, "Actually, this 'no unnecessary killing' prompt is an unspoken rule established by the Spirit Hall and the two great empires."

"The purpose is to ensure the sustainability of Soul Beast, which is one of the most important reasons why there are so many primary Soul Hunting Forest on the Douluo Continent, specifically for raising some hundred-year-old and ten-year-old Soul Beast that are less than a thousand years old."

"The so-called sustainability of Soul Beast is because the number of Soul Ring a human Soul Master needs in their lifetime can reach up to nine, ranging from a hundred years to a thousand years, ten thousand years, or even the legendary one hundred thousand years!"

"However, the golden period of cultivation for a human Soul Master is usually within thirty to fifty years. For the vast majority of Soul Beast, such a short time may not even amount to a hundred years of cultivation."

"Think about it, a Titled Douluo- level prodigy would need to consume two Hundred-Year Soul Beast, two Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and five ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts over a period of sixty years, including at least one Soul Beast that is over fifty thousand years old!"

"On the Douluo Continent, often only one in a hundred ordinary people possesses the talent of Soul Master. Even so, given the human Soul Master ' demand for Soul Ring, if hunting were allowed to continue unchecked, Soul Beast would likely face Miejue within a few hundred years at most!"

"How is that possible!" Ah Yin blurted out in rebuttal, "Among Soul Beast, there are even Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast! Even for Titled Douluo, encountering a 100,000-year-old Soul Beast, the outcome is still uncertain—!"

"Indeed." Ling Yi nodded in agreement with Ah Yin's words, and said, "Generally speaking, when Titled Douluo below Level 95 encounters Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, the outcome is indeed unpredictable and depends on the specific combat strength of both sides—"

"But what if it's a Level 99 Peerless Douluo?"

"..."

Ah Yin remained silent, unsure how to refute Ling Yi's words.

Although she had never fought against Level 99 Peerless Douluo, she knew that an existence that was only one step away from becoming a god at level 100 was not something that Soul Beast that had just broken through 100,000 years could contend with.

Without further ado, back to writing~