At that moment, Qin Chuan found himself standing in a peach blossom grove.
Pink petals rained down from the sky, thick as a blanket, covering everything. They landed on his shoulders, in his hair, and on the backs of his hands, soft to the touch and carrying a faint floral fragrance.
He knew this scene. Three years ago, he had created a peach blossom grove in Xiao Wu's dream. But this time, he hadn't created it. The Sorrow Bird's Soul Skill had forcibly dragged him inside.
Deep in the peach blossom grove stood a figure.
The person had her back to Qin Chuan and wore a long, ancient-style pink dress. Her waist was slender, and her black hair flowed down her back, swaying faintly in the breeze.
She walked away, farther and farther. With every step, she turned her head.
When she turned, Qin Chuan saw her face. It looked very much like his first love's.
Petals landed on the woman's shoulder. She reached out to catch one and managed to grasp it, but another slipped through her fingers.
Qin Chuan's chest suddenly tightened.
A stifling, dull ache welled up from the bottom of his heart, spreading through his veins and nerves into his limbs. It wasn't pain, but it felt worse than pain.
It was like standing still and watching someone you cared about walk farther and farther away. You wanted to chase after her, but your feet were nailed to the ground. You wanted to call out, but something clogged your throat.
"Flowers drift on the water, while the water flows on. One heart aches with longing, while two bear a quiet sorrow.
"There is no way to banish this feeling. It has only just left my brow, yet it already weighs on my heart."
The lines came from nowhere, but Qin Chuan felt each word like a needle, stabbing the softest part of his heart.
Qin Chuan knew the Sorrow Bird's Soul Skill was affecting his mind.
But knowing that didn't make the feeling any less real.
The effect of Flowers Falling in a Dream lasted about twenty seconds.
Qin Chuan's spiritual power far surpassed that of this sixty-six-year-old Sorrow Bird, so the hypnotic effect couldn't last long. But those twenty seconds had already been enough to show him how formidable the Soul Skill was.
He opened his eyes, and the peach blossom grove vanished.
The dim Star Dou Great Forest lay before him once more. The chirping of insects, the wind, and the rustling leaves all returned.
The Sorrow Bird in his palm was flapping frantically. Several pink feathers had come loose and drifted slowly to the ground. Its eyes were round, its black pupils filled with terror.
Qin Chuan looked at the tiny creature, no bigger than his palm, and loosened his fingers.
A strange impulse welled up from the bottom of his heart.
Let it go!
When the thought appeared, even Qin Chuan was taken aback.
What's wrong with me?
Qin Chuan carefully examined his state of mind. That sour, oppressive emotion hadn't completely faded. It was like drinking a bowl of cold tea left overnight: the bitterness had passed, but astringency still lingered at the back of his tongue.
That was the lingering effect of the Sorrow Bird's Soul Skill, Flowers Falling in a Dream.
It didn't inflict direct damage. Instead, it made people feel as though they had suffered a loss or been parted from someone, stirring up intense grief.
Unlike an ordinary mental attack, that grief carried no sense of outside pressure. It grew from within, making you feel that the emotion was your own, not something imposed on you by another.
That was what made it so hard to resist.
Even Qin Chuan, a level fifty-five Soul King and the wielder of the Six Paths Reincarnation Eye, had struggled against it.
It's perfect. The scales in Qin Chuan's mind quickly tipped from "let it go" to "take it."
The Sorrow Bird's Flowers Falling in a Dream, combined with Illusion Bell's Sinful Haze and Shadow Hypnosis, made for a lethal combination.
First, Flowers Falling in a Dream would disrupt the target's mental state. Under the onslaught of grief, even the strongest mental defenses would crack. Then he could exploit the opening, invade their dreams with Sinful Haze, or knock them out outright with Shadow Hypnosis.
A person might summon the willpower to withstand fear, pain, or anger, but few could withstand a sudden wave of grief.
Grief didn't need to fight you. It simply and quietly swallowed you whole.
Qin Chuan's fingers tightened again.
The Sorrow Bird struggled in his palm, beating its wings against the web of his thumb. Its pink down brushed his skin, soft and warm.
Qin Chuan lowered his head and looked at the bird.
It was so small he could completely enclose it in one hand. Its glossy black eyes were like two glass beads.
Suddenly, Qin Chuan wondered about something.
The Soul Master cultivation system of Douluo Continent was fundamentally built on hunting Soul Beasts. Every ten levels, a Soul Master had to kill one and absorb its Soul Ring.
The more Soul Masters there were, the more Soul Beasts would be killed. What would happen if one day all the Soul Beasts were wiped out?
What would Soul Masters cultivate with then? They would all be reduced to ordinary people.
The system was flawed from its very roots.
Qin Chuan had never thought deeply about this before. When he had crossed into this world, his first thought had been to survive, and his second had been to grow stronger. Who would worry about whether the system was fair when they could barely keep themselves alive?
But now, he was level fifty-five. He had the Samsara Eye, the Zhu Xian Sword, and a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone. He stood higher than before, and he could see things differently.
He saw a distorted world.
To grow stronger, humanity slaughtered Soul Beasts generation after generation. To survive, Soul Beasts either fled to the deepest reaches of the Star Dou Great Forest to eke out a miserable existence, or took human form and hid among people.
This wasn't the law of the jungle. It was naked plunder.
Qin Chuan took a deep breath and pushed those chaotic thoughts aside.
It was too soon to dwell on these things.
He didn't have the power to change the world's rules—not yet, at least. What he needed to do was reach a position high enough to do so.
Once he became a god, he could deal with these matters.
Qin Chuan looked at the Sorrow Bird in his hand and fell silent for three seconds. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you didn't want to die, but I need your power."
The Sorrow Bird's pupils contracted slightly, as if it understood him.
"When I become a god, I'll change the rules of this world. Soul Masters will be able to cultivate without killing Soul Beasts."
When Qin Chuan finished speaking, he squeezed.
A brief, sharp crack.
The Sorrow Bird's body went limp. A trace of warm blood stained its pink feathers and dripped twice from Qin Chuan's fingers.
The tiny bird died without making a sound.
A white Soul Ring slowly rose from the Sorrow Bird's corpse.
The ring was tiny, smaller than any Qin Chuan had ever seen. Its gentle white glow was like moonlight as it drifted through the dark forest in silence.
Qin Chuan gently set the Sorrow Bird's body on the ground, then began absorbing the Soul Ring.
A sixty-six-year-old white Soul Ring posed no challenge to him.
He didn't even need to adjust his breathing.
He closed his eyes and extended his spiritual power. It reached out like the gentlest of tendrils, wrapping around the white Soul Ring.
There was no rejection, no resistance, and not the slightest surge of violent energy.
The power within the Soul Ring was as mild as a spring pool. It flowed slowly into Qin Chuan's spiritual world and merged with the Illusion Bell Martial Soul.
The entire process took only a few seconds.
Qin Chuan opened his eyes and willed the Illusion Bell to appear above his palm.
Three Soul Rings lit up in succession: white, white, white.
Three white halos revolved slowly, one above the other.
In the eyes of any Soul Master, this was the most worthless Soul Ring Configuration imaginable.
Three white Soul Rings meant three Soul Beasts that were less than a hundred years old—so low in age as to be unworthy of mention.
Any academy teacher who saw this configuration would probably shake their head with a sigh and advise the Soul Master to find another line of work.
But only Qin Chuan knew what made it special.
Shadow Hypnosis, Sinful Haze, and Flowers Falling in a Dream.
Combined, these three Soul Skills formed the most perfect system of mental control in the world.
Qin Chuan put away the Illusion Bell and stood up, ready to continue Soul Hunting. He could still absorb two more!
He turned and continued exploring deeper into the forest.