The moment the contract was complete, the canyon fell silent.
The contract scroll at Xiao Cheng's fingertips dissolved into a streak of light. Deep within his Martial Soul Origin, he felt a warm connection, as though an invisible bond had joined him to the Thunderclap Hell Vine.
The sensation was strange. Lightning power flowed through his blood and resonated with his aura. It was as if the memories, will, anger, and longing the vine had accumulated over thousands of years had all opened to him at once.
But before Xiao Cheng could explore the connection, the Thunderclap Hell Vine moved.
Roaring blood-red flames ignited across its body. From root to tip, every inch of its charred, battered shell cracked, melted, and dissolved in the flames, becoming purple-gold motes that filled the sky.
The motes carried a peculiar warmth. It was as though tens of thousands of years of stored vitality had begun to burn all at once, turning the canyon into a vision of twilight woven through with lightning.
The flames were no ordinary fire. They gave off no heat, only the desolate aura of a life burning away. Blood-red fire spread along the vine, covering its purple-gold bark inch by inch. Wherever it passed, the vine turned translucent and insubstantial, as though the entire Thunderclap Ancient Vine were becoming light. It was the Soul Beast Clan's oldest and most resolute rite: sacrifice.
Xiao Cheng's pupils contracted. "Wait—hey! What are you—"
When a Soul Beast willingly sacrificed itself, it turned everything it possessed—bloodline, Soul Power, and spiritual power—into the fire of life and bestowed it upon the Soul Master it had contracted with. Compared with a Soul Beast forcibly refined into a Soul Spirit, one that sacrificed itself could preserve its power more completely and achieve a stronger bond with