The Di Jun Acts, Bestows Soul Bone, Martial Soul

Tie Mu froze where he stood, his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit a fist.

One slap.

A sixty-first-rank Soul Di Jun had been sent flying just like that?

The human-shaped hole in the wall was still smoking. Zhou Hu was embedded in the cracks between the bricks, his limbs hanging limply, his head tilted to one side, his fate unknown.

Tie Mu mechanically turned to look at Long Yuan. This smiling "old man"—he had not even seen how he had struck.

A six-ring Soul Di Jun had not even been qualified to fight back. One slap had embedded him in the wall so deeply he could not be pried out.

"Hiss..."

Tie Mu sucked in a cold breath and instinctively shifted half a step to the side, putting a little more distance between himself and Long Yuan.

The two attendants stood a few steps away, their calves trembling violently.

They exchanged a glance, their faces deathly pale, cold sweat streaming down from their temples.

But they had grown used to putting on the airs of Spirit Hall. Even though they were terrified to death, they still forced themselves to shout.

"You... you actually dared to hurt someone from our Spirit Hall!"

One of them swallowed, his voice shaking beyond recognition. "His Eminence the Cardinal won't let you off! The entire Spirit Hall will put out a warrant for you! When the Titled Douluo arrives in person, you..."

He did not finish.

Li Yuan's gaze turned cold.

Those dark-gold vertical pupils flashed deep in his eyes, and killing intent spread out like something tangible.

"Di Jun."

"Your subordinate is here."

"I don't want what happened today to be known by anyone beyond those present."

Di Jun inclined his head slightly, his voice calm. "As you command."

He turned and looked at the two attendants.

Step by step, unhurried.

Those eyes, as if reflecting the long river of time, fell on the two men. There was no particularly sharp killing intent, yet that calm, composed gaze instead made a fear seep up from the depths of their hearts and into their bones.

The two attendants froze where they stood, unable to move.

With every step Di Jun took forward, they felt the surrounding air grow heavier, until even breathing became difficult.

"What... what are you trying to do? I'm telling you, Spirit Hall..."

"Noisy."

Di Jun raised his hand and gently crooked a finger.

The two attendants' bodies began to change.

Their faces shriveled at a speed visible to the naked eye. Their skin went from taut to loose, folding into layer upon layer of wrinkles.

Their hair turned from black to grizzled, then to snow-white, before falling out strand by strand and drifting through the air.

Their backs hunched, their fingers curled like chicken claws, their joints jutting out, blue veins bulging against thin skin.

The men, who had originally looked to be in their forties or fifties, turned into decrepit, dying elders within a few breaths.

Their teeth fell out, their eyes clouded over, their lips cracked, and their entire bodies looked as if all vitality had been drained from them.

A few seconds later.

Two withered, bone-like bodies collapsed limply to the ground, without the slightest sound of life left.

The wind passed through the courtyard, lifting a few wisps of grizzled hair and sending them spinning away.

The scene was so quiet that only heartbeats remained.

At the sight, Tie Mu's pupils shrank to pinpoints, his legs went weak, and he sat down hard on the ground.

The mouth in which A Liang held a grass stem also paused, and the gaze beneath his bamboo hat grew slightly more solemn.

Strange.

Terrifying.

That power which silently stripped away life was even more chilling than a blade chopping down on one's neck.

Long Yuan walked over and patted Tie Mu on the shoulder, chuckling. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Di Jun is usually quite easy to get along with. As long as you are loyal, he's kinder than anyone."

Tie Mu turned to look at Long Yuan's smiling face, then looked at the two withered skeletons on the ground. The corners of his mouth twitched twice, and he could not force out a smile.

Li Yuan swept a faint glance over the traces on the ground, his tone unchanged. "Clean it up. Then do what needs to be done."

Di Jun inclined his head, lightly rubbed his fingertips together, and the two bodies turned into flying ash, scattered by the wind into the sunset, cleanly and completely, without leaving the slightest trace.

After that, Long Yuan walked to the wall, reached out, and pried Zhou Hu from the cracks between the bricks.

The man was already unconscious, his face bruised and swollen, blood still hanging at the corner of his mouth, with only one breath left keeping him alive.

He tossed Zhou Hu onto the ground, then casually flung two daggers in front of A Liang and Tie Mu. The daggers hit the ground with two crisp clangs.

"This old bastard's still got one breath left. I'll leave him to you."

Tie Mu and A Liang exchanged a glance.

One of them was a newcomer who had joined less than half an hour ago, while the other was a passerby who had only just agreed to stay.

Both of them knew exactly what it meant for that dagger to be handed over.

A pledge of loyalty.

If they did not get blood on their hands, they could forget about stepping through this door.

Tie Mu gritted his teeth, bent down to pick up the dagger, clenched the hilt, and strode over to Zhou Hu.

He lowered his head and glanced at that swollen face, took a deep breath, then raised the blade and brought it down.

Pfft.

The dagger sliced across his throat, and a line of blood sprayed out, staining the ground red.

Long Yuan smiled and nodded, then turned his gaze to A Liang.

A Liang rubbed his nose, ambled over, and bent down to pick up another dagger.

He weighed it in his hand, walked up to Zhou Hu, and crouched down.

"Next life, remember to size people up before you act."

The moment he finished speaking, the dagger plunged straight into Zhou Hu's heart. Zhou Hu's body twitched once, then went completely still.

A Liang pulled out the dagger, wiped the blood off on the corpse's clothes, tossed it aside, then stood and patted the dust from his knees, his face expressionless.

Long Yuan laughed and patted both of them on the shoulders, his grip heavy, a warm current flowing from his palm. "Good! From today on, you're people of Nibelungen."

"Nibelungen?"

Tie Mu and A Liang looked up at the same time, their faces full of confusion.

Li Yuan walked over slowly. His calm gaze swept over the two of them with an unquestionable depth as he spoke unhurriedly. "Nibelungen..."

"Is the realm of gods, the homeland of kings."

The few words landed heavily.

Tie Mu felt his heart jolt. It clearly sounded like empty bragging, yet when it came from this young man's mouth, it somehow made people believe it.

Li Yuan did not continue embellishing it and changed the subject. "Since you've entered the door, a welcome gift is only proper."

He looked at Tie Mu. "You're a defensive-type soul master. This ten-thousand-year soul bone is yours."

A pitch-black soul bone gleaming with metallic luster appeared out of thin air in his palm. Dense soul-power fluctuations spread from it, pressing even the surrounding air down by several degrees.

Tie Mu froze completely in place.

Ten... ten-thousand-year soul bone?

He had lived for more than thirty years and had never even touched a hundred-year soul bone.

And this thing was being handed out so casually as a welcome gift?

"What are you standing there for?" Long Yuan scolded with a laugh from the side. "Hurry up and thank the lord!"

Tie Mu suddenly snapped back to his senses and dropped to one knee with a thud, his forehead touching the ground, his voice trembling noticeably. "Th-thank you, my lord!"

Li Yuan lifted his hand. "Rise. As long as you remain loyal to Nibelungen in this life, I won't treat you poorly."

"This subordinate swears to serve my lord to the death!"

Tie Mu's eyes were red when he rose. He accepted the soul bone with both hands, holding it in his palms as though it were some peerless treasure.

Li Yuan's gaze turned to A Liang.

A Liang tilted his head, the foxtail grass in his mouth bobbing, his eyes carrying a trace of amusement, as if he were waiting to see what Li Yuan could pull out.

Li Yuan looked at him for two seconds, then flipped his left hand, and a long, pitch-black sword appeared in his palm.

The blade was three feet and seven inches long, black as ink, with dark red blood patterns shimmering along the edge. Around the hilt coiled a ferocious dragon pattern.

The sword had yet to leave its sheath, but a sharp, piercing aura was already rushing toward them.

"Although your martial soul is called Green Bamboo Sword, with bamboo as its vessel, it ultimately cannot bear the full edge of that ferocious intent of yours." Li Yuan handed the God-Slaying Sword forward. "This sword is called God-Slaying, a god-level weapon martial soul. From now on, it will be your second martial soul."

Tie Mu's mouth hung open wide enough to fit a goose egg.

Gifting a martial soul?

He had lived this many years and had never heard of a martial soul being something that could be gifted.

Wasn't this thing innate?

How could this lord casually pull out a sword and say he was going to give someone a martial soul?

And a god-level martial soul at that? He had never even heard of such a thing...

Tie Mu abruptly turned his head to look at A Liang, wanting to see what his reaction would be.

A Liang stared at the God-Slaying Sword in silence for a few seconds, then raised his hand and lightly brushed his fingertips across the blade.

The black longsword let out an extremely low hum, as if answering something.

A Liang gripped the sword in his hand, weighed it, and the corners of his mouth rose bit by bit.

"This thing... has some kick."

Tie Mu's mind had already stopped working.

From Long Yuan, who had sent the Soul Di Jun flying with one slap, to the Di Jun, who had made someone die of old age with a wave of his hand, to their lord, who casually gave away a ten-thousand-year soul bone and bestowed a god-level martial soul...

He felt as if his entire worldview had been rearranged who knew how many times in this past half hour.

Nibelungen.

Just what kind of origin did it have?