Life Scepter, Undead Summon!

Gu Yue tilted her head slightly, a faint, ambiguous curve hanging on her delicate, pretty face. "Tsk, tsk. Miss Wang, is it? How intimate. The hero saves the beauty, the beauty's heart awakens. Should I congratulate Young Master Zhuang in advance for winning a lovely lady—and for latching on to the Clear Sky Sect's golden thigh while you're at it?"

Zhuang Minghui continued to toy with the Spirit-Eating Carving Knife in his hand as he looked at the sarcastic Gu Yue before him. "What's this? Is our Miss Gu jealous?"

"Jealous? Me?" Gu Yue sneered and took a step closer, her starry, profound eyes fixed tightly on Zhuang Minghui. "I'm just an insignificant ordinary student. How would I dare be jealous over you, the one with the highest authority in the Soul Guidance Department?"

Half teasing and half serious, Zhuang Minghui said in a low voice, "Miss Gu, I mean, can you not be so sensitive? It's not like I'm abandoning you."

Hearing that explanation, a little helpless yet carrying a hint of indulgence, Gu Yue froze slightly.

"Silver-tongued." Gu Yue gave a soft snort and turned her head away, though the reddened tips of her ears quietly betrayed her current state of mind. She pretended to remind him, "Still, what do you want the Spirit-Eating Carving Knife for?"

"That thing is very strange. I sensed the power of darkness inside it."

Zhuang Minghui looked at the Spirit-Eating Carving Knife in his hand and smiled lightly. "I have my own brilliant use for it. It just so happens to be the magic trick I'm about to perform for you."

"Magic trick?" Gu Yue's dark brows furrowed slightly, clearly not believing his nonsense.

"That's right. A magic trick that'll open your eyes and make you question your life."

As Zhuang Minghui spoke, he placed the Spirit-Eating Carving Knife in his hand on the floor right between him and Gu Yue.

At that moment, Qian Duoduo, who had been forgotten by both Zhuang Minghui and Gu Yue all this time, raised his hand and asked, "Um, can you let me watch this so-called magic trick?"

He really wanted to see why Zhuang Minghui had been so insistent on having them buy the Spirit-Eating Carving Knife.

Zhuang Minghui nodded. "No problem."

As soon as his words fell, the smile at the corners of Zhuang Minghui's mouth drew in slightly, and his expression turned solemn. He took a deep breath, and the soul power within his body began to pulse at an extremely strange frequency.

The next instant, two indescribably terrifying life auras erupted from his body with a boom!

His right hand condensed a massive amount of Spirit Gold, and within the Spirit Gold lay life energy capable of reviving all things, brimming with vitality.

A phantom of the Life Ancient Tree, radiating endless vitality, quietly emerged behind him, scattering a sky of emerald-green light rain.

Under the resonance of these two top-tier life-attribute martial souls, the lingering stench of blood left in the office from crippling Zhou Yi was instantly washed clean.

"T-this is?!" Qian Duoduo's eyes went round, and he could not help crying out in shock.

As a Titled Douluo, he could clearly feel what level this life force had reached. Even the old wounds inside his body faintly began to itch under the nourishment of that rain of light.

Gu Yue's pupils also contracted violently.

As a soul master who controlled the elements, her perception of nature and life far surpassed ordinary people's. At this moment, she stared fixedly at Zhuang Minghui, the shock in her heart beyond words.

"Purify."

Zhuang Minghui softly uttered one word and raised his hand to point.

The light of the Life Ancient Tree and the Spirit Gold interwove into an emerald-green beam that instantly enveloped the Spirit-Eating Carving Knife on the floor.

Hiss, hiss!!

A piercing sound of dissolution rang out.

The Spirit-Eating Carving Knife trembled violently as wave after wave of black curses and dark resentment, thick as ink, frantically tried to struggle out.

But before that absolutely pure, ocean-vast sacred power of life, those curses were like remnant snow meeting the blazing sun. They were purified and evaporated at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning into wisps of white smoke that dispersed into the air.

In just a few breaths, the Spirit-Eating Carving Knife that had radiated an ominous aura completely shed its black color. Its stone-like outer shell peeled away, revealing within it a whole piece of strange metal, clear throughout and radiating a soft emerald-green light. This was its original state, and also the most precious treasure in this world: Spirit Gold!

"Is this still that Spirit-Eating Carving Knife?!" Qian Duoduo muttered to himself, feeling as if his worldview had taken a blow.

However, it was not over yet.

Under Gu Yue and Qian Duoduo's almost dazed gazes, the mass of Spirit Gold hovering before Zhuang Minghui, belonging to his own martial soul, seemed to be drawn by some fatal attraction and slowly drifted toward the piece of Spirit Gold that had just been purified.

The instant the two pieces of Spirit Gold, from the same source and both of extremely high quality, touched in the air, they did not repel each other. Instead, they fused together perfectly.

Buzz!!

A dazzling emerald-green pillar of light shot into the sky, dyeing the entire laboratory into an ocean of vitality.

Within that rich, almost tangible greenness, the two pieces of Spirit Gold continuously extended and took shape.

A moment later, the light receded.

A staff about two meters long, its entire body seemingly carved from jade, hovered quietly in midair.

At the top of the staff were engraved the complex patterns of the Life Ancient Tree, and in its center was embedded a crystalline gem that radiated endless rhythms of life, giving off an aura that was sacred, noble, and made one want to bow down in worship.

But from within such a staff, there radiated an aura of death that left Gu Yue faintly uneasy.

Zhuang Minghui reached out and steadily grasped the emerald-green Life Scepter in his hand. He smiled slightly at the two dumbstruck people. "This is my magic trick."

"The evolved form of Spirit Gold: the Life Scepter."

"After evolving into a scepter, the effects of its original soul skills are increased threefold on top of their previous foundation."

"Increased threefold?!" Qian Duoduo sucked in a breath of cold air. At the level of a Titled Douluo, even a ten percent increase in skill effect was a qualitative leap, yet after fusion, Zhuang Minghui's martial soul had directly surged by three times in soul skill effect!

In other words.

The current Zhuang Minghui had gone from originally being able to challenge Soul Emperor-level experts above his rank to being capable of clashing head-on with Titled Douluo-level experts?

"Not only that." The corners of Zhuang Minghui's mouth lifted in a mysterious smile as he looked into Gu Yue's astonished eyes and said, "My Life Scepter can now also connect to the Undead Plane and summon the souls that passed away long ago, allowing them to reappear in the human world."

"Summon the undead?" Gu Yue's heart shook violently. At this moment, she finally understood why she had sensed that faint trace of death energy and spatial fluctuation from this staff filled with the aura of life.

This was fucking Spirit Gold?!

No way!

How could Spirit Gold possibly have this kind of power?!

This guy really was a freak...

Those soul skills of his, plus that martial art or whatever called Baji Heaven, had already been enough to give her a headache.

Now he had gained the ability to summon the undead, too.

They might as well just declare him the winner of every match from here on out.

Looking at the Life Scepter in his hand, Zhuang Minghui thought for a moment. "Let me think. Among the ancestors from ten thousand years ago, who should I summon first?"