"Brother, that's what happened." Xue Xing told Xue Ye everything that had occurred.
As Xue Xing recounted the events, Xue Ye rose directly from his throne in excitement.
"A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast sacrifice, Martial Soul Evolution, healing Sword Douluo, all ten-thousand-year soul rings, soloing a ten-thousand-year soul beast! Good! Xiao Ya has truly given me a tremendous surprise!"
Xue Ye was so delighted he could barely contain himself. All the dignity of an emperor had long been thrown to the back of his mind.
With a wave of his hand, he said directly, "I'll grant every one of Xiao Ya's requests. Go to the treasury later and pick out some ores, soul beast materials, and the like to send him. Then make a trip to Gengxin City, the City of Metal, and find a suitable batch of blacksmiths and workers there. Conduct thorough background checks. Their histories must be clean."
"What?! Brother, I just got back! Can't you let me rest for a few days?" Xue Xing looked utterly aggrieved.
But Xue Ye glared at him, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Rest? What are you resting for? You'll have all the time in the world to rest once you're dead! Xiao Ya is still waiting for you. Hurry up and deliver the goods. Oh, and this too."
As he spoke, Xue Ye's expression suddenly turned solemn. From his personal Soul Tool, he took out an exquisitely luxurious brocade box carved with dragons and phoenixes, its surface gleaming with flowing light, and carefully handed it to Xue Xing.
"Hand this to Xiao Ya personally. Be extremely careful. There must not be the slightest mishap!"
Filled with doubts, Prince Xue Xing gently lifted the lid—
In an instant, a crystalline seven-colored radiance shot into the sky, dazzling him so badly that he could not open his eyes!
"This is... a soul bone?!"
Inside the brocade box lay a bone that looked as though it had been carved from crystal. As sunlight fell upon it, it refracted brilliant rainbow light, beautiful enough to take one's breath away.
"Brother, this is..." Xue Xing's voice trembled.
"An eighty-thousand-year Mirror Beast soul bone. Its soul bone skill is either replication or Mirror Shadow Clone." Xue Ye's eyes were filled with fondness. "I searched for this thing for a long time before finally finding it!"
The Mirror Beast might not sound as imposing as the Titan Giant Ape or the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, but its abilities were outrageously powerful!
In the original story, Oscar's twenty-thousand-year Mirror Beast soul bone could summon a clone with eighty percent of the original body's strength for one minute.
And this one was eighty thousand years old!
It could condense a clone with ninety percent of the original's strength and maintain it for a full two minutes!
"How strong this soul bone is depends entirely on its host." The more Xue Ye spoke, the more excited he became. "In the hands of an ordinary soul master, it would at most be an auxiliary tool. But in the hands of a Twin Martial Souls genius like Lin Ya... its value might even surpass a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone!"
Although soul masters could possess Twin Martial Souls, they could only use one Martial Soul in battle.
This limitation was not broken until the era of Douluo 2, when Huo Yuhao condensed three Soul Cores, allowing multi-Martial Soul soul masters to use several Martial Souls in battle at once.
For Lin Ya, with this soul bone, he could control the Outcast in battle with his main body while having his clone use the Emerald Swan to support him from the rear!
The effect would definitely be far more than a simple 1 + 0.9 = 1.9!
Even if Lin Ya condensed three Soul Cores in the future and could activate both Martial Souls simultaneously, this soul bone would never become useless. It would only make his clone's combat power even more terrifying!
The moment Xue Xing heard this, he understood the weight of the soul bone. He hurriedly stored the brocade box in his Soul Tool, straightened his back, and said, "Rest assured, Brother! I'll set off immediately and won't waste a single moment!"
Xue Ye nodded in satisfaction and waved his hand. "Go early and... come back late!"
Prince Xue Xing: "..."
Brother, you really don't treat me like your own little brother.
Full of helplessness, Xue Xing bowed to Xue Ye and trudged miserably toward the palace exit. Just as he reached the palace gate, a tottering figure entered his sight head-on.
The man's face was pale as paper, his eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, and amid his formerly jet-black hair was a glaring streak of white. He was exhausted to the extreme, as though he might collapse at any moment—
It was "Xue Qinghe"!
Or rather, Qian Renxue, who had infiltrated the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace!
Seeing Qian Renxue in such a state, Xue Xing immediately put on a kind smile and stepped forward. "Qinghe, you're here so early to pay your respects to your father? What a filial and sensible child."
"Greetings, Uncle Xue Xing." Qian Renxue first bowed, then nearly burst into tears as she said:
"Uncle Xue Xing, could you talk to my father for me? Every morning, I have to get up at dawn to study the history of Douluo Continent. Before I can even take a bite of breakfast, I have to study postnatal care for soul beasts. When I want to rest in the afternoon, Father sends people to take me to Moonlight Pavilion to study music! I'm a prince! Why do I need to learn music?!"
Qian Renxue's face was full of indignation. She had expected Heaven Dou Empire to be dangerous. She had expected that she might die. But she had imagined dying gloriously in battle after being exposed—not being worked to death by a pile of useless subjects!
"Ah, this... Brother has gone too far!" Prince Xue Xing looked righteously indignant and nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Qian Renxue's eyes immediately lit up, as if she had seized a lifeline. "Uncle! You think it's wrong too, right?"
Who would have thought that Xue Xing's next words would leave her frozen on the spot—
Prince Xue Xing said indignantly, "What about noon? Aren't there still two hours at noon? Have someone tell you about the customs and local culture of our Heaven Dou Empire while you eat. Wouldn't your food taste better that way?"
Qian Renxue!!!!
Are you even human?! I'm already exhausted enough, and now you want to add more lessons! When would I have time to cultivate?!
"And at night." Xue Xing clasped his hands behind his back, looking like a learned scholar as he patted Qian Renxue on the shoulder. "A junior of mine once said that a spiritual-type soul master named Ebbinghaus discovered a forgetting curve. When people learn something, they forget quickly at first and slowly afterward. If they don't review it for a day, they retain only thirty-three percent of it."
"When you go back at night, write a study journal as well. Record everything you learned during the day, review the old, and gain new understanding!"
Qian Renxue: "!!!"
More?!
She had to use the little time she had left at night to cultivate Soul Power! If this continued, she really would be stuck as a low-level soul master for the rest of her life and never complete Spirit Hall's mission!
Qian Renxue gritted her teeth in fury and said word by word, "Uncle, where is this Ebbinghaus? I'll send someone to make sure he dies horribly!"
"Ahem..." Xue Xing coughed awkwardly twice and hurriedly changed the subject. "Qinghe, remember this: you're the one who will inherit the throne in the future!"
"An emperor relies on wisdom and brains. Look at your father—his Soul Power is only at Soul Saint, and he's even at the bottom of that rank. Has that stopped him from being a wise ruler?"
Qian Renxue opened her mouth, wanting to refute him, but she could not find any words.
She only felt her head grow heavy and every bit of strength drain from her body. In the end, she could only sigh weakly. "...I understand, Uncle. I'll go back and do my homework."
"Mhm, mhm, mhm." Xue Xing nodded hurriedly. "Study hard! Make progress every day!"
"Yes, Uncle!" Qian Renxue secretly shot Prince Xue Xing a glare, then dragged her exhausted body and turned toward Moonlight Pavilion.
However, as Xue Xing watched her retreating figure, he felt that her back seemed to have bent a little more. Hopefully, he had seen wrong...
Before you continue