External Soul Bone!

The warm lights of the Plant Academy dormitory dispelled the chill from the depths of the Emerald Forest, but the heavy weight in Lin Xia's heart had yet to fully lift.

After Yue Hongsheng brought him and the sleeping Bulbasaur back to their room, he merely left behind a hurried "Get some rest. We'll talk once Bulbasaur wakes up," then strode away with a grave expression, as though something urgently required his attention.

Watching Yue Hongsheng's departing figure, Lin Xia frowned slightly and murmured to himself,

"What secret could there possibly be?"

Lin Xia had never believed that anyone would treat him well for no reason, apart from his parents.

And after spending these past days together, Lin Xia had long noticed that something was off about the other man.

Once or twice, Lin Xia might not have thought much of it. But people came into his room every few days to observe Bulbasaur. Lin Xia was no fool.

It was just that he was under someone else's roof.

Some things could not be helped.

Of course, that was only on the premise that the other party harbored no ulterior motives. Lin Xia could only pretend not to know.

Besides, he was still weak, and he was benefiting from the conveniences brought by the other party's status...

After giving it some thought, Lin Xia took a deep breath and made a decision. He could no longer keep enjoying the conveniences offered by the Plant Academy.

He had been able to decisively leave Notting Junior Soul Master Academy back then, and he could leave the Plant Academy now. In any case, he could not put himself in danger.

The other party might not be hostile now, but what about the future?

Who could say for sure?

And if he truly had no ulterior motives, why did he always come when Lin Xia was asleep?

How could anyone guard against thieves for a thousand days?

Having made up his mind, Lin Xia first checked his surroundings before closing the door.

Standing in the familiar room that now felt strangely alien, exhaustion washed over Lin Xia like a tide. The fierce battle, the escape, the brush with death, and the mental strain of breaking through had left his head throbbing.

But Lin Xia forced himself to remain standing. He had to sort through the dangers and fortuitous gains of this trip as quickly as possible, so he could prepare to run.

Lin Xia first lowered his gaze to Bulbasaur in his arms.

The little fellow still had its eyes tightly shut, its breathing long and steady, as though it had fallen into the deepest sleep.

Its blue-green skin, once gleaming with a metallic sheen, now looked as warm and smooth as jade. The seed on its back radiated restrained yet abundant vitality beneath the lamplight. Those terrifying cracks had long vanished without a trace, and even its form seemed rounder and fuller.

Although Yue Hongsheng had judged it to be fine, Lin Xia still could not help reaching out a finger and carefully touching its nose. Only after feeling its steady warmth and the peace emanating from the depths of their symbiotic souls did the great weight in his heart finally settle.

He gently placed it in the softest corner of the bed and covered it with a small thin blanket.

Only after confirming that Bulbasaur was safe and sound did Lin Xia fully turn his attention inward.

He sat cross-legged, Soul Power slowly circulating through his body. The first thing he sensed was that deeply rooted "foreign object" spread across his spine and its extensions—the External Soul Bone!

Come out.

Lin Xia silently called out in his heart, focusing his will as he carefully used his Soul Power to touch that ferocious violet mark, half vine and half sword.

Buzz!

A strange energy pulse accompanied by a faint hum instantly spread from his spine.

There was no searing pain. Instead, a sense of control, as though extending his own limbs, arose naturally within him.

Beneath the clothing on his back, his flesh began to writhe and bulge in an eerie fashion. Then, dozens—perhaps hundreds—of slender vines burst through his clothes!

These vines differed from the Vine Whip he had used before, and they were unlike the cold, hard Emerald Ghost King Vine.

They were a deep bluish-violet, their texture somewhere between flesh, vines, and some form of living metal. They glimmered faintly with cold light, while an extremely subtle dark-violet aura flickered across their surfaces like breathing.

Every vine moved as though it were one of Lin Xia's own fingers. They wound through the air, tested their reach, contracted, and extended.

Lin Xia tried gathering and weaving them together.

"Condense!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several vines suddenly converged before his right hand. In the blink of an eye, they twisted and coiled, forming a spear roughly one and a half meters long, entirely bluish-violet, with a tip as sharp as a serpent's tongue!

The shaft was rough and brimming with power, while a thin yet heart-palpitating dark-violet toxic miasma coiled around its tip.

With another shift of thought, the spear instantly dispersed. The vines spread apart like nimble serpents. Some reassembled along the outside of his left arm, thickening and hardening into a round forearm shield with serrated edges.

The rest abruptly lengthened, wound together, and compressed into a short blade of moderate length.

"Transform!"

Lin Xia's gaze sharpened.

All the vines' forms suddenly broke apart and swiftly covered his limbs and torso, like a suit of thorny vine armor protecting his vital areas.

Lin Xia tried throwing a punch. The joints of the vine armor were incredibly flexible, without the slightest stiffness, and its defensive power far exceeded his expectations.

At the same time, the dark-violet glow clinging to the vine armor's surface remained present, meaning that any attacker who touched it might become infected with the terrifying Life Poison.

Seeing this, Lin Xia focused and held his breath, pouring a large amount of Soul Power into the source of the Soul Bone on his back.

The humming intensified as dozens of vines instantly expanded, dancing wildly like an octopus's tentacles!

The tips of the furthest vines actually reached the ceiling in the room's opposite corner!

Though their power would disperse somewhat at maximum extension, this sudden increase in attack range, combined with the Life Poison, undoubtedly gave Lin Xia terrifying mid-range striking and battlefield control abilities far beyond Soul Masters of the same rank—abilities that could even threaten opponents at greater distances.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Xia tried forming the vines into different weapons.

A longsword, sharp claws, a meteor hammer, even a crude but structurally stable cage...

Every transformation was swift and precise. Wherever his thoughts went, the vines followed!

Just as Lin Xia immersed himself in this newly acquired power and tried gathering all the vines overhead to form a massive capture net, a shift in his thoughts suddenly made him sense a hint of lightness amid the sluggishness.

The tips of the vines stretching upward underwent a subtle change in structure during their extension!

They were no longer purely offensive tentacles. Instead, they instantly became extremely thin and flexible, while countless even finer purple threads, translucent like the veins in dragonfly wings, split off from the main vines.

They rapidly intertwined and connected, forming a pair of enormous bluish-violet wings behind Lin Xia in an instant. They resembled bat wings and emitted a faint violet glow!

"Are these... wings?!"

Lin Xia's heart jolted as immense surprise and disbelief crashed over him.

He tried pouring Soul Power into the pair of light wings.

Whoosh—!

A weak but unmistakable airflow immediately swept through the room! The books and papers on the bookshelf rustled loudly in the wind.

Lin Xia's body was slightly lifted by the rising current, and his feet actually floated half an inch off the ground for a brief moment!

Though it felt incredibly heavy, as if he were carrying an enormous burden, and the Soul Power it consumed was as staggering as a flood through opened gates, there was no doubt that these light wings formed from the Soul Bone's vines truly possessed the ability to fly!