Fourth Soul Skill (First Subscription Request)

Chapter 45: Fourth Soul Skill (First Subscription Request)

"He's really just a complete idiot. Tian Meng, just as we agreed beforehand, lend me your power."

"Don't worry. I'll be your strongest support!"

"Joy, Anger, Sorrow!"

The Passionate Sword pointed from afar, and the three longswords shot out as streaks of light, looking as though they wanted to punch several transparent holes straight through the Sealed Nether Wraith.

With Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's assistance, Jiang Yue felt everything around him slow down and become exceptionally clear. Every leaf, every blade of grass, and the distance between each sword and the Sealed Nether Wraith appeared vividly in his mind as a three-dimensional image. He did not need to see with his eyes; everything was laid out in perfect detail.

Mental Detection! Sky Dream Ice Silkworm naturally knew this skill. After all, it was a soul skill one could master once one's Mental Power reached a certain level. If Sky Dream Ice Silkworm could not even use such a skill, he might as well find a block of tofu and smash his head into it.

Attacked once more, the misty body of the Sealed Nether Wraith transformed into several soul beast heads that tried to bite down on the sword blades.

But with Mental Detection's aid, Jiang Yue had already noticed the Sealed Nether Wraith's movements. The Three Apertures Heart activated, and the three swords moved in completely different directions at the same time, precisely evading its defense. They severed its misty body and flew straight toward the central core.

Clang!

Just as the sword tips were about to pierce the core Crystal, the mist around the entire Crystal condensed in the blink of an eye. A complete turtle shell enclosed the core, blocking Jiang Yue's attack.

This instinctive will to survive was truly terrifying. And without an independent consciousness, every lingering remnant of the soul beasts that formed it could act according to its own instincts.

His gaze sharpened as Mental Power burst from his body and slammed fiercely into the turtle shell, blasting a gap through it and exposing the Sealed Nether Wraith's core within.

Crack!

The Passionate Sword immediately passed through the gap and chopped at the core. Just as it cut an inch into it, rings of Soul Power ripples spread outward from the core, forming a special membrane across its body that evenly dispersed the Passionate Sword's attack across every corner of its surface.

The Passionate Sword could advance no farther. The dispersed damage merely made the core tremble.

Perhaps sensing the turtle shell's damage, the shell around the Sealed Nether Wraith's core vanished. In its place, several snake heads lunged at Jiang Yue from every direction. Jiang Yue twisted his waist and raised his sword to block.

"Second Soul Skill, Live and Die Together! Third Soul Skill, Substitution!"

Against this sort of attack, especially from beast souls without much self-awareness, Jiang Yue's third soul skill was remarkably effective. Naturally, he could not use his third soul skill repeatedly. That would only waste too much Soul Power.

Jiang Yue's third soul skill was itself within the realm of Mental Attribute attacks, and his second soul skill could naturally share the third soul skill's effects among multiple targets.

Affected by the soul skill, the snake head biting the Passionate Sword suddenly flung Jiang Yue away. Ignoring him, it turned and began a vicious battle with the other snake heads.

After steadying himself, Jiang Yue dashed forward. The three swords flew out from behind him at once, severing all the snake heads from different directions in an instant.

Grasping the Anger Sword, Jiang Yue wielded two swords that complemented one another. The sword shadows spilling from them overlapped, leaving not the slightest gap between attacks as they cut down every beast head that tried to attack, turning them into clumps of mist separated from the main body.

A brilliant green light burst from the Anger Sword's surface, dyeing part of the Sealed Nether Wraith's body green. It was like pouring oil onto a fire.

The noise was unbearably loud, and Jiang Yue felt his ears were about to burst. Wolf howls, tiger roars, eagle cries—every kind of sound erupted at once, each carrying boundless rage and creating an unbearable din.

This section howled without end, while the rest was eerily silent, as though they had never been a single whole. Waves of Mental Power spread outward along with their cries.

"Using quantity to make up for quality? You want to show off Mental Power in front of your ancestor Tian Meng? You're a million years too early!"

"Mental Shock!"

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was utterly disdainful of the Sealed Nether Wraith's paltry Mental Power. Before it could even reach Jiang Yue, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm scattered it with a glare.

Vast Mental Power, as boundless as the sea, followed immediately after. Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's enormous Mental Power was like a massive iron hammer, smashing down on every beast soul that formed the Sealed Nether Wraith and completely shutting them down. The concentration of beast souls visibly dissipated by a large amount, and even the grayish-purple mist became much more transparent.

Seeing the Sealed Nether Wraith standing there blankly, Jiang Yue fiercely drove the Anger Sword into the ground with his right hand while grabbing the Sorrow Sword. He stomped hard with both feet and shot into the air.

With a whoosh, Jiang Yue hurled the Sorrow Sword into the ground on the Sealed Nether Wraith's other side. The Joy Sword appeared beneath his feet at just the right moment, supporting him in midair.

"Second Soul Skill, Live and Die Together!"

"All living beings have feelings—Anger-Sorrow!"

His finger brushed across the Passionate Sword, and the Anger and Sorrow Swords below immediately emitted different lights. The lights dyed the originally grayish-purple Sealed Nether Wraith green and brown.

In an instant, two different emotions mixed together. The Sealed Nether Wraith's colors shifted continuously between grayish-purple, green, and brown. It was completely drowned in rage and sorrow, and the emotions contained within the beast souls forming it were fully stirred up.

Due to Jiang Yue's soul skill, they continuously shared each other's emotions. The two emotion swords beside them kept strengthening their respective feelings, like a spiral rising into the sky by stepping on its own feet. There was no sign of stopping; what little minds they had were utterly overwhelmed by emotion.

Its entire mist-like body rapidly swelled like an overinflated balloon, as though a single poke would burst it.

In an instant, the roars of countless soul beasts echoed through the area without end. Their misery was so intense it could only be described as hellish.

The beast souls had completely lost control, but they possessed less intelligence than even an ant. They were merely lingering souls and resentment. Under the Passionate Sword's influence, they could not regain their usual calm and thus exposed the central core.

A flash of deep blue cold light streaked through the air. The instant the sword light made contact, all the mist was sliced apart like cloth. There were no flashy movements; the cold light pressed onward without pause.

As he launched the attack, the Anger Sword and Sorrow Sword embedded in the ground and constantly disrupting the Sealed Nether Wraith disappeared. Jiang Yue's entire demeanor became considerably colder, his sharpness fully exposed.

Facing the threat of death, some of the more complete lingering souls clearly realized what was about to happen. They did everything in their power to block Jiang Yue's attack.

Several obstacles suddenly appeared along the sword's path. Some resembled turtle shells, while others looked like insect exoskeletons. Yet when those sturdy defenses touched the Unfeeling Sword in Jiang Yue's right hand, it was as if they did not exist at all. Without the slightest pause, the sword passed straight through them.

Ignoring defense! This was the Unfeeling Sword's innate talent. Before this mechanism, every defensive measure of the Sealed Nether Wraith was nothing but an illusion.

Crack!

The Unfeeling Sword pierced through the core, and the entire Sealed Nether Wraith became extremely unstable. Its clearly grayish-purple misty body actually began trembling visibly.

Seeing that the core had not completely dissipated even after being pierced, Jiang Yue felt that the Unfeeling Sword's attack power truly needed to be raised. If its base values were not high enough, there was no way to perfectly display the terror of ignoring defense.

The lingering souls' last traces of survival instinct awakened. The remaining grayish-purple mist transformed into a peculiar soul beast. Its appearance was indescribable; Jiang Yue did not even know how to describe it. It was simply a massive stitched-together monstrosity.

Just as this monstrosity viciously launched its final counterattack at Jiang Yue, the Soul Power in his body immediately surged into the Unfeeling Sword.

A special layer of sword energy immediately condensed around the deep blue Unfeeling Sword. This sword energy was composed entirely of Soul Power, making it seem as though the Unfeeling Sword had suddenly grown a size larger. In an instant, it severed the monstrosity's core completely.

The hand gripping the hilt suddenly exerted force. Shing! The sword light swept through without obstruction. Not only the core, but even the stitched monstrosity formed by that final counterattack was cut apart by the Unfeeling Sword.

As the core shattered, the beast souls forming it continuously let out low growls before dissipating one after another. In just three or four seconds, the Sealed Nether Wraith vanished without a trace. If Jiang Yue had not killed it with his own hands, he might have doubted whether such a soul beast had ever truly existed.

Tiny points of light seeped out from the core fragments and gradually condensed into a profound black Soul Ring. As the Soul Ring gradually solidified, the core split in two also completely disappeared.

Other than that floating black Soul Ring, nothing remained to prove that the Sealed Nether Wraith had ever existed.

Looking at the Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, Jiang Yue immediately sat cross-legged to adjust his condition and restore his Soul Power.

Most soul beasts were unwilling to approach the Sealed Nether Wraith, making this area temporarily very safe. This benefited Jiang Yue and Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. They only needed to absorb the Soul Ring quickly and did not have to worry about soul beasts approaching anytime soon.

Very soon, after Jiang Yue adjusted his condition, he immediately summoned the Passionate Sword and guided the Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring to merge with himself.

There was no imagined clash of Mental Power. Perhaps it was because the Sealed Nether Wraith did not possess intelligence like an ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?

Absorbing a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring as his fourth ring truly placed immense demands on his physical condition, especially since the Soul Ring Jiang Yue absorbed was twenty thousand years old.

The violent Soul Power contained within the Soul Ring continuously battered his meridians, attempting to destroy Jiang Yue's body from the inside out. However, after being strengthened by Living Gold, Jiang Yue's meridians were far tougher than before.

No matter how the Soul Power battered Jiang Yue's body, it could only cause him pain. It could not inflict any actual injuries.

Before long, Jiang Yue's Soul Power gradually wore down and assimilated the Soul Power within the Soul Ring. The black Soul Ring slowly moved closer to his other three Soul Rings. The bottleneck at level forty shattered, and the Soul Power within his body began rising at a very slow but steady pace.

Jiang Yue himself did not possess an ultimate martial soul, so after level thirty, his Soul Power would not be compressed like that of an ultimate martial soul. This Soul Ring he absorbed also surpassed the normal age limit for a Soul Master's fifth Soul Ring by fifteen thousand years. In addition, he had remained at the level-forty bottleneck for more than two months, so some Soul Power had accumulated deep within his body.

Even though the cultivation speeds of a Quasi Soul Ancestor and a Soul Ancestor were entirely different, the accumulated Soul Power combined with the Soul Power contained within the fourth Soul Ring could not possibly have merely brought Jiang Yue to level forty-one.

Forty-one—forty-two—forty-three. Only after reaching level forty-three did the Soul Power continuously surging from Jiang Yue's body gradually settle down. Since the Sealed Nether Wraith was a Mental Attribute soul beast, Jiang Yue's Mental Power had also grown considerably after absorbing its Soul Ring.

"Phew!"

Brushing the leaves off his head, Jiang Yue turned to look at the black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring floating behind him. The age of this Soul Ring was higher than all his previous Soul Rings combined, even with Sky Dream Ice Silkworm having strengthened his first three Soul Rings before.

"Looking at you, you must have gained a pretty good soul skill, right? Want to tell me what it does? I'm curious what kind of soul skill this thing gave you."

"It really is quite strong. My fourth soul skill is called Walking Corpse. It can barely be considered a forced-type soul skill. Its effect is to randomly seal the opponent's soul skills, whether they come from Soul Rings, Soul Bones, or self-created skills. The number sealed depends on the difference in our Mental Power. If their Mental Power is lower than mine, then as long as my Soul Power can endure it, I can turn them into a blank slate. If they're about the same as me, I can seal two or three. If they're stronger than me, I can at least seal one, though I can't guarantee more than that."

By conservative estimates, Jiang Yue's Mental Power was around the level between a high-level Soul King and a Soul Emperor. It was impossible to determine precisely, since there were no machines to measure Mental Power at this point in time. It was better to remain conservative.

In other words, when facing Soul Masters below the Soul Emperor realm, as long as Jiang Yue's Soul Power capacity could sustain the continuous release of his fourth soul skill, those people would eventually all become blank slates.

In the world of Douluo Continent, where martial souls reigned supreme, a Soul Master only had so many skills. Without self-created skills, even including Soul Bones, they would have only around fifteen at most. And there were very few Soul Masters who could achieve a full set.

"This isn't just strong, all right? It's completely cheating! You're a Mental Attribute Soul Master! Even among your peers, your Mental Power is among the very best! At your rate of Mental Power growth, once you become a Soul Emperor, your Mental Power will already reach the level of a Titled Douluo, fulfilling the requirement to absorb a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!"

"It is indeed as you said, Tian Meng. This soul skill is extremely strong, but its uncertainty is also rather great. Since it seals randomly, I can't determine which of the opponent's soul skills it will seal. Unless I can foresee the future or my luck is good enough, this soul skill's effectiveness will definitely be greatly reduced."

Jiang Yue felt this soul skill still had room for improvement. Otherwise, what would be the use of sealing one of Tang San's Entangling soul skills when he faced him in the future? Tang San was now the Sea God and the Asura God, fighting with the Sea God's Trident and the Asura Sword.

This soul skill had tremendous potential, but it had to be paired with an ability that could see the future in order to unleash its true power.

What a headache. On Douluo Continent, although both time and space counted as elements, Spatial Attribute was easier to deal with. With enough luck, one could still encounter soul beasts with such an attribute. But as for time attributes, aside from the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler, Jiang Yue truly did not know who else possessed one.

This was a little troublesome. Perhaps he could set his sights on that Golden Tortoise. As everyone knew, with good enough luck, even the smallest probability could become reality.