Furnace Refines Great Pill (3)

Furnace Refines Great Pill (3)

"Hiss—hiss!"

"Hiss hiss hiss—hiss—hiss hiss!"

Beasts followed instinct. Ten-year soul beasts yielded to instinct. Hundred-year soul beasts overcame instinct. Thousand-year soul beasts began to think. Ten-thousand-year soul beasts possessed the intelligence of ordinary humans. 100,000 Year Soul Beasts could speak and take human form.

This more-than-ninety-thousand-year-old Thousand Jun Ant King keenly sensed that Yue Guan, Gui Mei, Dugu Bo, and Liu Erlong were not people to be trifled with. It also detected faint traces of danger from Shui Feng, Huo Lie, and Feng Wuji. As for the hundred-man squad behind them, they proved the meaning of "strength in numbers." So, honestly, it did not want a conflict with this group of humans.

That was assuming these humans did not want a conflict with it either.

If these humans were merely passing through, it could turn a blind eye.

However, it saw a young human take a step toward it. His aura erupted without the slightest concealment, including a brutal Killing Intent that did not pale beside its own. That undoubtedly made his intentions clear.

Thus, it would no longer hold back!

Hearing their brother's summons, the other two more-than-ninety-thousand-year-old Thousand Jun Ant Kings burst out from beneath the ground on either side and stood alongside the purple Thousand Jun Ant King. One was emerald green, apparently having undergone some mutation during its evolution, with formidable toxicity. The other was dark red and, like the emerald green Thousand Jun Ant King, seemed to have mutated during evolution, enhancing its fire resistance and essentially enchanting itself with fire damage.

"So that's it!" Yue Guan frowned tightly and shot Gui Mei a look, preparing to act at any moment. "The most obvious difference between Thousand Jun Ant Kings and Thousand Jun Ant Emperors is their wings. A winged Thousand Jun Ant, even if it has not reached 100,000 years and become a Thousand Jun Ant Emperor, is not far from it. A wingless Thousand Jun Ant, even if it is likewise a ninety-thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant King, still has quite a few years to wait. These three Thousand Jun Ant Kings can already be called Thousand Jun Ant Emperors. Especially that emerald green one—its wings are nearly complete, and it most likely possesses the ability to fly..."

"But we can kill them!" Shui Feng did not blame Ye Qingcang for leading them to this miserable place, nor did she believe what Ye Qingcang had said. Ambition was a good thing, but no matter how one looked at it, a level-forty Quasi Soul Ancestor could not possibly defeat three Thousand Jun Ant Emperors.

Yet Yue Guan stopped her.

He stopped everyone except her as well.

"Watch closely!" Yue Guan's voice was unusually normal for once. A single sentence aroused everyone's curiosity. "This may be the upper limit of what Soul Masters can achieve that you will see in your lives... and in our lives, at this age and at this stage of soul power!"

"That's right." Gui Mei nodded, patting Hu Liena on the shoulder. The admiration in his eyes gave Hu Liena an inexplicable feeling. "Watch carefully. If you can learn any experience or techniques from him, they will remain useful even after you become a Titled Douluo!"

Yue Guan and Gui Mei had suddenly turned into Ye Fan, leaving many people utterly confused.

But whether they understood or not, staying quiet and listening to others explain when they did not understand was common sense—especially when the explanation came from Titled Douluos.

Then, in the next second, the situation developed in an even more unexpected direction!

"I prefer courtesy before force..." Ye Qingcang did not strike first. He walked with a gait Dugu Bo found extremely familiar, neither hurried nor slow, as though taking a stroll. He even began chatting as he walked. "If you surrender, I promise the three of you that I will preserve your souls and lead you onto the path to immortality. If you do not surrender, then I can only regretfully act, strip you of your wills, and turn you into tools."

Ten-thousand-year soul beasts could understand human speech. These three Thousand Jun Ant Kings naturally could as well.

But compared to that, wasn't it a little too arrogant for a level-forty Quasi Soul Ancestor facing three Thousand Jun Ant Kings over ninety thousand years old to still be in the mood to negotiate, talking about stripping souls and pursuing immortality?

Yan muttered something under his breath.

Yue Guan silenced him with a glare.

Others might not know, but he and Gui Mei did.

Ye Qingcang was not boasting about stripping souls.

Bibidong could devour souls. She had devoured Qian Xunji clean, inside and out, not even sparing his soul. Naturally, stripping souls was possible.

Moreover, unlike the arrogance others sensed in Ye Qingcang's actions, Yue Guan instead felt a respect for life. As a future Deity, Ye Qingcang could still communicate calmly with these three Thousand Jun Ant Kings. He was not like Bibidong back then, lifting her scythe without leaving them any dignity at all—submit or die, just five words in total, stingy as could be. Compared to Bibidong, Ye Qingcang was simply far too merciful!

He was the sort who could clearly kill you, yet was still willing to reason with you!

Especially when these three Thousand Jun Ant Kings were soul beasts!

Being willing to reason with a pack of beasts was truly rare!

Yue Guan's self-moved sentiment existed entirely because his peers made Ye Qingcang look better.

Ye Qingcang had not done particularly well.

But others had done far worse.

Faced with Ye Qingcang's request to chat, the three Thousand Jun Ant Kings also began communicating. "Hiss—hiss hiss—hiss hiss hiss hiss—hiss—hiss hiss hiss!"

Others could not understand, but Ye Qingcang could. "Since you've decided to fight, stop discussing tactics. I'm different from other humans. I can understand your language, just as you can understand ours..."

The three Thousand Jun Ant Kings immediately fell silent.

The Soul Hunting Squad also suddenly went quiet.

No, wasn't this skill set a little too bizarre?

You even knew the language of ants?

Did Blue Tyrant Academy teach that?

"There's nothing strange about it." Seemingly noticing the surprise among the Soul Hunting Squad, Ye Qingcang explained without turning his head. "Humans are the leaders of all living beings. Soul beasts can understand human speech, yet humans cannot understand soul beasts. One reason is that no one studies this. The most important reason, however, is that humans look down on soul beasts too much. They are unwilling to even make the most basic effort to learn about and understand them."

Quite a few people made subtle movements with complicated feelings.

Some pressed their lips together, some clenched their fists, and some lowered their eyes.

They did not like being lectured.

But that did not mean they refused to accept reason.

"What I have learned is rather varied..."

Ye Qingcang gradually accelerated.

Each step went from several meters to dozens of meters.

His stride remained steady, as though he were still taking a stroll.

Yet his figure had begun to flicker. One moment he appeared dozens of meters away; before anyone could see clearly, he was suddenly more than a hundred meters away.

Only his voice remained unaffected.

He was so composed it was unbelievable, and what he said was even more shocking. "There are only two kinds of methods in this world: cultivation and techniques. Cultivation strengthens the body; techniques protect the body. Along the way, you have seen quite a few techniques—what you call Self-Created Soul Skills. But cultivation methods are rare, such as my Stellar Martial Arts and Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill."

Tang San: "???"

The people from Spirit Hall: "???"

Tianshui, Blazing Fire, Shenfeng: "???"

The Shrek group: "???"

Had they just heard some incredible intelligence?

There were too many bombshells!

For a moment, they could not even tell what they should focus on!

Tang San's gaze toward Ye Qingcang gradually turned venomous.

Xiao Wu, who had instinctively looked toward Tang San, caught it.

"The Mysterious Heaven Skill is founded on purification. Those who begin cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill from childhood can raise their soul power level to Innate Full Soul Power. When used by Soul Masters, it makes their soul power higher in quality. Think of the difference between gas, liquid, and solid. Even if their soul power levels are equal, a ton of iron and a ton of cotton weigh the same, but cotton cannot flatten iron, while iron can flatten cotton. Purification is the most precious trait of the Mysterious Heaven Skill."

"The concept behind Stellar Martial Arts is all-encompassing."

"If I had to name one trait, it would perhaps be foundation."

Ye Qingcang raised his hand. Threads of white Qi Aura spread from his fingertips, condensing into sharp gauntlets like dragon claws and extending backward. He paused to let everyone see more clearly.

"When I was young, I once considered a question: what exactly is the essence of soul power?"

"Meditation?"

"No. That answer is too vague."

"I searched through every book I could find, but none explained the essence of soul power. Perhaps to every Soul Master, there is no need to know what soul power truly is. They only need to know that the energy that drives their martial souls is called soul power, that the energy which helps them transcend the ordinary is called soul power. Soul power is soul power. Why should there be so many questions about its essence that are worth investigating?"

"But I am different."

"Since childhood, I have been rather fond of chasing questions to the bitter end."

"I investigated over two thousand Soul Masters and dissected hundreds of soul beasts. The essence of soul power is not soul power itself, but a kind of energy extracted from cells plus energy extracted through meditation, mixed in a specific ratio, then imprinted through one's bloodline, becoming the special energy known as soul power!"

"I defined cellular energy as the body."

"I defined meditative energy as the spirit."

"I defined the bloodline imprinting process as the martial soul."

"And I arrived at a formula."

"Body plus spirit, mixed in a special ratio, then imprinted by the martial soul, equals soul power!"

"So from the very beginning, Stellar Martial Arts has focused on the body and spirit. The two combined are a person's foundation, a person's life, a person!"

"To make the body stronger, fusion and refinement are indispensable."

"Fusion means eating."

"Refinement means training."

"Any fine steel is made by fusing together countless unremarkable chunks of iron, then using various methods to remove their impurities, retaining the essence and discarding the dross, until it can finally be forged."

"That is why there is the Foundation Establishment Chapter and the Qi and Blood Chapter."

"The reason many Soul Masters are blocked by bottlenecks is not because their Innate Soul Power is too low, but because their bodies and spirits have already been depleted. People and fruit trees share the same principle in this regard. Some fruit trees can only bear fruit once a year. If you insist on making them bear fruit twice, the result will only be that the tree becomes depleted and bears no fruit the next year, or produces a greatly reduced yield."

"That is why spirit cuisine can help so many Soul Masters break through bottlenecks."

"It is not that spirit cuisine is exceptionally effective."

"It is that most Soul Masters are in a depleted state."

The people from Tianshui Academy, Blazing Fire Academy, Shenfeng Academy, and Spirit Hall, who had never heard such a theory before, felt their scalps go numb.

This theory directly overturned the common sense of Soul Masters!

Yet it sounded unexpectedly reasonable!

At that very moment, everyone saw the purple Thousand Jun Ant King leap above Ye Qingcang's head. Its sickle-shaped forelimb slashed down, but before they could cry out, Ye Qingcang's palm wrapped in Qi Aura caught it. The ground within a thousand-meter radius suddenly trembled. Sand and stones rippled, then returned to normal as though nothing had happened.

Only the sight of Ye Qingcang confronting the Thousand Jun Ant King told everyone that it was not that nothing had happened, but that everything had only just begun!

"An unbelievable force-dispersing technique!" Yue Guan's shriek made Gui Mei suspect that his old partner would faint in the next moment. "He actually diverted all of that Thousand Jun Ant King's power into the ground! It is as though the Thousand Jun Ant King struck not him, but the ground across a thousand-meter radius! To what extent has he mastered his own power and that Thousand Jun Ant King's power?!"

The Shrek Seven Devils stood frozen.

The teachers and students of Tianshui, Blazing Fire, and Shenfeng Academies were frozen as well.

Even on Spirit Hall's side, Yan quietly swallowed, Xie Yue's eye twitched slightly, and Hu Liena's small mouth hung open, her soft pink tongue faintly visible.

Could a human really do that?

"And in terms of techniques..." Based on the current situation, Ye Qingcang explained as he fought. Facing the Thousand Jun Ant's other five forelimbs stabbing toward him, he twisted his hand and used brute force to yank the Thousand Jun Ant King off balance. Then he bent his elbow, his intent arriving before his force. Everyone, including the three Thousand Jun Ant Kings, seemed to see a furious thunder dragon roaring. "There are likewise internal and external methods. External methods are techniques; internal methods are spirit. You may possess a hundred methods, but as long as I suppress your spirit with an internal method, I can make you die without even knowing how you died!"

The thunder dragon roared, branding itself into everyone's memories.

But in reality, there was no roaring thunder dragon.

There was only Ye Qingcang's Fist Intent, condensed to the extreme, and the Thousand Jun Ant King he sent flying over a hundred meters with one elbow strike. It smashed into a section of rock wall, punched through that more-than-ten-meter-thick wall, crashed to the ground, and was buried beneath falling stones!

The rock wall collapsed, and rubble rolled down in waves!

Against the dark yellow dust, Shui Bing'er, Huo Wu, Hu Liena, and the others looked even paler. Yet Ning Rongrong, Dai Mubai, Xiao Wu, and others had faint flushes on their faces!

No matter what, the destructive power was too astonishing!

Thousand Jun Ants were renowned for strength and defense, yet a level-forty Quasi Soul Ancestor had sent a ninety-thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant flying with one elbow?

"Not enough." Gui Mei shook his head, quietly pressing down the arm that had begun trembling involuntarily beneath that thunder-dragon-like Fist Intent. The intimidation this Fist Intent gave him was even stronger than Chen Xin's Sword Intent. "A ninety-thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant is not so fragile... This was merely an appetizer, a test by the three Thousand Jun Ant Kings!"

"But Brother Ye seems to have only been warming up..." Xie Yue finally understood why Gui Mei, a Titled Douluo, had praised Ye Qingcang so extravagantly before. Under that Fist Intent just now, his mind had already been overwhelmed. If Ye Qingcang had struck him instead of the Thousand Jun Ant King, he would be lucky if even a breath remained after that punch. "So far, Brother Ye has only thrown one elbow. He has not even summoned his martial soul!"

"That is why I told you to shut up and learn quietly." Yue Guan stared at Ye Qingcang with hungry eyes. "The reason Chen Xin is so strong is because he possesses Sword Intent. Against any Titled Douluo below level ninety-five, he can kill whoever he strikes, unless it is perhaps a spirit-type Titled Douluo, who might have a chance to evade it. Fist Intent, Sword Intent, Blade Intent, and Staff Intent share many common principles. If you can comprehend even one kind of intent, calling yourself invincible among those of the same rank would not be an exaggeration!"