Furnace Refines Great Pill (III)

Furnace Refines Great Pill (III)

"Hiss—hiss!"

"Hiss hiss hiss—hiss—hiss hiss!"

Beasts followed their instincts. Ten-year soul beasts submitted to their instincts. Hundred-year soul beasts overcame their instincts. Thousand-year soul beasts began to think. Ten-thousand-year soul beasts possessed the intelligence of ordinary humans. Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts could speak and take human form.

This Thousand Jun Ant King, more than ninety thousand years old, keenly sensed that Yue Guan, Guimei, Dugu Bo, and Liu Erlong were not to be trifled with. It also detected faint threats from Shui Feng, Huo Lie, and Feng Wuji. As for the hundred-man squad behind them, they proved the saying "there is strength in numbers." So, frankly speaking, it had no desire to clash with this group of humans.

That was assuming these humans did not want to clash with it either.

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

However, it saw a young human step closer. His aura erupted without the slightest concealment, including a murderous intent no less savage than its own. That undoubtedly revealed his intentions.

Thus, it would no longer hold back!

Hearing their brother's call, the other two Thousand Jun Ant Kings, each over ninety thousand years old, broke out from beneath the ground on either side and stood beside the purple Thousand Jun Ant King. One was emerald green, seemingly mutated during its evolution, with potent venom. The other was dark red and, like the green Thousand Jun Ant King, appeared to have mutated during evolution, gaining enhanced fire resistance—practically enchanting itself with fire damage.

"So that's how it is!" Yue Guan frowned deeply and shot Guimei a look, ready to act at any moment. "The most obvious difference between a Thousand Jun Ant King and a Thousand Jun Ant Emperor is their wings. A winged Thousand Jun Ant, even if it is not a hundred-thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant Emperor, will not be far off. A wingless Thousand Jun Ant, even if it is also a ninety-thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant King, still has many years to wait. These three Thousand Jun Ant Kings can already be called Thousand Jun Ant Emperors. Especially that emerald-green Thousand Jun Ant—its wings are nearly complete. There is a high chance it can fly..."

"But we can kill them!" Shui Feng did not blame Ye Qingcang for leading them to this wretched 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 Grandmaster could not defeat three Thousand Jun Ant Emperors.

However, Yue Guan stopped her.

He stopped everyone else as well.

"Watch with your own eyes!" Yue Guan's voice was unusually normal for once. His words sparked everyone's curiosity. "This may be the upper limit of what a soul master can achieve at this age and Soul Power Level—the greatest you will ever see in your lives... and the greatest we will ever see in ours!"

"That's right." Guimei nodded and patted Hu Liena on the shoulder. The admiration in his eyes gave Hu Liena an inexplicable feeling. "Watch closely. If you can learn even a little experience or technique from him, it will still serve you well even after you become a Titled Douluo!"

Yue Guan and Guimei had suddenly turned into Ye Qingcang Fans, leaving many people baffled.

But whether they understood or not, listening quietly when they did not understand was common sense—especially when the explanation came from Titled Douluo.

And in the next second, the development and direction of the situation became even more unexpected!

"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 chatted as he walked. "If you surrender, I promise all three of you that I will preserve your souls and lead you down the path to immortality. If you refuse, then I can only regretfully take action, strip away your wills, and remake you into tools."

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

But compared to that, was it not a little too arrogant for a level-forty Quasi Soul Grandmaster facing three Thousand Jun Ant Kings over ninety thousand years old to be negotiating terms, talking about stripping souls and pursuing immortality?

Yan muttered quietly.

Yue Guan silenced him with a glare.

Others might not know, but he and Guimei did.

Ye Qingcang was not boasting about stripping souls.

Even Bibi Dong could devour souls. She had devoured Qian Xunji completely, inside and out, not even sparing his soul. Naturally, stripping souls was possible.

Moreover, contrary to the arrogance others sensed from Ye Qingcang's actions, Yue Guan instead felt a respect for life. As a future god, Ye Qingcang was still willing to communicate calmly with these three Thousand Jun Ant Kings, rather than acting like Bibi Dong had back then—raising her scythe and leaving them no dignity at all. Submit or die: five words in total. She cherished words like gold, stingy to the extreme. Compared to Bibi Dong, Ye Qingcang was simply too merciful!

He was the kind of person 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 even with a pack of beasts—how rare was that!

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

Ye Qingcang had not done particularly well.

Others had simply done worse.

And in response to Ye Qingcang's request to chat, the three Thousand Jun Ant Kings began communicating as well. "Hiss—hiss hiss—hiss hiss hiss hiss—hiss—hiss hiss hiss!"

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

The three Thousand Jun Ant Kings immediately fell silent.

The Soul Hunting Squad also abruptly went quiet.

No, was that not a little too niche a skill?

You even knew the language of ants?

Did Blue Tyrant Academy teach that too?

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

Quite a few people made small, conflicted movements.

Some pressed their lips together. Some clenched their fists. Others lowered their eyes.

They did not like being lectured.

But that did not mean they refused to accept reason.

"My knowledge is rather miscellaneous..."

Ye Qingcang gradually accelerated.

From several meters in a step to dozens of meters in a step.

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 appeared over a hundred meters away.

Only his voice remained unaffected.

It was so calm that it was unbelievable, while its content left everyone stunned. "All methods in this world can be divided into no more than two types: cultivation and techniques. Cultivation strengthens the body; techniques protect the body. Along this journey, you have seen quite a few techniques—what you call Self-Created Soul Skills. Cultivation methods, however, are exceedingly rare, such as my Stellar Martial Path and Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill."

Tang San: "???"

Everyone from Spirit Hall: "???"

Skywater, Blazing Fire, and Godwind: "???"

The Shrek group: "???"

Had they just heard some earth-shattering information?

There were too many bombshells!

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

The look Tang San gave Ye Qingcang gradually turned venomous.

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

"The concept behind the Mysterious Heaven Skill is purification. Those who begin cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill from childhood can raise their Soul Power Level to Innate Full Soul Power. When applied to soul masters, it makes the quality of their Soul Power higher. 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 can never flatten iron, while iron can flatten cotton. Purification is the Mysterious Heaven Skill's most precious trait."

"The concept behind the Stellar Martial Path is inclusiveness."

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

Ye Qingcang raised his hand. Strands of white Gang Qi spread from his fingertips, condensing into sharp hand armor like dragon claws and extending backward. He paused so everyone could see more clearly.

"When I was young, I once considered a question: what exactly was the essence of Soul Power?"

"Meditation?"

"No. That answer is too vague."

"I searched every book I could find, yet none explained the essence of Soul Power. Perhaps most soul masters do not need to know what Soul Power truly is. They only need to know that the energy which drives their martial souls is called Soul Power, and the energy that allows them to transcend the ordinary is called Soul Power. Soul Power is Soul Power—why ask so many questions about what its essence truly is?"

"But I was different."

"I had always been rather fond of obsessing over things."

"I investigated more than two thousand soul masters and dissected several hundred soul beasts. The essence of Soul Power is not Soul Power itself, but rather an energy extracted from cells + energy extracted through meditation → mixed in a specific ratio → imprinted through one's bloodline = a special energy known as Soul Power!"

"I defined cellular energy as the body."

"I defined meditative energy as the spirit."

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

"And I arrived at a formula."

"Body + spirit → mixed in a special ratio → martial soul imprint = Soul Power!"

"Thus, from the very beginning, the Stellar Martial Path focused on the body and spirit. Together, they formed a person's foundation, a person's life, a person!"

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

"Fusion is eating."

"Refinement is training."

"Any fine steel is forged by combining countless unremarkable chunks of iron, then using various methods to remove their impurities, retaining the essence and discarding the dross."

"That was why the Foundation Establishment Chapter and the Qi and Blood Chapter came into being."

"The reason many soul masters are trapped at bottlenecks is not because their Innate Soul Power is too low, but because their bodies and spirits have already been depleted. Humans and fruit trees share the same principle in this regard. Some fruit trees can bear fruit only once a year. If you insist on making them bear fruit twice, the result will only be a depleted tree that bears no fruit the following year, or produces very little."

"That is why spirit cuisine can help so many soul masters break through bottlenecks."

"It is not because spirit cuisine is extraordinarily effective."

"It is because most soul masters are in a depleted state."

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

This theory directly overturned the common knowledge 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 scythe-like forelimb slashing down. Before they could cry out, Ye Qingcang caught it with a palm wrapped in Gang Qi. The ground within a thousand-meter radius suddenly trembled, sand and stones heaving once before returning 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 just now—it was that everything had only just begun!

"What an inconceivable force-dispersing technique!" Yue Guan's shriek made Guimei suspect that his old partner might faint in the next moment. "He actually redirected all the Thousand Jun Ant King's force into the ground! It is equivalent to the Thousand Jun Ant King striking not him, but the ground within this thousand-meter radius! To what extent has he mastered his own strength and the Thousand Jun Ant King's strength?!"

The Shrek Seven Devils stood frozen.

The teachers and students of Skywater, Blazing Fire, and Godwind Academies were equally frozen.

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

Could a human really do that?

"As for techniques..." Based on the current situation, Ye Qingcang spoke as he fought. Seeing the Thousand Jun Ant's other five forelimbs stabbing toward him, he twisted his hand and used brute force to yank it off balance. Then he bent his elbow. His intent arrived before his force, and everyone—including the three Thousand Jun Ant Kings—seemed to see a roaring thunder dragon. "They are also divided into external and internal methods. External methods are means; internal methods are spirit. You may possess a hundred different means, 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's roar was branded into everyone's memories.

Yet 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 that he had sent flying over a hundred meters with one elbow. It smashed into a section of rock wall, punched through more than ten meters of it, crashed to the ground, and was buried beneath falling stones!

The rock wall collapsed, and stones tumbled down in torrents!

Against the dark yellow dust, the pale faces of Shui Bing'er, Huo Wu, Hu Liena, and the others looked even paler. Yet Ning Rongrong, Dai Mubai, Xiao Wu, and a few others were slightly flushed instead!

No matter what, the destructive power was simply too terrifying!

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

"Not enough." Guimei shook his head, quietly pressing down the arm that had started trembling uncontrollably beneath that roaring thunder-dragon-like fist intent. The intimidation this fist intent gave him was even stronger than Chen Xin's Blade Intent. "A ninety-thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant is not that fragile... This was merely an appetizer, a test by the three Thousand Jun Ant Kings!"

"But Brother Ye seems to be merely warming up..." Xie Yue finally understood why Guimei, a Titled Douluo, had praised Ye Qingcang so highly before. Under that fist intent just now, his mind had already been overwhelmed. If Ye Qingcang had struck him rather than 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 ravenous hunger. "The reason Chen Xin is so strong is because he possesses Blade Intent. Below level ninety-five, any Titled Douluo he cuts will die, unless they are a spiritual-type Titled Douluo who might be able to evade it. Fist Intent, Blade Intent, sword 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 level would not be an exaggeration at all!"

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