Heaven Dou City, Xia Family.
The three returned home. As soon as they entered, Liu Yuer took a jade box from her storage Soul Tool.
Liu Yuer gently opened the jade box, revealing a rare gemstone-type skull bone inside.
"This is a sixty-thousand-year Queen Medusa skull bone. Its Soul Bone skill is: Medusa's Gaze!"
"This skull bone is our greatest gain from this trip. Good son, hurry and absorb it."
Liu Yuer stuffed the Medusa skull bone into Xia Mu's hands.
This skull bone was worth a fortune. Its quality was so high that it was likely rare even across the entire continent.
"No, Mother!"
"You should absorb this Soul Bone yourself!"
Xia Mu possessed Twin Martial Souls. He would certainly not lack Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones in the future, and he had no desire to ruin his own foundation.
"You have already obtained a Soul Ring. If you absorb this Soul Bone, you will surely break through to the high ranks of Soul Emperor."
"The most urgent matter is to improve your strength!"
Xia Mu shook his head and returned the Soul Bone.
"This is a sixty-thousand-year gemstone-type skull bone. Even the Upper Three Sects would be tempted by it!"
"And you actually look down on it!"
Liu Yuer grew anxious as well and began to scold him.
"Mother!"
"My mind is made up. Stop trying to persuade me!"
Xia Mu refused to accept it no matter what. In the end, only after Xia Feng persuaded her did Liu Yuer absorb the skull bone.
Boom~
A wave of Soul Power spread out. After absorbing the skull bone, Liu Yuer reached level sixty-six.
"It raised my Soul Power by two and a half levels?"
Liu Yuer's Soul Power had originally been at the peak of level sixty-three, only a step away from level sixty-four.
"Using a sixty-thousand-year head Soul Bone as bait was only meant to test Dugu Bo and Ye Renxin. It seems that these two can be trusted."
"As the saying goes, treasures stir people's hearts!"
"If the two of them had coveted the Soul Bone and clashed with my parents, the outcome would have been hard to predict!"
Xia Feng and Liu Yuer were both quite powerful and possessed numerous trump cards. Their combat strength was no weaker than that of a high-rank Soul Emperor.
Together, they could even fight a Soul Sage!
To put it plainly, this soul-hunting trip had been a test for Dugu Bo, to see whether he could earn their trust.
Fortunately, Dugu Bo passed the test smoothly!
The facts proved that Dugu Bo was not someone who broke his promises. He had a moral bottom line he refused to cross.
"Do not employ those you doubt; do not doubt those you employ!"
"There are no eternal friends in this world, only eternal interests. I should wait a little longer."
Divine light flickered in Xia Mu's eyes. This matter was of great importance, and it was not yet time to distribute Immortal Herbs freely.
"Let's rest and recover for half a month before setting out for Star Luo!"
Liu Yuer made the final decision. They could use this time to gather intelligence on the Sword Mountain Range.
The Sword Mountain Range lay within the Heaven Dou Empire. Its peaks towered into the clouds like a gigantic sword holding up the heavens.
"Black-Jointed Bamboo is a rare mutated plant-type soul beast. It generally grows among Green Jade Sword Bamboo."
"Sword Bamboo gains sentience after a hundred years, evolves into Green Jade Sword Bamboo after a thousand years, and may be called a Green Jade Sword Bamboo King after ten thousand years. As for a hundred-thousand-year Sword Bamboo, even I have never seen one."
"However, among the Green Jade Sword Bamboo population, some rare Sword Bamboo mutate after a thousand years and evolve into the rare Mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo!"
"Black-Jointed Bamboo grows one joint every thousand years and is dark green throughout. It undergoes nirvana once every thousand years, following the law of one joint, one layer of heaven, and only transforming after nine joints."
"After growing nine joints, Black-Jointed Bamboo undergoes nirvana and is reborn as a bamboo shoot, becoming a ten-thousand-year Black-Jointed Bamboo King!"
"A Mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo King that has undergone nine nirvanas is a lower-ranked soul beast beneath the Black Jade Divine Bamboo!"
"Legend has it that when a Mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo King crosses the hundred-thousand-year threshold, it can transform into a Black Jade Divine Bamboo!"
Xia Feng took out the Immortal Herb Catalogue and explained slowly.
"A mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo King!"
"This kind of soul beast will not be easy to find!"
Xia Feng frowned. Ten-thousand-year Black-Jointed Bamboo Kings hid underground, and some were even nothing more than bamboo shoots.
"That is not a problem!"
"I have a way to find the Black-Jointed Bamboo King!"
Dazzling golden light flashed in Xia Mu's eyes. Fiery Golden Eyes activated, taking in every detail of the scenery before him.
"What a perfect blind spot!"
"In the core area of this cluster of Green Jade Sword Bamboo, there is a mutated ten-thousand-year Black-Jointed Bamboo King hiding there."
"It has just crossed the ten-thousand-year threshold and reverted into a bamboo shoot. It is accumulating nutrients in pursuit of evolution!"
Fiery Golden Eyes could perceive all things!
Under the sweep of Fiery Golden Eyes, no matter how well the Black-Jointed Bamboo King hid, it would ultimately be futile.
"Go!"
With a target in sight, the two shielded Xia Mu as they advanced. Before long, they arrived at the heart of the bamboo forest.
"Found you at last!"
Xia Mu found the bamboo shoot of the Ten-Thousand-Year Mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo King, then summoned his Light-Hiding Sword Martial Soul!
Sword light flashed, and the Black-Jointed Bamboo King died in an instant!
The moment the Ten-Thousand-Year Mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo King died, the entire bamboo forest erupted. Countless bamboo leaves fell from the sky.
Every bamboo leaf resembled a sharp sword!
Wherever the leaves passed, rocks shattered and sword energy flew wildly. They were enough to kill ordinary Soul Kings and Soul Emperors.
The storm of sword energy came without end!
"What a terrifying area-of-effect skill!"
"As the saying goes, enough ants can kill an elephant!"
"Even Soul Kings and Soul Emperors, once trapped inside, would likely become dry bones and turn into nourishment for this bamboo forest after their Soul Power was exhausted!"
Only then did Xia Mu understand why the Sword Mountain Range was called a forbidden ground for Soul Masters. So these Green Jade Sword Bamboo liked launching sneak attacks from the shadows.
They quietly let Soul Masters enter, then ganged up on them once they began hunting soul beasts. Who could withstand that?
"Fifth Soul Skill—Indestructible Golden Body!"
"External Soul Bone Skill—Sword Wings—Protection!"
Xia Feng and Liu Yuer activated their defensive Soul Skills and endured the wave of attacks head-on, buying time for Xia Mu.
"This Mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo King is around ten thousand eight hundred years old, just right for me!"
"Time waits for no one!"
"I need to hurry and absorb this ten-thousand-year Soul Ring!"
Xia Mu immediately sat cross-legged on the ground, guiding the Soul Ring into the Light-Hiding Sword before closing his eyes to refine it.
One incense stick, then two!
"A mere Ten-Thousand-Year Mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo King actually dares to cause trouble in my sea of consciousness? You're courting death!"
After consuming Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, Xia Mu's spiritual power had reached the terrifying Spirit Abyss realm.
Xia Mu's current spiritual power was enough to crush most Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, which showed just how formidable it was.
The Mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo King had only just passed ten thousand years. In terms of spiritual power alone, how could it possibly be Xia Mu's match?
Break!
Xia Mu shouted softly, and his vast spiritual power instantly crushed the Mutated Black-Jointed Bamboo King, assimilating it into himself.
"What a pity!"
"If my body were not still developing and my innate foundation were not slightly lacking, then with my spiritual power, I could have absorbed a fourth Soul Ring of twenty to thirty thousand years!"
After saying that, Xia Mu shook his head regretfully.
What constrained Xia Mu was neither his spiritual power nor his physical constitution, but rather his most overlooked limitation: his age.
Xia Mu's body had not fully developed, and his innate foundation was insufficient. He could not bear a higher-level Soul Ring.
This was of the utmost importance.
However, draining the pond to catch the fish was not the act of a wise man. Only by laying a solid foundation could he build a towering edifice in the future.
Before you continue