Take the Grass and the Bone Together

Zhao Ming took a deep breath and suppressed the excitement in his heart.

He did not approach rashly. Instead, he carefully inspected the area around the waterfall first. Only after confirming there were no traces of human activity and no aura of any soul power restrictions did he finally relax.

As expected, Tang Hao had not left behind any safeguards here.

Thinking about it, in Tang Hao's mind, the existence of the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone was a secret known only to himself. He would never have imagined that someone would come to steal it while he was away.

Besides, Holy Soul Village was such a remote little place that not even a decent soul master normally passed through. What was there for him to guard against?

Zhao Ming then walked straight up to the waterfall. With a thought, Intangibility activated.

In that instant, his body became illusory and transparent. The rushing water passed through him without stirring so much as a ripple, as though he did not exist there at all.

Using Intangibility, Zhao Ming easily passed through the heavy curtain of water and entered the cave behind the waterfall.

The cave was small. Its walls were rough and damp, covered in moss, exactly as described in the original work. There was only a small opening at the top of the cave, and a ray of sunlight fell through the crack, casting a palm-sized patch of light onto the rock at the bottom.

And the Blue Silver Emperor was directly beneath that patch of light.

It was a blade of grass that was azure-blue from top to bottom. Its leaves were long and soft, with a faint blue glow flowing across their surface, making it especially conspicuous in the dim cave.

Its roots were buried in cracks in the rock, and the entire plant stretched upward with all its might, greedily chasing that ray of sunlight falling through the crack.

But it was not in good condition. The edges of its leaves had already begun to yellow and wither.

As Zhao Ming looked at the Blue Silver Emperor, complicated emotions could not help rising within him.

The Blue Silver Emperor—a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, the sovereign of the Blue Silver Clan—was renowned for its vitality and was difficult to kill.

Yet such a tenacious sovereign of life had been tossed by Tang Hao into this sunless cave, relying on a stray ray of sunlight to barely survive for more than a decade. Its aura was only at the level of a ten-year soul beast.

If Tang Hao truly loved her, then even transplanting her into the sunlight outside the waterfall and letting her grow freely would have been ten thousand times better than leaving her in this godforsaken place.

With the Blue Silver Emperor's vitality, as long as it had sufficient sunlight and water, its cultivation would never have been so low.

Yet he had deliberately stuffed her into this sunless cave and made her linger on with only a stray ray of sunlight. And that was supposed to be love?

Or was it really as some conspiracy theories from his previous life claimed—that Tang Hao had done this because he feared Ah Yin would interfere with Tang San awakening his Blue Silver Emperor bloodline?

Zhao Ming shook his head, tossing these messy thoughts from his mind. He had not come to seek justice for the Blue Silver Emperor. He had come for the soul bone.

Zhao Ming began carefully feeling along the cave wall, inch by inch. At last, he found an unnatural protrusion near the upper part of the wall.

He smashed it hard. Rubble pattered down from the stone wall, and a dusty lead box fell from a loosened crevice, striking the ground heavily with a dull boom.

Zhao Ming bent down to pick it up and felt his hand sink. The lead box did not look large, but it weighed over two hundred jin.

The lid of the lead box was tightly sealed, without any clasp on it. Yet Zhao Ming could sense an extremely powerful force faintly surging inside, as if something had been suppressed for far too long and could not wait to burst out of the box.

He took a deep breath, gripped the edge of the lid with both hands, and heaved.

The instant the lid opened, a surging vitality, nearly tangible, erupted from within the box and swept through the entire cave like floodwaters bursting through a broken dam.

Just how dense was that vitality? The yellowing moss on the cave walls turned lush and green again the moment it came into contact with it.

Zhao Ming's breath caught under the impact of that vitality. His entire body felt as though it had been immersed in a pool of warm spiritual spring water, every pore greedily absorbing that pure life energy.

Inside the lead box lay a bone.

It was a right leg bone, crystal-clear throughout, as though carved from the finest sapphire.

A faint blue glow flowed across its surface like a living thing. With each circulation, it released wave after wave of life energy, while golden patterns could vaguely be seen within the bone.

Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, a hundred-thousand-year soul bone.

The corners of Zhao Ming's lips rose slightly. He had obtained a hundred-thousand-year soul bone so easily, and one that was crucial to Tang San. Zhao Ming could not help feeling pleased.

A hundred-thousand-year soul bone was a treasure no matter what. Across all of Douluo Continent, the known hundred-thousand-year soul bones could be counted on one hand. Every single one was enough to drive even Title Douluo-level powerhouses mad.

And now, such a priceless treasure lay quietly in his palm.

Just as Zhao Ming was examining the soul bone, an unusual sensation suddenly came from his ankle.

Looking down, he saw that the Blue Silver Emperor had somehow extended several long blades of grass and tightly wrapped them around his ankle.

The blue glow on the grass blades flickered rapidly, and a faint consciousness traveled up through them.

It was an emotion that was almost pleading, like a dying person desperately clutching at their last lifeline. The Blue Silver Emperor was begging him not to take the soul bone away.

Zhao Ming looked down at the Blue Silver Emperor wrapped around his ankle and fell silent for a moment.

Then he curled his lip, bent down, grabbed the Blue Silver Emperor by its roots, and directly yanked the entire plant out of the crack in the rock.

The Blue Silver Emperor's leaves trembled violently, its blue glow flashing madly. That pleading consciousness became even more urgent, even carrying a trace of despair and fear.

But Zhao Ming remained unmoved. He held the lead box in one hand and the Blue Silver Emperor in the other, activated Intangibility once more, turned illusory and transparent, and passed directly through the waterfall's curtain of water, returning outside the cave.

Sunlight fell over him, warm and soothing. Zhao Ming looked back at the cascading waterfall, then lowered his gaze to the still-trembling Blue Silver Emperor in his hand. His eyes brimmed with killing intent. He did not intend to keep the Blue Silver Emperor, but neither would he kill it here.

Zhao Ming stored both the lead box and the Blue Silver Emperor in the Mustard Seed Space. Then he activated Emerald Feather Protection. A pale emerald film lit up over his body, and his speed suddenly surged.

Rather than returning along the way he had come, he chose a direction opposite Notting City and raced toward the depths of the southwestern mountains.

The wind howled past his ears, and the trees on either side rapidly receded.

Zhao Ming pushed his speed to the limit and ran a full hundred li away.