Long Xiaoyao

In the pitch-black chamber, the heavy stone door shut out every trace of light. Mu Feng had no sense of time passing, but he was not worried that he would die.

Because on the Douluo Continent, martial souls were the true currency. The stronger the martial soul, the greater its value. And the Holy Spirit Cult would stop at nothing; they would never leave a powerful martial soul unused.

With a bang, dim light spilled into the room. Having gone all night without sleep, Mu Feng was in terrible shape. The hallucinations had left him physically and mentally exhausted, and even such faint light felt somewhat blinding.

He narrowed his eyes. A tall figure stood before him. The Holy Spirit Cult moved surprisingly fast.

If Mu Feng remembered correctly, the Holy Spirit Cult's headquarters was in the Sun Moon Empire, while he was currently in the Heavenly Soul Empire. Though he did not know how much time had passed, he knew it could not possibly have been more than fifteen or sixteen hours.

Mu Feng's guess was correct. Even if Ge Shuo used the Holy Spirit Cult's internal channels to transmit information, fifteen or sixteen hours would only barely be enough for top-secret intelligence to reach the Sun Moon Empire. There was no way a round trip could have been completed.

"Come."

"Not Ge Shuo?" Mu Feng froze upon hearing the man's voice, but he obediently followed him out. Only then did he clearly see the man's appearance.

He was a tall, upright old man. His silver hair was meticulously combed, and his complexion was rosy like a baby's. His most distinctive feature was the pair of long eyebrows hanging down along either side of his cheeks.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked utterly ordinary. His kindly appearance held none of the ferocity of a villain. If he had not appeared in a Holy Spirit Cult stronghold, who would have imagined that such an approachable old man was actually an evil soul master?

He asked, "What is your name?"

"Mu Feng." Mu Feng followed behind him, his steps somewhat unsteady. He was already starving. A few pieces of black bread had done nothing to fill him up, and his sleepless night had drained even more of his strength.

Just as they reached the main hall of the stronghold, the hungry and weakened Mu Feng suddenly caught a familiar scent. His exhausted body instantly went on high alert. He sniffed, puzzled. It really is a strong smell of blood. Did something happen?

After turning another corner, he saw countless corpses strewn haphazardly across the floor. Had this Holy Spirit Cult branch been wiped out in one stroke?

Among the mountain of bodies, Mu Feng quickly spotted two familiar faces. That's Yan Kun and Ge Shuo.

As expected. Though he had long guessed this outcome, the moment he truly saw Yan Kun's face, Mu Feng's heart clenched. He was not worried about the old man of unknown origin before him. He was furious that Yan Kun had not died by his own hand.

The three people who had caused Stone Village's destruction had all died less than half a month later. Although he had personally finished off two of them, it had ultimately happened by accident through his actions, so he felt no satisfaction of revenge at all.

Thus, whenever the terrified faces of his neighboring villagers surfaced in his mind last night, he had wanted to one day vent all his rage upon Yan Kun completely.

Mu Feng pressed his lips together and looked at the old man with complicated eyes.

The old man glanced at Mu Feng and said calmly, "Put away that pointless anger of yours. The price for angering someone you cannot afford to provoke is very high."

Mu Feng was greatly alarmed. Logically, he ought to have thanked the benefactor who had slain his enemy for him. Yet his bone-deep hatred for Yan Kun had made him lose his reason, and he had instead found the old man an obstruction who had interfered with his revenge.

But that single remark instantly woke Mu Feng from his emotional turmoil. He hurriedly apologized, "I'm sorry, sir. Seeing my enemy's face just now stirred me up a little."

Before coming here, he had already read the information Ge Shuo had sent and gained a rough understanding of the boy before him. His main reason for clearing out this branch was to eliminate everyone who knew of yesterday's events, but it could also be considered revenge on the boy's behalf.

Yet upon seeing the corpses, the old man had been surprised to find a silent fury in the boy's gaze toward him. After the old man spoke to remind him, however, the boy's attitude changed with astonishing speed. Even the emotions in his eyes vanished at once, as though he were a monster.

"Mm." The old man nodded.

Mu Feng cautiously studied the old man's indifferent expression before finally letting out a breath of relief. He asked respectfully, "May I ask why you are here, Senior?"

"My name is Long Xiaoyao. Just call me Elder Long."

Long Xiaoyao. Mu Feng turned the name over in his mind, and a long-sealed memory suddenly loosened. He recalled the identity of the old man before him: the Limit Douluo with the Dark Sacred Dragon martial soul.

And across the entire Douluo Continent, only one person could command him: Ye Xishui, the Supreme Sect Master of the Holy Spirit Cult.

Only then did Mu Feng realize that the person he had encountered was not some righteous old senior helping out by the roadside. Still, one thing puzzled him greatly: why had Long Xiaoyao wiped out this branch?

Long Xiaoyao usually never meddles in other people's affairs. Was this Ye Xishui's order? Mu Feng pondered privately. And why would Ye Xishui give an order that cost her a thousand to inflict eight hundred on the enemy?

Long Xiaoyao did not waste any more words on Mu Feng. He intended to pick Mu Feng up and leave, but when he grasped Mu Feng's arm, he suddenly frowned and gave a soft sound of surprise.

Immediately afterward, Mu Feng felt a warm current flow from his arm through his entire body. Long Xiaoyao exclaimed in astonishment, "Innate soul power rank twenty?"

In just a few moments, his expression shifted several times. Then he suddenly recalled a secret Mu En had told him when they had discussed martial souls in their younger days.

Legend had it that ten thousand years ago, the inherited martial soul of the Martial Soul Hall, the Six-Winged Angel, possessed innate soul power rank twenty. Beyond innate full soul power, it had also received the blessing of a divine position.

At the time, Long Xiaoyao had treated it as nothing more than a rumor. After all, innate soul power rank twenty was something he had never even heard of.

Yet now, a living example stood right before him.

Mu Feng was stunned as well, then suddenly understood. So that warm current had been Long Xiaoyao testing his soul power rank.

And as a Limit Douluo, Long Xiaoyao naturally could not make a mistake in such a trivial matter. It seemed that the inferior martial soul awakening array Ge Shuo had used yesterday could only test soul power below rank ten.

Long Xiaoyao looked at Mu Feng and found that the boy still wore a calm expression. If his senses as a Limit Douluo could not possibly be wrong, he would have suspected that Mu Feng's earlier anger had been nothing but his imagination.

Unlike Long Xiaoyao, Mu Feng knew perfectly well that his martial soul was definitely not the native Six-Winged Angel of the Douluo Continent.

He was also deeply shocked that he possessed innate soul power rank twenty, but having the advantage of having read the original work, he quickly accepted the result.

Mu Feng kept silent and quietly watched Long Xiaoyao, waiting for his next move.

Long Xiaoyao dearly wanted to enter Mu Feng's spiritual sea and see what exactly was inside. Was the boy truly capable of concealing his emotions to such a monstrous degree, or had the experiences of the past few days simply scared him witless?

If it was the latter, bringing back a fool would be quite troublesome.

After a long while, Long Xiaoyao came up with a question. It would surely be simple for a six-year-old child, but it would be difficult for a fool. He asked, "Do you know the difference between boys and girls?"

"..."

The scene seemed to freeze. Mu Feng blinked at Long Xiaoyao. Though he did not answer, his eyes said everything.

Long Xiaoyao's old face immediately reddened. He grabbed Mu Feng and sped away before Mu Feng could say a word.