Long Xiaoyao

In the pitch-black chamber, the heavy stone door shut out every trace of light. Mu Feng could not feel time passing at all, but he was not worried that he would die.

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

With a bang, dim light spilled into the room. Mu Feng, who had not slept all night, was in terrible condition. The hallucinations had worn him down in body and mind, and even this 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 Heaven Dou Empire. He did not know how much time had passed, but 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, it would take fifteen or sixteen hours just for top-secret information to barely reach the Sun Moon Empire. There was no way it could make a round trip.

"Come."

"Not Ge Shuo?" Mu Feng froze for a moment 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, straight-backed old man. His silver hair was meticulously combed, and his ruddy complexion resembled that of an infant. His most distinctive feature was the pair of long eyebrows hanging down along both sides of his cheeks.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked utterly unremarkable. His kindly appearance carried none of the fierceness one might expect. If he had not appeared in a Holy Spirit Cult stronghold, who would have imagined that such an amiable old man was actually an evil Soul Master?

He asked, "What is your name?"

"Mu Feng." Mu Feng followed his steps, his own gait somewhat unsteady. He was already extremely hungry. The few pieces of black bread he had eaten had done nothing to fill him, and his sleepless night had drained even more of his strength.

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

After turning another corner, he saw numerous corpses strewn haphazardly across the ground. It seemed that this Holy Spirit Cult branch had been wiped out in one fell swoop.

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

"As expected." Although he had long guessed the 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 angry that Yan Kun had not died by his own hand.

The three people responsible for Stone Village's destruction had all died in less than half a month. Although he had personally finished off two of them, it had ultimately happened by accident because of him. Thus, he felt none of the satisfaction of revenge.

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

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

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

Mu Feng was greatly alarmed by those words. Logically, he should have been grateful to the benefactor who had killed his enemy for him. But his bone-deep hatred for Yan Kun had made him lose his reason, and he had instead felt that the old man was an obstacle who had interfered with his revenge.

Yet that one sentence instantly woke Mu Feng from his emotional turmoil. He hurriedly apologized, "I'm sorry, sir. Seeing my enemy's face just now made me lose control of my emotions."

Before coming here, he had already read the information Ge Shuo sent and had gained a general understanding of the boy before him. His main reason for wiping out this branch was to eliminate everyone who knew what had happened yesterday, though he had also avenged the boy before him in the process.

But after seeing the corpses, the old man had been surprised to find a silent anger in Mu Feng's gaze toward him. Yet after being reminded, the boy's attitude had changed with astonishing speed. Even the emotions in his eyes had been concealed, as though he were a monster.

"Mm." The old man nodded.

Mu Feng carefully observed the old man's calm expression, then finally let out a long breath. Respectfully, he asked, "May I ask why you are here, Senior?"

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

"Long Xiaoyao." Mu Feng mulled over the name in his heart, and a long-sealed memory suddenly stirred. He recalled the identity of the old man before him: the Ultimate Douluo with the Dark Sacred Dragon martial soul.

And across all of Douluo Continent, there was only one person capable of commanding him—the Holy Spirit Cult's Supreme Sect Master, Ye Xishui.

Only then did Mu Feng realize that this was not some righteous senior who had drawn his blade to help a stranger. Yet 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 silently. But why would Ye Xishui issue an order that harmed her own side?

Long Xiaoyao did not continue wasting words with Mu Feng. He intended to grab Mu Feng and leave, but when he took hold of 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 said in astonishment, "Innate Soul Power of level twenty?"

In just a brief moment, his expression changed several times. Suddenly, he remembered a secret Mu En had told him when they discussed martial souls in their youth.

Legend had it that ten thousand years ago, the Spirit Hall's inherited Six-Winged Angel martial soul possessed Innate Soul Power of level twenty. On top of Innate Full Soul Power, it had received the blessing of a godhood.

At the time, Long Xiaoyao had regarded it as nothing more than a rumor. After all, Innate Soul Power of level twenty was something he had never even heard of.

Yet now, a living example stood right before him.

Mu Feng was also stunned, then suddenly understood. So the warm current earlier had been Long Xiaoyao testing his Soul Power Level.

As an Ultimate 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 level ten.

Long Xiaoyao looked at Mu Feng and found him still wearing a calm expression. If his senses as an Ultimate Douluo could not possibly be wrong, he would have suspected that Mu Feng's earlier anger had been a scene he imagined.

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

He was also shocked to discover that he possessed Innate Soul Power of level twenty, but with the advantage of having read the original story, he quickly accepted the result.

Mu Feng remained silent, quietly watching Long Xiaoyao and waiting for his next move.

Long Xiaoyao very much wanted to enter Mu Feng's spiritual sea and see what exactly was inside. Was the boy truly capable of concealing his emotions to a monstrous degree, or had the events of the past few days simply frightened him into becoming an idiot?

If it was the latter, bringing an idiot back with him would be rather troublesome.

After thinking for a while, Long Xiaoyao came up with a question that would certainly be simple for a six-year-old child, but difficult for an idiot. 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 had already said everything.

Long Xiaoyao's old face instantly reddened. He grabbed Mu Feng and sped away, not giving him a chance to speak.