Firepower Coverage

A soul beast with an embarrassingly edgy title like Sword King was indeed not easy to mess with.

This Dawn Sword Wolf King was just over ten thousand years old. Combined with the bizarre sword formed from Heavenfeather Sacred Gold in its jaws, it could tear even an ordinary high-level thirty-thousand-year soul beast to shreds, let alone Ye Guyi, who had only just crossed the threshold of Soul Ancestor.

As for Xuan Ziwen, the level eighty-one Soul Douluo stood on a dirt slope several hundred meters away, his expression utterly serious.

As a pure Sun Moon Empire researcher, he had pitifully little combat experience.

Setting aside his Martial Soul Avatar, his soul skills were all geared toward control and research support. Asking him to engage in close combat with a ten-thousand-year mutant was simply beneath the dignity of a high-level Soul Engineer.

But that was fine. If strength was lacking, firepower could make up for it. Any lack of confidence in tactical maneuvering came from insufficient firepower.

Xuan Ziwen brushed a hand over the storage Soul Tool at his waist, and one heavy metal device after another appeared before him. In less than a quarter hour, more than a dozen dark metal cannon barrels had been set up in the clearing, their muzzles uniformly locked onto the mine pit below.

Huo Yuhao's eyelids twitched. Those were Class 5 fixed-installation soul cannons. Although a single shot was far less powerful than those top-tier large-caliber sniper-type Soul Tools, against a ten-thousand-year soul beast, this was absolutely a crushing advantage.

"Teacher Xuan, how many shells did you bring?" Huo Yuhao swallowed and asked carefully.

"I didn't count."

"How many is 'didn't count'?"

Xuan Ziwen adjusted his glasses, his expression utterly calm. "A few hundred, probably. Ju Zi provided a very generous budget this time, so I prepared a little extra."

Huo Yuhao: ...

Was that what he called preparing a little extra? A few hundred Class 5 fixed-installation shells were more than enough to flatten a small town.

Before he could finish complaining, the devastating assault began.

Deafening booms reverberated wildly through the depths of the Jingyang Mountains as more than a dozen cannon barrels continuously spat blazing fire.

There was no need for precise aim. Hundreds of shells rained down, instantly engulfing the entire mine pit in fire and explosions. Dirt flew everywhere, while metal and shattered stone sprayed in all directions.

What the hell kind of soul beast hunt was this? This was clearly a deranged money-burning game.

It continued for the time it took an incense stick to burn. When the smoke finally dispersed, Huo Yuhao cautiously poked his head out to look. The Dawn Sword Wolf King, which had been so arrogant moments ago, was now sprawled on its back at the bottom of the pit.

Its proud white fur had been blasted black, blood foam constantly bubbling from its mouth. It was taking more breaths out than in, reduced to a limp heap of flesh. Even the Heavenly Feather Sacred Sword it had used for show had dimmed and shattered into several pieces beside it.

If not for the toughness of a soul beast's body, the Dawn Sword Wolf King would probably have ended up in pieces just like that Heavenly Feather Sacred Sword.

"Go on. You can collect the soul ring now." Xuan Ziwen slowly put away the cannon barrels, his tone as casual as if he were discussing dinner.

Ye Guyi silently glanced at him. For some reason, she suddenly felt that the short sword she had painstakingly trained with was no longer appealing.

The shock brought by such extreme firepower was truly too great for a traditional soul master like her, one who fought with her body.

Shaking her head and casting aside those distracting thoughts, Ye Guyi erupted with dazzling golden light. Four illusory angel wings instantly unfurled from her back.

She stepped forward twice and brought down her sword, cleanly ending the Sword Wolf King's lingering life. A deep black soul ring slowly rose from the corpse. She put away her short sword, sat cross-legged, closed her eyes, and began guiding the soul ring into her body.

The spiritual shock and resentment of a ten-thousand-year soul ring were certainly not weak. For an ordinary soul master who had just broken through level forty, that mental impact alone would be enough to turn them into an idiot.

But for Ye Guyi, who possessed the Holy Angel Martial Soul, it was nothing worth mentioning. Not to mention that her meridians and bones had long been repeatedly tempered to a monstrous level by Profound Water Pills, Red Jade Pills, and the fivefold gravity device.

The entire absorption process was thrilling but uneventful. The violent energy was like metal fed into a steel furnace, obediently broken down and transformed. About two hours later, the golden light around Ye Guyi suddenly contracted inward, and she slowly opened her eyes.

Just as she was about to feel the powerful force within her body that had undergone a qualitative transformation, before she could even smile, two grown men had already squatted in front of her, one on each side.

"Quick, quick, quick! Draw out your Soul Power and test it." Huo Yuhao held a recently built dial-equipped Soul Power tester, his eyes shining.

Xuan Ziwen held a charcoal pencil and a small notebook, his face equally full of impatient fervor.

Looking at these two research maniacs and their completely undisguised perverted gazes, Ye Guyi felt her scalp go numb.

After another half hour of torment, Ye Guyi was deathly pale and sprawled weakly on the ground, unable to lift even a finger.

"Beep."

The tester's indicator finally stopped at the last mark. Huo Yuhao looked at the number on the dial, unable to stop the corners of his mouth from rising. "11,327 HL. Compared to 6,805 HL before the breakthrough, the pure Soul Power increase is nearly double."

Xuan Ziwen rapidly recorded the data in his notebook, his hand trembling. "This is a ten-thousand-year soul ring. For a fourth ring, this has already broken the limits of conventional theory. If this solid data on such explosive growth were released, it would absolutely leave Soul Tool experts everywhere dumbfounded."

Just as the two were marveling at the data, an unusual Soul Power fluctuation suddenly came from the pile of corpses beside them.

The three turned to look. The Dawn Sword Wolf King's remains began giving off what little light essence remained. The shattered Heavenly Feather Sacred Sword did not collapse with its owner's death. Instead, it was fused together by those light essences, its fragments reconverging into a three-foot-long gilt golden sword. Not only did the golden sword radiate a holy light attribute, but its tip was strangely connected to an illusory segment of a spinal bone.

"An External Soul Bone." Xuan Ziwen's voice suddenly rose eight octaves, and his glasses nearly slid off his nose. This was actually a bizarre sword-type External Soul Bone nurtured from Heavenfeather Sacred Gold. Even throughout all recorded history of Douluo Continent, such exceptionally special weapon-type External Soul Bones were incredibly rare—peerless treasures worth a fortune.

Looking at the golden sacred sword floating in the air, Huo Yuhao also sucked in a sharp breath. He truly had not expected an External Soul Bone to drop from this. Then he suddenly recalled that Qian Renxue's Angel Divine Armor contained a ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-year Angel Sacred Sword. According to the original descriptions of Douluo Continent, that too was an External Soul Bone. This Heavenly Feather Sacred Sword could not be called identical to the Angel Sacred Sword, but they were certainly similar.

Half a day later, Ye Guyi and the others returned loaded with rewards after she finished absorbing the soul bone, officially setting off back toward the border camp.

Elsewhere, deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, far from the Sun Moon Empire, a plump, fair-skinned giant ice silkworm looked sorrowfully at a blurry pile of bloody flesh on the ground in a dim, damp underground cave. The air was thick with blood; a gruesome human explosion had just taken place here.

"What a pity. What a terrible pity. Not everyone can withstand Brother's vast spiritual energy." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm let out a long sigh.

This unfortunate fellow lying on the ground had been an unlucky six-ringed Soul Emperor before his death, forcibly dragged into the cave by him moments ago.

For the sake of that great God-Making Plan, he had secretly conducted several live experiments over this period. From the Titled Douluo he had first encountered in the forest thousands of years ago all the way down to Soul Emperors now, without exception, every one of them had exploded and died from the terrifyingly vast spiritual power within his origin.

Fortunately, those failed sacrifices had immense value.

Supported by the experimental data from these living subjects of different cultivation levels, his theory had finally become complete. The Wisdom Soul Ring Method he had conceived long ago had now reached its most perfected stage.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm now understood one thing very clearly: the bodies and spiritual seas of ordinary soul masters simply could not bear such an enormous origin as his.

To force a successful fusion, multiple seals had to be placed to lock away the power layer by layer.

Furthermore, the other party absolutely could not possess a common tool Martial Soul or a strength-attack type Martial Soul. They had to be a control-type soul master born with an innate spiritual attribute, only then could they withstand his spiritual shock at the most basic level.

Thinking of the ferocious beasts clinging to his body and crazily sucking his blood, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm felt a wave of nausea.

He could not delay any longer.

His round body wriggled twice through the dirt as he raised his head toward the pitch-black ceiling of the cave. His deep little eyes were filled with age and urgency.

When... would a perfect test subject come to Brother?