Zhi An

It took the two of them ages to haul all those ancient books upstairs. They were left panting, drenched in sweat, like old oxen that had just finished working the fields.

Mu En pointed at the pile of ancient books heaped like a small mountain on the floor and spoke coldly.

"You two will search through them properly right here. Don't go anywhere until you've finished."

Xuan Zi froze for a moment, scratched his head, and asked with a blank look, "Search? Search for what?"

Mu En took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling several times before he barely suppressed the urge to slap this idiot to death.

This was the Taotie Douluo? The Taotie Douluo was this stupid?

With intelligence like that, he had actually become a Titled Douluo? And a damn Super Douluo at that?

Senior Brother, what were you thinking back then? You actually took this guy as your disciple?

This guy was practically here to collect a debt!

Master, Senior Brother, you didn't send this guy here just to be funny, did you?

Mu En gritted his teeth and said each word slowly.

"What do you think you're searching for?! Search for that black shadow! Search for Elemental Spirits! Search for every related record! If you can't find anything, don't even think about eating!"

Only then did Xuan Zi come to his senses. He hurriedly nodded and bowed, crouching down to start flipping through the ancient books. He looked as obedient as could be.

Yan Shaozhe did not dare slack off either. He quickly crouched down beside him and began leafing through the dusty ancient books one by one, occasionally coughing after being choked by the dust.

Within Sea God's Pavilion, only the rustle of turning pages and the occasional sneeze remained.

Before Jialing Pass.

This pass, abandoned shortly after the Three Gods' War ten thousand years ago, welcomed its first visitor in thousands of years today.

Vines and moss crawled across the ruined walls. Tattered banners swayed in the wind with rustling sounds, while the air was thick with decay and desolation.

A boy of eleven or twelve arrived beneath the morning light.

The boy had black hair and black eyes, a sword strapped across his back. He strode with the bearing of a dragon and tiger, each step steady and powerful, as though the earth beneath his feet yielded to him.

He was Zhi An, Xuan Xiao's clone, and the sword in his hand was his Martial Soul—Soul Suppressor.

The blade was entirely silver-white, gleaming with a cold, ghostly luster beneath the sunlight. Golden patterns wound around the hilt, where nine gemstones were embedded.

His purpose for coming here was simple: to find the souls of the Sword and Bone Douluo, perhaps even the Rakshasa God and the Angel God, from ten thousand years ago.

His sword could store and nurture souls, using them as summoned beasts in battle. Consider it rent—if they lived inside his sword, they had to pay something.

Zhi An took a palm-sized compass from his storage ring.

The compass was bronze throughout, its surface engraved with complex runes. A needle in the center trembled faintly.

Whenever he recalled the pained expression on Xuan Xiao's face when he handed this thing over, Zhi An could not help but laugh.

There was no other reason. This thing had cost Xuan Xiao a full 150,000 Deviation Points. That was 150,000 points—enough to buy a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone.

Zhi An shook his head, tossing those stray thoughts aside. Holding the compass, he strode into the ruins of Jialing Pass.

His figure soon vanished among the broken walls, leaving behind only a trail of shallow footprints stretching through the dust.

Zhi An soon arrived at Jialing Pass's mass grave. Weeds grew everywhere, bones littered the ground, and the air was filled with dense deathly and resentful aura, enough to send chills down anyone's spine.

He did not believe Tang San would let Qian Renxue go.

With Tang San's vengeful nature, he had probably only put on an act, pretending to be magnanimous while secretly continuing to hunt her down.

Nowadays, Angel Martial Souls across the continent were not quite universally condemned, but it was close enough.

Anyone who awakened an Angel Martial Soul would be treated as an evil soul master. Their lives were worse than rats'.

Zhi An activated the compass and set its time to ten thousand years ago. This thing only searched for souls above the Titled Douluo rank, which saved him the trouble of digging through them one by one.

Soon, patterns appeared on the compass. There were more than a dozen densely packed points of light.

But he ignored the other patterns and fixed his gaze on the five brightest points.

Sword, bone, angel, spider, crocodile.

Just as expected.

Even though Qian Renxue's Angel God position had shattered in the end, she had still been a god. The strength of her soul was far beyond that of ordinary soul masters.

Yet she had ultimately been killed and disposed of carelessly, without even a proper grave, buried here in this mass grave among nameless corpses and bones.

That was entirely in keeping with Tang San's usual style. After all, he had even harbored murderous intent toward Yu Xiaogang, let alone Qian Renxue, once his enemy.

Zhi An pressed the compass against the sword hilt. The runes on the compass lit up, and five streams of light crossed the span of ten thousand years, rising from beneath the ground and entering the sword.

Five of the nine gemstones on the Soul-Calming Sword lit up, especially conspicuous amid the dim mass grave. That meant someone had moved in.

Three Titled Douluo and the souls of two true gods. This had been a fruitful trip indeed.

Zhi An nodded in satisfaction, then slung the Soul-Calming Sword onto his back and tossed a talisman in his hand onto the ground.

The moment the talisman hit the ground, it erupted in dazzling white light. A spatial gate appeared before him, silver radiance flickering along its frame, while a chaotic vortex filled its interior.

He could not help but remark that the main body's shop really had everything. One Space Talisman cost only a hundred Deviation Points.

This was practically the ultimate escape tool. If you could not win a fight, just run.

He stepped through the portal and appeared the next instant in an alley within Bright Capital, the capital of the Sun Moon Empire.

The alley was piled with clutter. Waves of stench drifted from the trash bins in the corners, while several stray cats watched him warily from the shadows.

He had not forgotten his mission: join the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Guidance Academy and deliver a fatal blow to Shrek Academy at the critical moment.

This was the task Xuan Xiao had assigned him, and he had to complete it.

Zhi An straightened his clothes, dusted himself off, then walked out of the alley. After getting his bearings, he headed toward the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Guidance Academy.

The academy stood in the heart of Bright Capital. It occupied an enormous area, with grand buildings, soaring towers, and fluttering banners visible from afar.

Upon reaching the entrance, he was stopped. A uniformed gatekeeper looked him up and down, his tone carrying a hint of arrogance. "You're not a student here, are you?"

Zhi An smiled faintly and replied politely, "Hello. I'm here to enroll."

The gatekeeper glanced at him, curled his lip, and spoke with clear impatience.

"Sorry, enrollment ended a long time ago. Come back next year—"

Before he could finish, five Soul Rings descended around Zhi An: two purple and three black.

The five Soul Rings slowly rotated beneath his feet, radiating a suffocating pressure that seemed to freeze the surrounding air.

Zhi An looked at the gatekeeper and asked calmly.

"Is special admission not possible?"

Seeing the two-purple, three-black Soul Ring configuration, the gatekeeper was utterly dumbfounded. His mouth gaped wide enough to fit an egg, his eyes widened into circles, and the registration book in his hand fell to the ground with a smack.

Two purple, three black?

A five-ring Soul King?

And he looked no older than twelve or thirteen?

What kind of monster was this?!

It took the gatekeeper several seconds to recover. He hurriedly bent down to pick up the registration book, his attitude making a complete one-hundred-eighty-degree turn as he nodded and bowed.

"Yes, yes, yes! Of course! Please come this way! I'll take you to see the dean of studies right away!"

Zhi An withdrew his Soul Rings, smiled faintly, and followed the gatekeeper through the academy gates.