External Soul Bone

Petals as sharp as blades slashed across the Flame Feather Fire Phoenix's body. Crimson blood, carrying a trace of searing heat, scattered through the air, blossoming into bloody flowers overhead.

The Flame Feather Fire Phoenix crashed to the ground, looking like it was taking in more air than it let out.

Chen Xi took a short sword from his Storage Bracelet and strode swiftly over to the Flame Feather Fire Phoenix, plunging it in with practiced ease.

A mournful cry escaped the Flame Feather Fire Phoenix. After fluttering a few times, its body collapsed limply. A purple Spirit Ring floated out from its corpse.

Chen Xi sat cross-legged and used Soul Power to guide the Spirit Ring onto his body, refining and absorbing it.

Yet during this absorption, Chen Xi felt a warm, slightly itchy sensation on his back, as though something were merging with it.

"What is this?"

"An External Soul Bone?"

Hu Liena cried out in surprise and looked toward her teacher.

"Yes."

"It's an External Soul Bone. His luck is quite good."

Bibi Dong's tone was calm, but her gaze remained fixed on Chen Xi's back.

External Soul Bones were exceedingly rare across the entire continent.

Moreover, unlike other Soul Bones, External Soul Bones could grow, continuously evolving as their owner's strength increased.

In other words, an External Soul Bone was no less valuable than a hundred-thousand-year Soul Bone.

Just as Hu Liena was about to say something else, Bibi Dong gently raised her hand.

"Wait quietly."

Only two short words.

Yet Hu Liena swallowed the words that had reached her lips.

The surroundings gradually fell silent, and no one spoke again.

Yue Guan continuously surveyed the surroundings with Mental Power, preventing any passing soul beasts from disturbing Chen Xi while he absorbed the Spirit Ring.

Night fell.

Chen Xi gradually opened his eyes. Looking at the fiery red wings on his back, excitement filled his gaze.

His gains this time had been enormous.

Not only had he gained his Third Spirit Ring and reached level thirty-two in Soul Power, but he had also obtained an External Soul Bone: Fire Phoenix Wings.

Moreover, this External Soul Bone was not only practical, but also exceptionally beautiful.

Third Spirit Skill: Blazing Feather Fall — Forms a sky full of scorching fire feathers with Mental Power and Soul Power, delivering a mental assault while burning the enemy's soul.

External Soul Bone: Fire Phoenix Wings — Enables flight through the air. The wings can wrap around the user for defense, granting immunity to fire-element attacks and Mental Power attacks while defending.

Chen Xi withdrew the External Soul Bone from his back, rose from the ground, and walked over to Bibi Dong. He respectfully called out, "Your Majesty the Pope."

Bibi Dong headed toward the edge of the forest.

"Now that the Spirit Ring has been added, let's return."

Watching Bibi Dong leave directly, Chen Xi, Yue Guan, and Hu Liena quickly followed in her footsteps.

They left the Emerald Forest.

The group boarded the carriage again, and Yue Guan drove it toward the Training Camp.

They returned to the entrance of the Training Camp.

The carriage slowly came to a stop. After Chen Xi bowed to Bibi Dong, he stepped down from the carriage.

Watching Chen Xi's departing figure, Bibi Dong slightly parted her lips as though she wanted to say something. But when the words reached her mouth, she involuntarily stopped herself.

After a moment of contemplation,

Bibi Dong abandoned the thought in her heart.

"Return to the Papal Hall."

As soon as she spoke, the carriage began moving again under Yue Guan's control.

Meanwhile,

Dormitory building, Room 503.

After returning to his dormitory, Chen Xi sat at his desk and summoned his martial soul, the Pen of Destiny. He wrote Bibi Dong's name in the air, then looked up at the current time and added an hour before dawn beside it.

As the golden words in the air shifted continuously, they formed a new passage: In her chamber, she recalled her past and lamented the unfairness of fate.

Looking at the words floating in the air, Chen Xi's hand holding the pen stopped involuntarily. Deep contemplation appeared in his dark purple eyes.

He was considering exactly how he should write it.

Chen Xi naturally knew about Bibi Dong's past.

Objectively speaking, Chen Xi did not deny that Bibi Dong had lived a bitter life.

But from different perspectives, the answers were naturally different.

From Bibi Dong's perspective, she truly was unfortunate, because she had suffered unfair treatment.

But from the previous Pope's perspective, Bibi Dong had once been Spirit Hall's Saintess. She had received Spirit Hall's full instruction and abundant resources, only to leave Spirit Hall in the end and depart with the man she loved.

In other words, Bibi Dong had even been raised as the future heir to the Pope's position when she was Saintess. After all, within Spirit Hall, the Saintess possessed the right to inherit the papacy.

But the previous Pope had also been wrong, because his methods of keeping her had been far too extreme.

All in all, different perspectives led to different answers.

As for fate being unfair, Chen Xi offered no judgment.

Because fate had never been fair.

Or rather, there had never been absolute fairness in the world. Many things simply depended on one's perspective.

Take humans themselves, for example. In certain matters, they would naturally favor relatives or friends close to them.

Chen Xi was the same.

Most of Chen Xi's sense of belonging toward Spirit Hall stemmed from Qian Renxue.

Without Qian Renxue, he could not possibly be sitting in a Training Camp dormitory now, receiving things he had never imagined. Perhaps he would have long since starved to death by the streets of Heaven Dou City, or perhaps he would still be a little beggar wandering those streets.

And from Qian Renxue's perspective,

she had lost her father at a young age and then suffered her mother's hatred. Her birth mother had even taken in a disciple to replace her place in her mother's heart. Though she possessed peerless talent and a status beyond compare, she still had to bury twenty years of her youth, humble herself by staying far from home, and carry out an undercover mission.

Had Qian Renxue done anything wrong?

She had done nothing at all. She did not even know the reason, and was that not another kind of unfairness?

After careful consideration,

Chen Xi slowly raised his pen, erased the words in the air, and began writing anew.

Words appeared one after another in the air: A dream shatters the old shackles in the heart. The events of the past drift away with the wind. Before a bottomless abyss, perhaps it is best to turn back and look.

Once all the words had been written, Chen Xi felt none of his Soul Power or Mental Power being consumed, while the words in the air began flickering unsteadily.

"What's going on?"

Looking at the scene in the air, Chen Xi's eyes were filled with confusion.

He had used the Pen of Destiny's ability many times and had long become thoroughly familiar with it, yet this was the first time he had encountered such a situation.

Inside the carriage,

as Bibi Dong rested with her eyes closed, a scythe-like marking suddenly appeared on her forehead. Yet because of the night, Hu Liena, who was also inside the carriage, did not notice it.