Another Blue Silver Emperor

All the lights in Spirit Hall's main hall went out.

Xu Zhou stood in the darkness. First, he heard several footsteps by his ear, followed by the sound of weapons being drawn.

"Nobody move!"

"Light the lamps!"

"Can't."

Yu Xiaogang's voice came from ahead.

"The Soul Tools in the hall are transmitting Soul Power. Lighting a fire recklessly could cause an explosion."

"Lighting a fire can cause an explosion?"

Wang Sheng hid behind a table.

"Did you people at Spirit Hall put Soul Rings on your candles too?"

No one answered him.

Xu Zhou crouched down and picked up the Blue Silver Grass that had sprouted from a crack between the floor tiles.

The blood on the blade of grass had not dried yet.

One drop.

Two drops.

They all fell onto the Black Ancient Book.

The pages grew faintly warm, and several thin blue lines appeared across the previously pitch-black paper.

The blue lines extended downward.

Through the floor tiles.

Through the hall.

They finally stopped somewhere underground.

[Large-scale Plant Soul Power Network detected.]

[Current node: First-Layer Lockdown Zone.]

[Second-Layer Seal detected below.]

[Seal status: Opening.]

Xu Zhou looked up.

"How much longer until the seal opens?"

"What seal?" Tang San asked.

"The second layer Ah Yin mentioned."

Xu Zhou touched the blue lines on the ancient book.

The moment he finished speaking, a muffled boom came from underground.

The cracks between the floor tiles split open all at once.

Several Blue Silver Grass plants emerged from the gaps and wrapped around the legs of the tables in the hall.

One table was dragged half a foot to the side.

"This grass is pretty strong."

Wang Sheng clutched the account book tightly.

"Who said Blue Silver Grass can't fight?"

The Spirit Hall personnel in the hall finally lit their Soul Lamps.

The instant the Soul Lamps came on, everyone saw Blue Silver Grass covering the ground.

There was far too much of it.

There was some in the cracks between the tiles, in the corners, beneath the tables, and even the stone pillars behind the hall master were covered in dense blades of grass.

"That's impossible."

The deacon took a step back.

"There are no plants beneath the branch hall."

"You dug up a batch from Holy Soul Village yesterday."

Xu Zhou looked at him.

"And today, they grew back."

"Seeds?"

"Blue Silver Grass seeds can survive in rock crevices for decades."

After saying that, Xu Zhou paused as well.

Something was wrong.

After the Blue Silver Grass in Holy Soul Village had been dug up, no more information had come from the village.

So why had all the Blue Silver Grass in Notting City suddenly awakened at once?

Another line appeared in the Black Ancient Book.

[Proofreading has detected an obvious contradiction.]

[Spirit Hall supply records: All Blue Silver Grass in Holy Soul Village has been cleared.]

[City herb garden records: Three hundred and seventy-six Blue Silver Grass root systems received three days ago.]

[Underground storage records: One Blue Silver Emperor root.]

Xu Zhou looked at the hall master.

"You brought the Blue Silver Grass from Holy Soul Village here."

The hall master did not deny it.

"They were merely ordinary plant samples."

"Would ordinary plant samples connect to all the Blue Silver Grass in the entire city at once?"

"It may be some kind of unusual growth response."

"You don't know what it is yourselves."

The hall master glanced at Xu Zhou.

"That is why it needs to be studied."

"Studied all the way to the Second-Layer Seal?"

Xu Zhou pointed at the floor of the hall.

"You buried Ah Yin's root beneath the branch hall and used the Blue Silver Grass brought from Holy Soul Village as transmission nodes. Now that the nodes have awakened together, the thing beneath the seal has begun growing outward too."

The hall master raised a hand.

Several Soul Masters released their Martial Souls at the same time.

The glow of Soul Power illuminated the hall.

"Seize Xu Zhou."

"Me first?"

Xu Zhou took a step back.

"The underground level is about to explode."

"Seize him!"

Two Soul Masters charged forward.

Tang San stepped in front of Xu Zhou, and Blue Silver Grass coiled around one man's ankle.

The man raised his hand and cut through the Blue Silver Grass.

But the severed blades fell to the ground and regrew in the blink of an eye.

"What is this?"

"Blue Silver Grass,"

Tang San replied.

"Didn't you say all the Blue Silver Grass in Holy Soul Village was gone?"

The Soul Master did not answer.

With a flick of Tang San's wrist, Blue Silver Grass snaked along the floor and wrapped around the two men's Martial Souls.

This time, he used neither Soul Rings nor hidden weapons.

He merely controlled the Blue Silver Grass.

But with the Blue Silver Grass Network of the entire branch hall empowering him, more and more vines emerged.

The two Soul Masters were quickly bound together.

"Tang San, how did your Martial Soul get stronger?"

"I don't know."

"And you still dare use it?"

"If it works, that's enough."

Tang San's answer suited his usual style perfectly.

Yu Xiaogang, meanwhile, held the injured Luo Sanpao and stood guard beside Xu Yan.

Soul Power Shackles still hung from Xu Yan's wrist.

"Give me the shackles."

Xu Zhou looked at his father.

"You can open them?"

"Yes."

"When did you learn how?"

"I learned just now while watching them interrogate me."

Xu Yan held out his wrist.

The Soul Power patterns on the shackles were complicated, but after the Black Ancient Book scanned them once, it pointed out three connection points.

[Shackle record: Soul Power suppression.]

[Actual functions: Soul Power suppression, tracking, short-range transmission.]

Xu Zhou pressed his fingertip against the third pattern.

Soul Power surged in.

Crack!

The shackles broke apart.

Xu Yan rubbed his wrist.

"Your book can dismantle Soul Tools now too?"

"Only simple ones."

"You call this simple?"

"Simpler than the seal."

The exchange between father and son was brief.

But Xu Zhou had already run toward the center of the hall.

There was a floor tile there that was darker in color.

Blue Silver Grass continuously sprouted from the cracks around it. Every blade avoided that tile, and only a thin vine lay against its surface.

"The Second-Layer Seal is here."

Yu Xiaogang walked over.

"How do we open it?"

"I don't know."

"Can't you proofread?"

"It won't tell me how to open it."

The Black Ancient Book could only find contradictions.

The seal had no text.

No records.

Naturally, there was nothing to verify.

Xu Zhou crouched down and pressed his palm against the floor tile.

Blue Silver Grass Soul Power immediately surged into his body through his arm.

A blurry image appeared in his mind.

A cave.

Blue Silver Emperor roots.

A ring of Soul Power Shackles.

And a person wearing Spirit Hall robes, holding a blue crystal shard and letting a drop of blood fall onto the seal.

That blood did not belong to Ah Yin.

It belonged to Xu Yan.

Xu Zhou opened his eyes.

"The seal recognizes my father's blood."

Xu Yan walked to his side.

"Then use my blood."

"Do you know what's down there?"

"I didn't before."

Xu Yan looked at the floor tile.

"Now I do."

"You've been here before?"

Xu Yan did not answer.

But the hall master spoke from behind them.

"Xu Yan, since you know, tell him."

"Beneath the Second-Layer Seal, a Blue Silver Emperor root has been suppressed."

"Ah Yin's?"

"No."

The hall master looked at Xu Zhou.

"It belongs to another one."

Everyone in the hall fell silent.

"Another Blue Silver Emperor?"

Tang San looked up.

"Wasn't there only one Blue Silver Emperor?"

"That was what the original work recorded."

The hall master chuckled.

"What the original work did not write about does not mean it does not exist."

Xu Zhou looked at him.

"You found another Blue Silver Emperor?"

"We found a Blue Silver Emperor Juvenile."

"And then?"

"It can connect to every plant-type Soul Beast through the Blue Silver Grass Network. If we can control it, Spirit Hall will be able to command the communications of all Blue Silver Grass across the continent."

Only then did Xu Zhou understand why they had dug up the Blue Silver Grass from Holy Soul Village.

It was not for Ah Yin.

It was to find more nodes for the Blue Silver Emperor Juvenile beneath the ground.

Once the seal opened, the Blue Silver Grass Network would spread across all of Notting City.

Spirit Hall could transmit messages through any stalk of Blue Silver Grass, and eavesdrop on any village.

"Have you lost your minds?"

Yu Xiaogang stared at the hall master.

"That is a Soul Beast juvenile."

"If a Soul Beast is useful, it is worth studying."

"What if it loses control?"

"That is why we need your cooperation."

The hall master raised a hand and pointed at Xu Zhou.

"Xu Zhou's Martial Soul can resonate with Soul Beasts. As long as he enters the Second-Layer Seal, he can soothe that Blue Silver Emperor Juvenile."

"You never meant to investigate my father from the beginning."

Xu Zhou's fingers clenched.

"You wanted to use me as a key."

The hall master did not deny it.

"You may understand it that way."

The Black Ancient Book revealed new words.

[Public Cognition count increased.]

[Current scenario: Xu Zhou hides powerful Soul Power.]

[Participants: 421.]

[Completion condition: Make all participants believe the host has no Soul Power.]

[Countdown: two days.]

Xu Zhou stared at those lines, with only one thought left in his mind.

If he entered the Second-Layer Seal, he might lose control.

If he refused, Spirit Hall would not let Xu Yan leave.

And the Blue Silver Grass of Holy Soul Village had already been taken away.

Ah Yin's network was breaking apart.

"Xu Zhou."

Xu Yan gripped his shoulder.

"Don't go in."

"You'll be trapped inside."

"What about you?"

"I can stay here."

"They'll kill you."

Xu Yan said nothing.

That was his answer.

Xu Zhou looked at Tang San.

Tang San had already walked to his side.

"I'll go with you."

"No."

"You said just now that all three of us can't enter the containment room."

"What lies below isn't a containment room."

"Then we need to go in even more."

Tang San raised his hand, and Blue Silver Grass coiled around Xu Zhou's wrist.

"If you really get trapped, I can pull you out."

"Can Blue Silver Grass pull a Blue Silver Emperor?"

"Even if it can't, we have to try."

Yu Xiaogang handed Luo Sanpao to Xu Yan.

"I'm going too."

Xu Zhou looked at him.

"Teacher, your Martial Soul hasn't recovered yet."

"That is why I do not intend to fight."

Yu Xiaogang raised a hand and pointed at the floor tiles.

"I'll watch the seal."

"All three of you are going in?"

Xu Yan frowned.

"Someone has to stay outside."

Xu Yan lowered his head and looked at the lingering Soul Power Shackles around his wrist.

"I'll stay here."

"Father."

"Go."

Xu Yan patted Xu Zhou's shoulder.

"Don't treat me like an ordinary hunter."

Xu Zhou opened his mouth.

Just as he was about to speak, the floor tiles suddenly cracked.

A blue root burst from below and wrapped around Xu Zhou's ankle.

The Black Ancient Book turned its pages on its own.

[The Second-Layer Seal has been opened.]

[The underground target is awakening.]

[Target has locked onto the host.]

A childish cry echoed from beneath the hall.

All the Blue Silver Grass turned toward Xu Zhou at once.

"Xu Zhou."

Ah Yin's voice came from deep within the roots.

"It has awakened."

The next moment, the entire Spirit Hall Branch collapsed downward.