Giant Fang and Black Blade! Really Tripled?

In the clearing of Blackwood Forest, Lu Ming panted heavily, his face as pale as paper. He had clearly expended an enormous amount of energy.

Behind him stood two brand-new figures.

One was exceptionally tall and burly, nearly three meters in height, with knotted muscles that radiated explosive power.

His skin was a strange charcoal gray, as hard as stone. Half his face was covered by a savage bone mask, leaving only the lower half of his face and one eye gleaming with ferocity exposed.

At the very center of his chest was a black hollow, a horrifying sight.

The other had a slender build and skin so pale it looked almost sickly.

He had long black hair and an unnervingly handsome face. His narrow eyes gleamed like those of a venomous snake, dangerous yet captivating.

His hands had turned into two claws covered in black carapace, gleaming with a metallic luster. His hollow was located on his left shoulder, like a wound that had been pierced through.

The two newborn Arrancar stood there silently, their powerful auras seeming to freeze the very air around them!

Though they had yet to fully adjust to their new bodies, the way they looked at Lu Ming was filled with absolute reverence and submission.

"Mas... ter..."

Two hoarse, dry voices, as though they had not spoken in a long time, sounded at once.

They slowly dropped to one knee.

"Get up."

Lu Ming waved a hand, his voice somewhat weak.

"From today onward, you are no longer the Black-Armored Troll and the Clawed Terror Demon."

He looked at the towering figure.

"You will be called Giant Fang."

Then he looked at the handsome figure.

"You will be called Black Blade."

"Giant Fang..."

"Black Blade..."

The two newborn Arrancar quietly repeated their new names, carving them—and the image of the master who had granted them new lives—into the deepest parts of their souls.

"Very good."

Lu Ming nodded in satisfaction.

With Giant Fang and Black Blade joining them, his Arrancar Legion had finally begun to take shape.

An assassin, a scout, a support, a tank, and an agile attacker...

This lineup was already enough to handle most dangers on the outskirts of Star Dou Great Forest.

Just as Lu Ming was feeling satisfied with the growth of his team, Xiao Wu's senses frantically sent her a signal she could not comprehend.

The soul power fluctuations emanating from the two newborn Arrancar, Giant Fang and Black Blade...

Were far too strong!

Ridiculously strong!

This aura... definitely isn't something a two-thousand-year soul beast should possess!

Xiao Wu screamed inwardly.

She clearly remembered that the Black-Armored Troll and Clawed Terror Demon had originally been around twenty-three hundred to twenty-five hundred years old.

But now?

The one called Giant Fang radiated a heavy, domineering sense of power that nearly compressed the air into stillness. The density of his soul power was equivalent to at least a fifty-eight-hundred-year soul beast, perhaps even one nearing six thousand years!

As for the one called Black Blade, though his aura was restrained, that sharp and dangerous feeling—as though he could slice through anything—had unquestionably reached the level of more than fifty-five hundred years!

Three times!

Just like Lu Ming said, becoming an Arrancar had directly increased their strength by nearly three times?!

Xiao Wu had always doubted whether Zhu Mao and Feng Qie had truly been Thousand-Year Soul Beasts before becoming Arrancar, but now the Black-Armored Troll and Clawed Terror Demon had placed the truth right before her eyes...

What was this?

Turning stone into gold?

Xiao Wu was a soul beast herself. More than anyone, she understood just how difficult it was for soul beasts to grow.

Every additional hundred years of cultivation required the gradual absorption of heaven and earth's energy and the accumulation of time.

Between twenty-five hundred and six thousand years lay a chasm of thirty-five hundred years!

Even an exceptionally gifted soul beast that encountered a tremendous opportunity and consumed some heavenly treasure would need at least a thousand years of arduous cultivation to cross that gap!

But Lu Ming?

What had he done?

He had merely activated a soul skill, and in less than an hour, he had granted these two soul beasts several thousand additional years of cultivation out of thin air!

Is this... the new race Lu Ming spoke of?

Even the troll brothers, who had once been filled with malice and bloodlust, could be transformed into a new species with reason and human intelligence?

Xiao Wu looked at the two newborn Arrancar kneeling on one knee, their eyes filled with absolute submission, and felt her established beliefs shatter again and again.

She had once doubted whether Lu Ming's bold claim of "building a nation" was nothing more than a fool's dream.

But now, she was no longer sure!

If Lu Ming could truly create an endless stream of Arrancar whose power skyrocketed like this...

Then the Arrancar Empire he spoke of might...

Really have a chance of becoming reality?

While Xiao Wu's mind churned with turbulent thoughts, Lu Ming had already led the group toward her.

Giant Fang and Black Blade trailed at the back. They were still trying to adapt to their new human bodies, and their movements were somewhat stiff, like puppets on strings.

Feng Qie eagerly crowded around them, pinching Giant Fang's rock-like muscles one moment and provoking Black Blade's cold claws the next, clicking his tongue in amazement all the while.

"Wow, you two feel so strong now! You're both stronger than Zhu Mao and me!"

"Hey, big guy, can you still smash a huge rock with one punch?"

"And you, ice-face, your claws look even sharper than before. Want to fight me again?"

Giant Fang gave a muffled "Mm," apparently not having fully recovered from his transformation yet. Faced with Feng Qie's chatter, he merely shot him a disdainful glance with his scarlet eye.

Black Blade ignored him entirely, only curiously examining his own hands with those narrow eyes.

Lu Ming walked up to Xiao Wu and could not help smiling when he saw her dazed expression.

He reached out and naturally ruffled her soft scorpion braid.

"Come back to earth."

"Ah?"

Xiao Wu was startled by the sudden intimate gesture. Her cheeks flushed bright red as she instinctively took a step back.

"What were you thinking about? You were so absorbed." Lu Ming's tone carried a trace of teasing.

"Nothing... nothing..." Xiao Wu stammered, not daring to meet his eyes.

Seeing how adorable she looked, Lu Ming's mood improved greatly.

He leaned close to Xiao Wu's ear and softly reminded her in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Remember, keep it a secret for me."

His warm breath brushed past her ear, making Xiao Wu's body tremble slightly as her heart skipped a beat.

She raised her head and met Lu Ming's smiling eyes. The light in them made her lose herself without realizing it.

"Mm..."

As if bewitched, she nodded.

"Alright, let's head back."

Lu Ming straightened up and gave a broad wave of his hand.

"Today's haul was pretty good. We're having extra for dinner!"

The group marched grandly toward the valley.

Xiao Wu blended into the group with her head lowered, her thoughts in complete disarray.

The shock of Giant Fang and Black Blade's sudden increase in strength...

Lu Ming's intimate gesture and his whisper by her ear...

Is this Lu Ming's greatest secret?

The Arrancar transformation really has no side effects or cost...

The implications of this were simply too enormous.

She had to figure it out!