This Kid Was the Shrewdest

The next day.

The three of them had truly entered the Jingyang Mountain Range. Jing Hongchen's easygoing manner from the journey vanished as he clearly told them that from this point on, unless they encountered a crisis they absolutely could not handle, he would not intervene. The three youngsters exchanged glances, their faces brimming with eager excitement, but their tense bodies betrayed the anxiety in their hearts.

What they did not know was that Jing Hongchen, who appeared calm on the surface, was more than ten times as nervous as they were.

There was no helping it. Two biological grandchildren, plus a Ye Chenxing whose value rivaled the entire Illustrious Virtue Hall—if anything happened to them, Jing Hongchen might as well find a block of tofu and smash his head into it.

Of course, what teacher leading a team would fail to carefully protect their juniors or students? Even if they called it training, no sane person would leave children to fend for themselves while finding somewhere to drink and eat meat.

Probably not, right?

Jing Hongchen was here to be a bodyguard, not an animal.

By the end of this journey, the three of them would definitely enter the area inhabited by ten-thousand-year soul beasts. The reason was simple: Ye Chenxing's soul ring had to be of the ten-thousand-year level. His physical strength and spiritual power had both met the standard, and the Jingyang Mountain Range happened to have many spiritual-type soul beasts.

Jing Hongchen believed that with him watching over them, these three children would not face any real threat.

What he wanted to see now was just how far they could get relying on their own strength.

The deeper they went into the main range of the Jingyang Mountain Range, the more treacherous the terrain became. Towering peaks rose one after another into the clouds, and the exposed cliff faces faintly reflected the cold gleam of metal veins. In direct proportion to that were the density and strength of the soul beasts.

They had been in the main range for an hour already.

They had encountered quite a few low-level ten-year and hundred-year soul beasts along the way. Plant-type soul beasts such as Ten-Year Lonely Bamboo could not run away, while the rest scattered as soon as they sensed the trio's aura from afar. A few foolish hundred-year soul beasts tried to approach and probe them, only to be sent yelping back into the bushes by several casual Soul Guidance Rays from Xiao Hongchen.

Xiao Hongchen was especially proactive today. Whenever a soul beast showed itself along the way, he was always the first to charge forward, greeting it with Soul Guidance Cannons and Soul Guidance Rays in turn, as if afraid Ye Chenxing might not see his moves clearly.

Ever since his martial soul had been crushed, the fire of refusal to admit defeat had been burning inside him. He had always believed himself to possess the greatest talent in Sun Moon, even in the entire Douluo Continent.

He could not vent that fire on his grandfather, his sister, or Ye Chenxing—so he could only vent it on soul beasts. Besides, if he put on a good display of his strength before Ye Chenxing and made him astonished for once, he could recover at least a little of his lost dignity.

At last, his chance arrived.

The bushes on both sides suddenly exploded, and two golden figures pounced out amid a stench of blood. They were two Thousand-Year Golden Tigers, powerfully built, their fur gleaming with a metallic coldness beneath the sunlight. Judging by the aura they emitted, neither was especially old, both around three thousand years.

The strength of a thousand-year soul beast usually corresponded to that of a human soul master between level thirty and level fifty. Two attacking together would indeed be quite troublesome for an ordinary Soul Elder.

The moment Xiao Hongchen saw the two golden tigers, his eyes lit up.

True, in the mineral-rich Jingyang Mountain Range, metal-element soul beasts would receive a certain boost in combat power. Their stats definitely gave them an advantage.

But so what? Soul beasts could only boost their stats.

His Three-Legged Golden Toad was in these mountains like Ma Hongjun visiting a brothel—he was back home.

"Leave both of them to me. You don't need to make a move," Xiao Hongchen said without turning around, unable to suppress the excitement in his voice.

Despite his words, his hands did not slack off in the slightest. They were two thousand-year soul beasts, after all, and he did not dare underestimate them.

As a soul engineer, and one specializing in overwhelming firepower, he understood better than anyone the importance of distance.

With a push of his feet, he rapidly retreated as a dazzling golden light erupted from his body.

Martial Soul Possession!

Behind Xiao Hongchen, another leg actually emerged from his backside. The leg was a brilliant gold from end to end, as if cast from pure gold, forming a strange yet harmonious triangular support with his body. At the same time, a layer of golden luster covered his entire body, and fine metallic patterns faintly surfaced across his skin.

Ye Chenxing watched quietly from the side. To be honest, whenever he saw a beast martial soul master release their martial soul, he felt it was no different from drawing a lottery. The lucky ones looked imposing and majestic after possessing their martial souls; as for the unlucky ones, that was harder to say.

Ten thousand years ago, there had been Bibi Dong; ten thousand years later, there was Xiao Hongchen. Both had top-tier martial souls, but their possessed forms were more bizarre than the last.

At that thought, he could not help remembering Huo Yuhao. That kid was the shrewdest. He just drew a tattoo and insisted his martial soul was the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion.

Xiao Hongchen, now with three legs, crouched slightly as two yellow and one purple soul rings rose beneath his feet, their light flowing.

He arched his back, and golden bulges rose beneath his clothes one after another, radiating a soft metallic glow. His first and third soul rings lit up at the same time. With repeated waves of his hands, more than a hundred metal balls scattered outward like flowers tossed by a celestial maiden.

Those metal balls did not fall to the ground. Instead, they floated in midair, surrounding him completely.

A bizarre scene unfolded.

Using those metal balls as cores, thick metal cannon barrels began to "grow" out of thin air.

Yes, grow—those cannon barrels condensed into form from nothing, as though an invisible pair of hands were forging them at astonishing speed. In just a few breaths, Xiao Hongchen had turned into a massive metal hedgehog.

First soul skill, Metal Control. Third soul skill, Golden Form Condensation.

The metal balls he had thrown out were essentially the core formations of Soul Guidance Cannons. The densely packed cannon barrels around him had been temporarily condensed from the metal powder he carried with him, controlled through his soul skills.

Nearly sixty third-grade Soul Guidance Cannons aimed their pitch-black muzzles in unison at the two golden tigers.

The two golden tigers had clearly never seen such a formation before. Their savage charge came to an abrupt stop, their limbs scraping restlessly against the ground as low whimpers emerged from their throats. Their animal instincts were frantically warning them that this three-legged creature before them was dangerous.

The corner of Xiao Hongchen's mouth curled upward. His second soul ring lit up.

All the cannon muzzles began charging at once. Golden light gathered deep within the barrels, releasing soul power fluctuations that made one's heart tremble.

He had suffered too many blows these past few days. He had been crushed during the entrance test, used as a negative example in theory class, and even his own sister had taken someone else's side. At this moment, he was determined to give Ye Chenxing a hard shock.

A simultaneous volley from sixty Soul Guidance Cannons—wouldn't that leave him utterly dumbfounded?

At the thought of surprise appearing on Ye Chenxing's normally composed face, Xiao Hongchen felt that all the frustration he had endured these past few days had been worth it.

But if he knew that Ye Chenxing was not paying attention to his "heroic bearing" at all and was instead ridiculing his appearance, who knew what expression he would have worn.