The spiritual energy drawn into the Demon-Sealing Pot was immediately refined and purified. That energy, containing one-tenth of the soul beasts' cultivation, yielded a strand of pale white mist as fine as a hair.
The Demon-Sealing Pot spat out the remaining dregs in disgust, while the Evil Eye beside it rushed over to feast like a dog that had caught the scent of crap.
"Boss, you're so good to me! Following you was definitely the luckiest thing that ever happened to me!"
Even as it ate, Big Eyed kept praising Tang Li's kindness. Little did it know that these were merely the Demon-Sealing Pot's vomit!
"Is this... immortal spirit power?"
Tang Li was not entirely sure what the white mist refined inside the Demon-Sealing Pot actually was, but he remembered that the Spirit Ascension Platform seemed to have been built using fragments of the Divine Realm.
Only something like that could help humans increase their soul rings' ages without side effects.
But as he remembered it, only the immortal spirit qi in the Ultimate Spirit Ascension Platform was worth mentioning. Everywhere else, it was diluted who knew how many times over.
Besides, these were just a bunch of wind baboons that had provided only about five hundred years' worth of spiritual energy between them. Could immortal spirit qi really be extracted from their bodies?
Or was the Demon-Sealing Pot's refining efficiency as absurd as the chemistry problems he had calculated in the past? A two-thousand-percent purification rate?!
There was still immortal spirit qi left after increasing the Evil Eye's age. That was utterly ridiculous!
Having realized this, Tang Li began looking forward to joining Class Zero at East Sea Soul Master Academy. After all, they got to enter the Junior Spirit Ascension Platform once a week.
Wouldn't that just be a weekly trip to the buffet for him?
After the Demon-Sealing Pot absorbed that tiny strand of immortal spirit qi, Tang Li clearly felt its self-imposed seal loosen a little more. Even the quality of the soul power within him improved somewhat.
This is fantastic! Heh heh heh!
Seeing Tang Li grinning foolishly with the Demon-Sealing Pot in his arms, Lin Ye assumed he was delighted about his soul spirit's increased age. He stepped forward, patted his head, and said:
"Stop standing there grinning. There's more to come. Let's try to bring your soul spirit up to four thousand years this time. Put away your martial soul so we can move on."
"Sure!" Tang Li put away the Demon-Sealing Pot and followed Lin Ye deeper into the forest.
The farther they went, the older the soul beasts they encountered became. Lin Ye swung the Heavenly Star Stove to bludgeon several five-hundred-year forest wolves without territories to death, then knocked out a two-thousand-year armored crocodile hiding beside a stream with a slap.
In the end, all that energy entered Tang Li's body. The Demon-Sealing Pot absorbed it with exceptional efficiency.
And after seeing how Lin Ye, a tool soul master specializing in control and defense, fought, Tang Li developed a few unique ideas about his own Demon-Sealing Pot martial soul...
After using the starfire inside the Heavenly Star Stove to burn through the bushes and weeds and clear a path, Lin Ye asked, "Little Tang Li, your Evil Eye should be close to breaking through to a thousand years by now, right?"
"Yes, it's already at a thousand years."
Hearing Tang Li's confirmation, Lin Ye nodded. Since it had already reached a thousand years, they only needed to kill another thirty thousand years' worth of soul beasts.
"Let's keep going. We'll have to be careful from here on. Ten-thousand-year soul beasts undergo a qualitative transformation compared to thousand-year ones. Like the Dark Star Demonic Insect your Uncle Lin fused with last night, they possess not only great strength but also intelligence comparable to humans. You'll still work with me when we attack. We'll aim to kill in one strike."
The deeper they ventured, the denser the trees became. Towering trunks blotted out the sunlight, leaving only swaying patches of light and shadow. That was also why Lin Ye had to use the Heavenly Star Stove to clear their path.
There were quite a few ten-thousand-year soul beasts within the mixed zone, but each had its own territory. They generally stayed put unless they went out to hunt, so the environment here remained fairly well preserved.
This became increasingly pronounced as they went deeper. When they reached a small slope, Lin Ye suddenly stopped. He wrapped an arm around Tang Li, dimmed the Heavenly Star Stove's glow, and swiftly leaped into the bushes on the slope.
"Shh! Something's coming," Lin Ye warned in a low voice.
Seeing how tense Lin Ye was, Tang Li concentrated his spiritual power in his eyes and carefully examined their surroundings. He had learned this from Big Eyed. It allowed him not only to scout but also to attack others by concentrating his spiritual power.
As his spiritual power swept across their surroundings, he soon noticed something amiss—
The temperature around them was too high. With soul power protecting their bodies, both he and Lin Ye had been slow to notice it. Thinking back now, this must have begun several minutes earlier.
The rising temperature indicated that a fire-attribute soul beast had appeared nearby, but the change was relatively subtle. Since they were already deep in the forest, he first ruled out the possibility that it was simply too weak.
Nor were there any obvious reactions from other elements nearby, so it naturally could not be a fire soul beast with multiple attributes.
At the same time, Tang Li noticed that the soil around the tree roots had already dried and cracked, while the leaves above remained lush.
That meant the soul beast was underground and had only just burrowed into the area. Otherwise, these trees would have withered long ago.
With that in mind, Tang Li pressed his ear to the ground and concentrated his spiritual power to sense what was happening beneath it.
Seeing Tang Li's actions, Lin Ye drew in a sharp breath. He had only discovered the underground soul beast thanks to his Spirit Sea Realm spiritual power. This boy's Spirit Connection Realm spiritual power could not possibly manage that. Had he figured it out through observation?
At that thought, Lin Ye could not help drawing in another sharp breath, marveling inwardly, This child's talent truly is terrifying!
Lying on the ground, Tang Li finally heard movement: a series of rapid, irregular tapping sounds. At that frequency, it was probably a many-legged insect.
Its crawling sounds were uneven, indicating that it had different numbers of legs on either side. It was most likely injured.
As the sounds drew closer, Tang Li looked at Lin Ye, intending to remind him to move elsewhere, only to discover that Lin Ye had been watching him all along, his eyes full of astonishment.
"Uncle Lin, we should go. That thing's crawling toward us."
"Incredible. You really figured it out, kid. I only detected this Earth Lord through my spiritual power and my soul spirit's special senses."
Hearing Lin Ye's words, Tang Li gave a somewhat bashful smile. "It was just luck. Besides, I only guessed that it was an injured fire-attribute insect. I didn't know it was an Earth Lord."
"That's already excellent. If I'd been half as sharp as you at your age, I wouldn't have spent half my life only making it to Spirit Pagoda Branch Director."
Lin Ye sounded a little wistful, but he quickly put those feelings aside and pulled Tang Li along, wriggling swiftly behind a tree at the foot of the slope.
That smooth wriggling motion left Tang Li staring in bewilderment.
"It's a way of moving that uses your abdominal muscles. I invented it myself. I'll teach you when we get back. It's very useful when you're playing dead and trying to escape," Lin Ye explained, his weathered face reddening as he forced himself to remain composed.
"O... kay."
"Look over there. Yes, up in that big tree. See that patch of green that's a different color from the leaves?"
Following Lin Ye's finger, Tang Li did indeed spot a slightly different patch of green. It was clearly much darker than the surrounding leaves, giving it a deep, shadowy air.
Only after a closer look did he realize that it was actually a bird's wing. "That's... a soul beast's camouflage!"
"Clever. That's an Azure Shadow Hawk, with both darkness and wind attributes. It's extremely good at hiding. Look at the four markings on its wing. It already has eight thousand years of cultivation. That Earth Lord below is its target. As soon as the Earth Lord digs just a little farther upward, it'll definitely swoop down."
The mantis stalked the cicada indeed!
Before you continue