Soul Lock

"Waterfall!" Wang Dong'er cried out. "We can take a bath again!"

Having bid farewell to the ferocious beasts, the group had been escorted by Scarlet King to the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, still in the direction away from Shrek. The three had traveled through the wilderness for several days, and Huo Yuhao estimated that they would find a town in a few more days.

Ever since Gu Yuena had given him that colored teardrop, he had felt as though he had become the darling of the world. The wind element made him light and carefree; the earth element made him steadfast and composed; the fire element filled him with vitality; the ice element made him calm and clever; the light element made him confident and radiant... Even darkness made him powerful and rational.

Whenever he meditated, every element in the atmosphere tempered his Soul Power. With his previous accumulation, he had already reached the state of "cultivation never ceases, whether walking, sitting, lying down, or standing." Even in daily life, he could continue circulating his Soul Power and improve his cultivation.

Wang Dong'er and Wang Qiu'er had already set up the tent and were preparing to enjoy a comfortable bath. It was not easy to find such a convenient and pleasant water source in the wilderness, and the two rushed eagerly beneath the waterfall.

One could imagine the soft, alluring scene beneath the waterfall: flawless bodies exposed beneath the water, sunlight refracting through droplets into seven-colored halos, supple figures trembling beneath the rushing current...

But the tent blocked all of that from view. Huo Yuhao did not concern himself with the springtime spectacle inside. Instead, he carefully sensed the power Gu Yuena had given him. Though he could not directly control these elements for now, gaining a deeper understanding of them would greatly benefit his Soul Power.

Just as Huo Yuhao was immersed in his contemplation, a loud boom came from the direction of the waterfall.

Boom!

There was an enemy!

Oh no, it came from Qiu'er and Dong'er's direction!

"What happened?!" Huo Yuhao raced over, revealing the Dragon King's Claw in his hand. Di Tian had already given him an Inverse Scale to store the Dragon King's Claw. Combined with his absorption of Gu Yuena's Seven-Colored Tear, he now possessed the qualifications to wield it.

This meant that as long as he wished, he could continuously Imprint the Dragon King's Claw, essentially granting himself an additional powerful soul skill!

When Huo Yuhao arrived, he found no enemy, only the two young women who had just finished bathing. They wore nothing but bath towels, which accentuated their balanced, slender figures. From their necks to their backs and down to their thighs, gentle curves were traced out.

The two faced the waterfall's curtain of water. There was unexpectedly a hidden space behind it. Inside the cave lay some shattered stones, presumably left behind after they had just broken through the stone wall. That loud boom had come from here as well.

The three exchanged glances and walked into the cave behind the water curtain.

The cave was small and held no special space. Inside were only a skeleton, a longsword, and a book that had been preserved fairly well.

"Again?" Huo Yuhao was dumbfounded. They had previously encountered an inheritance site, the remains left behind by a spiritual-type soul master. It recorded certain techniques for spiritual combat skills, and Huo Yuhao had benefited immensely from it.

"No wonder you're the protagonist. Let's see what it is." Wang Qiu'er looked at the book with great interest.

Huo Yuhao picked up the book and walked out from beneath the waterfall. Finding a place under the light to sit, he began reading it word by word. "The Soul Tools of the Sun Moon Empire are flourishing, yet few know that Soul Tools also existed in ancient times on our Douluo Continent. Unfortunately, their inheritance has now declined, and almost no one knows of them. This book has been passed down since antiquity. I hope future generations will study it diligently. I am gravely wounded and on the brink of death. Should anyone discover this item, I hope they can pass this art on."

Ancient Soul Tools!

"Douluo I really did seem to have Soul Tools, but they seemed to have been lost by Tang San's era." Wang Qiu'er spoke with interest.

"Yeah, um... could you put some clothes on first?" Huo Yuhao coughed twice. The two women were wrapped only in bath towels as they crouched beside him, one on each side. Bath towels were not clothes, after all, and certain things remained faintly visible...

"Oh?"

Wang Dong'er spread her butterfly wings, wrapping herself and Wang Qiu'er within them. The enormous wings happened to cover their bath towels, leaving only their bare thighs, jade-like arms, and fragrant shoulders exposed.

"How about this?"

Why did it look like they were wearing nothing at all?!

When the towels were wrapped around them, it had at least looked like they wore something. But once the butterfly wings covered them, it instead seemed as though they wore nothing, inviting all sorts of improper thoughts.

Huo Yuhao blushed and turned his head away. "Hurry up and get dressed!"

After saying that, he returned behind the water curtain. He collected the longsword and Soul Tool storage device left behind by that person, gathered up the skeleton, and brought it out to give it a proper burial.

The construction of Ancient Soul Tools on the Douluo Continent differed from the Soul Tools of the Sun Moon Empire. Sun Moon Empire Soul Tools were made by engraving core formations to drive Soul Power. The materials had to be rare metals, and anyone could craft Soul Tools as long as they learned how.

However, the Soul Tool crafting method recorded in this book required one to hunt specific soul beasts and obtain the corresponding soul skills before they could be refined. Such soul beasts were called Lock Spirit Beasts, but they had already gone extinct. That was why the inheritance had been cut off.

What a pity. They had found a useless book...

Hm?

Wait. The book said soul skills were needed to make Ancient Soul Tools, yet the soul master who had left the book behind could make them. But the Lock Spirit Beasts had already gone extinct, and that soul master knew of the Sun Moon Empire, meaning his era was not that long ago.

The method for making Ancient Soul Tools had been lost ten thousand years ago, which meant the Lock Spirit Beasts might have already gone extinct by then. Yet the book said this art could be passed down. Without any way to hunt Lock Spirit Beasts and acquire their soul skills, how could it be inherited?

Could it be...

"I'm sorry. I just gave you a proper burial, and now I have to disturb you again." Huo Yuhao dug open the mound covering the skeleton and searched carefully.

If there had been an ancient method that could stably pass down soul skills without hunting specific soul beasts, it had to be a Soul Bone!

A soul master could equip six Soul Bones: the head, left arm, right arm, torso, left leg, and right leg. There were also External Soul Bones like the one Wang Qiu'er had fused with before.

An ordinary Soul Bone could grant a soul master one soul skill, while a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone could provide two. But regardless of the type, every Soul Bone could improve a soul master's physical constitution while strengthening their foundation and nurturing their vitality. They were truly peerless treasures!

"Found it!" Huo Yuhao pushed aside the earth and discovered a white, jade-like bone on the skeleton's left arm. The bone was exceptionally exquisite. It had been hidden beneath the clothes on the skeleton, which was why he had failed to notice it earlier.

"What happened?" Qiu'er and Dong'er were startled by his shout. When they turned around, they saw Huo Yuhao waving a dead man's bone around, like a priest from a primitive tribe performing some strange ritual.

Huo Yuhao buried the skeleton again and examined the Soul Bone in his hand.

"Senior, I'll accept this inheritance of yours, hahaha. Just wait and see—Ancient Soul Tools will once again take the stage of history!"