Everything Has Its Place

"What do you think? What's your first soul skill?"

As soon as Chu Heng opened his eyes, Su Xianling asked him. A first soul skill often revealed more about the direction a Martial Soul would develop. Once she understood its properties, she could determine what type of Martial Soul he had, then look up information and training experience from Soul Masters of that type to guide his future cultivation.

"Well..."

Chu Heng scratched his head. He had never intended to hide it from Su Xianling.

The problem was...

How was he supposed to explain what his first soul skill did?

After thinking it over, Chu Heng decided a demonstration would be clearer than a long explanation.

At a thought, his Martial Soul appeared in his palm. The familiar blue core hovered gently, then changed shape amid a pulse of energy. Moments later, a small blue pistol with an intricate structure rested in his hand.

Su Xianling blinked.

"What's that?"

She leaned closer and studied the thing in his hand. It was short, with what looked like a hollow opening at the front, and the way he held it was strange.

She couldn't think of a single weapon like it.

Soul Tools had yet to develop in this era, so she had no way of recognizing what Chu Heng held.

Chu Heng had expected as much.

"Sis, this is called a gun."

"A gun?"

Su Xianling looked even more puzzled.

A gun? Of course she knew what a gun was: a long shaft with a spearhead at the end, wielded in broad, sweeping motions. But the thing in Chu Heng's hand...

She looked again. No matter how she examined it, it bore no resemblance to the "gun" she knew.

"You call that a gun?"

"Ahem."

Chu Heng cleared his throat.

As expected, explaining a firearm to someone with no concept of one was far too much trouble.

"Sis, I don't mean the kind of gun you know."

Chu Heng smiled mysteriously.

"What it can do is something else."

With that, he raised his right hand and aimed the muzzle at a Hundred-Year Soul Beast wandering among the distant trees.

Su Xianling arched a brow. Before she could work out what he meant to do—

Chu Heng pulled the trigger.

Pfft!

A muffled report sounded, and at that same instant, a tightly concentrated burst of Soul Power shot from the muzzle!

So fast!

Su Xianling's gaze sharpened.

Roar!

The distant Soul Beast jolted. A moment later, it let out a low cry of pain. Without even looking for the source of the attack, it turned and fled into the trees.

"..."

Su Xianling had sensed a highly concentrated surge of Soul Power erupt from the strange weapon the instant Chu Heng moved his finger.

And it had been fast!

Even with her senses, she could only track the attack's path with her eyes.

"Wait here."

With those two words, Su Xianling vanished.

A few breaths later, leaves rustled ahead and she reappeared. She had subdued the fleeing Hundred-Year Soul Beast with her Soul Power and brought it back to Chu Heng.

"..."

Chu Heng watched her and quietly lowered the gun.

Being strong sure makes things easy...

Su Xianling crouched to examine the Soul Beast's wound. Chu Heng had not aimed for a vital spot. His shot had struck its side, near the back, where the muscle was relatively tough and its defenses thicker.

Even so, it had left a clear, bloody hole.

Su Xianling parted the surrounding fur and took a closer look.

The wound was small, but it reached nearly three centimeters deep. For a Hundred-Year Soul Beast, the injury was not fatal. Its natural vitality would let it recover before long.

But...

What if the shot had struck something other than a Soul Beast?

What if the target had been an unsuspecting human Soul Master...

The ease faded from Su Xianling's face. She looked up.

"Chu Heng."

"Hmm?"

"How many more times can you make an attack like that?"

Chu Heng paused, then closed his eyes to assess his condition.

After absorbing his first Spirit Ring, his Soul Power had broken through the level-ten barrier and reached level twelve.

The system also seemed to have gained a new function.

A clear line of information appeared in his mind.

[Current Soul Power: 130/160]

Chu Heng blinked. Soul Power, which had once been hard to measure precisely, was now displayed as a number by the system. That made things much easier.

With this first soul skill in particular, Chu Heng could control how much Soul Power he put into a "bullet." The more he spent, the stronger the shot. If he used less, its power dropped accordingly.

There was a limit, though. At his current level, he could put no more than fifty points of Soul Power into a single attack.

That last shot had cost about thirty points—nearly a fifth of his total Soul Power.

Chu Heng briefly explained this to Su Xianling.

Then he calculated how much Soul Power he had left.

"If I keep using that much power... I should be able to fire about four more shots."

"Four?"

Su Xianling looked at the little weapon in Chu Heng's hand, momentarily at a loss for words.

She had examined the damage from that shot herself. A Soul Master aside, even a Soul Grandmaster caught completely off guard by such an attack would be in serious trouble.

Worse still was its speed. The damage mattered, of course, but what truly made the weapon dangerous was how little time it gave its target to react.

What did that mean?

It meant that if six-year-old Chu Heng set out to kill a Soul Master below the rank of Soul Elder, and caught them unprepared, he could decide the fight with a single shot.

Even a Soul Elder...

If ambushed without any knowledge of Chu Heng's soul skill, a Soul Elder could suffer badly too.

"Chu Heng."

Su Xianling's voice suddenly turned serious.

Chu Heng noticed the change in her tone and instinctively stood a little straighter.

"Sis?"

"Remember what I'm about to tell you."

Su Xianling looked him in the eye.

"Until you're strong enough to protect yourself, try not to show outsiders what this attack can really do."

Chu Heng paused.

"When you spar with others, hold back whenever you can. Hide as much of its power as possible."

Su Xianling paused, her tone growing graver.

"But if you meet an enemy you can't keep it hidden from, and they pose a deadly threat to you because of it..."

A cold glint crossed her eyes.

"Then... find a way to kill them!"

Chu Heng was silent for a moment, then nodded earnestly.

"I understand, Sis."

He knew Su Xianling was looking out for him, and she was right.

A Martial Soul capable of launching high-speed attacks from a distance would be a threat in the eyes of anyone wary of its power.

No one could be certain Chu Heng would never point his "gun" at them. Faced with power they could not control and that might threaten them one day, some people would choose to eliminate it.

So until he was strong enough, hiding what he could do was the right choice.

Seeing that Chu Heng had taken her words to heart, Su Xianling's expression softened. She glanced at the Martial Soul in his hand, and a smile slowly touched her lips.

"Looks like all our effort lately wasn't for nothing."

Judging by this first soul skill alone, Su Xianling was thoroughly pleased. It had even exceeded her expectations.

Still, a trace of regret crept in.

"It's just a shame we couldn't find a Soul Beast of the same type that was a little older. Your first soul skill might have been even stronger."

Chu Heng couldn't help smiling. Others might not know, but he certainly did.

The Soul Beast had originally been just over two hundred years old, but the Soul Ring Blessing had raised it to around three hundred years.

Strictly speaking, he had already gained a huge advantage with his first Spirit Ring. Of course, he couldn't tell Su Xianling that.

So Chu Heng shook his head with feigned solemnity.

"Sis, everything happens for a reason. Maybe heaven arranged for me to find this Soul Beast."

Su Xianling paused.

Then she reached out and gave his head an exasperated pat.

"Oh? Now you're lecturing your big sister?"

"Heh..."

Chu Heng ducked his head, but a mysterious grin appeared on his face.

"Sis, actually... my first soul skill can do something else, too."

Su Xianling had been about to turn away, but his words stopped her in her tracks.

She slowly looked back.

"What?"