The Ten Most Brutal Soul Skills of Evil Soul Masters and the First Angel God's Legacy

"Are you the Judgment Squad of Spirit Hall up ahead?"

Su Haichao stepped down from the carriage, walked forward a few paces, and called out.

The Judgment Squad's captain looked toward the distant carriage. From the scene before him and the faint Soul Power emanating from Su Haichao, he had already formed a rough guess.

But he did not let down his guard. While hunting Evil Soul Masters, they had encountered some who used the lives of their own kind as bait to gain their trust, then seized the chance to launch a sneak attack.

"We're the Judgment Squad of Spirit Hall. We're pursuing a Soul Elder-level Evil Soul Master—the Soul Master beside those three Wolf Bandits. Were you the one who killed him?"

"I was."

Su Haichao answered, then took out proof of his identity.

"I'm Su Haichao, formerly the head of Spirit Hall in Nuoding City. Here's my identification token. I was on my way to take up a post in Heaven Dou City when I encountered that Soul Master. He tried to ambush me, so I killed him."

With that, Su Haichao tossed the token over.

"Qian Ying."

At the captain's order, the scout nodded, flashed forward to catch the token, and examined it carefully. He then signaled to the squad that it was genuine.

The captain's expression softened, though he remained on guard.

"Hall Master Su, please stand farther back. We need to deal with this Evil Soul Master's body."

Su Haichao nodded and returned to the carriage.

Tang Shan, standing beside the carriage, had watched the entire exchange. After seeing how the Judgment Squad handled it, he had only one thought: Professional.

Their next steps impressed Tang Shan even more. When it came to killing Evil Soul Masters, Spirit Hall might be the true experts.

A Soul Master called White Armor summoned a massive shield and walked steadily toward the Evil Soul Master's body, while the squad member named Qian Ying stayed behind him the entire way.

At the body, White Armor activated a Soul Skill, sharply boosting his defense. Qian Ying then burst into motion. In a flicker, he left two huge wounds in the corpse: one on top of the head, the other directly over the heart.

Qian Ying retreated at once. White Armor kept his shield raised before him as he slowly backed away.

Finally, the captain stepped forward and placed the Evil Soul Master's body in a Storage Soul Tool.

The procedure looked cumbersome, but it took barely two minutes from start to finish.

Only then did the ten members of Spirit Hall's Judgment Squad, captain included, fully relax.

"I'm Qian Lei, captain of Spirit Hall's Judgment Squad."

The captain approached the carriage and introduced himself.

"Su Haichao. I used to head Spirit Hall in Nuoding City."

After they exchanged pleasantries, Qian Lei confirmed Su Haichao's identity and introduced the other squad members.

"Captain Qian, was this Evil Soul Master especially powerful? How did he escape the Judgment Squad?"

Su Haichao was puzzled. By the Judgment Squad's rules, a Soul King-level expert should have been sent against a Soul Elder-level Evil Soul Master. With that kind of strength, the expert should not have let him escape.

Qian Lei removed his helmet, revealing a resolute face. "He should never have escaped. But he had an extremely troublesome thousand-year Soul Skill, the Blood Explosion Technique. He used it to blast open a gap and got away by sheer luck."

"The Blood Explosion Technique?" Tang Shan's ears pricked up. Qian Lei's words had instantly caught his interest.

"Captain Qian, what exactly does the Blood Explosion Technique do?"

Seeing that the question came from the child this Spirit Hall leader had adopted, Qian Lei answered without hesitation. "It's one of the ten most brutal Soul Skills an Evil Soul Master can possess, ranked tenth. It makes the blood inside a corpse explode, and the force is terrifying."

The effect reminded Tang Shan of the Corpse Explosion used by the "strongest Soul King" in the second part of Douluo Continent. The two sounded remarkably similar.

His curiosity grew, and he could not help asking more. Su Haichao was a member of Spirit Hall, and judging by the captain's response, the question had not touched on anything confidential. Tang Shan did not want to miss this chance.

"Then what are the ten most brutal Soul Skills, Captain Qian?"

"Five of them are much like the Blood Explosion Technique. There's the ninth-ranked Bone Explosion Technique, the eighth-ranked Flesh Explosion Technique,

"the seventh-ranked Corpse Explosion, and the second-ranked Soul Explosion Technique."

From their names alone, Tang Shan could roughly guess what they did. Each seemed to use a different part of a corpse as the explosive material. The more of the body it used, the higher the skill ranked.

He had thought Corpse Explosion was the limit, since it could detonate an entire body. Yet something even stronger existed—and it ranked second.

"The Soul Explosion Technique... Does it detonate souls?"

"That's right. It detonates souls."

Qian Lei's expression turned grave. "The other explosive techniques used by Evil Soul Masters are manageable, however terrifying their power. They have a weakness: they need fresh corpses. The Soul Explosion Technique is different. It works as long as there's a soul, and the explosion is a mental attack."

Tang Shan was speechless. That was absurd. A fresh corpse was at least a limitation, but souls? What Evil Soul Master lacked a way to store them? Anyone who mastered the Soul Explosion Technique would effectively carry an arsenal everywhere.

"Worse still, the Soul Explosion Technique doesn't affect its user. It only strikes other targets."

Tang Shan had no words left. This was less an explosion technique than a skill tailor-made for self-defense and killing enemies.

Corpse Explosion and its like might seem outrageously powerful, but put a corpse next to an Evil Soul Master and see whether he dared detonate it. The Soul Explosion Technique, though, spared its user and distinguished friend from foe. Add in its mental attack, and a skill this absurd was still only ranked second.

Tang Shan could hardly imagine how ridiculous the top-ranked Evil Soul Master Soul Skill must be.

Su Haichao watched Tang Shan question Qian Lei without stopping him. If Qian Lei was willing to answer, the information could not be classified. Otherwise, he would simply say he could not disclose it.

Members of Spirit Hall's Judgment Squad did not give away secrets so easily.

"Captain Qian, telling me all this doesn't count as leaking secrets, does it?"

Unable to contain his curiosity, Tang Shan checked with him directly.

"Of course not. If anything, I wish more people knew. It would make them safer when they encounter Evil Soul Masters."

Qian Lei shook his head and continued with a smile. "Even the Judgment Squad's complete procedure for hunting Evil Soul Masters is easy to learn if someone wants to know. None of it is secret."

"Your complete procedure?" Tang Shan grew even more curious.

"It's simple, really. Three steps: test their Soul Skills, deliver a killing blow, then inspect and clean up. Testing their skills protects the squad from surprises like Corpse Explosion. For the killing blow, we strike together if possible and kill them in one hit. Never underestimate an Evil Soul Master. Their methods are strange, and there's no room for carelessness. Finally, we secure the body and take it back to Spirit City for thorough purification."

Sorrow crossed Qian Lei's face. "Even so, we lose five percent of our squad members every year."

Tang Shan's mouth twitched. He could not help thinking of that "number-one academy on the continent" ten thousand years later. The Judgment Squad specialized in fighting Evil Soul Masters, yet its death rate was only five percent. Shrek faced Evil Soul Masters too, but otherwise dealt mainly with nobles and city lords—and its death rate was far higher. It was hard to take seriously.

And no, not all Evil Soul Masters gathered in Slaughter City. That place was practically a one-way trip. Evil Soul Masters were not stupid; why would they willingly walk into a dead end?

Slaughter City might have been an excellent place for Evil Soul Masters to cultivate, but not one had ever emerged from it. Did that not say enough?

It looked like a cultivation paradise for Evil Soul Masters, but it was really a prison. Otherwise, the Popes of Spirit Hall could not all have been foolish enough to send Evil Soul Masters there to cultivate, only for them to break out stronger and wreak havoc across the continent.

Thinking of one particular Buddha's outrageous decisions, Tang Shan had just one thought: You have earned yourself a death sentence.

In fact, Tang San's destruction of Slaughter City was not the real problem. The problem was that after becoming the Asura God, he took the city away entirely. Had he not done so, Slaughter City would have remained the best place to dispose of Evil Soul Masters short of killing them outright.

Destroying the Angel Clan and the Angel Godhood was one thing, but he could at least have left Slaughter City behind.

Setting aside his complaints about that Buddha, Tang Shan looked at Qian Lei. "Captain Qian, aren't you afraid, hunting Evil Soul Masters like this? Is everything you give up worth it?"

"It is. This is our family's promise to the people of the continent, and a duty passed down through generations."

Reverence showed on Qian Lei's face. He patted Tang Shan on the shoulder, then stood. "Squad, assemble! We're heading back to report!"

The squad members gathered swiftly and formed a neat line.

Qian Lei took a bronze token from his robes and handed it to Su Haichao. "Hall Master Su, this is the reward for killing the Evil Soul Master. We may all belong to Spirit Hall, but rewards and punishments are still clearly assigned. You can exchange this token for a reward at Spirit Hall in Heaven Dou City."

Su Haichao did not refuse. He accepted the token solemnly. After all, he, Su Yuntao,

and Tang Shan had killed the Evil Soul Master together. He had every right to accept the reward.

Qian Lei said no more. He put his helmet back on and, once the squad had assembled, led them swiftly into the distance.

Was this what the Angel Clan was meant to be?

Watching the squad depart, Tang Shan felt a twinge of emotion. Compared with the indecisive Qian Daoliu of the original story, the ruthless Qian Xunji, and the love-addled Qian Renxue, these people might have been no more than distant descendants of the Angel Clan, perhaps even members of a branch family. Yet through them, he caught a glimpse of the first Angel God in her day.

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