Tang San: Ye Han's Flames Were More Terrifying Than Phoenix Fire

The Shrek group followed Zhao Wuji and soon returned to the rooms at the inn where they had stopped earlier.

Dejection was written all over their faces.

There was no other reason!

The mere name "Poison Douluo" had forced them to meekly apologize and bow their heads.

They had always stood proudly above their peers. Now they had suffered such a crushing blow—how could they not feel dejected?

"Tell me." Zhao Wuji's voice carried unmistakable irritation. "How much do you know about those three?"

A heavy silence hung over the room.

Oscar had already helped Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun onto the beds against the wall. Both were wrapped in bandages from head to toe, with only their eyes and mouths exposed, looking just like a pair of mummies.

Ning Rongrong pursed her lips and spoke first.

"The Jade Phosphorous Serpent and Nine Heart Begonia martial souls are known to practically everyone in Heaven Dou City. One of them is Dugu Yan, and the other is Ye Lingling..."

"As for the person who injured Fatty and Dai Mubai..." She spread her hands. "I don't know anything about him."

Zhao Wuji nodded and turned his gaze toward Tang San and Xiao Wu.

Tang San sat beside Xiao Wu. Noticing Zhao Wuji's gaze, he slowly raised his head. "Ye Han was our classmate back at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy, but his circumstances were rather unusual."

"Unusual?" Zhao Wuji raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." Tang San nodded. "Unlike Xiao Wu and me, Ye Han only spent a year at Nuoding. After his soul power passed rank ten and he obtained his first soul ring, he graduated and left the academy."

"As for where he went afterward..." Tang San shook his head slightly. "I don't know."

Hearing this, Ning Rongrong's eyes flashed with realization.

As though recalling something, she quietly interjected, "If I'm not mistaken, Ye Han should be a student at Heaven Dou Royal Academy now."

Everyone turned to look at her.

Ning Rongrong paused briefly to organize her thoughts. "Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling both attend Heaven Dou Royal Academy. Since he's so close to them, there's a good chance he studies there too."

She recalled something else from the past. Her father, Ning Fengzhi, had once told her that he had accompanied the crown prince to meet a student from Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

Anyone the crown prince personally tried to recruit had to possess exceptional talent.

Looking back now, that student had most likely been Ye Han.

Zhao Wuji rubbed his chin, quietly considering this.

He soon asked the question that concerned him most. "Then what exactly is Ye Han's martial soul? During that exchange just now, I never saw him release his soul rings."

In other words, Ye Han had not even used his martial soul when he dealt with Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun.

It had been an old man toying with unruly children—an utter rout!

At this point, Xiao Wu raised her hand and spoke.

"Ye Han's martial soul is a qilin. It's an extremely powerful fire-attribute external beast martial soul."

"An external beast martial soul?" Zhao Wuji froze, then turned toward Tang San.

He remembered that Tang San's teacher, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang, possessed the external beast martial soul Luo Sanpao.

Meeting Zhao Wuji's gaze, Tang San nodded in confirmation.

The room fell silent for a moment.

Knock, knock, knock.

Just then, a knock came from outside the door.

Zhao Wuji looked toward the entrance. "Come in."

The door opened, and a figure walked in. It was Qin Ming.

His gaze swept over everyone in the room as he entered. When he saw the two bandage-wrapped "mummies," his expression briefly froze, and the corners of his mouth twitched as he fought back a smile.

Zhao Wuji stood and nodded to Qin Ming.

"Ming, you're here."

He turned back toward Shrek's seven students and raised a hand to get their attention. "Come, let me introduce someone."

Zhao Wuji gestured toward Qin Ming, pride showing on his face. "This is Qin Ming, a graduate of Shrek and your senior."

Everyone's eyes settled on Qin Ming, filled with surprise.

Pleased with their reaction, Zhao Wuji continued, "Ming is the pride of Shrek. He's only in his early thirties, but he's already a Six-Ring Soul Emperor."

He paused briefly, his voice growing even more admiring. "What's more, according to Spirit Hall's records, he's the second-youngest Soul Emperor in history!"

"Second-youngest?" Ma Hongjun's voice came muffled through his bandages.

Zhao Wuji nodded. "That's right, second. As for the youngest..."

He glanced at Tang San and said no more.

Qin Ming smiled with slight embarrassment and bowed a little to everyone, his tone sincere. "Regarding what happened today, I'd like to apologize to my two juniors on Ye Han's behalf. He didn't know when to hold back and caused you both to suffer."

With that, Qin Ming took two jade bottles from inside his clothes and placed them on the table.

"These are healing pills I carry with me. They work fairly well, and I hope they can help you both."

Oscar rose and walked over to Qin Ming. He glanced at Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun, his expression grave.

"Senior Qin, we appreciate your kindness." Oscar's voice was low. "Boss and Fatty look badly hurt, but their bones haven't suffered any serious damage. Thanks to my recovery Big Sausage, they've already improved considerably."

He paused, his brows tightly furrowed. "The real problem is their burns."

"Burns?" Qin Ming looked startled.

"Yes." Oscar nodded. "Boss and Fatty both have extensive burns. My Recovery Sausage and Antidote Sausage have very little effect on injuries like these."

He looked at Ma Hongjun, utterly puzzled. "What I understand even less is that Fatty has a phoenix martial soul, so he naturally has some resistance to flames. Yet this time, his burns are even worse than Boss Dai's."

Tang San, who had remained silent, spoke at this point.

"That isn't hard to understand." His voice was flat, betraying no emotion.

Everyone turned to him.

"Ye Han's flames are of a far higher grade than Fatty's phoenix fire," he said slowly. "And he focused more of his attacks on Fatty, so Fatty suffered worse injuries..."

At this point, Tang San's gaze wavered slightly.

Back at Nuoding Academy, he had sparred with Ye Han using his blue silver grass, and those flames had nearly left a shadow over his mind.

"That kid really is uncanny. Ye Han is about the same age as Tang San... His soul power should be rank thirty at most. How could a prospective Soul Elder who hasn't even obtained his third soul ring beat Mubai and Fatty this badly?"

Zhao Wuji's face was full of confusion. "Could it be... that the special trait of his external beast martial soul is its ability to greatly strengthen its host's body?"

But after hearing Zhao Wuji's speculation, Qin Ming slowly shook his head, a barely perceptible trace of admiration in his voice.

"Teacher Zhao, you've guessed wrong. Ye Han's cultivation has long since surpassed rank thirty. Like Yu Tianheng, he came to Star Dou Great Forest this time to obtain his fourth soul ring."

As Qin Ming's words fell, the room plunged into deathly silence.

Though Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun were wrapped in bandages, their exposed eyes flew wide open.

The bottle of healing medicine in Oscar's hand nearly slipped from his grasp, and even Zhu Zhuqing's cool eyes shifted slightly.

Tang San and Xiao Wu froze outright.

"A fourth soul ring... A twelve-year-old Soul Ancestor..."

"Well done, lad! Just what I'd expect from a Shrek graduate—your student has surpassed his teacher, like blue drawn from indigo yet deeper than indigo itself!"

Zhao Wuji's words brimmed with amazement.

"A twelve-year-old Soul Ancestor... Talent and potential like that are exceedingly rare across the entire continent!"

Faced with Zhao Wuji's praise, however, Qin Ming shook his head with a bitter smile.

"Teacher Zhao, I can't take credit for that."

"Ye Han has spent very little time at the academy. Not long after enrolling, he began spending most of his time cultivating under His Eminence Poison Douluo. The academy's instruction... probably couldn't even count as flowers added to his brocade."

When Qin Ming uttered the name "Poison Douluo," Xiao Wu, standing in the corner, trembled slightly.

She instinctively clutched the hem of her skirt, her knuckles whitening from the force.

She still did everything she could to keep her expression steady, unwilling to let anyone notice her inner panic, but her slightly lowered eyes betrayed her unease.

Farther back, Ning Rongrong's face had gone deathly pale.

She finally understood why her father had not told her more about Ye Han back then. The gap was simply... too great.

There had been no point in saying anything!

Two days later.

Ye Han's group had already ventured deep into Star Dou Great Forest.

An enormous python over seven meters long, covered in dark purple scales, crashed to the ground, its life already extinguished.

A single horn stood atop its head, and tiny sparks of electricity kept flickering across its body. Even in death, its lingering lightning-attribute power left a pungent odor hanging in the air.

This was a Thunderhorn Python with roughly forty-five hundred years of cultivation, a lightning-attribute draconic soul beast carrying a faint trace of dragon blood.

Yu Tianheng stood beside the enormous python's corpse, breathing a little heavily.

Several blackened burns marked the dragon scales on his arms, left by the lightning from the Thunderhorn Python's final, desperate counterattack.

Fortunately, the injuries were not serious.

"Good luck." Qin Ming stepped forward and carefully inspected the Thunderhorn Python's corpse, satisfaction appearing on his face. "This horned python has nearly forty-five hundred years of cultivation and is highly compatible with your blue lightning tyrant dragon martial soul. It should give you quite a powerful soul skill."

Yu Tianheng's eyes lit up, and he nodded firmly.

This Thunderhorn Python was one of the candidates his family had selected for his fourth soul ring. He had never expected to encounter one so smoothly after just two days in the forest.

"Absorb it right away." Qin Ming signaled the others to spread out and keep watch. "Lingling, help Tian Heng with his wounds."

Ye Lingling answered and stepped forward. The nine heart begonia in her palm rippled with soft pink light, gently brushing over the scorched marks on Yu Tianheng's arms.

Within just a few breaths, the wounds had completely healed.

Yu Tianheng sat cross-legged on the spot, took a deep breath, and drew in the purple soul ring floating above the Thunderhorn Python's corpse.

The others spread out, guarding the perimeter of the clearing.

Time slowly passed.

About two hours later, the purple light surrounding Yu Tianheng suddenly drew inward.

He opened his eyes and rose to his feet. Soul power far more vigorous and substantial than before spread outward from him.

Rank forty-one!

He had successfully broken through his bottleneck and officially entered the ranks of Soul Ancestors.

"Congratulations."

Qin Ming stepped forward and patted his shoulder. "How's the soul skill?"

Yu Tianheng could hardly contain his excitement as blue-purple sparks danced over his knuckles.

"My fourth soul skill, Blue Lightning Divine Dragon Rush," he said in a deep voice. It was an exceptionally powerful offensive soul skill.

Qin Ming nodded brightly. "Very good. You've obtained your soul ring. Next, we should help Ye Han find..."

Before he could finish, a sudden change erupted.

RUMBLE—!!!

A deep, heavy roar rolled toward them from the depths of the forest. Even from an immense distance, it still made everyone's ears ring.

Immediately afterward, the entire forest seemed to awaken. Birds and beasts scattered in alarm, and all manner of animals fled for their lives.

The ground beneath their feet also trembled slightly.

It really was the Titan Giant Ape.

Ye Han raised his eyebrows.

Most enormous beasts like this lay dormant deep within Star Dou's core region. The only one that would come to the outer reaches at this time and unleash its oppressive aura was Er Ming, the Titan Giant Ape.

At this point, Qin Ming turned toward Ye Han, his voice full of worry. "Ye Han, I'm afraid we'll have to put your soul ring on hold. With this beast tide, finding a suitable soul beast for you probably won't be easy..."

Ye Han did not answer.

Because just now, the Fire Qilin within him had sent him a sensory signal.

He had a lead on his fifth soul ring!

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