"What happened?!"
Pei Hai knocked on the door in alarm. When no answer came after a long while, he broke in.
But the room was deserted.
My lord, you forgot to reward me!
Pei Hai's face filled with disappointment.
The governor of Eastsea City stood before his office's floor-to-ceiling window, his expression complicated.
"What use is climbing any higher?"
"Before a powerhouse like that, worldly authority is nothing but a joke."
At the Blacksmith Association, Mu Chen, who had been teaching his daughter to forge, walked to the window and murmured:
"Perhaps I should forge a suit of battle armor too."
On the outskirts, inside a tranquil manor.
A woman wore a high-slit cheongsam with a teardrop-shaped standing collar, leaving swaths of creamy white skin exposed. Her purple hair hung loose, and her gaze was profound.
"That aura seems to belong to the Heavenly Phoenix from the Spirit Pagoda."
"Why would she be here?"
Beside her stood a little girl of about six, with ink-black hair and clear, luminous black eyes.
Beauty already showed in her childish features.
When the purple-haired woman saw the little girl open her eyes, she bowed with utmost reverence. Her words were even more startling.
"Master, your subordinate deserves death for disturbing your cultivation."
The little girl shook her head, offering no reproach.
Her black eyes reflected Tian Heng amid the phoenix flames in the sky as she murmured:
"So this is battle armor, the pinnacle of humanity's soul guidance technology?"
"How fascinating!"
Resentment surfaced in the purple-haired woman's eyes.
"It was precisely this so-called battle armor, along with those soul-guided weapons, that drove our Soul Beast Clan to such straits..."
"No matter. Once I recover, every blood debt will be settled, one by one."
The little girl's childish voice carried the conviction that she would accomplish everything she set out to do.
Even the purple-haired woman quieted at that, the resentment in her eyes turning to fervent anticipation.
The little girl closed her eyes again, but inwardly, she was nowhere near as calm as she appeared.
As the Silver Dragon King, she had lain dormant for countless years. After years of verification, she had finally confirmed that the Divine Realm had disappeared.
At last, the Soul Beast Clan had its best opportunity to turn the tables.
Unfortunately, humanity had developed far too quickly.
With no other choice, she had decided to take human form, first integrating into human society to understand and master humanity's power, then wiping humanity out in a single thunderous stroke.
Yet an accident had occurred when she took human form.
The Silver Dragon King's Divine Core was far too powerful for a frail human body to withstand.
The vast, tangled memories accumulated over countless years were no easy burden to bear either.
Moreover, during the transformation, she had vaguely sensed a divine consciousness spying on her.
Once the arrow left the bow, there was no turning back. If she were exposed, all her plans spanning countless years would dissolve into bubbles.
Left without a choice, she could only split off thirty percent of her own essence and place layer upon layer of seals on both portions of her essential power.
That was why she was so weak now.
Without two or three years of recovery, she could not act freely.
What I lack least is time and patience.
I only hope nothing goes wrong over there.
Leng Yaozhu unleashed her full power. The air cracked incessantly, and even space fractured.
Meanwhile, in her arms.
Su Xun nestled against her soft chest, enveloped in a shield of soul power.
His eyes were closed and his breathing steady, but his consciousness was absent.
Suddenly, the aura of soul power began flowing through his body, and the ethereal Six Desires Immortal Statue flickered in and out of sight.
Her heart tangled like a skein of hemp, Leng Yaozhu noticed the change and hurriedly stopped, descending onto an open plain.
She gently laid Su Xun on the ground.
The next moment, Su Xun's body floated into the air. Behind him, the Six Desires Immortal Statue's eyes shimmered with kaleidoscopic light as a wondrous aura flowed outward, expanding.
After sensing it carefully, Leng Yaozhu's phoenix eyes widened:
"An innate domain?!"
Su Xun had not expected this sudden change either.
Only after completing his soul spirit contract with Night Owl did his eyes seem to truly awaken.
His eyes had originally been able to see through and strip away falsehood, discerning the desires deep within the heart.
Now, the world they saw had changed again!
In that instant, his consciousness had been silently drawn away, and the world before him sank into gray darkness.
Then the first glimmer illuminated that gray world—a pair of Double Pupils!
They bore a resemblance to Night Owl's double pupils.
After he saw these Double Pupils, the entire world gradually lit up.
Only then did Su Xun discover that he stood before an enormous Divine Statue of the Strange Bird.
The Divine Statue of the Strange Bird closely resembled Night Owl, as though it were Night Owl's progenitor.
That was where the earlier sense of resemblance had come from.
Hoo-
A low cry rang out, and the Divine Statue of the Strange Bird came fully alive.
It spread its wings and soared, circling through the sky.
As its wings beat, stone chips rained down, and the vitality within its body fully awakened.
The joy of shedding its stone shell and returning to life kept it from landing for a long time.
Su Xun took the opportunity to study his surroundings.
He discovered five more divine statues like the one resembling the Night Owl Progenitor!
The six divine statues each occupied a different direction.
From each statue's position, a primordial world slowly spread outward.
"Six divine statues of strange beasts, corresponding to the six roots of desire?"
Su Xun's pupils contracted slightly.
The Night Owl Progenitor, corresponding to the "eye root," had the appearance of an owl.
What about the others?
He looked toward the second statue.
It resembled an ape with four ears, though he did not know its name.
Did this correspond to... the ear root?
His gaze shifted easily to the third statue.
A goat's body, a human face, tiger's teeth, and human claws. It looked like... a taotie!
Without a doubt, it should correspond to the tongue root!
Hoo-
Just as Su Xun was about to continue examining them, a low cry rang out. Night Owl had returned.
Night Owl shrank down and landed directly on Su Xun's shoulder.
At that moment, Su Xun suddenly realized a problem.
If the Night Owl he had just absorbed corresponded to the eye root and had also helped him condense his first soul ring...
Then, judging by what he saw now, to wield the Six Desires Immortal's power perfectly...
He would need to absorb five more soul spirits corresponding to the other divine statues in the future.
Moreover, considering the importance of the Martial Soul Avatar to soul beasts...
It would be best to complete each one separately from his first through sixth rings!
This...
The difficulty was cranked all the way up.
Still, he remembered a similar case.
Ten thousand years later in the original timeline, there had been someone named Tang Yuge.
Her martial soul was called the five-element qilin.
For her first through fifth rings, she had absorbed artificial soul spirits of the respective elements.
Although the price was that none of those soul spirits had particularly high ages or quality...
The payoff was unlocking the Great Five-Element Divine Light once all five elements were present!
Not only could it devour and expend energy attacks, but it also combined offense and defense, possessing both staying power and explosive strength.
His current situation seemed somewhat similar.
"But the source of my Six Desires Immortal lies in the convergence of the six roots and my own body."
"As a body martial soul, it can bring my physical strength to an astonishing level."
"I won't have to worry about the pressure from soul rings later on."
"The only thing I need to consider is my spiritual power."
"But the eye root is my two eyes."
"And I've already unlocked the Night Owl Progenitor first."
"So Tang Yuge's predicament doesn't exist for me!"
"I could even strengthen the bloodline descendants corresponding to the six strange beasts once I find them!"
The more Su Xun analyzed it, the brighter his eyes grew.
Just then, his vision went black again. His spiritual power was on the verge of exhaustion, and he fainted.
Before you continue