Slaying evil

Beneath the azure sky.

Some twenty crystalline "thoughts," clear as precious diamonds, darted back and forth dozens of yards above the ground.

Potent spiritual power radiated outward, reflecting everything in the dense forest below as they searched for their prey.

"Hmm, below me are the Dusky Glow Mountains in the Heaven Dou Empire's Iron Dragon Province. According to Dad's information, the Evil Soul Master Li Qing, the 'Blood Ghost,' should be hiding somewhere in there.

Six days ago, he slaughtered Liyang Village and made a pool of blood to cultivate in. He should still be digesting all that blood energy now. He'll probably hole up in the Dusky Glow Mountains for a while before poking his head out again."

A young voice drifted from the diamond-like thoughts.

His name was Jiang Dongjun, and he was an aspiring soul master whose martial soul had yet to awaken.

Yes, a soul master. This was the Douluo Continent.

The good news was that his reincarnation skills were top-notch. He had become a noble "Lord Shrek," and could someday show everyone a mighty "Lord Shrek impact."

The only thing falling short was that he hadn't gotten "two kings for parents."

Uh, in a sense, he did have "two kings for parents." Soul Kings were kings too!

His father was a fireball Soul King and a Level 5 Soul Engineer.

His mother was a Golden Feather Crow Soul King and a Level 5 Soul Engineer.

Both were nearly forty. If they continued cultivating step by step, whether they could even reach the threshold of a level 70 Soul Saint in this lifetime remained a question mark.

They were much like parents in his previous life who yearned for the educational resources of first-tier cities. For their child's sake, they had obtained household registration in Shrek City through the Soul Tool Department's talent recruitment program. They also served as external lecturers in Shrek Academy's Soul Tool Department and owned a soul tool workshop in Shrek City, enjoying tax exemptions.

The bad news was that this was the "Peerless Tang Sect" era, hailed by countless internet users as the darkest period.

He belonged to the same generation as the protagonists. There were only a dozen or so years left before that timeline's Continental Advanced Academy Soul Fighting Tournament, held in the Star Luo Empire's capital.

Faced with a deeply servile child of destiny, a Shrek Academy that affected lofty purity, a rotten and decadent continent, and the wily, scheming God King Tang...

Jiang Dongjun could count the cards he had to play on one hand.

The worst card in his hand was his martial soul.

He was his parents' biological child, born from his mother's womb, not someone who had possessed a body midway through its life. His unawakened martial soul held no surprises; it could only be either a "fireball" or a "Golden Feather Crow."

Unless those two somehow mutated into a Three-Legged Golden Crow for him.

Hmm... the odds were vanishingly small, practically impossible. Martial soul mutation wasn't that simple.

As for the big and little jokers he valued most among his trump cards-

The first was the innate ability he was using now: leaving his body and roaming the world as a yin spirit.

Ever since infancy, his spirit and flesh had been separate. His soul could break free of his body's restraints and wander the world like a homeless ghost, and could even turn into crystalline "thoughts" as clear as precious diamonds.

Apart from leaving his disembodied soul vulnerable to harm, this talent caused no physical complications whatsoever.

Over the years, nurtured by the resources his parents provided and his own tireless training, this talent had developed rapidly.

At first, he could only move around his physical shell. Then he could roam freely at night, and later venture out on overcast days...

Then came his current stage.

-His yin spirit no longer feared the blazing daytime sun and could soar dozens of yards above the ground!

Jiang Dongjun knew very well.

As his spiritual power increased, this talent still had considerable room to grow.

Honestly, there was something Jiang Dongjun had never understood since coming to this world-

Why could someone so deeply servile, who later lost his very sense of self, achieve anything in the spiritual domain?

Seriously, buddy, does the Douluo Plane not care about the heart of the Dao?

Back to the matter at hand.

The second was the wisp of "Light of Time and Space" that had brought him across worlds and now resided deep within his soul.

It seemed to have expended a great deal bringing him through the time and space of myriad worlds, and had spent recent years recovering. Even so, he had managed to develop its most basic functions.

This was also why Jiang Dongjun was so keen on hunting Evil Soul Masters.

With his yin spirit roaming abroad, Jiang Dongjun flew dozens of yards above the ground in the form of crystalline thoughts.

After searching the woodland below for a long while.

He finally discovered a clue at the northern foot of the Dusky Glow Mountains, sensing a fluctuation of blood energy that made him uncomfortable.

"Found you, Blood Ghost Li Qing. Still in the mood for a picnic?"

The twenty-odd thoughts descended one after another, forming the illusory figure of a boy on the branches of an old tree.

It was Jiang Dongjun's soul, which he called his "yin spirit."

A Sapphire Ring with a stone the size of a pigeon's egg encircled the illusory yin spirit's left middle finger. It was held within a sort of "biofield" formed from spiritual power, keeping it from falling off.

A deep blue gleam flashed across the ring's surface, and soul tools appeared out of thin air one after another. The illusory yin spirit was instantly armed to the teeth.

Yes, these were all soul tools powered by spiritual energy.

His soul engineer parents were only responsible for making conventional soul tools. Jiang Dongjun then converted them all from soul-power-driven models into types his yin spirit could use.

In addition, following his suggestion, the soul tools his parents custom-made for him had built-in soul power sources-Milk Bottles. A "switch" controlled whether soul power was supplied, and spiritual power activated that "switch."

This meant a soul tool's soul power level requirement for its user no longer strictly corresponded to its own level.

It was absurd, really.

Soul tools had developed for thousands, even tens of thousands of years, yet generation after generation of Level 9 Soul Engineers couldn't figure out a tiny "switch"?

Jing Hongchen had been extorted out of enormous amounts of resources by Huo Yuhao using a single mechanical switch.

Utterly laughable.

As for who was to blame, Jiang Dongjun couldn't say.

As for the secondary modifications to soul tools mentioned earlier...

Don't ask how I modified them. If you do, the answer is that my cheat did the work. Once I've learned enough, I'll look into the principles behind it.

Dad, though-after studying my modified soul tools all these years, his expertise as a soul engineer has shot straight up. Especially in the rare spiritual branch, he's practically an industry heavyweight.

Jiang Dongjun muttered inwardly in his yin spirit state, turning his gaze into the distance.

Splash... splash...

A babbling stream fell from higher ground and collected in a small pool in a depression.

A campfire burned beside the pool. A black-clad young man, not yet twenty, was tending two roasting rabbits, brushing sauce onto them from time to time.

The heavens obliged.

Clouds covered the blazing afternoon sun.

An unbearable humid heat filled the dense forest, stirring up the earthy smell of rotting leaves, as though rain were on its way.

At some point.

White mist began drifting through the woods, gradually surrounding the pool until visibility fell to barely a few yards.

Only then did Li Qing, the sinister-faced young Evil Soul Master, sense something amiss. He stood and warily scanned his surroundings.

"Damn it! Shrek's hounds again?"

"You've chased me all the way here. Where were you when my sister and I were suffering in the Duke's Mansion?"

"Stop skulking around and get out here!"

A mass of blood-colored shadow surged up behind Li Qing, rising to envelop him as though draping him in a thick crimson gauze robe.

Beneath his feet were three soul rings beyond the normal configuration: yellow, purple, and purple.

Across the small pool, the mist churned.

A blurred figure gradually emerged from it.

Li Qing's gaze instantly locked onto that figure.

When he saw the figure swiftly raise an arm and heft a cylindrical object nearly three inches across, his pupils contracted sharply.

Then.

A bone-chilling sensation he could not escape abruptly descended upon him.

That terrifying spiritual assault left Li Qing dazed, though he soon recovered.

Lock-on!

Terror · Soul Cannon!

The newcomer was actually a fully armed soul engineer?

Wasn't it common knowledge that Shrek Academy's members rejected soul tools, even bordering on outright hatred?

Li Qing was puzzled, but the newcomer gave him no time to think.

Without a word, he unleashed his ultimate attack.

Blazing light suddenly erupted from the cannon barrel held aloft by the figure in the mist. Like a miniature sun rising across the pool, a terrifying solar storm swept outward, instantly evaporating the water before continuing its rampage, seeking to annihilate everything within its reach.

Li Qing felt death closing in. This killing strike was far beyond anything he could withstand.

"No-"

"I can't die!"

Li Qing roared.

A deep crimson glow lit up his left arm. Blood-colored cracks instantly spread across his entire body, and his figure exploded with a thunderous burst, becoming several streaks of bloody light that shot behind him, trying to escape the reach of the Blazing Sun Storm.

But something even more terrifying descended. A soft laugh came from the direction of his escape.

"Haha, Dad guessed right after all. You have a blood-energy soul bone, and its soul bone skill was almost certainly a lifesaving one. It helped you turn the tables and kill that unlucky new inner court student from Shrek Academy... Hmph, blame yourself for not cleaning up the battlefield and leaving an opening."

The figure that had remained hidden in the white mist until the very end finally appeared.

It was actually a tin puppet wearing a tall top hat.

The hat was black, but a pair of fiery red fox-ear ornaments sat on either side of its brim. It was quite bizarre.

The puppet housing Jiang Dongjun's yin spirit held an exquisite shotgun. He aimed at the streaks of bloody light shooting straight toward him and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The projectile fired from the barrel burst apart. The scattered iron shot ignited into brilliant golden flames in midair, linking together into a true Blazing Sun Storm that ravaged more than a hundred square meters of air.

The blazing solar storm engulfed every streak of bloody light into which Li Qing had exploded.

Golden flames roared, seeking to burn every trace of evil dry.

As for the soul engineer who had frightened Li Qing like a bird startled by a bowstring? The soul cannon?

The rising blazing sun?

The terrifying solar storm that had evaporated the pool and rampaged mercilessly?

Fake!

It was all fake!

After Jiang Dongjun's spiritual assault had dazed him, Li Qing had fallen into an illusion Jiang Dongjun had meticulously woven.

It all stemmed from the strange top hat on the puppet's head.

A level 6 soul tool-the Fantastical Fox!

Its principal material was a damaged four-thousand-year Head Soul Bone, and it possessed two major functions: "Cloud and Mist Mimicry" and "Illusion Imbuement."

The original version had been obtained through an exchange with Shrek Academy's Soul Tool Department.

Jiang Dongjun and his father had subsequently modified it together, allowing Jiang Dongjun to use it in his yin spirit state despite his martial soul remaining unawakened.

Before each activation, his father had to charge it with soul power.

Without the "Sealed Milk Bottle" technology, the soul tool's charge did not remain usable for long, and the number of uses was also limited.