Firepower Saturation

After taking to the air.

With the thrust of his Flying Soul Tool, Jiang Ming hovered in midair, scanning his surroundings warily.

In the distance, the dense forest was a black mass beneath the spreading night, its hidden contents utterly impossible to make out. Even with the two of them presenting such conspicuous targets, their opponent had restrained himself and made no move to attack.

Jiang Ming frowned, wondering if he would really have to let his son's Yin Spirit Excursion locate their opponent.

Suddenly, brilliant light flared from the basket below.

Jiang Ming glanced down out of the corner of his eye and saw that his son's pupils had turned dazzling gold, like two burning stars in their prime. The pressure they radiated made his breath catch.

The single bright yellow "Hundred-Year Soul Ring" on Jiang Dongjun flashed, clearly signaling that he had activated a Soul Skill.

"Golden Eyes of Truth?"

Jiang Ming understood. "Right, Dongjun called it an eye technique. It isn't just a mental attack-it must have an observation effect, too."

The "Truth" in Golden Eyes of Truth had already made it clear that this Soul Skill possessed impressive powers of observation.

Once his "golden eyes" lit up, the world in Jiang Dongjun's vision immediately changed. Energy particles of every color filled the air, surging like tides.

Around him, red and golden elemental particles were particularly active.

In the world of Douluo Dalu III: The Legend of the Dragon King, perceiving the colors of energy particles in the air was a sign that one's spiritual power had entered the Spirit Domain Realm. Yet Jiang Dongjun had achieved it ahead of time through an Eye Technique Soul Skill.

And this was only its most basic effect.

Beyond observing elemental particles of every color, sinister energy also took tangible form within the vision of his "golden eyes."

Within the night-shrouded forest, columns of pitch-black beacon smoke shot into the sky. Vengeful souls seemed to struggle and wail within them, with bloody light faintly flickering.

"One, two, three, four, five..."

Jiang Dongjun: ???

Something's wrong! Something's wrong! Where did all these Evil Soul Masters come from? Did the Holy Spirit Cult set up its headquarters in Old Dragon Ravine, sense a threat emerging in the southwestern corner of the mountains, and pour out in full force?

Give me a break.

If all those columns of pitch-black smoke were real, a mob of Evil Soul Masters would already have charged at the father and son.

Jiang Dongjun's mind worked fast.

At the same time, through his "golden eyes," he keenly noticed differences in the density of the pitch-black smoke. Most of the columns looked somewhat illusory. Only one was truly solid, standing among the rest like a crane among chickens, conspicuous beyond measure.

Understanding dawned on his face.

I think I get it. They're the master and his puppets, aren't they? Maybe our opponent is an Evil Soul Master who can drive corpses?

At the thought of sinister corpse-related abilities, Jiang Dongjun grew even more vigilant.

After all, there was the cautionary precedent... no, future example of the "Holy Spirit Supreme Elder."

The Soul Skill "Corpse Explosion" was simply too formidable.

Jiang Dongjun could not transmit his voice through Soul Power. He could only inform his father above of the target's position in a relatively quiet voice that was still loud enough to be heard clearly over the roar of the jets.

"Dad, don't move! Right now, at your ten o'clock, there's a giant cedar roughly five hundred meters away in a straight line. Have you found it?"

He paused briefly, but no reply came from above.

Jiang Dongjun did not mind.

They had worked together too many times. He trusted the unspoken understanding between father and son.

If their opponent really used corpse puppets, a Soul Light Machine Gun would not do. Even if its rapid-fire Soul Bullets unleashed a metal storm, it would be inefficient at destroying them.

He needed to switch to a Soul Cannon and blast the corpse puppets apart, completely robbing them of their ability to move.

Jiang Dongjun took new equipment from his storage ring and quickly assembled it.

He fitted a cannon barrel with a bore nearly ten centimeters wide with a targeting device, then attached a class-three external Milk Bottle. He took out several conical Fixed Soul Cannon Shells and piled them in the basket.

In a moment, even as a mere One-Ring Soul Master, he would be able to use this Level 3 Fixed-Installation Soul Cannon with ease.

"Dad, that guy is hiding in that giant cedar. He probably spotted us first and sent his puppets to surround us while he watched from up there.

"But we took to the air so fast that we caught him off guard. He didn't have a chance to leave the giant cedar.

"It's hard to judge exactly how far down he is from the treetop. Dad, just use a class-five high-explosive incendiary shell on the middle of the cedar. That'll make him show his tail. I'll bombard his puppets first. As soon as you hear my cannon, fire!"

Once they had agreed on when to attack, Jiang Dongjun hoisted the dark cannon barrel onto his shoulder.

His golden eyes blazed as he locked onto his first target. He picked them off in order of the density of their pitch-black smoke, from thickest to thinnest.

The Level 3 Fixed-Installation Soul Cannon had a range of one kilometer.

That was enough.

Boom!

A fierce burst of fire and a thunderous blast tore through the night.

Up in the giant cedar, firelight suddenly reflected in the eyes of a filthy, foul-smelling young man. He froze for a moment, then frantically looked toward where the Fixed Soul Cannon Shell had landed. In an instant, his eyes nearly split with fury.

"You little bastard, I'll kill you! Aah-"

"My Long One! The corpse puppet I made after finally managing to kill a draconic Soul Ancestor! Destroyed? Just like that?"

Where the class-three Fixed Soul Cannon Shell landed, everything within a diameter of several dozen meters-shrubs, trees, rocks, and the corpse puppet-was blasted into the sky. All that remained was a round crater over half a meter deep, with lingering flames scattered beside it.

The young man's name was Huang Fen, and his Martial Soul was a piece of Corpse-Wrapping Cloth. After he had embarked on the evil path, his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, and he had gained a way to mass-produce troops by using his Corpse-Wrapping Cloth to create mummy-like corpse puppets.

Whether lowly commoners or lofty Soul Masters, everyone was cultivation material in his eyes. The more mummies he created, the more feedback his Corpse-Wrapping Cloth gave him, sending his Soul Power Level soaring.

Recently, Huang Fen had reached the level-fifty bottleneck. He had gone out to hunt for a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring and obtained a Soul King-level Corpse Puppet as material.

On his way back, he had happened to notice the unusual disturbance in the stream valley and suspected that a heavenly treasure had emerged.

After observing from afar for a while, Huang Fen had not dared attack the Soul Tool fortifications Jiang Ming had built. He first took his precious material back to Old Dragon Ravine, then returned with the corpse puppets guarding his lair, ready for a major offensive.

One encounter, one brief clash.

And just like that, he had lost a mighty general. Huang Fen's heart bled.

His thoughts were even more tangled than a ball of hemp. How had he been exposed?

The father and son opposing him gave him no time to think.

A spine-chilling sensation suddenly rose in Huang Fen's heart, as though some apex predator had fixed its gaze on him.

This is bad!

I've been exposed?

A terrifying Soul Tool has locked onto me!

Boom!

An even fiercer blaze erupted, accompanied by a roar like furious thunder.

Red light tore through the night like lightning.

A Level 5 Fixed-Installation Soul Cannon Shell came hurtling toward him.

Worse still, the shell's initial point of impact was below him.

At that moment, his only escape was upward-if Huang Fen could fly.

Otherwise, fleeing downward meant trying to outrun the shell, didn't it? Who fled toward the center of an explosion?

Martial Soul, manifest!

Foul-smelling, scorched-yellow Corpse-Wrapping Cloth enveloped his entire body.

The sole black Soul Ring beneath his feet lit up, enhancing the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth until it was like steel.

At that moment, Huang Fen's only consolation was that his Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring granted an enhancement skill. When choosing it, he had reasoned that stronger, tougher Corpse-Wrapping Cloth could protect both him and his corpse puppets.

He had never expected to need it so soon.

The red light cutting through the night struck the middle of the giant cedar, instantly breaking the nearly hundred-meter-tall colossus in half.

Amid the rumbling boom, everything within a diameter of two hundred meters became a sea of fiery red. Terrifying heat ravaged the area, directly charring the giant cedar and the surrounding trees as roaring flames engulfed them.

Jiang Dongjun did not idle, either. He seized the opportunity to pick off the corpse puppets hidden in the forest, one cannon shot at a time, practically clearing out every corpse puppet outside the incendiary shell's blast radius.

Of course, that meant the powerful corpse puppets made from Soul Masters and Soul Beasts.

Those whose smoke was extremely faint were obviously corpse puppets made from ordinary people, even without a closer look. He left them alone for now, keeping his focus on that sea of flames.

"I saw a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring. That guy is already an Evil Soul King. A class-five high-explosive incendiary shell is mainly for area damage. More precisely, it's a tool for clearing the field. It won't kill a Soul King."

"Dongjun, what do we do next?"

The voice transmitted through Soul Power reached Jiang Dongjun's ears. Above him, Jiang Ming was frowning at the surging sea of flames.

Troublesome!

He could no longer find the target.

Otherwise, he could have locked directly onto the man's Soul Power fluctuations and fed him a Fire Feather Type III, beating him into a half-dead dog before leaving his son to finish him off.

Jiang Ming said, "Who knows where that guy was blasted to? With that sea of flames covering him, can your Golden Eyes of Truth lock onto him again?"

"You bet, Dad."

Jiang Dongjun was brimming with confidence.