He let the Light of Time and Space squeeze out the last of its value.
Jiang Dongjun reviewed the battle that had just ended.
Times have changed. Whether in group battles or duels, Soul Masters skilled with Soul Tools have an absolute advantage!
If an inner court student from Shrek Academy's Soul Tool Department came here, they would probably have to be a Soul Emperor to reliably defeat this evil Soul King. If they charged into Old Dragon Ravine and attacked the lair he had painstakingly fortified, even a Soul Emperor might crash and burn.
How could they possibly have it as easy as Dad and me?
When we met on that narrow path, we took to the air, seized the high ground, shouldered our cannons, and unleashed a wild barrage. Just like that, we blasted away half the evil Soul King's life.
And there were two great contributors that played crucial roles for me in this battle-first, the Golden Eyes of Truth; second, my Spirit Sea Realm mental strength.
The Golden Eyes of Truth helped enormously by locking onto his position.
I wasn't certain before, but I suppressed the evil Soul King in our clash on the mental plane just now, so my spiritual power has definitely entered the Spirit Sea Realm!
Having tasted the benefits, Jiang Dongjun silently resolved to keep strengthening his Yin Spirit cultivation.
The feeling of using superior strength to bully the weak was simply too satisfying.
In the original story, Huo Yuhao's heaven-defying combat performance had come from using his powerful spiritual cultivation to bully weaker opponents.
Since I've decided to improve my spiritual power, I'll have to find ways to get both Tian Meng and the Gold of Life!
Tian Meng has a bit of a turncoat streak. In the original story, something seemed off about him after he left the Clear Sky Sect. For all I know, he might have struck some agreement with Tang San to become a god... Can the Light of Time and Space keep him in check?
The Gold of Life should be straightforward. I already asked Dad to watch out for that notoriously sinister carving knife and keep an eye on the auctions in the three imperial capitals. As long as it appears in Star Luo City like it did in the original plot, it'll definitely end up in my hands. Besides, I could also look for the Golden Hawksbill Turtle. There's a piece in its belly, too...
Thoughts flashed through Jiang Dongjun's mind.
Whoosh, thump-
The basket Soul Tool was gently lowered from the air. Jiang Ming switched off his Flying Soul Tool and landed. Seeing Jiang Dongjun standing rooted to the spot, he felt uneasy, both puzzled and worried.
"What are you standing around here for, brat? You haven't suffered a mental backlash, have you?"
"Huh?" Jiang Dongjun snapped back to his senses and quickly shook his head. "No, Dad, don't worry. I just used him to confirm that my spiritual power really is comparable to a Soul King's. I was only thinking about something."
"Whatever it is, think about it later. Hurry up and clean up the battlefield and put out the forest fire. We still have to deal with the aftermath at Old Dragon Ravine."
Jiang Ming inspected Huang Fen's head-blasted corpse with undisguised disgust.
"One whiff of that stench tells you he was an Evil Soul Master who desecrated corpses. If the corpse poison he left behind flows downstream, the people who drink from the river will suffer."
Whoom!
An orange fireball flared in Jiang Ming's palm. He casually tossed it onto Huang Fen's corpse.
"Dad, I haven't looted the body yet! Why did you cremate him?"
"He's covered in corpse poison. How are you going to search him? Don't you want those claws of yours anymore?"
"No, I have Dusk's Blessing! Besides, I'm basically a spiritual body, an energy body now. What corpse poison could possibly poison me?"
Jiang Ming: "..."
Jiang Ming: "It's fine. The flames aren't hot enough to damage Soul Bones or Soul Tools. You can pick them up afterward."
Good fortune did not favor the Jiang family again. Huang Fen had no Soul Bones.
He had a Storage Soul Tool, but its contents were equally meager. The tool was merely made of rare metal rather than sapphire, and its internal space was less than half a cubic meter. They found nothing worthwhile inside.
After a good while spent putting out the forest fire, father and son hurried straight to Old Dragon Ravine, planning to rest only after everything had been thoroughly dealt with.
With a Flying Soul Tool, natural barriers were no longer barriers.
They soon arrived outside Old Dragon Ravine. Jiang Dongjun kindled his Golden Eyes and gazed into the distance. Only after confirming that no thick, pitch-black columns of smoke lurked inside did he signal to his father that they could enter.
They landed on a spacious walkway carved into one cliff face and proceeded on foot into the depths of the ravine.
Coffins lay scattered haphazardly along the way, some empty, others holding "mummies" made from ordinary people. Their bodies were wrapped in foul-smelling, scorched-yellow shrouds-Huang Fen's martial soul, a kind that could persist for a long time, much like a food-type martial soul;
Blackened, shriveled organs hung from the uneven cliff face, their stench rising to the heavens;
Together with the thick darkness of night and the dull roar of the river below the walkway, the scene left Jiang Dongjun feeling as though he were walking down Hell Road.
Dusk's Blessing!
With a golden-orange fireball overhead, Jiang Dongjun cast a gauzy layer of soul power over himself to seal out the surrounding stench.
The golden-orange fireball rotated, scattering a shower of dusky yellow flames onto Jiang Ming, who was setting fires nearby to burn away the filth. A gauzy layer of soul power formed over him as well, drawing a startled look.
"Dongjun, y-you can use this Soul Skill on other people?"
"Of course." Jiang Dongjun nodded and began spouting nonsense. "The sun is selfless, after all. It shines upon the world without asking anything in return."
Jiang Ming: "..."
What a goddamn excuse. And yet your old man can't refute it.
"What about the Great Sun Golden Body and the Golden Eyes of Truth? Don't tell me those two Soul Skills can be used on other people, too?"
"Those two can't."
"Then what the hell was all that nonsense about being selfless?"
After that little interlude, father and son continued clearing away the poisonous remnants the Evil Soul Master had left in Old Dragon Ravine.
A long while later, dawn approached.
Father and son reached the end of the walkway, their cleanup complete. Here, an enormous platform extended into the cliff, covering roughly one-sixth of an acre by their estimate. A repaired stone house stood upon it.
The end of the walkway was also the end of the gorge.
The cliffs on either side converged ahead, leaving only a narrow, perfectly straight opening high above, as though sliced by a blade, facing due east.
His expression dark, Jiang Ming pointed at the foul-smelling stone house and explained:
"That stone house was originally built by the Half-Dragon Titled Douluo. After he reached the end of his lifespan, generations of Soul Masters who came sightseeing here maintained it. Who would have thought some scoundrel would defile it like this..."
"Never mind. Let's give it a proper cleaning, the two of us. Consider it our tribute to a Soul Master of an earlier generation."
Somewhat distracted, Jiang Dongjun gave a perfunctory reply and followed his father to clean up the stone house.
After another round of work.
With time to spare, Jiang Dongjun walked to the edge of the platform and leaned out to look down into the gorge, his eyes searching.
The Light of Time and Space in his Sea of Consciousness had alerted him that this place held a secret.
How had it alerted him?
Simple: the Light of Time and Space could continuously draw in fortune here.
Jiang Dongjun was certain it came from the contours of the mountains and the flow of the water-fortune generated by the feng shui, lasting rather than fleeting.
It definitely was not a result of cleaning up the walkway.
The wisps of fortune it absorbed were few and feeble, but their strength lay in their endless flow. Accumulated over months and years, they would amount to a considerable quantity, enough to condense into soul liquid.
In fact, after making a comparison, Jiang Dongjun discovered that staying here long-term to absorb fortune and condense soul liquid would be faster than the rate of one drop a year he had achieved under his "Grandpa Shi" identity before awakening his martial soul.
Old Dragon Ravine was blessed by fortune!
Clearly, this place either concealed an opportunity someone had left behind or possessed unusual terrain akin to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"Could it be that cold pool down below?"
Jiang Dongjun voiced his suspicion in a quiet murmur.
Before you continue