Martial Soul Fusion

After finishing her story, Nana could not help shedding tears. She did not understand. She had once led such a happy, beautiful life, and her parents had never intended to harm anyone. How had she ended up like this?

Seeing this, Huo Yuyao felt both sorrow and fury. She handed Nana a tissue to wipe her tears.

"Brother Xiao Mo, we absolutely can't let a villain like that keep running rampant!"

Seeing Huo Yuyao's fierce little expression, Lin Mo teased her.

"Little Yao, that branch has a Soul Saint. How are you planning to fight him?"

"Uh, well..."

Unlike Huo Yuyao, who was awkwardly pondering that question, Nana wore a look of utter surprise. She had never expected the boy before her to know not only her identity, but even that the strongest person in the branch was a Soul Saint.

"H-how did you know? I don't think I mentioned that."

"I told you. If I can find out your identity, naturally I can find out the rest. Not only do I know that the strongest person in your branch is a level 70 Soul Saint, I also know there are two level 60 Soul Emperors."

Looking at Nana's incredulous expression, Lin Mo smiled.

"Do you want revenge? Do you want to rescue your parents?"

Hearing those words, Nana immediately grew agitated and spoke.

"Of course I do! I don't want to work for them, either. I've always wanted to rescue my parents, but I don't have the ability. All I can do is obey them."

Lin Mo stood up, disregarded her agitated expression, and lightly pressed his index finger to Nana's forehead.

Nana, whose emotions had nearly slipped out of control, suddenly felt something return to her soul. For a moment, she froze in a daze.

"This..."

"I've returned your soul, but in exchange, you have to do something for us."

Sensing her soul's return, Nana released her martial soul. After confirming that it really had worked, she looked at Lin Mo with a complicated expression.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Take us to the Holy Spirit Cult's branch. Don't worry about anything else. I'll handle it."

"Are you crazy? You're both only two-ring Soul Grandmasters. Inside the branch, there's..."

Before she could finish, Lin Mo raised a hand to stop her from continuing.

"If I dare to go there on my own like this, naturally I have my methods. All you need to do is pick a time when the Holy Spirit Cult's branch has the most people present and take us inside."

Huo Yuyao said nothing. Although she, too, wondered how two mere two-ring Soul Masters could defeat a seven-ring expert and two six-ring experts, she trusted Lin Mo's judgment even more.

"Since Brother has already decided to wipe them out, he must have a way. Maybe Elder Yi will step in."

Looking at the boy's unquestionable resolve, Nana gritted her teeth and agreed.

"I-I understand. There will be a gathering in the branch at midnight three days from now. Eighty percent of its Soul Masters will attend. The elder, the First Holy Spirit, and the Second Holy Spirit will definitely be there."

"All right. We'll meet at the school gates then."

"But how exactly are you going to sneak in? There's an array inside that can detect your identities."

"You don't need to worry about that."

As he spoke, he looked at Huo Yuyao, who understood what he meant.

"Leave it to me. Hehe."

After seeing Nana off, the two left the dormitory and went their separate ways. Huo Yuyao went straight to the neighboring room to find Xiao Xiao and explain the matter, while Lin Mo headed directly to the teaching building where Ye Guyi was.

He figured that since they were going to kill Evil Soul Masters anyway, he only needed a teacher's help to suppress them. While the teacher held them down, Ye Guyi could finish them off directly and raise her cultivation in the process.

After reaching the teaching building and asking around, he finally learned that Ye Guyi's class had practical combat training that day and had gone to the Third Duel Arena.

However, the duel arenas had all been built far away so they would not disrupt classes.

"Ah, if I walk all the way there, they'll probably be finished by the time I arrive."

Just as he was considering simply waiting until tomorrow, a bold idea suddenly came to him.

"Wait. I can already control the Mystic Sword with soul power now. Does that mean I can...?"

Without another word, Lin Mo summoned his martial soul and laid it on the ground.

"Hmm, won't stepping straight onto it make it a little dirty?"

Despite saying that, he stepped onto it without hesitation, then formed a sword gesture with his fingers like the characters in cultivation novels.

"Wait, I don't think I even need the hand gesture."

He lowered his hand and devoted all his attention to pouring soul power into the sword.

Before long, the Mystic Sword really did begin to rise slowly into the air.

"Whoa!"

Lin Mo swayed from side to side, then finally diverted some soul power to steady his center of gravity.

After tinkering like that for three or four minutes, he finally got himself airborne.

He controlled the Mystic Sword directly, carrying himself up into the air.

"It consumes quite a lot of soul power, but it's pretty fast now."

With his feet planted on the hovering sword, Lin Mo shot forward.

"Judging by this speed, it should be faster than a normal level 3 Flying Soul Tool. Not bad."

Of course, that did not mean other people's tool martial souls could do the same. He had succeeded because his tool martial soul possessed a spirit.

With the Mystic Sword's help, a journey that would normally take more than ten minutes took only a few.

By the time he reached Duel Arena No. 3, their class had just ended. As Ye Guyi and her classmates came out, they happened to see Lin Mo flying on the Mystic Sword while holding his fingers in a sword gesture.

"I really do need the sword gesture after all. I don't know why, but it makes me feel more at ease and helps me focus."

"Lin Mo? What are you doing here?"

"Wow, how did he fly over here standing on a sword? That's so cool."

"Is that a Soul Tool?"

"Huh, he looks really familiar."

"Isn't he the boy from the team that won the Freshman Assessment this morning?"

Lin Mo ignored everyone else's puzzled remarks and went over to Ye Guyi.

"At eleven at night three days from now, we're going to the Holy Spirit Cult's base in Mingdu-the Evil Soul Master organization. Come with us then. I'll help suppress them, and you can kill them to increase your soul power."

"Huh?"

Over the next little while, Lin Mo used soul power to transmit his voice and tell Ye Guyi everything. Once she understood the situation, she nodded to show that she had grasped it.

After saying everything he needed to say, Lin Mo flew straight back toward the dormitory on his sword.

Why hadn't he climbed down first to talk?

"Ah, I'll just have to spend a little more soul power. I still can't take off gracefully. If I stepped onto the sword and tried to take off in front of them, it'd be a little..."

And so, he flew all the way back to the dormitory.

After returning to Huo Yuyao's room, he gave her a rough account of his visit to Ye Guyi. The girl nodded in satisfaction after listening.

Lin Mo was a little puzzled by her reaction, but did not say anything more.

After all, something more important lay ahead.

After each taking a shower, the two stood beside the bed.

Looking at Lin Mo standing face-to-face with her, Huo Yuyao was visibly nervous and shy.

What they were about to do was recreate the embrace between the original story's male and female leads, then release their soul power to attempt their first martial soul fusion.

Had this been a year or two ago, the girl would certainly have hugged him without hesitation. But since leaving the White Tiger Duke and coming to the academy, she had learned all kinds of things. With Xiao Xiao constantly saying strange things beside her as well, she now felt rather embarrassed.

Seeing the girl standing so shyly before him, even someone as oblivious as Lin Mo understood why she was acting that way.

Yet across his two lives, Huo Yuyao was the only person with whom he had spent so much time.

Lin Mo scratched his head awkwardly, unsure what to say. His original plan to simply hug her had stalled, too.

Blushing, Huo Yuyao lowered her head. After taking two deep breaths, she closed her eyes and held out her arms.

"C-come on, Brother Xiao Mo!"

Her face flushed crimson, the girl abruptly raised her head to look at Lin Mo and spoke earnestly.

Seeing her serious expression, Lin Mo nodded in agreement.

"Mm!"

And so, they closed their eyes at the same time, each took a small step forward, and embraced.

At first, both were a little nervous, and neither rested their hands on the other. But as time slowly passed, they gradually relaxed, placed their hands on each other's backs, and steadied their breathing.

Once they both felt ready, they began releasing their soul power.

Gradually, different halos began radiating from their bodies. Four different kinds of soul power swirled around them, their forces slowly merging.

As the halos spreading from their bodies grew larger and the light of their soul power grew clearer, they unconsciously held each other tighter.

Little by little, the four differently colored kinds of soul power turned into strands of thread that began spiraling around them.

Each strand seemed alive as it began wrapping around the pair.

As time passed, more and more threads appeared, winding faster and faster. They no longer merely clung to the pair's bodies, but formed a separate shape, completely enveloping them like a cocoon.

Yet at that moment, the cocoon woven from four kinds of soul power unexpectedly shimmered with seven-colored light.

Inside the cocoon, their soul power continued to intermingle.

The changes were not merely external. Even their Seas of Consciousness underwent considerable transformations.

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and the Ice Empress watched the Sea of Consciousness begin to churn, growing puzzled and wary.

"What's going on? Little Dream, why would martial soul fusion cause changes in the Sea of Consciousness?"

"Yeah, I don't know, either. I've never heard of anything like this. In any case, keep an eye on it."

Meanwhile, on Electrolux's side.

The moment he saw the changes in Lin Mo's Sea of Consciousness, he spread his divine sense throughout it.

Unlike the two Soul Beasts next door, who focused on defense, he chose to actively record these changes.

"What exactly is happening? I remember the books contained no records of changes within the Sea of Consciousness."

Electrolux closed his eyes, quietly sensing the Sea of Consciousness enveloped in his divine sense as it continued changing during the martial soul fusion.

"The Sea of Consciousness is expanding. No, wait. What's that?"

Electrolux opened his eyes. Sensing an unusual disturbance in one part of the Sea of Consciousness, he hurried over to investigate.

Likewise, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and the Ice Empress on the other side also sensed that something was amiss.

Outside, the pair had already lost their standing posture and fallen onto the bed. Gentle soul power light enveloped them like a cocoon.

Upon reaching the disturbed area in the Sea of Consciousness, Electrolux looked in bewilderment at the doorway before him.

"What is this thing? Why is it situated at the very center of the Sea of Consciousness?"

Indeed, although Electrolux, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, and the Ice Empress all resided within Seas of Consciousness, none of their primary resting places lay at the center.

Electrolux reached out toward the doorway, which consisted of nothing but a frame and displayed no other unusual effects.

Just as he was about to touch it, strange spiritual fluctuations began spreading from the frame.

In mere seconds, a peculiar spiritual fluctuation covered the entire doorway, forming something like a mirror.

"Could it be...?"

A rather absurd idea surfaced in Electrolux's mind, but he believed that any idea within the realm of possibility could not be considered absurd.

He reached out and gently injected a little spiritual power into that mirrorlike surface. Naturally, it was Lin Mo's spiritual power.

Much as he had expected, the moment it received Lin Mo's spiritual power, ripples like those on water spread across the doorway. Then a Sea of Consciousness appeared, somewhat similar yet also somewhat different.

Although the other side of the doorway was also a Sea of Consciousness, there were significant differences. Even standing beside the doorway, he could sense that peculiar spiritual power.

Not only that, he also heard two familiar voices.

"Little Dream, what exactly is this? Why is there a doorway here? Huh, wait. Why is it fluctuating?"

"You're right. What is this...?"

The two Soul Beasts watched curiously as the doorway gradually took shape. Eventually, a Sea of Consciousness emerged on the other side, and within it stood an immensely powerful figure who was looking back at them.

"Huh, you're Elder Yi?!"

"Elder Yi?!"

"Little bug and little scorpion?"

Although Electrolux had already guessed this possibility, witnessing it with his own eyes still left him somewhat shocked. Unlike him, the two Soul Beasts opposite him found it utterly unbelievable.

"Heavens, what's going on? Wait, is this still Little Yao's Sea of Consciousness? Why is Elder Yi here?"

In their disbelief, they even began checking whether their origin power was still present to confirm that they really were within Huo Yuyao's Sea of Consciousness.

"Calm down, both of you."

Electrolux's voice was steady, carrying that familiar, timeworn quality, and both Soul Beasts quieted at once.

Seeing that neither Soul Beast was speaking anymore, he explained his conjecture in full.

After hearing the explanation, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm pondered it before replying.

"So you're saying this doorway suddenly appeared because of their martial soul fusion?"