Robbing the Robbers

"Yu Chen, what is your current soul power level? After absorbing the soul ring, your soul power level must have been revealed too."

Ming Dashan's tone carried anticipation.

With a Thousand-Year Soul Bone and a Thousand-Year Soul Ring, he reckoned internally that Yu Chen could reach at least soul power level twenty-three.

"Level twenty-nine."

Yu Chen spoke directly.

"Mhm, not bad!"

Ming Dashan was still walking forward and nodded subconsciously.

However, the next moment, his entire body came to an abrupt halt.

He turned around, his eyes wide like copper bells.

"What!"

Ming Dashan stared at Yu Chen, his ears ringing as he wondered if he had misheard.

"What is your level? Say it again?"

He asked once more.

"Uncle Dashan, my soul power has already reached level twenty-nine. Just one more level and I can absorb my third soul ring."

Yu Chen said with a smile.

Toward Ming Dashan, Yu Chen generally would not hide anything.

Besides, matters like soul power levels could not be hidden either, as they were very easily detected.

Ming Dashan did not reply.

He supported his entire body against a tree trunk, his gaze fixed straight ahead.

At that moment, his brain was as jumbled as paste.

He finally understood why those books contained such vague records regarding soul bones.

Even his good friend Yu Xiaogang adopted a secretive expression the moment soul bones were mentioned.

It directly raised a Soul Grandmaster to a Soul Elder!

This thing was simply too miraculous!

No wonder major factions would not hesitate to launch wars in order to contend for a single soul bone!

"Hoo-"

Ming Dashan let out a long breath, his shoulders relaxing as well.

He patted Yu Chen's shoulder, his voice low: "Yu Chen, I must emphasize once more: you must absolutely not let others know that you possess a soul bone!"

"All right, I remember."

Yu Chen said with a nod.

"It is not that I am making a mountain out of a molehill, but the Soul Master World is not as beautiful as it appears on the surface. Murders for treasures happen frequently, and sometimes, even friends and family members might stab you in the back."

Ming Dashan let go of his hand and sighed.

A trace of pain flashed through his eyes as if he recalled some unpleasant matters.

"Boom-"

Suddenly, an explosive sound interrupted the conversation of the two.

Immediately following came the sounds of metallic collisions and soul power explosions, mingled with the furious roars of soul masters.

They sounded indistinct, yet extremely fierce.

Ming Dashan turned his head, cupped an ear to listen for a few seconds, and frowned: "Someone is hunting a soul beast? No, this is the sound of soul skills bombarding each other."

"Yu Chen, let's go. Pay it no mind."

He grabbed Yu Chen's arm, lowering his voice in explanation as they walked:

"Out in the wilderness, meddling in other people's business is the greatest taboo. Whether it is hunting soul beasts or soul masters fighting a brawl, as long as it has nothing to do with you, do not get involved. Because these matters easily draw fire onto oneself."

"Mhm."

Yu Chen nodded; he naturally understood Ming Dashan's well-intentioned care.

However.

Ming Dashan dragged Yu Chen three or four steps before his pace suddenly slowed down.

Ming Dashan glanced sideways at Yu Chen, whose face still carried a touch of childishness, his eyes filled with hustle.

A stir went through Ming Dashan's heart:

"Sooner or later, Yu Chen must venture through the Soul Master World alone. He is sheltered by me today, but what about the future?"

"Instead of leaving Yu Chen unprepared in the future to be backstabbed by others, it is better to take this opportunity to let him witness the cruelty of the Soul Master World."

"The soul masters encountered on the outer edges of the forest are, at best, merely soul ancestors and soul elders."

He pulled Yu Chen's hand, lightening his steps as he approached the direction whence the sounds came.

Not long after walking, the two arrived at a depression.

In the arena.

Three soul masters were fighting intensely.

Two soul masters with Broadsword martial souls were attacking a soul master with an Iron Shield martial soul in a pincer movement from left and right.

"Clang, clang, clang-"

The Iron Shield soul master was struggling bitterly to hold on, seeing that he was about to be defeated.

Not far away, a tall yellow ox lay on the ground. The wound on its neck was still bleeding outward, dyeing a large patch of the grassland red.

Beside the ox carcass, a thin-bodied man with a full beard was in the midst of absorbing this Hundred-Year Soul Ring.

Ming Dashan watched for a few moments, saying in a low voice to Yu Chen: "This should be a soul hunting team. This soul beast produced a treasure, and they turned on each other."

He had traveled far and wide for many years and had seen this kind of situation plenty of times.

The two Broadsword soul masters were in league; once they finished off the Iron Shield soul master, the man absorbing the soul ring would presumably not be able to run either.

Yu Chen asked in a low voice: "Is it a soul bone?"

He stared at the carcass of that ox, yet did not sense the energy of a soul bone.

Ming Dashan shook his head: "Soul bones are too rare; they do not appear so easily. However, a soul beast's body is entirely treasure; perhaps some other treasure appeared inside this soul beast's body."

In the arena.

The coordination of the two broadsword soul masters grew increasingly fierce.

"Slash!"

A large gash was cut across the Iron Shield soul master's left shoulder, his clothes torn open and his flesh flipped outward.

"Ah!"

In excruciating pain, he slammed his shield down onto the ground, panting heavily as he shouted: "Wang Wu, Wang Liu, we won't fight anymore! I'll cede this piece of Ox Treasure to you brothers. Just let me leave!"

The three of them were originally a soul hunting team, specialized in helping people kill soul beasts for money.

With clear divisions of labor, the rewards were split equally.

Having cooperated for a year, it had been quite pleasant all along.

However, today the belly of this soul beast had yielded a piece of Ox Treasure.

This was a detoxifying treasure after all!

The Ox Treasure of a six-hundred-year soul beast was worth at least a thousand gold coins!

He was still thinking about splitting it equally among the three of them, but as a result Wang Wu and Wang Liu immediately turned hostile.

Wang Wu pulled his broadsword back, resting the tip against the ground.

His build was slightly plump, the flesh on his face twitching as his gaze turned as cold as ice cubes: "Hmph! Li Si, if only you'd been like this earlier!"

Wang Liu, however, was not in a hurry to withdraw his blade. He leaned into Wang Wu's ear: "Big Brother, we can't let him leave!"

Both sides had already formed a grudge. If they let the person leave now, and the other party gathered people for payback in the future, the trouble would be endless.

Wang Wu waved a hand, flicking his chin toward Li Si: "Scram! Considering we've cooperated a few times, I'll spare your life today."

"Hoo~"

Hearing this, Li Si let out a long breath.

Enduring the pain on his shoulder, he cupped his fists toward the two brothers, then turned and left.

His pace was swift, for fear that the other party would go back on their word.

Yet the moment he turned around, Wang Wu and Wang Liu exchanged glances and moved almost simultaneously.

"Crack!"

Two blade lights intersected as they slashed out, striking directly into Li Si's back.

"Ah-!"

Li Si's body lurched forward, crashing onto the ground as he spat out a large mouthful of blood with a thud.

His limbs twitched twice before he went still.

Wang Liu walked to Li Si's corpse and delivered two more blows.

He turned his head to look at the man still absorbing the soul ring, asking with a frown: "Big Brother, what about this punk?"

Wang Wu carried his broadsword on his shoulder, tilting his head to look at that man.

He thought for a moment and said: "An auxiliary soul master, I originally wanted to recruit him into our team. Now that the team is gone, just kill him."

The Ox Treasure of a five-hundred-year soul beast was worth at least a thousand gold coins.

A thousand gold coins! His soul master subsidy for an entire month was only ten gold coins.

With such a huge sum of money, the two brothers could simply kick back and relax; why would they ever need to help people hunt soul beasts in the future?

Wang Liu chuckled and brought his blade before the man.

Right at that moment, a stern shout rang out:

"Stop right there! It's bad enough that you're robbing the robbers, but you still want to take an innocent person's life!"