The Second Coffin

As Zhang Lexuan's thoughts shifted, Jiang Hai swung the Bronze Coffin again, smashing the heavy coffin into the Diamond Tiger once more.

Even with sinews of steel and bones of iron, the Diamond Tiger could not help whimpering when the Bronze Coffin, weighing over seven hundred jin, struck it again. The innate soul skill it had gathered around its body collapsed once more beneath the coffin's suppressive force. Its blood and vital energy recoiled, and it spat out a mouthful of blood.

Like a robot, Jiang Hai repeated his previous movements with meticulous precision. He swung the Bronze Coffin, taller than he was, and tirelessly smashed it into the Diamond Tiger, blow after vicious blow.

It was hard to imagine that a Diamond Tiger over eight hundred years old, with the Royal Bloodline, could be as helpless as a kitten before a mere Soul Scholar.

The Diamond Tiger had sinews of steel and bones of iron. Its skeleton was as hard as diamond, its blood and vital energy abundant. Even its injuries could heal rapidly, and its defenses were incredibly formidable.

Yet Jiang Hai simply kept bringing the coffin down, again and again. With every strike, a vibrating force seemed to ripple from the Bronze Coffin, scattering the blood, vital energy, and soul power the Diamond Tiger gathered. Otherwise, it would not have been denied even a chance to fight back.

One blow, two blows, three blows...

Jiang Hai persisted, tirelessly repeating the same motions.

No one knew how much time had passed. Jiang Hai's face had turned deathly pale, and the repeated impacts had left his arms streaming with blood. Zhang Lexuan finally could not help saying, "Enough. It's already dead!"

"Dead?" A deep yellow Soul Ring coalesced above the Diamond Tiger's body.

Never in its life would this Diamond Tiger have imagined such an ignominious death: someone hauling around a huge coffin and battering it to death, one coffin blow at a time.

The Diamond Tiger's defenses were outstanding, but that was precisely why, after blow upon blow from the coffin, its corpse had become a mangled mass of flesh and blood. The suffering it had endured before death far exceeded what most could bear, and a seemingly indissoluble resentment lingered over its corpse.

Zhang Lexuan said gravely, "This Diamond Tiger has the Royal Bloodline. Soul beasts with the Royal Bloodline are born with stronger souls than other soul beasts. Its resentment is far too intense, and some of it has seeped into the Soul Ring. Even a Quasi-Soul Elder would struggle to absorb it. Even though you were capable of killing it, I still don't recommend absorbing its Soul Ring. After all, you're only a Soul Scholar. Your physique may be stronger than most people's, and your limits higher, but an assault on your soul and will is far more painful and dangerous than the strain on your body."

Zhang Lexuan no longer knew what to say. The physique Jiang Hai had demonstrated did indeed suggest he might be able to absorb an eight-hundred-year soul beast's Soul Ring. But the Diamond Tiger's death had been far too wretched. It had been battered to death, and Jiang Hai possessed only brute strength, insufficient to kill it with a single blow. Instead, it had been like slicing flesh with a dull knife, thousands upon thousands of cuts. Such a death was no better than death by a thousand cuts. The Diamond Tiger's resentment had nearly taken solid form. Absorbing a Soul Ring like this would be fraught with danger even for a Quasi-Soul Elder.

With the Bronze Coffin planted on the ground, Jiang Hai gulped down breath after breath. He could indeed be called naturally gifted with extraordinary strength. His father was immensely strong too; otherwise, he could never have carried a coffin around every day to collect bodies. But the fundamental reason Jiang Hai's strength had reached such heights was his martial soul's ability.

Just as cats were born to catch mice, swords could kill, and flames could burn all things, a Soul Master's abilities came not only from the soul skills granted by Soul Rings, but also from the attributes and abilities of the martial soul itself.

And Jiang Hai's Bronze Coffin did not seem to be limited to collecting bodies.

Only after a while did Jiang Hai regain some strength. "Sister Xuan, I know, but I'm confident. Haven't you forgotten what my martial soul is? A coffin. People think coffins hold the dead and are objects of ill omen. But the living deserve care, and the dead deserve a resting place. A coffin shelters the dead and separates life from death. Mere resentment, evil energy, and lingering souls naturally can't affect someone with the Bronze Coffin martial soul. Don't worry!"

Everyone regarded coffins as ill-omened, but Jiang Hai believed they were the foremost auspicious vessels under heaven. Who in this world would never die? Who would never need a coffin? Life and death together formed the great Way of the mortal world. A coffin was a true vessel of the Way.

At that moment, Jiang Hai radiated a presence as heartwarming as sunshine over the first snow. For the first time, Zhang Lexuan felt that she might have misunderstood him. Perhaps she truly did harbor a certain prejudice against coffins. Who said that a Soul Master with a coffin martial soul was destined to become an Evil Soul Master?

At that moment, the last trace of prejudice against Jiang Hai vanished from her heart.

Dragging the Bronze Coffin, Jiang Hai approached the Diamond Tiger's corpse. The coffin opened, revealing a faintly discernible human figure within. But in the next instant, the Diamond Tiger's corpse flew into the coffin, and the lid closed again.

The living deserve care, and the dead deserve a resting place. Though you were only a soul beast, the dead deserve respect. Let this coffin of mine be your final home! Jiang Hai silently recited those words, then immediately sat cross-legged, stilled his breathing, and focused his mind. A surging force poured from the Bronze Coffin and coursed through his body.

After being filtered through his Bronze Coffin martial soul, however, that force became gentler and better suited for Jiang Hai to absorb.

"What a wondrous martial soul!" Zhang Lexuan's gaze changed as she witnessed this.

When ordinary Soul Masters absorbed a Soul Ring, they used their martial souls to draw its energy into themselves. Some of the special energy that could not be integrated became the Soul Ring and soul skill that circled the Soul Master, while the rest was absorbed to break through the bottleneck in their soul power.

But soul beasts possessed powerful bodies, and the soul power they cultivated was more violent. When Soul Masters absorbed the energy within a Soul Ring, they had to face that violent soul power, which was why danger arose. Jiang Hai's martial soul, however, filtered that violent soul power for him, making the power he absorbed gentler. This would raise the limit of the Soul Rings he could withstand and increase the benefits he gained from absorbing them.

Was this the power of a mutated martial soul?

Jiang's Father's martial soul was a wooden coffin, while Jiang Hai's had become the Bronze Coffin.

Zhang Lexuan knew Jiang Hai possessed a mutated martial soul, but his innate soul power had been only half a rank. This had led her to believe that, although his martial soul was mutated, the degree of mutation was not particularly high. Now, however, she was no longer certain.

The mutation of a mutated martial soul can be steadily perfected through various opportunities. Could he have encountered some extraordinary fortune during these three years that perfected his martial soul's mutation, allowing him to reach rank ten in just three short years? That must be it!

As though she had figured something out, Zhang Lexuan looked at Jiang Hai with even greater eagerness. In that case, his innate soul power can't simply be judged as half a rank. No, this genius must come to Shrek Academy. Whatever it takes, I have to keep him at our Shrek Academy!

Jiang Hai knew nothing of Zhang Lexuan's thoughts. With his breathing stilled and his mind focused, he devoted himself fully to meditation, refining the energy pouring out of the Bronze Coffin.

Although the Bronze Coffin had filtered the energy once, making it purer and gentler, the total amount of the Diamond Tiger's energy remained unchanged. Refining so much energy still put some strain on Jiang Hai.

Meanwhile, inside the Bronze Coffin, the power of the Soul Ring above the Diamond Tiger's corpse steadily dissipated, and the ring itself began to flicker in and out of sight. Yet the deep yellow Soul Ring surrounding Jiang Hai grew ever brighter.

Where no one could see, a gleaming golden Left Arm Bone took shape inside the Diamond Tiger's corpse. After a while, however, both the corpse and the Soul Bone began melting into golden liquid.

As the liquid flowed, a smaller Golden Coffin, identical in shape to the Bronze Coffin, gradually began to form.

Two hours later, the Diamond Tiger's corpse and Soul Ring had vanished, replaced by the yellow hundred-year Soul Ring circling Jiang Hai and the Golden Coffin inside the Bronze Coffin.

The instant the Golden Coffin finished forming, its lid opened. A corpse lying still within the Bronze Coffin flew into it on its own. Thread after thread of golden light flowed from the corpse into the Golden Coffin, with some also merging into Jiang Hai's body.

At the same time, the Bronze Coffin was also devouring some of the corpse's power, incorporating it into itself and feeding a portion back to Jiang Hai.

This was the true reason Jiang Hai's soul power and physique had improved so rapidly.

"Whew!"

Jiang Hai let out a long breath. The Soul Ring around him had fully stabilized, his wounds had healed, and his aura had grown deeper and steadier.

"You succeeded?" Zhang Lexuan asked delightedly.

"I did. Thank you, Sister Xuan!" Jiang Hai said.

"That was all your own ability. You killed the Diamond Tiger yourself too. I didn't really help with anything, so you don't need to thank me!" Zhang Lexuan felt a little embarrassed. It seemed she truly had done nothing. Jiang Hai had killed the Diamond Tiger himself and absorbed its Soul Ring himself. None of it seemed to have anything to do with her. Had she merely accompanied him on a trip?

Jiang Hai shook his head. Zhang Lexuan's accompanying him to the Star Dou Great Forest was already an immense kindness. The Star Dou Great Forest was anything but safe. Without her, if he had encountered a stronger soul beast or a human with ulterior motives, this journey could never have gone so smoothly.

Moreover, it was precisely because Zhang Lexuan stood guard that he had been able to absorb the Soul Ring without distraction and successfully evolve his martial soul.

Jiang Hai had known the instant the Golden Coffin formed. After all, it too was part of his martial soul.

Legends and myths spoke of the Ninefold Coffin. Now that another coffin, the Golden Coffin, had emerged within his Bronze Coffin martial soul, it bore a striking resemblance to that mythical Ninefold Coffin.

I wonder what the key to creating the Golden Coffin was. I think I saw a Soul Bone appear inside the Diamond Tiger. Could it require a Soul Bone, or just a soul beast's corpse? It would be wonderful if it were the latter. Then perhaps a new coffin could form every time I absorbed a Soul Ring. In the future, my martial soul might truly become a Ninefold Coffin, or even a Tenfold Coffin! Jiang Hai drifted into thought.