Artificial Evil Soul Masters

The fire Jin Zhuan had built was already half burned out.

The flames drove away the cold and lit up the little cave, filling it with light.

Dressed in red, Li Xuemei held a baby speckled with blood. A smile appeared on her perpetually expressionless face as she told Lin Yan, "It's a girl. Congratulations!"

"C-can I see her?"

Although she had absorbed Luo Tian's life force, Lin Yan had already been close to burning through her last drop of oil. Now, she had no strength left in her body.

"Of course."

Li Xuemei exchanged a glance with Jin Zhuan and the others. When they nodded, she brought the baby over and gently laid her beside Lin Yan, speaking softly.

Though their caution seemed somewhat heartless, they had encountered Evil Soul Masters whose twisted minds had sunk so low that they harmed their own children. They had no choice but to guard against it.

Looking at the little one beside her, Lin Yan smiled faintly. It was a beautiful smile. She gently rested her head beside the baby, feeling her breath and listening to her heartbeat, her eyes growing ever softer.

After a moment, Lin Yan glanced at everyone and said softly, "Thank you."

"It was only right. But you said they stuffed it inside you. What did you mean by that?" Jin Zhuan asked gravely. If, as he suspected, an organization of extreme evil truly existed, that would be terrifying.

"Ten years ago, a group of Evil Soul Masters captured me, but they didn't kill me. They said I was one of them. Because I refused to consume flesh and blood, they cut open my stomach and stuffed it straight inside."

Though Lin Yan spoke calmly, everyone present could feel the cruelty and bloodshed beneath those quiet words, as well as the despair and terror she had felt at the time.

"Why should I believe you?" Sun Yan, who had never gotten along with Lin Yan, asked skeptically.

"I believe her!" Jin Zhuan said.

"Teacher!" Sun Yan stared at Jin Zhuan in disbelief. She could not understand why he believed this woman merely because she had said so.

"Or rather, I believe Little Tian!" Jin Zhuan added.

Zhao Changge and Qian Buduo nodded as well. Outside, Luo Tian had spoken with them and told them everything that had happened since he met Lin Yan.

According to Luo Tian, after they got together, he had never once seen Lin Yan consume flesh and blood. She even loathed her own martial soul.

"This is no small matter. We must report it to the Pope!"

At Zhao Changge's words, everyone nodded in agreement. No one objected.

"Is there anything you want to say to your child?" Jin Zhuan suddenly asked, as though inviting her to give her last words.

Zhao Changge and the others froze, looking at Jin Zhuan in confusion.

"As expected of a Soul Douluo. You saw through it." Lin Yan smiled faintly, her deathly pale face gradually regaining color.

"If I couldn't even see this, wouldn't all my years have been lived in vain?"

"While giving birth, you transferred all your life force to this baby. Though her talent may be greatly enhanced, you don't have long to live."

"Do you want this child to become a soul master?" Jin Zhuan asked with a sigh.

"If possible, I hope she won't become a soul master. Just let her be an ordinary person."

Lin Yan's voice grew softer and softer, until it faded into silence.

The downpour had come swiftly and departed just as quickly.

It was as though it had fallen only to await someone's birth.

After the rain washed the dense forest, the air became fresher, and the night sky shone brighter and clearer. It was as though the downpour had washed the sky as well, leaving stars scattered across the darkness, twinkling one by one.

But Jin Zhuan and the others had no heart to admire the beautiful night. They were staring at a small burial mound before them.

They had made this grave for the ill-fated young couple, Luo Tian and Lin Yan, so they could share a resting place in death.

Their hearts were unbearably heavy, and their hatred for Evil Soul Masters burned all the fiercer. Though they had played some part in this tragedy, the true culprits were those Evil Soul Masters with human faces and beasts' hearts.

Jin Zhuan and the others from the Spirit Hall had hunted Lin Yan because she truly was an Evil Soul Master. Though she could control her desires after consuming flesh and blood, there might not be even one such person among ten thousand Evil Soul Masters.

Everyone wanted to wield a killing sword while awake and lie drunk upon a beauty's lap. Everyone wanted to stand above all others, and Evil Soul Masters had one more shortcut than ordinary soul masters.

Simply killing, drinking blood, and devouring souls could increase their strength. How could that fail to corrupt people and draw them into addiction?

Thus, she was merely an exception. She could not serve as a measure for Evil Soul Masters as a whole, nor could her case justify abandoning their suppression.

Was Lin Yan at fault? No. Even after Evil Soul Masters had used such bloody, brutal methods to turn her into one of them, she had still held fast to her true heart. It had to be said that she was an exceptionally gentle and kind person.

The true culprits were, of course, the Evil Soul Masters!

"We'll honor the mother's wishes and let this child be an ordinary person. Xuemei and I will take her to a nearby village and find someone to raise her."

"The rest of you should head back."

Half an hour later, after standing before the little burial mound for a long time, Jin Zhuan spoke to the others.

The three nodded, then vanished in a flicker of movement. What had happened tonight would take them quite some time to digest.

Phoenixsong Village was a small village twenty li northwest of Spirit City. It had been given that name in the hope that a powerful soul master would emerge from it and change their circumstances. The neighboring Dragon Soaring Village had been named for the same reason.

Jin Zhuan and Li Xuemei suddenly appeared outside a little house in the far northeastern corner of Phoenixsong Village.

Jin Zhuan had visited this place before. He knew the house belonged to a kind, amiable elderly couple in their sixties. They had once had a son, but he had died in the jaws of a soul beast, leaving them with no younger family members.

Jin Zhuan and Li Xuemei exchanged a glance, then gently knocked on the old wooden door.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The clear knocks carried into the house, waking the two sleeping elders. The frail old woman, still bleary-eyed, gently shook her husband awake.

"Old man, someone's knocking. Let's go take a look together."

The old man, whose hair and beard were both white, smiled amiably. He and his wife put on their outer clothes and went straight outside.

Just as the two elders were about to open the wooden door, Li Xuemei gently set down the baby in her arms. Her figure flickered, and she joined Jin Zhuan at a distance, watching quietly.

Creak!

The wooden door opened, but the two elders saw no one. All they found was a swaddled baby lying on their doorstep.

"Oh? A baby?" The old woman stepped over and picked her up.

"Old man, shall we adopt this child? We'll have someone to keep us company from now on," the old woman said.

"Yes, yes." The old man smiled kindly. Since their child had passed away, they had had no one to keep them company. Having a child would indeed bring a great deal of joy to their lives.

"Heeheehee..."

As though touched by the old couple's happiness, the baby in the old woman's arms blinked and broke into a wide smile.

Meanwhile, after settling Luo Tian and Lin Yan's daughter into her new home, Jin Zhuan sought an audience with the newly appointed Pope, Qian Xunji, that very night to report the matter of "artificial Evil Soul Masters."

Qian Xunji flew into a rage. The next day, he dispatched every publicly known Titled Douluo of the Spirit Hall and demanded that the two great empires and the many sects work together to investigate and wipe out this force of Evil Soul Masters.