Shen Xi took out a bracelet with a sleek, technological feel, its gold and silver interwoven in a design that was magnificent yet understated. A careful probe with spiritual power would reveal an extraordinarily complex core array within.
"The Sun Moon Crown."
Shen Xi said, "Just like your dad's and mine."
It was a special storage soul tool.
If it had to be assigned a level, it would probably be Level 9, because it could hold Level 9 Soul Tools.
Xu Qingjia accepted it. He had long coveted storage soul tools that worked like spatial rings, but without soul power, he had previously been unable to use them at all.
He infused it with spiritual power and soul power, completing the binding. The Sun Moon Crown automatically shrank to fit his wrist. As expected, plenty of things had already been placed inside, mostly unopened gifts from the guests earlier.
There were also the birthday presents and New Year's lucky "money" Xu Qingjia had received over the years.
He took out a spiritual testing helmet and tested himself.
"404."
Late Spirit Connection Realm... the pinnacle of the middle tier of the intermediate stage, at great perfection.
That was within expectations. After all, it was a leg soul bone. Had it been the head soul bone of a hundred-thousand-year mermaid, fully refining the spiritual power within might even have helped him make a push for the Spirit Abyss Realm.
The slight change now was probably due to the pale golden spiritual power in his Sea of Consciousness. Was it the Sea Princess clan's golden bloodline?
"I can try the effects of tempering with the Netherworld's aura again later."
Now that he possessed Divine Investiture and had become the master of the Book of Life and Death, he could exercise some basic control, even though he still could not unleash much of its power. Something like being unconsciously carried into the Netherworld in his sleep would no longer happen, unless he actively wanted the Book of Life and Death to take him there.
And there was Electrolux...
Shen Xi rested a hand on Xu Qingjia's shoulder to assess him. "With little Qingjia's current physique, absorbing an eight-thousand-year soul ring won't be a problem."
How could someone absorb a thousand-year soul ring as their first ring?
Answer: simply absorb a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone.
If their spiritual power fell short, absorb a hundred-thousand-year head soul bone as well.
Then get some Mermaid's Tears to absorb.
A Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring as the first soul ring was no dream.
In this era, two yellow, two purple, and five black-the optimal soul ring configuration of the past-had long since lost its meaning. As long as one's spiritual power and body could withstand it, and one had connections at the Spirit Pagoda, the existence of the Spirit Ascension Platform made even nine Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings possible.
They went outside, and mother and son boarded a red, streamlined flying sports car. With an engine roar like a true dragon's bellow, they sped toward a tower hundreds of meters tall that thrust into the sky like a sharp sword.
The Spirit Pagoda had branches in every major city.
Apart from the headquarters standing in Shrek City, the Mingdu Spirit Pagoda had the richest resources, surpassing even the regional headquarters on the other two continents.
Inside, silver walls brimming with technological sophistication and all manner of virtual projections displayed a thoroughly futuristic aesthetic. Only a mural depicting a blue-haired man and a woman with long pinkish-blue hair conveyed a classical air utterly at odds with its surroundings.
People passing the mural would sigh with heartfelt reverence.
The child of destiny...
If these people knew that this Spirit Ice Douluo was responsible for the Sun Moon Darkness Destruction Day, could this mural still remain here intact?
Back then, Xu Tianran and his father's branch of the Xu Family had colluded with the Holy Spirit Cult. They truly deserved to die.
But the ordinary people really were innocent, like Ju Zi's father, who had been forcibly conscripted.
Huo Yuhao had done good by passing down the Soul Spirit Method to benefit future generations, but he had been wrong in this matter. As for claiming it was an accident? Once you had done something, you had to own up to it. If someone accidentally ran you over with a car, could you really smile and say it was perfectly fine because they had not meant to do it?
In war, it was always the innocent people at the bottom who suffered.
Shouldn't those scoundrels have been the enemies of everyone on the Douluo Continent?
Most people were more lovable when they were young. After all, outside influences could lead them astray as they grew up.
Fortunately, Xu Tianran was not his ancestor. Nor was he descended from Xu Tianran's father or from Huo Yuhao's son, Xu Yunhan.
Xu Qingjia had looked through his family genealogy.
His ancestors had been rather distantly related to Xu Tianran's branch at the time, but they had indeed belonged to the Sun Moon Imperial Family.
The Sun Moon Imperial Family had not consisted solely of Xu Tianran's branch. Aside from He Caitou, one of the Sun Moon Empire's five great soul engineer corps had been the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Corps. "Imperial Dragon" referred to the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon, and its members all belonged to the Sun Moon Imperial Family.
The Xu Family was a great clan.
After so many years of inheritance, how could it possibly have had only one or two branches?
Ju Zi's secret theft of Huo Yuhao's seed and the fact that she had borne his son, Xu Yunhan, had been exposed. Immediately after the Sun Moon Empire's army withdrew, she faced condemnation from the entire Sun Moon Imperial Family. However great her prestige as the War God Empress, it had all rested on her two identities as Emperor Xu Tianran's wife and Crown Prince Xu Yunhan's mother. Otherwise, no matter how capable an outsider was, she could never have entered the Sun Moon Empire's inner circle, much less commanded all its armies for a time.
Kong Deming, a Level 10 Soul Engineer and the foremost figure in the Sun Moon Empire at the time, possessed the bloodline of the Sun Moon Imperial Family. He had helped Ju Zi because of those Evil Soul Masters and Crown Prince Xu Yunhan. But as someone who carried the Sun Moon Imperial Family's bloodline, he would never allow someone outside it to ascend the Sun Moon Emperor's throne.
Some had even openly demanded that she be put to death.
Yet the True God who had descended earlier weighed upon the Sun Moon Imperial Family like a mountain.
Especially that decree to "rename Sun Moon as Heaven Dou." What an enormous humiliation.
Mortals could never match gods in the end.
Sun Moon becoming Heaven Dou had marked the Sun Moon Empire's most humiliating decades.
The final resolution had been to expel Ju Zi and her son from the Sun Moon Empire and strip Xu Yunhan of the Xu surname.
Later, another member of the Sun Moon Imperial Clan had been chosen as emperor-the ancestor of Xu Qingjia's branch.
If I get the chance, I'll have to visit Shrek and the Tang Sect someday and take back what Spirit Ice Douluo took from my Xu Family. As for interest, I'll settle for the Federation banks' lowest rate over all these years.
Xu Qingjia thought as he walked.
Should I go to Aolai Kingdom... City and lure Gu Yuena away?
That would give me a legitimate right to inherit the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
After all, that place was nourished by the corpses of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings.
But wouldn't that be a little too risky?
After all, the Silver Dragon King in human form had suddenly fallen from the Star Dou Great Forest into
Aolai City. The two places were a hundred and eight thousand li apart, yet she had been delivered precisely to Tang Wulin's vicinity. Whatever anyone else thought, he certainly did not believe it was a coincidence.
Forget it. Get a soul spirit first.
Mother and son went upstairs. After they identified themselves, a staff member at the Soul Douluo level received them with warmth and respect.
Just then, a gentle, refined middle-aged man suddenly appeared beside them. He bore some resemblance to Xu Ye.
He greeted Shen Xi. "Sister-in-law, why didn't you let me know you were coming?"
"Hello, Second Uncle," Xu Qingjia greeted him first.
Heavenly Sage Douluo Xu Shengqun (from the original novel), a Level 98 Super Douluo whose martial soul was the sun, was one of the four Spirit Envoys ranked beneath the Spirit Pagoda's master and deputy master.
Xu Qingjia had been somewhat surprised when he first heard the name. He remembered seeing this man's name and title in the original novel, and Tang Wulin had even impersonated him. But he had never expected the man to be his second uncle.
"Haven't you been busy with work lately? You didn't even have time to come back for a meal the day before yesterday," Shen Xi said.
"It's all because that bastard Qiangu Dongfeng refuses to act like a decent human being."
Xu Shengqun grumbled, "He keeps trying to transfer me to Heaven Dou City. That's the Tang Sect's home base. Isn't it obvious he wants me to shoulder the pressure from the Tang Sect there?"
Hearing the esteemed Spirit Envoy openly curse the pagoda master, the staff member nearby hurried back to work.
"But however busy I am, I can't forget my own nephew." Xu Shengqun's gaze settled on Xu Qingjia. "You look really lively today, Qingjia. Here to pick a soul spirit?"
"Yes."
"Anything in mind?" Xu Shengqun asked with a genial smile. "As long as the Spirit Pagoda has it, your second uncle will get it for you."
"Nothing specific," Xu Qingjia said. "But ideally, it should possess the power of life and death, or be related to the lingering spirits of creatures after they die."
At that, a thoughtful look appeared in Xu Shengqun's eyes. He took out something resembling a tablet and rapidly searched through it. "The Spirit Pagoda has quite a few soul spirits related to life force, such as the Emerald Swan. But ones that possess both life and death, or involve lingering spirits after death-we really don't have those."
"However, the Spirit Pagoda once conducted an experiment to turn undead into soul spirits. As the name suggests, undead are living beings that return from death through some sort of power, reaching a state where they have awareness but haven't fully come back to life, reborn in another form."
"They first appeared on our Douluo Continent because of Spirit Ice Douluo ten thousand years ago. Later, the Spirit Pagoda acquired some through certain means, though who knows where they came from. But all the undead were used up before the experiment succeeded, so it had to be terminated."
Xu Qingjia was not surprised by that outcome. "Then do you have an Evil Eye? One with a pure mental attribute."
Evil Eyes did not possess only one attribute. They could have all sorts of basic elements, even corrosion. But the fewer attributes they had, the stronger they were. The mightiest Evil-Eyed Tyrant Ruler of the past had possessed a pure mental attribute.
"We have that." Xu Shengqun searched on the tablet. "But top-tier mental-type soul spirits like these are incredibly sought-after and rare. I only have one four-thousand-year specimen here."
That age was far too high for a Level 10 Soul Scholar.
"But headquarters has a suitable hundred-year soul spirit. It would only take two days to transfer it here for you."
This was why Spirit Ice Douluo's reputation on the continent surpassed that of Sea God Tang San. Although soul spirits were often expensive, they were well worth the price. One could find the most suitable soul beast in an extremely short time, without risking one's life hunting soul beasts in a soul beast forest.
The golden age of today owed much to the spread of free Martial Soul Awakening and the creation of artificial soul spirits.
Xu Qingjia's eyes practically lit up. "Second Uncle, I want the one here."
It did not reach his limit, but as far as age went, there was always the Spirit Ascension Platform.
"Are you sure?" Xu Shengqun was somewhat surprised.
A Level 10 Soul Scholar absorbing a four-thousand-year soul spirit?
Has Qingjia absorbed a head soul bone?
"Yes."
Xu Shengqun looked toward Shen Xi again.
"We'll take this one," Shen Xi said.
"All right."