More than half a year slipped quietly by. During that time, aside from cultivating, Li Ye only occasionally enlisted Spirit Hall's stewards to help him send letters to Liu Erlong and Dugu Yan.
Strangely enough, neither of the two great empires was willing to spend money establishing a postal service, yet Spirit Hall was willing to devote considerable manpower and resources to helping ordinary people send letters to family and friends far from home.
Although letters could only travel between Spirit Hall Branches, sub-halls, and main halls, meaning between the various small cities, this still greatly helped ordinary people stay in touch with their relatives and friends.
The only problem was that sending a letter was somewhat expensive. For instance, each letter Li Ye sent from the Spirit Hall Branch in Nuoding City to the Spirit Hall Main Hall in Heaven Dou City cost five Gold Soul Coins. As a Soul Elder, he could only collect a hundred Gold Soul Coins a month from Spirit Hall. That was nowhere near enough, all right? It only covered ten letters each to Liu Erlong and Dugu Yan.
Of course, Li Ye was fairly clever: each mailing contained two letters. The two women knew each other anyway, and this saved him quite a bit of money.
Ultimately, this postal service catered to Soul Masters and the wealthy. Ordinary people simply could not afford such convenience.
That was hardly surprising, though. Spirit Hall did this to win over unaffiliated Soul Masters, so naturally, it had to set the price a little higher. Otherwise, wouldn't its personnel spend every day delivering letters all over the place?
Never mind whether its own people were willing-even the two great empires would not want Spirit Hall's people running all over their territory every day.
The only thing that bothered Li Ye a little was that once a Soul Master reached level 40, Spirit Hall stopped providing a Gold Soul Coin allowance. Only if a Soul Master who had entered the Soul Ancestor rank agreed to join Spirit Hall would it continue providing five hundred Gold Soul Coins a month.
However, a level-40 Soul Ancestor willing to join either of the two great empires would start as a baron, and their monthly Gold Soul Coins would not be much less than what Spirit Hall offered.
Although they received only a title and no fief, most Soul Masters in the past had still preferred joining the two great empires.
But ever since the new Pope, Bibi Dong, took office, that situation had changed completely.
For one thing, Bibi Dong was Spirit Hall's first female Pope, and her looks, figure, and strength all stood at the pinnacle among Soul Masters. Naturally, quite a few Soul Masters joined Spirit Hall because of her. For another, after taking office, Bibi Dong introduced numerous policies benefiting the people, making those in Spirit Hall's territories more willing to join Spirit Hall while also attracting many commoners from the two great empires into its territories.
Lastly, and most importantly, Spirit Hall guaranteed help hunting Soul Rings and also provided high-level Soul Power cultivation methods to Soul Masters who joined.
Tang San had broken through level 30 several months earlier, but to absorb a Soul Ring of greater age, he had chosen to consolidate his Soul Power. Only when Li Ye could no longer resist urging him did he agree to go to Star Dou Forest to hunt for a Soul Ring.
One thing left Li Ye rather embarrassed: Xiao Wu, who had only just reached level 30 half a year earlier, had actually cultivated to level 35 in those six months. She had almost caught up with Li Ye, since he was only level 37 himself.
"Senior Brother, what Soul Beast do you think I should hunt for my third Soul Ring? What age would be suitable? Are you sure the three of us can manage without asking Teacher and Senior Uncle to help?"
"Xiao San, are you asking for a beating? Your senior brother's third Soul Ring was five thousand years old, after all, and I hunted it alone. Helping a little nobody like you hunt a Soul Ring around two thousand years old would be as easy as reaching out and grabbing it."
"Exactly, Xiao San. With Brother Ye and me here, are you still afraid you won't get your third Soul Ring?"
"Haha, true, true. I was worrying too much."
"See? Getting impatient again."
"Haha, Senior Brother, my fault. It's mainly because I want to improve so badly."
"You have to eat one mouthful at a time and walk one step at a time. Take too big a stride, and you'll twist your hip. Understand, Xiao San?"
"I understand, Senior Brother."
Actually, Tang San could hardly be blamed for being so nervous and excited. Both Li Ye and Xiao Wu had Thousand-Year Soul Rings, while he alone did not. He alone had yet to experience the power of a thousand-year Soul Skill. How could he not be impatient?
When people grew impatient, their words bypassed their brains, and what came out sounded a little foolish.
With the strength of Li Ye's group of three, they naturally had no need to fear the Soul Beasts on Star Dou Forest's outskirts. Still, to conserve more of their strength, whenever they encountered unsuitable Soul Beasts that liked to attack unprovoked, they naturally took a detour to avoid them.
But there were always some Soul Beasts unafraid of death, unable to recognize reality, that dreamed of swallowing the three of them in one gulp to boost their strength.
One such example was a certain Man Faced Demon Spider lurking in the shadows, gathering strength to strike.
"Senior Brother, a Soul Beast is approaching." Noticing the faint movements nearby, Tang San slowly drew close to Li Ye and spoke quietly.
"I know. But I really didn't expect that thing to come running to its death even after I released my aura." A cruel curl touched Li Ye's lips as he spoke, his expression displeased.
Immediately afterward, three Soul Rings-yellow, purple, and purple-rapidly lit up around Li Ye. The Demonic Flame Spear instantly appeared in his hand, and he became a streak of crimson-black lightning, appearing in an instant before the Man Faced Demon Spider, which was still lying in ambush and had yet to react.
"Third Soul Skill, Six Harmonies Dao Spear! Desolate-Breaking, Demonic Spear Fury Kill!"
As the purple Soul Ring lit up, six dark-gold dragon spears wreathed in blood-red flames appeared around Li Ye, then swiftly merged into the spear in his hand. Carrying surging Desolate Qi and trailing endless slaughtering energy, a single thrust pierced straight through the Man Faced Demon Spider's head.
As Li Ye drove his spear forward, the Man Faced Demon Spider's head burst apart. Amid splattering dark-green blood, its vitality steadily drained away.
Li Ye's strike had not only used his third Soul Skill but also incorporated the third move of the Seven Desolate-Breaking Techniques. It could be called the strongest move he could currently unleash without relying on outside power.
No one below Soul Emperor could block Li Ye's spear and remain completely unscathed. After all, Li Ye's physical toughness was already comparable to that of a level-sixty-something Power Attack System Battle Soul Master with a Beast Martial Soul.
If this Man Faced Demon Spider, with only a little over two thousand years of cultivation, could survive his strongest move, that could only mean Li Ye had thrust his spear off target.
But the awkward part was that Li Ye had not expected a spider-type Soul Beast to survive even briefly after having its head blown apart.
Seeing the Man Faced Demon Spider about to raise its spear-like pointed legs and deliver a death-throe strike at Li Ye, Tang San immediately pulled the Godly Zhuge Crossbow from the storage belt Yu Xiaogang had given him and squeezed the trigger at the spider.
As the trigger clicked, the Godly Zhuge Crossbow unleashed a series of mechanical cracks. Sixteen slender, refined-steel bolts shot out with whistling rushes of air, instantly blasting the Man Faced Demon Spider away just as it raised its pointed legs and pinning it firmly to a tree.
Now, the Man Faced Demon Spider could not have been any deader. Its entire shell shattered, its dark-green blood covered the ground, and all manner of spider organs burst across the earth, smashed so thoroughly that Li Ye could not have pieced them back together even if he wanted to.
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