The old man heard the sound and whipped around as though struck by lightning, meeting a pair of eyes as calm as a deep abyss. At a glance, he saw a black-clad youth with a long black-iron staff resting on his shoulder, his face masked and his presence restrained.
The old man's pupils contracted sharply, and he instinctively released Remnant Dream. But his spiritual power had already run dry. The moment the illusion touched his opponent, it vanished like a clay ox sinking into the sea.
Tang Feng's Sea of Consciousness had been tempered by the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew. That trace of lingering mist was swallowed in an instant.
Agony tore through the old man's head. He spat out a mouthful of black blood from the backlash and stared at the youth in horror.
His face livid, the old man forced himself to appear composed. "You ignorant brat! I am Shi Nian of Remnant Dream, the dean of Canghui Academy. You cannot afford to offend me. Leave at once, and I can overlook this!"
"Canghui Academy? Never heard of it. That Soul Bone of yours, though-I'm very interested." Tang Feng approached slowly, tightening his right hand around the Golden Cudgel. "You seem to have forgotten your current predicament, senior. If my spiritual power weren't strong enough, I'd probably already be trapped in your illusion!"
"Arrogant!" Knowing his Soul Bone had been exposed and he could no longer escape unscathed, Shi Nian laughed in his fury. He exhausted his final trace of Soul Power, and his Third Soul Ring lit up.
"Third Soul Skill, Nightmare Abyss!"
The world before Tang Feng's eyes instantly twisted into mountains of corpses and seas of blood, with countless vengeful souls lunging at him.
But Tang Feng merely snorted coldly. His spiritual power became a giant staff and swept across them, shattering the illusion like a mirror.
His spirit wounded, Shi Nian staggered backward. He had no trump cards left.
Tang Feng had no intention of giving Shi Nian another chance. Wielding the Ruyi Jingu Bang, he leaped high and brought it crashing down!
Severely wounded, Shi Nian had neither the time nor the strength to dodge. He could only muster his remaining Soul Power into a protective barrier.
Bang!!!
The barrier shattered like pasted paper, and the Golden Cudgel struck Shi Nian squarely on the forehead. His skull caved in instantly.
Shi Nian's eyes bulged, blood streaming from all seven orifices. His Remnant Dream Martial Soul crumbled inch by inch, letting out a shrill wail.
"You..." Shi Nian opened his mouth, but only that single word squeezed from his throat before he collapsed like a torn sack, without a breath left in him.
Tang Feng withdrew his staff and swept his spiritual power over Shi Nian's corpse. After confirming his death, he crouched down, Soul Power flowing through his fingertips, and carefully cut open the back of his head.
A crystal-clear skull bone emerged, roughly the size of a palm, with dreamlike seven-colored patterns flowing across its surface. It was none other than Shi Nian's illusion skull bone!
"This Soul Bone is extremely high quality. Its age clearly looks to be over fifty thousand years. He probably inherited it or seized it from someone..."
Tang Feng murmured to himself, a flash of fervor in his eyes that quickly cooled. "Unfortunately, it has a gem-type illusion attribute, suitable for support-type Soul Masters. It's completely incompatible with the violent power attribute of my Clear Sky Hammer."
Tang Feng sought Soul Bones that matched him perfectly, not inferior substitutes to fill the numbers.
Tang Feng put the Soul Bone into his storage ring, his gaze as calm as water.
Killing others and seizing their treasures was the law of survival in the Star Dou Great Forest. If Tang Feng had been the injured one and someone discovered he possessed a Soul Bone, his fate next time would probably be even worse.
Time hurried on, and another three months passed in the blink of an eye. Tang Feng had now spent a full year training in the Star Dou Great Forest.
He had fought over two hundred battles, slain more than ten Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, and over fifty Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.
Tang Feng's principle was to fight if he could win and run if he clearly could not. As for Soul Beasts, as long as they did not doggedly pursue him, he would choose to spare their lives.
It was not that Tang Feng was overflowing with saintly compassion. Rather, he knew that slaughtering Soul Beasts on a large scale could easily trigger a small beast tide. If dozens of Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts surrounded him then, even with the Flame Dragon Wings, he would be unable to escape despite having wings. That would defeat the original purpose of his training.
From the seventy-odd Soul Beasts he had slain, Tang Feng had obtained two Soul Bones in total. His luck truly had been off the charts.
One was a sixteen-thousand-year Ghost Shadow Leopard left leg bone with a darkness attribute.
The other was a wind-attribute right arm bone obtained three months earlier, after he killed a twelve-thousand-year Blade-Hunting Golden Eagle on a sheer cliff.
There was also the fifty-thousand-year illusion skull bone he had seized when he made the kill.
"Three Soul Bones: one darkness attribute, one wind attribute, and one gem-type illusion attribute..." Tang Feng sat inside his waterfall base, toying with the three Soul Bones, his face filled with frustration.
Tang Feng solemnly put the three Soul Bones into his storage ring and sighed. "Forget it, forget it. These three Soul Bones may be excellent specimens, but none suits me. I'll leave them for people with matching attributes in the future!"
Tang Feng was now over fourteen and a half years old. Compared to a year earlier, he had undergone a complete transformation, as though reborn.
Standing 1.9 meters tall, Tang Feng stood among the trees like a vigorous green pine. His shoulders and back were straight and sharply sculpted, every inch of his frame brimming with explosive strength.
Because people on the Douluo Continent matured early, their height became fixed at sixteen or seventeen. At his current rate of growth, Tang Feng would probably end up close to two meters tall.
A year of life-and-death combat had forged the youth's flesh into the toughest battle armor.
Tang Feng's skin was dark as bronze-not the darkness of prolonged exposure to the sun, but a metallic sheen washed into him by countless bloody battles, glinting coldly and hard beneath the sunlight.
The muscles of his arms were not bulky, but streamlined and full of explosive power. His eight abdominal muscles were incomparably hard.
His face had shed its childishness, its contours as distinct as rock. After countless encounters staring death in the face, his originally unremarkable features had acquired a steadiness and sharpness beyond his years.
A layer of dark stubble covered his jaw, carrying a weathered quality that did not belong on a fifteen-year-old youth.
The Golden Cudgel that had accompanied Tang Feng for a year was covered in fine scratches, each recording a life-and-death battle.
Tang Feng always faced his opponents with the Golden Cudgel first, only using the Clear Sky Hammer when he could not prevail. His purpose was to keep honing his staff technique and improve his use of Soul Power.
He had now finished developing the second form of his Self-Created Staff Technique, "Break Formation." He could already perform a basic version of the third form, the defensive Soul Skill "Protect Mountains and Rivers," and would finish developing it completely in another two months.
These three staff forms could also be used with the Clear Sky Hammer, with even greater power. Tang Feng named this Self-Created Soul Skill the "Sea-Calming Hammer Technique," or the "Sea-Calming Staff Technique."
Just like the sea-calming divine needle, it could both stir towering waves and suppress the storms of a turbulent age.
Tang Feng's Soul Power had also climbed steadily through this baptism of blood and fire.
A year of bitter cultivation had carried him through four levels in succession. He now stood firmly at the peak of rank forty-six and would certainly break through to rank forty-seven in another month.
Gaining four levels in a year was already extremely fast at the Soul Ancestor stage. Every battle was a life-and-death enlightenment; every brush with death was a breaking down followed by rebuilding.
Whenever he cultivated after exhausting his body and draining his Soul Power, his depleted meridians were like dried-out sponges, absorbing the world's primal power far more efficiently than usual.
This cultivation method had two other major benefits. First, it increased the purity of his Soul Power. Under the pressure of life and death, his Soul Power was repeatedly compressed and refined.
At every level, Tang Feng's Soul Power was more than three times as condensed as that of a Soul Master of the same rank. This was also the foundation of his confidence in challenging opponents above his level.
Second, it improved his actual combat ability. Ordinary Soul Masters relied on Soul Skills in battle, but combat had already seeped into Tang Feng's marrow.
Even when his Soul Power ran out, Tang Feng could still hold his own with the Ruyi Jingu Bang, relying on his combat instincts to seek a chance of survival.
Tang Feng lay on his stone bed, thinking over his future plans.
Tang San was around twelve now. If he remembered correctly, Tang San would head to Shrek Academy to enroll in another six months.
"The Shrek Seven Devils..."
Tang Feng searched his memories hard, frowning. "Besides Tang San and that Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, who else was there again?"
Tang Feng shook his head self-mockingly. His memories of his previous life were so hazy that he could not even remember all the main cast's names, and he could not help giving a bitter laugh.
But this instead made Tang Feng even more cautious. The unknown was the most dangerous variable.
"Win them over, or snuff them out?" Tang Feng sank into thought, his gaze flickering.
If he could befriend them as allies, they would become seven god-level sources of support when he opposed Spirit Hall in the future.
Tang San in particular had Twin Martial Souls, all manner of hidden weapons, and the Tang Sect Secret Arts... Every one was a top-tier asset.
But the prerequisite was that he had reliable character and was worthy of trust.
If not...
Tang Feng's gaze turned cold, and his hand clenched. "Then I'll have no choice but to snatch all their opportunities before they become gods."
It was too early to think about these things now. The immediate priority was to get to the bottom of Tang San's situation.
"That Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast..." Tang Feng thought of Xiao Wu, his gaze growing complicated.
From the standpoint of benefits, if he could capture Xiao Wu and offer her to his grandfather as his ninth Soul Ring, his grandfather would become a Titled Douluo with a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring. That was a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring-it could greatly improve a Soul Master's potential, guaranteeing that he could at least become a Super Douluo. His confidence in opposing Spirit Hall would surely increase greatly.
But that would also mean thoroughly offending Tang Hao and Tang San. Still, Tang Hao was also Tang Feng's second enemy. He could spare Tang Hao's life for the sake of their shared clan, but if Tang Hao provoked him, I'd cripple him all the same.
If Tang San's character was poor, then so be it if he offended him. Nothing was more important than making his own family stronger.
As for the other members of the Shrek Seven Monsters, he would observe them more when the time came and, if necessary, use benefits to win them over.