Had she known the autumn hunt involved doing this sort of thing, she would not have come.
"Then let's go over there and enjoy the scenery." Xue Qinghe did not insist.
"The scenery in Sunset Forest is quite lovely."
"Let's go." Dugu Yan took Ye Lingling with one hand and grabbed Xuan Ming with the other.
One could not bear it; the other disdained it.
Had she known these two had no interest in the autumn hunt, she would not have gotten involved.
"The autumn hunt... what a fine opportunity."
Yue Guan had intended to look for someone in Heaven Dou City, but heard about the autumn hunt as soon as he entered the city.
After learning that Dugu Bo's granddaughter, Dugu Yan, was taking part, accompanied by a peculiar-looking little boy, Yue Guan quickly followed them.
"Snatching him outright wouldn't be appropriate. Looks like I'll have to create a little chaos..."
Chapter 27: The Blood Spear That Devoured People
They had not spent long exploring the scenic area west of the hunting grounds before Xue Qinghe sent Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling away and led Xuan Ming toward a more secluded grove.
Noticing their surroundings growing quieter and quieter, Xuan Ming stopped and looked at Xue Qinghe ahead of him. "First Prince, whatever you have to say, is this still not a suitable place?"
Xue Qinghe stopped. "It's not that it's unsuitable. It's just that this friend of mine doesn't want too many people seeing him."
"A friend?" Xuan Ming's brows drew together slightly.
"What friend?"
Before his words had faded, a figure concealed beneath a black robe abruptly appeared less than five meters ahead.
The man was extraordinarily tall, visibly over two meters, his slender frame as straight and sharp as a javelin.
Xuan Ming instantly sensed a lethal threat. This man could also slap him to death.
A Titled Douluo?
"Don't be nervous. This is a friend of mine."
Seeing the two black dragons behind Xuan Ming reveal their cold hostility again, Xue Qinghe hurriedly spoke.
"I noticed earlier that your blood spear martial soul was rather unusual, another mutated martial soul. This friend of mine also has a mutated martial soul, the snake lance. After hearing about yours, he wanted to see it for himself."
"Release your martial soul. Let me see it," Snake Lance Douluo said in a low, slightly hoarse voice.
Xuan Ming took a deep breath, raised his right hand, and summoned the blood spear.
The spear's shaft was pitch-black throughout, covered in faint dark-silver patterns resembling the scales of the twin dragons behind Xuan Ming. A dark-red, bloody gleam flickered faintly at its tip.
"Blood spear... an apt name." Snake Lance Douluo carefully examined the spear before him.
"Have you killed anyone?"
Some tool martial souls became stained with blood Qi after killing people. The more people they killed, the heavier the killing aura upon them grew.
That killing aura was very useful in many situations.
"Yes," Xuan Ming answered.
"Toss it over. Let me take a look," Snake Lance Douluo said.
Xuan Ming looked at Xue Qinghe.
Tool martial souls could indeed leave their owners and even be held by others, but doing so was extremely dangerous. If the other person took the opportunity to attack the martial soul, it could easily be damaged.
"Don't worry. This senior is merely curious about your martial soul," Xue Qinghe said.
"Besides, once he's examined it, he can offer you some advice."
Xuan Ming hesitated, but tossed the blood spear over nonetheless.
"This..." Snake Lance Douluo's expression changed.
This martial soul was actually feeding on his blood Qi?
What the hell was this thing?!
"It devours people," Xuan Ming said.
"Devours people?" Xue Qinghe froze.
"What do you mean?"
"Touch it and you'll know," Xuan Ming said.
Xue Qinghe considered it, then reached out to touch the blood spear.
The instant he touched it, he sensed his blood Qi draining away abnormally!
It really did devour people!
"What about you?" Xue Qinghe asked.
"It devours me too," Xuan Ming said.
The blood spear possessed the devouring attribute, but it consumed blood Qi indiscriminately. Even his own would be absorbed.
However, he was also the blood spear's owner, so the blood Qi it devoured would gradually be fed back into him.
It was somewhat like drawing blood from one hand while transfusing it into the other.
But most of the blood Qi the blood spear devoured went toward nourishing itself. Only a tiny portion was fed back to him.
Thus, if he used it too much, even he might not be able to endure it.
Fortunately, when he had killed that Soul Grandmaster earlier, the blood spear had absorbed a considerable amount of blood Qi, which it had yet to finish digesting.
While he used the blood spear, the portion fed back into him and the amount it consumed from him still remained in a safe balance.
"This martial soul of yours..." Xue Qinghe's brows knitted slightly.
This was his first time hearing of a martial soul that devoured its own Soul Master.
"Mutated martial souls often come with troublesome flaws." Snake Lance Douluo seemed to have expected this.
According to the information previously obtained from Dugu Yan, neither of Xuan Ming's parents was a Soul Master, and both his martial souls had arisen through mutation.
His black dragon martial soul carried an enormous risk of losing control and might even devour its master.
There was no way this blood spear martial soul would be without problems.
A martial soul mutation that turned weakness into strength inevitably demanded an enormous price.
"Uncle She, do you have any way to solve this problem?" Xue Qinghe asked.
If using his martial soul also harmed him, wouldn't cultivating this blood spear martial soul amount to slow suicide?
"No." Snake Lance Douluo shook his head.
"For fatal flaws in mutated martial souls, he can only depend on his own fortune."
This boy's parents were not even Soul Masters, which meant the original quality of his two martial souls before mutation had been quite ordinary.
Yet after their mutation, he possessed innate full soul power.
The level of innate soul power was closely tied to the quality of the martial soul itself. With such a vast difference before and after mutation, the accompanying flaws were bound to be terribly troublesome.
One could lose control, and the other devoured people... it was truly hard to say whether this boy was fortunate or unfortunate.
"Then do you have any advice regarding soul rings?" Xue Qinghe asked.
"The shaft bears features resembling the dragon scales on his body, which indicates a certain connection between his blood spear martial soul and black dragon martial soul. In this situation, the best choices for soul rings would be dragon-type soul beasts, or soul beasts with dragon bloodlines," Snake Lance Douluo said.
"However, dragon-type soul beasts are exceedingly rare and difficult to hunt. Given his troublesome martial soul flaws, other soul beasts with abundant blood Qi and a tendency toward berserk aggression would also be good choices."
"Moreover, this blood spear of his seems capable of accumulating killing aura. When choosing soul beasts, the more savage, the better."
"Is this killing aura useful?" Xuan Ming asked.
"Extremely useful." Snake Lance Douluo tossed the blood spear back to Xuan Ming and raised his right hand. A blue-violet snake lance appeared in his grasp.
With a gentle swing, the snake lance erupted with astonishing might. Even without using a soul skill or channeling soul power into it, it still exerted tremendous pressure.
"This is presence," Snake Lance Douluo said.
"It has nothing to do with cultivation. It is the martial soul's own presence, which can deliver a certain degree of mental shock."
"And killing aura condenses into killing might!"
"My snake lance cannot accumulate killing aura, so I cannot demonstrate it for you. But the killing might condensed from killing aura has an effect similar to this martial soul's presence, while its power far surpasses mere presence."
"Sufficiently powerful killing aura can not only intimidate an opponent tremendously on a mental level, but also break through illusion abilities and considerably suppress mental-type Soul Masters."
"If you have the opportunity, perhaps in the future you could try obtaining the legendary Divine Slaughter's Domain. Now that is truly..."
"Ahem!" Xue Qinghe coughed heavily twice, interrupting Snake Lance Douluo.
Obtaining the Divine Slaughter's Domain required entering Slaughter City, but that accursed place was almost impossible to leave once entered!
Over a thousand years, only a mere handful had emerged from Slaughter City.
Unless someone had no other choice or was extremely confident in their strength, they would have to have a lump in their brain to visit such an accursed place.
Chapter 28: You Really Are My Dear Third Brother
"All right, we've strayed off topic."
Snake Lance Douluo also realized he had wandered somewhat off track.
He, for one, did not dare enter an accursed place like Slaughter City.
In the past, there had indeed been powerful Soul Masters from Spirit Hall who, trapped at cultivation bottlenecks they could not break through, had risked venturing into Slaughter City.
But apart from the current Pope, Bibi Dong, not one had emerged alive.
"Uncle She, how old a soul ring do you think he could absorb?" Xue Qinghe asked.
The age of the soul ring one could absorb depended on numerous factors, including martial soul quality, physical strength, and spiritual power.
But only Titled Douluo who had cultivated their martial souls to the pinnacle could roughly judge what age of soul ring a given physique and level of spiritual power could withstand.
She possessed the six-winged angel martial soul and innate level-twenty soul power. Ten of those levels were divinely bestowed soul power, so in essence, she still had innate level-ten soul power. However, thanks to her powerful six-winged angel martial soul, her physique and spiritual power were somewhat stronger than those of an ordinary person with innate full soul power.
Her first soul ring limit had been close to five hundred years, and her second soul ring limit close to nine hundred years, already surpassing the vast majority of Soul Masters. These were also the maximum safe ages her grandfather had sensed for her.
However, when actually absorbing soul rings, one could not simply find whatever age one wanted.
The soul beast's attributes remained the primary consideration. Soul rings for the six-winged angel martial soul were best obtained from soul beasts with the light attribute. Such soul beasts were already exceedingly rare, so finding one anywhere near the desired age was a rare feat in itself. It was impossible to find one precisely at her limit.
"Let me see." Snake Lance Douluo placed his hand on Xuan Ming's shoulder, releasing soul power and a surge of spiritual power to sense and assess his physical limits and spiritual strength.
"Hmm?"
"What is it?" Xue Qinghe asked.
"Something's not quite right." Snake Lance Douluo's tone was rather strange, and he released another surge of soul power.
Xuan Ming's expression grew rather strained.
Ye Lan had told him that soul rings of different ages contained different amounts of soul power. If a soul ring was too old, a Soul Master absorbing it would be unable to withstand the enormous power within it, resulting in damaged meridians. In severe cases, they might even explode.
This so-called assessment seemed to involve using powerful soul power pressure to probe his body's limits.
It was hardly a pleasant sensation. He felt as though his entire body was being crushed!
"This martial soul mutation of yours... is unheard of." Snake Lance Douluo withdrew his soul power.
"What is it?" Xue Qinghe asked.
"The mutation of his beast martial soul hasn't merely given him an unusual appearance. There is something very strange about his body as well," Snake Lance Douluo said.
"I'm even beginning to suspect he's a humanoid soul beast."
"A humanoid soul beast?" Xue Qinghe's brows knitted slightly.
"Then what is his limit?"