Before, Gu Chen could only be considered somewhat handsome. After all, he was an orphan in the little backwater of Holy Soul Village. Though Old Jack looked after him, he had still been rather thin. Once he had money for better food, he had filled out, but the change had been nothing dramatic.
But now.
Gu Chen looked like a completely different person. Even going to Korea for plastic surgery couldn't have produced a result this outrageous.
Yet somehow, Gu Chen had done it.
Gu Chen naturally noticed how shocked Xiao Wu and the others were. He went to the edge of the Lake of Life and looked down. His reflection in the water had undergone an earth-shaking transformation.
His black eyes had turned blue, and so had his hair. His black hair had become blue, and it had grown long as well. The final change was his skin, which was absurdly fair. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought he'd had cosmetic treatments.
But Gu Chen himself wasn't surprised by the changes.
Just as I thought, once my Martial Soul evolved into the Blue Silver Emperor, my appearance changed too!
In the original story, after Tang San awakened his Martial Soul, he went from being utterly ordinary to being utterly ordinary in a different way. The only drawback was that he looked somewhat like a man with a woman's face, which made Gu Chen a little uncomfortable.
But considering that his Martial Soul had evolved into the Blue Silver Emperor and brought him other benefits, those little flaws didn't matter.
First.
There was his Innate Soul Power. When his Martial Soul evolved into the Blue Silver King, his Innate Soul Power had reached level seven. Now that it had evolved into the Blue Silver Emperor, he had gained Innate Full Soul Power outright. He was already at level ten, and he only needed to absorb a Soul Ring to become a One-Ring Soul Master.
He could also feel that, aside from his Innate Soul Power, the one level of Soul Power he had cultivated hadn't disappeared. Once he absorbed a Soul Ring, that level of Soul Power would immediately show itself.
Second.
His Martial Soul had awakened a domain.
Blue Silver Domain!!!
It had numerous abilities, including blocking outside interference, controlling plants, and probing its surroundings. It could also transform all the Blue Silver Grass within the domain into Blue Silver Emperors and turn them to his own use, greatly increasing his combat power.
"Come on out, my Blue Silver Emperor!!!"
Gu Chen summoned his Martial Soul. In his palm, a Blue Silver Emperor, crystalline and translucent as a sapphire, displayed the bearing of an emperor. Golden lines ran from the roots of the Blue Silver Grass all the way to the tips of its leaves. The word "noble" was entirely fitting for his Martial Soul.
"Brother Chen, is this what your Martial Soul looks like after evolving? It really is... so handsome!"
Xiao Wu immediately came over. She glanced at the Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul in Gu Chen's hand, then looked at his face, and her cheeks flushed.
Da Ming and Er Ming: "..."
Sister Xiao Wu, you'd better be talking about the Martial Soul!
They had been companions for tens of thousands of years, and their relationship could no longer be described as mere companionship. It would be more accurate to call them siblings with different fathers and mothers, a true family who could trust one another.
And Xiao Wu.
As it happened, she was the person both of them liked.
Unfortunately.
The falling flowers had feelings, but the flowing water had none!
After all, in this world where looks mattered, even Xiao Wu, a Soft Bone Rabbit, cared about appearances. If she could fall in love looking at an ox-python and a giant ape, she really would have pica.
And as it happened.
Gu Chen's looks were exactly to Xiao Wu's taste. On top of that, he was someone favored by a god, possessed the divine power of evolution, and had helped her evolve once. It was buff upon buff, stacked almost to the limit.
"The Blue Silver Emperor is the emperor among Blue Silver Grass, but it can only be considered a top-tier Martial Soul. It hasn't reached the end of the road yet!"
Gu Chen smiled. There was no way a mere Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul could satisfy him. One only had to look at Tang San, who no longer wanted to use it in the later stages and only wanted to swing his great hammer, to see that although the Blue Silver Emperor appeared to be a top-tier Martial Soul, it wasn't necessarily all that strong.
Of course.
It might also have had something to do with Yu Xiaogang forcibly ruining the Blue Silver Emperor through his training.
Instead of following a life-based path with a life-type Martial Soul, he had insisted on absorbing the Soul Rings of poison-type Soul Beasts and taking a poison-based path. Fortunately, it underwent a Second Awakening later. Otherwise, whether Tang San could have reached level seventy by cultivating the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul alone would have been a serious question.
If it were only Tang San, then once his Blue Silver Grass evolved into the Blue Silver Emperor, there would have been nowhere left for it to go.
But Gu Chen was different.
He had a cheat.
So...
He still had a path forward.
Come on out, my upgrade panel!
[Item: Blue Silver Emperor] [Description: A top-tier Martial Soul, the emperor among Blue Silver Grass. It commands the kings, and none dare disobey.] [Upgrade result: Golden Tree] [Description: An Ultimate Martial Soul with the dual attributes of Ultimate Life and Ultimate Light. The bearer of this Martial Soul will receive the protection of Douluo Star's fortune and become a child of nature.] [Upgrade requirements: One corpse of a Hundred-Thousand-Year life-type Soul Beast, one corpse of a Hundred-Thousand-Year light-type Soul Beast, one Hundred-Thousand-Year life-type Soul Ring, one Hundred-Thousand-Year light-type Soul Ring, one Hundred-Thousand-Year life-type Soul Bone, one Hundred-Thousand-Year light-type Soul Bone, one Hundred-Thousand-Year Immortal Herb Nine Heart Begonia, one Hundred-Thousand-Year Immortal Herb Radiant Sun Light Grass]
Gu Chen scanned the upgrade panel floating above the Blue Silver Emperor without a change in expression. When he saw the result of the upgrade, his heart gave a sudden leap. If he remembered correctly, wasn't this Martial Soul the Golden Tree that Tang San had transplanted to Sea God Island at Shrek Academy in the Douluo II era?
He hadn't expected that another upgrade to his Blue Silver Emperor could evolve it into the Golden Tree.
And judging by its effects.
There was no need to say more: the dual Ultimate Attributes of life and light, the protection of fortune, and something about a child of nature.
Though he didn't quite understand the last one, it certainly wasn't ordinary.
But when he looked at the upgrade requirements.
Gu Chen's heart could be said to have gone ice-cold.
The Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were easy enough to understand. The required corpses, Soul Rings, and Soul Bones could all be obtained from just two beasts: one Hundred-Thousand-Year life-type Soul Beast and one Hundred-Thousand-Year light-type Soul Beast. He could gather them all in minutes.
But as for the two Immortal Herbs at the end.
There was no need to say more about the Hundred-Thousand-Year Immortal Herb Nine Heart Begonia. After upgrading the Begonia Flower King into a Ten-Thousand-Year Medicine King, he had checked the upgrade panel. Upgrading the Begonia Flower King again would give him the Hundred-Thousand-Year Immortal Herb Nine Heart Begonia.
But he really wasn't familiar with the other Immortal Herb, the Radiant Sun Light Grass.
"In that case, I need to make arrangements to subdue Dugu Bo as soon as possible. Perhaps the Immortal Herb Radiant Sun Light Grass I need might be in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!"
Nobody knew exactly how many kinds of Immortal Herbs were in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. All anyone knew was that it had more Immortal Herbs than anywhere else in the world, and that Tang San would thoroughly ravage the place.
At that thought, Gu Chen's anger flared.
Fine, fine, fine!
So it was you, Tang San, who stole the Immortal Herbs from my Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well! Just you wait. If I don't kill you, I'll write my name backward!
As for this.
If Tang San had known, he would only have felt wronged. He clearly hadn't done any of it, so how had it all been pinned on him?!
Leaving aside the fact that Tang San didn't know he'd been made to carry a black pot.
Ever since Gu Chen's Martial Soul had evolved into the Blue Silver Emperor, Tang San, who had just absorbed his First Soul Ring and become a One-Ring Soul Master, had felt empty inside, as though he had lost something!
In fact.
He wasn't the only one.
Because of Gu Chen's Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul, an extraordinary storm had already been stirred up in several places across the continent!!!