Click.
With a faint, crisp snap, Xiao Xuan deftly cut off the thumb-sized piece of Soul Bone.
It felt slightly heavy in his hand, and its entire length gave off an exceptionally pure earth-element fluctuation.
"It really is a Hundred-Year Soul Bone!"
Xiao Xuan wiped the blood off it and casually tucked it into his pocket.
Although this Soul Bone possessed the remarkable ability to burrow underground, Xiao Xuan was in no hurry to fuse it into his right calf on the spot.
After all, it was only a low-grade item a little over a hundred years old. Its age was too low, making it of little use.
As for Ma Xiu's mangled remains, Xiao Xuan decided to leave him here for now and deal with him after he had finished his real business.
Xiao Xuan then dusted the dirt from his hands and raced straight toward the mountain hollow deep in the back mountain.
Before long, the familiar, secluded mountain hollow appeared before him again.
Two stalks of Lone Bamboo stood quietly, their entire lengths gleaming dark cyan.
They were the two hundred-year-old wild Lone Bamboo stalks Xiao Xuan had deliberately left behind when he raised his Martial Soul's star level.
The sky was growing dark, so Xiao Xuan wasted no more time.
His blade rose and fell.
Crack-!
Both hundred-year-old Lone Bamboo stalks were severed at the roots and crashed down among the dead leaves.
Immediately afterward, two pale yellow rings of light slowly rose.
Looking at the two floating Yellow Soul Rings, Xiao Xuan took a deep breath and summoned his own Soul Ring with a flick of his hand, while using his Soul Power to draw the other two Yellow Soul Rings toward him.
Three Hundred-Year Soul Rings!
He had gathered all the main materials for the first step of the fusion upgrade!
But just as Xiao Xuan was about to tell the system to fuse them, he suddenly stopped.
Xiao Xuan's gaze involuntarily fell to his inner pocket, where he had placed a piece of alloy ore he had specially prepared as an auxiliary material.
The Soul Bone he had just seized also lay quietly inside.
When Three-in-One Fusion of All Things advanced something, it could incorporate an additional auxiliary material of the same grade and permanently add the auxiliary material's core characteristic to the finished product...
Xiao Xuan had originally intended to use the alloy ore as the auxiliary material, but now another idea had occurred to him.
If... I use this Soul Bone with its underground burrowing ability as the auxiliary material and fuse it directly into my First Soul Ring, what will happen?!
The moment the thought appeared, Xiao Xuan could no longer remain calm!
Fusing a Soul Bone into a Soul Ring!
If outsiders found out, they would probably curse Xiao Xuan for squandering a treasure and wantonly ruining a gift of heaven!
That was a Soul Bone, something ten thousand gold coins could scarcely buy!
No matter how low its age was, it could still sell for over ten thousand Gold Soul Coins!
Fuck ruining a gift of heaven!
As long as I turn resources completely into combat power, it isn't a waste!
A flash of utterly crazed ruthlessness passed through Xiao Xuan's eyes.
So what if I sell it for gold coins?
A mere few tens of thousands of Gold Soul Coins can't buy an enhanced characteristic for a Soul Skill!
I'm the only one with this unique ability. If even I don't dare try it, that would be truly ruining a gift of heaven!
Besides, if this gamble pays off, not only will my First Soul Skill gain another characteristic, I can also follow the same pattern when fusing Soul Rings in the future!
When that happens, the upper limit of every one of my Soul Skills will rise enormously!
Do it!
Take a gamble, and a bicycle can become a motorcycle!
With that, Xiao Xuan hesitated no longer. He took out the piece of bone radiating an earthy yellow glow and gripped it in his palm.
System! Activate Three-in-One Fusion of All Things!
Xiao Xuan gave the system the command.
Hum-!
The two hundred-year Soul Rings in midair trembled violently, then transformed into two streams of light that flew into Xiao Xuan's Soul Ring and began intertwining and fusing with it!
[Ding! Three-in-One Fusion of All Things activated...] [Main materials detected: hundred-year Lone Bamboo Soul Rings ×3. Quality assessment: three stars.] [Auxiliary material detected: Hundred-Year Soul Bone. Quality assessment: three stars.] [Fusion successful! Congratulations, host: First Soul Ring successfully advanced-Thousand-Year Soul Ring!]
As the system's cold notification sounded, the multicolored glow abruptly contracted and condensed!
The three yellow Hundred-Year Soul Rings vanished completely, replaced by a single deep purple ring of light!
A Thousand-Year Soul Ring!
Judging by the strength of its fluctuations, it was no low-grade specimen that had barely passed a thousand years. It was a Soul Ring steadily approaching the two-thousand-year threshold, a full one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years old!
Xiao Xuan's eyes snapped open, filled with excitement and pleasant surprise!
Xiao Xuan flashed back to the center of the clearing, held his spear in one hand, and pointed it at a pile of rocks over thirty meters away. With a sudden thought, he unleashed it!
"First Soul Skill-Lone Bamboo Thrust!"
The next instant!
Puchi!
Puchi!
Puchi!
With a series of muffled tearing sounds, several slender bamboo spears burst through from deep underground without warning, thrusting out at treacherous, completely unconventional angles!
Their chilling spearheads shot a full two zhang above the ground, instantly turning several thousand-jin granite boulders on the surface into sieves!
The entire pile of rocks was leveled on the spot!
At the sight of this astonishing destructive power, even Xiao Xuan couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath, followed by a surge of wild joy.
The gamble paid off!
My judgment was right!
After the Soul Ring fused with the Soul Bone, the Soul Skill didn't break down. Instead, it gained another characteristic, which could also be called a second form.
That was right. After the fusion, Xiao Xuan's First Soul Skill had not only retained its previous flying thrust form, but had also gained a ground-spike form.
Two completely different forms of attack existed in the same Soul Skill.
Who would expect a move like this in actual combat?
This move... is fucking insidious... but I like it!
Satisfied, Xiao Xuan withdrew his Martial Soul, brushed the bits of grass and dirt off himself, and hurried back to where Ma Xiu's corpse lay.
Looking at the body on the ground, Xiao Xuan began to wonder.
He was only six and a half years old, yet he had single-handedly killed a desperate villain Spirit Hall hadn't been able to catch for months?
If he really did that, the city lord's residence and Spirit Hall would surely treat him like a monster and dig into everything!
Not only would he be unable to conceal his strength, he might even draw trouble.
But he couldn't give up this windfall either...
Xiao Xuan's mind raced, and his eyes suddenly lit up:
Rather than rack my brains making up lies to explain it to outsiders, I might as well come clean to Old Xiao!
Xiao Wuyong was a genuine Soul Grandmaster and had spent years struggling his way through civilian Soul Hunting mercenary teams. It would be perfectly reasonable for him to step forward and claim the credit.
Having made up his mind, Xiao Xuan wasted no more time and raced down the mountain toward the Xiao family's old house.
"Dad! Come up the mountain with me, quickly! Something big has happened!"
"Xuan'er? What happened?"
"I'll explain on the way. Come with me first!"
Xiao Wuyong didn't dare delay. He grabbed his machete, and father and son hurried all the way into the depths of the back mountain without stopping.
On the way, Xiao Wuyong had thought his son had discovered some rare spirit herb, but then Xiao Xuan pushed aside a thicket and pointed at the mangled, black-robed corpse in the pit.
Xiao Wuyong froze on the spot, even his breathing stopping completely!
"Th-this is..."
Xiao Wuyong's throat went dry and tight. When he saw the vicious, conspicuous scar on the right side of the dead man's face, the hairs all over his body instantly stood on end!
As a member of a Soul Hunting team, he had read the notice at the city gate over and over!
This was the very killer who had roamed the Nuoding region, slaughtering people like hemp-Ma Xiu!