A few days later.
Xiao Xuan brought Ah Yin's true body with him and returned to the Star Dou Great Forest.
Ever since learning on the mountain behind Holy Soul Village that Ah Yin's true body could serve as an auxiliary material for his next fusion, Xiao Xuan had not wasted a moment.
His father, Xiao Wuyong, had long since told him where to find the wild Lone Bamboo over two thousand years old that he needed as the main material to advance from four stars to five.
He had only held off setting out because he lacked an auxiliary material.
Now everything was ready and the east wind had arrived. The sooner he raised his Martial Soul to the five-star level, the sooner he would gain more strength.
Besides, another matter had never left Xiao Xuan's mind: the External Soul Bone mentioned in the original story, the Eight Spider Lances!
By his reckoning, Tang San and the others should be setting out for the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt Soul Beasts soon.
The Eight Spider Lances were a divine treasure dropped by a thousand-year Man Faced Demon Spider. The chance was vanishingly small; one could encounter it, but not seek it out.
Though Xiao Xuan coveted it, he also believed in first come, first served and in his own strength.
If his Martial Soul had not completed its five-star transformation, and he ran headlong into a Man Faced Demon Spider over two thousand years old in the Star Dou Great Forest with his current rank twenty-eight Soul Power, it would be hard to say who would be the hunter and who the prey.
Only by improving his Martial Soul's quality and strengthening his bamboo spear's attack could he gain an extra measure of security.
Having made up his mind, Xiao Xuan carefully made his way through the dense forest, following the dark red mark on the parchment map.
After traveling for a little over two hours, the dense forest ahead gradually opened up, revealing an open wetland beside a waterfall cascading down a cliff.
Cool, clear mist washed over his face, and the waterfall struck the rocky shallows with a muffled roar.
Xiao Xuan crouched behind a cluster of broad-leafed shrubs and surveyed the shallows beneath the cliff.
Sure enough, in the very center of the mist-shrouded rocks, several thick, upright stalks of Lone Bamboo stood in the crevices.
Two of the stalks were as thick as the mouth of a large bowl, with four dark rings around their joints.
Each ring represented five hundred years. Clearly, both stalks had crossed the two-thousand-year threshold.
But when Xiao Xuan examined the stalk on the right more closely, his brows first lifted slightly, and then a glimmer of unconcealed delight appeared in his eyes.
The entire stalk shimmered with a translucent, watery blue luster.
Not only that, but it also drew the surrounding mist toward itself, causing it to pulse slowly around the stalk and giving off a pure, gentle water-spirit presence.
Mutated Water Spirit Bamboo?
Xiao Xuan marveled inwardly.
Plant Soul Beasts were influenced by their growing environment and the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, and occasionally, mutated specimens with attributes different from their original ones would appear.
The Lone Bamboo before him was clearly a mutated specimen, and its element was water.
If he used it as the main material and fused it into his Martial Soul, wouldn't his Lone Bamboo spear inherit its attribute for free?
With that thought, Xiao Xuan hesitated no longer and reached back to grip the empty air.
Hum!
A spear slid firmly into his palm.
Xiao Xuan pushed off, shooting forward over the slippery rocky shallows like a light arrow loosed from a bow!
Sensing a stranger rapidly approaching, the two stalks of Lone Bamboo rooted at the edge of the deep pool instinctively sounded a warning, their branches and leaves thrashing and trembling violently!
The ordinary Lone Bamboo on the left reacted decisively. Dozens of supple yet sturdy side branches whipped down at Xiao Xuan from all directions with howling gusts of wind, attempting to drive him back.
The mutated Water Spirit Bamboo on the right was even fiercer. The deep blue patterns covering it suddenly blazed with light!
Water from the pool surged along its joints, gathering into several swift, churning streams that shot straight at Xiao Xuan's face like steel spears and watery arrows!
Faced with the counterattack barring his way, Xiao Xuan's expression remained unruffled.
Other close-combat Soul Masters might indeed have found them difficult to handle, but Xiao Xuan's attacks were not limited to close combat.
With a thought, two Purple Soul Rings rose from beneath Xiao Xuan's feet!
"Second Soul Skill! Space-Rending Half-Moon Slash!"
As he ran, Xiao Xuan swept the jade spear in his hand sideways, activating his Second Soul Skill!
A deep silver-white crescent wind blade over three meters long slashed free of the spearhead. Bearing the Four-Star Lone Bamboo's Armor Piercing property, it tore through the air with a piercing howl!
The silver light swept past, splitting the oncoming streams down the middle with its keen edge and breaking them apart into a skyful of fine mist!
With no way left to retreat, the two stalks of Lone Bamboo could only defend themselves.
The dark green Lone Bamboo on the left rapidly developed a gray-white, stony layer over its surface, desperately using the hardening defense its true body was best at.
The mutated Water Spirit Bamboo on the right swiftly drew upon the surrounding moisture, forming a thick, rounded pale blue water shield that protected its true body on all sides.
But before the jade spear's Moon Blade, which possessed both defense-ignoring and sharpness properties, those hastily constructed defenses were laughably fragile.
Crack!
Squelch!
With two crisp cracking sounds almost on top of each other, the pale blue water shield burst apart like a bubble, and the hard gray-white bamboo skin was cleanly severed!
The two thick, long stalks of Lone Bamboo, which had grown for over two thousand years, tilted and snapped together, falling onto the slippery, moss-covered shallows.
Xiao Xuan leaped into the air and reached out with both arms, firmly catching the two fallen stalks, which still retained their vitality!
The instant his palms touched the broken ends, Xiao Xuan dared not waste a moment.
Activate Three-in-One Fusion of All Things!
As his words fell, the system responded instantly.
[Ding! Main materials detected in place: Four-Star Lone Bamboo (Martial Soul), wild two-thousand-year Lone Bamboo ×2 (including mutated water attribute). Quality assessment: four stars.] [Auxiliary material detected: the Blue Silver Emperor's degenerated remnant husk. Quality assessment: five stars!] [Three-in-One procedure activated... extracting and purifying plant origin...] [Imprinting water-element spiritual essence... deeply fusing the Blue Silver Emperor's origin of vitality...]
Beneath the mist-wreathed waterfall, a warm yet powerful vortex of Soul Power suddenly swept up.
The two broken stalks in Xiao Xuan's hands silently melted into two streams of light, one green and one blue, each setting off the other's radiance as both flowed into the spear in his right hand.
At that moment, the Blue Silver Emperor placed before him dissolved into countless crystalline green motes of light, which also poured into Xiao Xuan's Martial Soul.
Three profound, mysterious lights washed through and fused with one another inside the spear, finally condensing into the long, steady silhouette of a spear.
[Fusion complete! Congratulations, host's Martial Soul has broken through the limits of its rank and successfully advanced to [Five-Star Lone Bamboo]!] [Additional life attribute obtained!] [Additional water attribute obtained!]
The notification sounds faded.
A brand-new spear lay serenely between Xiao Xuan's hands.
It still had the warm, smooth texture of mutton-fat jade, but its shaft now shimmered faintly with a pale, deep blue watery halo and a soft cyan glow.
Unlike the change to the spear's shaft, Xiao Xuan could clearly feel a gentle, inexhaustible vitality nourishing his entire body through his Martial Soul.
This was clearly a special effect brought about by the newly added life attribute.
Xiao Xuan's Martial Soul had long since surpassed the ordinary understanding of Lone Bamboo, so it was clearly no longer fitting to call it that.
Perhaps it was time to give it a new name. (Please, esteemed godfathers, bestow a name!)