"Haha!"
"Uncle, the weather certainly is lovely today!"
Dugu Xin changed the subject somewhat awkwardly. Meng Zhongqi had really hit the mark: he had come to gather intelligence this time.
"By the way, Uncle!"
"How did your grandson's Martial Soul Awakening go?"
Dugu Xin looked at Meng Qianqiu, a gleam flashing through his eyes. As the Meng Family's heir, Meng Qianqiu was no ordinary person.
"Qiu'er's Martial Soul is the Manggu Vermilion Toad, a fire-attribute variant of the Vermilion-Eyed Ice Toad. Her innate Soul Power reached level eight!"
Meng Zhongqi answered at once with an enigmatic smile.
"The Manggu Vermilion Toad, with level-eight innate Soul Power!"
Dugu Xin was skeptical of this result. After all, Meng Qianqiu's father, Meng Yunping, had possessed level-nine Soul Power.
Innate accompanying Soul Power at level nine!
Both were fire-attribute variants of the Vermilion-Eyed Ice Toad, and the Manggu Vermilion Toad ranked among the top-tier beast Martial Souls. Its quality was by no means low.
As such, its innate accompanying Soul Power naturally would not be poor.
The innate Soul Power of a top-tier beast Martial Soul generally would not fall below level eight, while a super Martial Soul had an extremely high chance of producing innate full Soul Power.
Level-eight innate Soul Power was certainly good, but seeing Meng Zhongqi's expression, Dugu Xin strongly suspected something fishy was going on.
"Your branch has a worthy successor now, Uncle!"
Dugu Xin strongly suspected that Meng Qianqiu's innate Soul Power matched Dugu Bo's. Both of them should have possessed level-nine innate Soul Power.
"Your Dugu Family keeps producing talented people too!"
"He awakened his Martial Soul two years ago and obtained his first Soul Ring a year ago. Now his Soul Power is at level fourteen. His cultivation progress is quite impressive!"
Meng Zhongqi pointed at Dugu Bo as he spoke. Such terrifying progress did not seem much like that of someone with level-eight innate Soul Power.
"Haha, everyone has their own opportunities!"
"These youngsters have their own destined encounters too!"
Hearing this, Dugu Xin understood at once. Level-eight innate Soul Power was merely a smoke screen Meng Zhongqi had put out.
The great secluded families placed considerable importance on information concerning their descendants. Whenever a child capable of bringing prosperity to the family appeared, they would keep it strictly confidential.
When a tree rose above the forest, the wind would surely batter it!
These great secluded families understood the art of survival well.
"Uncle, we'll take our leave, then."
Having gathered the specific information, Dugu Xin prepared to head home. Some things did not need to be spelled out in the open.
It was enough that everyone understood; there was no need to push things to the limit.
"Take care. I won't see you out!"
"Come over for a visit whenever you have time."
Meng Zhongqi sent the two off. Generally speaking, sects and prominent families made their Martial Soul Awakening ceremonies quite grand.
Some powerful sects would even announce it to the world and invite everyone to witness the ceremony when their younger disciples awakened their Martial Souls.
This served both to display the sect's foundations and to demonstrate its strength, intimidating petty troublemakers.
Although the Meng Family was still a great secluded family, there was a gap between its older and younger generations. Even its hereditary Martial Soul was on the verge of dying out entirely.
"Qiu'er, pack your things!"
"I'll take you out Soul Hunting in a little while and personally help you hunt for your first Soul Ring, so you can embark on the path of cultivation as a Soul Master!"
Only after sending the two off did Meng Zhongqi speak.
"Grandpa, I've thought carefully about my choice of first Soul Ring. I want a Soul Beast with a higher age."
"Preferably one close to four hundred and fifty years old!"
"Failing that, four hundred years will do. I want a fire-attribute Soul Beast, or a rare poison-attribute Soul Beast."
"If that Soul Beast possesses both fire and poison attributes, that would certainly be ideal!"
Meng Qianqiu immediately voiced his wishes.
"Soul Beasts with both fire and poison attributes... a Red Banded Snake, a Blazing Fire Demon Spider, or Candlelight Grass would all do."
Age had made Meng Zhongqi shrewd, and he named several rare Soul Beasts, including both animal-type and plant-type Soul Beasts.
"A Blazing Fire Demon Spider?"
Hearing that name, a piece of information flashed through Meng Qianqiu's mind. Demon Spiders were strange Soul Beasts of utmost yin and evil.
Blazing Fire Demon Spiders developed through the cultivation of ordinary Demon Spiders. After a hundred years, a Demon Spider formed a core, nurturing a Blazing Fire Pearl within its body.
As the saying went, extremes reversed themselves, and utmost yin gave birth to yang. The Blazing Fire Pearl nurtured by a Demon Spider was an exceedingly rare object of utmost hardness and yang.
Only after forming a Blazing Fire Pearl could a Demon Spider successfully advance into a Blazing Fire Demon Spider, gaining control over the fire-attribute power within its body.
Once a Blazing Fire Demon Spider reached a thousand years of cultivation, its pearl would have undergone prolonged tempering, allowing it to merge the Blazing Fire Pearl into itself and complete a transformative evolution.
At that point, the Blazing Fire Demon Spider could advance into a true Blazing Fire Demon Spider King, breathing flames and wielding ultimate fire poison.
"Grandpa, I want to hunt a Blazing Fire Demon Spider!"
"Do you have a way to help me hunt one?"
Meng Qianqiu understood the need to manage resources sensibly. Leaving resources unused and struggling miserably to hunt Soul Beasts was something only a fool would do.
"A Blazing Fire Demon Spider wouldn't be too difficult!"
"A group of Blazing Fire Demon Spiders lives in Black Spirit Abyss in the Ancient Yue Hills. These demonic spiders live near volcanic craters."
"For an ordinary Soul Master, hunting one would undoubtedly be an idiot's dream. But for a Soul Douluo, none of that is a problem."
"Just say the word, and your grandpa will definitely get you one!"
Meng Zhongqi was a level-eighty-eight Soul Douluo, but years of suppressing the poison within his body had cost him seventy to eighty percent of his strength!
Even so, Meng Zhongqi was still a Soul Douluo.
And a high-level Soul Douluo at that. Unleashing someone like him upon this group of Blazing Fire Demon Spiders would simply be an overwhelming crush.
"Then sorry for the trouble, Grandpa. Please take me there!"
After careful consideration, Meng Qianqiu ultimately decided to hunt a Blazing Fire Demon Spider for the first Soul Ring of his Manggu Vermilion Toad Martial Soul.
"Spiders and toads both belong to the Five Poisons!"
"Provided the attributes match, a Martial Soul's first Soul Ring should certainly prioritize a Soul Beast of its own type, to avoid damaging its potential."
Meng Qianqiu did not believe the claims of a certain Grandmaster Yu from later times. Facts proved that compatibility existed between Martial Souls and Soul Rings.
If compatibility was too low, it would waste potential!
If a Soul Ring's compatibility was extremely high, it could not only grant a heaven-defying Soul Skill but also help a Soul Master develop their potential.
Generally speaking, for the first three Soul Rings of a beast Martial Soul, absorbing animal-type Soul Beasts produced better results than absorbing plant-type ones.
By the same principle, for the first three Soul Rings of a plant-type Martial Soul, absorbing plant-type Soul Beasts also produced better Soul Ring effects than absorbing animal-type ones.
"By the way, Grandpa!"
"You still haven't told me where my parents actually went. Why had they already left the Meng residence by the time I was old enough to understand things?"
Meng Qianqiu was very curious. Where exactly had they gone?
"Haha, I'll have to keep that a secret for now!"
"Once you break through to Soul Saint, I'll tell you where they went. Your cultivation is too low right now, so don't let your imagination run wild!"
"That place is extremely dangerous. Without absolutely formidable strength, entering it means almost certain death, with no hope of survival."
"You should just focus on cultivating for now!"
"Your talent is outstanding, and with your grandpa protecting you, you'll be able to break through to the Soul Saint realm within twenty years!"
"When that time comes, I'll tell you a tremendous secret."
Meng Zhongqi deliberately kept him in suspense. He neither explained outright nor refused, merely giving him a promise.