Secondhand Market · The Demon Fox's Probe

On the second day after returning to the Heaven Dou Royal Academy, Nan Feng sensed that something was different about the mood in the city.

Students gathered in groups of three or five beside the training grounds. Some looked nervous, while others were excited.

Ye Lingling handed him a letter in the corridor. It was a notice from the academic affairs office.

The qualifiers for the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament were about to begin. The Heaven Dou Royal Academy was one of the competition venues, and participating teams from academies across the continent would begin arriving the following month.

A note had been added at the end of the notice: the Spirit Hall Team had registered for the team competition for the first time this year and was expected to arrive in Heaven Dou City half a month early for acclimatization training.

Nan Feng folded the notice and tucked it into his clothes.

The Spirit Hall Team. The Golden Generation: Xie Yue, Yan, and Hu Liena, all three Soul Kings above level fifty. Their leader was Hu Liena, Bibi Dong's personal disciple. Her Demon Fox Martial Soul gave her exceptionally strong spiritual power, and her charm ability was among the best in the Soul Master World.

Three days later, at dusk, Nan Feng encountered her at the secondhand market in the east of the city.

He had gone to the market to hunt for auxiliary cultivation materials. His Treasure-Appraising Spirit Light swept across the stalls, finding mostly ordinary ores and medicinal herbs.

As he passed the third stall, an unusually bright point of light sprang into his perception.

The point of light was pale pink, its Spiritual Power fluctuations supple and dense, flowing like silk and carrying a naturally enchanting quality. The moment his perception touched it, it would veer aside.

Nan Feng lifted his gaze from the stall.

A blonde girl stood in front of the neighboring stall, examining an old porcelain vase. Her white combat outfit fit her closely, with the Spirit Hall's insignia embroidered on the cuffs and collar. Her golden hair glowed warmly in the twilight, its curled ends falling behind her shoulders.

She was slender and athletic, her posture graceful, with a completely natural charm in her every movement.

She was about fifteen or sixteen, with delicate, striking features and a pair of upturned fox eyes. Her irises were an unusual pale gold. When she looked at something, it was as though her gaze passed through rippling water, veiled in a thin mist.

Hu Liena.

Nan Feng had seen her once before, when the Spirit Hall Team had come to scout out Heaven Dou City. She had walked in the middle of the group, her gaze sweeping over everyone in the stands, as if searching for something.

Now she stood at the stall, casually examining the vase. Nan Feng noticed her fingers rub the bottom of it.

She was checking whether it was genuine. She knew her trade.

Hu Liena raised her head, and her pale-gold eyes settled on him from two stalls away.

Her gaze lingered on his face for a breath, shifted down to his dantian, then dropped farther to the bits of gravel at his feet.

Her pupils contracted. The movement was minute, but unmistakable.

She had sensed something about him. Unlike Ye Lingling's Nine Heart Begonia or Bi Ji's Emerald Swan, Hu Liena's perception was closer to a spiritual scan. The Demon Fox Martial Soul was extremely sensitive to fluctuations of the soul.

Under her scan, the presence of the Primordial World Imprint deep within Nan Feng's soul revealed a texture unlike that of any Soul Master she had ever encountered.

Hu Liena set down the vase and walked toward him.

Her steps were light, almost soundless. Her waist swayed as she walked, moving with a natural rhythm.

She stopped two paces in front of him, narrowed her pale-gold eyes, and sized him up from head to toe.

"Your Martial Soul is interesting," Hu Liena said. Her voice had a slightly husky magnetism, like warmed wine, soft on the tongue but potent in its aftereffect. "The Bronze Tower. The Soul Power fluctuations of a Tool Martial Soul should be heavy and dull. But there's a very faint presence in the fluctuations around you, seeping out from the deepest part of your soul. It's unlike that of any Soul Master I've ever met."

Nan Feng looked at her.

Hu Liena's perception was precise and direct. The Demon Fox Martial Soul was more sensitive to the soul than the Nine Heart Begonia, though their perceptions worked in different directions. Ye Lingling perceived the structure of life energy, while Hu Liena perceived texture on the level of the soul.

When her spiritual scan touched the Primordial World Imprint, its ancient texture repelled it. But in that brief contact, she had already gathered enough information.

"Your fox is interesting too," Nan Feng said. "A Demon Fox Martial Soul, exceptionally strong spiritual power, and a charm ability among the best in the Soul Master World."

Hu Liena's eyes curved slightly, and her lips formed a smile. It was faint, but as she smiled, the mist in her eyes grew thinner than before.

"You know who I am?"

"A member of the Spirit Hall Team, a gold insignia, and a Demon Fox Martial Soul. Hu Liena."

Hu Liena tilted her head, and her golden hair slipped off her shoulder. She neither denied it nor asked how he knew, instead shifting her gaze to the dark purple marking on the back of his right hand.

"The Soul Bone in your hand is an External Soul Bone. It isn't very old, but its quality is excellent."

"When you looked at me just now, your Martial Soul didn't release any Soul Power fluctuations. Yet your spiritual power formed a barrier as I approached, keeping my perception out. An ordinary Soul Master couldn't do that. Either you're extraordinarily gifted in spiritual power, or you're carrying something that protects its owner automatically."

Nan Feng said nothing.

Hu Liena's perception really was strong. She had already determined that he possessed something beyond the scope of a Soul Master, though she had yet to reach the tower's true nature. She was probing him, her approach gentler than Yu Tianheng's and more precise than Dugu Yan's.

Old Huai's voice drifted out from the crack at the bottom of the tower, kept very low.

"That girl's spiritual scan is impressive. The Demon Fox Martial Soul's perception of the soul is even finer than that Nine Heart Begonia girl's. Just now, her scan reached the outer edge of your soul and was repelled by the texture of the Primordial World Imprint. She didn't sense the tower, but she knows there's something in your soul."

Hu Liena took a step forward, standing closer.

The stallholders and customers in the secondhand market were busy with their own affairs, and no one noticed them. A warm rim of twilight edged Hu Liena's golden hair, and the thin mist rose again in her pale-gold eyes.

Nan Feng felt a tendril of spiritual power reach toward his spiritual core, carrying a supple force of charm that sought to open a crack in his consciousness.

Nan Feng did not resist. He relaxed his spiritual core for an instant, allowing the tendril to probe inward, then withdrew it himself before it touched the Primordial World Imprint.

Hu Liena's charm force struck the Primordial World Imprint and bounced back. The rebounding force was nearly twice as strong as before, and her spiritual tendril trembled. Her pale-gold eyes widened for an instant.

"Your spiritual power is very steady," Hu Liena said, her voice lower than before. "My charm has little effect on you."

"Your charm is powerful," Nan Feng said. "There's something around my spiritual core that your charm can't reach."

Hu Liena stared at him for several breaths.

When her charm had been repelled, she had sensed the texture of that layer: ancient and profound, as if it had seeped from the deepest reaches of the earth. She had seen plenty of strange Martial Souls and secret techniques in the Spirit Hall, but had never encountered a texture like this.

"What is that thing around you?"

"My secret."

Hu Liena raised an eyebrow. She did not press him, instead folding her arms across her chest and looking at him with her head tilted.

The twilight deepened. Stallholders began packing up, and the footsteps and voices around them grew sparse.

Hu Liena stood in the dusk, her golden hair loose behind her shoulders, her pale-gold eyes exceptionally bright in the fading light.

"I won't ask about your secret. Your spiritual power is strong, and my charm doesn't work on you. I'll remember that."

She took a step back, her lips curving into a smile deeper and more genuine than before.

"During the qualifiers, if you enter the individual competition, we might meet."

She turned and walked toward the secondhand market's exit. Her white combat outfit darkened in the dusk, and her golden hair flashed in the last of the daylight before disappearing around the corner of the alley.

Nan Feng stood where he was, looking in the direction she had disappeared.

When Hu Liena's spiritual tendril had been repelled by the Primordial World Imprint just now, the crack in the third-level door at the bottom of the tower had jumped. The Power of Creation had grown a little more active under the impact of her spiritual power, and the crack had widened another sliver.

Old Huai poked his head out of the crack at the bottom of the tower, assessment in his cloudy eyes.

"That girl's spiritual power is stronger than an ordinary Soul King's. Cultivated to its utmost, the Demon Fox Martial Soul's charm ability can cover an entire battlefield. She's taken an interest in you."

Nan Feng looked away, picked up the pieces of ore he had selected from the stall, paid for them, and headed toward the academy.

His Soul Power was level thirty-five. The crack in the third-level door had widened another sliver during his clash with Hu Liena's spiritual power, and the output of the Power of Creation was a little more solid than before.

Hu Liena would be waiting for him at the qualifiers. Huo Wu and Shui Bing'er were waiting for him to reach level forty, while Xiao Wu was stuck at level twenty-nine, waiting to return to the Star Dou Great Forest to condense her third Soul Ring.

Twilight spread in from the west over Heaven Dou City, dyeing the rooftops on both sides of the street a warm gray.

He walked back to the academy at an unhurried pace. The deep-black glow beneath the Soul Ring in his palm pulsed against his skin, rising and falling in response to the azure light in the crack at the bottom of the tower.