A Seed

Before long, the black rods on Tang Hao's body dissolved into invisible energy and dispersed.

"Big brother!"

Tang Hao scrambled to his feet, a note of inquiry in his voice.

"The Soul Bone is gone." Tang Xiao felt somewhat discouraged as well. "He threatened me with the safety of you two. I had no choice but to compromise."

"Then how are we going to explain this to the elders?" Tang Hao asked.

Although their father was the sect master, the elders of the Clear Sky Sect also held considerable power. Several of them joining forces could even overrule the sect master.

They had come to buy a Soul Bone and spent every last coin, yet they had failed to bring it back. Worse still, they had incurred a debt of a million Gold Soul Coins to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect for nothing.

Tang Xiao thought for a while before saying, "Explain? What do I have to explain? A Soul Bone is so precious that even a Titled Douluo would covet it. The elders sent only the two of us to buy it. Don't they know that an innocent man becomes a target by carrying a precious treasure?"

The more Tang Xiao spoke, the more confident he became. Finally, he concluded, "In short, this wasn't our fault. We won the Soul Bone at auction, but the sect didn't send anyone to take possession of it in time, so it was robbed from us on the way."

Tang Hao hadn't expected his honest, reliable-looking elder brother to say something like that.

So he asked hesitantly, "Then... this wasn't our fault?"

"Ahem." Tang Xiao coughed lightly. "It's not that we're entirely blameless, but our mistake was that we weren't strong enough. We just need to work twice as hard from now on."

"Then... if the elders ask who took the Soul Bone, what should we say?"

Now that things had come to this, Tang Hao had no choice but to coordinate his story with Tang Xiao to lessen their punishment.

"What was his cultivation level? What was his Martial Soul? What was his Soul Ring Configuration? What were his Soul Skills?" Tang Hao guessed at the questions the elders would ask. "We don't know any of that!"

Tang Xiao scratched his head and racked his brains for a while before saying, "He took a blow from the Clear Sky Hammer with his bare fist just now. With a physique like that, he should be a Titled Douluo. As for his Martial Soul..."

"His eyes!" Ah Yin suddenly spoke up from the side.

"What?" The Tang brothers both turned to look at Ah Yin.

Ah Yin explained, "His Martial Soul is his eyes. When he fought you earlier, I saw purple energy coming from his eyes. And every time he pushed Brother Hao away, his eyes lit up. That should be his Martial Soul."

The brothers immediately closed their eyes and recalled the battle. Just as Ah Yin had said, the eyes beneath the man's mask had indeed been emitting a mysterious purple glow the entire time.

Tang Xiao exclaimed in admiration, "Ah Yin, you really are observant. If you hadn't pointed it out, we wouldn't have noticed."

Normally, Tang Hao would have been the first to praise Ah Yin in a situation like this, but this time he was a step behind.

Tang Xiao found that strange and turned to look at Tang Hao, only to see him deep in thought with his eyes closed.

"What is it, Hao?" Tang Xiao asked.

Tang Hao kept his eyes tightly shut, still recalling the scene. He murmured incessantly, "Those eyes were unusual too. Besides the pupils in the center, there were rings of black patterns, and the innermost ring was red."

Tang Xiao vaguely guessed what Tang Hao meant and immediately cried out in shock, "You mean those were Soul Rings? He's a Titled Douluo whose ninth Soul Ring is a hundred thousand years old."

Hearing this, Ah Yin, who had remained perfectly calm all along, also began to panic despite herself.

Elsewhere, after the Wood Clone "Jun Yan" had traveled some distance, he stopped and turned back into an ordinary piece of wood.

The Soul Power within him transformed into a stream of invisible energy and flew toward Jun Yan's main body farther away.

An hour later, Jun Yan arrived at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well once again.

Jun Yan sat cross-legged before the two springs, then took the Jade of Life from his Soul Tool.

Perhaps it had sensed the abundant vitality here, for the Jade of Life became more lively and began slowly absorbing the invisible energy permeating the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

"This time, I'll feed you until you're full," Jun Yan said to the jade in his hand.

With that, he released his Martial Soul and used his Sixth Soul Skill.

A red ring of light spread out, and a vast surge of life energy poured into Jun Yan's body. Jun Yan then channeled that life energy into the Jade of Life in his hand.

However, although he was charging the Jade of Life, his own vitality was not being consumed.

Instead, he was consuming Soul Power. With the Sixth Soul Skill needing to be maintained constantly in particular, Jun Yan's Soul Power consumption was considerable.

After a while, more than half of Jun Yan's Soul Power had been depleted.

As though sensing Jun Yan's Soul Power, the Jade of Life began releasing a new kind of energy.

Unlike the pure life energy it had released unconsciously before, this time it was Soul Power-and pure Soul Power that would not interfere with Jun Yan's absorption.

In this way, a cycle formed between Jun Yan and the Jade of Life.

Jun Yan consumed Soul Power to use his Soul Skill, absorbing the vitality of the surrounding plants and passing it to the Jade of Life; the Jade of Life absorbed the vitality and released Soul Power for Jun Yan to absorb.

As a result, the surrounding plants began to wither rapidly, just as they had when Jun Yan absorbed the two Immortal Herbs several months ago.

As vast amounts of vitality poured into the Jade of Life, it began to emit a dazzling green light. Its original green color disappeared, and it became as clear and translucent as crystal.

Had Jun Yan been able to open his eyes then, he would have clearly seen a tiny seed sealed at the very center of the Jade of Life.

The seed looked as though it had only just been sealed inside, and a tiny shoot had just emerged from its tip.

As life energy continued to flow in, the Jade of Life, which had been lying in Jun Yan's palm, slowly began to float. Fine cracks appeared across its surface.

"Crack..."

Something seemed to have broken, and Jun Yan opened his eyes at the sound.

"Pop-"

With another soft sound, the crystal-clear jade suddenly shattered before Jun Yan's eyes, bursting into countless tiny fragments.

Suddenly, the tiny jade fragments froze in midair. Not just the fragments, but also the swaying flowers and grass nearby, the blowing wind, and the waters of the two bubbling springs all came to a standstill.

Only Jun Yan and the seed before him remained as they were.

Jun Yan held out his hand beneath the seed, and it dropped neatly into his palm.

The stillness vanished in an instant, and the tiny fragments turned into streaks of white light and disappeared into the air.

Looking at the tiny seed in his palm, Jun Yan thought, So you were what was inside the Jade of Life?

Although it was only a newly sprouted seed, Jun Yan could sense the incomparably vast vitality contained within it.

Compared with it, Jun Yan's own vitality was no more than a lake beside the sea.