Sacrifice

Was this what it was like to have the World Will watching over him? Was this how a Child of Destiny was treated?

Chen Mo really loved it.

This felt way too good.

Come to think of it, he hadn't spent much time finding the Giant Pattern Butterfly, just a few hours. It had been feeding at the time and hadn't paid much attention to his arrival. After all, with Spatial Jump at its command, there really wasn't much it needed to fear.

Only after Chen Mo attacked did the Giant Pattern Butterfly start paying attention to him. Once it realized it couldn't beat him, it promptly ran off. Then, for some inexplicable reason, it got into a fight with other Soul Beasts. In the end, it became Chen Mo's Soul Ring and even dropped an External Soul Bone.

The External Soul Bone had fallen off one of the Giant Pattern Butterfly's wings.

The External Soul Bone bore patterns similar to those on the Giant Pattern Butterfly's wings, giving it a mysterious air.

Chen Mo wasted no time and began absorbing it on the spot.

Once he finished absorbing it, Chen Mo gained a Soul Skill, Spatial Jump. It was a skill granted by the External Soul Bone, allowing him to expend a certain amount of Soul Power to jump a distance. For now, he could jump only a few dozen meters at most, with a cooldown of ten minutes.

However, since the External Soul Bone would keep improving along with its owner, jumping hundreds of thousands of li with this skill would be easy in the future.

As for his Soul Power Level, it had shot up to level twenty, so he could continue absorbing his next Soul Ring. Chen Mo felt that the depth of his Soul Power should be close to level forty. With the boost in Soul Power from the Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings as well, adding four Soul Rings in one go probably wouldn't be a problem.

So who would the next unlucky fellow be?

Half a month later, Chen Mo was a level-forty Soul Elder. He had only added three Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings, so he wasn't a Soul Ancestor yet, just a Soul Elder.

His Second Soul Ring came from a thirty-thousand-year-old Death God Mantis. Its pair of sharp arms could slash through space and unleash blade Qi that cut through space.

It was precisely because of the space-slashing nature of its arms that Chen Mo had nearly died at its hands.

Four of his defensive artifacts and spirit artifacts had been destroyed, along with two flying swords of spirit-artifact grade.

That battle had practically wiped out half of Chen Mo's stock of spirit artifacts. He had taken quite a few pills and used up a lot of various tools as well.

The Death God Mantis's arms were simply too unreasonable. They had an innate spatial attribute, and no matter what they cut, it was like cutting paper.

Fortunately, another Soul Bone had dropped. It came from the Death God Mantis's right arm, giving Chen Mo a Right Arm Soul Bone. Moreover, the right arm bone's compatibility with the External Soul Bone had reached 58, barely enough for fusion.

As for the Death God Mantis's left arm, Chen Mo planned to use it to refine a spirit artifact. It was a material with an innate spatial attribute, and he believed it would surely bring him quite a pleasant surprise.

After fusing with the Soul Bone, Chen Mo gained a second skill, Spatial Cutting.

It expended a certain amount of Soul Power to unleash a spatial blade that could cut through anything and against which nothing could defend. Its cooldown was likewise ten minutes.

The Third Soul Ring came from a Heaven-Swallowing Giant Toad, a fifty-thousand-year-old Soul Beast.

Having learned from his previous two encounters, and since this Soul Beast wasn't very vigilant and was rather lazy, Chen Mo first laid down several formations and then launched a sneak attack.

The Heaven-Swallowing Giant Toad had only enough time to swallow the attacks from the front before a spirit artifact struck from behind and killed it.

It really was an aggrieved way to die. Otherwise, with its abilities, even a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast might not have been able to do anything to it.

As expected, Chen Mo got another Soul Bone drop-a Torso Bone.

This time, its compatibility with the External Soul Bone was even higher, a full 78%. After fusing with it, Chen Mo gained another Soul Skill-Banishment.

Chen Mo could banish an enemy to a mysterious space where there was nothing, not even the concept of time. There was no food or water, but there was no need to worry about starving to death.

That was because there was no hunger or death there either. If Chen Mo didn't want the person to come out, they could never come out and would remain in that state forever.

It was without a doubt the most terrifying punishment in the world. They couldn't die even if they wanted to, not until the day their mind collapsed. But unfortunately, they still couldn't die, and would continue to break down, growing numb...

Chen Mo felt somewhat relieved that he hadn't faced it head-on and had launched a sneak attack instead.

Otherwise, would it have been one year? Two? Ten? A hundred? Or indefinitely?

The thought alone sent a chill down his spine. No wonder the Heaven-Swallowing Giant Toad had been so unguarded. It turned out no one dared provoke it in the first place.

Otherwise, all it had to do was casually hand out a ten-year package, and wouldn't that drive someone mad?

Heaven-Swallowing Giant Toad: If you've got the guts, don't sneak attack me, you little piece of trash! You can't play fair...

(╬?????Д?????)

Although the skill defied the heavens, it had many restrictions. It could only ever banish things to one space.

To use Banishment again, he first had to release whatever had previously been banished to the mysterious space before he could banish something new into it.

The amount of Soul Power consumed depended on the strength of the target, though the cooldown was always the same: ten minutes.

Now, Chen Mo was tracking a Five-Colored Deer.

Anyone on the Douluo Continent with a little knowledge had heard of Five-Colored Deer. There were only two in the entire world, one female and one male, and both had over eighty thousand years of cultivation.

Yet they posed no danger or harm whatsoever.

They had no means of attack, but by the same token, no human or Soul Beast could harm them.

The reason was an ability the two possessed innately-Intangibility.

And it was permanent.

It wasn't as though no Soul Master on the Douluo Continent had ever set their sights on them. According to rumor, one Soul Saint had tracked the pair for ten years and attacked them whether they were eating or relieving themselves, but nothing worked.

It was as though they didn't exist in this world. Any attack that struck them would pass right through.

The two Five-Colored Deer didn't care in the slightest whether humans or Soul Beasts were nearby. They ate and drank as usual, completely unaffected.

They dared go anywhere, whether Soul Beast forests or the human world, and had visited both. Quite a few people had indeed set their sights on them, including many Soul Masters with spatial abilities, but none of them had any effect on the pair.

As time went on, humans stopped setting their sights on them altogether.

When Chen Mo first saw the Five-Colored Deer, he had also planned to leave, but then he stopped.

Come to think of it, with his current luck, it didn't seem impossible.

Had he really encountered the Five-Colored Deer by chance?

No, this was all a deliberate arrangement by the World Will. It was the world showing its favor to a Child of Destiny.

And if Chen Mo remembered correctly, Five-Colored Deer had always come in pairs.

So why was there only one now?

What was more, it had food in its mouth and was glancing around, seemingly on guard against something.

So the other one wasn't in a very good situation right now!

Ha, ha, ha!

Chen Mo could barely contain the joy in his heart and was on the verge of laughing out loud.

Before long, Chen Mo followed the Five-Colored Deer to a cave.

There, Chen Mo found the other Five-Colored Deer.

Chen Mo saw a Five-Colored Deer lying on the ground with her belly swollen, while the other fed her and licked her fur.

Pregnant?

The other Five-Colored Deer was pregnant?

That was Chen Mo's first thought.

Just as I thought!

The treatment that came with this luck was way too powerful!

Chen Mo couldn't help marveling at the power of a Child of Destiny.

This was truly terrifying. He could even run into a stroke of luck like this!

When he went to other worlds in the future, he must never lightly go against a Child of Destiny. Otherwise, he wouldn't even know how he died.

The expressions of the two Five-Colored Deer changed at once when they saw Chen Mo arrive.

The Five-Colored Deer that had led Chen Mo here stepped forward, shielding the doe as he roared at Chen Mo.

Although Five-Colored Deer had no real fighting power, Chen Mo didn't want to capsize in a ditch, so he still treated them as opponents of the same level.

Chen Mo summoned two flying swords and sent them speeding toward the two Five-Colored Deer.

The result, however, took Chen Mo a little by surprise. He had initially thought he could only strike the doe and wouldn't be able to hit the buck.

Instead, both flying swords struck the buck.

To be precise, the buck had deliberately moved into the path of the flying sword aimed at the doe, and had then been struck by the other flying sword as well.

Chen Mo: So he deliberately gave up Intangibility?

For a moment, Chen Mo hesitated.

If he wanted to, he could easily control the flying swords and inject Spiritual Power into them to shred the buck to death.

But seeing the two deer's sorrowful expressions and hearing their mournful cries, Chen Mo felt a pang of pity.

At the same time, Chen Mo confirmed two things.

First, Five-Colored Deer really had no fighting ability at all.

Second, the doe was currently giving birth and couldn't use Intangibility.

That was why the buck was risking his life to protect her.

Kill them? Or spare them?

Chen Mo was deeply conflicted at that moment.

But after thinking it over, Chen Mo made his decision: kill!

The strong preyed on the weak; the fittest survived.

Although Chen Mo sympathized with them, the world was just that cruel. All he could do was end their suffering as quickly as possible.

Just as Chen Mo's gaze hardened and he prepared to finish off the buck, a strange energy instantly enveloped him.

Chen Mo's heart sank. Damn, I've been hit.

However, Chen Mo found nothing wrong with himself. On the contrary, he felt surprisingly good.

At the same time, a voice reached Chen Mo's mind.

The Five-Colored Deer's voice was weak. "Human, please don't hurt my wife. In return, I'm willing to sacrifice myself and become your Soul Ring."

Puzzled, Chen Mo communicated with him through his spiritual sense. "Sacrifice? Have you already reached a hundred thousand years?"

The Five-Colored Deer explained, "No, only ninety thousand years, though I'm not far from a hundred thousand.

"Our Five-Colored Deer clan is rather special. There will only ever be two of us, one female and one male. We are husband and wife, but also brother and sister.

"My wife is carrying a pair of twins as well.

"In truth, even if you don't kill us, my wife and I will still die after she gives birth to the new Five-Colored Deer. That is the fate of our Five-Colored Deer clan.

"There will only ever be one pair of Five-Colored Deer under heaven and earth. When new life is born, the old life dies.

"Our Five-Colored Deer clan cannot break through to a hundred thousand years, so when we approach that age, we give birth to offspring and let them continue the fate of our clan.

"Our Five-Colored Deer clan is protected by the fate of heaven and earth and cannot be killed. We have been protected from the moment we were born.

"The only exception is the day new life is about to be born. On that day, the doe-my wife-cannot use Intangibility.

"Even so, we are still protected by the world's fate. No one can discover our hiding place except the Child of the World chosen by the World Will.

"So, Child of the World chosen by the world!

"Please don't hurt my wife just yet. My wife and I are both willing to sacrifice ourselves to you. All we ask is that you let us see our children once. Please..."