Affairs in the Northwest

"You found the Nether Poison Flame that quickly?"

Not far away, Xiao Xuan had made no effort to hide himself, so Mo Xuan spotted him easily. He also sensed traces of scorching heat in the Qi coming from the girl beside Xiao Xuan.

An Emperor Realm Soul had an enormous advantage in every respect.

"The Chu Yun Empire really is a treasure land blessed by good feng shui."

Xiao Xuan nodded slightly. After all, it had produced the master of the Heavenly Poison Scripture. Though little information about that person had survived, their achievements were truly astonishing.

Xiao Xuan greatly admired the mastery of the poison arts that person had achieved with ordinary aptitude.

"That's a small matter. What are you doing, though? Playing house with a few Dou Zong youngsters?"

Xiao Xuan glanced at the two Soul Hall Protectors kneeling before him. The strange Qi emanating from their soul bodies all bore traces of the Hun Clan.

It seemed their reach had grown very long indeed.

"I thought that, as a clan descended from a Dou Di, the Hun Clan would at least care a little about appearances. I never expected them to be this sort of thing."

Mo Xuan spoke furiously.

The Hun Clan had truly gone too far. Using either their racial traits or secret methods they had developed, they had blatantly stolen the power of other people's Soul Origins for themselves.

Although the ones he had gotten his hands on were only Soul Hall Protectors at the Dou Zong level,

and even if they had inherited anything from the Hun Clan, it would have been the lowest-grade sort,

Mo Xuan had a discerning eye. Moreover, having spent so long in the small world where a certain Dou Di had cultivated in seclusion, his horizons had long since broadened.

The Hun Clan's scheme could not escape him.

"Soul Origin?"

Hearing this, Xiao Xuan frowned as well.

He naturally knew of this cultivation resource, but it was so evil that it had long since been condemned.

They were defying the whole world's moral code!

He wondered what Gu Yuan and the others had been doing, allowing the Hun Clan to run rampant across the continent for so long.

But judging by the Hall of Souls, they had probably kept a low profile, likely searching only for soul bodies that had lost their physical bodies.

Xiao Xuan saw an extremely jumbled mixture of soul Qi in the two Soul Hall Protectors, who also carried all sorts of other incomplete soul bodies.

They even took Dou Wang and Dou Emperor souls, making no distinction between meat and vegetables?

Xiao Xuan felt a little pressure. He did not know what the Hun Clan was trying to do, but considering the thousand years that had passed,

the total Soul Origin they had gathered absolutely could not be underestimated. It was probably enough to create an Emperor Realm Soul out of thin air.

But even among those at the Soul Emperor Realm, the difference in strength could be stark.

Leaving everything else aside, Xiao Xuan was confident that, as a soul body alone, he could take on three such defective products.

Relying solely on external forces to reach that level left considerable flaws and exhausted one's potential.

Even so, the Soul Emperor Realm still bore the word "Emperor."

Could it be that Hun Tiandi himself wanted to reach the Soul Emperor Realm?

Even though Hun Tiandi had once schemed against him, Xiao Xuan had to admit that the man's talent ranked among the best in the Hun Clan's history, barely enough to be mentioned in the same breath as his own.

So if Hun Tiandi really needed Soul Origin to break through, he would only need a tiny bit of help, enough to make up a small shortfall.

In a thousand years, even Gu Yuan had probably attained an Emperor Realm Soul.

Hun Tiandi was not so lacking as that.

Then who was it for?

Xiao Xuan did not believe Hun Tiandi would be kind enough to nurture his clansmen. Even if all the resources were gathered for Hun Tiandi himself, he would probably still think them insufficient.

A hidden Nine-Star Dou Sheng combatant.

Xiao Xuan smiled faintly. Once he had sorted it out, he was no longer in a hurry.

No matter how many schemes they had, before an absolute difference in strength and realm, they were nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs.

But that did not mean he could not use this to make a few plans of his own.

The Hall of Souls?

Spreading out his soul power, Xiao Xuan planted his own marks deep within the souls of the two Hun Clan protectors.

It consumed little soul power, but its essence was extremely potent, second only to the power of Soul Origin itself.

"Master!"

After a short spell in a daze, the two Soul Hall Protectors knelt on the ground and greeted Xiao Xuan with utmost respect.

"Go!"

With a wave of his hand, Xiao Xuan dismissed them.

As for what the protectors knew, he had already extracted every last bit with his soul power. But that was only because they were at the Dou Zong level, allowing Xiao Xuan to do as he pleased.

At the Dou Zun level, they would be strong enough to protect themselves to some extent. Even Xiao Xuan could not manipulate them at will.

Still, it would be easy for Xiao Xuan to cultivate a Dou Zong into a Dou Zun.

He would see what fruit the seeds he had planted would bear in the future!

"You're just letting them go?"

Mo Xuan frowned as he asked. He had been pleasant with them before, but in the end, he had intended to slap them to death.

After doing so many things that offended heaven and reason, did they still expect an easy life?

"Were your eyes not working just now?"

Xiao Xuan shot the old fellow a sidelong glance, wondering if he had let him live too comfortably.

Without protection, the allure of a Ninth-Tier Xuan Pill alone would have been enough to send the whole continent flocking after Mo Xuan like ducks. Even if he ran himself ragged, he might still end up dead.

For someone below the Dou Sheng level who obtained it, becoming a saint on the spot would be nothing unusual, and it was also enormously useful to those at the Dou Sheng level.

For those mediocre Dou Sheng, breakthroughs through ordinary cultivation had already become impossible. With an opportunity before them, would they not seize it?

Only someone at Xiao Xuan's level, a Peak Dou Sheng, would be relatively indifferent to it.

His ambitions lay elsewhere; even if he obtained it, it would only be for other considerations.

"Uh... mm!"

Mo Xuan continued holding his pose without speaking.

"I have other plans for the Hall of Souls. You needn't interfere."

"Next stop, the Heavenly Snake Empire!"

A light flashed in Xiao Xuan's eyes.

By rights, there should have been nothing unusual about the continent's northwest. It had been unremarkable from ancient times to the present, so how had so many extraordinary talents appeared one after another?

Yun Yangtian!

The master of the Heavenly Poison Scripture!

And the few heavenly talents born in the current era.

Xiao Xuan's standards were simply too high. In truth, Xiao Yi Xian, Qing Lin, Xiao Yan, and even that little snake Little Qi were all heavenly talents rarely seen on the continent.

As long as they proceeded steadily, becoming Dou Sheng would be no more than an ordinary result for them.

Perhaps another surprise awaited in the Heavenly Snake Empire.

Xiao Xuan looked forward to it.

A Space Wormhole appeared before them once again.

"Mo Xuan, have you ever heard of anything unusual happening in the northwest in the past?"

If anyone might know something about the changes in the northwest today, Mo Xuan was certainly one possibility.

That Dou Di should not have picked a place to enter seclusion at random.

Perhaps he had little need for the primordial Qi of heaven and earth, but his clan was in the Central Plains. Why had he come all the way to the northwest?

And then there was Yun Yangtian.

Xiao Xuan would never believe that a supreme expert who had reached the threshold of Dou Di had merely been lucky.

His obscured reputation and the lack of any surviving information about his background further supported the existence of secrets buried in the northwest.

Had the change involving Dou Di happened in the northwest?

The possibility occurred to Xiao Xuan instinctively.

It was still too far out of reach.

Once he broke through to Dou Di, perhaps the veil could be lifted from many secrets.

Beside him, Mo Xuan searched his memories carefully.

He had originally been created by a Dou Di, and the Ninth-Tier Xuan Pill Mo Xuan had gained sentience as a result.

But his memories after that were rather hazy, and he had not even thought to recall them.

Hiss...

Mo Xuan understood!