In the imperial palace.
Jing Hongchen paced inside a side hall. On a row of old-fashioned yet noble-looking wooden chairs to his side, several figures sat scattered around. Some chatted quietly; others rested with their eyes closed.
"All right, Hallmaster Hongchen, if you keep pacing like that, even I'm going to get dizzy," Xu Jiangliu said dryly.
"Commander Xu, do you not understand how serious this incident is?" Jing Hongchen stopped and fixed his gaze on a white-haired elder. The man wore a monocle and kept his white hair neatly tied. His face was kindly, but the aura around him carried an undeniable authority—authority that only overflowing power could give.
As the commander of the imperial Royal Soul Engineer Legion, an iron flood before which even the four great Beast Soul Engineer Legions could only trail behind, he was eternally stationed in the capital, answering only to the current emperor. Those who could hold this post had always been core members of the imperial family.
The imperial clan had no shortage of drunken wastrels, of course. But with resources piled high enough, a number of true prodigies were bound to emerge.
Xu Jiangliu was one such.
Even Jing Hongchen himself felt inferior before this old man—a rank ninety-four Title Douluo, peak ninth-level soul engineer. He might not match his own teacher Kong Deming, but even in this room, he was one of the most influential voices.
"So you're the main culprit then?" Xu Jiangliu raised his eyes, giving Jing Hongchen a flat look.
"How… how could that be!" Jing Hongchen said helplessly.
"Then that settles it. Trust in His Majesty, and—"
Before Xu Jiangliu could finish, footsteps sounded from outside the door.
The room fell silent. Everyone's gaze turned toward the entrance.
A palace attendant stepped in, eyes landing on Jing Hongchen. He bowed slightly. "Hallmaster Hongchen, His Majesty has a decree."
"…"
Jing Hongchen dropped to his knees, slowly lowering his head, waiting for his fate to be announced.
"Since you were the one in charge, such a colossal oversight has deeply disappointed Us. But in light of your decades of loyal and error-free service, We shall spare you punishment…"
"Do not let this happen again."
"Your subject thanks Your Majesty!" Jing Hongchen's face lit with relief and excitement.
"Hallmaster Hongchen, wait a moment."
The attendant smiled as he produced a letter. "Please read this before you go."
"…"
Jing Hongchen accepted the envelope with a puzzled look and began to read. But the more he read, the darker his expression became. "Is His Majesty planning to abandon my grandson and all those elite youths of the Sun Moon Empire?!"
"Hallmaster Hongchen, don't be so hasty," Xu Jiangliu said leisurely.
"Read the rest."
"…"
Forcing down his anger, Jing Hongchen finished the letter, then fell into deep silence.
"Everything will take place after the exchange is over. Once you've retrieved your grandson, we'll station our forces near Maple Leaf City along the route from Shrek and set up an interception, how about that?" Xu Jiangliu calmly watched him as he spoke.
"…All right!"
Jing Hongchen ground the words out.
They should send one of the imperial princes instead!
Send that fourth prince, the one who ran around causing trouble all day, to Shrek Academy and see if these old monsters were still so enthusiastic.
Of course, if Mingde Hall hadn't just been bombed, if he wasn't caught in the center of the storm, His Majesty wouldn't have let him off so easily. Let alone removing his title of hallmaster—he'd have probably stripped his noble status too. So he'd been waiting for this.
"The imperial soul engineer legions have the confidence to cross the Mingdou Mountain Range without the White Tiger Duke's one hundred thousand troops noticing?" Jing Hongchen asked hesitantly.
"Very difficult," Xu Jiangliu shook his head.
"Then…"
"But we can go by sea." A small smile appeared on Xu Jiangliu's face. "Hallmaster Jing, don't forget, we've also made some progress in deep-sea soul tool technology. We can leave from the western Gangya Harbor, make a detour, land in the southern part of the Heavenly Soul Empire north of Maple Leaf City, and then push quickly east to intercept."
"Also… the Holy Spirit Church is very interested in this plan. I thought I'd have to talk them into it, but that woman agreed immediately. She even insisted on going personally."
"She's going to personally take the field?!" Jing Hongchen was stunned.
"Yes."
Xu Jiangliu shut his eyes again, resting.
Only Jing Hongchen watched him with a tangled expression.
It seemed his fate had already been decided "above" long ago. This meeting was just a formality. The ones who could truly decide his future were clearly not puppets like himself.
To think that with his current status and power, he was still only a piece on the empire's board—a puppet. The Sun Moon Empire placed too much stock in bloodlines…
"Don't overthink it," another elder snapped, frowning.
"Our duty is to serve His Majesty and the empire with all we have. So what if one grandson dies? Can't you have another?"
Jing Hongchen gave him a bland look, then flicked his sleeves and strode out of the hall.
All empires had their own sicknesses. Compared to the original continent, where nobles clung to the state like maggots and sucked its blood, the Sun Moon Empire was even more tangled and complex in its web of power.
Filth was not in short supply anywhere…
…
In the dorm room.
Su Wen slowly exhaled, feeling the warmth of the beauty in his arms, her fragrance filling his nose. His hand gently caressed her smooth, tender belly—soft and springy to the touch, extremely comfortable.
Leaning back against the headboard, he watched the exhausted beauty in his arms. After being thoroughly tossed about, she'd fallen fast asleep against his chest.
His mind drifted back to the night's harvest.
The Ninth-Level Auction had plenty of treasures.
Most notably, the final item: a core Earthheart Essence, formed from the collision of the Mingdou Mountain Range—where the two continents had crashed together. After the first Great Continental War ended, it had been stolen away to Shrek Academy. But as the times changed, the Sun Moon Empire had bought it back at a high price. Later they discovered it was useless for soul tool research. It held terrifying energy but could not be utilized, and it was extremely unstable…
So they simply put it up for auction.
In the end, Su Wen had spent more than fifty million gold soul coins to obtain a small vial of Earthheart Essence.
"You really like making things hard for me," Big Eye grumbled.
"You're the Void Eye—basically equivalent to a spirit-type soul beast with more than a hundred thousand years of cultivation. And you can't even handle this?" Su Wen turned the jade vial in his fingers, sensing the lively, pulsing orange liquid within, smiling.
"Who said I can't? I'm just saying there's going to be a tough battle ahead…" Big Eye sounded utterly resigned.
"I didn't expect you to get your hands on such terrifying energy. Honestly, if we set aside pure life force, just in terms of energy purity, this stuff is almost on par with life gold!"
"When two landmasses collide and merge, combining slivers of their spiritual resonance, then stew for thousands of years, it's only natural the result won't be ordinary." Su Wen nodded slightly.
"When are you going to condense your soul core?"
Snow Empress's voice echoed.
"Tonight."
Su Wen glanced at the sleeping beauty at his side. Her pretty face was still flushed from their exercise. Once she was sound asleep, it was time for serious business.
The growth speed of his "second martial soul" was frankly unacceptable. Thanks to the martial soul reset bug, he could hunt soul beasts in this space-time as well.
"Silver Dragon King, Di Tian, Myriad Beast King… and right, the Sea Princess clan in the deep sea." Su Wen gently tapped his fingers on Na Na's smooth belly, lost in thought.
"Di Tian's going to show up too?" Big Eye was surprised, then suddenly amused. "So by that logic, I'm its senior, aren't I? It'll have to bow respectfully to me when we meet."
"It's all about strength. If you can beat him, he can call you Dad for all I care," Su Wen snorted.
Big Eye was indeed overtuned, but Di Tian was no slouch.
With his pure bloodline, he probably couldn't surpass the Silver Dragon King, but Su Wen guessed he'd evolve towards the Dark Dragon King bloodline. When that happened, who would be the "little brother" was anyone's guess.
"Roar!" (Call him senior!)
Little Gold growled.
Big Eye coughed awkwardly. "What did you say?"
Little Gold: "Roar!!"
Big Eye: "Speak human, I don't understand you…"
Little Gold: "…"
…
Inside the Azure Luan Spirit Ball.
Verdant green stretched as far as the eye could see.
Towering ancient trees rose into the clouds, encircling a lake at the very center.
Right now, all six of Su Wen's contracted beasts were gathered there.
Su Wen inhaled deeply.
He didn't speak. He simply sat cross-legged on the soft grass.
His eyes slowly closed.
A faint golden glow rose from his body, and unique golden lines began to surface along his meridians. At the same time, a golden core floated out from his dantian.
It was about the size of a dragon's eye, lightly contracting and expanding as it hung in front of him.
Then, thread-thin streams of golden energy began to pour out from his body into the golden core, which began to spin slowly.
"Ten percent of your soul power." Su Wen's spiritual body spoke calmly.
He directed ten percent of his total soul power into the golden core. The core spun faster and faster, to the point that even the surrounding light began to distort.
"Twenty percent."
"Thirty percent."
Up to fifty.
Big Eye finally relaxed a little. "It's workable. Half of your soul power is still relatively weak; we can manage this. Now you can start adding a bit more."
Even though the dense life energy of the area was being drawn into the core along with his soul power, Big Eye didn't consider it a threat at all. His ocean-like spiritual power could easily hold it steady.
Su Wen's spiritual body gave an OK sign.
Then his main body spat out the Water Dragon King's dragon core.
"Buzz…"
In the next instant—
A trace of energy was drawn from the ice-blue dragon core and poured into the golden core.
As time passed, the golden core's color began to shift gradually toward pure black—black that swallowed all light, reflecting nothing. It was like a miniature black hole, devouring the surrounding energy at an ever-growing rate.
Even the space around it was being torn open bit by bit. The sight was terrifying.
"Keep going," Big Eye said solemnly.
"You sure?" Snow Empress frowned, worry in her eyes. "The level of this soul core… spanning ancient to modern times, there are very few who have ever reached this. If something goes wrong later…"
"…"
Big Eye hesitated as well.
"Even just this first core— not even I, Snow Empress, could have reached this level. Its strength will definitely be unprecedented, perhaps never to be surpassed. Su Wen, the choice is yours."
"Keep going," Su Wen's spiritual body said.
He took out the Earthheart Essence. Before he even popped the lid off the small jade bottle, the black hole had already sensed the energy inside. A terrifying suction force pulled the cork off and devoured the thick, vibrant orange liquid in an instant.
And in that instant—
The black hole expanded to twice its size.
Su Wen suddenly felt it slipping from his control.
"Big Eye!"
Before he could get more words out, Big Eye's spiritual power surged forth like a boundless ocean, completely enveloping the black hole. Fortunately, the core went from being on the verge of collapse to gradually stabilizing. Its absorption of the Water Dragon King's core didn't slow at all…
"Damn, it's kind of hard to stop now," Su Wen clicked his tongue.
"Roar!"
Little Gold activated his Golden Left Arm Bone skill. His physical strength skyrocketed, just in case.
Snow Empress stared at Su Wen without blinking. If he truly lost control, she would throw this soul core deep into the Spirit Ball's world and let it explode there, while everyone else returned to the main world.
The Spirit Ball might be destroyed, but that was better than Su Wen dying.
"Buzz—"
Fortunately, as time went on, the "black hole" gradually solidified.
This was his soul core—condensed directly in the form of a black hole…
It then sank slowly back into his body.
He absorbed it without incident.
"Huff…"
As Su Wen finally let out a long breath, his first soul core showed its terrifying cultivation speed. Heaven and earth's ambient energy flooded toward him, drawn into the black hole and rapidly refilling the half of his soul power he'd poured in earlier.
"The total soul power I can store now is about seven times what it was before…" Su Wen said happily.
"Seven times!"
If his golden core stage had him on par with a Soul Saint, then seven times that amount of power would be roughly at peak Soul Douluo levels. More terrifying still was his cultivation speed.
Also about seven times the golden core stage.
Su Wen's mouth twitched.
Previously, raising his "second martial soul" by one rank took about two months. Now… it would probably take eight or nine days. His first martial soul could now drag the second one upward by sheer inertia.
And the growth of his primary martial soul would skyrocket. He'd just broken through to rank sixty-four, but he felt that it would only take twenty-odd days to reach the next rank.
He guided the soul core with his will. A black hole spun quietly in his palm.
At some point, the pure black had been tinged with a layer of orange, ice-blue, and a strange rose-red.
"An unprecedented soul core," Snow Empress said softly.
"Even Di Tian's core would pale in comparison. However… your second soul core will become much more difficult. If you want to cultivate a Yin-Yang twin core, the second must match the first in gravitational pull, or your body will never stabilize."
"No problem."
Su Wen smiled and rose to his feet.
"We'll block each path as it comes. Besides…"
"I don't have bottlenecks." He shrugged.
"That's true," Snow Empress murmured.
Her gaze softened as she helped straighten his clothes, a trace of reluctance flickering in her eyes before she let go.
"Let's go."
…
Outside.
Na Na stirred and slowly awoke.
Noticing Su Wen's burning gaze, her long legs turned a little weak. Her eyes softened, a pleading glint in them. "Master, my voice was too loud earlier… If I admit I was wrong now, is it too late?"
"Hehe, much too late."
Su Wen pinched her cheeks with a grin.
…