Chapter 222

Time flew by, and a month passed quickly. In that month, the training system of the Zodiac Hall was basically perfected, especially the four hall masters, who were all trying to achieve a second awakening of their martial souls.

However, a second awakening is not something you can achieve just because you know you have the opportunity; it also depends on talent.

But after a month of exploration and attempts, they also came to a profound understanding of the power of their innate martial souls.

Unlike Soul Masters with ordinary tool or beast martial souls, these two types of Soul Masters basically attack using their own martial soul or soul power, and their physical fitness is not strong.

However, those who have fused with their martial soul can utilize any part of their body, their physical fitness being several times that of a normal Soul Master; the only limitation is in obtaining soul rings.

For those like them who have fused with their innate martial soul, the soul rings they absorb must be from spirit beasts of the same lineage as their martial soul; otherwise, they will suffer bloodline rejection and explode to death.

Therefore, based on this, Gu Xuan proposed that they seek a breakthrough in their bloodline for the second awakening of their martial souls; the four hall masters are now basically at the entry level, and perhaps they may truly achieve second awakening in the future.

During this month, Gu Xuan's soul power rose from the early stage of rank 57 to the mid‑peak, and he will likely need about another month to break through to rank 58.

This speed is actually terrifying; at this rate, his soul power increase at the Soul King level is roughly one rank every two months, meaning he could gain six ranks in a year.

For an ordinary Soul King at this level, gaining two to three ranks in a year is already top‑tier talent, but Gu Xuan's increase is still two to three times that of those geniuses.

Moreover, this is despite Gu Xuan needing to compress his soul power to temper his body, because after rank 70 he must accept the Ice‑Fire Dragon King's soul bone inheritance, so a strong physique is essential.

Furthermore, the reason Gu Xuan can still improve so rapidly, aside from his own talent, is that he can use the dragon‑pattern brands of the two great dragon kings on the back of his hand to absorb and refine the power of the Binghuo Liangyi Yan.

As for the worry that the Binghuo Liangyi Yan might disappear because of this, there is no need to worry at all, since Gu Xuan had already asked about this earlier.

Given their extensive use of the Binghuo Liangyi Yan's power, will it lose its function in the future?

The answer is naturally yes, but the process takes far too long.

Simply put, no matter how great their talent or how fearless they are, before the two dragon kings who once rivaled a first‑tier god, they are no different from a whale in the deep sea and an ant on the shore.

Even if the whale died and its most vital core was taken away, how long would it take an ant to devour an entire whale?

Therefore, even if the Ice‑Fire Dragon King later passes on the soul bone condensed from its own origin to Gu Xuan, the Binghuo Liangyi Yan will still not disappear, though this will speed up its demise; yet even with that acceleration, it will last them a long time.

Moreover, since the Binghuo Liangyi Yan comes from the Ice‑Fire Dragon King, after Gu Xuan revives them, wouldn't it suffice to have each dragon leave a drop of essence blood? And it could even become a perpetual motion machine.

When the Binghuo Liangyi Yan fails, they just come to replenish its energy—it's enough to make a capitalist weep!

Besides Gu Xuan's side, the Seven Treasure Glazed Sect also took action; in that month, Youming Luo successfully obtained his ninth soul ring, after all, Sword Douluo Chenxin and Mihe, together with the three on the left wing, attacked simultaneously, which already counts as slow.

Because searching for spirit beasts took some time.

Youming Luo's ninth soul ring, although not of the 100,000‑year level, still reached 98,000 years, but it did not produce a soul bone, which is somewhat regrettable.

After absorbing the soul ring, Youming Luo's soul power directly reached the same peak of rank 91 as the three on the left wing before.

Youming Luo's martial soul is named War Dragon Spear, a powerful tool martial soul; because his martial soul is the same as the Snake Spear Douluo in the original work, his seventh soul skill can beast‑ify the tool martial soul, giving him immensely strong power, and his title is taken from his martial soul: Title: War Dragon.

It is worth mentioning that, just after Chenxin and the others left, two massive creatures appeared in the Star Moon Lake deep within the Star Dou Great Forest: the Azure‑Blue Ox Python and the Titan Giant Ape.

Faced with such a lineup from Chenxin and company, even these two forest emperors and forest overlords had to retreat and hide.

The Azure‑Blue Ox Python's huge bull head gazed in the direction where Chenxin and his party had departed, fell into deep thought, and after a long while spoke to the Titan Giant Ape beside it: 'Nowadays, strong humans are increasing in number, and this is not a good thing.'

The Titan Giant Ape looks simple‑minded, but having trained for tens of thousands of years, its wisdom is not inferior to humans', and it likewise showed a worried expression: 'I don't know how Xiao Wu is doing; she hasn't returned in a long time.'

Originally, the Titan Giant Ape went to find Xiao Wu on its own, even injuring her teacher and classmates, was scolded harshly by Xiao Wu, and then Xiao Wu herself condensed her third soul ring before returning to the academy.

Since that time, the Titan Giant Ape has had no news of Xiao Wu, so both it and the Azure‑Blue Ox Python are deeply worried about her.

What they don't know is that, on her way back, Xiao Wu was directly seized by Gu Rong, and she is still being cultured in a petri dish of the Seven Treasure Glazed Sect!

………

Seven Treasure Glazed Sect—after Chenxin and the others returned, they immediately followed Gu Rong straight to the valley where Tang Hao and Tang Tang San lived in seclusion.

It is worth noting that when Gu Rong first went there, there was no one, because Tang Hao had taken Tang San to obtain his fifth soul ring.

After waiting over twenty days, Tang Hao finally brought Tang San back, and then began giving Tang San special training.

Gu Rong remained hidden in the dark, not even having seen Tang Hao, because at their level, even a hint of killing intent could be detected; thus Gu Rong only confirmed from afar that both were present, without approaching.

At this moment, Gu Rong led Chenxin, the left wing, Mihe, Longwu, and a party of five to outside this mountain range.

Youming Luo did not follow; instead, he replaced Longwu to personally guard Ning Fengzhi, since he had just broken through to Titled Douluo, so there was no need to summon him for this.

Moreover, since he joined later, it's better for insiders to handle such unsavory matters.

The five of them stood in the space opened up by Gu Rong, gazing far off at this mountain range, and Gu Rong said: 'Although I have not observed him up close, I can sense that Tang Hao's aura is extremely chaotic; he must have suffered a serious internal injury. With so many of us attacking together, he definitely won't have a chance to escape.'

Chenxin nodded: 'Alas, what a pity for this junior, but this is the cruelty of the Soul Master world; this operation cannot let any of them escape.'

Gu Rong continued: 'I and Chenxin will snipe Tang Hao; you three will provide cover, and incidentally capture Tang San alive—understood?'

The left wing, Mihe, and Longwu nodded: 'Understood, teacher (elder).'

ps: typos will be corrected later.

(End of chapter)