Chapter 36: Second Soul Skill: The Terrifying Eight Gates Golden Lock

He sensed the functions of his External Spirit Bone.

Although the current External Spirit Bone did not provide a high boost to his own attributes, its ability to see through an opponent's soul power circulation was not strong, and the power of its soul skill was nothing to write home about, Nan Feihuang believed its potential was so great that it would by no means be inferior to Tang San's Eight Spider Lances.

As long as he cultivated diligently and guided this External Spirit Bone to grow alongside him, there would naturally come a day when it became stronger.

Nan Feihuang closed his eyes and withdrew his soul power; when he opened them again, his pupils had returned to an ordinary black.

Sensing his own soul power, the beyond-limit Spirit Ring had raised Nan Feihuang's soul power to a level approaching twenty-three.

"Huang'er, what is your Second Soul Skill?" Lan Xue asked with concern.

It was naturally very good that the second Spirit Ring was a Ten Thousand Year Spirit Ring, but if the soul skill was mediocre, then everything would have been in vain.

"Mother, my Second Soul Skill is the Eight Gates Golden Lock that the earthbound spirits just used. I will demonstrate it for you." Nan Feihuang jumped to the center of the valley.

In fact, those earthbound spirits had not all escaped; some of the timid ones were still hiding and lurking underground.

"All of you, come out!" Nan Feihuang shouted angrily, stomping his foot on the ground; his formidable soul power shook the surroundings, immediately scaring dozens of hundred-year earthbound spirits back out.

He intended to use these earthbound spirits as guinea pigs to test his Second Soul Skill.

The purple Ten Thousand Year Spirit Ring flickered with light, and Nan Feihuang pointed his Halberd toward the sky, shouting, "Second Soul Skill, Eight Gates Golden Lock!"

Rest, Life, Injury, View, Death, Surprise, Open!

Eight large characters appeared in the sky.

The positions were exactly the same as the formation composed by the earthbound spirits just moments ago.

The formation expanded with Nan Feihuang as the eye of the formation; for a moment, all the earthbound spirits were unable to move.

"Group control!" Lan Xue was shocked; even for a Spirit Master who specialized in the control path, one would generally have to reach level fifty and possess a Ten Thousand Year Spirit Ring before obtaining a group control skill.

Yet now, Nan Feihuang actually possessed one with only his second Spirit Ring.

"Mother, this is my child's Second Soul Skill. It can forcibly control all opponents within the range of the formation. However, there are limitations: it can only control those whose level is not higher than mine. Those at the same level as me can be frozen for three seconds, and for every level of difference thereafter, one second is added. As for those with a higher level than me, it causes deceleration, a fixed deceleration of thirty percent," Nan Feihuang said.

"What about the range? How large is the range?" Lan Xue asked excitedly.

This soul skill was formidable enough; just reducing the speed of high-level Spirit Masters by thirty percent was already a decent support effect. Many support Spirit Masters' soul skills, at the first or second Spirit Ring, whether for enhancement or debuffing, were at most around twenty percent.

Even the number one support martial soul in the world, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, only had a thirty percent amplification ability at the second ring, which would just happen to cancel it out.

The important part was the former ability: forcibly freezing them so they could not move. Three seconds at the same level—let alone three seconds, even one second could cause the situation of a battle to undergo an astonishing change, and three seconds could often be considered a death sentence.

Not to mention that this time could gradually increase; if the range was also large, this move would not lose to any Ten Thousand Year soul skill, and might even surpass them.

"The range is based on a circle with a diameter of one meter, and for every level I increase, it increases by one meter. I am currently level twenty-two, so it is twenty-three meters. When I reach level ninety-nine, it will be exactly a circle of one hundred meters," Nan Feihuang said.

Lan Xue suddenly gasped.

A circle with a diameter of one hundred meters is about 7,850 square meters.

If one square meter were crowded, about 10 people could stand there. Of course, this was only theoretical data; in war, soldiers would not stand so densely, but in the case of a battle formation, they would not be too scattered either; there would still be three or four people per square meter.

In other words, this crowd-control ability of Nan Feihuang's, when grown to its limit—

It would be between 31,400 and 78,500 people.

And yet, this move was only a Second Soul Skill, and the consumption of soul power was not high. By the time he reached Title Douluo, using it continuously would be no problem. At that time, what meaning would armies have for Nan Feihuang?

He alone could control the great armies of Star Luo or Heaven Dou to death, right? No, even a Spirit Master Legion would be controlled to death, even if ten thousand Spirit Douluo came, it would be the same.

Because if he were a Title Douluo then, how many people would have a cultivation level higher than his?

Lan Xue looked at her son, feeling deeply moved in her heart, "A First Soul Skill that ignores defense and comes with True Damage, a Second Soul Skill that forcibly controls people over a massive range—these are not abilities that such a Spirit Ring could produce. The only explanation is that Huang'er's martial soul itself must be a true Innate God-Level Spirit. I fear that even among God-Level Spirits, it belongs to the elite, which is why it could produce such a terrifying soul skill!"

"Huang'er, Mother asks you, can you control the output level of this Second Soul Skill? For example, actively shortening the control time, or only producing a deceleration effect on lower-level Spirit Masters?" Lan Xue squatted down to gently stroke Nan Feihuang's face and asked expectantly.

"Of course I can. This move depends entirely on how much soul power I inject into the Spirit Ring. The Eight Gates Golden Lock has eight types of energy; only when all eight gates appear is it the effect I described. But if only four gates appear, then there is only a deceleration effect, even for those at a lower level than me," Nan Feihuang said.

He actually guessed the significance of Lan Xue asking this question. His Second Soul Skill was too terrifying; it was an ability that made armies meaningless. How could the two great empires of Heaven Dou and Star Luo tolerate it?

Hearing this, Lan Xue's brows relaxed. As long as he could control the power, it was fine. She exhorted, "Good, then you promise Mother that in the future, when you are Spirit Fighting, try to only use half the power of the Eight Gates Golden Lock, just deceleration is enough. Never use its full power in front of everyone, understand?"

If it were just a group deceleration, although not weak, it would not be enough to arouse wariness.

This also happened to be the power of a soul skill that a normal Ten Thousand Year Spirit Ring could produce.

Nan Feihuang nodded, "I understand. Don't worry, Mother, I know the importance of this."

Lan Xue smiled and picked up Nan Feihuang, "My son is truly sensible. Then Mother can rest easy. Alright, let's go back. Our harvest this time can be considered quite rich. I estimate that when your father knows your situation, he will definitely be overjoyed."

With the External Spirit Bone and the monstrous Second Soul Skill, Nan Feihuang could also guess what kind of smug face Nan Tianchen would have at that time.

In Nan Tianchen's view, no matter how strong Nan Feihuang was, he was still his son.

And Nan Tianchen's greatest merit was that he would not be like some emperors who were wary and guarded even against their own only biological son.

Toward Nan Feihuang, he was instead somewhat like Zhu Yuanzhang toward Zhu Biao; the more outstanding his son was, the happier he was.

Most importantly, this guy had never had any psychological burden about being a kept man.

Recently, facing the people sent by various kingdoms and duchies to offer congratulations, his catchphrase was: My wife is a Title Douluo!

Many years later, Nan Tianchen's catchphrase changed again.

"Dare to offend me? Do you know who my son is, damn it?"

(End of chapter)