Chapter 149

It was evening when Wang Yan suddenly came to Huo Yutong's room.

Seeing Tang Wulin sitting opposite Huo Yutong on the bed, Wang Yan showed a warm smile.

"Did I disturb you?"

Tang Wulin shook his head.

"No, we haven't started yet."

Recently he had become increasingly aware of his own weakness, so he often came to find Huo Yutong to train together; when they trained together, the growth rate of their soul power at least doubled.

This was only the increase in soul power; in fact, because their fusion also included spiritual power and vital energy, the growth rates of those two were also very pleasing.

Besides, the power of the Natural Son seemed to be undergoing some obscure change in the ongoing process of merging with Huo Yutong's necromancer abilities; although Tang Wulin couldn't figure out what the change meant, his intuition told him it was beneficial to him.

"Then that's good." Wang Yan looked at Huo Yutong, "Yutong, can you come with me for a moment?"

"Sure."

Huo Yutong got up and followed Wang Yan to his room.

After entering the room, Wang Yan pointed with his hand to the table in the center of the room.

"Look."

On Wang Yan's desk lay quietly a carving knife with ancient patterns, and beside it was a ring that had been broken into two pieces.

Huo Yutong recognized this ring; Wang Yan usually wore it on his hand, and it was his Storage Soul Conductor Device.

But now it was completely damaged; with Huo Yutong's eyesight she could see that the core formation of the ring had been totally destroyed, making it impossible to use again.

As for that carving knife emitting a faint chilling aura, isn't it precisely the Soul‑Devouring Knife ranked ninety‑ninth on the list? "Professor Wang, this is……"

Wang Yan explained to the astonished Huo Yutong:

"My storage ring is also a fourth‑grade soul tool, but I never expected it could not withstand the might of the Soul‑Devouring Evil Blade. Earlier I felt a fierce qi constantly striking my storage ring from the blade, though I didn't think much of it at the time; but this morning when I woke up, the ring had snapped and was completely destroyed. The blade keeps emitting a vicious aura, and whenever I touch it I feel a cold, yin current flowing into my body, which I need to circulate my soul power for half a day to dispel."

Upon hearing this, Huo Yutong immediately understood why Wang Yan's complexion looked so bad.

Don't think Wang Yan was spending money like water at the auction to buy soul tools for them; it was because he was using the Academy's funds, which the Academy reimbursed, but in reality a fourth‑grade storage soul tool is not cheap, and to have it ruined so inexplicably—Wang Yan would certainly feel the pain.

Wang Yan took a deep breath and said:

"Yutong, you said you could lift the curse, right? Let's try it first; if anything goes wrong we'll stop immediately, and if it really doesn't work I'll try to contact the Academy to send someone to retrieve it."

A fourth‑grade storage soul tool was already the best thing Wang Yan carried, but the Soul‑Devouring Evil Blade is truly nefarious; carrying it directly on his person had too great an effect, so he had no choice but to seek out Huo Yutong, who had once confidently claimed she could subdue the blade.

"Alright, I'll give it a try."

Huo Yutong quickly nodded, secretly pleased inside.

The last time Ilex caused such a commotion was when it fused with the Snow Emperor, showing how important this Soul‑Devouring Evil Blade is; she had thought she would need the Academy to obtain it, but she didn't expect Wang Yan to let her try to undo the seal now.

Huo Yutong called out in her mind: "Old Ilex, do you have time now?"

"Hmm, what's up?"

Just after a couple of calls, Ilex responded, and after answering he understood why Huo Yutong had summoned him: "Eh, this lump of living‑spirit gold arrived so quickly? Not bad. Yutong, lend me your body."

Having said that, without waiting for Huo Yutong's reply, Ilex took over the command of her body.

From Wang Yan's perspective, Huo Yutong's eyes suddenly turned gray, and strands of gray qi flowed out from her body; against this gray backdrop, her somewhat youthful face faintly revealed a hint of divinity.

Then Huo Yutong suddenly glanced at him; the unprepared Wang Yan was instantly affected, feeling his mind go blank, yet he could not muster the slightest urge to resist.

If there were outsiders present, they would notice that after Huo Yutong looked at Wang Yan, his gaze instantly became dazed, like a walking corpse standing foolishly in place.

After confirming that Wang Yan had lost consciousness, Ilex directed Huo Yutong's spiritual power to probe the Soul‑Devouring Evil Blade.

The Soul‑Devouring Evil Blade instantly burst forth with piercing blue light; a chill laced with a vicious aura surged into Huo Yutong's Sea of Spirit, as if it wanted to split her Sea of Spirit in half.

In response, Ilex remained calm; the gray qi surged and in an instant suppressed the Soul‑Devouring Evil Blade.

A gray soul ring appeared sometime in the room, and a spot of pure white appeared on Huo Yutong's fingertip; under Ilex's control it moved toward the Soul‑Devouring Evil Blade.

In an instant, Huo Yutong thought she heard hundreds of people wailing nearby; the Soul‑Devouring Evil Blade emitted a huge, clamorous cry of pain, making people instinctively want to cover their ears.

Yet Ilex remained unmoved, continuing his action; within a second the blade's noise began to diminish at an astonishing speed, and by three seconds the piercing sound had vanished completely.

Moreover, the black qi coiling around the Soul‑Devouring Evil Blade faded quickly as the wailing subsided; soon the last trace of black qi disappeared silently, and the blue light emanating from the blade itself became clear and pure like water, without any impurity; the blade's originally dark body turned into something resembling a blue crystal.

Ilex nodded satisfiedly.

"Very well, the purification is complete; I was right not to misjudge. Yutong, you can explain this to your teacher—keep the knife with you, as I need time for it to fuse with you."

Having said that, he directed Huo Yutong's body to glance at Wang Yan; the gray in Wang Yan's eyes vanished and he instantly came to.

After regaining consciousness, the first thing Wang Yan saw was Huo Yutong's innocent‑looking face and the blue carving knife on the table before her.

He was startled at once.

"Yutong, did you do this?!"

Huo Yutong could only make up a lie.

"Professor Wang, when I first saw this knife I felt its spiritual fluctuations; they weren't strong, just aided by the energy inherent in the blade itself. In our soul‑engineer's terms, that's a soul seal. I merely used my spiritual power to control and open that not‑very‑strong seal, releasing that wisp of evil thought, and the blade returned to normal. It should now pose no threat; as for whether it's usable, I'll have to test it again when I get back."

"Oh… is that so……"

Wang Yan had studied soul masters thoroughly in all aspects, but he truly knew little about soul engineers; hearing this he could only nod blankly, then tried to pick up the Soul‑Devouring knife.

Sure enough, the former vicious aura had completely vanished; the knife felt warm and smooth in hand, emitting no aura at all, giving the sensation of a crystal carving; were it not for the unchanged ancient patterns on the blade, he might have thought Huo Yutong had swapped it out.

By the way, someone in the group earlier complained that Lao Luo had misplaced his points, saying he should have invested in illusion or hypnosis abilities, which would be the proper direction for a spiritual type.

Actually, Lao Luo isn't lacking in those abilities; he has demonstrated many common spiritual‑type tricks using his necromancer.

However, most of those abilities share a common flaw: they can only be used on opponents much weaker than himself, which is why he doesn't use them often.

(End of chapter)