Chapter 248: Secluded

Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong walked forward hand in hand, curiously looking around.

They were bypassing these plants, heading toward the lake at the center of the secret realm.

Although the abundance of plants is also abnormal, it is obvious that these plant-type soul beasts are the "fruit" of this secret realm, while the cause that turned the secret realm this way lies above the central lake.

After all, plant-type soul beasts can also be seen outside, but this wondrous lake can only be found within this secret realm.

Soon, they arrived at the shore of this wondrous lake, and as they drew nearer, their expressions turned solemn together.

Huo Yutong whispered, "Wulin, do you feel it?"

"En." Tang Wulin took a deep breath, feeling the two kinds of heavenly and earthly elemental forces permeating the air, and said: "These two springs are actually two completely different existences, one extremely hot, the other extremely cold; the abnormality of the heavenly and earthly qi here mostly stems from their clash."

"That's right!"

As soon as Tang Wulin finished speaking, he heard a lively female voice.

He jumped in surprise, followed the sound to look, and saw instead a pink big flower.

"Is it you?"

Tang Wulin tentatively asked.

The pink big flower vigorously shook its body, and the lively female voice sounded again.

"Yes yes yes, it's me, hello, what are you doing here?"

Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong did not answer her right away; their expressions were a bit strange at this moment.

This big flower is obviously not an ordinary plant-type soul beast, but a 100,000-year-level plant-type soul beast.

They could have expected many plant-type soul beasts here, but they truly did not expect a 100,000-year-level plant-type soul beast to exist.

Seeing them not speak, the big flower became dissatisfied.

"Ah, why aren't you talking? Speak more—I've been bored here for ten thousand years; it's rare for anyone to come here. Since you're here, keep me company and chat properly. By the way, what martial soul do you have, kid? I feel your aura makes me feel close."

Tang Wulin twitched the corner of his mouth.

"My martial soul is this."

As he spoke, his whole body emitted a burst of green light; under the radiance of the Natural Son, the entire secret realm suddenly fell into silence.

Immediately afterward, many voices sounded.

"What happened? Such strong vitality!"

"It seems two humans just came; I originally didn't want to bother, planning to leave it to Secluded, but it looks like they caused it."

"What? New humans came? Where, where—let me look."

Unlike those voices, the continuously chattering pink big flower instead started to stutter.

"You-you... this aura, are you the Natural Son?"

"En."

Tang Wulin lightly nodded, feeling somewhat puzzled.

However, he dare not speak more now; just now there were almost ten voices, and if these are all 100,000-year-level soul beasts, the number of 100,000-year plant-type soul beasts here actually approaches double digits. This is truly terrifying—once reaching the 100,000-year level, the gap between plant-type and animal-type soul beasts is no longer that great, and a 100,000-year plant-type soul beast cooperating with its territory has combat power approaching that of an Honored Douluo; with so many of them, if they launched a joint attack, even an ordinary super Douluo would struggle to withstand it.

Upon hearing him acknowledge his Natural Son identity, the pink big flower exaggeratedly shouted.

"Heavens! I never expected to see a Natural Son in my lifetime! Just now I really failed to recognize Mount Tai—truly disrespectful—but speaking of that, why would a Natural Son be a human?"

Tang Wulin frowned and countered:

"Wait a moment, may I ask your name? How should I address you?"

"Yes yes yes, my name is Fragrant Splendid Immortal Treasure; you can call me Secluded—how about that? What a cute nickname!"

"Cute." Tang Wulin gave a perfunctory reply, then asked: "Why do you know about the Natural Son martial soul? What's special about this martial soul?"

He originally thought the Natural Son martial soul should have randomly mutated after he absorbed a massive amount of life force from the Golden Ancient Tree, making it unique in this world.

After all, according to Mu En, before him only the legendary Tang San could have a god-level soul ring, and Tang San's god-level soul ring was not green-gold in color.

But seeing Secluded's reaction now, she obviously has heard the title Natural Son before.

This made Tang Wulin inevitably curious; he knows nothing about the Natural Son martial soul, its appearance is inexplicable, yet it possesses extremely formidable power—if used properly, his combat power would at least double.

Secluded said somewhat puzzled: "I do have some understanding of the Natural Son, but your situation is clearly different from what I know."

"Let's hear it?"

Tang Wulin was somewhat disappointed, yet he persisted in asking.

Anyway, knowing some information is better than knowing nothing.

Secluded said:

"According to my knowledge, the Natural Son is nature's seed; theoretically, when nature's life force is about to exhaust, it is born of nature, a miraculous object nurtured by heaven and earth. In my impression, the Natural Son can appear on any plant, and also on a few animals, but appearing in a human—I have never seen this before."

"So that's how it is."

After hearing Secluded's words, Tang Wulin suddenly understood.

In that case, his situation indeed differs greatly from what Secluded knows.

Not only is nature's life force not yet depleted, but he himself is neither a plant nor an animal.

…Nor is it certain; after absorbing the Dragon Pellet and the 100,000-Year Dragon Blood Lingzhi, theoretically his blood and meridians have already turned into dragon type, so calling him a humanoid soul beast now would not be a problem.

"…"

Tang Wulin silently shook his head, tossing that suddenly arisen idea out of his mind.

Even if his physical condition now is hardly different from that of a humanoid dragon, he did not have the Natural Son martial soul back then, so pondering this is meaningless.

Tang Wulin took a deep breath, sat down where he stood, and asked again: "So where is this place? Why is the scenery here so special? And who laid out all those Azure Phosphor Seven Absolutes Flowers in the outside world?"

He felt no hostility from Secluded, and with the absolute advantage the Natural Son martial soul gives him against plant-type soul beasts, his worried heart has eased somewhat.

(End of chapter)