Chapter 3: Unhurried Probing

"I'm not sure." Xiadie shook her head gently.

"After we see this matter through, I think we can have a proper talk."

"By then, perhaps Yi Lao will be able to see something."

Xiadie withdrew her consciousness from the Spirit Sea; the conversation mainly involved her.

"Little Yuhao, aren't you going to introduce us to this pretty little sister?" The speaker was Tang Ya. Xiadie, dressed in an ornate long gown, looked somewhat out of place against the atmosphere of the Star Dou Great Forest.

Huo Yuhao scratched his head, unsure how to introduce them. This was only their first meeting; in terms of familiarity, neither side knew each other as well as Tang Ya and Beibei, whom he had met twice and even fed his grilled fish.

"Hello, I'm Xiadie, a physician." Xiadie said with a slight smile.

"You're not a Soul Master?" Tang Ya asked, surprised.

"I am a Soul Master, otherwise I wouldn't be in the Star Dou Great Forest, but my main profession is physician. Meeting Little Brother Yuhao was also an accident."

"This is your first meeting?"

Tang Ya was surprised; she had assumed the two had known each other long ago.

"I lost consciousness from an accident while absorbing a spirit ring and met this kind big sister." Huo Yuhao answered Tang Ya, then, recalling that Xiadie was a physician, simply put it that way.

"So that's how it is!" Tang Ya and Beibei exclaimed in realization.

"Sister Xiao Ya, are you also here to hunt spirit rings?" Huo Yuhao asked curiously.

Two yellow hundred-year spirit rings rose beneath Tang Ya's feet. She grinned: "I plan to absorb the spirit ring of a thousand-year Mandragora Snake to break through my level-30 bottleneck."

"Blue Silver Grass, absorbing a Mandragora Snake?" Xiadie's eyelids shifted slightly, her delicate brows furrowing.

"What's wrong with Blue Silver Grass?" Tang Ya glared at Xiadie with hostility.

Xiadie shook her head and said, "If Blue Silver Grass keeps absorbing Poison Attribute Spirit Beast spirit rings, your martial soul will eventually be ruined."

"Wh-what did you say!?" Tang Ya bristled like an angry cat. "You're questioning our Tang Sect ancestor!"

"Tang Sect, is that the Tang Sect?" Huo Yuhao exclaimed.

Hearing Huo Yuhao's voice, Tang Ya's tone softened somewhat.

"That's right. The sect I belong to is the former number-one sect under heaven, the Tang Sect. Most of our sect's successive leaders have used Blue Silver Grass as their main martial soul, and we strictly follow our ancestor's spirit ring ratios when absorbing spirit rings."

"Our ancestor was a divine powerhouse; we do this to honor him."

"I can feel your reverence." Xiadie sighed softly. "But a mistake is still a mistake."

"Ancestor Tang San couldn't have been wrong."

Beibei couldn't help but step forward, standing together with Tang Ya.

"He is the Sea God himself. What are you, daring to question him!"

Xiadie shook her head gently and said, "Your ancestor Tang San's martial soul was never Blue Silver Grass, but the emperor among Blue Silver Grass—the Blue Silver Emperor."

"B-Blue Silver Emperor?"

Beibei and Tang Ya were stunned; this touched a gap in their knowledge.

Xiadie sighed and said, "I'm a physician, so I've read a rather varied and extensive collection of books."

"As I know, the Sea God of ten thousand years ago was a holder of twin martial souls, inheriting his father's Clear Sky Hammer and his mother's Blue Silver Emperor."

"According to the conditions for twin martial souls to exist, ordinary Blue Silver Grass simply cannot be twinned with the Clear Sky Hammer. Even if that lord's martial soul began as Blue Silver Grass, it was no ordinary Blue Silver Grass."

"What he could achieve, you may not necessarily be able to achieve."

"Miss Tang Ya mentioned she comes from the Tang Sect—doesn't the sect have corresponding records?"

Xiadie looked at Tang Ya; her purple eyes were so calm that one could read no emotion in them.

Tang Ya had already fallen into a daze, her head buzzing, the three words "Blue Silver Emperor" echoing endlessly in her mind, her breathing growing rapid.

After the Sun Moon Continent and Douluo Dalu collided, a sweeping, protracted war engulfed both continents.

The Tang Sect also lost many of its records in that vast upheaval, but indeed some legends and biographies do mention that the Tang Sect ancestor's Blue Silver Grass was stronger than ordinary Blue Silver Grass.

"That proves nothing." Beibei said, sticking out his neck. "How do you know the Sea God's martial soul was the Blue Silver Emperor?"

"Sir, didn't you understand what I said?" Xiadie asked, puzzled. "Even without the legends, a martial soul like Blue Silver Grass cannot support being twinned with the Clear Sky Hammer."

"The Clear Sky Hammer is a top-tier martial soul. To be twinned with it, the other martial soul must be at least close to, or equal to, a top-tier martial soul. Has Blue Silver Grass reached that level?"

"You must be students of a Soul Master academy as well. Didn't your academy teach you these things?"

"I recall the academy closest to the Star Dou Great Forest is Shrek Academy, the continent's foremost institution. If you could enter—no, even many advanced academies have books recording information on twin martial souls."

"You two, um, do you never read books!"

Silence. The surroundings became utterly quiet.

Huo Yuhao's face was a picture of blank confusion, knowing nothing, but Beibei and Tang Ya were indeed Shrek students—Beibei especially, being the great-grandson of a level-99 Limit Douluo.

Of course he knew the conditions for twin martial souls to exist.

However, the other party was pointing at their noses and scolding them, saying the people of Shrek were uncultured, didn't read books, didn't study, only knew how to charge ahead—was that right?

"Sigh!" Xiadie sighed. "Let me educate you a bit more."

"Why I say Blue Silver Grass shouldn't absorb Poison-type beast martial souls is because ordinary Blue Silver Grass doesn't have the margin for error that the Blue Silver Emperor has."

"The original attribute of Blue Silver Grass—as Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters, you surely know this too."

"It is an attribute completely unrelated to poison."

"Just because your ancestor could absorb them doesn't mean you ordinary Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters can. Think about it—among the Soul Masters who have absorbed spirit rings this way, has a single one exceeded level 50?"

"N-no, that's not it."

Tang Ya staggered, nearly falling, her body trembling uncontrollably.

Yes, the other party was right.

Even if she didn't want to admit it, for several thousand years not a single Blue Silver Grass Soul Master of the Tang Sect had exceeded level 50, no matter how high their innate soul power.

In other words, they were wrong.

Thousands of years of persistence had been utterly meaningless.

Looking at the two of them with stunned, vacant expressions as if they'd been broken, Xiadie sighed. "Actually, it doesn't matter if you don't care. As a healer, I sometimes say more than I should. You can just let it go in one ear and out the other."

Xiadie shook her head, no longer bothering with the two dazed people, and looked toward Huo Yuhao at the side.

"What does little brother Yuhao think?"

Huo Yuhao gave a start, glanced at the dazed Tang Ya, then looked back at Xiadie, whose expression had remained calm all along.

"I-I don't know." He had just gone to ask Brother Tianmeng. Tianmeng hadn't put it very bluntly, but the basic judgment was that what Sister Xiadie had said wasn't wrong.

"Your martial soul is a pair of eyes, isn't it?" Xiadie asked.

"Y-yes." Huo Yuhao answered in surprise, only realizing after replying that he'd just given his secret away.

Xiadie nodded and said, "Eye-type martial souls fall under the category of Body Spirits. I sensed considerable Spirit Power from you earlier, so it must be a spiritual-type Body Spirit."

"If you want a Body Spirit to develop better, my personal suggestion is that you join the Body Sect, or else go to the Sun Moon Empire, which is known for its Spirit Engineers, and enroll in the Sun Moon Imperial Academy."

"Joining the Body Sect gives you access to a method for a second awakening of the Body Spirit, and becoming a Spirit Engineer is also a relatively good choice."

After saying this, Xiadie paid the three of them no more attention and walked toward the outer edge of the forest.

Her figure quickly vanished into the dense trees.

Once Xiadie had put some distance between herself and Huo Yuhao's group, and no longer sensed that spying presence, she couldn't help but let out a breath of relief.

"Why didn't you pull that child over?" Yilaikesi's voice suddenly rang out.

"Yi Lao, no need to test me." Xiadie shook her head. "I don't believe you didn't notice the fellow overhead."

"Sigh!" Yilaikesi let out a long breath. "That child really is pitiful."

"Come to think of it, little friend, you're not from this world, are you."