Near noon, on the barren mountain more than thirty li west of Heaven Dou City, Chu Chengzhou was eating whale brain.
As the whale brain went down and digested, a ripple of soul power suddenly arose. His soul power level rose by another rank, stepping into level 79 Soul Sage.
"Tsk, not bad."
Clicking his tongue, he took another spoon of the richly fragrant whale brain and sighed inwardly.
Whale brain produced by a hundred-thousand-year sea soul beast was indeed good stuff. It tasted excellent and could raise soul power with no side effects.
Back then he had obtained six hundred-thousand-year sea soul beasts for Tang Yuehua. That meant six portions of whale brain. One portion went to his father-in-law Ning Fengzhi. The remaining five were still in his pocket.
If he took them all, Chu Chengzhou estimated his soul power level should quickly rise to around level 85 Soul Douluo, and that was excluding the soul power growth brought by adding the eighth soul ring.
Whale brain from hundred-thousand-year sea soul beasts was a treasure that even other hundred-thousand-year soul beasts coveted.
Even with a soul core in his body, and cultivating the gold-grade Nine-Breath Inhalation with its high soul power quality and much higher accumulation needed to advance compared to ordinary peers, one portion raising him two levels at the seven-ring stage and one level at the eight-ring stage was not excessive.
Just then, a six-ring flying-type Soul Emperor flew in from the eastern sky.
"Young Master Chu, this is from His Highness the Crown Prince."
Landing on the mountain peak, the flying-type Soul Emperor handed Chu Chengzhou a letter.
"Oh?"
Lifting his brows, Chu Chengzhou took the letter.
He opened it and found it was Qian Renxue informing him that Star Luo's people had arrived, but their exact strength was unknown.
How did Qian Renxue get the news? Credit went to Chu Chengzhou.
Star Luo had acted despicably, sending experts to assassinate him repeatedly. In response, Chu Chengzhou had used the Void Illusion Realm's power to tamper with minds, and with the manpower arranged by Qian Renxue, they had ripped out by the roots Star Luo's intelligence network planted in Heaven Dou's domain.
Qian Renxue did not have all those spies executed. She won over a portion instead.
With blades at their throats, aside from a few diehards, most were sensible.
Working for Star Luo is work. Working for Heaven Dou is also work.
Besides, being Star Luo's covert agent in name and Heaven Dou's informant in truth meant drawing two salaries.
Thus many spies, while taking pay from Star Luo, were also taking Heaven Dou's pay. Their task was to provide Star Luo with information that Heaven Dou allowed to be passed on, while reporting every action to Heaven Dou.
By coincidence, the middle-aged man Dai Wei had visited earlier was exactly such a Star Luo spy of complicated identity already won over by Heaven Dou.
At such a critical moment, requesting the latest intel on Chu Chengzhou, combined with Dai Wei's highest-level Star Luo intel token and code, and the golden hair that even a black robe could not fully hide.
Putting these together, even thinking with her toes, Qian Renxue could guess Star Luo's experts had arrived, so she sent someone to inform Chu Chengzhou.
"Tell Brother Qinghe I got it."
As red soul power glowed in his hand and burned the letter to ash, Chu Chengzhou spoke to the courier.
After the flying-type Soul Emperor departed, Chu Chengzhou manifested the True Spirit Banner martial soul in his hand. The fourth, sixth, and seventh soul rings flashed in succession, and his soul power plunged by more than one third.
With the surge of soul power, three figures condensed at his side, their sizes suppressed to under one meter: the more-than-ninety-thousand-year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear summon Xiong Da, the hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape summon Xiao Ming, and the hundred-and-ten-thousand-year Dark Devilgod Tiger summon Xiao Hei.
The experts Star Luo sent this time would certainly not be few. Chu Chengzhou began his calculations.
Xiao Ming and Xiao Hei had both condensed soul cores. Without fighting, the energy their soul cores restored on their own could cover their consumption.
Although Xiong Da had not condensed a soul core, simply maintaining Xiong Da's existence without fighting cost little, and since he himself bore a soul core, his internal recovery far outpaced the drain.
Summoning the three in advance, rather than calling them during the fight, effectively saved him over a third of his own soul power. Smart and efficient.
Then Chu Chengzhou sat and waited for Star Luo's strong enemies to arrive.
Time slipped by. The sun set, the moon rose, and night fell.
"The wind tonight is very noisy."
On the mountaintop, listening to the howling night wind, Chu Chengzhou could not help thinking to himself.
Suddenly, the little black cat at his side, cute in appearance with a pair of black wings on its back and a black barb on its tail, snapped its head up and looked toward the southeast.
Right after, Chu Chengzhou also sensed five figures with notable auras flying in from the southeast.
"Hm? Nine-ring Titled Douluo?"
Rising to his feet, he cocked an eyebrow and looked southeast in mild surprise.
Shouldn't the experts from the Star Luo Empire be Titled-level Hell White Tigers? Why are these normal nine-ring Titled Douluo?
The next moment, Chu Chengzhou's face grew solemn.
Even Titled Douluo, and five of them at that. Clearly Star Luo had gone all in. Barring surprises, behind these five advance Titled Douluo there would surely be many Titled-level Hell White Tigers.
While a martial soul fusion skill can massively amplify a spirit master's strength, it is not without drawbacks. Maintaining the fusion consumes a huge amount of soul power.
Energy is conserved. An eight-ring White Tiger paired with a six or seven-ring Hell Civet has far less total soul power than a nine-ring Titled Douluo. With equal output, their endurance will be far worse.
Therefore, before sighting the enemy and officially engaging, spirit masters capable of fusion will not activate it early, to avoid wasting soul power.
Which meant these five Titled Douluo were here to probe. Once they confirmed he was here, the big tiger with wings would arrive quickly.
Makes sense. With both the emperor and the crown prince killed by him, if the Star Luo Empire still held back, that would be unreasonable.
By his estimate, the experts that counted as Star Luo's true heritage would all show up tonight.
Not long after Chu Chengzhou sensed the five Titled Douluo, among them the one with the highest soul power and strongest spiritual power, Azure Dragon Douluo Cao Lie, also locked onto Chu Chengzhou.
Without hesitation, Azure Dragon Douluo Cao Lie drew a cylindrical object from his storage soul tool.
An instant later, a signal flare shot skyward and burst into brilliant fire in the night.
T/N: For up to 30 chapters ahead on my translations, become a p@tron at [email protected]/LordHipposApostle