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The next day, Bai Xu waited early outside Leng Jiuming's room, intending to discuss matters with him. He knocked on Gu Yue's door and said, "Are you up? Come out, we need to talk."
"Coming."
Within half a quarter-hour, the three of them gathered in Bai Xu's room.
He spoke first. "Teacher, instead of investigating aimlessly like this, why not let me use my third soul skill on the village chief? We can make him voluntarily reveal what really happened that night. I have a feeling his words are half-truths—we can't trust him completely."
Leng Jiuming's expression turned stern. "Your third soul skill, Mental Domination, has never been used on a human before. If it affects the target, the consequences could range from dementia to brain death. You can't afford that responsibility. I won't allow it."
Leng Jiuming flatly rejected Bai Xu's suggestion and strode out the door, issuing a sharp warning. "Bai Xu, don't worry. Today, I'll get to the bottom of this. You and Gu Yue stay at the inn. Don't use that soul skill on ordinary people. I won't let you gamble your future on something that has nothing to do with you. Once we return, I'll apply for you to test your third soul skill on death row inmates at East Sea Prison. If there are no adverse effects, you can use it freely in the future."
Bai Xu fell silent. His teacher was genuinely looking out for him. The mental sea of humans was different from that of soul beasts. Low-level soul beasts mostly lacked intelligence, acting purely on instinct, making them easy to control.
But even the weakest human possessed basic intelligence. Tampering with their mental sea carried the risk of collapse, leading to brain death.
Gu Yue, seeing Bai Xu's silence, rarely teased him. "You were so confident controlling those hundred-year soul beasts in the Spirit Ascension Platform, making them kill each other effortlessly. Why hesitate when it comes to humans?"
Bai Xu sneered. "I'm not hesitating. I just don't want to disappoint those who care about me."
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The sound of a cane tapping echoed as the hunched village chief pushed open the slightly ajar door. His voice was hoarse. "Young masters, where would you like to investigate today?"
Bai Xu stood up. "Take us around the island's perimeter."
"Of course. Please follow me."
Bai Xu had no good intentions. He leisurely followed the village chief to the coastline, circling the island while admiring the natural seascape. The view was breathtaking.
Just as Gu Yue was immersed in the scenery, her brow suddenly furrowed. Beside her, Bai Xu's eyes shimmered with a mysterious yellow glow—he had activated his third soul skill.
"Mental Domination."
Gu Yue didn't understand. Bai Xu was too stubborn, trusting only his own deductions. It seemed like he only believed half of what others said, needing to verify the rest himself to feel at ease.
But the next moment, Bai Xu's expression changed drastically.
The village chief seemed to sense something and turned to give them a strange look, smiling. "Young masters, the island's seascape is beautiful, isn't it?"
Gu Yue saw Bai Xu feign calmness as he replied, "Yes, it is."
Then, she received his telepathic message: "The village chief is suspicious. His mental sea is completely withered—he's being controlled by a dark energy. Probably a evil soul master, and one skilled in manipulation at that."
Gu Yue was stunned. This was unexpected.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted from the distant sea. The once-calm waters surged into towering ten-meter waves.
A kilometer away, a battle raged. A massive Blue-Ringed Jellyfish emerged from the sea, facing off against Leng Jiuming, who was piloting a mecha in the sky.
"Now!"
Bai Xu's mental attack struck silently. As expected, the village chief clutched his head and howled in agony, writhing on the ground, his true nature revealed.
"Damn you, Spirit Pagoda! You… I'll kill you, you little brat!"
Gu Yue frowned. "This isn't his real body?"
"No. He's using a control-type soul skill. His real body must be hidden somewhere on the island. Let's go—hide, now!"
The two didn't have time to worry about what was happening with their teacher. A surge of dark soul power erupted from the island, and a shadowy figure rose into the air. Six soul rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black—floated around him. His eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging on his forehead. Bai Xu's mental attack had clearly transferred pain to his real body, enraging him.
"You little bastards, where do you think you're running?"
A Soul Emperor was terrifyingly fast. The island was small—within moments, he blocked Bai Xu's path. His dark purple mecha spewed black mist, exuding an evil aura.
"Huh? An evil soul master!?"
Several kilometers away, Leng Jiuming, still locked in combat with the Blue-Ringed Jellyfish swarm, paled. Sensing the evil soul master's presence, he immediately activated his mecha to return to the island.
Bai Xu shouted, "Listen! My teacher will be back in less than a minute. I don't know what scheme you've set up in this fishing village, but if you know what's good for you, get lost!"
The figure in the dark mecha chuckled disdainfully. "I just heard a junior awakened an evil martial soul nearby and came to take a look. And a minute? That's more than enough time to kill you both dozens of times over!"
The mecha moved like a blur—its massive fist descended toward Bai Xu's skull in an instant.
But Bai Xu's figure flickered, reappearing a hundred meters away. Gu Yue had pulled him to safety with her Spatial Teleportation, saving his life.
"Mental Strangulation!"
Bai Xu wasn't helpless. He had already scattered mental threads around him. The moment the evil soul master attacked, dozens of mental threads shot into the enemy's mental sea.
"AHHHHH—!!!"
"How is this possible!? You're only a three-ringed soul master! How can you injure a Soul Emperor!?"
The evil soul master's mental sea convulsed violently, its boundaries destabilizing. His spiritual space teetered on the brink of collapse. Inside, he was like a hedgehog, pierced by Bai Xu's mental spikes, writhing in agony on the sea's surface.
---
Outside.
Gu Yue carried Bai Xu, teleporting repeatedly across the water. He was unconscious, blood seeping from his seven orifices—a backlash from the mental attack.
Gu Yue examined his face, murmuring, "Strange. His mental attack easily tore through a Soul Emperor's defenses and even damaged his soul origin. Yet the backlash wasn't as severe as expected—just unconsciousness, no mental collapse. Is his soul hierarchy that high? Higher than even I can comprehend?"
Gu Yue carried Bai Xu, rushing toward Leng Jiuming. Within seconds, they met.
She summarized quickly. "The village chief was controlled by an evil soul master. Bai Xu was injured by him. This whole place seems like a death trap set by the Evil Soul Master."
Leng Jiuming's eyes burned with fury at the sight of Bai Xu's condition. Forcing himself to stay calm, he swiftly returned to the island with them. The evil soul master was no longer writhing on the shore—he had fled.
The moment they landed, Leng Jiuming sensed the escaping figure. His voice turned icy.
"You think you can run?"
His two-word battle armor activated, instantly boosting his speed. A few explosions echoed in the distance before a limp body was hurled back like a dead dog.
"A six-ringed Soul Emperor. Rare to encounter one like this."
His gaze remained cold as he drew a soul-conducting sword, swiftly crippling the Evil Soul Master's limbs. Then, with a furious palm strike to the chest, he severed the man's meridians, rendering him unable to use soul power.
Only then did he turn his attention to Bai Xu's treatment. But Bai Xu had no external injuries—only mental backlash. There was no conventional way to heal him.
Then, Leng Jiuming remembered something. He retrieved a palm-sized spirit fruit from his storage device, radiating dense soul energy.
"Soul Nourishment Fruit."
Gu Yue was surprised. "Teacher, are you going to feed that to Bai Xu? He can't refine it in his current state!"
Leng Jiuming shook his head. "You don't understand. His body is… unique. Different from ours. Eating might still help. This fruit nourishes the soul—it's perfect for his condition."
As the fruit entered Bai Xu's stomach, a surge of soul energy triggered a transformation. His spleen and lungs glowed with earthy yellow and golden light, respectively. Then, the metal element generated water, and his kidneys shimmered with dark blue specks. The water element fused with the others, combining with the fruit's energy to nourish Bai Xu's soul.
Leng Jiuming observed the phenomenon without surprise, warning Gu Yue, "Remember—what you see must never be spoken of."
Gu Yue stared intently at Bai Xu's body and nodded. "Understood."
Within minutes, Bai Xu awoke.
Seeing Leng Jiuming, he relaxed. "Teacher, this guy was controlling the village chief. The real chief is already dead."
Leng Jiuming nodded. "I've found Zhang Wa and his mother."
"What!? Where?"
"At the center of the Blue-Ringed Jellyfish swarm."
"What!?" Both Gu Yue and Bai Xu were shocked.
Leng Jiuming explained, "It seems the jellyfish swarm formed a bond with Zhang Wa and protected him. That swarm has a jellyfish at least eighty thousand years old—even I struggled against it. We won't be able to complete the mission, but capturing a six-ringed Evil Soul Master is still a worthy result."
BOOM!
The situation shifted abruptly. A hundred-meter-long Blue-Ringed Jellyfish surfaced right before them.
On its head sat Zhang Wa and his mother.
Leng Jiuming instantly activated his battle armor and mecha, shielding Bai Xu and Gu Yue as he faced the eighty-thousand-year soul beast.
But Gu Yue's expression grew strange. Her eyes flickered with shifting emotions as she stared at the blue-robed woman atop the jellyfish.
Bai Xu's eyes glowed faintly with yellow light. He whispered, "A hundred-thousand-year soul beast in human form."
"What!?"
Leng Jiuming was horrified. He didn't doubt Bai Xu's words for a second. No wonder the woman could command the jellyfish—she was a hundred-thousand-year-old Blue-Ringed Jellyfish who had taken human form!
That meant Zhang Wa was a hybrid—half-human, half-beast. No wonder the villagers saw him communicating with the jellyfish.
The blue-robed woman spoke. "Are you soul masters from the mainland? Can I entrust my child to you…?"
Leng Jiuming snorted. "He became Evil Soul Master and killed people. He'll be hunted by the soul master world."
"No, things aren't as you think." The woman gently stroked Zhang Wa's forehead. "Show them your martial soul."
Zhang Wa nodded. The Blue-Ringed Jellyfish merged with him—his hair and eyes turned azure, with no trace of evil energy.
His mother continued, "After the hundred-thousand-year-old Deep-Sea Alligator Gar appeared nearby, it devoured almost all the fish in the area. The village could no longer catch anything, and panic spread. Later, the villagers saw Zhang Wa playing with a young jellyfish by the shore. Rumors spread that our family was to blame. I tried to explain, but no one listened. So I gathered the jellyfish swarm to drive away the Alligator Gar. But then… my husband was driven to his death by the villagers. Zhang Wa witnessed it and lost control. This Evil Soul Master took advantage, twisting his martial soul and nearly turning him into one of them. I fought him, rescued my child, and used a secret technique to stabilize his martial soul in the deep sea. That's why he didn't become Evil Soul Master."
Leng Jiuming remained wary. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"
Bai Xu, still weak, said, "Teacher, let me try."
He activated his third soul ring, using Mental Domination on the nearly dead Evil Soul Master. The man's eyes glazed over as Bai Xu demanded, "Is what she said true?"
The Evil Soul Master answered dully, "Yes… I passed by the village and saw the villagers driving Zhang Da to his death. For fun, I manipulated Zhang Wa, twisting his heart toward evil… Later, I learned of his mother's identity and grew greedy. I wanted to kill her, another Soul Emperor, to take her hundred-thousand-year soul ring…"
The Evil Soul Master confessed everything, revealing the truth.
But Gu Yue's expression darkened. She asked sharply, "Why would you marry a fisherman with barely any soul power? Why live on this island?"
Zhang Wa's mother smiled bitterly. "Why? Looking back… it was survival. I was a hundred-thousand-year-old Blue-Ringed Jellyfish, the strongest of my kind. But against the tides of time, I was powerless. The coastal areas were taken by humans. Soul beasts who ventured there were hunted. I led my clan to the deep sea, but it was ruled by ancient sea beasts—some over two hundred thousand years old. We couldn't survive. So I thought of humans. I wanted to understand them, to learn how human society worked, to secure a place for my kind near the coast. But I was wrong. When I took human form and entered their world, I saw how soul beasts were caged in the Star Dou Fortress. I knew there was no future here. So I came to this remote island, married, had a child, and lived in solitude. Then disaster struck. My family was destroyed, and I don't know where to go now. I'm already a level 69 Soul Emperor—one step from becoming fully human. But I don't want to… I want to live with my kin. I don't want to face the deceit and darkness hidden beneath human society's rules—an abyss deeper than the ocean. So I beg you… take my son. He's different. He's human."