It didn't take long for Zhao Youyue to finish getting dressed. She turned around and looked at Jiang Chen with some curiosity.
"Master," she called softly.
Jiang Chen turned around and said calmly, "From now on, you'll follow me."
Zhao Youyue said respectfully, "Youyue will forever follow Master."
Being called "Master" by a beautiful girl made Jiang Chen feel a bit strange inside.
"From now on, in front of outsiders, just call me Xiao Chen."
"Understood, Master."
Jiang Chen glanced at Lin Feng and saw that the other party was already completely dead. He turned and walked outside, with Zhao Youyue quickly following.
Outside, Zhao Youyue noticed the corpses of those five people. Their deaths were identical, skin pitch-black all over, quite terrifying.
Corpses like these probably wouldn't even be eaten by soul beasts.
Jiang Chen said nothing and silently headed toward the mountaintop.
"Master, it's already dark now. Are we still going to continue traveling? We should be the fastest ones by now, right?" Zhao Youyue gathered her courage and asked.
She still didn't fully understand Jiang Chen's temperament. Aside from the fear and obedience imprinted on her soul, her understanding of him came only from his powerful performance in the cave earlier.
Right now, in her heart, she only knew that her master was far stronger than her, with freakish strength and talent.
Jiang Chen replied, "No, we'll spend the night at the mountaintop."
Zhao Youyue grew even more curious. There was a cave they could stay in—why choose the mountaintop?
Jiang Chen ignored Zhao Youyue's curiosity. As he walked, he recalled the information about her.
The Zhao family that Zhao Youyue belonged to was a major clan attached to the Spirit Hall, with considerable strength. Zhao Youyue was the pearl in the palm of the Zhao family head, the one with the highest talent in the current generation of the Zhao family.
At just eleven years old, she had already reached the level of a twenty-fourth rank Great Soul Master, so it was inevitable that she was somewhat arrogant and looked down on those with weaker talent than herself.
However, though Zhao Youyue was somewhat ruthless, her experience was still too limited. She hadn't realized that those five people had already been Lin Feng's subordinates, and she had nearly suffered humiliation.
They kept walking until they reached the mountaintop before Jiang Chen finally stopped.
"Master, thank you for saving me," Zhao Youyue said gratefully.
Jiang Chen looked up at her and smiled faintly. "Didn't you 'thank' me earlier with a dagger?"
Zhao Youyue's face showed panic. She quickly knelt. "Please punish me, Master."
"Get up. If I wanted to punish you, I would have done it long ago," Jiang Chen said.
"Mm, thank you, Master."
"Release your martial soul and let me see it," Jiang Chen said.
Zhao Youyue nodded and summoned her martial soul with a thought.
Above her head appeared a bright moon. Its moonlight scattered down, hazy and indistinct, making her appear even colder and nobler, while adding a sense of ethereal emptiness.
Two yellow soul rings revolved around her body.
The moment Zhao Youyue released her martial soul, that strange feeling in Jiang Chen's heart grew increasingly intense.
"Master, my first soul skill is called Moonlight Like Water. It's a control-type skill. Under the coverage of my martial soul's moonlight, everyone's speed decreases by twenty percent. The second skill is Moonlight Slash, an attack-type skill."
Jiang Chen nodded. "Release your first soul skill and let me see it."
"Alright." The first yellow soul ring on Zhao Youyue's body lit up. The surrounding moonlight seemed to change, gaining a somewhat viscous quality.
But Jiang Chen felt something different. Under Zhao Youyue's skill, he didn't sense the speed reduction she described. After carefully examining it, he realized that his own speed had actually increased by twenty percent under her skill.
When he told Zhao Youyue about this, she was also puzzled. She had never encountered such a situation before.
"It's somewhat useful," Jiang Chen thought to himself. He had originally considered that if Zhao Youyue staying by his side proved useless, he might as well kill her.
But what puzzled him was that the strange feeling wasn't caused by this skill.
"Could it be…" A possibility occurred to him.
With a thought, he activated his zombie martial soul. Instantly, that strange sensation became extremely clear.
He could feel that Zhao Youyue's martial soul had a deep attraction toward him.
Zhao Youyue was momentarily stunned. Suddenly, she cried out in surprise, "Master, I suddenly have a very strange feeling… it's like… I suddenly really want to get close to you."
As she spoke, her pretty face suddenly flushed red. Although her master was still just a child, he was still male, and he was her master.
What Zhao Youyue described was exactly the strange feeling Jiang Chen had. When both of their martial souls were released at the same time, a desire to approach Zhao Youyue suddenly welled up in his heart.
"Mm, then come over," he said.
Zhao Youyue nodded and walked toward Jiang Chen. Suddenly, both of them felt a profound sensation, as if they had comprehended something indescribable and unclear.
Zhao Youyue's body suddenly became even more hazy, almost turning transparent.
Jiang Chen opened his arms, and boundless black qi emanated from his body, spreading over a radius of several meters.
Zhao Youyue's speed suddenly increased. She rushed straight into Jiang Chen's embrace and merged with him.
"Roar!"
Jiang Chen suddenly threw his head back and howled. His body rapidly grew taller, and the clothes on him were torn apart by the expansion.
The black qi swirling around him surged outward, expanding until it covered a ten-meter radius.
The black qi was like thick ink, constantly churning. From the outside, nothing inside could be seen at all.
At this moment, in the center of the black qi, Jiang Chen's transformation had stopped. His height had increased to one meter seventy. Through the torn gaps in his clothes, a lean and powerful body could be seen. His nails had extended, longer than before.
His handsome face now carried a hint of demonic allure, yet traces of his original appearance could still be vaguely seen.
In Jiang Chen's perception, Zhao Youyue seemed to have turned into a stream of energy residing within his body. The two could sense each other's thoughts, but the body was completely under Jiang Chen's control.
"So this is a martial soul fusion skill," both Jiang Chen and Zhao Youyue realized the characteristics of this martial soul fusion skill at the same time.
Within such dense black fog, where one couldn't see one's own hand in front of one's face, enemies would effectively become blind, while Jiang Chen's vision remained unaffected. His various abilities had also been enhanced.
Moreover, this black fog contained intense resentment, capable of confusing people's minds, infinitely amplifying their desire to kill, causing them to lose reason and even attack their own allies.
Enemies within the black fog would have their poison resistance reduced by fifty percent. Their blood would boil throughout their bodies; those with weaker cultivation might even have their blood forcibly expelled from their bodies, turning into energy for Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen released the martial soul fusion skill state and nodded slightly. This martial soul fusion skill was decent; its true effects would still need to be tested.
At this time, Zhao Youyue separated from Jiang Chen's body. Her face was flushed red. During their earlier fusion, she had been able to feel just how powerful Jiang Chen was.
Martial soul fusion skills were extremely rare. She never imagined she would encounter someone whose martial soul could fuse with hers.
Only now did Jiang Chen finally feel satisfied with Zhao Youyue.