In the secret chamber of Liu Yuan's Dukes Mansion, the azure spirit power aftershocks from his Breakthrough had not yet fully subsided when the cold, murderous System notification fell silent within his Sea of Consciousness.
Liu Yuan's slightly closed eyes snapped open, an irrepressible flash of joy flickering in the depths of his gaze.
"The seventh spirit ring... it's finally here!"
For any Spirit Master, Rank 70 was a watershed moment.
Only by crossing this threshold could one come into contact with the core power of the Spirit Master world—the Martial Soul True Body.
The rewards given by the System were outrageously generous: a god-bestowed spirit ring with a guaranteed minimum age of a hundred thousand years!
This meant that as long as Liu Yuan could withstand the pressure, his seventh spirit ring would likely be a non-conventional red, or perhaps even higher.
In the face of this 'cheat-like' efficiency, the boredom of spending a whole year in seclusion just to gain four ranks instantly vanished.
However, as Liu Yuan's gaze shifted to the detailed text description on the quest panel, the joy in his eyes cooled at a visible rate, replaced by an extreme coldness and disgust.
"Holy Spirit Cult..." Liu Yuan gritted his teeth, his knuckles emitting a crisp cracking sound from the force of his grip.
Having been in the Sun Moon Empire for so long, he admitted that the advanced Soul tool technology and the directness of social interactions here made him comfortable, but the only thing that made him nauseous were these Evil Soul Masters who were like maggots in the bone.
They hid in the shadows, sucking the flesh and blood of this country like vampires.
"These vermin... really do need a proper cleaning."
Liu Yuan slowly stood up and pushed open the heavy iron door of the secret chamber.
In the courtyard, an ice-blue figure stood like a proud snow lotus, having already waited for a long time.
The Snow Empress stood quietly under a tree; any falling leaves that came within three feet of her body were silently frozen and fell to the ground.
Sensing the unprecedentedly majestic aura emanating from Liu Yuan, the Snow Empress turned her head, a flash of softness and relief appearing in her cold eyes.
"You broke through?" the Snow Empress asked softly, her voice like an icy spring hitting a stone.
"Mm, Rank 70." Liu Yuan walked to her side, his gaze looking toward the border.
"But now is not the time for celebration. Snow Empress, accompany me out for a bit. Some rats in the gutter are getting too lively; I want to go and crush them all to death."
"Alright." The Snow Empress didn't ask any unnecessary questions.
Spending nearly two years together had caused a subtle change in the relationship between her and Liu Yuan.
If it had started as a contract under duress, then now, the tacit understanding and attachment born from the depths of their Souls had long since made the two inseparable.
The Snow Empress was no longer just Liu Yuan's protector, but more like an indispensable hue in his life.
Without making any noise, the two quietly left the Dukes Mansion under the cover of night.
...
Sun Moon Empire border, Chaotic Soul Ridge.
This was a valley floor covered by a dense and eerie jungle.
Due to the year-round miasma and its remote location, very few ordinary people ever set foot here.
But according to the System's precise navigation, Liu Yuan knew very well that the group of disgusting scum was hiding in the underground palace below.
Liu Yuan and the Snow Empress were like drifting clouds, quietly landing on the edge of the valley.
"The auras are messy, and the resentment is sky-high." The Snow Empress frowned slightly; as the possessor of Extreme Ice, she was extremely repulsed by this filthy and cold aura.
"Conceal your aura, let's sneak in and look first," Liu Yuan transmitted his voice deeply.
Their figures blurred. Relying on the Snow Empress's control over space and Liu Yuan's now profound Rank 70 spirit power, they bypassed the third and fourth-ring Evil Soul Master sentries at the palace entrance like ghosts, following a damp and dark corridor deep into the core area.
However, as they delved deeper, the sight that unfolded before them made even Liu Yuan, who was used to grand scenes, unable to stop himself from trembling.
It was a massive underground plaza.
In the center of the plaza stood a giant blood pool, with countless mutilated corpses soaking in the water.
Most of these corpses were nearby villagers, and some were even infants in swaddling clothes.
Even more heinous were the eerie green light orbs floating above the blood pool.
"Are those... Souls?" The Snow Empress's delicate body trembled slightly, the icy cold in her eyes turning into tangible killing intent.
Several Evil Soul Masters dressed in blood-red robes were holding Soul-Summoning Banners, forcibly extracting the living Souls of those commoners from the blood pool.
Those Souls were screaming and wailing, yet they were heartlessly stuffed into Soul Tool Bottles engraved with malicious runes.
"This is only one part of it." Liu Yuan pointed to the other side of the underground palace, his voice sounding as if it were squeezed through his teeth.
There, in rows of cages made of fine iron, dozens of numb-looking Spirit Masters were imprisoned.
Most of these Spirit Masters were only at the second or third-ring level, but in front of them sat several sealed containers.
A sinister-looking Evil Soul Master was holding a wailing living Soul, dangling it in front of a young Spirit Master.
"Do you see clearly? This is your biological father's Soul." The Evil Soul Master grinned cruelly, stabbing a glowing hot long needle into the Soul.
"If you're still unwilling to behave, I'll make him suffer this burning Soul fire a hundred times a day in front of your face until he experiences Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering!"
"No! Stop! Please stop... I'll listen! I'll listen, okay!" The young Spirit Master collapsed to the ground, kowtowing frantically.
This was the method of the Holy Spirit Cult.
They didn't just kill people; they destroyed their hearts. Using the Souls of loved ones as hostages, they forcibly enslaved those low-level Spirit Masters with families, turning them into the Holy Spirit Cult's death soldiers throughout the Empire.
"Is this what humans call 'civilization'?" The Snow Empress closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her snow-white hair moved without wind, and the surrounding air began to solidify into fine ice crystals.
"Liu Yuan, these things... can no longer be called living beings."
She turned to look at Liu Yuan, her eyes carrying an unprecedented solemnity.
"Can we start?"
Liu Yuan didn't answer immediately.
He slowly raised his head, feeling the spirit power within him surging wildly due to extreme anger. Phantoms of Primal Kyogre and Mega Rayquaza quietly emerged behind him.
At this moment, his rationality had taken a backseat; all that remained was the deepest judgment for these beasts.
"Kill."
Liu Yuan's gaze was ice-cold as he spoke to the Snow Empress.
"Leave not a single one. Clean out all of these vermin!"
BOOM—!
The moment Liu Yuan's words fell, the originally calm underground plaza was instantly dragged into doomsday.
An earth-shattering explosion directly shattered that disgusting blood pool!
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