Chapter 44: A Pile of Wolftaken Corpses, Evil Spirit Master, Poised and Ready
Walking back to the campfire, Tang Shan hadn't even fully sat down when a subtle ripple of spirit power emanated from the carriage nearby.
Su Haichao and Tang Shan exchanged a look, knowing Su Yuntao had finished his meditation. The two of them quickly stood up and walked toward the carriage.
"Yuntao, how do you feel?" Su Haichao asked hurriedly, looking at Su Yuntao's somewhat vacant eyes.
Su Yuntao looked around blankly and asked in confusion, "Why am I in the carriage?"
"Big brother, you fell into a state of Deep Meditation right after performing your Self-Created Soul Skill. To avoid delaying our journey, we had to carry you into the carriage."
Hearing Tang Shan's explanation, Su Yuntao finally noticed the wooden board beneath him and shifted his body slightly.
"Big brother, how does your body feel?" Tang Shan asked again.
"I feel very comfortable, but also somehow a bit weak."
Hearing this, Tang Shan breathed a sigh of relief. "It's natural for your body to feel refreshed after Deep Meditation, big brother. As for the weakness, you haven't eaten or drunk anything for several days; feeling weak now is perfectly normal."
"Can you move? Do you need a hand?" Su Haichao asked bluntly.
"No need, I'm not that weak." Su Yuntao waved his hand dismissively and stood up. Though he was a bit wobbly at first, he quickly recovered after taking a few steps outside the carriage.
The water on the campfire was bubbling and steaming. Tang Shan added some vegetables and seasonings, and before long, a fresh, savory aroma filled the clearing.
"Yuntao, what did you gain this time?" After confirming Su Yuntao had no major issues beyond some weakness, Su Haichao finally asked about the results of his Deep Meditation.
Su Haichao had never even heard the term 'Deep Meditation' until Tang Shan told him, which made him marvel even more at his son's vast knowledge.
"I've basically mastered that spirit power Cultivation Technique completely, my spirit power Rank has increased by one, and I've gained several new insights into fighting while in the Martial Soul Possession state." Listening to Su Yuntao list his cultivation achievements one by one, Tang Shan, sitting nearby, fell into silence once again.
He had only just told his big brother to slowly study the Cultivation Technique derived from his Spirit and Bloodline, yet he had already completely mastered it. What left Tang Shan even more speechless was that he remembered Su Yuntao had only recently reached Rank 23, and in less than ten days, he had already broken through to Rank 24.
Even knowing that Deep Meditation could boost cultivation speed and that accumulating spirit power at the Spirit Grandmaster stage didn't require much, this rate of promotion was simply too fast.
"My son Yuntao has the potential of a Titled Douluo." Su Haichao couldn't help but feel overjoyed for Su Yuntao, his voice full of pride.
Tang Shan's hand twitched involuntarily, nearly dropping his chopsticks into the pot.
Maybe neither he nor his big brother were the protagonists; it was hard to say if they weren't actually the villains.
Tang Shan still wasn't completely immune to Su Haichao's grand proclamations. After all, the power of the 'mysterious laws' hidden within them was truly terrifying. Even knowing this was the Douluo Continent, he couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy.
"Alright, it's ready to eat." After a moment, Tang Shan called Su Haichao and Su Yuntao to dinner.
Su Yuntao sat down beside Tang Shan with a hint of smugness on his face. "Little brother, don't worry. Once your big brother makes it big, I'll definitely look out for you."
Tang Shan irritably stuffed a freshly heated homemade meat bun into Su Yuntao's hand. "Just eat. Who knows who will be looking out for whom in the future."
The carriage continued along the official road. Su Yuntao leaned halfway out of the vehicle, eyes narrowed as he carefully recalled the feeling of releasing his Self-Created Soul Skill. In the next moment, he activated Martial Soul Possession, condensing all his spirit power into his left hand as sharp claws suddenly protruded, emitting a chilling glint.
The spirit power was absorbed by his left arm, circulating along a specific path, causing the arm to further transform toward the shape of a wolf's forelimb. In a flash, a phantom of the arm flickered, and a massive wolf claw phantom swept past, instantly leaving five claw marks of varying depths on the yellow earth.
"What a strong Self-Created Soul Skill." Tang Shan observed the entire process from the side and couldn't help but praise it after seeing the skill performed.
"It's stronger than my second Spirit Ability."
"That's thanks to the inspiration provided by your Spirit Ability, Dad." Su Yuntao was joyful but didn't let it go to his head, sensibly giving Su Haichao a compliment.
"Whoa—" The carriage suddenly braked hard. Fortunately, the vehicle's shock absorption was decent, so the three inside only swayed slightly.
Before they could ask, the panicked voice of the driver came from the front: "Lord Spirit Masters, there are many corpses ahead! They look like Wolftaken!" Hearing this, the three exchanged looks and hurried out of the carriage. They saw the old coachman standing in front of the cabin, trembling violently, clearly frightened out of his wits.
"You should take cover inside the carriage first," Su Haichao said to the driver.
"Thank you, Lord Spirit Master." The driver was clever enough to know he couldn't help outside. He bowed in thanks and scrambled back into the carriage cabin.
By now, Tang Shan could see the gruesome scene before them. Creatures that looked like a cross between humans and wolves lay on the ground, their skin shriveled and wrinkled as if all moisture had been sucked out. There wasn't much blood on the ground, only occasional red spots.
Tang Shan cautiously confirmed that these half-human, half-wolf creatures had all lost their lives before stepping forward to investigate closely.
These creatures were covered in grey fur with large skeletal frames. Where the fur was sparse, pale skin was visible. Their heads were a disturbing mix of human faces and wolf muzzles, exuding a sense of eeriness. Their overall build possessed both the agility of a wolf and the flexibility of a human, but their muscles were withered and shrunken as if they had been weathered for a long time.
There were quite a few of these corpses, at least a dozen.
"Dad, are Wolftaken corpses always like this after they die? It feels a bit bizarre," Tang Shan turned to ask Su Haichao.
"I'm not sure. In my youth, I mostly encountered evil Spirit Masters; my mission was to eliminate them completely. Plus, the area around Nuoding City is relatively stable. This is the first time I've encountered Wolftaken."
Tang Shan suddenly remembered something and walked back to the carriage, quietly asking the driver inside, "Old sir, are you sure those corpses belong to Wolftaken?"
"Absolutely no mistake. When I was driving for other noble lords before, I encountered a pack of Wolftaken. Although they weren't as strange as these, they looked about the same."
"That is a bit strange." Tang Shan keenly caught the key point in the old driver's words.
"Yes, Lord Spirit Master." The driver nodded, his face filled with confusion. "I remember the Wolftaken I met before were all heavily muscled, burly, and incredibly fierce. Even in death, they radiated a terrifying aura. I don't know why the ones I just saw are so shriveled."
Tang Shan nodded, ignoring the descriptions of 'terrifying aura' and 'fierceness' to extract the core of the statement: "The Wolftaken you saw before had very well-developed muscles, right?" The driver nodded vigorously in confirmation.
"I'm afraid this might be trouble." Returning to Su Haichao's side, Tang Shan's brow furrowed as he subconsciously heightened his alertness to the surroundings.
"What's wrong?" Su Haichao was also curious about what Tang Shan had learned from the driver.
"I suspect these Wolftaken might have encountered an Evil Spirit Master. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so little blood from so many corpses, not to mention those withered muscles."
Hearing the words "Evil Spirit Master" and seeing the scene before him, Su Haichao's expression immediately turned solemn. He said in a low voice, "Get ready to board the carriage. Let's see if we can take a detour."
No one understood the danger of Evil Spirit Masters better than Su Haichao, the branch head of the Nuoding City Spirit Hall. One of the duties of every city's Spirit Hall was to investigate information regarding suspected Evil Spirit Masters and immediately report it through specialized communication channels. Spirit Hall would then dispatch a Judgement Squad to hunt them down, seeking to pull them out by the roots.
If a truly powerful Evil Spirit Master was encountered—at the Spirit Saint level—a Titled Douluo would be sent to hunt them. If a Spirit Douluo-level Evil Spirit Master emerged, two Enshrined Priests from the Hall of Worship would be sent to act together, ensuring absolute suppression and leaving the opponent no chance to resist.
Among the three of them, there was one Spirit Ancestor, one Spirit Grandmaster, and one Spirit Master. They couldn't possibly withstand the threat of an Evil Spirit Master. Su Haichao didn't let his head get clouded; he had no intention of facing an Evil Spirit Master head-on. At most, he would inform the local Spirit Hall once they reached the next city.
Su Yuntao reacted extremely quickly, turning back to the carriage and pulling the driver out to sit beside him at the front of the cabin. "Prepare to turn around and leave. I'll be here at the front with you; don't be afraid."
Tang Shan and Su Haichao also boarded. Tang Shan cautiously observed the surroundings from the outside, while Su Haichao adjusted his state, ready to face a crisis at any moment.
He was the strongest of the three. If they really encountered danger, he would be the primary force, so he had to keep himself in peak condition at all times.
Although the driver was full of fear, Su Yuntao's presence beside him gave him a slight sense of security. He took the whip with trembling hands, took a deep breath, and drove the carriage slowly around the pile of corpses.
"Help! Is anyone there to save me!" As his Spirit and body gradually merged, Tang Shan's five senses became increasingly sharp. His ears twitched slightly, and he was the first to hear the cry for help.
By now, they were quite a distance away from the previous pile of corpses.
"Big brother," Tang Shan called out to Su Yuntao. Su Yuntao subconsciously looked back and saw a cold glint on his little brother's face, his eyes filled with bone-chilling killing intent.
At that moment, Su Haichao's Voice Transmission sounded in his ear: "Shan Zi probably heard a cry for help. This should be the enhancement of the five senses from the Body Martial Soul. I only just heard it myself. Keep an eye out for the person calling for help later. If anything seems wrong, the three of us will strike with full force immediately."
After the three of them communicated their response strategy via Voice Transmission, they were poised and ready. Tang Shan was the first to get off the carriage, followed by his Martial Soul Possession. His body expanded rapidly, though no spirit rings appeared.
In this state, Tang Shan looked like nothing more than a burly young man. There were no signs of beast transformation, and he held no weapons. Even if someone realized he was a Spirit Master, they wouldn't suspect he had already released his Spirit.
After all, when a Body Martial Soul was activated, there wasn't much difference in appearance. Since Tang Shan had a whole-body type Body Martial Soul, there was nothing unusual about him after activation other than being taller and stronger.
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