Chapter 52: Beating the Young, Out Comes the Old
Ji Yin Old Man's smile stiffened for a moment.
'Why aren't you following the script? When I ask "want to know?", you're supposed to be terrified, confused, or scold me! Who told you to actually say you want to know?!'
Lin Xuan was getting a bit impatient; he cracked his wrists.
"Not talking? Then let's continue."
"You...!" Ji Yin Old Man was so enraged that his mangled flesh twitched, but then he laughed in extreme fury.
"Fine! Fine! I'll tell you! Because I..."
His mouth continued to open and close with exaggerated facial expressions, as if he were declaring something at the top of his lungs.
But Lin Xuan's ears received no sound at all; there was only an eerie silence.
'Did you leave your damn vocal cords at home?'
Just as Lin Xuan finished complaining in his mind, his expression suddenly froze!
Wait!
It wasn't that Ji Yin Old Man wasn't speaking, but that he couldn't speak right now... Lin Xuan snapped his head around, his gaze shooting like lightning into the depths of the dense forest behind Ji Yin Old Man!
At that moment, the Soul Power within his body circulated at full capacity without reservation, and his aura surged abruptly.
Almost at the same instant he finished going on guard, a raspy, indifferent voice suddenly sounded.
"Fool."
As those words rang out, a figure slowly stepped out from the shadow of an ancient tree—one so large it would take several people to encircle it—tens of meters behind Ji Yin Old Man.
It was a middle-aged man dressed in old gray cloth clothes. He had an ordinary face and eyes as calm as an ancient well, but his aura was extremely evil.
Another Evil Soul Master!
Lin Xuan's heart tightened.
At this moment, upon seeing the gray-clothed man, the ferocity and madness on Ji Yin Old Man's face actually vanished for the most part. He bowed slightly and said respectfully,
"Master."
Lin Xuan almost laughed out of anger.
Absurd.
As if it wasn't enough that his injuries were fully healed and his cultivation had broken through two levels within three days, there was even a master hidden behind him?
Did the last Shrek disciple who pursued Ji Yin Old Man just throw a Soul skills from eight hundred meters away and then report that they had heavily injured him?
The gray-clothed man ignored Ji Yin Old Man entirely. His indifferent gaze fell upon Lin Xuan, and he spoke slowly in a dry voice,
"Are you a student of Shrek Academy?"
"Heh... Shrek really is rotten to the core. To think they would only send a Soul Elder brat to carry out a pursuit mission nowadays?"
Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow and nodded in agreement, his tone sincere.
"It is indeed rotten to the core."
"..." The gray-clothed man's originally calm expression cracked slightly.
'What kind of reaction is this? Aren't you a student of Shrek? Why are you agreeing with me?'
But he quickly suppressed this flicker of surprise. Clearly unwilling to get entangled in a war of words, he cut straight to the point.
"I am Mysterious Bone." He paused. "I see that you are young, your cultivation is solid, and your methods are impressive. It would be a pity for you to die here."
"I can choose not to kill you. Not only that, I can even help you advance your cultivation. I can guarantee that within twenty years, you will reach the Soul Douluo realm. What do you say?"
Twenty years, Soul Douluo.
For an ordinary Soul Master, this was undoubtedly an irresistible temptation, enough to make many abandon their principles and fall into darkness.
However, Lin Xuan laughed softly after hearing this.
"Twenty years? Soul Douluo? Are you trying to brush off a beggar?"
Mysterious Bone's face darkened.
He hadn't expected the boy to not only be unmoved but to be so contemptuous.
"Brat, arrogance requires capital. I'm giving you a way out because I value talent. If you don't appreciate it, this place will be your grave today. I see you are a smart person; you should know how to choose."
Lin Xuan seemed to think for a moment before asking,
"It's not impossible for me to take you as my master, but you have to answer two questions for me."
"Speak."
"First, when did you and Ji Yin Old Man become master and disciple?" Lin Xuan asked.
Mysterious Bone was a bit surprised, but he still replied,
"The day before yesterday."
'The day before yesterday...' Lin Xuan understood.
If he hadn't guessed wrong, what happened was likely that after Ji Yin was heavily injured, he accidentally encountered Mysterious Bone in the Sunset Forest and was taken in as a disciple. Mysterious Bone not only healed his injuries but also allowed him to increase his Soul Power by two levels in a short amount of time.
Looking at it this way, did this Ji Yin Old Man also have a protagonist template?
Hunted by enemies, falling off a cliff, surviving a disaster, and learning divine arts... though in the end, he might have to add a bit about a 'kind master and filial disciple.'
If that's the case, Ji Yin better not take any more disciples, especially not a kid surnamed Han... Lin Xuan then asked his second question,
"Then what is your strength? After all, if you want to take a disciple, you have to show your worth. You can't just look at the disciple's talent, right?"
Mysterious Bone sneered. He didn't answer, but simply took a light step forward.
Two yellow, two purple, and one black—a total of five Soul Rings slowly rose from beneath his feet, pulsating rhythmically.
The Soul Power pressure belonging to the Spirit King level spread out like a tide.
"Spirit King realm. How is that?" Mysterious Bone stood with his hands behind his back, his gray clothes fluttering without wind as he looked down at Lin Xuan.
"Am I qualified to be your master now?"
In his view, the gap between a Soul Elder and a Spirit King was a chasm. Even if he couldn't compare to the ordinary teachers of Shrek Academy, he could still crush this Soul Elder brat to death.
Lin Xuan looked at those five Soul Rings, finding it a bit hard to keep a straight face.
What a joke. He put on such a grand front that I thought he was a Soul Douluo or even a Titled Douluo, but he's just a Spirit King?
"A Spirit King, huh..."
He slowly exhaled.
"Then it's not like you can't be killed."
The air suddenly froze.
The sinister grin on Ji Yin Old Man's face stiffened, thinking he had misheard.
Mysterious Bone was stunned at first, but then he acted as if he had heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.
"Hehe... Arrogant and ignorant brat! It seems you are dead set on seeking death!"
He completely lost his patience, killing intent appearing in his eyes. He pointed a withered finger at Lin Xuan.
"Take him. I want him alive."
"Yes! Master!"
Ji Yin Old Man had long been unable to restrain himself. Upon hearing this, he gave a sinister laugh and violently tore off the tattered clothing on his upper body! Then, he stretched his body.
The sight on his back was immediately exposed to Lin Xuan.
Where his spine should have been, the skin bulged high and was deep black in color.
It was a black vertebra that seemed like a living thing, tightly embedded into his back!
The vertebrae were clearly segmented, with countless fine black bone spurs extending from both sides, digging deep into the surrounding flesh. It looked like a hideous black centipede lying on his back, emitting a thick evil aura.
Lin Xuan's eyes narrowed.
'So that's how it is...' The rapid recovery of injuries, the bizarre breakthrough in cultivation, and the ability to move freely despite the heavy injury of a shattered facial bone... all the anomalies likely stemmed from this strange external spine on his back.
And this was clearly Mysterious Bone's handiwork.
"Brat, aren't you good at fighting? What's the point of being good at fighting? To make it in this world, you need strength and background!"
Ji Yin Old Man gave a sharp shout, and the Blood Scissors in his hand snapped fiercely at Lin Xuan's direction from across the air!
"Swoosh—!"
An invisible sharp energy tore through the air!
Lin Xuan's eyes narrowed, and his figure blurred like a ghost for a split second. The next moment, he had already appeared over ten meters away to the left.
Behind where he had originally stood, a large tree that would take two people to encircle suddenly showed a smooth, mirror-like cut in the middle of its trunk. The upper half of the tree slowly slid off and crashed to the ground!
'It's just as the intelligence said; his primary attack method is remote cutting...' Information about the opponent quickly flashed through Lin Xuan's mind.
Right at this moment, an incredibly lazy yawn, filled with deep sleepiness, rang out in the depths of his mind.
"It really has been a long time since I've had such a comfortable sleep..."
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm slowly stretched and asked vaguely,
"Lin Xuan, is this semester's class over yet?"
Lin Xuan was currently fully focused on the battle before him. His figure flashed again, avoiding several blood blades that Ji Yin Old Man snipped out in succession; he temporarily had no time to reply.
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm waited a few seconds without getting a response and looked outside with some confusion.
With one look, what remained of its sleepiness was instantly scared away!
"Holy crap!! What's the situation?!"
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm literally jumped up in the Spiritual Sea, its voice changing pitch.
"Lin Xuan! Who... who is this guy?! Why does he look like he wants to snip you into eight pieces?! And that guy in the gray clothes over there, he doesn't look like anything good! Weren't we at the academy?!"
Lin Xuan once again avoided a cut that grazed his neck. Seizing a brief gap in the opponent's attacks, he quickly explained the situation in his mind.
"Those unreliable fools at Shrek!"
After hearing this, Tianmeng Ice Silkworm immediately started cursing, then said urgently,
"Do you have a way to escape? If not, I can help you out! Although the price will be a bit high."
"No need."
Lin Xuan's answer was crisp and direct. He pulled back a bit further, his gaze sweeping over the pressing Ji Yin Old Man and the distant, spectating Mysterious Bone.
"Tianmeng, you haven't seen me fully use the Malevolent Shrine Martial Soul yet, have you?"
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm was taken aback. "No, I haven't."
"Then today... you can see it for yourself."
As he spoke, Lin Xuan's figure once again slipped out from Ji Yin Old Man's continuous series of snips, landing steadily on a relatively open forest clearing over ten meters away.
He stopped dodging, stood his ground, and slowly raised his head.
The next moment, eerie black cursed markings emerged from beneath Lin Xuan's skin as if they were alive, spreading and intertwining into ancient and sinister patterns.
And beneath his eyes, another pair of eyes actually began to slowly open...
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