Chapter 139: Elder Xuan's Defenses Breached? A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring Absorbed by Liu Yuan? Impossible!
The biting wind howling through the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest swept across the desolate valley, kicking up swirling clouds of scorched dust and ash. The metallic scent of blood and ozone hung heavy in the air.
Wang Dong's theory regarding the cultivation markings of a Spatial Beast sparked a flicker of intense curiosity, momentarily piercing through the heavy tension gripping Huo Yuhao and Xiaoxiao.
The two exchanged a quick, meaningful glance. Moving in unison, they crouched beside the colossal, battered corpse. Even in death, the ruined flesh of the beast emitted a faint, eerie purple luminescence. They leaned in close, their eyes scanning the strange patterns etched into its hide.
"One, two, three..."
Xiaoxiao murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. She extended a slender finger, tracing the air just above the dense, star-like clusters running along the Spatial Beast's shattered spine.
"There are more over here. Look, quite a few are clustered under the forelimbs, and the pattern continues all the way down to the base of the tail."
Huo Yuhao narrowed his gaze, channeling a thread of soul power into his Spirit Eyes. A faint golden light rippled across his pupils. Instantly, the complex markings magnified in his field of vision, revealing a terrifying density that the naked eye could barely comprehend.
"The sheer number is staggering," Huo Yuhao said, his throat suddenly dry. "If each cluster of this density truly represents a thousand years of cultivation, then the age of this soul beast is... it is completely beyond imagination."
Standing a few paces back, Elder Xuan watched the youths with a heavy, unreadable expression. Despite his notoriously unreliable nature and disheveled appearance, he remained an esteemed elder of the Sea God Pavilion—a Level 98 Super Douluo. The vast experience and razor-sharp judgment of a peak powerhouse flowed through his veins.
He had no need to crouch in the dirt and count tiny, glowing dots like a curious child. He simply stood before the ruined carcass, his sharp gaze locking onto a specific point beneath the beast's mangled lower jaw. In mere seconds, he arrived at a chilling conclusion.
"Stop counting," Elder Xuan commanded, his voice low and raspy, cutting through the silent valley with absolute authority. "This is a hundred-thousand-year Spatial Beast."
He raised a grease-stained finger, pointing directly at a dark red, tightly coiled spiral mark branded into the scales of the Spatial Beast's jawline.
"Look closely at that spot," he instructed the three students. "Whenever this specific closed-loop spiral manifests on the lower jaw of a Spatial Beast, it signifies that its cultivation has shattered the bottleneck of ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine years. It has officially crossed the threshold into the hundred-thousand-year realm."
Elder Xuan lowered his hand, his eyes narrowing at the corpse. "A mark like this is the physical manifestation of a fundamental, qualitative mutation in a soul beast's bloodline. It is absolute proof. It cannot be faked."
Sudden realization dawned on the faces of Huo Yuhao, Xiaoxiao, and Wang Dong. Yet, the confirmation did not bring them any comfort. Instead, the shock in their eyes deepened into deep awe and creeping dread.
To young Soul Masters of their level, a hundred-thousand-year soul beast was a mythical calamity—a terrifying entity straight out of ancient legends, possessing the apocalyptic power to sunder the heavens and shatter the earth.
"Then... who exactly did this?" Xiaoxiao asked, her voice trembling slightly. She instinctively shrank her neck, casting a fearful glance at the devastated landscape surrounding them. Craters scarred the earth, and ancient trees had been reduced to splinters. "To hunt a hundred-thousand-year soul beast deep within this core zone... and to beat it into such a horrific state... just what level of strength does this person possess?"
Elder Xuan slowly shook his head. A rare shadow of uncertainty flickered across his weathered face. "I do not know."
He stepped forward, stopping at the very edge of a massive crater. His gaze swept over the brutal, sunken fist impressions stamped into the Spatial Beast's armored hide. When he spoke again, his tone was grave, carrying a weight that demanded absolute attention.
"At present, the only thing I can confirm is that the attacker possesses an overwhelmingly tyrannical physical strength."
He gestured toward the ruined anatomy of the beast. "Look at the spine along its back, and the ribcage protecting its chest. The bones haven't just been broken; they have been entirely pulverized and caved in by pure, unadulterated brute force. Judging by this savage fighting style, the culprit must be an Ultimate Strength-type Soul Master., their soul power level must be astonishingly high to inflict this kind of damage."
"However..." Elder Xuan's brow furrowed deeply. He paced to the opposite side of the corpse, closing his eyes to sense the faint, lingering ripples of energy still vibrating in the air.
"What truly baffles me is the residual energy. Beneath this overbearing, explosive aura of physical destruction, there are distinct traces of a peculiar, highly condensed spiritual power scattered throughout the vicinity."
He opened his eyes, a grim light flashing within them. "This implies that the individual who hunted this soul beast—or perhaps an accomplice who assisted in the kill—also wields a terrifyingly formidable spiritual power."
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao's heart skipped a beat.
As the possessor of the Spirit Eyes martial soul, he was a spiritual-type Soul Master. His sensitivity to fluctuations in spiritual power was magnitudes higher than that of an ordinary person. More, his mind harbored an almost instinctual, deeply ingrained memory of one specific person's spiritual aura: Liu Yuan.
During the recent Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament, Huo Yuhao had pushed his Spirit Eyes to their absolute limits, desperately attempting to observe and analyze Liu Yuan's unfathomable abilities. That suffocating, abyss-like spiritual pressure had branded itself permanently into his subconscious.
Prompted by Elder Xuan's analysis, Huo Yuhao instinctively closed his eyes. He drew upon the remaining spiritual power within his spiritual sea, casting his senses outward like a delicate net to capture the lingering warmth of the battlefield's residual energy.
Instantly, a violent jolt of familiarity struck his mind like a physical blow.
"This specific frequency of spiritual power..." Huo Yuhao murmured, his eyes snapping open. His golden pupils contracted into tiny pinpricks. "It feels incredibly familiar."
"Familiar?" Wang Dong leaned in, his brows knitting together in concern. "Yuhao, what did you discover?"
Huo Yuhao stared blankly at the mangled corpse on the ground. Fragmented memories flashed rapidly through his mind, piecing together a terrifying puzzle. A thought so absurd, so entirely illogical, suddenly clawed its way to the forefront of his thoughts.
"The frequency of this aura..." Huo Yuhao swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "It... it feels exactly like Liu Yuan!"
The pieces began to align in his head. When the tournament in Star Luo City had concluded, Liu Yuan's cultivation had already reached the absolute peak of Level 49. He was standing right on the precipice of Level 50.
Following the standard progression of cultivation, Liu Yuan would have returned to the Body Sect, entered closed-door seclusion to break through to Level 50, and then ventured directly into the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for his fifth soul ring. Analyzing the timeline, the sequence of events aligned with terrifying precision.
Unable to contain the mounting dread in his chest, Huo Yuhao voiced his deduction. "Elder Xuan... do you think this could actually be Liu Yuan's doing? Based on the timeline of his cultivation, he should be hunting for his fifth soul ring right at this very moment."
The mere mention of that name struck Elder Xuan like a physical blow. Having already suffered a humiliating, catastrophic loss at Liu Yuan's hands, the old man exhibited a violent stress reaction.
He reacted like a feral cat whose tail had been brutally stomped on. He nearly leaped into the air, the color draining from his face only to be replaced by an angry, flushed red.
"Impossible!" he roared, his voice cracking with sudden ferocity. "Absolutely impossible!"
Elder Xuan's mental state teetered dangerously on the edge of collapse. He glared fixedly at Huo Yuhao, his chest heaving as denial and deep-seated anxiety bled into his tone. "It is entirely impossible for that brat to have broken through to Level 50 so quickly! And it is even more impossible for him to have reached the core zone of this forest in such a short amount of time!"
", even if we entertain the delusion that he did achieve a breakthrough and came here," Elder Xuan continued, jabbing a trembling finger toward the dissipating soul power fluctuations hovering above the Spatial Beast's corpse, "how do you explain a hundred-thousand-year soul ring?!"
His voice escalated into a near-hysterical bellow, completely losing the composure expected of a Sea God Pavilion elder.
"Are you seriously suggesting that he absorbed a hundred-thousand-year red soul ring?! A hundred-thousand-year ring as a fifth soul ring?! That is nothing but a deranged fantasy! It defies the entire recorded history of the Soul Master world! Whose physical body could possibly withstand that kind of apocalyptic energy impact without exploding into bloody mist?!"
Standing to the side, Wang Dong shook his head firmly. While he freely admitted that Liu Yuan possessed monstrous strength, basic logic dictated that such a feat was purely unrealistic.
"A hundred-thousand-year fifth soul ring? That's taking a joke way too far." He placed a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. "Yuhao, you are definitely overthinking this. Even if Liu Yuan is an unmatched freak of nature, it is physically impossible for him to shatter the fundamental laws of the Soul Master world to such an absurd degree."
Xiaoxiao gently tugged at Huo Yuhao's sleeve, nodding in agreement with Elder Xuan's frantic logic. "Wang Dong is right, Yuhao. The physical age limits for absorbing soul rings are absolute. Attempting to absorb a hundred-thousand-year ring at Level 50 isn't just dangerous; it's practically begging for death. The residual energy must have confused your senses."
Surrounded by the firm rebuttals of his companions, the chaotic wavering in Huo Yuhao's heart gradually began to settle.
They were right. He had to admit that his hypothesis was far too bizarre to be grounded in reality. A blood-red, hundred-thousand-year ring serving as a mere fifth soul ring was a concept entirely beyond the comprehension of human Soul Masters.
"It seems I really was overthinking it," Huo Yuhao muttered, shaking his head with a bitter, self-deprecating smile. He let out a long sigh, pushing the terrifying image of Liu Yuan out of his mind.
Seeing that Huo Yuhao had dropped the absurd theory, Elder Xuan finally exhaled a heavy sigh of relief. Yet, the mere mention of Liu Yuan's name had planted a seed of unshakable gloom in his chest. When he looked back at the ruined corpse of the hundred-thousand-year soul beast, a cold knot tightened in his stomach.
He suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to leave this place.
"Alright, enough dawdling. Let's stop wasting time here," Elder Xuan grunted, turning his back on the crater and waving a dismissive hand at the three youths.
"Let's move. We need to get back to business. Securing your third soul ring, Yuhao, is our absolute priority. I must find a suitable target for you before another major disturbance erupts in this core zone."
However, just as Elder Xuan pivoted to lead the group away from the blood-soaked valley, the eerie silence of the forest was violently shattered.
A horrific, teeth-grinding roar—sounding like the agonizing screech of tearing metal—erupted from the darkest depths of the ancient woods.
"ROAR—!"
A shockwave of pure, unadulterated violence exploded outward. The sheer acoustic force hit them like a physical wall, causing the solid earth of the desolate valley to tremble violently beneath their feet. The surrounding ancient trees, already splintered and weakened from the previous battle, groaned in protest before crumbling into dust and debris under the apocalyptic impact of the roar!
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