"Roar! Didn't you say that it's only natural for Soul Masters to hunt spirit beasts? Fine, then go die now!"
Understanding does not equate to acceptance. Upon hearing this, Er Ming was struck by a huge blow to his spirit and could no longer hold back, preparing to attack You Chen.
Of course, when he said "go die," what Er Ming really meant was to capture You Chen.
He still needed to extract information about Sister Xiao Wu from You Chen!
Since this damn human was unwilling to cooperate, he would force him to speak!
"Er Ming!"
Da Ming shouted sternly, using his tail to restrain Er Ming. In response to Er Ming's confused gaze, he said to You Chen, "Perhaps what you said is true, but even if our lifespans and races are different, it doesn't matter. From the beginning, we and Sister Xiao Wu were not of the same race; we are all just spirit beasts. What connects us is not blood, but emotion and spirit!"
Da Ming initially showed a somewhat dejected expression, but soon, as he spoke, that dejection gradually transformed into determination: "Even if Sister Xiao Wu becomes human, so what? She is still our family! This will never change!"
You Chen showed no change in expression at Da Ming's resolute declaration.
After all… why should this matter to him?
If he was so capable and so determined, he could just talk to Sister Xiao Wu himself; why did he have to say all this to him?
'These two spirit beasts really don't know what they're talking about. They can't be thinking of entrusting Sister Xiao Wu to me, stirring up all this sentimental nonsense, can they?'
You Chen instantly grasped some of Da Ming's thoughts.
Sure enough, the next moment, Da Ming lowered his head and sincerely said, "Human, although you rejected Sister Xiao Wu, the fact that she is willing to follow you proves her trust in you. So—"
"Big Brother, how can we trust this guy! He just slaughtered so many of our companions!"
Er Ming shouted.
Rather than seeking justice for the fallen brothers, it was more out of indignation, as he had already guessed Da Ming's thoughts from his tone.
'Why, why would Big Brother want to give Sister Xiao Wu to this trash human! Even if it's not me, it should be Big Brother himself!' Er Ming thought angrily.
"Shut up, Er Ming!"
Da Ming shot a stern glance at Er Ming and said, "What this human brother said is indeed the truth; the racial conflict between human Soul Masters and spirit beasts is evident. But since he is willing to regard Sister Xiao Wu as human, what difference does it make for us?"
He turned to You Chen and continued sincerely, "Human, you possess such strength that you can protect Sister Xiao Wu through this perilous time before her complete transformation. Moreover, you acknowledge Sister Xiao Wu's identity as a human… Can I entrust Sister Xiao Wu to you?"
"What reward can you give me?"
You Chen smiled slightly, "For your Sister Xiao Wu, would you be willing to sacrifice yourself for me?"
Da Ming's pupils constricted; no matter what, he could not have imagined You Chen would suddenly say something akin to "you should just kill yourself."
And Er Ming could no longer endure it.
"How dare you insult Big Brother! I'm going to kill you!!!"
Er Ming thought about how his previous charge hadn't killed You Chen, and immediately, he held back little.
He unleashed seventy percent of his strength, holding back the remaining thirty percent just in case he needed to retract some force.
But how could such half-hearted effort and speed pose any threat to You Chen?
A cold glint flashed in You Chen's eyes. As the Sacrificer's Sanctuary opened, the suppression of Er Ming's gravity domain was instantly weakened by more than half.
In Er Ming's shocked gaze, You Chen easily dodged his attack.
At the same time, You Chen didn't forget to taunt Er Ming with a supersonic sound wave, "I was just thinking that hit wasn't satisfying enough."
In the next moment, a dazzling golden sword appeared in You Chen's hand, its blade gathering the ultimate sharpness of an Air Blade—thousands of strikes in an instant!
"Gah!!!"
Er Ming let out a deafening scream, as if countless blades had sliced through his back, and the blood pouring down like a river instantly dyed the surrounding ancient trees into a blood-red forest.
"Er Ming!"
Da Ming exclaimed, immediately unleashing a slow domain while hurriedly sending a voice transmission to You Chen: "Human Soul Master, stop! I can consider this a lesson for Er Ming's disrespect, but if you strike again, even with Sister Xiao Wu's connection, I will treat you as a mortal enemy! I can see that you are also injured and have not fully healed; do you really want to do something that won't benefit you?!"
You Chen felt the influence of the slow domain and coldly glanced at Da Ming, but indeed did not strike again.
He looked at Da Ming and said flatly, "This fool first gave me a greeting gift, and then repeatedly offended me. I don't know where you get the face to say you want to entrust Sister Xiao Wu to me. As for Sister Xiao Wu, whatever I want to do with her is my own business."
Da Ming fell silent, not like Er Ming, who would retort, "You slaughtered spirit beasts first." Because both sides knew that this was a meaningless argument.
And just in that moment of silence, You Chen had already turned and left without a second thought.
Leaving Da Ming standing there, deeply entangled and worried about not obtaining any information about Xiao Wu from You Chen, he let out a sigh.
…
After absorbing the Spirit Ring, You Chen could safely leave the scene at any time.
The reason he stayed to argue with Da Ming and Er Ming was entirely for revenge against Er Ming for that earlier attack, deliberately adding to their frustration. As for planting a seed of doubt in Da Ming's mind, that was just a convenient side effect.
With today's encounter, the next meeting would be the real negotiation.
In the blink of an eye, a day passed.
With You Chen's physique, after just a short period of rest, she had already fully recovered and soon arrived at Hanhai City, located near the sea on the western side of Douluo Continent.
Hanhai City was already a relatively prosperous coastal city, and after Beast Soul Commerce deliberately inflated the prices of marine products, its prosperity had further increased.
You Chen merely used her Divine Power to probe slightly and discovered that many powerful high-level Soul Masters had gathered here.
You Chen did not rush to set sail but instead concealed herself in the city while fully unleashing her Divine Power, completely enveloping Hanhai City, and began to collect information about the current situation in its sea domain.
Although the information collected by the Beast Soul Alliance was already very detailed, it could not compare to the efficiency of You Chen's direct field investigation using her Divine Power.
However, it was broader in scope.
You Chen's actions were more about comparing with existing information to determine if there were any outdated or erroneous aspects. After all, information is very time-sensitive.
"Have you heard? That Earl Wilbur's fleet returned in a very sorry state the day before yesterday! Out of the two hundred or so people in the entire fleet, only five or six made it back alive!"
"Is that a lie? I heard that there were Soul King and even Soul Emperor level experts on that ship, along with the best sailors and navigators. Even a ten-thousand-year Sea Soul Beast wouldn't threaten them; how could this happen? You must be lying to me!"
"Why would I lie to you? If you ask me, it must be that those people were too greedy, recklessly harvesting the ocean's resources, provoking the wrath of Lord Sea God!"
Before long, You Chen obtained several pieces of useful information.
During the time Prince Xue Xing attracted attention to Beast Soul Commerce, a wave of enthusiasm for going to sea had indeed been ignited under the heavy financial investment of Beast Soul Commerce.
Not only was Beast Soul Commerce spending money, but other guilds like the Seven Treasure Guild also saw Beast Soul Commerce's movements. Just like the previous craze for whale glue, seeing Beast Soul Commerce's reckless spending, fearing that a new era of gold was emerging, they all rushed into this market.
The prices of marine products were suddenly pushed to an unprecedented height, and countless commoners and Soul Masters had been developing towards the coastal and maritime sectors over the past six months.
Even if the marine products initially had nothing special, under the push of so much capital, they had already been enveloped in a special aura.
There was no need for Beast Soul Commerce to specifically stir up the market for spirit beast resources; during the process of a large population going to sea, it was inevitable that they would collide with Sea Soul Beasts.
Guarding, hunting, selling Sea Soul Beast resources… the market naturally formed.
However, in the past half month, this wave of enthusiasm for going to sea had already shown signs of decline.
While profit was indeed enticing, the heavy personnel losses had caused many to hesitate after their enthusiasm cooled.
The most obvious reason for this was…
'Sea Soul Masters.'
Several powerful fleets had not suffered due to Sea Soul Beasts but had instead encountered pirates, suffering heavy losses.
From the discussions of these people and the combat quality exhibited by the pirates they mentioned, it was hard to imagine what kind of impoverished mountains could raise pirates capable of defeating even Soul Emperors…
This was clearly a regular organization disguised as pirates, made up of Sea Soul Masters.
As for the legitimate Sea Soul Masters in the ocean, aside from Seagod Island, You Chen could not think of any other forces.
Clearly, it was likely that the land Soul Masters had overstepped their bounds in the ocean, provoking dissatisfaction from Seagod Island.
The ocean resources were secondary.
The important thing was that during this process, a large number of Sea Soul Beasts had been hunted by human Soul Masters.
Compared to the past, the death rate of Sea Soul Beasts could be said to have increased tenfold or a hundredfold.
As more and more components from Sea Soul Beasts were excavated for use as food or materials, they began to overshadow some marine products, becoming the backbone of the market.
This was enough to touch the nerves of Seagod Island.
After all, under the rule of Seagod Island, Sea Soul Masters and Sea Soul Beasts did not have the same sharp conflicts as land Soul Masters and land spirit beasts.
Land Soul Masters who had not had much contact with Sea Soul Masters could not imagine that they would provoke attacks from Soul Masters due to the rampant hunting of Sea Soul Beasts; they would only regard these Sea Soul Masters as pirates seeking wealth.
Such actions from Seagod Island would undoubtedly be detrimental to You Chen's plundering of spirit beast resources.
However, You Chen did not plan to respond to this for the time being.
Her priority was naturally to complete the five or six Spirit Rings for the second body.
After absorbing the hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring of the Holy Spirit Bird, You Chen obtained the healing soul skill "Holy Spirit's Grace" and the group-target locking attack soul skill "Holy Judgment."
The healing effect of Holy Spirit's Grace had already been demonstrated earlier against Er Ming, and besides pure healing, those healed by Holy Spirit's Grace would also receive a long-lasting defensive buff.
Combined with Sacrificer's Sanctuary, You Chen's defense was likely not inferior to the height achieved by her speed.
As for Holy Judgment, its attack method involved forming countless pillars of holy light to punish targets, with a strong special attack against negative attributes like evil and darkness.
However, when facing non-special targets, its power would probably barely reach the ten-thousand-year standard.
But this soul skill was strong because it was a locking skill. There was no need for You Chen to aim or control it; as long as her Divine Power locked onto a target and was cast, it would automatically track and attack.
There was even a way to directly detect hostility and evil; You Chen wouldn't even need to use her Divine Power to lock on; she could cast it directly, and it would automatically attack.
It was a perfect skill for group farming.
Moreover, her soul power had directly surged to level 85 after breaking through the bottleneck.
Absorbing these two Spirit Rings would definitely allow her soul power level to reach level 90.
Regarding the Spirit Rings for the second body, You Chen preferred soul skills or the high bonuses brought by higher ages.
However, there was one spirit beast whose soul skill was quite versatile, and although its age wasn't particularly high, due to its top-tier spirit beast bloodline, its bonuses were certainly not inferior to those of ordinary ferocious beasts.
What's more, hunting this spirit beast would not provoke any interference from Seagod Island.
This fortunate spirit beast was, of course, the Evil Orca King that appeared in the original work.
Additionally, she could harvest a bunch of evil killer whales to use as training resources.
Even if this group was exterminated by You Chen, they wouldn't understand the concept of biodiversity; they would just blindly worship the Sea God. Even the Soul Beast like the Magic Soul Great White Shark, which would eat its kind, could be labeled as a "kind spirit beast" by Seagod Island without any opposition.
With the diverse information brought by many people going to sea, You Chen had already confirmed the approximate location of the evil killer whale group's activities during this time.
Without much hesitation and without any extra preparation, You Chen began her journey across the ocean using only her physical body.
Even though she already knew the approximate location in advance and had the mental detection range of the Spirit Domain, the ocean was too vast, and You Chen still flew over the ocean for a full day and night before finally finding traces of the evil killer whales.
These evil killer whales were moving in groups, resting near a rocky island by the ocean.
You Chen used her Divine Power to probe from a distance. Among the hundreds of evil killer whales, nearly one-third had reached adulthood, each measuring twenty to thirty meters long, which meant they were ten-thousand-year cultivation level.
The remaining two-thirds had the longest bodies measuring only about ten meters, all being thousand-year-level spirit beasts.
Although their individual strength was weaker than that of deep-sea magic whales, evil killer whales, as top-tier sea spirit beasts, all possessed the ability to fight above their level.
Even those at the thousand-year level possessed combat power comparable to human Soul Kings, and a few with purer bloodlines or longer development times could even rival human Soul Emperors.
As for those at the ten-thousand-year level, they were at least comparable to human Soul Saints, with many reaching the strength of ordinary Soul Douluos.
However, perhaps to maintain his absolute status as leader, the Evil Orca King, as You Chen observed, did not have any title-level experts among this group of evil killer whales. The highest age reached about fifty thousand years, but their bloodline was not pure enough, and their life force was relatively weak, only reaching the peak level of Soul Douluo.
At present, the Evil Orca King was either out foraging, swimming, playing, or perhaps visiting another group, as You Chen did not find its trace here.
'In that case, let's try my new skill.'
You Chen's purpose for going to sea was originally to conveniently harvest some spirit beast resources for her training.
Since Seagod Island was also hunting evil killer whales, You Chen felt that hunting evil killer whales wouldn't provoke conflict with Seagod Island, so she had no concerns.
The blood-red eighth Spirit Ring suddenly lit up.
'Eighth Soul Skill—Holy Judgment!'
Whether it was evil killer whales, magic soul great white sharks, or deep-sea magic whales, these extremely bloodthirsty Sea Soul Beasts had violent factors far exceeding ordinary spirit beasts. You Chen directly chose the automatic attack mode for detecting evil.
In an instant, countless light pillars fell from the sky.
You Chen sensed the condition of the light pillars, attempting to control and influence them with her Divine Power. As expected, it went smoothly; even in automatic attack mode, the automatic authority of this soul skill could still be retracted at any time, allowing You Chen to control it with her will.
These evil killer whales were her training materials; she did not want her soul skill to directly turn them into mush.
Thus, she primarily used automatic attacks, supplemented by her own control, delivering lethal strikes with minimal Divine Power.
Under You Chen's generous output of soul power, those thousand-year and hundred-year-level evil killer whales were instantly decimated.
Many ten-thousand-year evil killer whales hurriedly protected their young, but they soon discovered that these seemingly ordinary light pillars possessed extremely powerful lethality.
Even with their ten-thousand-year cultivation, facing them head-on would result in serious injuries.
However, it was a bit too late.
Under You Chen's Holy Judgment, more than two-thirds of the hundreds of evil killer whales were instantly annihilated, and the remaining less than one-third were also severely injured.
Only a few of the strongest, comparable to Soul Douluos, sustained only light injuries.
You Chen raised an eyebrow slightly.
Like all locking skills, Holy Judgment was certainly not a guaranteed hit or kill skill.
Even though You Chen had allocated more power from Holy Judgment to target those strongest evil killer whales, they still only sustained light injuries, which was the best proof.
The energy of Holy Judgment was weakened by the ocean and rocks, causing what would have been a devastating attack to be significantly reduced, allowing them to endure it.
Moreover, as a group attack skill, Holy Judgment indeed met the standards of a ten-thousand-year soul skill, but it was not stronger than a single-target ten-thousand-year soul skill; even if all Holy Judgment light pillars were concentrated on one target, it would only reach the strength of a several-thousand-year single-target attack soul skill.
If it weren't for the soul power intensity boost brought by You Chen's Stardust Dragon Martial Soul, which had brought her soul power intensity close to that of a Super Douluo, it was likely that ordinary ten-thousand-year evil killer whales would not see her as a threat, and such terrifying results would not have been achieved.
While You Chen silently analyzed and reflected on the strength of the Holy Judgment soul skill, those evil killer whales seemed to mistakenly believe that You Chen had exhausted too much energy and completely unleashed their inherent brutality, launching an attack on You Chen.
A series of blue energy beams carrying disintegration power shot towards You Chen.
In the ocean area, the attack power of these evil killer whales could be said to have been elevated a notch.
But such attacks naturally had no effect on You Chen; they merely reminded her that it was time to finish the job.
The eighth Spirit Ring spun again.
"Holy Judgment."
With a low chant, the columns of punitive light that brought despair to the evil killer whales fell from the sky once more.
The higher the age of the Spirit Ring's soul skills, the stronger the soul power fluctuations become, and repeated use only amplifies this effect. This is the implicit cooldown time.
However, for You Chen, using the same ten-thousand-year soul skill from a Spirit Ring more than ten times in one go renders such fluctuations virtually meaningless.
As for soul power consumption?
Output-type soul skills are always heavy consumers of soul power. At the Soul Douluo level, using them three or four times, or four or five times, would require a break.
But for You Chen, who possesses a Soul Core... by the time he finishes analyzing, the soul power consumed has nearly replenished itself.
Holy light once again enveloped the entire sea area.
After a while, the scarlet hue above the ocean had not faded, but all the corpses had already been collected by You Chen.
Before this outing, You Chen had specifically instructed the research department to create a soul guide device with a built-in refrigeration effect. All the soul beast corpses, including the Emperor Golden Lion Beast and the Holy Spirit Bird, were preserved within, with no worry of spoilage.
You Chen gathered the corpses of the Evil Orcas and did not leave; instead, he descended onto the rocky island, concealed his aura with the Aura Concealment Art, and waited silently.
The entire Evil Orca population numbered in the hundreds, and with a branch of a clan with over a hundred members going missing, it was obvious that the Evil Orca King would come to investigate.
However, before the Evil Orca King arrived, a group of uninvited guests appeared.
Divine Power quietly enveloped the area, and the leader, dressed in purple, was followed by a group of yellow-clad Soul Masters.
You Chen glanced at their attire and immediately confirmed that they were Soul Masters from Seagod Island.
You Chen silently enhanced the operation of the Aura Concealment Art, wanting to see what these Seagod Island folks were up to.
There was no need for Divine Power to eavesdrop; with You Chen's current hearing, he could directly catch their unguarded conversation.
"Lord Shulano, did the Holy Pillar summon us here because he sensed the movements of those Evil Orcas? But there's no trace of them here; they must have already left, right?"
"No…"
The purple-clad Shulano revealed a serious expression: "The bloodstains indicate that a brutal battle undoubtedly took place here!"
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