Volume 2: The Source of Life Chapter 25: Soul Devouring Journey

  A thin man burst out laughing and said: "You're really a clever disciple, just entering the door and already starting to care about your master."

  A sly and triumphant smile spread across his face, "Listen clearly, my gate is the Soul Devouring Gate that makes all the residual soul masters tremble with fear. The Soul Devouring Ancestor within my gate, heh heh, is none other than Ling Huang Yu."

  Although I didn't react in any way, my bewildered eyes clearly showed that I had no idea what it meant.

  Ling Huang Yu's turbid eyes suddenly flashed a hint of sharpness, "Youngster, looking down on us?"

  I felt a inexplicable murderous intent from him, and I smiled faintly: "Dignity is something that needs to be created by oneself."

  Bang!

  A loud, crisp sound rang out, and without seeing any movement from Ling Huang Yu, I felt a slap on my face. Suddenly, a strange feeling surged up in my heart, with my eyesight, even if Ling Huang Yu's speed was faster, I could still vaguely see something coming.

  Ling Huang Yu grasped my collar like an angry child, yanking me up from the ground and bellowing: "What kind of master do you have? Haven't they ever told you about the great reputation of the Man-Eating Gate? Don't you know the nursery rhyme 'On a dark road, beware of little ghosts, lest you encounter a man-eater'?"

  I suddenly smiled: "Just now you left your soul servant mark on me, so I should be a member of the Soul-Eating Gate now, and my master is you."

  "Bastard!" Emperor Yu was enraged and slapped me several times, this time with his palm, slapping my face.

  My face stung, but compared to the damage done to my already battered body, this pain was nothing. What hurt more than being slapped was the blow to my dignity. To be honest, I'm not someone who needs dignity anyway.

  Looking at Ling Huang Yu's furious appearance, I secretly pondered his temperament. Judging from his exterior, he should be a gloomy and ruthless demon king who kills without batting an eye. But now, he is so emotional, crying and laughing, with a volatile mood like a child.

  What a contradiction!

  When circumstances are unfavorable to the enemy, analyzing the enemy's character is crucial. After some thought, I decided to change my stubborn resistance strategy and gain a deeper understanding of him.

  "Master!" I called out softly.

  "What? What did you just call me?" Ling Huang Yu suddenly froze, her face inches from mine, asking with a strange tone.

  "Didn't you say you were going to take me as your apprentice before?" I asked with a puzzled face: "Now that the soul servant's mark is set up in my body, you won't accept me anymore?"

  "Haha! My dear disciple, come, I have a gift for you." With that, he reached into his wide robes and pulled out a dark red, slender metal sword. The sword was over a meter long, with a rounded tip as big as a wine lid. The curved body of the sword was adorned with many arc-shaped patterns, making it look beautiful, but there was no sharp blade or blood groove on the sword.

  In my opinion, the structure of this sword is extremely poor.

  "This is called Dark Dragon, a fifth-grade entwining soul device." said Ling Huang Yu.

  "Soul device? Hmm, I don't need this useless thing."

  Ling Huang Yu said, "How can it be useless? I saw that your skills were quite good before. This kind of entwining soul device is just right for you. You infuse spiritual energy into the Dark Dragon Body, and at that time, a layer of spiritual energy light will appear on the body of the Dark Dragon Sword, with an astonishing power."

  I put on a bitter face and sighed: "Alas, it's useless. I couldn't even force out my spiritual power, let alone activate the soul device, so how can I use it?"

  He simply stated the situation, unlike Lin Muxian and Kakabu, Ling Huang Yu listened to it without any doubt, but instead exclaimed in shock: "You're not the one who was summoned by the Spirit Hole of the Star Tower, are you?"

  "In the spiritual cave... matchmaker?" I was stunned and shook my head: "No, I'm just a ordinary tomb's matchmaker."

  "Impossible," Ling Huang Yu said resolutely: "Tell me about your situation at that time in detail."

  After listening to my account, he furrowed his brow and sank into deep thought. A long time later, Ling Huang Yu said: "Logically speaking, when you were being introduced as a medium, you only used a few Cong Ling Stones. Although it's better than others in comparison, but compared to some major sects' key disciples, this doesn't count for much. You should know that they are all directly from the sect's spiritual veins and springs, where the original power of life is extremely concentrated."

  Ling Huang Yu thought for half a day without getting the key point, he shook his head and said: "But no matter what, your situation is very similar to that of a special soul device. When the medium is introduced, if the absorbed spiritual power is too vast, too vast for your body to absorb, two situations will occur. One is that you explode and die, and the other is your current situation. The abundant spiritual power in your body that cannot be merged will condense in a certain part of your body, forming a special soul device. Hmm, it should be like this."

  "Are you saying that the spiritual energy condensation in my body is a soul device?"

  "It's no wonder you're my good disciple, your leadership ability is indeed strong." Ling Huang Yu laughed loudly: "However, each soul tool has an external manifestation form, what is the power of your soul tool?"

  "Hmm... I paused for a moment and smiled wryly: "It should be to repair the body! Normally, it's suppressed by spiritual power and won't come out even if you die, only emerging when the body is damaged."

  Actually, another function I didn't mention is that it can observe the strength and weakness of each person's life force on their head.

  Ling Huang Yu nodded without hesitation and instructed, "No matter what, this congenital soul device is quite rare, you must learn to use it well in the future."

  "Thank you, Master!" I bowed respectfully.

  "Good boy," Ling Huang Yu patted my head like he was patting a child's head, but suddenly, his eyes flashed with a cold glint, and he grabbed my collar, saying: "You still haven't answered me which sect you belong to."

  In this case, I naturally wouldn't say something stupid like 'I'm a Soul Reaper', and with a respectful bow, I said: "The disciple was previously deceived by the treacherous people of Nongshen Fortress, and became a soul servant. In fact, the disciple didn't enter any sect."

  "Nongshenbao?" Ling Huang Yu tilted his head and thought for a moment, asking uncertainly: "At Yu Jing's place?"

  "What's wrong?" I was stunned.

  "Ah, yes! That little girl with two small braids and a runny nose!" As soon as the words left his mouth, Ling Huang Yu suddenly slapped his forehead, "No, that was twenty years ago. Haha, I'm so silly! Ah, now she should have grown into a mature and beautiful young woman, gentle and kind-hearted. Perhaps still with a bit of girly coquettishness, yet also having the sensibility and rationality of a big girl. Hehe, hehehe!"

  Looking at his self-talking and ridiculous appearance, I couldn't help but feel a sense of darkness in my heart. How can one person have such complex emotions? Even if it's a mental illness, there must be some fixed traits or characteristics to it.

  "Don't you know her?" Ling Huang Yu's face sank, "Who are you, after all?"

  "This..." I hesitated for a moment, wondering whether or not to reveal my outsider's identity at this time.

  Just as he was about to make up a story to get past it, Ling Huang Yu's expression suddenly turned serious again, and he said: "Forget it, no matter who you are or where you came from, now that you're my disciple, I won't pursue the matter. However," he paused for a moment before continuing, "since you've entered my sect, you must follow the rules of the Xi Ling Sect; otherwise, you will be severely punished."

  I nodded and said: "Yes sir, from now on I will definitely listen to the master's teachings, study hard, and make our sect prosperous."

  I paused for a moment, then said: "But I don't know the rules of the Yi Ling Gate. Please tell me, Master, so that your disciple won't accidentally offend."

  "The rules of the sect? Hmm, they're quite simple. One, whatever the Sect Leader says is always right. Two, whatever the Master says is always right. Three, when one and two conflict, follow two."

  I was stunned and speechless!

  "Alright, since we have some free time now, I'll teach you the extraordinary technique of the Soul Devouring Sect's 'Soul Devouring Technique'. As the name suggests, it is a technique for devouring spiritual energy..."

  I listened to Ling Huang Yu's explanation in a state of astonishment and admiration. When Lin Mouxian explained the Soul Reaper earlier, he had clearly said something about it. Every time the Soul Reaper cultivates, they absorb the purest and most genuine life force from heaven and earth, also known as the soul.

  The soul, as a condensed form of the spirit, should be a good nourishment for the Soul Reaper, but because the soul contains some thoughts of the living, it is no longer pure, resulting in this high concentration of life's original power that cannot be utilized by the Soul Reaper, which is very unfortunate.

  However, the Soul Devourers went against the wind and took a shortcut, using a rather overbearing technique to absorb the souls of the dead into their bodies.

  Doing so accelerates the cultivation speed, but the aftereffect is quite intense. The absorbed soul is filled with all sorts of vastly different thoughts, a state akin to having countless people in one's mind, and these countless people are all speaking to you at the same time.

  Therefore, the vast majority of people who practice this method will either go crazy or become neurotic. Even their bodies will become emaciated due to mental exhaustion.

  Now that I think about it, Ling Huang Yu has cultivated to this realm and his consciousness can still remain relatively clear, which is already considered exceptional.

  I'm not afraid of this point, it's just... even if I absorb more spiritual energy, what's the use? Apart from physical damage, the spiritual energy in my free heart can't come out at all.

  Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck me and I remembered the explosion of the ring on my chest when I was bitten by the wolf pack. As I reached out to touch my chest, Ling Huang Yu said, "You've finally thought of that too?"

  He smiled like a child sharing a secret, and said with a pleased tone: "If I hadn't seen that soul device of yours self-destruct, I wouldn't have saved you. Only when your body is damaged can the innate soul device in the depths of your eye sockets release spiritual energy, allowing you to communicate with other soul devices and stimulate them. So..."

  Ling Huang Yu looked at me with a strange smile and didn't continue speaking.

  "So, from now on, when I cultivate my soul tool, I can self-mutilate while cultivating." I replied.

  "Exactly!" Ling Huang Yu laughed triumphantly, "I'm really a genius, hahaahaha!"

  Laughter stopped abruptly, Ling Huang Yu suddenly picked me up and said coldly: "Let's try it now."

  Once again I experienced a thrilling and electrifying feeling. Before long, he took me into a mountain cave.

  "I'll be back soon." The Spirit Emperor Yu said, and then he left. However, I saw that when he reached the entrance of the cave, he lingered for a moment, and a faint light emanated from his wrist, spreading around the entrance.

  It should be something that stops me from going out, or a setting like an alarm clock.

  Anyway, I've been trapped by his soul-stirring impression, although I don't know if it's true or false, but for now, I don't plan to leave.

  The cave is not very large, but the air inside is clear. I observed that there are three ventilation openings, two of which were man-made.

  I didn't idle away, taking advantage of having time, I examined the current state of myself.

  The Heart of Freedom is now a dull white color and has stopped spinning, apparently its spiritual energy has been depleted.

  Lacking the power of healing, my legs were just two lonely white bones, occasionally with some scraps of flesh stuck to them. If a timid girl saw this, she would definitely not dare to watch horror movies for the rest of her life.

  Not long after, Ling Huang Yu returned, holding a small, round ball that was crimson red with purple and black streaks.

  "This thing looks a bit familiar, I said uncertainly: 'Is this... Soul Devouring Bead?'"

  Ling Huang Yu's eyes lit up, "You also know about this thing? Hehe, although it's rare, the things inside are even harder to deal with."

  No need for him to say, I understood that the soul-devouring bead contained someone else's soul. However, to turn an originally pure white soul-devouring bead into this appearance, how many people's souls would it take?

  Ling Huang Yu threw the Soul-Devouring Pearl to me and said, "According to the method, communicate with it just like absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. I'll guard the entrance for you, you come out yourself after you're done, if you haven't come out in three days, I'll come in." After saying that, he left.

  From a person's words, one can roughly guess their character. At this moment, Ling Huang Yu put on a cool face again.

  Shaking his head with a wry smile, I gathered my spirits and prepared for my first Soul Devouring journey.