Lin Xia's spirits soared. With a swift step forward, his voice trembled with irrepressible excitement.
Lou Gao, seated cross-legged, slowly opened his eyes.
Buzz!
Two condensed, almost tangible beams of dark-gold light shot out from his eyes like divine swords unsheathed, instantly scorching the heated air in front of him until it crackled and hissed!
The light lingered for a brief moment before gradually receding, revealing his completely renewed gaze.
Those eyes no longer carried the slightest trace of murkiness or age!
Deep within his pupils, it seemed as though two eternal furnace fires burned, flickering with wisdom, resolve, and a profound calm born of life-and-death nirvana.
Where his gaze fell, there lingered an invisible pressure, the natural aura of a powerhouse whose soul power and soul had both undergone transformation.
Lou Gao's eyes immediately fell upon his own arms.
He slowly raised his hands. They were no longer reddened from burning.
His skin was smooth and resilient, muscles well-defined and brimming with explosive strength.
Subconsciously, he clenched his fist!
Crack!
The air in his palm exploded instantly, producing a sharp detonation!
The terrifying might brought purely by physical strength alone made even Larvitar shrink its neck slightly.
But this was only the beginning.
Lou Gao's expression turned incomparably focused, carrying disbelief, excitement, and probing curiosity.
With a thought he summoned his martial soul!
Buzz—Clang!
A resounding metallic tremor, filled with solemn killing intent, echoed through the cavern!
It was no longer the single, phantom form of the Vajra Chisel.
Instead, a long-handled giant hammer of strange and ancient design, its entire body flowing with dark-gold radiance, slowly condensed before Lou Gao amid blazing gold-red flames!
This hammer was the evolved, brand-new form of his martial soul, the Phoenix Divine Chisel!
The hammer was heavier and more solid than the original Vajra Chisel, its lines fierce and domineering, yet carrying an ancient and sacred elegance.
The hammerhead was not traditionally square, but slightly curved, resembling a phoenix's folded wings. Across the dark-gold surface were naturally imprinted profound crimson-gold flame patterns, the Phoenix Divine Runes!
These patterns were not lifeless carvings; they flowed slowly, like living flames burning within metal.
The hammer seemed forged from a substance that fused divine metal with eternal flame, neither purely metal nor jade emanating a contradictory aura of warmth and violent fury coexisting.
Dark-red streams of energy wrapped around the handle, with the end faintly forming the shape of a miniature phoenix head.
Without even activating it, merely manifesting the martial soul caused a pressure heavy as mountains and blazing as a furnace to explode outward!
The air was compressed into low groans, and small stones on the ground silently crumbled into powder.
This pressure not only retained the original Vajra Chisel's indestructible sharpness, but also incorporated the destructive and creative power of the Phoenix's divine fire, along with the even purer and more resilient craftsman's will tempered by divine flames!
Its quality far surpassed the former Vajra Chisel, having reached the level of a top-tier Tool Martial Soul!
"This… this is…"
Lou Gao's voice trembled violently. He extended a slightly shaking hand and gently touched the body of the Phoenix Divine Chisel.
What his fingertips felt was not cold metal, but a warm, living pulse of energy along with a blood-bound resonance that reached deep into his bones.
Immediately afterward, as if responding to the evolution of his martial soul, the vast soul power suppressed within Lou Gao's body for an entire day could no longer be contained!
Boom—!!!
A visible pillar of dark-gold soul power, mixed with crimson streams of flame, erupted from the crown of Lou Gao's head like a volcano suppressed for ten thousand years finally exploding!
A violent storm of soul power instantly swept through the entire cavern! Winds howled, sand and stone flew! Larvitar cried out "Larvitar!" and hurriedly clung to a large ore chunk with its claws to avoid being blown away, its small crimson eyes wide with shock.
Lin Xia narrowed his eyes as well, circulating his soul power to resist the impact.
At the core of this storm, Lou Gao's aura soared like a rocket!
The barrier of Level 75, once that of a Soul Sage, shattered like paper!
Level 76… Level 77… Level 78… Level 79!
Finally, with a roar seeming to rise from the depths of his soul, brimming with power, the surging aura stabilized firmly at a brand-new and awe-inspiring height.
Level 80!
Soul Douluo!
The storm of soul power gradually subsided, and dust settled within the cavern.
Lou Gao still stood where he was, yet the presence he radiated had undergone a heaven-and-earth transformation.
His towering frame resembled a divine statue forged in a furnace. Beneath his dark-gold skin surged explosive strength. His gaze was sharp as lightning, brimming with unprecedented confidence and authority.
The Phoenix Divine Chisel hovered at his side, exuding a heart-palpitating pressure. The Phoenix Divine Runes along its hammer body shone brilliantly.
After a brief silence, Lou Gao suddenly threw back his head and released a long, exuberant roar that could pierce gold and split stone!
"Hahahahaha—!!!"
His laughter rolled like thunder through the cavern, reverberating endlessly. It was filled with indescribable excitement, ecstasy, and boundless emotion at destiny's clouds finally parting to reveal the sun! The vigorous soul power contained within the roar shook the cave walls until they trembled and shed dust.
As the roar gradually faded, Lou Gao slowly turned his head. Those eyes, now containing divine radiance, locked firmly onto Lin Xia before him, filled with the deepest gratitude, relief, and a complex emotion bordering on reverence.
He strode forward and extended those once calloused hands, now imbued with terrifying strength and gleaming with dark-gold luster and heavily patted Lin Xia on the shoulder.
"Xiao Xia!"
Lou Gao's voice rang like a great bell, every word brimming with power and sincerity.
"Good lad! My good disciple!"
He drew a deep breath, as though inhaling the very sensation of reborn strength into his lungs. A glimmer of emotion shimmered in his eyes.
"Did you see it? Did you see it?! This martial soul this power!"
Pointing at the Phoenix Divine Chisel hovering beside him, his voice carried a trace of hoarseness.
"If not for you! If not for you arguing with reason and braving immense danger before the divine being to seek that sliver of life for your teacher, if not for that reckless, pure heart of yours that moved the divine, your teacher would already have turned to ash beneath that divine fire! How could I have obtained this rebirth and transformation today?!"
Releasing Lin Xia's shoulder, Lou Gao clenched his dark-gold fist tightly, feeling the surging, inexhaustible soul power within him far surpassing his former peak as a Soul Sage and the terrifying strength in his flesh and bones capable of tearing refined gold apart with bare hands. His tone was resolute.
"Right now, I feel as though a living volcano has been stuffed inside my body! Endless power! The density and purity of my soul power far exceed what I possessed at the peak of Level 75! And more importantly…"
He looked again at the vivid Phoenix mark on his forearm, his gaze filled with reverence and awe.
"The Phoenix God! He has truly given me preliminary acknowledgment!"
----
For additional chapter's
Join pateron.com/Translaterappu