Bai Nian's soul ring absorption took an extremely long time. During the process, several unexpected incidents occurred. A special soul beast like the Sea Storm Bug could not be compared to ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul rings. Once a mistake happened during absorption, the risks undertaken would increase exponentially. Fortunately, among the group, there were quite a few people who could solve this problem. Although there were twists and turns, it ultimately ended on a good note.
The amplification provided by the hundred-thousand-year seventh ring to Bai Nian was by no means small. Due to the special nature of her own martial soul, the soul avatar she obtained also possessed some unique abilities beyond a normal soul avatar. For example, it included the nearly unsolvable devouring and parasitic abilities from the Sea Storm Bug.
The soul bone produced by this Sea Storm Bug was a hundred-thousand-year-old right arm bone, and its quality was naturally at the top tier. Bai Nian was not polite either and directly took this soul bone. With the amplification provided by this soul bone, her soul power was very likely to directly reach level seventy-five in a short time. After reaching the Evil Demon Forest, the soul beasts there would be freely available for her to devour. In a short period, she could even charge straight into the Soul Douluo realm in one breath.
However, what surprised everyone somewhat was that Bai Nian did not even let go of the Sea Storm Bug's corpse. She operated her death energy to completely decompose it into energy, then swallowed it all down almost expressionlessly.
It had to be said that in terms of endurance in this aspect, Bai Nian was absolutely among the top in the group.
...
While Bai Nian completed her soul ring absorption, on the other side, the thoroughly exhausted Ye Lingling also slowly woke up from her deep sleep. Looking at Shen Hanyu, who had clearly been awake for a long time beside her, her eyes still held a trace of resentment.
They had not failed to notice the commotion last night, but they simply couldn't be bothered to care. If they had to step in for everything, then this journey would lose all meaning.
The Snow Empress had already gotten up and left long ago. Ye Lingling moved her waist, which felt as if it had lost all sensation, and for a moment only felt that life was not worth living.
It was unknown whether she had been spoiled too much by Shui Bing'er and the Snow Empress, but Shen Hanyu showed her no mercy at all. After a whole night of conquest, even though she could release her martial soul to heal herself, she was still beaten into a weakened state.
Shen Hanyu smiled and pulled Ye Lingling's waist into his embrace, stroking the girl's tender skin. For a moment, his mood was exceptionally pleasant.
Ye Lingling couldn't help but let out two muffled groans. The pervasive fatigue made her want to close her eyes and fall back asleep, but Shen Hanyu's warm palm refused to leave her body. A strange sensation attacked her heartstrings, causing her to switch wildly between two extreme feelings. Her pretty face, along with her neck, grew increasingly red, making her whole person appear even more alluring and delicate.
Shen Hanyu waved his hand, and a gentle strand of soul power slowly lifted the nearby curtains. Bright sunlight poured into the room without the obstruction of the heavy curtains, completely dispelling the darkness inside.
Ye Lingling suddenly sat up, then stared blankly at the sky outside for a moment before softly asking:
"What time is it now?"
Shen Hanyu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but still answered gently:
"Bing'er already came to call us for lunch earlier, but you were still asleep. I saw you were exhausted, so I didn't disturb you…"
Upon hearing this, Ye Lingling was stunned for a moment. Then, the shame in her heart nearly made her want to bury her head. Looking at Shen Hanyu, who showed no remorse, she fiercely shook her head, then grabbed the nearby pillow and angrily smashed it at Shen Hanyu a couple of times. She didn't notice at all that the wonderful scenery she inadvertently exposed had been completely taken in by Shen Hanyu's eyes.
"It's all your fault. Now I've completely lost face. Are you satisfied?"
After venting, Ye Lingling hugged her knees with both arms and said somewhat aggrievedly.
Previously, after Shui Bing'er got together with Shen Hanyu, even someone with strong adaptability like Shui Bing'er had nearly been unable to straighten her back under everyone's teasing. Now that the protagonist was about to face the teasing had become herself, Ye Lingling felt momentarily at a loss.
Looking at the aggrieved Ye Lingling, Shen Hanyu smiled, picked up the nearby thin blanket and draped it over her, then said:
"There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Back then, Bing'er was because she liked sneaking around. Lingling, you're different. That group of people can't even find a partner for themselves. In this regard, Lingling, you're the one with the advantage…"
Ye Lingling gave Shen Hanyu a strange glance, somehow feeling that what he said made some sense, but upon careful thought, she still felt something was off.
But Shen Hanyu no longer gave Ye Lingling a chance to speak further. After casually draping on a black robe, Shen Hanyu rubbed Ye Lingling's head, chuckled lightly, and walked straight out of the room.
Ye Lingling pounded the soft bed a couple of times, snorted lightly, then looked down. She immediately let out an uncontrollable cry of alarm, and even her earlobes turned burning red.
...
The daytime interlude did not affect the good mood for the rest of the afternoon. The color of the surrounding seawater changed once again, and the sultry climate slowly eased. According to Xu Yuexuan, this was a sign that the group had officially entered the sea area touched by the Sun and Moon Empire, and it also indicated that at this moment, they had formally stepped into the territory of the Sun and Moon Empire.
Not long after entering this sea area, the group welcomed their second pleasant surprise.
When the giant ship sailed across a turbulent sea surface, under Shen Hanyu's prompt, everyone easily discovered a sea beast lurking in the deep sea.
After You Mengchu made a move to drive it up to the surface, everyone was surprised to discover that this sea beast actually possessed a rare poison attribute. After the latter, in a fit of rage and shame, spoke, Dugu Yan, who was standing near the front of the crowd, quickly showed a trace of delight on her face. At this moment, if she still didn't understand Shen Hanyu's intention, she might as well go back to the Ice and Fire Polarized Eyes to farm.
Under the tyrannical assault of the Demon Empress, in less than five minutes, this poison beast with cultivation exceeding a hundred thousand years lay dying on the deck. Dugu Yan's face was full of excitement. On this poison beast, she seemed to see a path to surpass Shen Liu Yu. Unfortunately, her ideas were too beautiful, while reality was too cruel.
It was estimated that she had no hope of realizing this idea in this lifetime…
...
Because this poison beast's body was far too massive, it greatly increased the giant ship's load and relatively slowed down the group's forward speed.
However, the group didn't really mind this. Since they had already entered the territory of the Sun and Moon Empire, the distance to truly setting foot on the Sun and Moon Empire's land was no longer far. They were not in a hurry at this moment. It would be better to search around nearby for a while; perhaps they could even find a suitable soul beast for Shui Bing'er.
Regarding Shui Bing'er's soul ring acquisition, for some unknown reason, the Sea God's divine test had not granted everyone divine-bestowed soul rings. Everyone's soul rings needed to be hunted individually, which invisibly counted as a bit of trouble.
In their spare time, You Mengchu also played the role of a good person and hunted a roughly five-thousand-year cultivation Sea Scale Dragon for Xu Yuexuan as her fourth soul ring.
You Mengchu didn't know whether the other party had taken whale glue before; she only saw that this soul beast was suitable for Xu Yuexuan, whose martial soul was also of the dragon type, so she casually asked. As a result, Xu Yuexuan directly agreed. You Mengchu had no particular feelings about this. A five-thousand-year sub-dragon soul beast was like a cute little animal in her hands, without any ability to resist.
...
After advancing another two days at sea, Dugu Yan finally completed her soul ring absorption.
As a control-type soul master, her physical quality was far inferior to Bai Nian's. In the end, Shen Hanyu helped her seal part of the poison beast's soul power before she barely managed to complete the absorption. However, she herself suffered some internal injuries and needed a period of proper recuperation to recover. Fortunately, no other problems arose, and everything went relatively smoothly overall.
But unfortunately, ever since encountering this poison beast, the group had not encountered any more sea soul beasts with cultivation exceeding a hundred thousand years. Even those exceeding fifty thousand years were extremely rare.
The reason for this was largely because the group had entered relatively inland sea areas. According to the map provided by Xu Yuexuan, they had already entered the range of some of the Sun and Moon Empire's more remote shipping routes. Advancing another two days would bring them into the truly busy shipping lanes. At that time, the number of ships encountered would surge, but the chance of meeting powerful soul beasts would plummet.
But reality was always cruel. For two consecutive days, the group encountered no other powerful soul beasts. Instead, they smoothly entered the busy shipping lanes.
The development of the Sun and Moon Empire's soul tools, and indeed all aspects, far surpassed the Douluo Continent, this point could not be denied. This could be seen from the various types of soul tool merchant ships coming and going.
Xu Yuexuan looked at the surrounding scene, sighed lightly, intertwined her hands in front of her, then changed them into a unique gesture. She slowly closed her eyes, seemingly praying for something.
The giant ship the group was on also followed the route taken by these merchant ships. This journey was exceptionally calm and smooth. Midway, they could even see the outlines of the continent several times. Afterward, the group entered a long, narrow canyon waterway. After passing through this waterway, the view ahead suddenly opened up, and a spectacular sight appeared before everyone.
In the distance, various ships were quietly queuing, and ahead was a huge port. Various merchant ships and passenger ships were arranged in an orderly manner. In the corner area, the group even noticed several special warships gleaming with metallic luster. These warships were all over a hundred meters in length, with cannon muzzles gleaming coldly and hanging low. Quite a few soldiers were busy doing something on the decks.
Xu Yuexuan's eyes flickered slightly. She then proactively explained to everyone:
"Those are the empire's newly developed ironclad warships. Currently, they are only deployed in the largest few ports across the country. The main cannons of these warships have a power that can be called one of the empire's major killing weapons. We have conducted tests before, a thousand-year soul beast absolutely cannot withstand the bombardment of these shells, and ten-thousand-year soul beasts will also be injured as a result. These are also the current main research direction for the empire's soul tool development…"
Everyone's faces showed a trace of shock. Shui Bing'er looked at those coldly gleaming cannon muzzles and said with some emotion:
"So soul tools can also become such powerful killing weapons. It's just that the development on the continent side is lagging for some unknown reason. Otherwise, I think many soul masters who are not outstanding in soul power cultivation could have one more choice…"
Xu Yuexuan smiled bitterly and said:
"Everything has two sides. Although the development of soul tools has made the entire Sun and Moon Continent change with each passing day, the distribution of economy and resources across regions has gradually become the source of contradictions. In recent years, the imperial family has also developed cracks with various enfeoffed nobles. You may not believe it, but in just a few decades, dozens of large-scale conflicts have broken out across the entire Sun and Moon Continent. Most of these conflicts used soul tool weapons, but the number of civilian deaths caused by immature technology is also an unimaginable figure…"
"But the development of soul tools on the Sun and Moon Continent cannot be stopped at all. The reason is that the soul master development on the Sun and Moon Continent is somewhat deformed. Many geniuses choose to take drugs for auxiliary cultivation when young, but those drugs also subtly erode their foundations. To say something quite ridiculous, some Title Douluo don't even live past a hundred years…"
"I once personally witnessed a Soul Douluo defeat a Title Douluo-level imperial family retainer. This is a very common occurrence on the Sun and Moon Continent. Under this deformed background, the high-speed development of soul tools has led to problems in their uses and applied fields…"
Shen Hanyu chuckled lightly, seemingly not fully agreeing with Xu Yuexuan's words.
"You're wrong. The development of soul tools is not a mistake. The problem lies with your country's imperial family and nobles, this is the fundamental contradiction. Of course, the existence of civilians also occupies a considerable position in it. Imagine, when the benefits you need conflict, won't the contradictions be ignited? Or rather, this matter itself does not need any reason. No matter the era, no one can control whether such things will happen…"
Xu Yuexuan was stunned for a moment, then a trace of bitterness appeared on her face. She immediately nodded and said:
"You are right. This kind of thing doesn't need any reason at all; it's simply a comparison of the strength of both sides…"
Shen Hanyu smiled and shook his head, then said:
"Give a simple introduction to the Sun and Moon Empire's current situation. It looks like this place hasn't been affected…"
Xu Yuexuan nodded, a trace of recollection appearing in her eyes, and immediately said:
"The areas where internal chaos erupted in the empire are mainly in the central region, as well as the north and east. The south and west are still relatively stable. As you said, the massacre of the imperial family was only a fuse. The complexity of its internal situation cannot be explained in just a few words…"
Shen Hanyu nodded and did not say anything more.
Shen Liu Yu curiously poked Xu Yuexuan's waist and asked:
"Then won't you face a lot of trouble afterward? First, you have to seize the throne, and then you have to clean up those rebellious forces one by one. But one thing I'm very curious about is the current situation of the Sun and Moon Empire's armies, as well as sect forces and the like…"
Xu Yuexuan brushed aside the hair strands blown messily by the wind in front of her eyes, thought for a moment, and then said:
"The armies within the empire are currently divided into two factions. One consists of the old-school knight legions, while the other is made up of soul tool legions equipped with new-style soul tool weapons. Most of them are under the control of the imperial family, but a small portion have chosen to rebel or join other forces. The problem is that my so-called elder brother has no brains and far too little control over the armies. He's turned them into a complete mess that simply cannot muster any real combat power in the short term..."
"As for sect forces… to be honest, the number of sect forces within the entire Sun and Moon Empire that can be considered noteworthy can be counted on one hand. They have never participated in these matters before, but what the current situation is, I'm not too clear either…"
Xu Yuexuan said all this in one breath. From her words, everyone gained a better understanding of the Sun and Moon Empire's current situation. For some unknown reason, everyone felt a trace of anticipation toward this somewhat deformed empire.
...
As the giant ship slowly docked, a long staircase was laid down. Everyone disembarked one after another, truly setting foot on the land of the Sun and Moon Empire for the first time.
The surroundings were very lively. Wooden plank roads extended in all directions, with quite a few men in sailor attire busily doing something on them. Behind them were several middle-aged men wearing luxurious robes.
The figure of the Demon Shadow appeared once again behind Xu Yuexuan. Having entered the territory of the Sun and Moon Empire, they could encounter attacks at any time. Although she knew that nothing unexpected could happen under everyone's watchful eyes, she felt that adding one more layer of protection was always a good thing…
Xu Yuexuan led the way in front, occasionally introducing the various facilities around to everyone. Before long, after climbing a long set of stairs, the group truly saw the cities of the Sun and Moon Empire.
Unlike the somewhat ancient Western-style architecture on the Douluo Continent, the buildings of the Sun and Moon Empire were more novel and towering. The wide roads on both sides were full of various steel-manufactured soul tools, each with its own functions, jointly maintaining the entire city.
All the girls curiously observed the surroundings. Xu Yuexuan didn't seem very familiar with this place either. After simply introducing a few of the surrounding soul tools, she didn't say anything more.
After walking for a while in this unique city, Xu Yuexuan pointed to a building on the peak of a small mountain in the distance and said:
"If nothing unexpected happens, that should be the City Lord's Mansion of this city. The empire's laws clearly stipulate that only personnel at the City Lord level and above can be equipped with soul tool weapon guards. Of course, what the specific situation is now, I'm not clear either…"
The Demon Shadow slightly raised her eyes and said:
"Your Highness, I'll go check the situation first…"
As she spoke, the Demon Shadow prepared to operate her soul power and head toward that heavily guarded building.
But the next moment, a gentle strand of soul power directly and steadily stopped her.
"Wait…"
The one who spoke was none other than You Mengchu. Looking at the Demon Shadow, who had been forced to stop, You Mengchu slowly withdrew her soul power and then said:
"There is a Title Douluo-level powerhouse there. As a Soul Douluo, it's better if you don't act rashly…"
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Here are the chapters for today (づ￣3￣)づ╭～
"Don't forget there are chapters available on Patreon."
"Douluo: Sword of Judgment and Eternal Ice 30 Advance chapters"
"From Douluo to Godhood by Defy 30 Advance chapters."
"Douluo: Far North Invincibledo 30 Advance chapters."
"Douluo Peerless: Living as an Evil Soul Master the novel is already finished on Patreon."
"Douluo Dalu 2:Peerless Tang Sect Dawn of Sun and Moon the novel is already finished on Patreon."
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