Chapter 38: The Eight Great Soul Spirits

"Of the eight soul spirits you have selected, the four that are not 'unyielding' soul spirits are all ten-thousand-year soul spirits."

Yang Wenkang walked to the table and pointed to the four soul spirits on the left, introducing them one by one:

"The Ten-Thousand-Year Mirror Shadow Beast is of direct lineage to a hundred-thousand-year Mirror Shadow Beast King, possessing extraordinary potential."

"The Ten-Thousand-Year Evil Eye Tyrant is purely of the spiritual attribute and is also one of the direct descendants of the Evil Emperor. The one I chose for you has the highest innate potential among all of the Evil Emperor's direct descendants."

"The Ten-Thousand-Year Purple Radiance Dragon is a sub-dragon species soul beast that has inherited the powerful draconic body of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon."

"The Ten-Thousand-Year Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon is a sub-dragon species soul beast that has inherited the extreme destructive power of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon."

"These four ten-thousand-year soul spirits are extremely precious. Even for me, it took a great deal of effort to have them all transferred to the Mingdu branch."

"The remaining four are all 'unyielding' soul spirits, and they are all thousand-year soul spirits."

At this point, he turned to look at Xu Zhao, his tone grave:

"Grandpa Yang knows you have high talent, but having high talent does not guarantee that you will earn the recognition of unyielding soul spirits."

"You may take those four ten-thousand-year soul spirits away directly, but as for these four unyielding ones, unless your grandfather personally intervenes, you must absorb them in my presence so that I can step in and save you if something goes wrong."

"I certainly don't want your grandfather to hunt me down for revenge if you run into trouble while absorbing an unyielding soul spirit."

"Fine, I understand," Xu Zhao replied helplessly.

With his Primordial Ancient Dragon martial soul and his Mind martial soul, unless it was a Dragon God soul spirit, no other soul spirit would dare to be 'unyielding' in front of him!

However, it was not convenient to say such things aloud.

Therefore, in order to take all four unyielding soul spirits at once, Xu Zhao intended to sign the soul spirit contracts immediately.

In any case, his physique met the requirements for absorbing thousand-year soul spirits, and his spiritual power was sufficient to carry five thousand-year soul spirits (the Moon-Howling Wolf and the four unyielding soul spirits).

"The four unyielding soul spirits you have chosen are as follows—" Seeing this, Yang Wenkang continued his introduction:

"The Thousand-Year Radiant Red Dragon, a solar-attribute dragon-species soul spirit with an arrogant and haughty personality."

"The Thousand-Year Moon-Essence Cold Dragon, a lunar-attribute dragon-species soul spirit with a cold and aloof personality."

"The Thousand-Year Star-Mist Winged Snake, an exotic species and a rare, pure stellar-attribute soul spirit. It has a surprisingly good temper but an incredibly high standard; to this day, no spirit master who has taken an interest in it has gained its approval."

"Finally, there is the Thousand-Year Void Jellyfish, also an exotic species. Its specific attributes are unknown, but it is suspected to be both spiritual and spatial. And—"

As he said this, the look he cast toward the Void Jellyfish was filled with a hint of dread.

"The Void Jellyfish can switch freely between void and physical forms. While in its void form, no method can harm it, nor can it be detected."

"Yet, it can conversely use an unknown method to interfere with, or even alter, a living being's mental cognition."

"The Spirit Pagoda was only able to capture it and convert it into a soul spirit because, at the time, the Void Jellyfish was only a little over a hundred years old. Caught off guard, it was seized by a Title Douluo with a brain-type martial soul at the moment it transitioned into its physical form."

"In the years since we obtained the Void Jellyfish, countless genius spirit masters within the Spirit Pagoda have tried to absorb it, but without exception, they have all been backlashed. Even those who were rescued in time were left as complete fools on a mental level."

"I am not surprised that you chose the Void Jellyfish."

"After all, any spirit master of the spiritual path would covet it, but it is truly too dangerous. Although you have spiritual power at the Spirit Sea realm and the capital to afford trial and error, it would be best to reconsider."

While Yang Wenkang was rambling on, Xu Zhao was not idle.

Across the four soul spirit spheres, he used his mental power to communicate with the consciousnesses of the four unyielding soul spirits.

Among the four, the consciousnesses of the first three were within the normal range for soul spirits, but the consciousness of the Void Jellyfish had actually regressed to the point where only instinct remained.

"Only instinct left? That is fine; it will be even easier for me to control its consciousness with the power of my mind."

With that, Xu Zhao stepped forward and opened the Void Jellyfish's soul spirit sphere in front of Yang Wenkang.

Under the control of his mental power, the Void Jellyfish floated up and down beside him.

"Grandpa Yang, the unyielding soul spirits don't seem that hard to tame!"

As he spoke, he commanded the Void Jellyfish to show Yang Wenkang:

"Void, physical, void, physical..."

On the side, Yang Wenkang watched as the Void Jellyfish followed these commands—alternating between flickering out of existence and reappearing in physical form, over and over again.

"..." He was stunned. Then, looking at Xu Zhao, he asked with a guess in mind:

"Little Xu, your mutated martial soul shouldn't just be a pair of eyes containing the power of the sun and moon, right?"

"This Void Jellyfish seems to have been controlled by you at the level of its consciousness."

Xu Zhao smiled without answering, effectively confirming the statement.

"Truly a heaven-defying talent," Yang Wenkang sighed with emotion.

Controlling the Void Jellyfish through consciousness might seem simple, as if any powerful spirit master with spiritual attributes could do it.

But this seemingly simple feat was something that not even a Four-Word Armor Master from their Spirit Pagoda, who possessed a ninety-eighth-level spirit power and a brain-type martial soul, could achieve.

That Xu Zhao could do it so easily, and without even being detected by a ninety-eighth-level Title Douluo like himself, could only mean one thing: the power used to control the Void Jellyfish transcended the realm of mere spiritual power.

"So, what kind of power could it be? Soul? Or mind?" Yang Wenkang speculated inwardly.

A moment later, he looked at the three remaining unyielding soul spirits on the table and said:

"The Void Jellyfish only had instinct, which is why you could control it so easily. But the three unyielding soul spirits that encompass the attributes of the sun, the moon, and the stars—their consciousnesses are within the normal range of thousand-year soul spirits."

"Trying to tame them will certainly not be an easy task."

"Grandpa Yang, that is not necessarily true!" Xu Zhao replied confidently. He tapped his right hand on the table three times in succession, and the three soul spirit spheres were opened one after another, with the soul spirits inside rushing out.

The moment the three soul spirits emerged, a draconic aura encompassing the power of the sun, moon, and stars was released from Xu Zhao's body.

These three soul spirits had already communicated with him through his mental power while still inside their spheres.

Now, sensing this draconic aura, they were even more convinced that the human before them had not lied. One by one, they landed on the ground and lowered their heads to show their submission.

"This draconic aura?" Yang Wenkang's expression became subtle.

In fact, when he saw that the soul spirits Xu Zhao had selected included the Purple Radiance Dragon and the Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon, he had already faintly guessed that Xu Zhao might have twin martial souls.

Now, sensing this draconic aura, his suspicions were confirmed.

He simply had not expected this draconic aura to simultaneously contain the power of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and he could not help but fix his gaze once again on Xu Zhao’s sun-and-moon-dual eyes.