"These are the Netherworld Wolves." As they entered the forest, the two quickly encountered the first group of animal-type soul beasts. The dean remained calm, introducing them while summoning his martial soul.
With the white, yellow, purple, and purple four soul rings pulsing at his feet, a whip appeared in his palm.
"Second soul skill: Whip Lash."
He swung it with one hand; the whip extended, unleashing countless afterimages and gusts of wind.
Whack! Whack! The pack of wolves ahead quickly yelped in pain and scattered in panic.
"Amazing!" Zhu Wu didn't hold back his praise, immediately showering compliments.
No wonder in the original story, it took 600 years to deal with a Ghost Vine—it turned out the martial soul was a whip! With ranged attack capability, it could effectively avoid the Ghost Vine's parasitic power, making it somewhat of a counter. But the whip's attack power wasn't high, so it took some time.
The 600-year-old Ghost Vine was no small opponent—thick-skinned and tough—truly resistant to punishment.
Zhu Wu glanced sideways at the dean, wondering if the dean had some secret hobby late at night. But judging by his demeanor, he seemed pretty serious.
"Let's move on." Seeing no sounds around, the dean retracted his whip and led the way.
He patiently introduced the passing soul beasts as they walked.
Zhu Wu nodded repeatedly and quietly summoned Xiao Bai to record the appearance of each soul beast.
"I didn't expect even a low-level soul hunting forest to have so many soul beasts." After walking half the day, Zhu Wu couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Having experienced it himself, he now understood that surviving in a soul beast forest was far more dangerous than he'd imagined—he had been shallow before.
What netizens said about casually hunting a soul beast was just keyboard talk.
"If this is a low-level soul hunting forest, then what about the Starry Forest? I'd better prepare more."
Two days later, in a dark corner.
"It's actually a three-eyed demon fox. Little Zhu, you're lucky." Seeing a purple fox drinking by a stream, the dean's face brightened. "Judging by its size, its age should be about 400 years, maybe a bit more, just right."
"Dean, thank you so much." Zhu Wu was very grateful.
After practicing the Diamond Body Technique for so long, he sensed that with his current physical strength, he should be able to absorb higher-level soul rings. Yet after this trip to the soul hunting forest, he understood that hunting alone with his current strength was nearly impossible. Being able to find this suitable 400-year-old soul beast with the dean's help was already very good.
No power, no background—what more could he ask for?
Besides, his luck was extremely good. The three-eyed demon fox was a top-tier fox soul beast with psychic attributes. In the original story, Xiao Wu's seventh soul ring came from a three-eyed demon fox and dropped a piece of an intelligent soul bone.
"No big deal." The dean smiled, summoned his martial soul, and dashed forward as his third and fourth soul rings glowed.
"Third soul skill: Shadow Split Whip!" A flash of light, and an extra whip appeared in his left palm.
"Fourth soul skill: Chaos Shadow Strangle!" He swung both whips simultaneously, creating countless whip shadows like serpents, covering a large area ahead.
Both third and fourth skills had originally been recommended by Yu Xiaogang for hunting, derived from snake-type soul beasts. He had wanted to try adding poison effects to his martial soul, but unfortunately...
"Uh, the fourth skill must be from the snake-type soul ring Yu Xiaogang suggested?" Zhu Wu guessed after seeing the fourth skill's form.
"No wonder the durability is high but the attack power is low."
Lost in thought, the three-eyed demon fox, unable to dodge in time, was soon trapped in the whip shadows, repeatedly struck with whack, whack sounds. The nearby creek splashed from the blows. In the blink of an eye, the little fox lay bleeding and half-dead.
"Good thing I practiced the Diamond Body Technique. Being a fragile mage has no future; if I have to be one, I'll be a tanky mage..." Watching the fox's tragic state, Zhu Wu thought.
"Xiao Wu, go ahead." The dean stopped and looked back.
"Okay." Zhu Wu nodded, gripped his dagger, and swiftly ended the fox's life.
Soon, a yellow soul ring floated out.
Setting the dagger aside, Zhu Wu sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began meditating to draw in the soul ring.
Unlike weapon-type martial souls that must be summoned as weapons, beast-type martial souls are possessed forms, so absorbing a soul ring doesn't require summoning the martial soul. Instead, meditating draws it in, and the soul ring automatically attaches and is absorbed—basic knowledge taught by the academy.
He wasn't sure if his out-of-body martial soul would be different, but he wasn't ready to experiment with that now.
Especially with someone nearby.
If he couldn't draw it without summoning the martial soul, then there was no choice.
But as it turned out, he had worried for nothing.
As soon as he started meditating, the soul ring reacted, floated above his head, and slowly settled onto him.
When it reached his waist, it suddenly began to shrink.
Zhu Wu immediately felt a wild energy like molten lava flooding into his body, rushing through his meridians and organs without warning—violent and rough. Pain struck, and his body involuntarily trembled.
"Endure it. No matter how the soul ring's energy assaults your body, remember to stay conscious." The dean's voice suddenly came.
Zhu Wu couldn't reply but gritted his teeth and endured, his mind slowly immersing in resisting the burning ocean inside.
After a while, his mind strangely cleared. He vaguely saw a sea of flames, and in its center, Xiao Bai twisted and floated midair. Flames surged around Xiao Bai's body, coloring it red.
Next moment, a painful struggling sensation came.
"Xiao Bai, hold on!" Zhu Wu knew this was the inner vision realm reached by Tang San when absorbing his first soul ring. He too was now in this state under the soul ring's infusion. Unable to speak, he could only shout mentally. Miraculously, Xiao Bai seemed to sense this intention and stopped struggling, curling calmly.
Seeing this, Zhu Wu breathed a sigh of relief and watched Xiao Bai carefully.
After a while, apart from a slight size increase, there were no other changes.
"Could it be that the energy for evolution isn't enough yet?" Zhu Wu wondered.
He paused, then focused on feeling his soul power flowing through his meridians, marveling at the sensation of inner self-vision.
Time slowly passed, and the energy stopped flowing. The once blazing fire sea turned into a pure white space, and in the center, Xiao Bai stretched out, now about the size of a thumb, with snow-white, translucent skin.
At the same time, a strange stream of information entered his mind.
"This!" Zhu Wu was shocked.
So this was possible?
According to Xiao Bai's transmitted information, he hadn't gained a normal soul skill, or rather, he had gained a very special soul skill.
It allowed the martial soul to transform into the recently hunted three-eyed demon fox and inherit all its abilities.
Note: it was the martial soul that inherited these, not him personally!
Moreover, these abilities could only be used when the martial soul transformed into the three-eyed demon fox form.
Crucially, after transforming, Xiao Bai could possess the martial soul in this form, effectively turning Zhu Wu's silkworm martial soul into a three-eyed demon fox martial soul. Then, he could use all the abilities of that fox. But if Xiao Bai fought separated from the body, Zhu Wu would lose those abilities. Understandable—it's the martial soul Xiao Bai inheriting the fox's powers, not Zhu Wu himself.
"Is this the special feature of an out-of-body martial soul?"
Even better, in this possessed form, he could switch to beast form—that is, fight as the three-eyed demon fox.
Zhu Wu admitted: he was completely blown away.
(End of chapter)
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