It took the three of them a while to snap back to reality after Zhou Sichen retracted his martial soul.
Recalling what he said earlier about his beasts growing stronger with his cultivation, it meant his three contracted beasts were at least past the three-thousand-year mark!
A single Ice Jade Scorpion was already a nightmare for Beibei to deal with.
Three of them?
Wouldn’t that mean he could fight a Soul King?
Zhou Sichen smiled.
“Right now, Ah Da and the others have all reached 9,999 years.
They’re just one step away from breaking the ten-thousand-year boundary.”
Hearing this, Beibei and the others froze once more.
9,999 years…
So, for the past half-month, they had been using a terrifying soul beast bordering the ten-thousand-year mark as a mount?
Three 9,999-year-old soul beasts…
even an ordinary Soul Emperor might not be able to take them down, right?
Wait…
wasn’t Big Brother Zhou only rank thirty-eight?
If the beasts grew with their master’s strength, how could they have reached such a level?
This…
this…
The reason, of course, was that Zhou Sichen’s soul power foundation vastly exceeded that of a normal soul master.
Otherwise, at rank thirty-eight, his beasts would at most be around the five-thousand-year level.
Zhou Sichen smiled.
“Alright, enough about that.
We found Yuhao’s first soul ring.
Follow me.”
He hopped onto Ah Da’s back.
Beibei and Tang Ya brought Huo Yuhao up as well, though they were clearly still reeling from the shock.
Even though they had found his first ring, Huo Yuhao didn’t seem quite as excited, still visualizing the three purple rings around Zhou Sichen’s body.
On the way, Zhou Sichen took the initiative to explain: “Yuhao, the first soul ring I’ve chosen for you belongs to a roughly 350-year-old Three-Eyed Demon Ape.
It’s a rare spiritual-attribute soul beast.”
“Its innate ability is called Spiritual Detection, which is a perfect match for your Spirit Eyes.
If you can acquire this skill, it will be a tremendous help to your martial soul.”
Hearing this, Beibei also snapped out of his daze.
“A Three-Eyed Demon Ape?
That truly is an incredibly rare spiritual beast.
Finding one means our luck is absurdly good.”
Tang Ya corrected him, “You mean Big Brother Zhou’s hard work is good.
He probably had his second contracted beast searching this entire time.”
Despite knowing Zhou Sichen was only twelve, Tang Ya had no problem continuing to call him “Big Brother Zhou.” In the soul master world, those who achieved greatness were respected as teachers or seniors.
Plus, considering how much he had helped her, she called him “Big Brother” with utmost sincerity.
Hearing their descriptions, Huo Yuhao couldn’t help but look forward to his first soul ring.
As for the Three-Eyed Demon Ape’s innate ability, Zhou Sichen was actually quite surprised.
In the original story, aside from Huo Yuhao, no one else seemed to possess abilities like Spiritual Detection or Spiritual Sharing; they seemed like exclusive million-year soul ring skills.
However, these two abilities were documented among certain rare spiritual beasts.
Now that he had found a Three-Eyed Demon Ape, he wanted to see if it would drop the Spiritual Detection skill for Huo Yuhao’s first ring.
He wondered if Huo Yuhao still retained his “protagonist luck” without Tianmeng.
Ah Da carried the group for a full two hours.
By the time the sky was about to break dawn, Ah Da finally stopped in front of a dense thicket.
Not far away stood a magnificent flaming bird with a wingspan of over five meters, looking around imperiously.
Beneath its sharp talons, it tightly pinned a giant ape that was already on its last breath.
The giant ape was massive, over three meters tall, and had a peculiar third eye on its forehead—which gave it its name and its unique skill.
However, right now, this fierce-looking Three-Eyed Demon Ape was being effortlessly subdued by the flaming bird.
At the moment, nobody paid attention to the ape; all eyes were fixed on the flaming bird.
Beibei was truly knowledgeable and recognized the bird wreathed in flames at a glance.
He exclaimed, “Is that…
the legendary Hellfire Phoenix?
A soul beast that’s practically extinct!”
“Legend has it that the Hellfire Phoenix possesses the purest phoenix bloodline, also known as the Inferno Phoenix.
Aside from explosive flames, it also wields ‘Hellfire’, a terrifying flame capable of incinerating the soul!”
With Beibei’s explanation, Zhou Sichen didn’t even need to introduce it.
Tang Ya and Huo Yuhao were already imagining the sheer power of this Hellfire Phoenix.
Speaking of Hellfire, Zhou Sichen’s encounter with it was filled with fortuitous events, and it was precisely because of Hellfire that he had met his sister.
Zhou Sichen patted Huo Yuhao’s shoulder.
“Go.
We’ll stand guard for you.”
Huo Yuhao nodded solemnly.
Having practiced the Tang Sect secret techniques for half a month, his movements were much lighter.
Leaping off the Ice Jade Scorpion, he walked toward the Hellfire Phoenix.
Seeing Huo Yuhao approach, Hellfire voluntarily retracted its terrifying flames to avoid hurting the weak human.
Huo Yuhao glanced at the majestic bird, gulped, and pulled out the White Tiger Dagger—his mother’s relic—from the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges replica spatial belt Tang Ya had given him.
Taking a deep breath, he plunged the dagger straight into the eye on the Three-Eyed Demon Ape’s forehead.
Big Brother Zhou had told him this was its weak point.
As he pulled the dagger out, a bloody white mixture of brain matter and blood sprayed out in a line, splashing onto his face.
But he wasn’t afraid.
Only by becoming stronger could he avenge his mother and make that man kneel!
The ape twitched a few times before dying completely.
A yellow soul ring slowly condensed.
Hellfire released the ape’s body, shot directly into the sky, and vanished into the clouds.
Following the method Zhou Sichen had taught him, Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged, closed his eyes to adjust his breathing, and prepared to absorb his first soul ring.
Watching Hellfire disappear into the clouds, a look of envy flashed in Beibei’s eyes.
“Big Brother Zhou, your soul rings are what countless people dream of.
The Ice Jade Scorpion and the Hellfire Phoenix are both incredibly powerful or rare soul beasts, yet you have two of them at once.
I wonder if your third one is just as rare?”
Zhou Sichen gave a mysterious smile.
“You’ll find out eventually.”
Tang Ya suddenly asked, “Big Brother Zhou, does your Book of Contracts have no attribute restrictions?
The Ice Jade Scorpion and Hellfire Phoenix have conflicting attributes.
Does absorbing both affect you?”
Zhou Sichen shook his head.
“Not at all.
Perhaps that’s the advantage of a top-tier martial soul.”
Hearing this, their envy deepened.
Knowing the unique nature of his martial soul, as long as Zhou Sichen didn’t die young, that Ice Jade Scorpion and Hellfire Phoenix were guaranteed to grow to the hundred-thousand-year level.
How terrifying would a hundred-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion and Hellfire Phoenix be?
Tang Ya became even more determined to recruit Zhou Sichen into the Tang Sect.
Beibei not only wanted him in the Tang Sect, but also wanted to keep him at Shrek Academy!
With a genius like Big Brother Zhou staying at the academy, his great-great-grandfather probably wouldn’t worry so much anymore, right?