-----
-----
Ye Guyi discreetly spit out the oak cake roll in her mouth—it felt like she was chewing on sawdust. She quickly took a few bites of regular bread and washed it down with some clean water before letting out a breath of relief. She'd only taken a tiny nibble of the oak cake roll—not as daring as Xu Tianzhen—but it had still almost knocked her out.
These two little ones had never really suffered or eaten anything this awful before, so their stomachs were totally unprepared.
Bread was still acceptable—they could handle that—but the oak cake roll? Hard pass.
"This is an oak cake roll! It's really delicious, you know…"
Liuying looked a little hurt. She just wanted to share her favorite treat, but it seemed like nobody else liked it.
"It's fine, Liuying. Different people like different things. Some love radishes, some love cabbage. Everyone has their own tastes, no need to feel bad."
Liuxing comforted her gently.
"Yeah, yeah, right—I don't like oak cake rolls. I'll stick with bread. Bread's not bad either."
Xu Tianzhen had finally recovered and decided never again to be curious about weird new foods. She quietly nibbled on her bread, making a silent vow to herself: in this lifetime, she was never going near oak cake rolls again. That stuff was straight-up nightmare fuel.
Luan Yu watched the whole scene unfold with genuine amusement. Being around these little ones was actually kind of fun—how had she never noticed before? Hanging out with kids could be really enjoyable.
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Luan Yu led the four kids into the Devil Forest. Relying on the directions she'd scoped out from the sky earlier, she headed straight toward the center of the outer region.
The soul beasts in the outer zone mostly ranged from ten to a thousand years in age. Rarely would you find any ten-thousand-year-old beasts here. But even within the same age range, there were still differences—bloodlines, strength, intelligence. The stronger a beast's bloodline, the closer it lived to the forest's core, where the spiritual energy was thicker.
Yet Luan Yu, dragging along four little tag-alongs, still dared to head straight toward the inner edge of the forest. That was confidence—serious confidence. I mean, come on, she was a Rank 9 Soul Engineer.
Even with four burdens in tow, she was basically untouchable in the outer region. As long as they didn't get ridiculously unlucky and bump into a hundred-thousand-year-old beast from the core out on a walk, there was no way this mission could go sideways.
Luan Yu didn't think of herself as some unlucky background character. She was Saber, okay?
She tossed out a few small, black soul device probes. She might not be a spiritual-type soul master who could use mental power to detect beasts, but she had her own tools. A soul engineer's life wasn't that limited.
Turning to Xu Tianzhen and Ye Guyi, she asked, "Alright, Xiao Guyi, Xiao Tianzhen—what kind of soul beasts are you two looking for?"
"I want one with light attributes, preferably something holy. Around 400 years old would be good," Ye Guyi replied.
"My brother said I need a beast with both light and fire attributes. Ideally, a flying type with Golden Crow bloodline," Xu Tianzhen added.
Both Ye Guyi and Xu Tianzhen already had clear goals in mind for their martial spirits.
Technically, with Xu Tianzhen's background and martial spirit, the royal family of the Sun-Moon Empire had a matching beast already prepared for her. But her brother, Xu Tianran, wanted her to bond with Liuxing and the others, so he turned down the offer.
Sure, the beast prepared by the royal family might've been a better match for her Solar martial spirit, but the Solar spirit was extremely adaptable. As long as the beast had light and fire attributes, the soul ring would still be high quality. If they were lucky enough to find one with Golden Crow bloodline, it might even surpass what the royal family had offered.
"Holy and light, huh?"
Luan Yu glanced at Ye Guyi with surprise. She already knew about Xu Tianzhen's martial spirit, but she hadn't looked into Ye Guyi's. She never bothered gathering intel on her.
"Auntie Luan Yu, my martial spirit is the Holy Angel."
"Holy Angel?"
Not just Luan Yu—Liuxing and Xu Tianzhen also stared wide-eyed at Ye Guyi. Over the past two years, Liuxing had gotten super into books and was learning everything about the Douluo Continent.
Xu Tianzhen, meanwhile, had received elite royal education, so she'd studied all the basics even before her martial spirit awakened.
They might not know the Holy Angel, but if you said Six-Winged Angel, that'd definitely ring a bell. Ever since the Sun-Moon Empire was forced to rename their continent to the Douluo Continent, they'd gone all-in researching its history.
Apparently, ten thousand years ago, the continent was ruled by two great empires and the Spirit Hall. The Spirit Hall had once tried to unify the entire continent but was defeated by Tang San, the Sea God, one of the original Seven Shrek Monsters.
The rulers of the Spirit Hall were the Angel Clan, whose legacy martial spirit was the Six-Winged Angel. It was said to possess three powerful attributes: holy, light, and fire. And those who inherited the Angel God's divine position could even awaken a God-given martial spirit, starting with an absurd innate soul power of Rank 20.
The legendary Three Gods War from ten thousand years ago was still widely talked about even today—even outsiders like the Sun-Moon Empire knew about it.
Even though a lot of that history was seen as myth now, Liuxing knew it was all real. Innate Rank 20 monsters and the Three Gods War? Totally legit.
"Could Guyi… be a descendant of Qian Renxue?"
Liuxing stared at the little blonde, golden-eyed girl, silently guessing. The Holy Angel martial spirit was just a step below the God-given Six-Winged Angel. In some ways, it was still an extreme-tier martial spirit. To awaken that kind of spirit, the angelic bloodline had to be very pure.
And Liuxing also remembered—during the Three Gods War, the Rakshasa God fell, and Qian Renxue, the Angel God, had her divine position shattered. Her cultivation dropped to Rank 89, and she could never ascend again. She stayed behind on the Douluo Continent, so it was totally possible she'd left descendants.
Which meant Ye Guyi probably had Angel God blood.
If the divine position hadn't shattered, then Ye Guyi's martial spirit wouldn't be the Holy Angel—it would've been the full-blown Six-Winged Angel.
The Six-Winged Angel was the top-tier angel martial spirit. Compared to the Holy Angel, it had an extra fire attribute, making it a triple-threat: holy, light, and fire. Three extreme elements.
Given that even a single-attribute extreme spirit could dominate the world today, the Six-Winged Angel's power didn't need further explanation.
And Angel martial spirits were the bane of all evil—they had a natural advantage against anything corrupted or wicked. They could even purify evil or resentful souls to boost their own cultivation.
The Holy Angel might be a "degraded" version of the Six-Winged Angel, but it still wasn't any weaker than Xu Tianzhen's Solar martial spirit. In some ways, it might even be stronger.
"Is it true that people with the Holy Angel martial spirit can raise their soul power by killing evil soul masters?"
Liuxing asked Ye Guyi, eyes sparkling with curiosity. If that was real, then even though she'd have a slower start due to the purer, more powerful Holy element—just like other extreme spirits—she could speed things up a lot by hunting evil soul masters.
"....."