At the barbecue.
Zi Mu was wielding a spatula, completely different from his usual scholarly demeanor, flipping the wok like a seasoned chef. His control of the heat was excellent—maybe still a bit behind Huo Yuhao's micro-control with spiritual power, but among soul masters, it was definitely rare.
"Wow, Zi Mu's cooking has improved again." Ke Ke devoured the food and gave him a thumbs-up in praise.
Ju Zi also praised him over and over.
Zi Mu's face flushed, which was rare for him, and he waved his hands repeatedly.
But after a few sentences, the topic shifted from Zi Mu's cooking to probing Su Wen's strength again.
A trace of gloom flashed across Zi Mu's face. He secretly glanced at Ju Zi, then focused on stir-frying.
He knew Ju Zi's ambitions were different from his.
He wanted to be a chef, but a chef couldn't avenge Ju Zi's blood-deep hatred. So he could only silently guard her side. In another year, after graduation, they would likely go their separate ways…
As time went on, everyone grew more familiar.
More topics could be discussed openly.
"By the way, does little junior brother know Su Wen?" Ju Zi suddenly asked with interest.
"…"
Hearing this, everyone looked over curiously.
Huo Yuhao had been happily hiding and had no intention of provoking Su Wen. At those words, his expression stiffened. A flash of killing intent crossed his eyes as he looked at Ju Zi, but he instantly shifted to a wry smile.
"More or less," Su Wen said with a bright smile, not exposing him.
"Oh~" Ju Zi nodded. A trace of surprise crossed her face, but she didn't press further.
Clearly, it was an awkward topic.
For her, if she wanted to avenge her parents, she couldn't rely on herself alone. Even sacrificing her beauty to achieve revenge—this was why she had taken a fatal blow for Prince Xu Tiannan.
As for Su Wen… she actually hadn't thought too far.
He came from Shrek Academy, one of the allies with close ties to the Star Luo Empire. If the Sun Moon Empire launched a continental war in the future, they would inevitably be enemies.
So trying to win him over was nothing but a dream.
Beauty would hardly work either. From Su Wen's manner of speaking, he was clearly not a lustful, short-sighted man. And he was surrounded by beautiful women. His gaze at her was perfectly calm—none of the faint, burning heat she could see in Zi Mu's or Wang Shaojie's eyes.
For now, if she could coax some secrets from Su Wen, perhaps they would be useful in the future…
"…"
"Su Wen, are you a twin martial soul?" Ke Ke asked curiously.
Twin martial souls were almost extinct in the Sun Moon Empire. Historical records showed they were extremely rare. Naturally, the girl was curious about Su Wen, whose strength was a mystery.
"No. My martial soul is special—you could consider it beast-taming." Su Wen shook his head.
If he did have twin martial souls, he'd prefer the other one to be something like a "spirit capsule" that could also tame beasts—then he'd have eighteen slots in total! That'd be glorious.
But alas, he didn't…
Such a monstrous combo could only be imagined—otherwise, how would anyone else on the continent survive?
"Beast-taming? That kind of martial soul must be rare in the Sun Moon Empire. This is the Jingyang Mountain Range, in the Evil Demon Forest area—the largest soul beast gathering place in the entire Sun Moon Empire. We might run into a herd of several ten-thousand-year soul beasts at any moment. Why not give it a try?" Ke Ke was all excitement.
"My beast slots are limited. Using one means one less, and it's permanent." Su Wen smiled.
"Writing that down!"
Ju Zi was inwardly astonished. She hadn't expected Su Wen to reveal something so secret. She couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt—he was treating her sincerely, while she had a bit of calculation in mind.
As for Su Wen…
The entire Sun Moon Empire had even set up a special research group, led by a ninth-level research-type soul engineer, to collect information and analyze Su Wen's strength and future potential.
And this single offhand detail Su Wen had revealed would probably make them happy for days…
Huo Yuhao's eyes also narrowed.
In fact, the continent's various forces had long suspected Su Wen's martial soul: that each soul ring contracted an independent soul beast. Now that Su Wen had personally confirmed it, that speculation was settled.
Each soul ring was a distinct soul beast.
What a monstrous talent.
Add to that Su Wen's ability to analyze and replicate an eighth-level soul tool earlier; by Huo Yuhao's estimation, Su Wen's overall combat strength had likely reached the peak of Soul Sage—he might even be a Soul Douluo…
But if he was a Soul Douluo, there were still ways to take him out.
Huo Yuhao's eyes narrowed.
Lure the snake from its hole. If he used himself as bait to draw Su Wen to a Holy Spirit Cult altar near the Sun Moon Empire's Imperial Soul Engineering Academy—the three altar masters there were on good terms with him and clearly supported his bid for Holy Son. The strongest of them was around level 87; the other two deputy altar masters were around level 83–84.
Plus the underlings in the altar.
With the principle that evil soul masters become twice as strong when blackened, even an ordinary Titled Douluo would struggle to escape intact…
Huo Yuhao squinted, calculating the odds of success.
After the meal.
They got down to business.
Su Wen expertly piloted the all-terrain autonomous probe forward into the forest.
Huo Yuhao shared his spiritual detection with him as well.
As for this ability repeatedly mentioned in the original story—and the greatest cheat the MC relied on from mid to late game—Su Wen was quite intrigued. Unfortunately, if he wanted that x-ray cheat for himself, he'd have to wait at least two months.
As for the Evil Emperor—
Su Wen was quite looking forward to that too.
After all, the Evil Emperor didn't seem to be a creature of this continent. Its identity was a mystery. As for its strength—when its ultimate move, the Light of Space-Time, appeared in the original, it only mentioned terrifying damage. But based on Su Wen's guess, this thing had at least a touch of space-time attribute.
Evolve that, and it might well progress toward space-time…
For a Lovecraftian-level entity like that, nothing it evolved into would be surprising.
Space-time was a mysterious power.
Even the Silver Dragon King-level existences were quite wary of it.
In the original, the Dark Evil God Tiger used a similar ability to regress itself and its enemy to juvenile forms. In that process, Su Wen would never believe it didn't draw on space-time power.
And the Evil Emperor, combined with a Poké Ball evolution—
Just how broken it could get, even he couldn't say.
The only trouble—
Was how to capture it…
The Poké Ball had a very high success rate on low-tier soul beasts, but for something straddling the edge like this, he would need the target's consent first.
Only after reaching agreement could he successfully capture it.
That was what gave Su Wen a headache.
How could he get the Evil Emperor to willingly go in…