Using the Golden-Eyed Pupil martial soul's true body talent ability, Xu Zihuang carried Wang Qiu'er and crossed a distance of over a hundred kilometers, appearing in another vast expanse of sea.
Because of the earlier delay caused by the encounter with that patterned octopus, the sky had already gradually darkened by now.
The evening breeze was cool, and the moonlight was bright and clear. It had lost some of the grandeur of daytime waves and gained a bit more of the gentleness and tranquility of night.
Compared to the deep-sea region where Xu Zihuang and Wang Qiu'er had been a month earlier, the degree of wave surge and the color of the seawater in this area had clearly changed.
All kinds of signs indicated that the two of them were about to enter the continental shelf range of a vast landmass.
And that was indeed the case. From that patterned octopus, Xu Zihuang had learned quite a bit of key information about that Star Sea Continent.
This Star Sea Continent was the Star Luo Continent from his memories of his previous life. According to the normal course of events, it would later be occupied by the remnants of the Star Luo Empire's imperial family who had fled overseas, and thus be renamed the Star Luo Continent.
The developmental progress of this continent was far behind that of the Douluo Continent and the original Sun Moon Continent. It lacked the advanced soul guidance technology of the original Sun Moon Continent, and soul master research was also far inferior to that of the original Douluo Continent. It was even more backward than the Douluo Continent from ten thousand years ago.
Across tens of thousands of years of history, not even a single Super Douluo had ever appeared. As for Title Douluo-level powerhouses, although they existed, no era ever had more than ten of them.
There were no countries on the Star Sea Continent; instead, it was divided into several vast territories ruled by a few deeply rooted great soul master families. Beneath these great soul master families were medium and small soul master families serving as vassals. These medium and small soul master families would likewise be granted their own territories by the great lords. Below them were the commoners and slaves at the very bottom.
The current state of the Star Sea Continent was far more cruel than that of the Douluo Continent. As commoners, people could only be oppressed and had no possibility of turning their lives around, unless they awakened soul power along with their martial soul during awakening, and could become soul masters.
And as soon as one became a soul master, they would immediately cross class boundaries, be granted land and slaves. The price was that, when their affiliated territory fell into war, they must be conscripted without condition.
It could be foreseen that, even with such conscription conditions, countless commoners still thirsted to become soul masters and change their fate against the heavens.
In addition to the soul master profession that Xu Zihuang was familiar with, from the patterned octopus's memories, he also learned of a special profession on the Star Sea Continent called blood-qi warriors.
So-called blood-qi warriors stimulate the bloodline power within their bodies to gain strength, speed, defense, recovery, and other attributes that surpass those of ordinary people.
However, the developmental potential of blood-qi warriors is limited. Most of them, after tempering their blood-qi power their entire lives, can at best possess combat power equivalent to ordinary ten-year soul beasts, and very few can contend with hundred-year soul beasts.
Of course, although blood-qi warriors cannot compare to soul masters, their status is definitely higher than that of commoners and slaves.
If soul masters are considered various levels of nobility, then blood-qi warriors are equivalent to the knight class.
Unfortunately, the patterned octopus's memories were all obtained by devouring natives of the Star Sea Continent who had entered the sea. The sea region where the patterned octopus resided was almost regarded by the Star Sea Continent natives as an absolutely forbidden land. Naturally, very few high-status soul masters among the natives were willing to venture into such dangerous waters.
The lack of technology and top-tier combat power made the natives of the Star Sea Continent fear the sea even more than the people of the Douluo Continent and Sun Moon Continent.
For various reasons, the scenes Xu Zihuang saw were not only fragmented but also lacked much useful information about the upper classes.
The only good news was that the sea area they were in was not far from the Star Sea Continent. A normal sea vessel would take about seven days to reach it, while at the speed of the Demon Whale, it would only take less than a day.
Xu Zihuang's purpose in heading to the Star Sea Continent this time was to rest for a while and procure some supplies.
Returning to the Douluo Continent was not something that could be done overnight; no matter how anxious he was, it would be meaningless. It was better to make more thorough and sufficient preparations for it.
But the main reason was still a certain secret realm on the Star Luo Continent, the Dragon Valley. Within the Dragon Valley lies the Dragon Tomb; the remains of true dragons that perished in ancient times are basically left here, guarded by countless true dragon souls protecting both themselves and the bodies of their ancestors.
Every part of a true dragon is a supreme treasure. The most precious are undoubtedly true dragon soul bones and dragon cores.
On the Douluo Continent, true dragons are nearly extinct; the only ones still existing in the present world are the Beast God Di Tian, whose true form is the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, the Hell Dragon King Zi Ji, and the Silver Dragon King slumbering deep beneath the Star Dou Great Forest.
The might of true dragons is beyond doubt, and the quality of soul bones they produce is likewise of the absolute top tier.
As for dragon cores, they are energy bodies that giant dragons slowly condense within their bodies after reaching adulthood. They contain the dragon's bloodline and the dragon's origin power. Back in the day, Elder Mu had obtained a light-attribute true dragon core by chance when he was young.
The young Elder Mu had only absorbed a portion of the energy from that dragon core and smoothly broke through to the Limit Douluo level. One can imagine just how vast the energy contained within it was.
Even for Xu Zihuang, true dragon soul bones and dragon cores held fatal attraction. According to his plan, he would definitely need to condense mutually complementary yin-yang three soul cores in the future. If he could use an appropriately attributed dragon core as the embryonic form of a soul core, condensing the soul core would become much easier.
And soul bones from a true dragon with matching attributes could further enhance his physical quality and overall strength. As someone with twin martial souls, he would definitely need to attach a full eighteen soul rings to each martial soul in the later stages of cultivation. At that time, he would require an extremely powerful physique to withstand the vast energy of those high-level soul rings.
Xu Zihuang stood at the front controlling the Demon Whale, pushing its speed to the limit.
This time, Tang San's scheme against him had failed, and instead delivered him an opportunity; his mood was exceptionally cheerful.
Although Xu Zihuang did not know the exact location of the Dragon Valley, he possessed the heaven-defying advantage of the Golden-Eyed Pupil martial soul. As long as he could roughly sense the direction of the Dragon Valley, he could forcibly tear open a spatial rift and enter.
This was also one of the special features of the Star Sea Continent. On this continent, there were quite a few similar small spatial rifts. Most of them were very unstable and could collapse at any moment. But some spatial rifts were especially stable, connecting to special places inside. Such places were like fragments of a shattered continent that had fallen into spatial rifts, forming a state of stability and balance. They had their own ecological systems, yet they were not planets, but rather a heaven-round-earth-square existence.
The Dragon Valley was precisely this kind of stable, small world within a spatial rift.
On the Douluo Continent, such special spatial rifts were called spatial secret realms.
However, the space on the Douluo Continent was extremely stable, and historical records of spatial secret realms appearing could be counted on one hand.
The oncoming sea wind brushed against Xu Zihuang's face, his smooth, black, long hair fluttering upward. His noble, deep-purple eyes shimmered with purple light, revealing contemplative brilliance. He had completely ignored his earlier promise to Wang Qiu'er.
The silver moon hung high in the night sky, and a layer of silver glow also covered Wang Qiu'er's wavy powder-blue long hair, adding a touch of ethereal quality to her.
Gazing at Xu Zihuang's back, she lightly bit her silver teeth and slightly puffed out her fair cheeks.
"You don't keep your word."
Wang Qiu'er's voice was still cold, without much emotional fluctuation, but this time it clearly carried a hint of shy annoyance.
"Hm?" Hearing Wang Qiu'er's voice, Xu Zihuang turned his head to look. The moment their eyes met, he couldn't help but pause.
Ever since he defeated the Holy Spirit Battle Team in the All-Continent Youth Soul Master Elite Tournament, he had noticed a change in Wang Qiu'er's attitude toward him. Especially during this month-plus of sailing.
Xu Zihuang did not say much, merely giving a light nod.
"This sea area is not far from the Star Sea Continent. We should arrive before dawn. At that time, I will fulfill it."
A trace of joy unconsciously flashed through Wang Qiu'er's powder-blue eyes, but immediately afterward her cheeks flushed slightly as she restrained her emotions and pretended to be calm, saying:
"I have heard Di Tian mention that continent before. Although the top combat power of the natives on that continent is not as strong as the soul masters of the Douluo Continent, it seems they can mobilize special bloodline power to amplify themselves."
Xu Zihuang immediately showed a surprised expression. He knew that the Beast God Di Tian had once traveled to various places on Douluo Star; he hadn't expected Di Tian to have come to this continent as well.
But one thing was certain: at the current stage, Di Tian should not have discovered the existence of the dragon tomb.
"I already learned about these things from that octopus-type ferocious beast earlier."
Xu Zihuang replied indifferently, then continued meaningfully:
"However, I have my own purpose for going to this continent. At that time, you can choose whether to come with me or act alone."
If they truly entered the dragon tomb, Wang Qiu'er, who possessed pure dragon clan bloodline as the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, would definitely be able to provide him with a certain degree of assistance.
Xu Zihuang had to consider the portion of Purple Radiance Heaven-Destroying Dragon bloodline within his body. The ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Destroying Dragon was a sub-dragon progenitor born alongside the Dragon God, later personally slain by the Dragon God. Once he exposed this portion of bloodline power, he would very likely be rejected by the dragon tomb.
This time it was Wang Qiu'er's turn to be surprised. She had seen Xu Zihuang's memories, yet she had not seen anything related to this Star Sea Continent.
Amid the high-speed advance of the Demon Whale, the two passed by one deserted island after another. Even with a rough visual estimate, one could see that the vegetation on these deserted islands was extremely diverse. This was a symbol of proximity to the continent.
Among the sea soul beasts living in the sea, there were not a few with long-range attack methods that preyed on flying birds. Only near the continent could those flying birds relatively safely spread various plant seeds to these deserted islands through their droppings.
For the following period of time, both Xu Zihuang and Wang Qiu'er remained silent. Xu Zihuang controlled the Demon Whale at full speed toward the Star Sea Continent, while Wang Qiu'er sat on the Demon Whale and directly entered a cultivation state.
Although they encountered several attacks from sea soul beasts along the way, they were all frightened away by Xu Zihuang's terrifying mental pressure. The overall strength of sea soul beasts in the near-sea areas of the Star Sea Continent was far stronger than on the Douluo Continent side, and there were even ten-thousand-year soul beasts appearing. No wonder the natives of the Star Sea Continent treated the sea with such taboo-like fear, and the development of long-distance ocean voyages was extremely slow.
On the Douluo Continent side, at least coastal sailing had some degree of safety assurance. But on the Star Sea Continent, no such situation existed.
After several hours of sailing. At dawn, a continuous black horizon finally appeared in the distance.
The beaches of the Star Sea Continent were not much different from those on the Douluo Continent. Waves crashed against the fine sandy shore again and again, and the silver moon's reflection lay on the sea surface, giving a sense of peace and serenity.
But this peace and serenity were soon broken by a high-speed deep-blue afterimage. It was precisely Xu Zihuang and Wang Qiu'er arriving on this beach aboard the Demon Whale.
Looking around, this beach appeared rather desolate. There were no villages or cities nearby. On the other side of the coastline stretched mountain ranges, with vast expanses of dense forest.
Xu Zihuang stored the Demon Whale in the Huanglong Ring, raised his head to gaze at the forest before him, and gave a light laugh.
"So this is the future Star Luo Continent."
In his memories from his previous life, even the remnants of the Star Luo Empire's imperial family, who had barely survived and fled overseas, could easily occupy this continent. With his strength, he should be able to steamroll it without much difficulty.
To save some time searching for the dragon tomb, he could directly approach the several great soul master families currently ruling this continent and convince them with "virtue." Those soul master families had operated on this continent for so long; they should know at least some hidden information.
However, Xu Zihuang was not in a hurry. After maintaining high alertness during long-term sailing on the sea, his mind was inevitably somewhat fatigued. For now, he should first recover to his optimal state. Moreover, although this continent was not as vast as the Douluo Continent, it was still definitely not small. Finding those great soul master families would still require some investigation.
At that moment, he once again sensed Wang Qiu'er's intense gaze fixed on him.
Seeing Wang Qiu'er looking so yearning, Xu Zihuang responded directly with action. He skillfully started a fire, then used his second soul skill, Mirror of Annihilation, to create various tools. As for ingredients, Wang Qiu'er had already prepared them before landing.
Several fresh sea fish and one rather large red octopus. This octopus was still only a ten-year-level sea soul beast.
Before long, the long-delayed dinner was ready. A combination of fish soup and grilled octopus. The fish soup was fresh, sweet, and thick; the grilled octopus had an excellent texture. The two paired together had a unique flavor.
With the life gold in his second sea of consciousness providing rich vitality, Xu Zihuang actually did not have much demand for food now. After satisfying his appetite with a few skewers of charcoal-grilled octopus legs along with the fish soup, he entered a cultivation state on his own.
His cultivation had already reached the peak of level 73; in the near future, he should be able to break through to level 74.
The bonfire on the beach swayed with the wind. Wang Qiu'er, sitting opposite Xu Zihuang, chewed on a fragrant, oil-dripping charcoal-grilled octopus leg while her gaze quietly fell on Xu Zihuang, complex emotions surging in her eyes.
Although Xu Zihuang's attitude toward her could not be said to be overly cold, it also could not be called particularly close. This was clearly a matter of course, yet she somehow felt irritated.
A moment later, Wang Qiu'er suddenly stood up and left this place. Only the faint sound of a waterfall sliding down deep in the mountains could be heard coming this way, the clear sound of flowing spring water.
Xu Zihuang, in the midst of cultivation, sensed Wang Qiu'er's departure, but he did not pay it much mind. While cultivating, he was also recalling the information about several top soul master families on the Star Sea Continent that he had obtained from the patterned octopus.
Two families he was familiar with were the Hua family, which inherited the Dragon Wolf martial soul, and the Su family, which inherited the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox martial soul.
In his memories from his previous life, two of the eight heavenly kings of the future Monster Academy on the Star Luo Continent possessed these two martial souls.
The Dragon Wolf was the most powerful existence among wolf-type martial souls, possessing the characteristics of both a giant dragon and a wolf martial soul at the same time. Legend said that because of the giant dragon's naturally lustful nature, it mated with a Howling Moon Wolf King and thus gave birth to the Dragon Wolf species. This was a creature unique to the Star Sea Continent.
The Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox excelled at various special-effect control-type soul skills and was even more powerful than the top spiritual-attribute soul beast, the Three-Eyed Demon Fox.
Even if placed on the Douluo Continent, these two martial souls could rank among the top-tier martial souls.
The Dragon Wolf Territory, ruled by the Hua family, encompassed the region where Xu Zihuang currently was. The most prosperous city in the territory was the main city, Dragon Wolf City, which was also the first destination Xu Zihuang had planned for this trip.
As time passed, Xu Zihuang entered a state of emptiness. He did not know how long had passed. When he opened his eyes again, a powerful aura instantly burst forth from within and around his body.
A ray of morning sun swept across the eastern sea horizon, causing the sea surface to sparkle with rippling light that reflected in Xu Zihuang's eyes.
"Level 74."
Xu Zihuang murmured.
During this period of time, together with Wang Qiu'er, his cultivation speed had been even faster than he had anticipated.
Moreover, judging from the sky, this cultivation session had not taken too long at all; it was completely a natural, water-reaching-the-channel breakthrough.
Seeing that Wang Qiu'er still had not returned, Xu Zihuang subconsciously released his spiritual power outward. Although with Wang Qiu'er's strength, she should not encounter any danger, this was, after all, an unknown continent.
He did not want to see any accident happen to Wang Qiu'er, which would implicate the people of Shrek City next to the Star Dou Great Forest.
Invisible spiritual power enveloped a range of over a hundred kilometers around.
But in the next instant, Xu Zihuang's expression changed slightly, though he quickly returned to normal and withdrew the released spiritual power.
On the other side of the mountain range, a waterfall about twenty meters wide hung like a jade belt on a nearly two-hundred-meter-high cliff.
The waterfall poured into the clear pool below. Countless splashing water droplets formed a hazy mist, which, under the sunlight, refracted into seven-colored halos.
Within the water mist stood a graceful figure completely bare, her damp powder-blue long hair draping all the way down to cover her hips. At that moment, her body suddenly stiffened.
Who else could it be but Wang Qiu'er?
Unlike Xu Zihuang, who had the Sky Dream Iceworm's shed skin to isolate all filth, although her physique also made it difficult to be stained, after more than a month of sailing, she had found it somewhat unbearable. That was why this scene had occurred.
But she had never expected that Xu Zihuang's cultivation would end so quickly, and that he would even release his spiritual power and see her current appearance. Although Xu Zihuang's released spiritual power had instantly withdrawn.
Quickly putting her clothes back on, Wang Qiu'er turned into a streak of golden light and appeared before Xu Zihuang in an instant, her pretty face filled with extreme shame and anger.
"You?!"
Xu Zihuang, however, remained completely unmoved. Although in the end Wang Qiu'er had suffered the loss, he did not feel this was his fault. That kind of scene was not something he had ever seen from Ye Guyi and Ning Tian and the others; moreover, from beginning to end, he had never had that kind of intention toward Wang Qiu'er.
He circulated his soul power and rose into the air, flying toward the mountain range side, speaking calmly:
"Next, you can act together with me, or act alone, choose for yourself."
As he spoke, Xu Zihuang's figure had already sped away into the distance.
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