Chapter 62: Pressure from the Senior Sister

On the way back to Shrek City from the Star Great Forest, Ye Xixuan and Tang Ya walked and stopped along the journey, unexpectedly taking nearly half a month in total.

To put it nicely in Tang Ya's words, she had Ye Xixuan help her suppress the evil energy within her martial soul, though in reality, she gradually began to enjoy the process herself.

Tang Ya had just awakened that devouring talent. Although the evil energy contained within her martial soul's origin was vast, under Ye Xixuan's unremitting efforts over the course of half a month, the evil aura inside her body was finally absorbed completely and cleanly.

Without that evil energy, Tang Ya's Dark Blue Silver Grass martial soul naturally lost its characteristic of devouring vitality to nourish itself. However, the effect of her blue silver grass vines devouring soul power and bloodline energy still remained, acting just like the innate instinct possessed by top-tier martial souls, commonly referred to as a natural ability.

It devoured the opponent's soul power and bloodline energy to amplify the might of her own martial soul.

If it was just this, she would not be classified among the evil soul masters. After all, this was not using others' soul power and bloodline energy to elevate her cultivation realm, nor would it affect her sanity; at most, the abilities of her martial soul were merely somewhat bizarre.

Presently, Tang Ya's situation was somewhat similar to Ma Xiaotao's. As long as she sought out Ye Xixuan in time to dissipate the evil aura within her body, she could cultivate completely normally in daily life. Truly, they were worthy of being the Fiery Phoenix Saintess and the Blue Silver Saintess of the Holy Ghost Church in the original storyline.

What brought a pleasant surprise to Tang Ya was that after her martial soul mutated into the Dark Silver Grass, her cultivation speed had achieved a fundamental enhancement compared to the past. Her current cultivation speed might still have a gap compared to top-tier outer courtyard geniuses like Beibei and Xu Sanshi, but compared to commoner geniuses like Jiang Nannan, it was already not inferior in the slightest.

However, the one who gained the most was actually Ye Xixuan. By absorbing this wave of evil aura from Tang Ya's body, his soul power cultivation smoothly broke through to the thirty-seventh rank. Moreover, the ages of his three soul rings had obtained obvious enhancements as well. By the time he entered the outer courtyard for his studies, he was bound to give those conceited genius freshmen a little shock regarding soul ring configurations.

When Ye Xixuan and Tang Ya returned to Shrek Academy, only the last few days remained of their entire month-long holiday.

Tang Ya needed to prepare in advance for the fourth-year advancement assessment, so she parted ways with Ye Xixuan in the outer courtyard, planning to return to the dormitory first to reunite with Jiang Nannan.

As for Ye Xixuan, he headed toward the Sea God Pavilion alone, intending to explain the matter of Tang Ya's martial soul mutation to Elder Mu.

The reason he did not drag Tang Ya along to see Elder Mu was also due to his own thorough considerations.

The relationship between the Tang Sect and Shrek Academy was special. If he brought Tang Ya to see Elder Mu together, it would seem as though he were implicitly questioning Elder Mu why the academy had turned a blind eye to the decline of the Tang Sect.

Having received Elder Mu's kindness since childhood, he naturally could not do such a thing.

Meanwhile, Tang Ya likewise did not wish to receive the academy's favor for no reason on account of Ye Xixuan; she wanted to rebuild the Tang Sect with her own strength. Aside from Ye Xixuan, she would no longer rely on anyone else.

The pristine Sea God Lake mirrored the lingering shadows of twilight at the edge of the sky, where the golden sunlight and the reflections of white clouds intertwined, making them difficult to distinguish.

Relying on the ability of his Heavenly Spider Claw, Ye Xixuan climbed and flew high into the air. The oncoming evening breeze gave a gentle and tranquil feeling, relaxing his mood considerably.

Landing steadily on the open ground in front of the Sea God Pavilion, he caught sight of the frail and elderly Elder Mu lying in a wooden chair at a single glance.

Illuminated by the setting sun, Elder Mu's originally dim and lifeless eyes seemed instead to burst forth with a trace of vitality, carrying a benevolent smile.

Ye Xixuan hurriedly stepped forward to Elder Mu's side, bowing respectfully.

"Elder Mu."

"Your trip was smooth, I presume." Elder Mu's withered palm lifted slightly, and an invisible force already supported Ye Xixuan up.

Under Elder Mu's gaze, for some reason, Ye Xixuan always had the feeling of being seen through, and consequently felt somewhat guilty as he nodded.

"This trip to help Sister Xiaoya hunt soul beasts in the Star Great Forest went quite smoothly; we encountered a thousand-year cultivation Ghost King Vine. However, after absorbing this third soul ring, her martial soul underwent some changes."

Elder Mu smiled faintly.

"I can sense that the evil aura within her body has completely vanished; you must have used your own martial soul ability. Generally speaking, her situation is much better than Xiaotao's, and it is currently completely within a controllable range. As long as she does not devour opponents' soul power and bloodline energy to elevate her cultivation in the future, she basically won't suffer any negative impacts."

"Elder Mu, you knew all about this?" Ye Xixuan was startled inwardly, but quickly grew relieved.

With Elder Mu's level of cultivation, he was probably perceived by Elder Mu the very moment he and Tang Ya stepped into Shrek Academy.

Elder Mu smiled without a word. After pondering for a moment, he continued, "However, devouring soul power and bloodline energy is a characteristic of her martial soul, so it inevitably gets brought into the body when the martial soul is retracted. How about this: go find her a soul bone capable of storing soul power. The external soul power brought back by the martial soul can then be temporarily stored within the soul bone, and gradually expelled from the body afterwards. With such a soul bone acting as a barrier, there shouldn't be any problems."

"A soul bone that stores soul power?" Ye Xixuan widened his eyes thoughtfully, and immediately retrieved the skull bone originating from the ten-thousand-year Radiant Cyclops from his storage soul tool.

"Elder Mu, this soul bone is also my harvest from the Star Great Forest this time. Can we use it to exchange for a suitable soul bone for Sister Xiaoya?"

"Soul bones possessing the characteristic of storing soul power generally originate from plant-type soul beasts, but unfortunately, the academy has no such collection." Elder Mu shook his head regretfully, then changed the topic.

"However, the academy's channels can be mobilized to search for one. Aside from the Star Great Forest, several other wild soul beast habitats within the borders of the Star Luo Empire are famous for producing plant-type soul beasts, so there should be quite a few soul bones that meet the requirements. Alternatively, you could simply spread the word about trading soul bones among the inner courtyard disciples. The quality of that soul bone of yours is quite good—a light-attribute skull bone, and the soul bone skill it carries should be the solidified ultimate innate talent soul skill of the Radiant Cyclops, the Cyclops Aurora. Someone will definitely be interested."

Elder Mu only spoke up to this point, but Ye Xixuan understood the profound meaning behind it very clearly.

The inner courtyard disciples of Shrek Academy basically all came from prominent soul master clans and hailed from various places across the original Douro Continent. This in itself was a massive networking web, which was even more convenient than utilizing the channels of Shrek Academy.

Soul bone transactions were usually conducted through barter—exchanging soul bones for soul bones. Both parties could trade for soul bones whose attributes suited them, which could be described as a win-win situation.

"Lexuan is currently in the library of the Sea God Pavilion. Let her help you handle it."

"Sister Lexuan has come out of seclusion?!" Upon hearing Elder Mu's latter sentence, Ye Xixuan's expression instantly became somewhat unnatural. However, Elder Mu closed his eyes and said nothing more, leaving him with no choice but to bow slightly once again and brace himself as he walked into the Sea God Pavilion.

The library was located on the top floor of the Sea God Pavilion. As Ye Xixuan stepped through the wooden doors, he saw an exquisitely beautiful woman with a quiet and gentle temperament leaning leisurely on a long wooden chair by the window, turning the pages of an archaic classic.

A cascade of smooth black hair drifted with the breeze, lightly brushing against her fair and delicate cheeks, while wisps of the setting sun penetrated through the strands of hair, adding an even more ethereal and hazy ambiance to her presence.

Feeling Ye Xixuan's gaze, Zhang Lexuan instinctively raised her head.

Their eyes met in mid-air, and Ye Xixuan immediately called out softly.

"S-Sister Lexuan."

Zhang Lexuan remained as gentle as ever, yet Ye Xixuan felt an inexplicable pressure from her gaze.

After locking eyes for a long time, Zhang Lexuan stood up, walked over to Ye Xixuan, and after examining him carefully from head to toe, finally spoke in a calm tone.

"Xixuan, it seems you've changed."