thefictionvixens 24. Devour
24. Devour
"Of course, for those taking the Black-level Divine Exam, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But you are different. As my successor, as long as you can pass each exam safely, I can guarantee that I will bestow upon you a divinely granted spirit ring for every spirit ring you take on in the future."
The god who spoke was calm and indifferent, but the content of his words was quite exciting and sensational for Ling Bingtian!
Ling Bingtian couldn't even imagine that all nine of his spirit rings were divinely bestowed spirit rings. In fact, if you add the spirit ring on his left hand, that would be a total of eighteen divinely bestowed spirit rings!
Indeed, the blood shadow that rushed into Ling Bingtian's left hand was actually a martial soul. However, sensing the faint messages emanating from this martial soul, Ling Bingtian was hesitant to summon it or inform his elders.
Of course, in front of a true deity, Ling Bingtian believed that his secret could not be kept hidden.
Sure enough, the Ice God hadn't finished speaking; there was a second half to his sentence.
"However, judging from your bloodline aura, I'm afraid you don't only have one martial soul." The Ice God's indifferent voice rang out again, but this time it was filled with curiosity. Even with His experience, He couldn't discern the origin of Ling Bingtian's other martial soul.
It should be noted that even if a Soul Master awakens a Weapon Martial Soul, just like the Ling family ancestor who came into contact with the Ice God, it is not entirely impossible to detect the aura of the Weapon Martial Soul.
In the Ice God's perception, if a Soul Master's Martial Soul is a Weapon Martial Soul, even if He cannot perceive what it is specifically, He should be able to sense a metallic aura unique to Weapon Martial Souls. Even a Weapon Martial Soul like the Frost Soul Chain Dragon Spear, which is composed of ice, will have this metallic aura.
If it's a beast spirit, then with the Ice God's experience accumulated over thousands of years, even if he's not the best, he should be able to tell the type of beast a beast spirit master possesses. For example, Ling Bingtian's Ice Crystal Phoenix spirit is at least a bird that the Ice God doesn't dislike so much.
However, while the Ice God clearly sensed the aura of another martial soul within Ling Bingtian's bloodline, he couldn't detect a trace of metallic energy, nor the aura of a beast martial soul. This rekindled a curiosity that had been absent for thousands of years before meeting Ling Bingtian.
"Could it be a type of spirit that uses a part of a human body as a spirit?" He recalled that some time ago, thousands of years ago in the Douluo Continent, an ancestor of the Ling family mentioned a newly emerging type of spirit in the Douluo Continent when he was praying for him. This type of spirit uses a part of a human body as a spirit for cultivation.
Thinking of this, the Ice God couldn't help but recall the astonishing talent of human cultivation. A Soul Master with exceptional talent could, in just a few decades of cultivation, possess power comparable to a Soul Beast that had cultivated for thousands or even tens of thousands of years.
"How unjust Heaven is!" The Ice God couldn't help but feel indignant for the soul beasts. After all, He had once been one of them!
As his thoughts wandered, the successor in the smaller plane responded, pulling the Ice God back to reality.
"My God above, I cannot say whether this Martial Soul is good or bad. Since you have discerned it, I humbly request your guidance," the handsome young human said before the crystal tablet.
After speaking, a blood-red martial soul mark quickly appeared on the back of the boy's left hand. To the Ice God's astonishment, the icy blue energy circulating within the boy's body rapidly transformed into a pure red. This red was very familiar to the Ice God; in his days before becoming a god, his hands were often stained with this red—blood red!
An ancient-looking halberd slowly emerged from the void at the boy's summons and landed in his left hand. Apart from its ancient aura, the Ice God couldn't discern anything different about the halberd at first glance; it seemed no different from any other ordinary metal halberd.
The appearance of this halberd satisfied some of the Ice God's curiosity, but it also brought him new questions.
Why can't I sense the unique metallic aura of a weapon spirit at all?
Most importantly, the Ice God was surprised to find that he could not sense the aura of the ancient halberd with his divine power unless he looked at it with his naked eyes!
This is quite interesting. However, the Ice God wasn't in a hurry to ask. Since Ling Bingtian said he had reasons for not being able to explain whether this martial soul was good or bad, he must have his own logic. Now, it was time for him to explain this point that puzzled him.
"By my God, I feel that when I summon this Martial Soul, I always have an urge to devour it." Ling Bingtian didn't keep the Ice God waiting long and directly revealed the secret hidden in his heart, "It's an urge to devour others."
It was this impulse that prevented Ling Bingtian from telling his family about this martial soul. The experience he gained from books in his previous life, along with the teachings he received at home, all told Ling Bingtian one thing: this ancient halberd martial soul was very likely an evil martial soul!
According to Ling Bingtian's understanding, an evil spirit is a spirit that strengthens itself by harming the interests of others. On the Douluo Continent, especially in this era where the Angel God no longer exists, spirit masters who possess such spirits are often directly treated as evil spirit masters and dealt with.
According to the records in the Ling family's library, Ling Bingtian could see the hatred that the vast majority of people on the mainland harbored towards evil soul masters. Ever since Blood Infant Douluo's "heroic feat," evil soul masters had gradually become a widely known concept in the soul master world. Once a child was discovered to have awakened an evil martial soul, the local nobles in the feudal Heavenly Soul Empire would generally deal with him directly to prevent future troubles.
That's why, after awakening his martial soul and learning about the information on the martial soul in his left hand, Ling Bingtian dared not reveal it. Even within the Ling family, if he were to awaken an evil martial soul, even as the direct descendant of the family head, the best outcome would likely be the loss of his cultivation abilities.
But in fact, Ling Bingtian was not unfamiliar with this ancient halberd. He had seen it once before in the scene brought to him by the divine pearl; it was the very halberd held by the halberd-wielding man. In fact, when he first secretly summoned this martial spirit, Ling Bingtian felt a similar sensation from it.
Ling Bingtian clearly remembered that it was almost the same feeling he had when he saw the Divine Pearl. Compared to other things on the Douluo Continent, the Ancient Halberd also gave him a sense of leaping in status. It was as if it belonged to a higher level of plane, rather than the continent, a fantasy-level plane.
When Ling Bingtian first summoned the ancient halberd, he also learned its name. Unlike the likes of the Cold Soul Chain Dragon Spear, Haotian Hammer, and Seven Kill Sword, this ancient halberd had only one character in its name.
噬！