Chapter 40: What Is This, a RoboRiders Crossover?!
Furina waved her hands hastily, signaling that she was fine. As she wiped the corner of her mouth with somewhat undignified haste, her gaze remained locked onto Feng Chuixue with an intensity of pure, incredulous disbelief. Her voice carried an urgent demand for confirmation: "Wait—your... your martial soul. Say its name again."
Feng Chuixue felt his heart clench at her over-the-top reaction. A dark thought crept through his mind: Could this Lady Pope harbor some prejudice against martial souls of such... unusual forms? Internal alarm bells ringing faintly, he nonetheless elaborated in careful detail: "To answer Your Holiness—it is the Blue Poison Beast. It is a... rather unique beast-type martial soul. Its form resembles, approximately, a skeletal frame, and its attributes lean toward the spiritual and toxic. In the past... I was indeed misunderstood by some because of it, who suspected it to be an evil martial soul. Might Your Holiness... find something amiss?" His tone, despite his best efforts, carried an unmistakable thread of tension.
Seeing this, the ever-blunt Yan Luo stepped forward without hesitation, his voice booming like a great bell as he rose to his companion's defense: "Your Holiness! Every word Brother Feng speaks is true! His martial soul's just a bit strange-looking, that's all—but it sure as hell ain't one of those heaven-offending evil martial souls! I, Yan Luo, will stake my life on this! Brother Feng's character, well..." He faltered slightly. "Uh, sometimes he's a bit too full of twists and turns, but as for the filthy deeds of evil soul masters—he's never had a thing to do with any of them!" In his eagerness to defend, he'd very nearly aired all of Feng Chuixue's dirty laundry.
Hearing Yan Luo's nearly reckless yet utterly sincere guarantee, a warm current surged through Feng Chuixue's heart. In a world ruled by the law of the strong, where human hearts were unfathomable, to have a friend of such unvarnished honesty was a rare blessing indeed.
Seeing that they had clearly misunderstood her intentions, Furina hurriedly waved her hands again in denial. "No, no, no! You misunderstand me completely! I am absolutely not suggesting that Lord Feng's martial soul is an evil one. Quite the opposite. In my view, the form and attribute of a martial soul have never been the standard by which righteousness or evil is measured. Even the most sinister skeletal martial soul—so long as its wielder's heart is set upon the light and upholds their moral boundaries—has nothing whatsoever to do with evil martial souls."
She paused, composing her words, and allowed a carefully measured expression of reminiscence and emotion to surface on her face—half truth, half fabrication. "I was merely... merely too astonished by the name of this martial soul. Because when I was young, I once heard a long-departed elder speak of an old friend of his. That person's martial soul bore this very same name, and the description of its form was much the same as what Lord Feng has just recounted."
"That senior was, in his day, a man of extraordinary brilliance and talent. But alas, heaven envies such genius, and he fell many, many years ago. I never imagined that after all this time, I would encounter a martial soul of the same name in this place. My momentary loss of composure... I hope the three of you will forgive the display."
Furina's words were seven parts fabrication and three parts genuine sentiment. She had indeed been shocked by the name "Blue Poison Beast"—but the reason, of course, had nothing to do with some elder's old friend. Still, her views on the righteousness or evil of martial souls were spoken from the heart. By the standards lodged in her memory, Feng Chuixue's Blue Poison Beast martial soul was, at most, an eccentric and unconventional attribute—nowhere near the threshold of an evil soul master.
She remembered that back in the Douluo 1 era, among the Shrek Seven Devils' reserve members, there had been one named Jing Ling whose martial soul was a skeleton. He had been a proper, upright high-level soul master all the same. And there was Ghost Douluo of the Spirit Hall, whose martial soul was the Phantom Ghost—its soul skills, by some descriptions, were sinister and eerie to the point of being nearly demonic, yet the official records had never branded him an evil soul master.
Now, in this Douluo 2 era, the criteria for defining an evil soul master seemed to have become far too strict and one-dimensional.
Hearing Furina's explanation—especially her clear declaration that she did not judge righteousness or evil by the form of a martial soul—both Feng Chuixue and Yan Luo let out a palpable sigh of relief. Even Long Ziyun, who had been watching coldly from the side, had a flicker of faint, almost invisible approval pass through his eyes.
A great weight lifted from Feng Chuixue's heart, and he even felt a faint, budding sense of having met a kindred spirit. He replied with deep respect, "So that is the reason. This humble one was overthinking matters. However, Your Holiness, this martial soul of mine is not an inherited family legacy, but a benign mutation that arose within myself. To think that such a coincidence exists in this world—that a senior master once bore a martial soul of the same name... truly, it must be... fate." He couldn't help a sliver of curiosity toward that "senior" as well.
Furina inclined her head slightly, thinking to herself: A mutated martial soul? So it really is a coincidence? Or perhaps... some unknowable, twisted sense of humor embedded in this world itself?
Her gaze shifted to Lei Bao, who had been standing silently to one side all the while. It suddenly struck her that she'd never actually asked him to formally name his martial soul. Though she had long since guessed, she still asked with a note of mischievous anticipation: "Oh, that's right—Lei Bao, I don't believe I've ever heard you say it with your own mouth. What exactly is your martial soul?"
Lei Bao's face flushed with a touch of chagrin, and he lightly smacked his own forehead. "An oversight on my part, Your Holiness. I have neglected to give you a proper report."
He straightened his posture, a faint current of soul power stirring around him. Pale blue arcs of electricity began to dance and coil across his frame, and a fierce, domineering tiger's might emanated faintly outward. His voice boomed with pride as he announced: "This subordinate's martial soul is the Thunderclap Tiger. Rank 69 assault-type Soul Emperor. However, because my martial soul combines the violent fury of thunder with the swiftness of the tiger, my speed far exceeds that of ordinary assault-types at the same rank. For this reason, I was once mistaken for an agility-type."
"Thunderclap Tiger..."
Furina heard the name, then mentally assembled the full set: Long Ziyun's "Sky-Wing Tyrannosaurus," Yan Luo's "Mad Wild Orangutan," Feng Chuixue's "Blue Poison Beast," and Lei Bao, hailing from what was once Thunderclap City—now Fontaine...
In those azure eyes of hers, a look of dawning comprehension flickered—so that's how it is. The corner of her lips curved into a meaningful, almost imperceptible smile.
"Thunderclap Tiger... just missing the word king..."
Her curiosity thoroughly piqued, Furina blurted out: "Lei Bao, do you have a move called 'Galactic Storm Rift'?"
Lei Bao's heart jolted with shock, and he couldn't hide the astonishment on his face. He nodded affirmatively. "Your Holiness sees with flawless clarity! This subordinate's sixth soul skill is indeed the Galactic Storm Rift!"
"And if I'm not mistaken," Furina's gaze shifted to the other three, "Lord Long, Lord Yan, Lord Feng—your respective ultimate killing techniques must be 'Tyrant Dragon's Dimensional Rift,' 'Berserk Lightning Diamond Fist,' and 'Netherworld Sonic Wave,' yes?"
The moment those words left her lips, Long Ziyun, Yan Luo, and Feng Chuixue all jolted as if struck. Expressions of utter disbelief simultaneously surfaced on their faces. In near-perfect unison, their gazes shot toward Lei Bao, silently accusing him of leaking their secrets.
But all they saw was Lei Bao, equally shocked, shaking his head adamantly—he had never breathed a word.
"You need not be so astonished." Furina let out a light laugh and waved her hand casually. "I merely thought those names suited your martial souls and temperaments rather well, so I threw them out on a whim. I didn't expect to actually hit the mark."
The three city lords exchanged blank, bewildered glances. For a moment, none could find the words to respond.
A whim? A casual guess—and she'd perfectly named every single one of their most deeply guarded trump cards without missing a single beat? This woman's abilities... were truly unfathomable!
As if that weren't enough, Furina, still bubbling with enthusiasm, cheerfully added: "Should any of you ever have the chance to acquire an eighth or ninth soul ring, I would suggest names like 'Phantom Lightning Strike,' 'Skyfeather Dragon-Slaying Dance,' 'Polar Sandstorm,' and 'Netherworld Absorption Wave.' They have quite a nice ring to them. Do consider them."
"...We thank Your Holiness for bestowing such names." The four voiced their gratitude in near-unison, though inwardly, each was lost in his own swirling thoughts.
Furina maintained a faint, inscrutable smile on the surface. But inside, her mind was already a storm of crashing waves:
"Holy hell... this lineup, these attack names... this is literally a live-action version of the RoboRiders universe!"
She couldn't help muttering to herself: if this world's soul tool system weren't focused on various hot and cold weapons and auxiliary gadgets, but instead produced things like motorcycles and fighter jets as vehicle-type manifestations—then she'd probably run into people with martial souls named "Thunderbolt Fire" and "Vanguard Flash" before long...
"This world just keeps getting more and more entertaining."