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**
With Xiao Lin joining the other sectors of the battlefield, the fighting was quickly brought to an end.
At this moment, the entire battlefield was littered with massive craters. Unable to withstand their sheer exhaustion any longer, Xiao Lin and the others collapsed, plumping themselves straight down onto the ground.
"Whew. Thank goodness Captain Xiao Lin took out one Soul Emperor right at the start and heavily injured another," Shi Mo said, letting out a heavy breath as he looked up at the auroras in the sky, feeling deeply emotional.
If Xiao Lin hadn't created those ideal opening conditions, Shi Mo didn't believe for a second that they could have won.
He marveled silently in his heart, before stealing another glance at Xiao Lin. The guy was simply a monster, managing to defeat two Soul Emperor level experts one after the other.
"Exactly. My soul power is almost completely depleted," Ye Lingling said with a gentle smile.
The three of them had fought a single Soul King, yet their soul power was nearly drained.
That Soul King expert had been reluctant to engage them directly, forcing the Shi brothers to continuously taunt him and absorb his attacks. This caused their soul power consumption to double.
By the time that Soul King finally lost his patience, their soul power was already pushed to its limits. In the end, the Shi brothers didn't even have enough soul power left to protect themselves, leaving them with no choice but to shield Ye Lingling as best as they could.
Meanwhile, Ye Lingling could only rely on her area-of-effect healing to continuously sustain the Shi brothers, who were risking their lives to protect her.
"Alright, everyone. We've just exerted ourselves to the absolute limit, so it's not ideal to rest out in the open like this. Let's head back to Heaven Dou Imperial Academy," Tang Ni, who was in relatively better shape, spoke up directly.
Since hunting their soul beasts was already completed, there was no longer any need to linger here.
"Great! Let's go back!" Ye Lingling quickly agreed, immediately wrapping her arms intimately around Tang Ni's.
Finally, this ordeal was over for them.
As for the mastermind behind Frost Spirit Province, they would just have to come back and challenge them once they grew stronger in the future.
"You guys go ahead. I still have some matters to resolve," Xiao Lin suddenly blurted out after pulling up the completely drained Shi brothers.
"Captain Xiao Lin, you..." Shi Mo suspected that Xiao Lin wanted to keep going after the mastermind, so he instinctively wanted to dissuade him.
It wasn't just Shi Mo; Shi Mo's brother Shi Mo, Ye Lingling, and Tang Ni all wore worried expressions on their faces.
"Hehe, there's no need to worry. I'm not brain-dead enough to try and take down this entire criminal organization all by myself." Looking at his teammates who were genuinely worried about him, Xiao Lin felt a wave of warmth in his heart.
He then proceeded to explain his thoughts.
He wanted to remain in Frost Spirit Province to conduct a secret, undercover investigation. If he could map out the approximate location of the mastermind's headquarters, it would make it much easier for them to return and wipe out the enemies in the future.
Being hunted down for such a long time—did they really think Xiao Lin was made of dough and easily bullied? After hearing that Xiao Lin intended to investigate alone in secret for a period of time, no other opposing voices were raised within the team.
Given Xiao Lin's sheer combat strength, investigating alone not only guaranteed a much higher level of safety, but it would also avoid alerting the enemy.
It was practically a perfect plan.
In the end, Tang Ni made Xiao Lin promise that he wouldn't try to settle scores with the mastermind by himself. This wasn't because she was worried about Xiao Lin acting impulsively; rather, she wanted to vent some of her own pent-up anger as well.
After being hunted for so long, she had reached her absolute limit.
Shortly after, the five-member team renewed their promises to one another. To prevent being spotted by the mastermind's lackeys, the five of them quickly made their way toward Dragon City.
Although Dragon City fell within the jurisdiction of Frost Spirit Province, it was fundamentally the territory of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. In a place overseen by the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, lowlifes like the mastermind behind the scenes wouldn't dare to exist openly.
More than half a month later.
Xiao Lin and Tang Ni's group went their separate ways in Dragon City.
Perhaps because so many high-ranking executives of the mastermind had been counter-killed, Xiao Lin encountered no further trouble on his return journey.
In fact, everything went incredibly smoothly—so much so that their travel speed was more than twice as fast as when they were actively searching for soul beasts. Of course, it could also just be that their increase in strength was now far too obvious.
"Tang Ni, as for that soul bone, help me ask Little San if he wants it. If he doesn't, keep it for me so I can continue studying it," Xiao Lin advised.
"Ye Lingling, after you get back, you can spend more time researching your Nine Heart Begonia Martial Soul. It might not be able to grant you offensive soul skills, but it can definitely offer you unique variations of area-of-effect healing."
"For example, fast multi-stage group healing, a burst of massive single-instance healing, or even psychological therapy—all of these are entirely possible. The effects of that top-tier thousand-year Snow Silkworm shouldn't just stop at what you've seen."
"Shi brother—if you two brothers can't decide who gets to be the Dragon Tortoise and who gets to be the Black Turtle, you might as well both just choose the Black Turtle. However, in the future, one of you can focus on offense while the other focuses on defense. That way, it'll be much easier to find suitable soul beasts for both of you."
At the moment of parting, Xiao Lin couldn't resist offering a few extra words of advice.
Naturally, most of it revolved around their future choices for Martial Soul rings.
The rest of the group valued Xiao Lin's suggestions immensely, nodding and promising to consider them seriously. It was only when Xiao Lin could no longer see their receding backs that he finally turned around and entered Dragon City proper.
"Catching dragons! Is anyone joining me for the Dragon Catching Convention?!"
"The once-in-a-decade Dragon Catching Convention! The grand prize this time is a thousand-year soul bone!"
...
The moment Xiao Lin stepped into Dragon City, these intriguing shouts caught his attention.
Since when were soul bones just given away like freebies? Although it was only a thousand-year soul bone, to ordinary people, it was still a priceless treasure that one could only pray to encounter. It was the kind of treasure that could be passed down as an heirloom.
Even if a top genius like Yu Tianheng looked down on a thousand-year soul bone like this, there were bound to be plenty of ordinary disciples within their sect who would covet it. What kind of convention possessed the sheer wealth to be this extravagant?
Driven by curiosity, Xiao Lin quickly struck up conversations with several locals from Dragon City. As it turned out, the organizer of this Dragon Catching Convention was none other than the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
The geography surrounding Dragon City was naturally rich in mountains and waterways. Coupled with a massive soul beast forest located not far away—the Thunder Gorge, a well-known soul beast habitat—the region was practically teeming with dragon-type soul beasts.
Because this Thunder Gorge housed numerous sub-dragon soul beasts, a high volume of aquatic soul beasts possessing dragon bloodlines frequently appeared in the waters near Dragon City.
These aquatic soul beasts posed a major threat to the local populace, which prompted the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan to inaugurate the Dragon Catching Convention.
The rule of the convention was simple: whoever captured the aquatic soul beast with the highest cultivation age would be crowned the champion. Naturally, aquatic soul beasts with authentic dragon bloodlines would receive bonus points toward their calculated cultivation age.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan collected these aquatic soul beasts with dragon bloodlines to harvest their dragon blood as core ingredients for medicinal bath formulas. Over time, this had evolved into a signature convention unique to Dragon City.
After listening to the explanation and analyzing it carefully, Xiao Lin still couldn't quite connect the dots on how the proximity of Thunder Gorge led to aquatic soul beasts with authentic dragon bloodlines appearing right here.
However, showing no shame in asking basic questions, he thoroughly questioned multiple residents of Dragon City until he finally understood the underlying reason.
As it turned out, these so-called aquatic soul beasts with "true dragon bloodlines" weren't actually born from true dragons. It was a bit convoluted, but rumor had it that a powerful, lightning-attributed true dragon bloodline clan resided deep within Thunder Gorge.
This specific species was known as the Thunder Emperor Dragon.
Because they possessed a powerful Azure Dragon bloodline and a Winged Dragon physique, they absorbed the lightning of Thunder Gorge daily to grow stronger.
Occasionally, some of the weaker Thunder Emperor Dragons would mate with weaker local aquatic soul beasts to vent their excess heat and pent-up lightning energy. Over generations, a segment of the aquatic soul beast population inherited a tiny fraction of true dragon bloodline.
These particular aquatic soul beasts possessed incredibly high reproductive rates and superior bloodlines, making it far easier for them to reach a ten-year cultivation age compared to the vast majority of regular soul beasts.
In fact, the entire economy and GDP of Dragon City was practically driven by these unique aquatic soul beasts.
**
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your support! If you enjoy my work, you can check out my Patreon—there are 100+ early access and exclusive content. I update 5 advanced chapter from Monday-Saturday
www.patreon.com/c/FanficTranslator
I truly appreciate it!