Soon, Ye Wen's brows furrowed again as the external soul bone, the Blue Silver Eye, was passively activated.
Dugu Bo, who had been idly watching from the sidelines, immediately panicked, thinking something had gone wrong with Ye Wen. However, Ye Wen raised a hand to stop him.
Ye Wen hadn't detected any malice from Ah Yin directed at him. Even if she harbored ill intentions, it wouldn't matter—Ah Yin, currently at less than a thousand-year spirit beast stage, posed no threat to him.
At this moment, Ye Wen's Blue Silver Domain was activated alongside the Blue Silver Eye. Through the chaotic spiritual attack, Ye Wen connected to Ah Yin's mental world and listened to her frenzied ramblings.
"Why! Why! What did I do wrong?! Why doesn't the one I love love me back!? Why did they take the life of my newborn child!!
Why!!!
Ahh&×#!!!
I hate it! Hate! AHHH!!!"
Ye Wen could tell that Ah Yin's mind was flooded with overwhelming negative emotions and disordered thoughts, making it impossible to clearly decipher her inner turmoil.
But soon, the noise resembling static on a broken television abruptly vanished into nothingness, as if everything had just been a hallucination.
However, the sudden calm in Ah Yin's spiritual fluctuations didn't reassure Ye Wen. Instead, he felt a sinking sensation, as though he had miscalculated something.
The first thing Ye Wen noticed was that the change wasn't in the Blue Silver Emperor in his hand but in the ordinary Blue Silver Grass on the ground.
Previously green with faint blue undertones, the Blue Silver Grass now seemed infected, gradually turning black from their roots until they were completely blackened.
Ye Wen raised an eyebrow. Though these Blue Silver Grasses had not yet reached the level of spirit beasts before, they now emitted the aura of soul power, indicating they had mutated into spirit beasts—and a rare variant of Blue Silver Grass at that.
If Ye Wen remembered correctly…
"They're called Dark Blue Silver Grass, right?" Ye Wen thought to himself.
Though the sheer number of Blue Silver Grass made such mutations inevitable, causing such widespread changes pointed to only one possibility: they had been tainted by the mutation energy of a higher-level spirit beast, triggering a chain reaction.
Ye Wen's expression turned strange as he recalled that this type of spirit beast's martial soul had only appeared once before—in the Peerless era, on a character named Tang Ya.
Although her martial soul supposedly carried the bloodline of the Blue Silver Emperor, its name remained simply "Dark Blue Silver Grass," never reaching the level of King or Emperor—even after acquiring a Blue Silver Emperor soul spirit.
At this moment, Ye Wen looked at the Blue Silver Emperor in his hand and thought to himself, 'The first-ever Dark Blue Silver Emperor in the history of the Douluo Continent is about to be born in my hands. Truly, fate works in mysterious ways.'
As Ye Wen had guessed, the Blue Silver Emperor began to mutate.
At this moment, the originally elegant and noble Blue Silver Emperor started turning black from its roots. As the darkness seeped into its golden threads, the pure golden patterns of the Blue Silver Emperor were dyed a sinister purple-gold.
When the last traces of gold were consumed…
The Dark Blue Silver Emperor was officially born!
Compared to its previous vitality, the Dark Blue Silver Emperor still exuded a sense of vigorous life force. However, the purple-gold patterns now gave off an unsettling chill, as if they sought to devour all life in existence, radiating an aggressive and predatory aura.
After completing her transformation, Ah Yin manipulated the Dark Blue Silver Emperor to coil around Ye Wen's wrist. A cold voice echoed in Ye Wen's mind:
"Mr. Ye, I know you have ulterior motives for me, but it doesn't matter. As long as you help me kill Tang Hao and Tang San, I'll agree to all your conditions. In the future, the Blue Silver Grass clan will look to you as their leader."
Ah Yin's voice was icy, though still beautiful. Yet, it carried an unmistakable air of ruthless determination.
The pressure was overwhelming!
Ye Wen swallowed nervously and thought to himself, 'How dare you accuse me of having ulterior motives? I just wanted you to be a tool person! Don't go spreading rumors like that—I'll be misunderstood!'
At this moment, Ye Wen fully understood the phrase, "Darkening makes one three times stronger." (a.k.a Characters getting a power up when they go to the dark side)
But thinking back to how Ah Yin had previously been so naive and easy to deceive, compared to ordinary kind-hearted people, her blackened state likely made her more than three times stronger.
Regardless of whether Ah Yin had fallen or not, Ye Wen's goal had been achieved, and he readily agreed.
Moreover, seeing Ah Yin's current state, Ye Wen decided to modify his original plan of directly harassing Tang Hao and Tang San's minds to create an opportunity for a surprise attack.
Instead, Ye Wen thought it would be better to let Ah Yin recover her cultivation first, then return to Tang Hao and Tang San's side. At the critical moment, she could strike from behind—a cowardly kidney shot—to explode their defenses.
The thought of Tang Hao and his son being betrayed by their closest ally filled Ye Wen with glee!
After hearing Ye Wen's plan, Ah Yin's eyes flickered with ambiguous emotions. Then, mirroring Ye Wen's earlier mischievous smile, the illusionary form of Ah Yin revealed the same chilling grin.
While Ye Wen found his own smile delightful, seeing someone else wear that expression sent shivers down his spine. Fortunately, it wasn't him being targeted this time.
Ah Yin herself was ecstatic. Indeed, simply killing that despicable father-son duo wouldn't satisfy her hatred. Letting them experience despair after hope—that feeling must be as exquisite as what she was experiencing now~
After finalizing the plan with Ah Yin, Ye Wen officially began implementing his Blue Silver Soul Ascension Array.
Initially, Ye Wen was somewhat concerned. Though he only needed to increase his soul power by two levels to reach rank 60 before moving elsewhere to "cheat" his way through cultivation, the devastated state of the Blue Silver Forest meant there was only so much life force available in the short term—not nearly enough for Ah Yin to fully recover her cultivation.
However, Ah Yin reassured him. After her bloodline mutation, her attributes were no longer purely life-based. She had gained an additional evil attribute known as "Devouring," commonly found in infamous evil spirit beasts like the Human-Faced Demon Spider or the Dark Evil God Tiger.
This attribute, akin to fallen soul masters who absorbed others' lifeblood or soul power to strengthen themselves, was despised among spirit beasts. Yet, it also offered the fastest path to rapid power growth.
Thus, Ah Yin no longer needed to rely solely on Blue Silver Grass for recovery. High-level spirit beasts with long lifespans were now equally viable targets for restoring her cultivation.
With the help of the Medical Alliance's Title Douluos, Ah Yin's recovery process became even simpler.
Due to Tang Hao's massacre in the Star Dou Great Forest, Dugu Bo and the others avoided hunting high-level spirit beasts there. Instead, they hunted several ten-thousand-year-plus spirit beasts from the nearby Sunset Forest.
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