Chapter 9: The Threads of the Soul
"What's your name?" Luo Ling couldn't help but ask again.
"Hu Liena," the girl replied cautiously.
Confirmed—it really was Hu Liena!
Luo Ling was speechless.
Meeting Hu Liena here, in the Spirit Hunting Forest of all places, made no sense whatsoever!
As the Saintess of Spirit Hall and Bibi Dong's personal disciple, she should be in Spirit City. What was she doing here?
He couldn't make sense of it at all.
"Have you thought of a way to deal with the Crimson Flame Lion?" Hu Liena's voice broke him out of his daze.
Snapping back to reality, Luo Ling pushed his confusion aside.
The priority now was to survive this beast before them. He shook his head lightly, focusing on the flaming lion ahead.
Hu Liena's second soul skill, Fox Charm, could only incapacitate the lion for a few seconds—not nearly long enough to escape.
Luo Ling frowned, glancing at the Raven Shadow Puppet beside him.
Its first soul skill, Dark Weave, was limited in control duration. As for his second martial soul, the Soul of Desire—he wasn't confident it could hypnotize a thousand-year soul beast. The gap was simply too great.
Wait.
The Soul of Desire…
Luo Ling suddenly remembered what had happened back at Notting Academy when the Raven Shadow Puppet and the Soul of Desire had fused.
It had resembled a martial soul fusion skill—dramatically increasing his strength and even altering soul abilities.
He had only tested that fusion once, never studying it in depth. But right now, it was his only option.
Taking a deep breath, he activated the fusion. The Raven Shadow Puppet became translucent and slowly merged into his body.
An eerie red light flickered in Luo Ling's eyes.
His aura soared, rising to a level nearly equal to Hu Liena's.
Bathed in a suffocating darkness, Luo Ling felt a strange exhilaration—as if the world around him had become clearer, sharper.
His single soul ring pulsed faintly beneath him, but he could feel the dark threads had changed completely.
He extended a hand. The smoky-black threads shimmered, turning semi-transparent and trailing faint crimson light.
If the dark threads before had been invisible physical strands, now they had become purely spiritual—phantom-like, elusive, untouchable.
In that instant, Luo Ling's vision transformed.
The world dulled into a dim, shadowed realm. The trees, the Crimson Flame Lion, even Hu Liena glowed faintly.
He saw countless threads of white light radiating from every living thing around him, stretching endlessly into the dark void beyond.
"These… are the soul-threads," he whispered in realization.
Reaching out, the crimson-tinted lines in his hand intertwined with the countless glowing strands around him.
"Maybe this isn't the Dark Thread anymore," he murmured. "It's… the Thread of the Soul."
He wrapped the crimson thread around a glowing strand emanating from a nearby tree.
A faint red hue bled into the white light, spreading rapidly. When it completely engulfed the glow, Luo Ling sensed it clearly—the tree's very spirit was now his to command.
"What terrifying power…" he muttered, trembling slightly.
He had never expected his martial soul fusion to change his skill so drastically.
These glowing threads represented the soul's essence within every living creature.
In this fusion state, he could see and manipulate them. When his crimson thread fully consumed another's, he could completely dominate that being's soul—controlling its body and using its abilities as his own.
Of course, such control had limits. It drained immense amounts of soul power.
And during the process, his spirit had to duel directly with the target's soul. A single misstep could cripple his own mind.
Still, even with such risks, the power was terrifying.
A fierce roar jolted him from his trance.
"Do you have a plan yet?" Hu Liena shouted anxiously, gripping his sleeve. The Crimson Flame Lion was preparing another attack.
"How long can your Fox Charm control it?" Luo Ling asked calmly.
"About three seconds."
"When I tell you to, use it on the lion." He nodded slightly. Three seconds—more than enough.
His spiritual power, strengthened by transmigration, double awakening, and martial soul fusion, was now immense—comparable even to that of the thousand-year beast before them.
If Hu Liena could disrupt the lion's mind, he was confident he could completely engulf its soul.
The Crimson Flame Lion roared and charged again. Fireballs condensed from its mane, blazing toward Luo Ling.
But Luo Ling only smiled. In this state, he could faintly perceive the creature's thoughts.
He dodged easily, sidestepping as if strolling casually through the woods.
Phantom-like red threads shot from his fingertips, weaving directly into the lion's glowing white soul-threads.
Blood-red light spread like poison.
The lion's roar turned to one of fear as its movements stuttered and slowed.
When the soul-thread invasion began, the target's mind became sluggish and body rigid—a powerful type of spiritual control, even if the soul itself wasn't fully claimed.
"Now! Use Fox Charm!" Luo Ling commanded.
Hu Liena obeyed instantly, her eyes shimmering with seductive pink light.
Already slowed, the lion froze completely—its consciousness ensnared.
Luo Ling seized the moment.
The crimson light pulsed, devouring the white threads until they faded entirely.
The glow vanished from the lion's eyes as it collapsed to the ground, lifelessly submissive.
Luo Ling panted heavily. His spiritual and soul power were nearly exhausted, draining away by the second.
"Finish it!" he shouted hoarsely.
Hu Liena didn't hesitate. She drew a short sword from her soul guide and plunged it into the lion's heart.
A final echoing roar faded through the forest.
The Crimson Flame Lion was dead.
Luo Ling gasped for breath as a faint trace of spiritual power flowed into him—his mental strength subtly increased.
"It's… dead?" Hu Liena murmured in disbelief, staggering back before collapsing onto the ground.
Everything had happened so fast—it felt unreal. Yet the faintly forming purple soul ring before them proved otherwise.
…
In the darkness, Chrysanthemum Douluo and Bibi Dong watched in stunned silence, shock flashing across their eyes.
They hadn't fully understood how the beast had died—but they had seen everything Luo Ling did.
"That was a martial soul fusion skill…" Bibi Dong whispered, her gaze burning with intense interest as it fixed upon Luo Ling.
(END CHAPTER)
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