Soul Trigger

Chapter 556 Shu's Gift
Inside the dark hall.

In the center of the vast space where the Imperial Guards were kneeling, a man in gray stood to the side of the main hall.

The imperial guard was burly and broad-shouldered, his dragon armor even thicker than the Nirvana Dragon Generals Ji Li had ever seen. His kneeling figure resembled a tank.

The gray-clad man had his back to the center, seemingly admiring the magnificent and intricate dragon reliefs, his long hair falling down to cover both sides of his face.

Everything was quiet, except for the sound of pages turning on the high seat.

When the sound completely ended, King Guling slightly turned his head, and a male voice came from above:
"good."

A half-human-sized monster with a human head and a dragon's body emerged from the shadows and snatched the file from the seated man's hands.

Then the monster split into two figures, and even the files in its hands multiplied into two, which it handed to the Imperial Guard and the person standing to the side, respectively:
"Turtle General, you and King Guling should also take a look."

The Imperial Guard, known as the "Turtle General," responded and opened the file, but the Lonely Prince did not accept it.
"I'll stand here for another five minutes at most."

The man on the high seat did not reply, but waited for the tortoise general to finish reading the file.

From the singularity event to the Dragon Leap Festival, the docks, and yesterday's chaos at the Yuanling Prince's Mansion, everything was presented to the Turtle General as the pages were turned:
"How is it?" asked the person on the high seat.

"He is special."

"How special?"

The tortoise will remain silent for a moment:

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I can't explain it, but he almost solved everything."

Vengeful dragons, the Red Heart Laboratory, ouroboros, paradoxes, diplomacy… it seems there's no trouble he can't get involved in, no problem he can't solve.

"You've met him once."

"Yes, he has great potential. That night, the Dragon General was constrained by the dragon vein disturbance caused by the paradox and let the Third Divine General go. He was the one who ultimately resolved the situation."

"Just potential?"

The tortoise will remain silent for a moment:

"I think he has a special soul."

"special?"

The person on the high seat repeated the sentence.

"So, in your opinion, who is more special than me?"

The tortoise fell silent, and in that silent moment, the voice of the Lonely Tomb King suddenly rang out:

"I've finished washing my clothes at home, I have to go now."

As soon as he finished speaking, a surge of spiritual energy emanated from his body, about to disappear in the next second, when it was interrupted by the voice above:

"It's alright, I've already heard the vengeful dragon's answer."

A pair of eerie eyes flickered in the darkness of the high seat as he gazed down at the tortoise general.

The Imperial Guards are the power of Tengjun, and also an extension of the vengeful dragon.

Tengjun's question was not directed at the turtle general, but at the vengeful dragon.

Therefore, he already knew the answer without the tortoise actually giving one:
"In that case, let him take over the position of Dragon General."

The Lonely Tomb King's face twitched slightly, and after a few breaths of silence, he said:

"No."

Tengjun's voice suddenly held a hint of amusement:
"Why not?"

The Way of the Lonely Tomb King:

"He's going to take over my job."

“There are precedents for imperial tombs throughout history.”

"That's the old Tang Dynasty, it's chaotic."

“Ancient methods can be followed.”

“The other royal families and the Prince of Ling would never agree to this.”

"how about you?"

Tengjun's eerie eyes locked onto him:

Do you agree?

King Guling fell silent again, seemingly deep in thought. Just as he was about to speak, Tengjun suddenly said:
"Speaking of which... does the Saltwater Island turmoil sound familiar to you?"

A slight fluctuation of spiritual energy emanated from the Lonely Tomb King:
"What's the matter?"

"There's a girl on the missing persons list with the same surname as you. Do you know where she is now?"

There are countless people in the world who share my surname.

"Is that what you think, Yan Jiuxiao? What if she is also favored by the vengeful dragon?"

In the long silence, the tortoise general, head bowed, glanced at the retreating figure of the Lonely Prince. Even as a member of the Imperial Guard, he couldn't hide the astonishment in his eyes. The Lonely Prince still had heirs?!

"Where is she?"

Upon hearing the words of the Lonely King, Tengjun's smile deepened:
"Dragon Vein Covenant Bureau, Southwest."

"I will confirm it myself."

"What about Ji Li?"

“That’s my godson; he knows how to refuse.”

"Interesting, we'll see..."

The voice of the Prince of Yuanling had already disappeared from the hall.

"Turtle General, tell me your thoughts."

The turtle lowered its head slightly.

"Yuanling's heir possesses the favor of the Vengeful Dragon, extraordinary spiritual circuit knowledge, and strength far exceeding that of his peers. He is even capable of attracting the seventh pillar of the human realm, coupled with the Black Sun Palace's intentions..."

"Your choice is correct. With him by your side, your path will be much easier."

"That's how it is. You may leave."

The tortoise lowered its head, then rose and vanished as a shadow.

In the shadow of the high seat, Teng Jun once again took the file from Xiao Longren's hand and looked through it.

He pulled out the pages one by one, the papers floating in front of him as he examined and compared them.

He let out a faint laugh, as if he had spotted a predator.

……

Inside Ji Li's soul space at the Yuanling Prince's Mansion.

He stood in the vast space in human form, his tightly closed eyes suddenly opening, his left eye emitting a faint golden light:
The Eye of Truth.

Shu left a portion of the power of the Eye of Truth within his soul, and now Ji Li can utilize this power to unleash "Insight".

His insight allows him to see the flow of spiritual energy in his surroundings and to trace the traces of that flow.

When focusing attention on a specific human spirit or psychic artifact, insight can reveal the hidden number of things that exist within that object, and randomly reveal one of them.

The term "hidden" encompasses a wide range of things; it's a term Ji Li chose himself during the ability test, without any reference.

For example, spiritual abilities are a kind of secret, and the contract between the Demon Lord and the Lord is also a kind of secret. Because there are not enough test subjects, strictly speaking, Ji Li mainly regards "powerful or high-ranking power" as secret.

For example, Khalid is a demigod who, in addition to serving as a priest of Shu and acting as a medium to lend Shu's power to others, also has a contract with another evil being in the demigod system.

This is the fundamental reason why the awakened ones of the seventh pillar are able to use their abilities.

Therefore, there is a secret within Khalid's body.

If Shu's coffin is still intact, then there are two secrets within his soul.

The revelation of the secret is random; once it is revealed, Ji Li will be able to fully observe its composition.

If the secret is a spiritual ability, then Ji Li will be able to see through what this spiritual ability is, what its functions are, and how strong it is.

Because this was only a part of Shu's humanity that remained in his body when the "god descended," compared to the real Eye of Truth, what Ji Li received was only the tip of the iceberg. But after all, it was not his own power, but a gift from Shu.

Even so, this ability to obtain combat intelligence is still quite good.

Seeing through an opponent's trump card, even just one of them, will give Ji Li ample foresight when facing the Tower of Babel later on.

Ji Li named this ability "Eye of Insight".

But the Eye of Insight's power isn't limited to that. Besides "seeing" and "revealing" secrets, this power also alters Ji Li's [Echo of Domination] ability to some extent. Or rather, through Echo of Domination, he can unleash an additional special ability:
By focusing intensely on a revealed secret through a disdainful echo, the connection between the secret and the host is weakened.

If the revealed secret is a spirit ability, the opponent's spirit will be more difficult to control, and activating the spirit's ability may become sticky.

If the revealed secret is a powerful psychic tool, then that tool is very likely to become unresponsive.

Ji Li named this ability "Reality Shattering".

The reason for this name is that the abilities [Eye of Insight] and [Reality Shatter] will exhibit certain variations when he uses [Dual-Dimensional Distortion].

After Shu's incident, Ji Li has successfully mastered the ability of [Dual-Dimensional Distortion]. As long as he doesn't overdraw on the values ​​of "Will" and "Affinity" by turning them into negative numbers, he won't easily fall out of control.

Minor attribute conversions are not very significant. When willpower and affinity reach two extreme states—that is, when one attribute is 0 and completely converted to the other—Ji Li's evil spirit transformation [Death Star] will first receive different specialized enhancements:
Willpower: The spiritual extensibility of the Death Star is 0, and its attack range is greatly reduced to the point where it can only be unleashed through the body, but its speed and power will reach a state that is close to that of the Netherworld.

Furthermore, the significant increase in the quality of his spiritual essence will make him extremely destructive, and the simultaneous increase in the density of his spiritual essence will make it difficult for his spiritual essence to be interfered with by other spells.

In this state, the number of Dragonfireflies is greatly reduced, and they are unable to construct effective offensive means. They can only merge with themselves to further amplify themselves.

Affinity: The spiritual extension and fluidity of the Death Star become extremely strong, its attack range is greatly enhanced, it has a strong ability to interfere with the spiritual energy of others, and its ability to develop its own abilities will also be deepened, extending into some abilities that cannot be used normally, or even do not exist.

In addition, the "charm" attribute in his spiritual essence will be enhanced to an extremely terrifying level, achieving a "bewitching" effect.

In this state, the number of fireflies remains the same, but the variety increases, allowing for the assembly of more types of mechanical entities.

(End of this chapter)