Chapter 21: The Soul-Ripping Daggers

Yun Chen didn't want to let go of this occasion. Since the mercenaries were still there, they can help him take care of the innate realm spirit beast that he wanted to hunt for their spirit roots. Moreover, Yun Chen weapons weren't completely finished. There was still the handle that he needed to complete.

«I want us to hunt four other innate realm demon beasts and they are at most at the fourth layer! » Yun Chen directly said to them.

«Hm! If they are not dragon-type beasts, we can quickly kill them by working together. Their flesh is not tough enough. And since we have your poison, Muyun can handle that alone to avoid any injuries. But what is the deal about? » said the leader.

« Very good! About the deal, the corpses are yours, but the demon cores and spirit roots are mine. What do you think? » Yun Chen replied.

«Deal! » answered the leader.

Yun Chen already knew the beasts he wanted to hunt and where was their territories. Following him, the mercenaries headed toward those territories and each time Muyun would finish them off using two or three poisoned arrows. Yun Chen would then retrieve the spirit root, demon core and absorb the poison before handing the corpse to them. At the end, they hunted a black lightning leopard of the lightning element, a diamond-clawed bear king of the earth element, a giant horned toad of the water element and a purple-blood treant of the wood element.

Now, Yun Chen obtained all the all the spirit roots he needed, and it was time to part with the mercenary squad.

«Young master Yun, we will be parting ways here. If you need our help in the future, you can come to Tiangang city to look for us. I hope to see you soon. » the leader Xuan Bu respectfully said to Yun Chen.

«Thank you very much for your help this time! » Yun Chen replied before parting ways with them.

Yun Chen returned to the previous cave because he wanted to integrate the other spirit roots into his body. He made some illusion and trap formations at the entrance of the cave in order to not be disturbed.

«I must complete my spirit roots before returning. » Yun Chen said before sitting cross-legged.

Previously, the hexa-elemental seed that Yun Chen integrated into his body grew six little roots and two of them were replaced by beast spirit roots. Now, Yun Chen is using the same process to add the other spirit roots. He would first cut the little root corresponding to the element of the spirit root he wants to integrate, crush it into powder, mix it with his blood essence and a drop of blood coming from the beast whose spirit root is about to be added and finally link the new spirit root to the part that was cut off using that mixture.

Each time Yun Chen repeats this operation, he would experience an incredible pain. After five hours, he finally connected all the spirit roots. He didn't waste his time and raised the level of the spirit roots using all the spirit roots that he had collected. But the poison spirit root and the devil spirit root don't have level. They can continuously evolve by absorbing the same kind of spirit root.

«After absorbing all the spirit roots that I collected, only the fire spirit root became the nine-star Hellfire spirit root. All the others are still at the eight-star. I will really have to use human spirit roots to complete it » Yun Chen said to himself.

«Now, I can complete my daggers. I will use the tendons of the two-headed black scale drake to make the handles. But I must reinforce it first. » Yun Chen declared.

Yun Chen took out two bottles of heavenly dew and two innate crystals. He then melted them together and refined it in the fire for about two hours before wrapping that mixture around the tendons of the two-headed black scale drake. Inside the fire, the tendons slowly absorbed the mixture and began changing color. When the color became purple-gold, Yun Chen began making the handle.

After finishing it, Yun Chen refined the twin daggers for another hour and sharpened it for about four hours.

«When I grab these daggers, it is as if they are alive. I will name them Soul-Ripping Daggers since they have the special ability to wound and eat someone else soul when they are stabbed. » declared Yun Chen.

When Yun Chen was crafting the daggers, he added soul devouring jade which can suck the souls of those who touch it and blood-sucking leaf which is known to suck the blood essence of any living creatures that are wounded by its thorns to nourish itself. Those two abilities were transferred to the daggers. So, if someone other than Yun Chen is stabbed with those daggers their qi, blood essence and soul would be sucked dry by them. Moreover, it can repair itself if it is damaged and become much stronger due to the blood essence from the nine-headed hydra. The three bottle that were bought cost him almost all his money. Normally, it is impossible to find this thing but the one who sold brought it from a forbidden area where almost no one can come out alive.

«After extracting so many soul wisps from my soul, my soul power decreased a little bit. » Yun Chen said before taking out five demon cores.

Those were the demon cores of the five innate realm demon beasts that were hunted by Yun Chen and the mercenaries.

«Drain! » Yun Chen shouted.

All the demon cores were engulfed in a black hole. He then used the "Cleansing" ability on the demon cores in the special space and extracted their soul. After using the "Merging" ability, the five souls melted inside his and his soul power rose sharply and finally broke through to the Transformation realm. Now, his soul power is comparable to an initial seventh-grade alchemist.

«It is time to return home! » declared Yun Chen.

Yun Chen came out of the cave. Since the moment he parted from the mercenary squad, one day had already passed and it took him another day to return to the city. After coming to the city, he noted that there were less people on the street than usual, and some people were staring at the public note-board frequently. He then decided to take a look.

«A challenge declaration? » Yun Chen shouted in his head.

What was on the public note-board was a challenge declaration from the Mu family to Yun Chen. It was stated that Yun Chen killed unscrupulously some members of the Mu family and that, if the Yun family want to avoid an all-out war between families, Yun Chen must accept the death challenge from the nine geniuses of the Mu family and Tang families. The weakest of all these geniuses were at least at the third layer of the spirit-gathering realm while the strongest was at the fifth layer.

«Hahaha! I didn't go to them, and they delivered themselves to me. It seems they didn't think that I was the one who killed their assassins. They may have believed that an expert helped me. So, to avoid any interference, they made up this death challenge. But the date of the challenge is…... » Yun Chen though to himself while searching for the date.

«To…today? And at the death arena! » Yun Chen shouted inside his head before rushing toward the center of the city.

Yun Chen was very happy because he didn't need to find a reason to kill those geniuses and take their spirit roots. Coincidentally, with this number and following his estimations, all his spirit roots will breakthrough to nine-star since their spirit roots are at least four-star. It was also the best occasion for Yun Chen to test the abilities of his soul-ripping daggers. Even if they are second-grade earth weapons for the moment, they are enough for this challenge and can still evolve through combat and blood.