Chapter 34: Strengthening The Spirit Soul
The hunting Sheng Feilong and the others did together with Wong Woshuang's team of 6 went very well. The implied strategy of having Wong Wushuang act as the bait to lure the Cunning Foxes out worked without a hitch. He stepped into the trap of the foxes on purpose which lead to a group of 4 foxes jumping him. Quickly blocking or dodging all of them, the rest waited a moment longer for the rest of the fox flock to move before Sheng Feilong locked the four that attacked the first time into an illusion.
Jian Wang, Xiao Yuewu, Wong Wushuang and the rest of his team attacked the fox flock directly, ignoring the four foxes trapped in an illusion. The foxes quickly fled, but a few were caught by them and directly killed, while Sheng Feilong and Su Liyun took care of the four foxes left behind. After a while, Wong Wushuang and the others returned, bringing with them a total of another 4 foxes. With the ones disposed of by Sheng Feilong, they had the bodies of 8 Cunning Foxes, ranging from around 300-years-old Soul Beasts to a huge 700-years-old Cunning Fox!
Wong Wushuang approached Sheng Feilong and was once again shocked. Although he heard of Sheng Feilong trapping the foxes, when he actually saw it, the result was incredible. The foxes he trapped hadn't fled, and moreover hadn't even moved in the slightest, as if waiting to be slaughtered! Like that, even Su Liyun, who's Spirit Essence doesn't have any offensive capabilities could finish them of with a normal steel knife.
Bringing all of the foxes together, they made a spot for Sheng Feilong to sit in so he didn't have to bother with the blood flowing out of the foxes, build a temporary camp again and took their places to watch out for any dangers. Wong Wushuang and Sheng Feilong stood in the middle and waited for the others to prepare. Wong Wushuang couldn't help but glance at Sheng Feilong again.
"Junior Brother Sheng, you're really surprising me. Junior Brother Xiao told me of your way to trap the foxes in an illusion, but actually seeing it, that ability of yours is truly terrifying. I expected them to be stunned for a short while, but to think they'd be totally unable to put up any resistance is incredible. Your Spirit Power must be enormous."
Sheng Feilong smiled wryly, not answering Wong Wushuang's question. He wouldn't just tell anybody any sensible information about himself. Although Wong Wushuang was his senior and a person easy to get along with, you never know if that would change in the future. Even Song Weihan only gave the bare minimum of information about Sheng Feilong to the Spirit Pagoda and others, since Sheng Feilong's talent in regards to Spirit Power were just too shocking. Although he was just over 10 years old, his Spirit Power was already approaching 1.000 points. Normally, a 10 year old, even if their Spirit Power is strong, would have around 100-200 points of Spirit Power. Moreover, due to Song Weihan's extensive training, Sheng Feilong had the physical strength to match that Spirit power and not be burdened by it. Something like that is extremely rare.
Sheng Feilong casually chatted with Wong Wushuang for a bit more while everyone else got ready for their jobs. Afterwards, Sheng Feilong sat down between the bodies of the 8 Cunning Foxes and started absorbing their remnant energy to strengthen his Ancient Hypnotic Toad. Over an hour quickly passed without any unforeseen events and Jian Wang, Wong Wushuang and the rest relaxed a bit, with 3 of them standing guard while the rest calmly chatted in their makeshift camp.
---
Outside of the Spirit Ascension Platform, the mood wasn't quite as relaxed as at Sheng Feilong's groups camp. Song Weihan was again sitting at the computer screen and reviewing some documents with a stern expression. He breathed out loudly and put the documents on his desk before looking at the tense employee in front of him.
"Is that information reliable? Have you double checked everything?"
The employee quickly nodded with a grave expression.
"Yes, sir. Everything written in the report has been double checked and we had our staff verify with the people in question. A ten years old child from Eastsea City killed a 100-years-old Horned Dragon with more or less a single hit, before he grouped up with his comrades to defeat a 1.000-years-old Crystal Bear and he, again, crushed it with sheer strength. However, the boy who defeated the Horned Dragon before was encased in the Crystal Bear's crystal, while three others were more or less rendered unable to fight. Afterwards, they were attacked by a flock of Green Wolves, and the one remaining child battled them all by himself to shield his comrades."
Song Weihan seemed lost in thought for a moment as he bare audibly mumbled.
"Xie Xie, 10 years old, an Agility Type Soul Master with twin Spirit Essences and incredible willpower and loyalty. Gu Yue, a 10 year old girl with an unidentified Spirit Essence that has incredible affinity with multiple elements and becomes stronger in relation to the possessors Spirit Power. And lastly, Tang Wulin... A 10 years old twin Spirit Essence possessor with an incredibly powerful Assault Type Dragon Spirit Essence, that grants him unimaginable physical strength and a strong suppression effect on dragonic Soul Beasts and a mutated Bluesilver Grass... I can't help but think that I've heard that name before..."
The Spirit Pagoda employee quickly caught up where Song Weihan started to become silent.
"Tang Wulin is a genius in blacksmithing and the personal disciple of Saint Blacksmith Chen Mu, the Blacksmith Association's Eastsea City's Branch President."
Song Weihan looked at the employee and then sighed.
"Right, that was it. With his physical strength, being a blacksmith suits him. But all three of them refused to join the Eastsea Spirit Pagoda?"
"Yes, sir. The employees tried their best to recruit them, but Director Long of Eastsea Spirit Pagoda and the children's teacher put them down and rejected in their stead." The employee replied agan, causing Song Weihan to let out another sigh.
"Very well, nothing we can do then. Don't let that information get out. We don't need rumours or competitors. You may leave."
The employee saluted and then left, leaving Song Weihan alone. A few meters away from him, the teachers of the Heaven Dou Intermediate Academy were restless. They heard everything, but Song Weihan didn't even seem to care. Or was that last sentence about not telling anyone meant for them? He wouldn't try to silence them, right..?
---
Sheng Feilong slowly opened his eyes and tried to feel the changes in his Spirit Soul. After absorbing the 8 Cunning Foxes, he felt somewhat strange. Song Weihan had once told him, that one would be able to absorb roughly 1/10th of the cultivation of the Soul Beasts slain in the Spirit Ascension Platform, however, he clearly absorbed more from the first 4 Cunning Foxes and when he absorbed the 8 Cunning Foxes this time, he felt as if something was blocking him.
Inspecting the Ancient Hypnotic Toad, Sheng Feilong quickly saw that it had only evolved from a 833-years-old Spirit Soul to a 904-years-old Spirit Soul; an increase of barely over 70 years even though it should have been nearly 200 if not more. Sheng Feilong furrowed his brows and tried to think of a reason for that. Meanwhile, Jian Wang and the others had noticed that Sheng Feilong woke up and ask him how he did, pulling him out of his own thoughts. He explained what happened and all of them tried thinking of a reason.
After a while of thinking and a few questions, Wong Wushuang was the first to come up with an idea.
"You said that your Spirit Soul is quite special and consideribly strong, right? Maybe you're not compatible with the Cunning Foxes. Being able to absorb so much of their energy from the first batch could be explained by the difference in strength between them and your Spirit Soul. There's a few other spiritual Soul Beasts not too far from the foxes' territory, we could try them. If that also doesn't do the trick, we'll hunt a 1.000-years-old Soul Beast. That should be enough, no matter what."
After a bit of discussion, Sheng Feilong and the others agree. They went northward, to the territory of the Screaming Ghost Squirrels. Despite their name, they're not actually ghosts. Instead, they're pitch black squirrels of about 50cm large with weird, gaseous tails which seem to have ghost like human faces on them that had screaming expressions, hence their name. On the way there, the hunted a few avian Soul Beasts that were then absorbed by Xiao Yuewu and Wong Wushuang, increasing their Spirit Soul's ages to roughly 600 years and 950 years of age, respectively.
Screaming Ghost Squirrels were different from Cunning Foxes; they were carnivorous Beasts, that actively hunted for prey in small groups of 3 to 7 Beasts, so Sheng Feilong and the others quickly came across a group of them, consisting of 2 10-years-old beasts, 2 around 300-years-old beasts and their leader, a nearly 500-years-old Screaming Ghost Squirrel. Wong Wushuang and his comrades had a few problems while dealing with them as the squirrels Spirit Power was quite powerful, but with Sheng Feilong's assistance, they quickly dealt with them.
Afterwards, Sheng Feilong absorbed the 3 over 100-years-old Screaming Ghost squirrels while ignoring the 10-years-old variants as they wouldn't contribute much considering their strength. After roughly two hours, he opened his eyes again. Examining the Ancient Hypnotic toad, its age had increased to 983 years, meaning that Sheng Feilong did gain a good 1/10th of the squirrels remnant energy and he was only a small step away from evolving his Spirit Soul to the 1.000-years-old level!
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Yozuka
Yozuka Daily chapter delivery! I hope you enjoy it!
Please let me know if you spot any mistakes in spelling or grammar, I'll fix them asap!
Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section!
Let me know what you think of it so far!
Discord link: https://discord.gg/keWSXKE
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone