Chapter 53
There was another noticeable item found during the fight. When Li Qing had been pinned down by his enemy and almost died because of it, he mustered all his strength and used his Ivory Edge to scrape off a patch of wolf skin from his adversary, which turned into another reward.
[Bloodstained Skin]
[Level: Ordinary Rank-5]
[Rarity: Refined (Offering)]
[A bloody trophy gained through a life-and-death struggle against a Blue Wolf. The proof of a human warrior’s great courage.]
Ji Ye was glad to find another offering item from a general-rank creature, but not a boss. Previously, he thought defeating boss monsters was the only way to get more of them. He had just been proven wrong.
This new offering item combined with the Heart of Enlightenment Lu Zhishen gained from the killed “Eagle Man” meant that they could finally perform a summoning ritual and welcome another hero at the settlement.
Ji Ye suddenly received a message in his head.
[Killed Steelback Blue Wolf (Extraordinary Rank-1, Quasi-Commander) EXP gained: 235. Honor gained: 4.]
“Oh, it died?”
“Die, beast!” Lu Zhishen took a step forward and raised his hands.
Boom!
His glowing fist successfully landed on the coming wolf and created a muffled explosion sound, causing the soul to break apart into smaller clusters of black air. Some of the clusters latched onto the towering warrior’s exposed skin, causing him to shudder all of a sudden.
“Look out, master, don’t touch these things! They have something that taints your very soul!”
It seemed Lu Zhishen was resisting the strange effect just fine thanks to enhancement he had received from the serpent’s soul. Besides, he was currently a full-fledged Commander of Extraordinary Rank-2, which meant he was a rank higher than the wolf’s soul.
“So this thing had special abilities only after death?” Ji Ye muttered.
Slowly, the broken parts fused into one and became whole, before it once again lunged at Ji Ye’s position.
Ji Ye lifted his Black Serpent Sword high in the air and slashed down, cutting the soul from the middle, causing more “black air” to seep out again. He wasn’t affected in any way when the sword helped him absorb some of the pollution.
There was a problem though. He knew that the superior effect of the sword had a limit. It would soon exhaust its power and when that happened, the weapon would need some time to recover. Telling from how the wolf soul returned again without losing any of its “mass,” they had yet to figure out an effective way to kill it.
Ji Ye looked further and saw more black mist being pumped out from the dead body, which in turn increased the soul’s size. As he watched, the soul’s rank became “Extraordinary Rank-2.” And this probably wasn’t the end of it.
“Let’s get out, Chief Lu. Since it’s a fallen spirit of some sort, I doubt it can do well in sunlight.”
“I don’t think it’ll work, master. It’s not an ordinary soul of a dead beast, but something worse supported by the wolf’s dying will. Light alone won’t be enough to get rid of it. Besides, we can’t risk taking it outside the cave. It would put our other comrades in danger.”
“Damn. Killing the wolf was easy. I didn’t think it would give us so much trouble afterwards…” Ji Ye complained while dissipating the soul again with his sword.
“Wait…”
When the soul came close, he noticed that it was gazing at his sword rather than himself.
“It wants something? The blood absorbed by the blade?”
He just remembered that the sword had drained a large amount of wolf blood during the previous fight. The “black gas” that had built this soul seemed to be made of blood as well. If so…
“Blood…”
Ji Ye’s eyes flickered as though he had thought of something.