Special Episode: The Soulmaster and the Immortal Dream—Part One

"Do you know how many stories this Soul-Suppressing Heaven-Reach Pagoda has?"

This was the question posed by the previous Master of Souls, while the sixteen-year-old Meng Xian gazed up at the towering spire whose peak was lost beneath the firmament.

"One hundred stories, I suppose!" Meng Xian replied, her voice melodious and leisurely.

"Have you counted them?" asked the former Master of Souls.

"Hehe, I took a look, and it should be one hundred, because," Meng Xian said with calm assurance, "I have counted them in my dreams."

The former Master of Souls placed his hands behind his back. "Then, in the future, you shall guard the one-hundredth story."

"Understood!" Meng Xian responded softly. Her gaze shifted. "Just beneath the clouds, there are precisely ninety-six stories, and above the clouds, there should be four."

"Indeed," the former Master of Souls said, standing still before halting all movement. "When you stand upon the one-hundredth story, you will understand."

Thus, with peerless talent and formidable intellect, the sixteen-year-old Meng Xian became the youngest Master of Souls in the history of the Soul-Suppressing Hall, and she would also be the one with the greatest achievements!

It took her four hundred years to finally reach the one-hundredth story. Yet, upon truly arriving, her tears fell uncontrollably, like the gloomy rain beneath the sky.

For the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda had long since been broken; the true Soul-Suppressing Pagoda possessed one hundred and four stories.

And she was presumably the only one who had discovered this secret.

Standing at the summit of the pagoda, which rose like a pillar holding up the heavens, she was at the very pinnacle of the Zhoukou Valley boundary. Yet, this peak stood at a height of one hundred and four stories, while Meng Xian felt as though she could spend another four hundred years and still never reach that true height.

"Why?" Meng Xian would always sigh. "Where on earth did those four stories go?"

Much like the ruined remnants of the Soul-Exorcising Pagoda protruding from the earth, no one knew when the pagoda had been destroyed, but everyone believed these to be the complete, twin Soul-Suppressing Pagodas.

It was not until Meng Xian reached the very apex of the Soul Pagoda with her flawless grace that she realized four stories were missing.

A solitary journey, four hundred years of lonely pilgrimage, undertaken for the sake of a promise made by the former Master of Souls. From the age of sixteen to four hundred and sixteen, she had never regretted it. Yet, each time she kept lonely vigil over the soul-heart lamp, burning away those dead spirits, and stood guard in solitude upon the so-called peak of this Soul-Exorcising Pagoda, an irresistible urge to sigh would always rise within her.

"Father?"

That figure with hands clasped behind his back had departed so quietly. What on earth had generations of Masters of Souls striven for, guarding this hundred-story pagoda?

Was it a bond of blood?

Or something else entirely?

Yet her father had never said a word. Meng Xian would never understand that her father had assumed she would truly reach the summit and thus learn the ultimate secret.

Having kept watch at the apex of the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda for three years, Meng Xian finally came to this realization: "Perhaps Father's ninety-six stories were the most perfect after all."

Yet, as the sole female Master of Souls, there would be no successor to carry on her legacy.

Was it missing by just this tiny margin?

Suddenly, Meng Xian felt that this one-hundredth story was utterly useless!

In the year 2018, exactly three years ago, a man infiltrated the Zhoukou Valley with peerless and terrifying strength. His name was Su Mingyu.

Clad in pristine white clothes and possessing matchless speed, he used a sharp blade to instantly slice open the boundary of the Zhoukou Valley and stepped inside.

At that time, the so-called Two Envoys, Three Souls, and Seven Spirits were not yet the same individuals as today, but everyone sensed a profound danger in the presence of this man.

That was the period of Su Mingyu's life when his spirit was at its most buoyant and formidable.

"Will you let me see the Master of Souls?" This was what Su Mingyu asked, the corners of his lips curving upward.

In the end, slaying the [ Essence Soul ] and crippling the [ Heavenly Rush Soul ], Su Mingyu stepped into the Soul Pagoda with unimaginable, terrifying strength, even while the [ Heaven ], [ Earth ], and [ Mortal ] guardians were incomplete.

"I am not here to assassinate," Su Mingyu had said only this: "However, those who block my path shall die!"

The moment he stepped onto the first story, a sharp spear lunged upward from the floor. Su Mingyu leaped into the air, but the spears below emerged endlessly, shifting and following his movements. Yet in the end, when Su Mingyu reached the fourth story, only a few strands of his hair had been shaved off by the blades.

Su Mingyu did not understand the mechanisms here, but he knew that at the summit of this place, someone was waiting for him—someone from a dream whose ultimate ending he could never quite make out, no matter how hard he tried to piece it together.

Therefore, he had investigated everything about the Soul-Suppressing Hall with a single purpose: to reach the apex of the Soul Pagoda and see her!

In that increasingly indistinct dream, in that vision blurring day by day, when Su Mingyu arrived at Zhoukou, he remembered only a single sigh: "Do you possess the ability? ... Beyond a mere hundred stories."

On the floor of the third story, blue-and-white soul flames ignited. The moment the shoes on his feet vanished into ash, Su Mingyu understood that this might be the most dangerous adventure of his life.

Yet, as he took his second step, his figure vanished, and the next moment, he reappeared at the edge of the staircase leading to the fourth story.

However, by the time he climbed from within the pagoda to the sixty-fourth story, Su Mingyu was covered in wounds and could barely take another step. Even his exquisitely handsome face and short, messy black locks were etched with the marks of profound vicissitudes. He sat cross-legged upon the stairs as wisps of aura coiled around his body and mind, a mighty presence shrouding the sky above.

"Is there sorrow?"

For the first time, Su Mingyu felt moisture in his eyes, and tears streamed uncontrollably down his face.

He stood up and took another step forward!

"Sharpness!"

With a low cry from Su Mingyu, the silvery-white dagger in his hand, [ Immortal Dream ], radiated an incomparably razor-sharp aura. He took a single step, and beneath his feet, a myriad of phenomena unfolded as countless tree branches sprouted endlessly like tails, dedicated to binding him, spinning frantically and tearing everything apart in a lethal flurry!

He spun around and waved his hand, slashing the countless branches to pieces. The green vines whirled like a tempest, while Su Mingyu moved as a dancer stepping through the storm—slashing again and again, stepping forward, leaping into the air, and spinning.

When his legs were tightly bound, he already understood that this might be where his journey ended.

With a fierce whip of the vines, Su Mingyu was hurled against the wall, vomiting a mouthful of blood as his sorrow gradually revealed itself.

"There is only this one chance!" Su Mingyu had told himself back then: "The only chance in this lifetime!"

As the vines lashed out once more, Su Mingyu abruptly spun around, shredding the myriad intertwining branches in mid-air, and then unleashed his ultimate speed, shattering the secondary limit!

His figure became impossible to track; even afterimages grew blurry because the very speed of perception was far too slow!

Countless branches churned frantically. Even so, Su Mingyu was captured once more—this time, his left arm and legs were ensnared, and moisture brimbed in the corners of his eyes again.

I cannot stop here! Not when I have come only to see the person from my dreams!

He violently hurled the silver dagger in his hand upward. It spun through the air before quietly descending, and Su Mingyu's figure suddenly vanished. The next instant, he stood before the staircase leading to the next story. Behind him, a horrifying breach had pierced straight through the sea of verdant branches.

Sitting cross-legged to quietly prepare himself, Su Mingyu felt fresh blood seep from the corner of his mouth as he faced the next story.

The sixty-fifth story!