Chapter 90: The Bell Tolls

The sun went down and the evening came: making it the start for matches of the five-man team to begin.

This is when Tang Wulin and his teammates had gone into to participate, as well as the other delegations of Eastsea City to participate as well or watch.

All except for Xiu Ye.

"What the heck is going on?" Xiu Ye mumbled as he paced back and forth in his room. He was confused, anxious and frustrated.

After all, from what he could remember in the story, there wasn't supposed to be any evil soul masters appearing in this point of time. At least not until the Shrek Academy arc, three years in the future.

Was he overthinking it? What if this evil soul master was just bored and decided to just watch the tournament for entertainment? Was he or she just passing by and decided to watch a tournament out of curiosity?

Okay. Xiu Ye took slow and deep breaths. 'Lets not jump to conclusions here. What are the chances for an evil soul master doing something crazy here? They wouldn't be more active in public until three years later when the first phase of their plan, causing public unrest and harvesting some 'resources', so I shouldn't probably panic much.'

He stopped in front of a window, showing the night sky and the bright city lights. 'I mean, what are the chances that they would be going after me?'

Somehow, that didn't reassure him at all.

Ringing~ Hey, its a friend! Look at who it is!

Xiu Ye snapped out his thoughts and looked towards his soul communicator resting on his coffee table.

'Xu Lizhi?' He quickly walked towards his coffee, picked up the device to his ear, taking a seat on the comfy couch, he accepted the call.

"Yello?"

"H-Hello..." Instead of a loud and excited fatty, telling him to either cook or eat, it was a familiar yet unfamiliar feminine shy voice.

It took Xiu a few moments to remember whose voice this was, "...Ye Xinglan?" he slowly said, uncertain.

This shy and adorable voice couldn't possibly be that cool and aggressive swordswoman Ye Xinglan, right?

As if the universe had heard him, the voice from device said, "Y-Yeah, it's me."

"Oh hey..." He trailed off, feeling uncertain on how was he going to talk to her. After all, he did almost kill her by using a god-level sword skill. Seriously, just because he wanted to show off and see what her reaction to it doesn't mean he had to do it.

It was so childish and stupid of him to do so! Gah, just remembering it made him want to do a seppuku.(1)

Though the reason for doing so feel shallow for some reason, like it wasn't the entire reason for it. Thinking much about it since he was finally resting made Xiu Ye quickly realize the real reason why he used Tsubame Gaeshi.

It was because he was overtaken by his emotions, the excitement and thrill of meeting a sword user at his age and battling against her. For his entire life he had only been fighting against older people with the sword, he has never fought against someone at his age!

The excitement of meeting her, fighting her, and the disappointment and frustration of her not being able to fight on equal footing against him had made him want to speed up her swordsmanship. That frustration, had caused him to use Tsubame Gaeshi so she can try and copy it and use it against him!

Which didn't happen...

Xiu Ye pinched the bridge between his eyes. Why is this happening? Why does he keep doing the most idiotic things? He was supposed to be someone who has strict control of his emotions, the patience of a saint, and the intelligence of an adult.

So why?! This never happened before when he was back at Glorybound City...right? Xiu Ye thought about it for brief moment and narrowed his eyes. 'Is my physical body causing some lapses of my mentality?'

"-Ye? Xiu Ye? Hello?" Xiu Ye snapped out of his thoughts and blinked his eyes, realizing that he's been silent to Ye Xinglan for a while now.

He shook his head, 'I'll think about it later on.'

"Yeah. I'm still here. Sorry about that, I uh, kinda spaced out for a moment there."

"O-Okay." Ye Xinglan stammered in surprise. There was a brief pause of silence before she continued. "Listen, um, do you think you can help me?"

Xiu Ye raised his eyebrow in surprise. "In what?"

"In my swordsmanship. I want your help in advancing my skills and polish them." She determinedly said.

He raised a second eyebrow. "Is this about that?"

"..." Her silence was already telling.

'I knew it.'

Xiu Ye let out a sigh. "Ye Xinglan, listen, I apologize for what I did there. Using that kind of skill on you, it was just plain overkill and it would have killed you if I hadn't hold back and quickly reacted to rescue you."

"...It's fine. I didn't die from that attack of yours after all and there wasn't any side effects. Let's put it behind us." Xiu Ye could practically imagine her waving it off at him. He almost snorted at the thought.

"Alright then." He dryly said.

"So, you won't help me?"

"No, I will help you. It's the least that I could do for scaring you anyway." Both of them giggled and they started some small between them.

"So, not only are you a fifth rank blacksmith but on all three Mecha occupations at the same rank as well?" Ye Xinglan was shocked.

"Yup." Xiu Ye made sure to pop the 'p'.

"...Why aren't you at Shrek Academy as an inner court student?" She muttered in disbelief.

Xiu Ye shrugged and responded. "Eh, I was too young to apply apply for enrollment and there wasn't anyone who could just let me get examined in Shrek Academy. Well, teacher Wu could but I don't know why he didn't."

"I see..."

Xiu Ye felt his soul communicator vibrating and he turned to see a familiar number.

'Sister Fei?' He almost forgot, he and Yu Fei had an arrangement of calling each other every evening.

"Hey Ye Xinglan, can I talk to you later on? My older sister is calling right now." Xiu Ye said.

"Huh? Oh, alright. Oh and here's my soul communicator number, XXXXXXXX." Xiu Ye quickly memorize the number and after giving a goodbye to Ye Xinglan he then hanged up.

He then answered his Yu Fei's call and nonchalantly said. "Hey sis, what's up?" He was soon taken aback by his sister's sudden scream from his soul communicator.

"YE!" Yu Fei sounded both distress and agitated, and if Xiu Ye was hearing it right, there was some loud background sounds like explosions and people yelling at each other.

"Sister Fei? What's wrong?!" Xiu Ye quickly asked.

"I'm fine! Ye, you've got to listen to me. There are evil soul masters gathered around in Skysea City right now and I want you, in any circumstances, to lay low! Especially since a Soul Douluo level evil soul master is present as well!"

Xiu Ye felt his heart stop.

"Sister, are they coming after me? Have they already figured out my identity? Is that why you're fighting currently?"

"No, they still haven't found out about your identity. Listen Ye, the only way for them to recognize you is if you had either of your parent's martial souls, the demonic bloodline of your mother, your father's infamous sword arts and either of their cultivation methods. Which you have none of. Unless they really know your parents, they wouldn't immediately know that you're their son." Yu Fei paused for a moment and Xiu Ye could clearly hear the sound of a more bigger explosion.

But hold up, what was that about demonic bloodline, sword arts and cultivation methods?

She continued. "As for my current situation, I and the masters' subordinates are raiding a evil soul master base and a branch of Spirit Pagoda at a small city, which both are one in the same. Dammit! These bastards are already starting to move faster than we expected." Xiu Ye could hear her teeth grinding in frustration and anger. But what she unknowingly said next made him feel shivers down his spine.

"...What? They already infected the entire city with that damn virus?! Tch. The city is lost. Tell that old man to have Tang Sect launch a rank-10 soul-fixed ammunition missile. This was supposed to be a simple mission..."

'A virus? They also have the support of Tang Sect? What the hell's going on?!' Xiu Ye was completely confused that it made him feel dizzy.

Looks like there was more to this world than he first thought.

He wanted to ask what was going on but his current dilemma was much more pressing.

"Sister Fei, why are there evil soul masters doing in Skysea City? And how did you know?"

"We have spies in the cult Ye, and one of them just called to inform me about a group of them had gone into Skysea to recruit new blood."

Xiu Ye widened his eyes in realization. "They're recruiting? Then I should be fine, right? I don't have a darkness or evil attribute after all."

"You would be right, if it was eleven thousand years ago. Listen, this is kept from the public for thousands of years so don't tell this to anyone with lose lips. Ten thousand years ago the Holy Spirit Cult, or Holy Spirit Church or something whatever, had developed a method of changing or adding a person's elemental attribute with the evil attribute alongside a seal of slavery, adding them into the cult as well as being slaves. They had developed this method so they could create an army and plunge the world into chaos and destruction, but they were stopped and brought to near extinction by the Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao." She took a moment to catch her breath.

"We all thought that method was lost in the destruction of their predecessor but who would have thought that some remnants of the cult were able to recover it a couple thousand years after its destruction. They would have ended the world a few thousand years ago if they used such a method once more, if they weren't disorganized, low in strength and numbers. Now, they are more powerful than ever before and have finally used it to change normal soul masters into evil soul masters." She let out a sigh.

"Ye, as long as you, and your friends, don't bring attention to yourselves and show off then you guys will be just fine." Yu Fei then went silent and waited for a response, only for silence to continue. "Ye? Hello? Why aren't you replying?"

Ding. Ding.

"What's that noise?"

Ding. Ding. Ding.

"Huh? Is that a sound from a bell? What time is it that you... Wait, bell sounds?"

Ding. Ding. Ding.

🎶Spirit bridge is falling down~🎶 A pleasant feminine voice was heard, then followed by a giggle.

🎶Falling down~ Falling down~🎶

🎶Spirit bridge is falling down~ My fair lady~🎶

"No..." Yu Fei muttered voice was filled with horror as she realized on who that feminine voice was.

Xiu Ye felt the same amount of horror as she, finally sensing the intruder appearing in his room and singing an altered version of 'London Bridge is Falling Down'. Dammit, he cursed to himself for letting down his guard. He forgot to keep his spiritual power around his room to sense any intruders.

He had the urge to summon Ryūjin Jakka or trace a Noble Phantasm and cut her to pieces but he quickly crush that thought out. This was a powerful and experienced evil soul master, she's different compared to normal soul masters as she would have probably bomb prep the hotel to go off if she was either attacked or died. She probably even had the entire stadium hostage as well.

He had to calm down and plan. Xiu Ye inwardly communicated with Ryūjin Jakka and Tiangou and told them that if things go south, both would reveal themselves and help restrain the enemy.

He looked over his shoulder to find a sixteen or eighteen year old girl wearing a white blazer and miniskirt, with cherry red hair, bordering pink, tied into twin tails, big fiery red eyes and curve eyebrows. She was beautiful. She was like the innocent and kind junior sister you'd deal with in school.

But his eyes soon widened in shock at something else.

Several soul rings appeared beneath her feet and they started going up and down her body. They were six black and two red. And hovering behind her what looks like a bell, pitch-black as ink with strange green runes carved in the surface. Green radiance shimmered on the runes with a faint green mist that made it appear otherworldly. It slowly rocked itself around, producing short yet mystifying bell sounds.

This wasn't any average evil soul master...

She was smiling and cocking her head to the side at him. Her smile was so sweet and beautiful that it made his teeth rot.

"Hehe, hello there cute little brother. Will you let this sister play with you?"

❄️

AN: Sorry for the late update! 🙇 I was busy playing Mobile Legends, PUBG mobile and Summertime Saga(especially this one).

(1)Seppuku: Seppuku, sometimes referred to as harakiri, is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment.

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