At this moment, Li Li's upper garments were completely shredded, and her delicate, porcelain skin was exposed right before Gu Xuan's eyes. Gu Xuan froze for a heartbeat before quickly kicking any inappropriate thoughts out of his mind.
He immediately reached out, a treasure light flashing from his soul guide, and a blanket appeared in his hand. He swiftly wrapped it around Li Li's front, ensuring her modesty remained intact.
A moment later, Li Li opened her eyes. Her body felt indescribably comfortable, as if every cell within her was cheering in joy. The only odd sensation was an itch on her back, as if something was extending outward from her spine. She could feel the dampness of the soil and the breeze in the air, but she vaguely realized that something had fundamentally changed.
When she finally saw her full reflection, she let out a startled cry. "Ah!"
She found herself suspended in the air, her feet off the ground, supported by four long, purple spider legs. Four additional spider legs moved gently in the air, swaying up, down, left, and right like extra arms.
However, she reacted quickly, looking at Gu Xuan with disbelief. "Big Brother, is this... an external soul bone?"
Gu Xuan smiled and nodded, "Li Li, your luck is incredible. These are the legs of the Man-Faced Demon Spider—an external soul bone."
Li Li was ecstatic upon hearing this. "It really is an external soul bone! Big Brother, I actually have an external soul bone now! I can feel how versatile it is. With this, my strength is going to see a terrifying boost!"
Gu Xuan gave her a gentle smile and nodded. "This is your destiny." He then suggested, "Try to retract them."
Following his instructions, Li Li concentrated her soul power and sent it into her spine, issuing a command to the eight legs. A miraculous sight occurred: the three-meter-long legs began to fold, their curved sections pressing together before slowly merging back into her body.
Li Li only felt a slight itching sensation on her back without any discomfort. The process consumed some of her soul power, but not a significant amount.
Once the legs had fully vanished, she could clearly feel that they hadn't disappeared entirely. Instead, they had transformed into eight distinct strands of energy that started from her spine and attached themselves to her eight ribs. She found that she could control them as easily as her own limbs, with no sense of unfamiliarity. Gu Xuan noticed this as well.
'Is it because her Martial Soul is also a Man-Faced Demon Spider?' Gu Xuan wondered to himself.
"How was it? What are the results?" Gu Xuan asked.
Excitement took over Li Li, and she instinctively stepped forward to answer. "I—" In her haste, the blanket wrapped around her suddenly slipped.
Gu Xuan immediately spun around, keeping his back toward her.
"Ah!!" Li Li shrieked again, only just realizing she was only wearing a blanket. She scrambled to pick it up, shielding herself while pulling a fresh set of clothes from her soul guide.
Her face was flushed deep red throughout the process. This was the first time she had ever been exposed to a member of the opposite sex. Even though Zuo Yan had been pursuing her for nearly two years, she hadn't even let him hold her hand. Now, Gu Xuan had seen her twice in quick succession.
'Only Big Brother is here, so the blanket must have come from him,' she thought. 'Isn't this basically being seen for free twice?' Li Li, who already admired Gu Xuan immensely, felt even more flustered. 'How can I face him after this?'
Gu Xuan felt equally helpless. He hadn't expected the Eight Spider Lances to be such a "clothes-shredding" artifact. His own Sword Dragon Eight Wings didn't have this issue; they extended from his spine with a twenty-centimeter gap and were connected by soul power.
'If it were anyone else, I could just compensate her with a child if she insisted,' Gu Xuan thought jokingly, 'but she's supposed to be dating Zuo Yan. This is a mess.'
Once she had finished changing, Li Li whispered with a face like a ripe tomato, "Brother, I'm dressed."
Gu Xuan finally turned around. Seeing her blushing face, he thought she looked quite cute. Though not yet twelve, her figure was already developing quite well. 'She has enough "assets" to tempt anyone, but I really can't lay a hand on her,' he thought.
To hide her embarrassment, Li Li began describing her gains. "My soul power has reached Rank 32. Also, while I was absorbing the ring, I somehow drew all the toxins of the Man-Faced Demon Spider into my body, further strengthening my own poison."
"The third soul skill provided by the spider is called Spider Web Restraint. It's a powerful single-target control skill using the spider's signature webs. It even bypasses the limitation where a thousand-year spider can only use three webs a day; as long as I have soul power, I can release them indefinitely."
She paused before adding, "Most importantly, this external soul bone has completely fused with me. It's likely due to the compatibility with my Martial Soul."
'It seems the Eight Spider Lances were practically made for her,' Gu Xuan thought. 'The utility here is far greater than it would have been in Tang San's hands.'
Just as Li Li finished her explanation, the space above them fluctuated. A pitch-black Spatial Portal three meters in diameter appeared, and three figures stepped out. Gu Xuan looked up and saw Gu Rong, the Dragon Duke Meng Shu, and the Serpent Woman Chao Tianxiang.
In Gu Rong's hand, he was dangling a pink figure. A closer look revealed it was none other than Xiao Wu.
As Gu Xuan watched, the Shrek Academy group noticed as well. Tang San, in particular, broke down instantly, shouting toward the sky, "Xiao Wu!"
For some reason, because Gu Rong was holding Xiao Wu by the scruff of her neck like a small chick, Tang San and the others felt a sense of surreal unease. Furthermore, Meng Shu's gaze toward Xiao Wu was different now—it wasn't the pity of a senior for a girl who had just escaped death, but rather a flicker of hard-to-detect greed.
Gu Xuan smiled at Gu Rong. The eight dragon-swords circling him recombined on his back into four pairs of sword-wings with a span of over six meters. Li Li also retracted her Martial Soul and stood by his side.
"Grandpa, is the girl you rescued uninjured?" Gu Xuan asked, immediately initiating an Oscar-level acting performance.
Gu Rong caught on instantly. His expression darkened as he spoke. "We were all deceived by her. This girl is not human; she is a soul beast that has taken human form. That Titan Giant Ape was likely her companion."
He then glanced at Meng Shu, who played along, adding, "Indeed. This old man wouldn't see it wrongly either."
Once a soul beast takes human form, any Soul Douluo-level powerhouse can see through their true identity before they reach maturity. Meng Shu, at Rank 87, was no exception. He hadn't had a chance to see Xiao Wu earlier, but once he and his wife caught up to Gu Rong, they had identified her true nature immediately.
To the rest of the Shrek Academy group, these words were like a thunderclap. "Xiao Wu isn't human?!"
(End of Chapter)
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