Just as Tang San had said, how desperately he longed to see his family of three reunited!
"Wait before you go. Let me hand over what needs to be done first — there's no rush. We've already waited so many years; who knows how much longer we'll have to wait. There's no hurry for this little while." Tang Hao, after all, was advanced in years, his will steady and composed. He gestured for Tang San to sit down on the ground. Reaching back, he struck the stone wall beside him with a single palm.
With a sharp ding, a dark object plummeted from above and landed in Tang Hao's hand. He passed it to Tang San. "Open it and take a look."
It was a black box, rectangular in shape, roughly a meter and a half long and a foot wide. It was extraordinarily heavy in his hands — easily over two hundred jin. When he tapped it with a finger, it produced a dull, muted thud.
Having crafted Hidden Weapons, Tang San had some knowledge of metals. To his surprise, he discovered that this elongated black box had been forged entirely from lead.
The box had no lock. Tang San placed it on his knees and slowly opened it.
The moment he pried open even a narrow crack, his entire body went rigid.
That single sliver of an opening in the lead box shocked Tang San to his core. A surging, incomparably vast aura of energy came flooding out through the gap, and in an instant the surrounding space seemed to freeze solid.
The tremendous aura split into three streams — two of them brimming with a domineering, overbearing force, while the third was remarkably gentle. The three currents spiraled outward, and under the weight of such colossal energy, even Tang San found himself temporarily unable to move.
Tang Hao had clearly anticipated this outcome. He raised his single arm and placed his hand on Tang San's shoulder, channeling his rich Soul Power through his body to help Tang San adjust to the energy fluctuations as quickly as possible.
It took a full half hour before Tang San finally let out a long breath. Yet the shock in his eyes remained impossible to conceal — what kind of power could possibly exert such overwhelming pressure on him?
Almost impatiently, he opened the black box completely.
The lead box swung open, and when the contents were laid bare before Tang San's eyes, he was utterly transfixed.
Lying flat inside the long lead box were three objects. On the far left was a miniature right arm bone, entirely black, its deep dark luster held in restraint, yet the fierce and volatile energy pulsing from it would be enough to alarm anyone.
On the right side of the box was a miniature left leg bone, dark cyan throughout, its energy fluctuations no weaker than those of the right arm bone. That was right — these were both Soul Bones, and extraordinarily complete ones at that.
Soul Bones were graded into tiers. Generally speaking, for Soul Bones of the same type, the more complete the bone and the stronger the energy fluctuations, the higher its quality — indicating it had come from a higher-level Soul Beast. The Spirit Condensing Wisdom Skull that Tang San had obtained from Spirit Hall was considered excellent precisely because of its exceptional completeness.
The other two Soul Bones from that time, however, had both been incomplete — the Flame Right Arm Bone that Ma Hongjun received consisted only of the forearm, and the leg bone Zhu Zhuqing obtained was merely a shin bone.
Though they remained remarkably effective as Soul Bones, they were not, in the end, whole.
These two Soul Bones before him, however, were astonishingly complete, without the slightest imperfection. The explosive energy contained within seemed ready to burst forth at any moment. Their quality was so superb that it even faintly surpassed Tang San's Spirit Condensing Wisdom Skull.
But these two Soul Bones were not what drew Tang San's attention the most. What captivated him was the one lying in the center of the elongated lead box.
It was a right leg bone. Among the six types of Soul Bones, the right leg bone was unquestionably ranked lower. Yet this particular right leg bone looked utterly different from any ordinary one.
It was a luminous, translucent blue-gold throughout, with what appeared to be tiny points of starlight flickering inside. Most remarkably, what it conveyed to Tang San was a feeling of life — as though this right leg bone actually possessed a living existence.
Though all Soul Bones could give one a sense of vitality, this crystalline blue Soul Bone was exceptionally vivid in that regard. Its aura of profound intimacy seemed to wash over Tang San's heart, setting it trembling without cease.
It too was completely whole, and its very existence seemed to stand above the other two Soul Bones. Even by sight alone, one could sense its supreme, peak-tier attributes.
"This feeling of life — only a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast can produce it. This is what your mother left for you." Tang Hao's gaze, too, had come to rest entirely upon that blue right leg bone, and the expression on his face was one of extraordinary tenderness.
His heart flooded with a nameless wave of shock, Tang San looked up at his father, and tears surged unbidden into his eyes. He knew, of course, that a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast would inevitably produce a Soul Bone upon death. But he had always assumed that this Soul Bone left behind by his mother would be on his father's person. Yet here it was, lying vividly before his very eyes.
And after observing the other two Soul Bones, Tang San could be certain — his father had never absorbed the Soul Bone his mother had left behind.