Apocalypse: Master of Soul Beasts

Footsteps sounded behind him. Fran turned around and immediately saw Wen Yu striding toward him.

”Yo, old man, you’re looking pretty good...”

Over the past five years, Fran had continued to serve as the liaison between the military and Wen Yu, so the two were already as familiar as could be. Add in Old Man Fran’s personal charisma, and Wen Yu’s impression of him was quite favorable.

Fran just smiled, then stopped paying attention to the skill scroll production line ahead and followed Wen Yu into a nearby reception room.

Mountain Kui’s carbon copy had already brewed the tea. Fran sat on the sofa, looking at Wen Yu, who was noticeably more mature and steady than five years ago. His gaze was deep, his thoughts unknown.

Until Wen Yu spoke.

”This time you’re here, mm, I assume you’ve brought some good news?”

Watching the man in front of him speak so unhurriedly, Fran fell silent for a moment, then nodded lightly. ”For you, it really is the best possible news. But before that, let’s finish our transaction first.”

At those words, Wen Yu wasn’t in a rush to ask about the so‑called good news—anything he wanted, he could definitely obtain. That was a truth that had been proven tens of thousands of times over the last five years.

He rummaged in his space ring for a bit, then took out a pile of technical data and placed it in front of Fran.

”This is the last batch of black tech from the Universe of Immortals and Heroes that I’ve got.”

In five years, Wen Yu had made countless trades with the military. The technical information he’d obtained from the Universe of Immortals and Heroes had basically been drained clean by them. What remained here was the very last bit of tech data in Wen Yu’s hands.

Fran casually flipped through the data, then took out a scroll from his hand and placed it in front of Wen Yu.

Skill Upgrade Scroll (SSS-Class item): Upgrades one S-Class skill to an SSS-Class skill.

”This is also what you wanted, the last skill upgrade scroll. So, happy trading.”

As soon as Fran finished, he reached out to take the documents on the table, but Wen Yu pressed them down firmly.

Wen Yu chuckled and said to Old Man Fran, ”Come on, Fran, playing it like this isn’t very fun. You seem to be forgetting something... like, say—the intel on the Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll...”

Fran shrugged and laughed. ”Knew you weren’t the type to eat a loss like this, kid.”

...

Over the last five years of trading, Wen Yu had exchanged with the military for quite a few skills. Most of them were useless as hell—only two skill scrolls were useful for Victor, and Wen Yu snatched those up on the spot: one Esoteric Level ability and one Limit Breakthrough Level ability. Starting from the sixth transaction, Wen Yu no longer asked for skill scrolls; instead, he began demanding skill upgrade scrolls from the military.

And in a blink, five years had passed. Today, the final SSS-Class skill upgrade scroll Wen Yu needed had finally been procured by the military and delivered over.

As early as four years ago, Wen Yu had asked the military to provide an Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll. At the same time, Wen Yu had been scouring every treasure land he could find, trying to track down this baby. However...

Aside from the Sequence Member-Ranking Battle, Wen Yu simply hadn’t found any channel that could provide an Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll—and with Tang Haofei still in deep sleep, Wen Yu and the military had no way to initiate another Sequence Member-Ranking Battle.

(The Sequence Member-Ranking Battle is initiated by the Dominator, but it requires a joint vote from the top ten sequence members. Wen Yu and the military were afraid that Tang Haofei would be awakened, so they refused every single time.)

Wen Yu had even come to believe that, aside from the Sequence Member-Ranking Battle, there was no other way to obtain a chance to upgrade an SSS-Class skill into an Esoteric Level skill—until today...

”Inside a Supernatural Super TreasureLand in the Spirit World, an Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll has indeed appeared. Right now it’s in the hands of a small team, but... the situation is a bit complicated...”

Fran was vague, as if he had some misgivings.

Wen Yu frowned. ”That’s it? You guys can’t take it back?”

”It’s very complicated for us... mm, very complicated for us. For you, though, it won’t be much trouble, so Lin Haifeng thinks it’d be better if you handle it personally.”

Hearing that, Wen Yu could tell Fran didn’t want to go into detail about this so‑called ”complicated,” so he didn’t press further. He simply pushed the technical data toward Fran and stowed away the skill upgrade scroll.

”Fine by me. I’ll make the trip myself.”

Fran carefully put away the technical data and dropped the topic, then brought up something else with Wen Yu.

”One month from now is the third All Races Conference. Don’t forget to show up.”

Wen Yu nodded, recalling the matter of the All Races Conference.

In five years, as Demonic Qi continuously poured into Earth, the planet’s biological populations had undergone extremely rapid mutation. Even plants and insects, which had rarely mutated five years ago, were now mutating on a massive scale. Correspondingly, with the explosive growth in the number of mutant beasts, their intelligence climbed, and their tendency to form groups became more and more obvious. Not just the Human Race and the Sea Clan—various bizarre factions like the Lion Clan, Tiger Tribe, Bull Clan, Mouse Clan, and Insect Tribe all emerged. Under the joint leadership of Lin Haifeng and the Sea King Tribe, the All Races Conference naturally formed. Its purpose was to mediate conflicts between the races to avoid intense internal infighting, and more importantly, to prevent the Level Lock from being quietly shattered in the midst of that infighting.

As for Wen Yu, being the undisputed ”sky” of the entire world, he naturally became the symbol of Earth—in nicer terms, the All Races’ Alliance Hierarch; in less flattering terms, nothing more than a mascot.

Wen Yu didn’t bother with these trivial matters, but the military needed Wen Yu’s deterrent force. This was also part of Wen Yu’s cooperation agreement with them—he’d sit in the main seat at the All Races Conference, watching the scheming and verbal sparring between the leaders of each race, and ensure that this nice, proper All Races Conference didn’t devolve into a chaotic brawl between major factions.

For Wen Yu, it was boring as hell...

Once the deal was done, Fran, who had plenty of his own affairs to handle, got up to take his leave. Wen Yu told Mountain Kui to see him out. Watching Fran’s figure disappear into the corridor, Wen Yu turned his gaze to the skill upgrade scroll in his hand.

A hint of warmth and excitement flashed in his eyes. Over the past five years, Wen Yu had already upgraded the skills on himself and his soul pets to almost a fully maxed-out build. In the absence of an Esoteric Level skill upgrade scroll, ”full build” naturally meant every skill on him was SSS-Class or higher.

Right now, there was only one skill on Wen Yu that hadn’t reached that standard.

He tore open the skill upgrade scroll, and a prompt sounded in his mind.

”Detected that the host has only one S-Class skill. Would you like to upgrade Soul Strike?”

”Yes!”

As faint light flickered over Wen Yu’s body, the upgrade was completed moments later.

Wen Yu carefully inspected the newly upgraded Soul Strike.

Soul Strike (SSS-Class, Passive Skill): Every attack from the Soul Master will inflict additional Soul Damage on the enemy. The damage is determined by the sum of the host’s physical attributes and Soul Strength.

Note: Soul Damage cannot be resisted and cannot be defended against except by soul defense–type skills.

Note: When the host touches the enemy’s body, Soul Strike can be triggered according to the host’s will (to avoid triggering Soul Strike during normal contact). It does not require any external damage to the enemy (even if the gap in physical attributes is enormous and normal attacks can’t break their defense, Soul Strike will still deal Full Effect).