Chapter 393 — The Legend Lin Shuo and the Overlord Void Tan

"That's slow." Void Sandalwood said. "I want to see what hatches out of it."

Shi Jin's mouth twitched. "There's no Void Emperor teleportation array anymore. Hatching an egg in places that far away isn't that easy."

Void Sandalwood: "You definitely haven't been incubating it properly."

Shi Jin: "I've already come within an inch of dying several times! I nearly ran into a Totem."

"Ah... that does sound a little dangerous..."

Shi Jin sighed. You grew up following the Void Emperor—of course you don't know the hardships of the mortal world.

Lu Heng asked, "By the way, when do you plan to go to Tingxiang?"

"Haven't decided yet. Why do you ask?" said Shi Tang.

Lu Heng smiled. "I was thinking we could travel together. There's something I'd like to do in Tingxiang as well. After my spirit reached Overlord level, she recovered some memories from her former life, and she'd rather like to go back and see her homeland."

"I see. How about a month from now?" said Shi Li.

One month—with some overtime, he could have Can Baobao condense another Time Imprint. That would set his mind a little more at ease...

"Works for me. I'll use this month to climb the rankings," Lu Heng said with a confident smile.

"Just fight this kid right here!" the Void Sandalwood urged from the side, stoking the flames.

In its view, Lu Heng's current strength was definitely above Shi Jin's.

"Senior Mantis, don't go inciting people at random. If you want a fight, do it yourself," said Shi Yan.

He had no desire to fight Lu Heng. At present, only Lu Heng's Tingxiang spirit was at Overlord level; in battle, it would inevitably be the spirit possessing Lu Heng. To win, he'd have to strike the person—and how could he bring himself to hit an acquaintance?

Void Sandalwood: Hm?

Lu Heng was taken aback. She knew Shi Jin's record in the Seven Isles was formidable, but seeing him more confident than herself couldn't help but spark her curiosity.

She knew the Void Sandalwood's post-breakthrough strength inside and out. Once it broke through, it was fair to say its combat power rivaled that of a top-tier Overlord.

"I see you've just gotten full of yourself!" the Void Sandalwood sneered. "Your skin's itching again, is it? Then I really will have to teach you a lesson."

The Void Sandalwood had also served as a sparring partner for Shi Jin and the others in the Void Emperor's ruins for quite some time. Eleven, Chongchong, Can Bao—none of them had been a match for the Void Sandalwood back then, and it had thrashed them every single time.

But at this moment, inside Shi Ying's space, whether it was Chongchong, Can Bao, Chi Tong, or Susu, all of them were bursting with excitement. Even before the Void Sandalwood had appeared, they had all been clamoring to have another go at it.

Shi Li could only find an opportunity to arrange a challenge against the breakthrough Void Sandalwood, giving them a chance at "revenge"—a Monarch-level crossing ranks to fight an Overlord-level... and they were actually thrilled about it. Such absurdity could only be found in Shi Jin's team.

"Fine, then let's have a battle!" said Shi Li.

"Where?" asked the Void Sandalwood.

Lu Heng, standing nearby, was rather exasperated. How had a fight broken out the moment they met?

"Then... let's go to my Legendary Ruins," Lu Heng said with a sigh. They certainly couldn't fight inside Ancient Capital University.

By the time it was over, the university would be reduced to rubble.

Only her Legendary Ruins could withstand an Overlord-level battle.

"Fine by me." Both the Void Sandalwood and Shi Jin nodded. Meanwhile, inside Shi Ying's space, several of the pet beasts had already started rolling dice.

It was bound to be a one-on-one battle, but several of them wanted to fight, so they'd have to roll dice to decide who would go out.

Following the order in which they had joined the team... an enormous die rolled ceaselessly across the ground, and the pet beasts stared at it fixedly.

In the end, the result—a white face with a red two showing—made the pet beasts' expressions change.

Only Chongchong wore an excited expression, quickly heading to the spatial pouch to repair the three Overlord-level flesh puppets and the Black Meteor Yak's flesh puppet.

Having been thrashed so many times by the Void Sandalwood, a fellow insect-type, this time it was determined to wipe out its shame. What did it mean to be number one on the team?

"Shall we fight now?" Lu Heng asked.

"Let's do the afternoon," said Shi Li. Chongchong had just been rushing along the whole way; better to let it rest a while.

"Afternoon it is!" said the Void Sandalwood. "Perfect—I'll finish my meal first."

It bit off a chicken bone in one snap, then teleported away, no telling where.

....................

After Shi Yan and the Void Sandalwood agreed to a match in the afternoon, Shi Yan and Lu Heng went back to chatting, turning to Shi Ying's journey through the Seven Isles.

As for "Shi Jin" clearing the Champion's Road, Lu Heng had naturally learned of it long ago through the news.

Lu Bai's experiences had long since been exposed by the Shenfeng mechanic, but as for the rest, Lu Heng had been busy cultivating and hadn't looked into it much.

When Shi Jin got to the Phoenix Shrine, Lu Heng's expression turned to surprise. "A Phoenix Fruit that can bestow the phoenix bloodline on humans, turning them into mixed-bloods, and can also strengthen the bloodline concentration of phoenix-type pet beasts? Something like that exists?"

"Indeed," Shi Shuo said with a smile, producing a red fruit. "And I've already mastered the cultivation method. Would you like to let your Azure Spirit Phoenix Bird have a taste?"

Lu Heng hesitated, then said with a headache, "You've already helped me enormously with those Memory Droplets you provided. How could I have the nerve to use your resources too?"

"You're being too modest, Senior. That advanced ruin you cracked is still sitting with me—the one suited for plant growth..."

Lu Heng: ?

Didn't I hand that in? How did it end up with you?

Shi Jin cleared his throat and said, "At the time there was no suitable ruin to use it for, so I just ran to the bureau and brought it over. The Phoenix Fruit is currently being cultivated inside here."

Originally, once he had the legendary ruin, Shi Jin had wanted to return the high-grade ruin, but he suddenly discovered that even the legendary ruin's effects on the growth of plant-type beasts and on spirit plants were inferior to this high-grade ruin's. As the saying went, every trade has its master.

So, after some consideration, Shi Jin decided to keep it for the time being to study and cultivate the Phoenix Fruit and the Reincarnation Fruit, maximizing the ruin's benefits.

"So that's how it is." Lu Heng said with sudden understanding. "But what I'm more curious about is—can a single fruit really transform a human into a mixed-blood?"

"It can." Shi Li said. "But the aptitude has to match."

"For example, when the Phoenix Clan transformed pure-blood humans into mixed-bloods back then, not just anyone would do—they had to pick those whose aptitude matched. Great General Mu Huiyin and the Empress Senior, for instance, should be of the highly compatible sort."

"The conditions for using the Phoenix Fruit are similar. The beast master also needs a certain aptitude, or an ancestor who was a Phoenix Clan mixed-blood. People whose bloodline inheritance has since broken off, or who themselves possess compatibility, could all potentially be transformed into mixed-bloods by the Phoenix Fruit."

Lu Heng asked, "Then how do you judge that?"

Shi Li: "Before, it was hard to judge—finding them was a hassle. But now..."

He took out something like a mechanical radar and smiled slightly. "I had a mechanical beast spare some time to make this—a bloodline detector. It can detect humans within a certain range who possess Phoenix bloodline aptitude."