Chapter 1378: They Said

When he saw that aurora over Tongzhou, Chen Ling had actually suspected it. After all, there were no souls in those residual auroras, only a pile of shells... And the only one who could take away so many souls was the Aurora Lord.

When he saw Yang Xiao's incredibly powerful soul with his own eyes, he suddenly realized that the Aurora Lord's power was far more terrifying than he had imagined!

He could tune the biological magnetic fields of others and merge them into his own. In other words, he could absorb the souls of those who had just died to become his own power!

The last person who could do something similar was the Infinite Lord Lou Yu, but Lou Yu needed to rely on the alchemy of the Witch God Path to create the Philosopher's Stone. Yang Xiao, however, didn't need to; he could directly absorb the souls themselves for his own use.

This meant that in an era of more chaos and more deaths, Yang Xiao's growth rate would be faster!

"Why did it turn out like this..." Yang Xiao stared blankly at the aurora around him, shaking his head instinctively. "No... I never thought about absorbing them into my soul... I don't know how this happened!"

"You were hit by a nuclear weapon. Survival was just an instinct of your ability. This is not your fault."

Self-reproach and pain surfaced on Yang Xiao's face again. He was already guilty for not being able to save those people, and now that he knew he had survived only because of their deaths, his heart was even more tormented.

Those charred palms that reached out from behind him in his dreams seemed to rest on his shoulders again, dragging him bit by bit into an endless abyss...

Yang Xiao's breathing was incredibly heavy.

"When they merged with you, you should have been able to hear their voices, right?" Chen Ling looked into his eyes. "Think carefully... are they really all blaming and cursing you?"

Yang Xiao was slightly taken aback.

His brow furrowed tightly, as if he were trying hard to recall the situation at that time. He remembered that fire had engulfed everything, endless auroras surrounded him, and millions of noisy voices nearly squeezed his brain to the point of bursting...

What were they... saying at the time?

After the explosion, the faces of those souls seemed more filled with confusion.

Death had come too suddenly. By the time they realized they were dead, their eyes were filled with sorrow and helplessness. Some were holding their children, some were holding their lovers, some were angrily clutching their heads and crying, some were cursing angrily at the sky... Of course, some were looking at him with venom, blaming him for why he couldn't protect them.

But when Yang Xiao's ability activated, his soul merged bit by bit with those of the dead. His memories, his personality, his thoughts, all linked together with the souls of the dead.

They felt Yang Xiao's pure and simple soul.

The cursers stopped cursing, and the eyes of those crying in pain filled with regret and pity. Millions of souls surrounded Yang Xiao in the form of aurora, looking at the "Aurora Lord" on the verge of collapse in the sea of fire with incredibly complex gazes...

They knew he had tried his best; they knew he truly wanted to save them;

It was just... he wasn't strong enough yet.

Their souls turned into aurora bit by bit and merged with Yang Xiao. At the same time, they all opened their mouths to say something, and hands were raised in the air, reaching toward the Aurora Lord in the sea of fire.

The sky full of aurora rushed toward Yang Xiao, just as they had swarmed toward him before the nuclear bomb fell.

Inside the cabin, Yang Xiao clutched his head with both hands, as if trying hard to recall what they had said, and why he had chosen to fly toward the sea afterward... He felt he was about to hear it clearly.

Chen Ling didn't disturb him. He knew Yang Xiao would have to face this eventually. Just then, the roar of numerous fighter jets sounded from above.

Chen Ling frowned and looked up at the deck above.

"Eagle calling Seal-3!"

"Eagle calling Seal-3!!"

"Reply if received, repeat, reply if received!"

Chen Ling knew that these destroyers were just sentinels of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, and the real main force was behind... Now that these destroyers had been blown up by him, the Seventh Fleet had likely realized something and locked all their firepower onto this only surviving, yet lifeless, destroyer.

The main force behind likely had nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and a large number of fleets. Their thermal weapon strike capability was unquestionable. Chen Ling himself wasn't afraid, but the problem was that Yang Xiao was still on the ship. He didn't have an Eighth-Tier Calamity body as strong as his own. If they faced a large-scale thermal weapon strike head-on, it would be hard to survive.

"They've locked onto this place." Chen Ling said in a deep voice. "Let's go, I'll take you away."

Yang Xiao, who was struggling to recall, suddenly seemed to think of something, his whole body trembling slightly.

"I remember..." Yang Xiao muttered to himself.

"The last sentence they said to me before merging into my soul... I remember."

WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH—!!!

The sound of dense missiles breaking through the air streaked across the sky, rapidly approaching the destroyer where Chen Ling was!

Chen Ling's expression changed, and he immediately stepped forward, wanting to take Yang Xiao away first, but the next second, a brilliant aurora erupted from Yang Xiao's pupils!

The terrifying aura was like a tsunami, shaking Chen Ling's figure back half a step. He looked in shock at Yang Xiao, who was constantly overflowing with aurora. At this moment, the Yang Xiao before him actually had a trace of the Aurora Lord from within Aurora City!

Dozens of missiles whistled through the sky like a net, flying toward the destroyer. The moment they were about to be detonated...

Yang Xiao spoke slowly:

"They said..."

"'Avenge me.'"

The magnificent and massive aurora swept out from the destroyer like a blast wave. The sky full of missiles that were about to touch the hull of the destroyer were grabbed by an invisible hand, instantly freezing in mid-air!!

No matter how the tail flames spewed or how the power surged, these missiles couldn't advance even a fraction of an inch!

The aurora illuminated the originally dim cabin brilliantly. In Chen Ling's gaze, Yang Xiao slowly raised his head. With a thought, the metal frames and screws that made up the deck and cabin ceiling trembled simultaneously, actually beginning to disassemble and float automatically. A circular opening leading directly to the deck was punched through!

Dim daylight shone through the opening onto Yang Xiao in the cabin. He stood on tiptoe, his body seeming to have broken free from the shackles of Earth's magnetic field, slowly levitating upward...

Under the distant gaze of the Seventh Fleet, Yang Xiao's figure rose from within the destroyer, and an incomparably powerful aura surged in all directions!

The white research robe danced wildly in the sea breeze. Before he knew it, aurora had covered the entire sky!