Victory, the Official Story

Forcing Yu Tianqing to use Thunderbolt Dragon Claw again, Yu Tianlin could not help but smile.

This was already the fourth time. It looked like Xiao Qing's Soul Power was about to hit bottom, and he would be able to claim victory very soon.

But even with victory in sight, Yu Tianlin did not relax in the slightest. He had the soul of an adult, and in his previous life, he had seen far too many examples of people getting careless on the eve of victory, only to be counter-killed in the end.

With that thought, Yu Tianlin did not pause at all. The pale yellow Soul Ring on his body lit up once more, and he continued condensing two Thunder Balls, firing them in a concentrated volley toward Yu Tianqing.

Yu Tianqing stared dazedly at the two Thunder Balls flying toward him. He neither dodged nor blocked, only standing blankly in place without making any movement.

Although he still had a little Soul Power left in his body, his stamina had been nearly exhausted, and with the pain that kept coming from his left arm, Yu Tianqing had already reached his limit.

Seeing that the Thunder Balls were about to hit Yu Tianqing, Yu Luomian, seated at the upper end of the hall, had an ashen expression, but he still immediately rose. Yu Tianlin only felt his vision blur, and Yu Luomian's figure was already blocking in front of Yu Tianqing.

Facing the two Thunder Balls coming head-on, Yu Luomian merely waved one hand, and the Thunder Balls instantly vanished, without even the slightest flicker of lightning.

"Grandfather, I lost..."

Looking at Yu Luomian's back, Yu Tianqing murmured softly. Then his neck tilted, and he fainted.

Yu Luomian flashed behind Yu Tianqing and supported his body just as it was about to fall. At the same time, he gripped Yu Tianqing's left arm and channeled his own Soul Power into it.

After driving out the residual lightning in Yu Tianqing's left arm, Yu Luomian took medicine and bandages from his Storage Soul Tool and treated Yu Tianqing's injury.

"Elder Brother, the outcome has been decided. Tianlin won this time. According to the agreement, he may be given one Dragon Source Fruit." After treating Yu Tianqing's left arm, Yu Luomian said coldly, then picked up Yu Tianqing and walked toward the hall entrance. "Tianqing is still injured. I'll take him back to rest first."

However, Yu Yuanzhen called out to Yu Luomian. "Luomian, wait a moment!"

"There's something I need to tell all of you. Mm, it concerns Tianlin's First Soul Ring."

"Tianlin's First Soul Ring?" Yu Luomian stopped, turned around, and said, "Isn't it just a Hundred Year Soul Ring? What's there to talk about?"

"Ahem." After sweeping his gaze over everyone, Yu Yuanzhen began, "In truth, Tianlin's First Soul Ring is not that simple. It is not an ordinary Hundred Year Soul Ring."

Hearing Yu Yuanzhen's words, the elders all looked at him in confusion, not knowing what he meant.

Yu Yuanzhen said, "Four months ago, when Yu Jian took Tianlin to hunt a Soul Beast, they unfortunately encountered a Ten Thousand Year Level Soul Beast, and Yu Jian had no choice but to fight it."

"After a fierce battle, Yu Jian held the absolute advantage and was about to kill that Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast. Who would have expected that at the critical moment, that Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast directly burned itself and poured all its energy into Tianlin's body, intending to make him explode!"

"Isn't that a sacrifice?!" Hearing this, one elder could not help but cry out in shock. "A Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast sacrificed itself to Tianlin?!"

"That's right, it was a sacrifice." Yu Yuanzhen nodded and said, "Logically speaking, if a Soul Beast sacrifices itself to a Soul Master, that Soul Master can ignore the Soul Ring age limit they can currently endure and absorb it beyond their level. But clearly, this kind of level-crossing is not unlimited."

"Tianlin was only six years old and had just reached rank ten. The upper limit of the Soul Ring age his body could endure was four hundred and twenty-three years. At that time, the sacrifice of a Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast would only have burst his body apart. That was the purpose of that Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast. Under circumstances where death was certain, it chose to drag Tianlin down with it!"

Hearing Yu Yuanzhen's explanation, Yu Luomian was utterly shocked and muttered under his breath, "So, so... that's how it was!"

Looking at the elders, who were all completely stunned, Yu Yuanzhen continued spinning the story. "Fortunately, Yu Jian was present at the time. After the incident occurred, he promptly suppressed the power of that Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast, then rushed Tianlin back to the sect and handed him over to me."

"I used a secret method to seal away the vast majority of that Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast's power. The tiny bit that remained was the White Soul Ring you heard about before."

One elder hurriedly asked, "Then now that Tianlin's Soul Ring has turned yellow, does that mean the seal is slowly being undone?"

"Indeed." Yu Yuanzhen said, "The seal I placed will slowly dissipate as Tianlin's physical constitution improves and his Soul Power grows. In other words, from the outside, the age of Tianlin's First Soul Ring will continue to increase until, when he can fully endure the power of a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, it will turn black."

That was right. Everything above was the official story that Yu Yuanzhen and Yu Tianlin had fabricated.

After all, Yu Tianlin could not conceal the color of his Soul Ring. As its age rose, it would turn purple, and even black. That meant as long as Yu Tianlin fought someone, this point would be exposed.

If they did not provide a reasonable official explanation, those who were unaware would start guessing blindly. When they saw Yu Tianlin's First Soul Ring turn from yellow to purple, then from purple to black, they would naturally think: after that, would this black Soul Ring turn red and reach the Hundred Thousand Year level?

If so, they would end up guessing the truth by pure accident.

In the story Yu Tianlin and Yu Yuanzhen had made up, the upper limit of the First Soul Ring's age was locked at the Ten Thousand Year Level. Moreover, their words revealed that the Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast that produced this Soul Ring had actually been forced into a desperate situation by a rank fifty-eight Soul King. It was presumably a beast that had only just reached the Ten Thousand Year Level, and even among Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts, its strength probably was not much.

In this way, although having a First Soul Ring at the Ten Thousand Year Level still sounded exaggerated, compared to what the two of them were concealing—that it might evolve into a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring in the future—it already counted as very ordinary.

Of course, once Yu Tianlin's First Soul Ring rose to the Hundred Thousand Year level, this false news would without question be exposed. But by that time, Yu Tianlin would have truly grown up, and there would be no need to keep hiding it.

However, there was still one flaw in Yu Yuanzhen's story—Yu Jian. Yu Jian knew that what Yu Tianlin had absorbed was the Soul Ring of a Thunderous Hell Vine close to the Hundred Year level. There had never been any Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast sacrifice at all. The sect master was completely making things up.

But Yu Yuanzhen had long since taken this into account. After issuing Yu Jian an extremely strict gag order, he transferred him to become his personal guard, bringing him along wherever he went. This prevented, to the greatest extent possible, any chance of Yu Jian leaking the news.