Ascending Again

Space split open above, and an incomparably majestic silver snake head poked out from within. Its deep black eyes seemed to dim even the surrounding light. Its grim great maw opened, and with obvious enjoyment, it swallowed all the bright yellow motes left behind after the flock of azure birds had been destroyed.

"Silver Wing," Yu Nanyuan called softly, and the colossal creature had already fully emerged from the void, supporting his body with its snake head.

It was none other than his First Soul Spirit, the Silver Wing Void Piercing Snake. Silver Wing was also the name he had given it.

After its cultivation rose to a thousand years, the Silver Wing Void Piercing Snake's body length directly grew to over ten meters. The fine silver scales that had originally covered its whole body had become much thicker and sharply defined. The pair of Silver Light Wings on its back had also grown increasingly solid, and its extremely oppressive aura and pressure even gave off a feeling comparable to a Ten Thousand Year Soul Spirit.

High-quality soul spirits could help soul masters fight. There was no question about the Silver Wing Void Piercing Snake's power, so it naturally possessed such an ability, and its Combat Power was extraordinarily fierce. But everything had two sides. As Yu Nanyuan's soul spirit, all the Soul Power the Silver Wing Void Piercing Snake consumed in battle had to be supplied by him. With his current cultivation, that could easily create a tremendous burden.

So under normal circumstances, Yu Nanyuan rarely let the Silver Wing Void Piercing Snake directly take part in combat. More often, he treated it as a major trump card to use when he was driven into a dead end.

Afterward, he had the Silver Wing Void Piercing Snake support his body and descend back toward the forest below. After all, among all the flying soul beasts in the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, the Azure Bird Tribe could only rank around the lower middle. If he ran into a siege by a more numerous and more powerful tribe of flying soul beasts, he probably would not be able to retreat unscathed.

Although this was only the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, the number of Thousand Year Soul Beasts was definitely not small. That was because this place had originally been modeled on the environment of the outer region of the Star Dou Great Forest back then. Of course, the Thousand Year Soul Beasts inside the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform could not possibly be stronger than that hundred-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear serving as the Spirit Ascension Platform Guardian. After all, a hundred-year-level Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear was an unusual existence capable of contending with ordinary Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts.

And as far as Yu Nanyuan knew, the guardians inside the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform did not seem to be limited to that hundred-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.

Dense Spiritual Energy filled his body. Just now, he had killed more than thirty hundred-year azure birds, which was equivalent to more than three hundred years of Soul Ring energy. Spread between his two Soul Rings, it could raise each of their Year Limits by more than a hundred and fifty years.

Also because he had just been kiting that flock of hundred-year azure birds, Yu Nanyuan not only had not gone deeper into the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, he had instead landed in an area close to the outskirts. Just as he focused his mind and prepared to search for other soul beasts to hunt, one black shadow after another faintly flashed past behind him.

His powerful Spiritual Power made Yu Nanyuan's perception exceptionally sharp, and his reaction speed was also astonishing. His body swiftly made a retreating motion diagonally backward.

That black shadow happened to land exactly where he had been standing a moment before, man and beast almost within arm's reach.

In that instant, Yu Nanyuan also clearly saw what it looked like. It was a baboon about one meter tall, with long brownish-yellow fur all over its body, ferocious protruding canine teeth, and fierce light flashing in its brown eyes. Its pair of arms was exceptionally long, and sharp nails grew at the tips of its fingers.

A ten-year Wind Baboon.

It was said that to commemorate Spirit Ice Douluo's legendary story, the most common soul beast in the outer region of every Primary Spirit Ascension Platform of the Spirit Pagoda was the Wind Baboon. This was the "King of Soul Beasts" that had almost slain a god.

But Yu Nanyuan was not that person from back then who had only one rank of Innate Soul Power. At the same period, the difference in strength and real combat experience between the two sides could be described as heaven and earth apart.

Almost at the very instant he retreated diagonally to the side, his right knee bent, and he pressed it down heavily onto the Wind Baboon's neck.

"Crack, crack, crack—" A string of bones shattering rang out. Before the Wind Baboon could even react, it had already peacefully fallen asleep. Its pair of long arms, raised in struggle, also dropped naturally and weakly.

Seeing their companion die here, the other Wind Baboons leaped through the tree crowns out of instinctive fear and fled into the distance.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh—"

The strange cries of these Wind Baboons grew more and more urgent. But what greeted them was a Silver Chain that manifested from the void and could extend without limit. This chain seemed to possess self-awareness as it shuttled through the dense forest, piercing through the bodies of those Wind Baboons one after another.

Along the trajectory where the chain passed, the corpses of those Wind Baboons seemed to freeze in midair, their limbs instantly turning rigid.

Yu Nanyuan's First Soul Skill Void Dragon Locking Array carried the effect of spatial confinement, while his Second Soul Skill Void Piercing possessed the Power of Spatial Cutting. And in reality, this spatial confinement and Power of Spatial Cutting were more like additional abilities his martial soul had awakened after obtaining Soul Rings. Even without using these two soul skills, his martial soul, the Void Chains, could still possess these two traits.

This was the advantage brought by a martial soul's innate quality.

It was not hard to see that the method Yu Nanyuan had just used had been completed by simulating his Second Soul Skill Void Piercing. This was a high-level method of fighting that saved Soul Power. Although its attack range was not that large, it possessed both the Power of Spatial Cutting and the effect of spatial confinement at the same time, and the chain itself could manifest from any point in the void according to his will, lock onto a target, and extend infinitely. This was already an existence even more abnormal than an ordinary soul master's Thousand Year Level Third Soul Skill.

There was only one restriction: it had to be within the range of his Spiritual Power perception. And with his current Spiritual Power realm, the distance he could release it outward had long since broken through a diameter of two hundred meters.

The gazes of the Spirit Pagoda staff in the outside world had long since gone blank. This was the first time Yu Nanyuan had displayed the full power of his Second Soul Skill before them. From Yu Nanyuan, they did not seem able to find any flaw. Everything was so perfect.

Whether it was his martial soul, talent, soul spirit, strength, temperament, or combat experience, all of it was perfect beyond reproach.

"If Nanyuan keeps growing like this, I'm afraid that even in that place, he'd be an existence like Heaven's Chosen." The young man whom Yu Nanyuan called Yan Ge could not help sighing like this inwardly. There was even a kind of blind confidence in him.

On the other side, as Yu Nanyuan went deeper and deeper into the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, the frequency at which he encountered soul beasts also grew higher and higher. But ever since he had obtained his Second Soul Skill Void Piercing, he had completely made up for his lack of offensive methods.

With the traits of the Void Chains, ordinary hundred-year soul beasts were no match for him at all. Even Thousand Year Soul Beasts found it difficult to break through the restrictions of his martial soul and injure him, and in the end, they could only be slowly worn down to death by him.

The current Yu Nanyuan already possessed the initial form of a top-tier Control System Battle Soul Master.

"Roar—" Deep inside the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, a massive giant rhinoceros raised its head and let out a low, miserable roar. Just the pale blue horn atop its head was bigger than Yu Nanyuan's entire body.

A Millennium Unicorn Demon Rhino. Its charging force and Defense Power were both extremely powerful existences among soul beasts of the same level. But at this moment, it was bound by thick chains one after another, its body unable to move. The Mysterious Runes above its head bloomed with dazzling silver light, and silver light flickered over the chains: spatial confinement.

At the same time, countless other chains connected to slender, sharp wedges pierced through its body.

As time passed, its life aura finally drained away completely. Dense Spiritual Energy turned into motes of light that filled the sky and silently merged into Yu Nanyuan's body.

This was the sixth Thousand Year Soul Beast he had killed. Counting the Spiritual Energy accumulated from the many hundred-year soul beasts and ten-year soul beasts he had killed earlier, after this, the Year Limits of both his Soul Rings should all be able to rise to two thousand years.

Yu Nanyuan only felt warm all over, but a faint sore swelling sensation also came from within his Meridians.

He was almost at his limit, and the Soul Power bottleneck also felt like it was beginning to loosen.

Thinking of this, he decisively pressed the Red Button on the back of his left hand and chose to leave the Spirit Ascension Platform.

Even explaining the protagonist's abilities can be called padding, huh? I really can't hold it together. All I can say is that I'll still follow my own pacing. After all, I've at least written one premium-quality book, so I do have some experience in controlling a story's pacing.