A Bountiful Harvest

Time passed little by little. About half an hour later, Lin Manshan slowly opened his eyes.

What met his gaze were the somewhat strange looks in the eyes of the seven burly men.

Lin Manshan's heart trembled, and he immediately had a guess. Smiling, he asked, "What is it? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"A'man, there's something I need to tell you." Xiao Zizai furrowed his brows, his expression somewhat strange. "The way you absorbed the Soul Ring seemed to be different from ours. When we absorbed Soul Rings, they first surrounded our bodies before finally settling onto our Martial Souls. But yours stayed at your waist, parallel to your Martial Soul, then slowly faded away."

"To be honest, this is the first time I've seen anything like it."

"Why not summon your Martial Soul and take a look?" Brother Dog could not help but interject from the side.

"Alright." Lin Manshan stood up, patted the dirt off his backside, and nodded. He summoned his Martial Soul, and sure enough, there was no Soul Ring.

"Uh..." The group was immediately baffled. Xiao Zizai opened his mouth, then finally said, "The blade looks pretty cool."

After pondering for a moment, Xiao Ziwang hurriedly asked, "A'man, how much did your Soul Power increase? And what is your soul skill?"

It did not matter whether the Soul Ring was visible or not. Other than looking good and showing off, it was not particularly useful.

For a Spirit Master, Soul Power and soul skills were the keys to determining one's strength.

"My Soul Power increased by three levels. I'm level thirteen now. As for a soul skill, none was produced." Lin Manshan answered truthfully. Far from feeling dejected, he was overjoyed. Tang San had been cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill before his Martial Soul Awakening, then cultivated for another three months after awakening before absorbing his Soul Ring, accumulating quite a bit of Soul Power within his body. Yet even so, his Soul Power had only risen three levels after absorbing his First Soul Ring. Lin Manshan, on the other hand, had absorbed a Soul Ring immediately after breaking through level ten, and his Soul Power had likewise risen three levels.

That was already quite good.

More importantly, judging from how it had felt when he absorbed the Soul Ring earlier, although his Martial Soul had not gained an attached Soul Ring, he had fully absorbed the energy within it. Most of it had simply been used to strengthen his Martial Soul. But was that not even better?

The strength of a Life Weapon was an important factor in how much power Soul Power could exert. The stronger the Life Weapon's foundation, the greater the power it could unleash after being amplified by Soul Power. From a long-term perspective, this was an absolutely profitable deal. After all, there were not many ways to greatly increase the strength of a Life Weapon in a short time, and absorbing Soul Rings happened to be the fastest method.

"No soul skill!?"

The group was stunned. Compared to his Soul Power rising by three levels, the lack of a soul skill was clearly more astonishing to them.

"It's fine. As long as I can keep cultivating, it's enough. Besides, my Soul Power increased quite a lot." Lin Manshan smiled.

The others looked at one another, but in the end, they could only accept reality and try to offer a few comforting words.

After responding for a while, Lin Manshan glanced at the darkening sky around them, then at the corpse of the Golden Armored Rhinoceros Beetle completely pinned beneath the stone. "Brothers, it's getting late. It's too dangerous to keep moving forward, so why don't we set up camp nearby? But camping too close to a water source at night is also dangerous, so we need to move a little farther away."

"Mm. There was a relatively open area not far back along the way we came. Let's return there. It's so dark now, and we aren't familiar with the surroundings. Searching around blindly would be dangerous too," Xiao Zizai said with a nod.

"Alright!" The others nodded. With the Xiao brothers taking the lead, they headed back the way they had come.

Lin Manshan followed at the rear. After securing his pack, he skillfully bent down, lightly lifted the stone, wiped something away with his hand, then rose and quickly caught up with the group.

Under the cover of night, his fingertips brushed against a bone the size of a baby's fist, with a long sharp horn growing from it.

"It's actually a Head Bone." Lin Manshan had sensed an extremely faint ripple of Soul Power beneath the stone immediately after absorbing the Soul Ring. Even after speaking with the others for a while, it had not dissipated. At the time, he had guessed that perhaps his luck had exploded and the beast had dropped a Soul Bone.

After all, that Golden Armored Rhinoceros Beetle had died a miserable and humiliating death. The original novel had mentioned that if a Spirit Beast was cruelly tortured and killed, the immense resentment it harbored at death would increase the chance of dropping a Soul Bone.

Forgive me, forgive me. Your shell was simply too hard. I had no other choice.

The skull was very small, and Lin Manshan easily tucked it into his clothes. At the same time, he could not help thinking, Could it be that Soul Bones also contain remnants of a Spirit Beast's soul? And that they are related to Soul Bone Skills?

If that's true, damn it, wouldn't the Soul Power in my body repel the lingering soul within whenever I absorb a Soul Bone? Then the Soul Bone Skill would disappear outright, leaving behind only the basic enhancement effect?

I already have no soul skills, and now I might not even have Soul Bone Skills. What a pain.

Fortunately, I inherited an entire set of Blade Arts.

Shaking his head, Lin Manshan looked at Xiao Zizai and the others ahead of him, his eyes flickering slightly.

He did not intend to tell them about the Soul Bone. Leaving aside the fact that there was only one Soul Bone, which was nowhere near enough to divide among them, even if they wanted to sell it, with all of them being commoners, if they brought a Soul Bone to an auction, they might be killed before they ever got the money. As for absorbing it, the same principle applied. Even if they absorbed it, they would not dare use it. Without any backing, once exposed, it could easily bring about a fatal disaster.

Over the next few days, I'll teach them more about Spirit Beasts and give them some advice on cultivation and Soul Rings. It may not be as valuable as a Soul Bone, but at least it can help make their future cultivation paths smoother. Lin Manshan sighed inwardly. As for how to deal with this Soul Bone... A Head Bone from a four-hundred-and-fifty-year Golden Armored Rhinoceros Beetle may be rarer than many ordinary thousand-year Soul Bones. Even so, it would not enhance me much. I'll keep it for now and sell it when I find the chance later. Maybe I can buy a Storage Soul Tool.

Without a Storage Soul Tool, he could not even carry many Hidden Weapons. That was quite troubling as well.

Before long, the group reached the clearing. They scattered Snake Repellent Powder and casually ate a little under the cover of night. Because of the existence of Spirit Beasts, one could not casually light a fire in the forest in this world, as certain powerful Spirit Beasts were drawn to fire.

After eating and chatting about Spirit Beast knowledge for a while, Lin Manshan volunteered to keep watch. With Soul Power in his body, the functions of his body were generally more active than those of ordinary people, so going without sleep for a day or two was not a problem. Besides, he wanted to use this time to try cultivating Soul Power and see whether his Cultivation Talent had improved even slightly after absorbing the Soul Ring.

The others nodded, spread out their blankets, and fell asleep where they were.

Not long after, Lin Manshan, who was seated cross-legged, slowly opened his eyes.

"It's still so slow. Cultivating Soul Power and absorbing Soul Rings can enhance and strengthen my body, but neither can improve my aptitude. No wonder my Soul Power only rose three levels despite absorbing all of the Soul Ring's energy."

"My Cultivation Talent is too poor. On top of that, I don't have a better Meditation Method, and my Eight Extraordinary Meridians have not been opened. My body's efficiency in absorbing and converting Soul Ring energy is simply too low."

"Furthermore, a Soul Ring only exists for so long during the absorption process. Within that limited time, the amount of Soul Power my body can absorb and convert is also limited."

"Sigh, if I want to change this situation, I'm afraid I can only consume Immortal Herbs." He could not help sighing inwardly.

Then another thought came to him. My Physical Strength has increased greatly now, and I consumed quite a bit of Soul Power earlier. The amount of Soul Power my body can contain must have increased considerably. Compared to slowly cultivating Soul Power, cultivating Soul Power now has a much more obvious effect on increasing my strength. I'll temporarily stop cultivating Soul Power and focus on Soul Power instead. That will also be more helpful for the plan ahead.

With that thought, Lin Manshan closed his eyes again and began cultivating.