The Greatest Freedom in This World Lies Within Power

No, not necessarily!

But the next moment, You Chen caught his breath. Looking at the "First Soul Ring" reward, he revealed a thoughtful expression.

Besides the possibility that this reward was useless junk, You Chen thought of two other possibilities.

First, this Soul Ring would replace his first Soul Ring.

Second, this Soul Ring would stack with his original first Soul Ring, combining their years into a new Soul Ring.

The thought immediately stirred You Chen's spirits. After waking Ye Han and safely sending him back, he returned to his residence in Spirit City.

The instant his mind touched the Soul Ring in his inventory, his eyes lit up.

It reacted!

You Chen was ecstatic. As he considered it, a savage look suddenly appeared on his face.

You Chen was no longer the novice from twenty-three years ago, with only a superficial understanding of Martial Soul theory.

Ordinarily, Soul Masters could only absorb a Soul Ring when they had reached a bottleneck and had yet to absorb one.

Otherwise, it was entirely impossible to draw in a Soul Ring, let alone absorb it.

Even Twin Martial Souls, the exception, merely had reserved Soul Ring slots that allowed them to draw in Soul Rings.

That was the rule of this world!

Yet at this very moment, a prompt had appeared above the Soul Ring in his inventory: "Use?"

You Chen's heart trembled.

Whether it was a bug caused by the system arriving late or something else, did this mean that, just as You Chen had guessed, the system's rules stood above those of the Douluo world!?

No, it's too early to celebrate.

You Chen calmed down. This was merely one possibility.

If the system's rules truly stood above those of the Douluo world, then perhaps he really could forcibly absorb this Soul Ring.

But even if he crossed that first threshold, how could there be no risk in absorbing this first Soul Ring while he already had Soul Rings?

Never mind the two outcomes You Chen hoped for—even if, after drawing in the Soul Ring, he simply failed to absorb it and it was ejected from his body, that would still be a relatively good result.

What if the Soul Rings clashed and his body exploded, killing him?

That was entirely possible!

Although he talked about leaving Spirit Hall and living in seclusion away from the world, You Chen was by no means someone content to obey the rules.

Rather, You Chen possessed immense ambition!

Otherwise, even knowing Yu Xiaogang was all bark and no bite, why would he have risked offending Bibi Dong to expose him?

Simply becoming a Soul Master was enough for him to live in pleasure!

He had long ceased to worry about food, clothing, shelter, or travel, but in the Douluo world, such needs did not show the gap between people.

Women made it more obvious.

The so-called class beauties and school beauties were merely beauties found one in every hundred, every thousand, or at most every ten thousand people.

Yet across the entire Douluo Continent, with hundreds of millions of people, there were only around a hundred thousand Soul Masters! Any Soul Master was one in several thousand.

Basically, if you transmigrated to Douluo and had the talent to break through Rank 10 and become a Soul Master, you had practically secured a status above ordinary people in advance.

Every male Soul Master, even if he looked awful and was unpopular among female Soul Masters, was undoubtedly a prized catch in the eyes of commoner women.

Just look at Ma Hongjun. With that face, that physique, and that personality, he still had commoner girls who liked him.

Transmigrators in Douluo fanfics did not need to work particularly hard. So long as they had a little tact, they could win the favor of school-belle-level beauties who had been utterly unattainable in their previous lives.

The goddesses they once would have been kicked away for desperately fawning over would now even turn around and curry favor with them.

In the past, they could only watch the class beauties and school beauties around them get effortlessly picked by men from who knew where. They could only envy, hate, and resent them, stubbornly claiming those men were merely handsome, rich, and smooth-talking scumbags who changed women as easily as clothes. Meanwhile, they, the pure and decent good men, could only red-eyedly masturbate in silence.

But now, they could easily become the very "scumbags" they had once envied.

Not because they had worked hard, but merely because they had awakened Martial Souls and possessed Innate Soul Power.

Moreover, Soul Masters had an absurdly easier time earning wealth than commoners. Every single one of those fanfic protagonists, even if they did not strive according to the usual fanfic route after transmigrating, would still count as winners in life compared to before their transmigration.

You Chen was average-looking, but after the age of nine, he had already been considered a genuine little genius in the eyes of others. Breaking through to Soul Grandmaster at fifteen and possessing a thousand-year second ring made him unmatched for a time.

Naturally, once the time was right, he had experienced everything worth experiencing.

After all, he had merely been an ordinary office worker in his past life, practically cut off from things like love and reproduction. Now that he had finally transmigrated and become someone above others, how could he possibly still rigidly follow convention and act like some chaste saint?

Yet after being fawned over and catered to by beauties he had once coveted, You Chen quickly sobered up instead.

He even came to resonate with those old men of the Worship Hall who had remained unmarried their entire lives.

What did it matter how beautiful ordinary commoner women were? When they mingled with Soul Masters, they instinctively regarded themselves as inferior. Without spiritual equality, there could be no true love at all.

Most Soul Masters formed relationships and had children with other Soul Masters not only to produce Soul Master descendants, but because only Soul Masters of similar strength could interact as equals.

Without an emotional bond, mere carnal desire and such false love were destined not to last.

That was why the Titled Douluo of the Worship Hall often remained single for life after failing to meet suitable partners at the right age, instead beginning their pursuit of the sublimation of individual strength.

Perhaps You Chen was that sort of person by nature as well.

He had not immersed himself in romance for long before turning his attention back toward breaking his own limits and shattering the shackles of his natural talent.

In his previous life, he had lacked the means and opportunity. No matter how hard he worked, he was still just a slightly more senior corporate drone. But in this life, the opportunity to seize his fate rested in his own hands, so naturally he fought desperately to grasp it!

He believed that—the greatest freedom in this world lay within power.

Even among those with ambition, most could only strive and gamble with what they already possessed.

The courage required to stake one's entire fortune on investment or starting a business already surpassed more than ninety-nine percent of people.

But to gamble with one's own safety and life...

How could such a person possibly lack ambition or courage!?

Even knowing he might displease that crazy bitch Bibi Dong, hadn't he charged straight in that day anyway!?

Now that another chance to defy fate had appeared before him, would he give it up? Could he give it up?

No! Absolutely not!

He was already thirty-five this year! His vitality was beginning to decline, and his cultivation speed was gradually slowing!

If he could absorb this adaptive Soul Ring, he would directly break through to Rank 50. Then, after absorbing his Fifth Soul Ring, with two ten-thousand-year Soul Rings, his Martial Soul might evolve once more!

It would evolve into a high-grade Martial Soul!

With a high-grade Martial Soul and two ten-thousand-year Soul Rings, he would absolutely be able to rival those six-ringed Soul Emperors!

More importantly, his cultivation speed would greatly increase. He would definitely have a chance of breaking through to Soul Sage before the age of fifty!

Then he would have hope of breaking through to Titled Douluo and borrowing several more centuries from the heavens!

"Martial Soul Possession!"

A cyan dragon-shaped phantom fused with him.

You Chen hesitated no longer and used that Soul Ring.

Vast Soul Power began to surge.