Soul Bone?!

The next day, after regrouping and resting, the group continued forward to search for the lightning-struck wood for Tang San.

After eating lunch, they walked for half an hour and arrived at the destination lake. After spending another two hours searching, they found the lightning-struck wood Tang San needed one kilometer away from the lake.

As a hundred-year plant-type soul beast, the lightning-struck wood had no taste and had not evolved sentience. Lacking leaves also meant that herbivorous soul beasts would not guard it.

When Tang San watched Gu You ask Ma Xiunuo to take the prepared saw out of his storage ring, hand it to him, and nod slightly while saying "Saw it," he wished he could smash a Clear Sky Hammer onto Gu You's head. Why was it that when Gu You hunted souls, it involved fierce battles and flesh flying everywhere (referring to hunting the wolf), but when it came to him, it was just sawing a tree?

Yet upon hearing Gu You's explanation, "I don't know to what extent this lightning-struck wood has to be sawed for it to die. If it dies while someone else is sawing it, then this soul ring will be useless," Tang San still took the saw himself and sawed through the soul beast bit by bit.

Because the lightning-struck wood was a very hard plant, even with childhood training and recent swinging of heavy forging hammers, Tang San could only saw it apart little by little. By noon the next day, the lightning-struck wood, more than two thirds sawed through, finally died. The moment it died, it seemed to turn into an ordinary tree, and the remaining third was snapped directly by the falling trunk, a ring of yellow soul ring floating beside it.

Tang San flicked the saw away and collapsed straight to the ground. If not for practicing the Mysterious Jade Hand, he reckoned his hands would have long since been bleeding.

"Xiao San, quickly sit down to adjust your state, absorb the soul ring as soon as possible, and we'll leave the forest once you're done," Ma Xiunuo urged.

Tang San struggled to sit up from the ground, took the water skin handed over by Gu You, took a few sips, nodded at Gu You, and crossed his legs to circulate the Mysterious Heaven Skill to adjust his state.

Ma Xiunuo repeated the knowledge he had told Tang San to Gu You, and the group quieted down to wait for Tang San to finish absorbing the soul ring.

"Huh?" Gu You, who was observing the lightning-struck wood, discovered that specks of brilliance like jade had appeared inside the fallen trunk. He grabbed them and pulled hard.

"A-A-A spirit bone?!" Ma Xiunuo and Su Yuntao, who had noticed Gu You's movement, both walked to Gu You's side and happened to see the moment Gu You pulled it out. Seeing the shape of ordinary human bones, Su Yuntao directly lost control and blurted out the name of that item.

"It's actually a spirit bone!" Ma Xiunuo was shocked. Although spirit bone could be produced by all soul beasts, the higher the age of the soul beast, the greater the probability of producing a spirit bone. Moreover, among soul beast types, plant-type soul beasts were even harder to produce spirit bones than animal-type soul beasts. Knowing this, Ma Xiunuo was extremely surprised that a mere hundred-year plant-type soul beast could actually produce a spirit bone.

"Is this a spirit bone?" Gu You was amazed by the beauty of the spirit bone. It had the luster of jade, and perhaps because it came from a plant-type soul beast, its entire body was emerald green, with flowing light like lightning moving through the middle. Different from what Gu You had imagined, the spirit bone was not like a certain part of an adult human skeleton seen in the laboratory; its size was closer to an infant's skeleton, and one could clearly tell that the spirit bone on hand was a right leg bone.

Although he really wanted to keep this spirit bone for research, considering first that this spirit bone belonged to Tang San, and second, worrying that Ma Xiunuo and Su Yuntao would be blinded by this great treasure, his little arms and legs might not necessarily be able to win against them.

Gu You very decisively handed the spirit bone to Ma Xiunuo and said with a sweet voice (blech): "Grandpa Ma Xiunuo, thank you for being willing to bring me and Xiao San over to hunt souls. Without you and Brother Tao, Xiao San and I wouldn't have been able to obtain soul rings. The two of us don't have anything impressive to offer either, so just let this spirit bone be given to you as a token of gratitude." (Normally, a spirit bone belongs to the final killer or the person with the most contribution.)

Ma Xiunuo took the spirit bone with trembling hands. Let alone touching it with his hands, this was the first time in Ma Xiunuo's life he had seen a real spirit bone. He muttered in a slightly trembling voice: "Spirit bone, is this a spirit bone?"

Su Yuntao also gathered around the spirit bone. As if afraid of dirtying the spirit bone, he only dared to gently touch the spirit bone with his fingers, his mouth opening and closing, but no sound came out.

Seeing the infatuated expressions of the two, Gu You secretly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. It's a good thing I reacted quickly, otherwise it would have been dangerous. I didn't expect the spirit bone of a hundred-year soul beast to also make people lose their minds.

Here, Gu You had been misled by memories of his past life. The spirit bones that appeared in the original work were at least of the thousand-year level, and almost all the ones appearing later were Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones. Moving on to the protagonist later on, ten-thousand-year and hundred-thousand-year ones were worse than dogs, divine gear sets ran rampant everywhere, and you wouldn't even have the face to greet people and say you were the protagonist without an External Soul Bone.

The reality, however, was that spirit bones were so scarce that even a ten-year one was a treasure to a soul master. Every extra spirit bone could yield one more skill, and for a soul master with at most nine skill slots, having one more skill was a huge advantage.

Ma Xiunuo slowly woke up from the temptation of the spirit bone. He looked at Su Yuntao, who was still infatuatedly looking at the spirit bone, and then looked at Tang San, who was still absorbing the soul ring, and Gu You, who was continuing to observe the lightning-struck wood. Anger welled up in him.

"Slap!"

"Ah!" Su Yuntao covered the top of his head with both hands. "Grandmaster Ma Xiunuo, why did you hit me?"

"Yun Tao, this thing is not for us, nor is it suitable for us." Ma Xiunuo spoke to Su Yuntao in a faint but firm voice, then turned his head to look in the direction of the two.

Following Ma Xiunuo's gaze, Su Yuntao also saw Tang San, who was absorbing the soul ring, and Gu You, who was observing the lightning-struck wood. Gu You even broke off a few pieces of lightning-struck wood to put into his bag, and also found some seeds from the fallen trunk, preparing to take them away as well.

Seeing this, Su Yuntao closed his eyes and took a deep breath, suppressing the greed in his heart. Indeed, this spirit bone was not suitable to be on himself or Grandmaster Ma Xiunuo. With the talent of the two of them, a Three-Ring Soul Elder was the limit. But on those two children, this spirit bone could play its maximum role.

Thinking of this, Su Yuntao opened his eyes and nodded firmly at Ma Xiunuo.

"Remember, we don't know what this is, nor have we ever seen this thing." After saying this in Su Yuntao's ear, Ma Xiunuo took a piece of cloth from his ring to wrap the spirit bone, stored it in a wooden box, and finally put it into the ring.

Having done this, Ma Xiunuo walked over to Gu You, who was carefully observing the lightning-struck wood, and whispered: "Don't tell anyone no matter who asks about this thing. Wait for me in the basement with Xiao San after returning to Nuoding City." Without waiting for Gu You to reply, he walked away quickly.

Gu You's hanging heart finally dropped. Seeing the performance of the two, Gu You knew he was safe now.

A wave of soul skill fluctuation came over. The three turned their heads to look at the tent, and after a few breaths, Tang San opened the tent and walked out.

With a smile on his face, he said with a smile, "I succeeded too."