Chapter 18

The Black-Backed Pig, which had been rooting in the dirt, suddenly shuddered the instant Su Mo loosed his arrow.

Clearly, the soul beast's sense of danger had alerted it to something.

Pfft—

But before the Black-Backed Pig could realize and dodge, a black streak instantly pierced into its ear.

"V~~"

Struck by the arrow, the Black-Backed Pig immediately let out a shrill scream, its body thrashing wildly in place as it tried to shake the arrow from its head.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

But what greeted it was another volley of arrows.

Puff, puff, puff—

This wave of arrows from Su Mo all struck the Black-Backed Pig with precision, but they had not hit its weak points. The arrows merely pierced its hide and fur, leaving wounds that were not deep.

Even so, after struggling for a while, the Black-Backed Pig collapsed to the ground and could no longer get up.

Su Mo's first arrow had already inflicted a fatal wound!

The arrow had pierced into its brain. The fact that the Black-Backed Pig could still struggle for a while was already impressive.

Buzz—

Afterward, a white ten-year-quality soul ring emerged from the corpse of this Black-Backed Pig with fifty years of cultivation.

"This..."

Watching Su Mo easily hunt down a soul beast with fifty years of cultivation, Bibi Dong froze on the spot.

She truly had never expected that Su Mo could actually hunt soul beasts when he himself had no soul rings or soul skills, and do it so easily at that.

"That bow..."

Only then did Bibi Dong notice that the bow in Su Mo's hand looked strange, very different from the bows in her memory.

Of course, those were secondary. What mattered was that she discovered the power of the arrows fired from Su Mo's bow was far greater than that of ordinary bows and arrows.

As long as he aimed at a soul beast's vital point, forget a soul beast with fifty years of cultivation—even one with over a thousand years of cultivation might possibly be killed by Su Mo.

"That bow is very similar to the Godly Zhuge Crossbow Tang San creates in the future, except the Godly Zhuge Crossbow is more refined and a bit more powerful..."

Though shocked, Bibi Dong quickly realized that Su Mo had relied on that Compound Pulley Bow to hunt the soul beast so easily.

This was not a kill achieved through Su Mo's own ability. It had been accomplished by borrowing the power of the bow and arrows, plus a sneak attack!

Even so, Bibi Dong's expression at that moment was still somewhat embarrassed.

She thought of how she had just solemnly tried to persuade Su Mo, precisely because she believed he could not hunt soul beasts.

Now she had been slapped in the face, piapia and all!

If she had known earlier that Su Mo had this ability, she would not have come out.

Su Mo did not know Bibi Dong's reaction, nor was he interested in knowing. After seeing that even the Black-Backed Pig's soul ring had burst out, he knew the other party was indeed dead.

Only then did Su Mo walk toward the Black-Backed Pig's corpse.

Looking at the white soul ring floating above the soul beast's corpse, Su Mo's eyes held a hint of novelty.

"So this is a soul ring? It feels just like loot dropping..."

Looking at the white soul ring before him, Su Mo clicked his tongue in admiration.

However, Su Mo definitely would not absorb this ten-year soul ring of fifty-year quality. He had hunted this Black-Backed Pig only to test whether soul beasts were difficult to deal with.

Judging from things now, soul beasts were not that hard to deal with either.

And he had not even set any traps yet!

Su Mo retrieved the arrows stuck in the soul beast's corpse one by one. He was fairly satisfied with the bow's power. After all, the one he had asked a blacksmith to forge was relatively crude. It was stronger than an ordinary bow and arrow, but it could not compare to the Godly Zhuge Crossbow Tang San made.

After that, Su Mo summoned the Soul Hunting Spear again and tried poking the Black-Backed Pig's corpse with it.

Sure enough, with his current martial soul's strength, even though the Black-Backed Pig was already dead, it was still very difficult for him to damage it.

But when Su Mo fused the Soul Hunting Spear onto the forged iron spear, the effect was different.

Puff, puff, puff—

Su Mo gripped the long spear in his hands, thrusting and withdrawing, thrusting and withdrawing... In an instant, several bloody spear holes were stabbed into the Black-Backed Pig's corpse by Su Mo.

Sure enough.

If martial skill was lacking, weapons could make up for it!

No matter how high one's martial arts, one still feared the kitchen knife!

People had to understand how to make use of everything that could be used.

After finishing his test, Su Mo casually twirled the spear in a flourish. Finally, with a shake of the spear tip, he flung off the bloodstains on it.

"Goddess Sister!"

Only then did Su Mo turn back to look at Bibi Dong.

"What is it?"

Bibi Dong really did not want to bother with Su Mo, thinking he was going to mock her.

"Goddess Sister, the limit someone can endure when absorbing a soul ring is tied to their martial soul's strength and physical strength, right?"

However, to Bibi Dong's surprise, Su Mo did not ridicule her for misjudging his strength earlier. Instead, he asked about something serious.

"That's right!"

"You want to ask me what the limit is for the first soul ring you can absorb, don't you?"

Bibi Dong glanced at Su Mo in surprise, then asked in return.

Though it was a question, Bibi Dong's tone made it clear she was certain that was exactly what Su Mo wanted to ask.

For such a competitive little brat, when absorbing a soul ring, he was probably hoping to push as close to the limit he could withstand as possible.

There was no other reason. She had gone through the same thing back then.

"Mm. Goddess Sister, can you judge what the maximum age of the first soul ring I can absorb is?"

Su Mo nodded. Since Bibi Dong had appeared, he took the chance to ask her for guidance.

Although he had his own judgment, in this regard, he still wanted to hear Bibi Dong's assessment.

In terms of physical strength, Su Mo believed his body was much stronger than Tang San's had been at six years old.

However, in terms of martial soul strength, Su Mo's was inferior to Tang San's.

It was just that, with the knowledge Su Mo had learned so far, he did not know which had the greater influence when absorbing a soul ring: physical strength or martial soul strength.

If Bibi Dong had not appeared, Su Mo would only have looked for a soul beast with around four or five hundred years of cultivation.

Now, it all depended on what Bibi Dong said.

"Let me think..."

Hearing Su Mo admit it, Bibi Dong also began to ponder.

She felt it was necessary to improve the relationship between them. It definitely could not go on like this forever. Besides, after being proven wrong in front of Su Mo again and again, she also wanted to prove herself a little.

Looking at Su Mo, Bibi Dong began calculating seriously.

She had always known that Su Mo's physical strength was very high, and she had also watched how Su Mo had lived over these years.

Only, when she did not think too deeply about it, she had not realized. Now that she considered it carefully, Bibi Dong was surprised to discover that Su Mo's physical strength was actually no weaker than that of a Soul Grandmaster.

As for the limit of a soul master absorbing a soul ring, what mattered more was actually the soul master's physical strength. The strength of the martial soul was secondary, though it was still very important.

A seventy-thirty split, more or less!

After Bibi Dong carefully calculated Su Mo's current situation, she was immediately somewhat shocked.

Then Bibi Dong looked at Su Mo in surprise and said, "Little guy, the limit your first soul ring can endure is six hundred years! That's over a hundred years more than that kid Tang San!"

To be honest, when she calculated this result, Bibi Dong was also very surprised.

Su Mo's first soul ring could actually surpass Tang San's in quality!