Tang San's Challenge

Although his First Soul Ring had shown no change after devouring the little scorpion's soul ring,

Mo Bai guessed it had most likely increased its age.

It was just that it had only increased by one year, or less than one year, because the devouring might not have been completed.

The increase was too small, so he had not noticed it or felt it.

And if things really were as Mo Bai guessed—if he could devour soul rings this way to increase the age of the soul rings on his own body—then this would truly be a huge discovery.

Mo Bai had never seen any knowledge related to increasing the age of soul rings. If it was possible, then he would be the first person in this field.

And others would not be able to imitate it. No, wait, it seemed Tang San could. But he definitely would not let Tang San know the method.

If the age of a soul ring could be increased, the benefits went without saying.

More importantly, when he chose soul rings in the future, he would no longer need to push so close to the limit in search of one that was just right, because he could increase the soul ring's age himself.

In that case, the range of soul beasts he could choose from would also expand. Some soul beasts with lower soul ring ages but the same characteristics and attributes would all become options.

For example, one trait Mo Bai would absolutely seek for himself in the future was the ability to break defense. The ultimate gold ability possessed by a soul beast called the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear had terrifying defense-breaking power.

But the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear was too rare and too difficult to find. Even if he found one, its age might not necessarily be suitable.

Then another soul beast that possessed the same defense-breaking trait, yet rarely reached an age of more than a thousand years, the Gold Devouring Devil Bee, could take its place.

Of course, if he could find a Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear, Mo Bai would definitely choose the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear, because its defense-breaking power was stronger!

However, if the age of a soul ring could be strengthened and increased by himself, and its defense-breaking ability could keep improving as well, then there would be no problem.

Only, all of this had to be built on the result that Mo Bai's guess was correct.

Mo Bai was also a ruthless person. Since he even dared to swallow a scorpion alive, he naturally feared no attempt.

A week later, in the outskirts outside Notting City, Mo Bai found an extremely small soul beast with over ten years of Soul Power: an Ice Silk Worm.

Gulp~

Without any hesitation, he knocked it unconscious, washed it clean, dipped it in peanut oil, and swallowed it in one bite.

This was also Mo Bai learning from experience. He had prepared peanut oil, so swallowing it would be a little easier!

And that was exactly how it went. It was much smoother, and Mo Bai swallowed it in one bite.

Boom~

Next, he used Soul Power to crush it to death inside him. However, this Ice Silk Worm had much higher Soul Power, and it took Mo Bai quite a while to crush it to death.

Afterward, Mo Bai hurriedly sat cross-legged and meditated, quietly waiting for the Ice Silk Worm's soul ring to appear.

Buzz~

Sure enough, the familiar scene appeared again. The Ice Silk Worm's soul ring had only just appeared when it was stuck at the size it had just condensed to, imprisoned inside Mo Bai's body.

Without hesitation, Mo Bai once again controlled his First Soul Ring and slipped it over the soul ring dropped by the Ice Silk Worm.

Gulp~

Mo Bai's First Soul Ring also seemed just like Mo Bai had been moments ago, swallowing the Ice Silk Worm's soul ring with absolutely no obstruction.

Such a situation would have been impossible outside the body.

Because Mo Bai had tried it before. He had killed a soul beast outside his body, then the instant the soul beast's soul ring appeared, he had slipped his own soul ring over it.

Unfortunately, the attempt had failed. A soul ring killed outside the body and not imprisoned could not be devoured and absorbed.

If it could, Mo Bai would not have to swallow soul beasts alive anymore, nor would he have to specifically search for extremely small soul beasts. Extremely small soul beasts were not common either. There would be a little more of them in the Soul Beast Forest, but outside, Mo Bai had only encountered two so far.

Now all of them had gone into his stomach!

Buzz~

Another familiar scene unfolded. Mo Bai's First Soul Ring automatically appeared outside his body and trembled nonstop, as if it might explode and collapse at any moment.

Mo Bai, who already had experience, hurriedly circulated his Jing Yu Secret.

As Mo Bai circulated his Jing Yu Secret, sure enough, with every full circulation, another wisp of special Soul Power flowed out and merged into the trembling First Soul Ring.

Fifteen minutes later, the trembling stopped, and Mo Bai's First Soul Ring was preserved once again.

"Its age increased by around six years. It really works!" Mo Bai opened his eyes, which were filled with surprise and delight.

Because all of his guesses had been proven true.

Although he had not absorbed one hundred percent of the Ice Silk Worm's age, only devouring half of it, to Mo Bai, this was still an incomparably delightful matter.

The fact that his own soul rings could be strengthened and have their ages increased by swallowing soul rings was the greatest surprise.

Starting from that day, Mo Bai went outside Notting City every day to cultivate Jade Hand.

Because only outside Notting City was he more likely to encounter soul beasts. Inside Notting Academy, running into a single soul beast had already been an extremely miraculous thing for Mo Bai.

It could not happen again!

Even so, Mo Bai still rarely encountered extremely small soul beasts. Finding two or three in a month was already good, and most of their ages were still under ten years, ten-year soul beasts.

Three months later, Mo Bai finally learned why Xiao Wu had been pestering him less recently.

It turned out she had secretly practiced some Hidden Weapon Techniques Tang San had taught her, as well as the use of several Mechanism Hidden Weapons.

Xiao Wu wanted to use them to defeat Mo Bai, which was obviously impossible. Although his Blue Silver Grass leaves were not as powerful as the hidden weapons Tang San forged, he was far more skilled than Xiao Wu. He could calmly dodge Xiao Wu's hidden weapon attacks, but Xiao Wu could not dodge his. Every time she challenged Mo Bai, she failed.

Every time Xiao Wu lost, she went to Tang San again to learn stronger Hidden Weapon Techniques.

However, Tang San only taught Xiao Wu Hidden Weapon Techniques outside the Tang Sect. Tang San did not teach the Hidden Weapon Techniques unique to the Tang Sect; if someone was not a Tang Sect disciple, they could not be taught.

He had also asked Xiao Wu whether she wanted to join the Tang Sect. Unfortunately, Xiao Wu wanted to learn hidden weapons only because she thought it would be fun to defeat Mo Bai with them, so naturally she did not join.

Half a year later, when Xiao Wu found that the Hidden Weapon Techniques and Mechanism Hidden Weapons she had learned still could not defeat Mo Bai, she simply gave up and stopped learning!

She even complained that Tang San's Hidden Weapon Techniques were no good and were not much stronger than Mo Bai's as he had claimed.

"Mo Bai, I want to have a hidden weapon contest with you!"

In order to prove himself to Xiao Wu, Tang San personally came to find Mo Bai and issued an invitation to him.

"Hidden weapons? Those things you taught Xiao Wu? You call them hidden weapons?"

Mo Bai asked despite knowing the answer, pretending ignorance though he understood.

There were many things Mo Bai feared exposing, so he had always been very cautious.

For example, when he had previously revealed his Hidden Weapon Techniques and said they were self-created, he had also started from the shallow basics.

Otherwise, if he suddenly mastered something this world had never seen before, and something so powerful at that, Mo Bai feared it might bring trouble.

Tang San's initiative in exposing them, however, gave Mo Bai an excellent excuse.

From now on, he would no longer say the Hidden Weapon Techniques were self-created. He would say he had learned them from Tang San during his contest with him, then improved upon them.