Taking Daming and Erming Away

Xu Yichen smiled faintly at their shock.

"First Soul Skill: Power of Stars."

Dozens of stars suddenly lit up in the sky, which had been obscured by the forest canopy. A beam of starlight shone down on Xu Yichen, and his aura surged sharply.

A vast, surging wave of Soul Power poured forth like a world-shaking tsunami.

"Dean, don't kill it."

Feeling the terrifying aura emanating from Xu Yichen, Ning Rongrong could not help but remind him.

"I know."

"Second Soul Skill: Star Sanction!"

Xu Yichen extended his right palm. Dozens of miniature stars abruptly appeared around him, each radiating dazzling light.

"Go!"

The dozens of stars tore through the air and smashed directly into the Black Tortoise.

Boom!

The power of a Ten Thousand Year Spirit Ring was terrifying. It sent the Black Tortoise staggering back dozens of steps.

The Black Tortoise stood up with a dazed expression. Its back was covered in wounds, and even several pieces of its hard shell had shattered.

Feeling the pain across its body, the Black Tortoise flew into a rage and charged straight at Xu Yichen. Its enormous body shook the ground with every step, while great amounts of lake water splashed into the air.

"Fifth Soul Skill: Star Sealing Sword!"

Xu Yichen's Fifth Soul Ring, a Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Ring, flashed brightly.

More than a dozen longswords formed from gathered starlight instantly appeared above the Black Tortoise's head. The swords shot down and pierced the ground, forming an enormous barrier array that trapped the Black Tortoise within.

With a bang, the Black Tortoise slammed directly into the barrier. Yet the barrier merely rippled slightly. Its attack was utterly insignificant against this Hundred Thousand Year soul skill.

"The Dean's Hundred Thousand Year soul skill is an area-control soul skill. It looks amazing—without overwhelming power, it can't be broken."

Ning Rongrong's beautiful eyes remained fixed on Xu Yichen without blinking.

"Then how will the Dean attack?"

Zhu Zhuqing was somewhat curious, but Xu Yichen answered her in the next moment.

"Fourth Soul Skill: Star's Wrath!"

Rumble!

The sky darkened further. When everyone looked up, they saw dozens of stars a meter in diameter falling from the heavens.

The stars passed through the barrier and crashed fiercely into the Black Tortoise. Their immense power shattered its shell the instant they struck. Without its shell, the Black Tortoise's defenses were drastically weakened.

Xu Yichen immediately dispersed all the stars to prevent himself from killing the Black Tortoise.

"Sixth Soul Skill: Chains of Stars."

The Power of Stars gathered into enormous shackles that wrapped around the Black Tortoise, pinning it firmly in place.

Although Chains of Stars and Star Sealing Sword were both control-type soul skills, they were fundamentally different.

Chains of Stars was single-target control, and its control strength far surpassed that of Star Sealing Sword.

"Rong Rong, go kill it."

"Okay."

Ning Rongrong walked over lightly and swiftly arrived before the Black Tortoise. She pulled out a dagger and stabbed it directly into its body.

A black Spirit Ring emerged, and Ning Rongrong immediately began absorbing it.

Half an hour later, Ning Rongrong easily absorbed the Ten Thousand Year Spirit Ring.

"Wow! I really absorbed a Ten Thousand Year Spirit Ring! This is wonderful!"

After compressing her Soul Power, Ning Rongrong's Soul Power Level was only level forty-two, but the intensity of her Soul Power had already reached the level of a Soul King—perhaps even higher.

This time, compressing her Soul Power did not take long. She only needed to compress the newly acquired Soul Power.

"Very good."

The women also went over to congratulate Ning Rongrong.

"Dean, I never saw you obtain Spirit Rings. Why do you have Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Rings?"

Ning Rongrong was rather curious.

"My martial soul can condense Spirit Rings on its own, and it can even raise their age. It's possible that I'll have nine Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Rings someday."

Xu Yichen had long prepared this excuse. As for whether they believed it, that had nothing to do with him.

"There's actually a martial soul like that? That's incredible."

"It's nothing much."

"Alright, rest for a while, then we'll continue searching for Spirit Rings."

Over the next three days, they found all the Ten Thousand Year Spirit Rings everyone needed.

Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling also absorbed their second Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones and finished compressing their Soul Power.

Meng Yiran and Dugu Yan had the highest Soul Power Levels, having reached level forty-four.

Ye Lingling was at level forty-three.

Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong, the lowest, were at level forty-two.

Xu Yichen felt that if they continued cultivating like this, by the time of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament three years later, they might all be Soul Kings, perhaps even Soul Emperors.

But by then, Xu Yichen would no longer need to fear any faction.

"Ling Xi, Zhixin, you two take them back. Qilin and I have something to do."

"Alright."

The women did not say anything.

Watching everyone leave, Xu Yichen unfolded his Wings of Stars and brought Qilin to the shore of an enormous lake.

Beside the lake stood a gigantic pitch-black ape.

"Erming!"

Erming immediately raised his head. Upon seeing Xu Yichen, he looked somewhat suspicious.

"What are you doing here? Where's Sister Xiao Wu?"

"Xiao Wu is still by Tang San's side, but I believe she'll make her own choice. Even if she wants to leave, though, it will be difficult. After all, there's a Titled Douluo beside her."

"Damn it!"

Erming punched the ground. At that moment, an enormous bull's head emerged from the vast lake.

It had the head of a bull and the body of a snake. Its bull head alone was more than four meters wide, its enormous eyes shining like two lanterns. Connected to it was a massive dark blue-green serpent body, several times thicker than a water vat.

"You must be Daming."

"Yes, human. What have you come here for?"

"I want to take you away so you can protect Xiao Wu."

"But once we take human form, our strength will disappear."

It was not that Daming did not want to go. But if he transformed into a human, he would have no strength and would be completely unable to protect Xiao Wu.

"Don't worry. These are Form Transformation Pills. After taking them, you can transform into human form and switch freely between human and soul beast forms. You also won't carry any soul beast aura in human form—not even a Titled Douluo will be able to see through you."

"Really?"

Daming and Erming looked at the pitch-black pills in Xu Yichen's hand, somewhat unconvinced.

"Don't worry. I won't deceive you."

As he spoke, Xu Yichen released his Spirit Rings. "Look, I have two Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Rings, but you can sense that they don't carry any soul beast aura, right? They were all condensed by my martial soul itself."

"That's true. Alright!"

Daming believed Xu Yichen. After all, whenever someone obtained a Spirit Ring by killing a soul beast, no matter how weak that soul beast was, the Spirit Ring would bear a soul beast aura. Yet Xu Yichen's Spirit Rings had none at all.

They truly had not been obtained by killing soul beasts. Since he could condense Spirit Rings himself, he had no need for their Spirit Rings.

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