Su Yu's "Limit" (Please Follow and Read!!!)

Just after entering the Mountain Valley, Xiao Hongchen obtained a suitable soul ring within three days.

However, the trio's luck did not continue. As they ventured deeper, they failed to encounter a soul beast suitable for Su Yu.

Not to mention a ten-thousand-year sword grass—even soul beasts with the Life Attribute were nowhere to be found.

The three of them spent a tedious month searching through the Mountain Valley.

Suddenly, Jing Hongchen pointed in a direction and said, "I sense a rather powerful Soul Power Fluctuation. It's restrained, yet carries an extremely strong sense of danger."

The danger he spoke of was merely an instinctive feeling. It did not mean that aura could pose a threat to his life.

The three headed in the direction Jing Hongchen indicated. Before long, Xiao Hongchen and Su Yu also sensed that Soul Power Fluctuation.

"That sharp edge unique to sword qi... it's very likely a sword grass," Su Yu said excitedly.

After searching for a month, they had finally found a lead.

"Judging from the Soul Power Fluctuation, it's at least ten thousand years old. We just don't know its exact age."

Jing Hongchen told Xiao Hongchen and Su Yu to be careful, activated the Soul Guidance Barrier, and continued forward to investigate.

The Soul Guidance Barrier could conceal Soul Power Fluctuations. That was why the three of them had been able to lie in ambush for so long near the site where the Amethyst Gold Dragon Beast and Silver Moon Tiger had fought last time.

"This sword qi is incredibly powerful."

Even through the Soul Guidance Barrier, Su Yu could sense that will.

It was a will to sever everything.

"It seems to be sword grass without question. I just hope its age doesn't exceed twenty thousand years."

With normal cultivation, tempering his body daily with Star Power, Su Yu's physique would have a chance of reaching the level needed to withstand a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring by Level Forty.

Earlier, after refining the Nine Petal Snow Lotus, his Martial Soul and physique had undergone a transformation, raising that limit by Three Thousand Years.

Besides that, Su Yu had also refined the Ten Thousand Year Whale Gelatin Kong Deming found for him. His physique had grown even stronger, increasing the soul ring age he could withstand by at least another Three Thousand Years.

That made sixteen thousand years.

With the auxiliary methods Su Yu had developed himself, raising it by another two thousand years would not be a problem.

Besides that, Su Yu had one more external aid.

That was Electrolux.

If he could successfully awaken Electrolux during the absorption of the soul ring, then the Soul Shock of a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring would pose no threat to him at all.

By focusing entirely on resisting the impact of soul power and refining the soul ring's essence, his limit could invisibly increase by another four or five thousand years.

Moreover, even if Electrolux could not awaken, Jing Hongchen's simplified version of Red Dust Protection would still be effective.

The above calculations had already been quite cautious. Only after rounding down the final result and being conservative did Su Yu conclude that the limit for his Fourth Soul Ring was twenty thousand years.

It sounded absurd, but it was not difficult to understand. Although the God King had absorbed Immortal Herbs and undergone Ice and Fire Body Tempering, absorbing a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring for his Fourth Ring had still been a near-death ordeal. But he had jumped directly from a two-thousand-year Third Ring to one over ten thousand years old, with no prior buildup before finding the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Su Yu, on the other hand, had been Absorbing Across Levels since his Second Ring. He possessed the Life Attribute, had tempered his body with Star Power from his Second Ring onward, refined the Nine Petal Snow Lotus for a boost comparable to that brought by a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, and later refined a piece of Ten Thousand Year Whale Gelatin.

Transitioning from a Five Thousand Eight Hundred Year Third Ring to twenty thousand years was actually not so absurd.

Furthermore, much of Su Yu's ability to reach twenty thousand years came from Electrolux or the simplified Red Dust Protection.

Viewed this way, Su Yu setting the age limit of his Fourth Soul Ring at twenty thousand years seemed reasonable again.

"One Main Sword Pattern, five Auxiliary Sword Patterns—Fifteen Thousand Years!"

Jing Hongchen finally spotted that sword grass.

This ten-thousand-year sword grass was not large, standing only one meter tall. It resembled a longsword, while the soul power around it condensed into white sword qi.

Centered on the sword grass, the sword qi formed a storm that carved streak after streak of sword marks into the surrounding ground.

Silver-white sword patterns flickered in and out of view across the sword grass's body. One ran from its roots all the way to its tip—the Main Sword Pattern.

Five Auxiliary Sword Patterns surrounded the Main Sword Pattern.

For every ten Auxiliary Sword Patterns that appeared, one Main Sword Pattern would condense.

Once a soul beast reached the ten-thousand-year level, an Auxiliary Sword Pattern condensed every thousand years.

Beyond the Main Sword Pattern and Auxiliary Sword Patterns, dense patterns were intertwined all over it.

"Little Yu, what do you think? Can you absorb it?" Jing Hongchen asked Su Yu.

At Fifteen Thousand Years, it was even older than the Amethyst Gold Dragon Beast Xiao Hongchen had absorbed before.

Xiao Hongchen's expression was grave as well. Looking at Su Yu, he warned, "Don't force yourself. I know surpassing a genius like me feels like quite an accomplishment, but a Fifteen Thousand Year soul ring is very dangerous."

Su Yu's expression was equally solemn. His gaze remained fixed on the roots of the ten-thousand-year sword grass.

"If it were an ordinary Fifteen Thousand Year sword grass, I'd be fully confident. But this sword grass is clearly unusual."

"Oh?"

Prompted by Su Yu, Jing Hongchen looked toward the sword grass's roots as well and noticed something amiss.

"A Mutated Sword Grass!"

Sword grass grew with extreme difficulty. Its age increased only through enduring trial after trial, thereby condensing sword patterns.

To better adapt to this growth, Sword Grass would split into multiple Sword Leaves as it grew.

Once it grew to Nine Leaves, during each transformation—from Ninety Years to a hundred years, from Nine Hundred Years to a thousand years, from Nine Thousand Years to ten thousand years, and even from Ninety Thousand Years to Hundred Thousand Years—the nine leaves would merge into one, allowing it to overcome the tribulation.

On one hand, it split into nine leaves to build up its foundation, gathering greater power when it came time to break through.

On the other hand, dividing into nine Sword Leaves provided more hope.

Yet the ten-thousand-year Sword Grass before Su Yu showed no sign whatsoever of having split leaves at its roots.

This was a mutated Sword Grass.

It did not split leaves.

It severed all paths of retreat—one blade of grass, one leaf, cutting through every hardship.

Without question, this mutated Sword Grass possessed even more terrifying single-target attack power.

But that was not the issue. Jing Hongchen could handle it; no matter how much a Fifteen Thousand Years Sword Grass had mutated, it was still only Fifteen Thousand Years old.

The problem lay in how difficult it would be for Su Yu to absorb.

The Soul Power of a Mutated Sword Grass was harder to refine, its explosive force was stronger, and the impact on the Meridians was far more terrifying.

It could be said that, in terms of absorption difficulty, this Mutated Sword Grass's soul ring was equivalent to that of a Twenty Thousand Years Two-Leaf Sword Grass.

"Little Yu, let's pick another one."

Jing Hongchen sighed helplessly.

They had finally found a ten-thousand-year Sword Grass, only for it to be Fifteen Thousand Years old.

That alone would have been bad enough, but it was even mutated.

This was just ridiculous.

"Wait, Hall Master. I want to give it a try."

"What?"

"Su Yu, are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Jing Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen cried out in alarm one after the other.

They could not understand why Su Yu, who usually seemed so steady and composed, would be so irrational now.

What they did not know was that Su Yu had always been rational.

For safety's sake, he had even made his already cautious estimate of the Fourth Ring's maximum tolerable age even more conservative.

"Before that, I need to ask: how effective is the simplified version of Red Dust Protection?"

Let's adjust the update schedule. From now on, updates will be around six in the afternoon and after ten at night. Those are also the times I write, so it'll be more convenient.