First Spirit Ability, Tree World Advent, Thorn Jungle

Li Xun looked at the magnificent sight before him and nodded slightly.

As long as even one of these hundreds of thousands of seeds successfully grew, it would be equivalent to extending the life of this Silver Branch Spruce Tree.

His vision for his First Spirit Ring had stemmed from this.

Once the flying sword landed, Li Xun slowly walked over to the Silver Branch Spruce Tree.

With a gentle push, the massive spruce tree toppled to one side. After waiting a while longer, a yellow spirit ring slowly rose from the stump.

Sword Douluo wore a worried expression. "Xiao Xun, sit cross-legged, calm your breathing and focus your mind. Use your will to guard your Martial Soul."

Li Xun followed his instructions and sat cross-legged, concentrating his mind on the Thousand Hands Great Buddha in his right hand. His Martial Soul immediately generated a suction force, slowly drawing the yellow spirit ring from the stump toward it.

As the spirit ring approached the Martial Soul, Li Xun could feel pressure radiating from it. It seemed to squeeze his body, making his bones creak repeatedly.

Very soon, the spirit ring arrived above Li Xun's head. It then abruptly contracted and directly encircled his Martial Soul.

Li Xun immediately felt the pressure multiply.

Although this nearly six-hundred-year spirit ring had a gentle attribute, its age was too high and had already exceeded the limit of what he could withstand.

Fine wounds had already appeared across his body, a sign that the expanding energy could not be absorbed. But immediately afterward, Wood Style restored his wounds with its powerful regenerative ability.

This cycle repeated several times.

Sword Douluo's gaze sharpened, but even someone as powerful as him could do nothing. Absorbing a spirit ring depended entirely on oneself; interference from others would only harm the person involved.

No one knew how much time passed.

Li Xun felt the pressure gradually ease, and a stream of energy surged from the spirit ring into his body. The instant it entered, it rapidly merged into the flame formed from Chakra and soul power.

The moment that energy fused with the flame, True Several Thousand Hands began to change. The originally brown Thousand Hands Great Buddha unexpectedly gained a faint trace of vibrant green.

"It worked."

Delighted by the changes in his body, Li Xun promptly opened his eyes.

"Good!" A smile curled across Chen Xin's lips.

When they had set out this time, he had worried that he would not be able to bring Li Xun back safely. Fortunately, it had been a close call without any real danger.

Li Xun slowly rose to his feet and adjusted to the changes in his body.

He felt that he had gained more than just a spirit ring—his physical strength had increased as well.

"How is it, Xiao Xun?" Sword Douluo asked curiously.

Li Xun smiled. "My soul power has risen to level twelve. I estimate I'm not far from level thirteen."

With an absorption beyond his limits, coupled with his Innate Full Soul Power, he might already have reached level thirteen if his foundation had not been too weak.

"As for the spirit ability..."

Li Xun slowly raised the Thousand Hands Great Buddha, and the yellow spirit ring beneath his feet gradually lit up.

The next second, ten energy fruits were instantly hurled from the Buddha statue's arms. The moment they reached the air, the fruits rapidly burst apart, transforming into seeds that flew toward designated locations at Li Xun's command.

Once the seeds were in position, Li Xun interlocked his fingers into a Serpent Seal as the Chakra within his body began to circulate.

"Tree Sea Birth."

As his words fell, the Seeds of Life underground began to grow rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, fifty or sixty saplings, each as thick as three fingers and nearly half a meter tall, had grown into shape.

"Xiao Xun, does your First Spirit Ability still have room to grow?" Sword Douluo asked thoughtfully.

At first, Sword Douluo had not thought much of Li Xun's First Spirit Ability. No matter how special a hundred-year spirit ring was, it could not bring about a qualitative leap.

Not to mention this patch of tiny saplings.

However, after Li Xun used the ability, he noticed that a large number of ungrown seeds still remained on the ground.

That was why he asked.

"Yes, Sword Grandfather. As my level rises, my First Spirit Ability will improve both the quality of the plants and the number I can summon." Li Xun looked at the dozens of saplings on the ground.

"As long as seeds remain in the ground, even if the enemy destroys the forest, I can regrow an equal number of plants."

This First Spirit Ability confirmed his guess: choosing an enhancement-type spirit ring offered far greater benefits than an attack-type one.

With his current amount of Chakra, the scale of his technique could be even larger if he cast it without holding back. But that would merely look impressive and be useless in battle.

Therefore, he had to retain some Chakra to control the trees against his enemies. Though it still had limitations for now, once it improved later on, it would absolutely be stronger than choosing an offensive spirit ring early on.

Tang San's Blue Silver Entanglement was Li Xun's guide for avoiding that pitfall.

By the middle and later stages, Tang San had practically abandoned his first few spirit rings. His Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline and Blue Silver Emperor Domain had little presence as well. If Tang San had not replaced his spirit rings through the opportunity presented by Xiao Wu's resurrection, how could he have possessed such formidable combat power?

Shaking off those thoughts, Li Xun held a seal with one hand, mobilizing the Chakra in his body as he attempted to control the trees.

Under the influence of Wood Style.

The once-hard trees seemed to soften, twisting and winding around one another. From afar, they looked like a dense mass of Vines, making it hard to believe this was a forest.

What made Sword Douluo's eyes light up most was that dense thorns had grown along the vines of these small trees.

The thorns varied in length.

The longest were seven or eight centimeters, while even the shortest measured two centimeters.

Sword Douluo's eyes lit up as he nodded. "Not bad. It has both control and killing power."

He had originally worried that Li Xun would be weaker than children his age due to lacking offensive skills. Now, it seemed he had worried for nothing.

In his opinion, this skill was already enough to affect low-level Soul Masters.

Though it had its flaws, its future prospects as a First Spirit Ability were promising.

Li Xun chuckled.

He had developed this skill based on Wood Style's Cutting Technique. Though it could not fire thorns, under his deliberate control, these trees resembled a living thorn forest.

"Let's call this combination of the First Spirit Ability Tree World Advent: Thorn Jungle."

As the Flying Sword rose into the air, Li Xun glanced into the distance.

At the heart of Sunset Forest lay the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Sword Douluo's Flying Sword was very fast.

Including the time Li Xun spent absorbing the Soul Ring, the round trip for the two of them took only about ten hours.

This left Ning Rongrong rather troubled. "Brother Li Xun, I've already finished all my lessons for today. You should go by yourself."

Ning Rongrong swayed Li Xun's arm as she acted spoiled.

Ever since she had boldly declared that she would cultivate diligently, Li Xun had told Ning Fengzhi about it.

Naturally, Ning Fengzhi was happy to see the two spend more time together.

After all, one was the future Sect Leader, while the other was the future pillar of the sect. Deepening their bond from a young age would help their future cooperation.

Even Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo remained silent on the matter.

"Then I'll give you half a day off."

Seeing that Ning Rongrong would not stop acting spoiled, Li Xun spoke helplessly.

"Yay! Thank you, Brother Li Xun! I'm going to play now." Without waiting for Li Xun to reply, Ning Rongrong skipped off into the distance.

"Aunt Xue, I'll have to trouble you to take me there."

Li Xun looked at Aunt Xue beside him.

Using Ning Rongrong's studies as a pretext was only secondary; his main purpose was to visit the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Library.

He needed to learn about Spirit Beast classifications and medicinal herbs to prepare for the future. Immortal Herbs, in particular, were the highest priority.

At present, only three people on the entire continent knew the most about them: Tang San, Chrysanthemum Douluo, and Yang Wudi.

As an elder of Spirit Hall, Chrysanthemum Douluo was difficult for him to approach.

Asking Tang San about it would be courting death.

Yang Wudi was highly knowledgeable, but he was solitary and somewhat stubborn. Li Xun would have to take things slowly.

"Aunt Xue, please help me post a task. The objective is to collect books on precious medicinal herbs from across the continent."

"As long as a book contains medicinal ingredients I haven't seen before, it counts. The reward for each book will range from one Gold Soul Coin to one hundred Gold Soul Coins, depending on its contents."

At this point, Li Xun paused. "If a book truly contains what I need, the reward can go as high as one thousand Gold Soul Coins."

"Young Master, isn't that reward too high? I'm afraid many people will try to pass off fakes because of it," Aunt Xue said worriedly.