The Moment a Soul Ring Shattered

In the end.

Tang San sighed inwardly and gave up on hunting the Spirit Rhyme Turtle, but he could not help asking, "How do you plan to treat this Spirit Rhyme Turtle? And how will you make it willing to be treated?"

Tang San knew medicine!

Having come from the Tang Sect, he was an expert at using poison. Medicine and poison were closely related, so naturally, he understood medicine as well.

It simply was not suitable to show it in front of Zhou Qing.

It would not be a problem if he did show it, but he would need to spend some time wandering around Holy Soul Village, gathering native plants from the Douluo Continent and figuring out their medicinal properties...

Hm?

At that thought, Tang San froze, then cursed himself inwardly: Tang San, Tang San, you've been in this world for four years, yet you never thought of studying the medicinal properties of this world's plants. You really shouldn't have overlooked that! Luckily, Zhou Qing had made him think of it early. Otherwise, when he researched poisons in the future, he would have to waste additional time learning the properties of every kind of plant in this world.

However, Tang San's thoughts quickly returned to the Spirit Rhyme Turtle.

Showing off his medical skills would not be a problem. Although he was not a veterinarian, with the Spirit Rhyme Turtle's tenacious vitality, medicine used to treat human injuries should work on it too, right?

But how to make the Spirit Rhyme Turtle obediently cooperate was a problem.

That was a Soul Beast that had lived for two hundred years!

"One of the books I bought was a medical book that recorded all sorts of folk remedies. It said that if you mix Blue Silver Grass with carp scales and grind them up, you can make a scent that attracts aquatic Soul Beasts. Once an aquatic Soul Beast eats it, it will pass out," Zhou Qing said confidently. "After that, we just need to scrape away the rotten flesh inside its shell and apply a layer of Yellow Potato Powder."

Yellow potatoes were plants that grew fist-sized tubers at their roots. They were fairly common in Holy Soul Village, and every household planted some in front of and behind their homes.

When the tubers were dried and ground into powder, they could stop bleeding and accelerate wound healing.

In Zhou Qing's opinion, Yellow Potato Powder had effects similar to Yunnan Baiyao from his previous life, though it was much cruder.

Tang San fell into thought. He felt that if he wanted to understand the medicinal properties of this world's plants, buying ready-made medical books in the future might speed up his progress.

They went down the small slope and arrived before the little Waterfall.

Seeing that the white Soul Ring was still there, Tang San asked in surprise, "Can this Soul Ring remain here indefinitely?"

"No. The book said it will disappear after one shichen," Zhou Qing said as he walked up to the Soul Ring and reached out to touch it, only to find that he could not.

The Soul Ring was clearly not a physical object.

An energy construct?

Zhou Qing could not be sure, but he still said, "I actually find Soul Rings rather strange. Why does something like this appear after a Soul Beast dies... How about we wait here for a while and see how this Soul Ring ultimately disappears?"

Tang San thought for a moment and decided to watch. After all, Soul Rings were something that had not existed in his previous life. How could he not be curious?

"Come to think of it, how long did it take us to find the Spirit Rhyme Turtle, watch it eat fish, and walk back?" Zhou Qing asked.

"About an hour and a half?"

Tang San had not deliberately kept track of the time, so he gave an approximate estimate.

"Then we only need to wait about half an hour." As Zhou Qing spoke, he took off his clothes, tossed them into the stream, soaked them for a while, then rubbed away the mud.

Seeing this, Tang San followed suit. After all, he still had a drunken father at home. If Tang Hao saw him return covered in mud, he would definitely scold him.

Although the Blacksmith Shop was filthy to begin with, Tang San was certain that if he returned in dirty clothes, Tang Hao would not help wash them. He would even lecture him, claiming Tang San was trying to imitate the other children in the village so that he could use it as an excuse to demand new clothes.

In Tang San's memory, when he accidentally dirtied his clothes at the age of three, Tang Hao had loudly berated him for an entire hour!

Even though I was the one who washed his clothes too!

The longer Tang San spent with Zhou Qing, the more he felt that he might not actually be Tang Hao's biological son.

Even that heart-wrenching cry of "Third Sister" he had heard when he was born now made Tang San feel as though he might have imagined it. What adult could remain unable to emerge from their pain for so long?

His heart was too fragile!

More importantly, Tang Hao looked at him as though he were a familiar stranger, not a son... Even if his birth had truly caused his mother to die in childbirth, Tang San could accept Tang Hao looking at him like an enemy. Then, he could slowly ease their relationship by being "understanding" and "filial."

But Tang Hao gave him no response at all.

Perhaps Tang Hao really was just like the villagers said: a drunken, lazy man. Perhaps his mother had not died in childbirth at all, but had run off with someone else, causing him to withdraw into himself. And perhaps Tang San was the son his mother had borne with another man...

Just as Tang San's thoughts veered further and further astray, Zhou Qing grabbed his arm and pointed at the pale white Soul Ring. "Look, Third! The Soul Ring is about to change!"

"Hm?"

Tang San's gaze sharpened, and purple light instinctively surfaced in his eyes.

The white Soul Ring began trembling up and down with an extremely slight motion. Then, a layer of strange patterns, imperceptible to ordinary eyes, appeared across the ring's surface. After that—

Pop!

Like a bursting bubble, the entire Soul Ring shattered and dissipated into the air.

"So that's how it is. A Soul Ring disappears by trembling up and down, forming cracks, and then shattering." Zhou Qing pondered aloud.

"Did you overlook something?" Tang San was slightly stunned. He knew Zhou Qing was a meticulous person and could not possibly leave out a step, but why had he not mentioned the strange patterns that appeared before the Soul Ring cracked?

"Overlook something?"

Zhou Qing grabbed Tang San and asked excitedly, "What did you see?"

Tang San realized that this was likely something he could only see after using his Purple Demon Eye, so he described the faint patterns that had appeared before the Soul Ring developed cracks.

"Patterns? What did they look like?" Zhou Qing raised a brow and asked curiously.

"Overall, they resembled fish scales. The scales of a Great White Carp," Tang San answered without hesitation.

"I think I understand!"

Zhou Qing danced around in excitement.

Tang San could not stand watching any longer. He pulled him back and asked, "What do you understand?"

"The essence of how Soul Rings can release Soul Skills!"

Suppressing his excitement, Zhou Qing said seriously, "Sometimes, I wonder why Soul Masters can use their Martial Souls to release skills that only Soul Beasts possess after obtaining Soul Rings. The bodily structures of humans and Soul Beasts are different in their details. It cannot be that Martial Souls bear all of it, can it?"

"Although Martial Souls are not truly physical entities, classifications such as Tool Martial Souls and Beast Martial Souls already determine that they possess traits resembling real living creatures or objects in form."

"Martial Souls have strong endurance, but if one wishes to use a Soul Beast's skills, then those skills must already be inscribed within the Soul Ring. When a Soul Master uses a Soul Skill, they only need to inject Soul Power. Once the Soul Ring lights up, it will do its utmost to allow the Soul Master's Martial Soul to display the skills of the Soul Beast that produced that Soul Ring."

"So, when matching Martial Souls with Soul Rings, one cannot look only at the producer of the Soul Ring—what powerful skills the Soul Beast possesses. One must also consider whether the Martial Soul itself matches the type of Soul Beast being hunted!"

"For example, if a Plant Spirit obtains a Soul Ring from an animal-type Soul Beast, it may gain powerful offensive abilities, but the skills within that animal Soul Beast's Soul Ring will not be highly compatible with a Plant Martial Soul, so they will not be easy to use!"