Gifts

After breaking through, Lin Yi did not immediately go acquire a Soul Ring. According to the words of Yu Xiaogang, the Martial Soul theory master from ten thousand years ago, a bottleneck could not stop a Soul Master's Soul Power from increasing. In other words, even without acquiring a Soul Ring, a Soul Master could continue cultivating normally, and the excess Soul Power would manifest after obtaining a Soul Ring.

To be honest, Lin Yi had been quite surprised when he first saw this claim. If it was true, then the bottleneck merely sealed one's rank, while the total amount of Soul Power could continue increasing without limit.

Wouldn't that mean that if someone could endure the loneliness, they could cultivate in seclusion until the end of time, then obtain Soul Rings and break through all the way to Titled Douluo in one burst?

Therefore, Lin Yi remained skeptical of this claim and intended to test it himself.

It couldn't be helped. He had the talent, so he could afford the delay.

When Mu En learned that Lin Yi had broken through, he had initially intended to take him hunting for a Soul Ring immediately. However, after spending over half a year on Sea God Island, Lin Yi had already learned of Mu En's background—the descendant of Yu Xiaogang, the teacher of the Sea God ten thousand years ago, a master of Martial Soul theory, the wisdom of the Golden Iron Triangle, and an inheritor of the Light Holy Dragon bloodline.

Now that he knew of this connection, Lin Yi naturally could not directly say that he suspected Mu En's ancestor. He could only delay things for the time being by claiming that he wanted to consider his choice for the Third Soul Ring.

After spending so much time together, Mu En had come to trust Lin Yi completely. He did not doubt Lin Yi's excuse, merely telling him to take his time choosing and to ask if there was anything he did not understand.

After Lin Yi had read through more than half the books in the Library Pavilion, Soul Tools were also added to his schedule, and he had begun studying books related to Soul Beasts as well.

More than half a year after entering Shrek Academy, Lin Yi finally decided to learn about Soul Tools.

In his memories of the Otherworld, the quickest way to learn a field was to combine theory with practice. Lin Yi deeply agreed with this. Among the Library Pavilion's books, those concerning Martial Souls were easier to learn because he could compare them with himself. As for matters involving Soul Beasts, he could only try to understand them according to the books. His progress could only be described as slow as a turtle's crawl.

Yet whenever he asked Mu En about it, Mu En kept praising him for being clever. Lin Yi could not help comparing this world with the Otherworld and realized that the average cultural level of people here was probably extremely low. Learning basically relied entirely on brute-force memorization, without any methods or techniques whatsoever.

However, practicing with Soul Tools required all kinds of materials and rare metals. He had originally wanted to ask his father, Lin Qingxuan, but who knew what that Level 7 Soul Engineer had been doing? He had not been seen for nearly half a month!

Lin Yi was full of resentment and decided that when Lin Qingxuan returned, he would thoroughly complain to his mother. No matter what, he would make Lin Qingxuan sleep on the sofa for seven days.

But with Lin Qingxuan absent, Lin Yi had no desire to go directly to the Soul Tool Department to study. So, Lin Yi decided to grind through it by force!

A genius like him—could he really fail to understand a few basic books?

Two months passed. Lin Yi had forcibly worked through the theory required of Level 1 and Level 2 Soul Engineers, and at the same time, he welcomed his seventh birthday.

On his birthday, Lin Yi went to the Library Pavilion as usual and stayed until dusk.

When he returned to the Sea God Pavilion, Lin Yi finally saw his father, who had been missing for nearly three months.

His mother, who had been planning to complain about him, was there as well.

Upon seeing Lin Yi, the couple both came forward. Ouyang Xi stroked her son's head, her eyes full of heartache. Her precious boy had spent every day of the past half-year cooped up in the Library Pavilion. How could someone so young bear that?

Lin Qingxuan wore a smile and was about to speak, but Lin Yi cut him off.

"Mom, if a grown man abandons his wife and child and suddenly disappears for months, could he have gone off to do something bad?"

As he spoke, Lin Yi kept staring at Lin Qingxuan. The implication in his words could not have been clearer.

Ouyang Xi's expression turned strange, while Lin Qingxuan did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"You little brat. I went out to prepare a gift for you, but judging by your attitude, it seems you do not need it that badly. I might as well return it."

The moment Lin Yi heard this, his expression immediately changed. He hurried forward and blocked his father's path. "Of course, the person I was talking about couldn't possibly be my dearest, most beloved father. Dad is such a good man—how could he ever do something like that?"

Lin Qingxuan looked at Lin Yi's ingratiating expression with a half-smile. "Not me?"

Lin Yi shook his head firmly and said with a serious expression, "Of course not. Dad is upright and honorable, as bright and open as the moonlit breeze. He has always been the person Xiao Yi admires most."

Even with Lin Qingxuan's composure, he could not help feeling pleased by such lavish praise from his son. Pretending to be disgusted, he said, "Enough. Looking at that face of yours, I'll give you the gift."

With that, he took a box from his Storage Soul Tool Ring and handed it to Lin Yi.

Lin Yi quickly accepted it. Golden Perception told him that the box radiated a rich aura of radiance.

He turned it over a few times. Two months of studying Soul Tool theory were not enough for him to identify what kind of Soul Tool it was, but he could at least tell that it was a Soul Tool of considerable quality.

Lin Yi looked up at his father expectantly. Even the box was such a high-grade Soul Tool, so just how extraordinary must the item inside be?

As for the childish prank of putting a stone in such a high-quality box, Lin Yi believed his father would not be that boring. If he really did it, Lin Yi swore he would make his father sleep on the sofa for at least three months!

Filled with excitement, Lin Yi slowly opened the box.

But the instant the box opened, a vicious aura burst forth. Lin Yi was so startled that he instinctively threw the box away.

The box hit the ground, and a small knife fell out with it.

Seeing Lin Yi still shaken from the fright, Lin Qingxuan burst into laughter. If Lin Yi had not said those things earlier, Lin Qingxuan naturally would have given him some warning. But since Lin Yi had failed to watch his mouth, today, as his father, he would teach him a lesson and let this little brat who acted so mature understand what it meant for disaster to come from one's mouth!

Ouyang Xi looked at her husband reproachfully. "You're such a grown man, yet you're still squabbling with your own son. Honestly, you're getting more childish with age!"

Lin Qingxuan smiled. "Who told him to speak without thinking? I'm doing this for his own good."

Ouyang Xi rolled her eyes at her husband and could not be bothered to say more. She pulled her son over and comforted him gently. "Good boy, we won't lower ourselves to his level. He's already so old, yet still this childish."

Rather than feeling ashamed, Lin Qingxuan seemed proud of himself, his face full of smug satisfaction.

Lin Yi took several deep breaths and calmed himself down. It was not that he was timid. It was simply that, wrapped in the warm aura of radiance from the Soul Tool outside, who could have expected there to be a weapon of ill omen inside?

That was right. Although he had embarrassed himself by carelessly throwing it earlier, the calm Lin Yi had already realized that the small knife was likely a weapon of ill omen—and not an ordinary one. Its entire body radiated viciousness, which was why it required a high-quality Light Attribute Soul Tool to suppress it.

If it were placed in an ordinary box or directly stored in a Storage Soul Tool, it probably would not take long for the box and the Storage Soul Tool to be ruined by that vicious aura.

After shooting his unscrupulous father a glare, Lin Yi curiously examined the sinister blade.

Lin Qingxuan had already picked up the sinister blade and placed it back into the box.

The sinister blade was not large, only around half a foot long and as thick as a finger. It was wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, with a sharp tip. Below it was a blade roughly half an inch wide. Even from a distance, one could sense its sharpness.

Its overall appearance was ancient and dark, as though patterns had been engraved upon it. It carried a faintly archaic air, yet looking at it also gave one a sense of heaviness and gloom.

The impression it gave was simple: it was a fine blade, but an inauspicious one.

Looking at its shape, Lin Yi thought for a moment before asking uncertainly, "Is this... a carving knife?"

A carving knife was an essential tool for a Soul Engineer when crafting Soul Tools, used to carve Core Arrays. A good carving knife could allow a Soul Engineer to achieve twice the result with half the effort when crafting Soul Tools and engraving Core Arrays.

Lin Qingxuan looked at his son in surprise. "You even know about carving knives?"

Lin Yi rolled his eyes at his unscrupulous father again and said somewhat disdainfully, "Of course I do. While someone was away, I already finished learning the theoretical knowledge required for Level 1 and Level 2 Soul Engineers. If someone had been around, I could have actually started crafting by now. I might already be a real Level 1 Soul Engineer!"

Only then did Lin Qingxuan understand why Lin Yi had immediately started taking jabs at him upon seeing him. So that was why!

After figuring it out, Lin Qingxuan felt a little awkward. "It's not like I went out to have fun. Wasn't I away for so long just to bring this carving knife back for you?"

Ouyang Xi also spoke up for him. "Knowing that you would learn Soul Tools in the future, your father wanted to prepare a better carving knife for you. Good carving knives do exist, but most already have owners. Your father did not want to get you some mediocre one just to make do, so he kept gathering information everywhere. He even called in favors through the academy."

"Then, some time ago, we heard there was news from Star Luo, so your father hurried over. After many twists and turns, he finally got this carving knife."

Lin Yi's expression improved somewhat, though he still strongly condemned a certain someone's nasty behavior just now.

Still, Lin Yi had only just begun studying Soul Tools and had only learned theory so far. He truly could not tell what was so good about this carving knife.

Fortunately, Lin Qingxuan spoke up. "Xiao Yi, since you've already begun learning about Soul Tools, do you know about Ranked Carving Knives?"

"Ranked Carving Knives?!"

Lin Yi could not help crying out. Of course he knew about Ranked Carving Knives. Grinding through Soul Tool theory was truly rather dull, so Lin Yi would occasionally read miscellaneous writings about Soul Tools to clear his mind.

He had learned about Ranked Carving Knives from one such collection. A Ranked Carving Knife was a carving knife that had made it onto the carving knife rankings. The rankings recorded the top hundred carving knives on the continent. Every one of them possessed its own special effects, and they were basically all held by top-tier Soul Engineers. More than two-thirds of them were in the Sun Moon Empire, while the Original Three Kingdoms of Douluo had very few.

Yet the power of Ranked Carving Knives was beyond doubt. Even Level 9 Soul Engineers would be tempted by them.

Lin Yi truly had not expected his father to spend so extravagantly on him, especially since he had not even begun actually crafting Soul Tools.

The little resentment remaining in his heart immediately vanished, and the deep fatherly love moved Lin Yi's young heart.

But then Lin Yi suddenly felt that something was off. The preciousness of a Ranked Carving Knife was unquestionable. Even a Level 9 Soul Engineer would be willing to pay dearly for one. His father was only a Level 7 Soul Engineer, and their family only owned a clothing store. Where had he gotten so much money to buy such a valuable item?

When Lin Yi voiced his doubts, Lin Qingxuan's eyes immediately shone with pride, and he could not suppress the upward curve of his lips.

"Hahahaha!" Lin Qingxuan finally could not hold back his hearty laughter, only calming down after a long while.

"You could say I found a bargain."

A bargain? One could find a bargain with a Ranked Carving Knife? Lin Yi was even more confused.

"Since you know about Ranked Carving Knives, do you know which one among them is the most special?"

"The most special one?" Lin Yi frowned and thought, inadvertently noticing the vicious aura on the blade again.

A vicious aura? As though recalling something, Lin Yi exclaimed, "Could it be that sinister blade?"

"Hahaha!" Lin Qingxuan laughed again. "That's right. It is the sinister blade—Soul Devourer!"