Bloodline Factor

Pulling out of the stream of information in his mind, Ye Lan found Old Fisherman already standing beside him, examining the corpse of the Ancient Beast's Touch.

"Lord Soul Master, you're the strongest soul master I've ever seen! You even managed to kill such a terrifying sea beast!" Old Fisherman wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, still shaken.

"Old Fisherman, just call me Xiao Lan. This Ancient Beast's Touch really was different—it was a mutated variant." Ye Lan had been moved by Old Fisherman's earlier actions. He had never expected an ordinary fisherman to risk his life to help him, so he asked him to change the way he addressed him.

"I'm nowhere near the strongest soul master. The number of soul masters stronger than me could line up all the way from here to Vast Sea City's gates," Ye Lan joked casually.

"Hahaha, Xiao Lan, you're far too modest! As far as I know, a Thousand-Year Soul Beast can only be defeated by a Soul Elder! Yet you defeated the Ancient Beast's Touch at Level 20. If word gets out, you'll become one of the Heaven Dou Empire's hottest young talents."

"Old Fisherman, don't praise me so highly. I only fought it on the boat. This was my home-field advantage. If we were in the sea, I wouldn't have been able to beat this Ancient Beast's Touch." Ye Lan explained the elemental advantage to him.

"By the way, thank you for the Sea Salt, Old Fisherman. It helped me a great deal!" Ye Lan thanked him.

Inwardly, he marveled at human ingenuity. Even from ordinary things, people could find ways to counter Sea Soul Beasts.

Old Fisherman was astonished by Ye Lan's humble and polite nature. It was his first time meeting such an unusual soul master.

The soul masters he usually encountered were all lofty and arrogant, looking down their noses at everyone.

He was also glad that he had been able to help Xiao Lan. Otherwise, there was no telling whether he would still be alive right now.

"Old Fisherman, go back to the captain's cabin and get some sleep. It's not light out yet, and I'm going to absorb the soul ring now," Ye Lan said.

"I'm not tired, so why would I sleep? I'll stay here and keep watch for you." Old Fisherman was unwilling to leave Ye Lan alone on the deck.

The two of them went back and forth, but Ye Lan simply could not persuade Old Fisherman otherwise.

So he had him bring over a stool. The deck was now covered in the Ancient Beast's Touch's ink.

If an ordinary person sat on the ground all night, they could easily catch a chill.

Ye Lan, meanwhile, used Eight Blue Silver Grasses to suspend himself in midair. The Fishing Boat might suddenly rock, and he did not want any accident to occur while absorbing the soul ring.

Once everything was ready, Ye Lan reached his right hand toward the purple soul ring.

Before long, the purple light merged into the Blue Silver Grass.

This time, his Spirit Sea was not golden, but blue.

The Blue Silver Grass floated in a vast blue ocean. A gigantic vortex formed around it, continuously drawing in the blue water.

The volume it absorbed was completely out of proportion to the Blue Silver Grass's growth.

That was because the Blue Silver Grass, as a twin-ultimate Innate Level 20 martial soul, had already approached the limit of martial soul quality.

Thus, even such an enormous amount of Water Attribute energy seemed unable to shake the fundamental nature of the Blue Silver Grass—Radiant Being.

Yet as time continued to pass, the Blue Silver Grass gradually underwent subtle changes.

Outside the Spirit Sea, Ye Lan's physical body was entirely unlike the tranquility within it.

Tiny red droplets continuously seeped out from every pore of Ye Lan's body!

Before long, his body was soaked in blood, and the original color of his clothes had vanished completely.

A blood-red human figure, spurting fountains of bright crimson blood.

Old Fisherman stared at the blood-covered figure before him. His fists clenched tightly, and he did not dare make the slightest sound. All he could do was silently pray for Ye Lan in his heart.

Soul masters whose second soul ring was a thousand-year level soul ring had existed before Ye Lan, dating back to ancient Douluo Continent.

But every human in history who had absorbed a Thousand-Year Soul Ring had died from the attempt!

The Soul Ring Year limit for a second soul ring was around seven hundred and fifty years, which was still within the hundred-year soul ring range.

Compared to a hundred-year soul ring, a thousand-year level soul ring represented a qualitative leap and placed outrageously high demands on one's physical constitution.

Ye Lan had tempered his body since the age of six, with the added boost of his Ultimate Life martial soul and Whale Rubber.

Ye Lan's estimate that he could absorb a soul ring of around 1,700 years had not been wrong.

The soul ring he was absorbing this time was around 1,300 years old. Under normal circumstances, the process should not have been this dangerous.

The reason for this terrifying situation was that Ye Lan's chosen Soul Skill was simply too overpowered.

"Azure God Prophet" continued evolving the already perfect Blue Silver Grass!

As the Blue Silver Grass continuously evolved, Ye Lan's very essence underwent drastic changes as well. The cells within his body were constantly destroyed and rebuilt.

It was only because Ye Lan's martial soul possessed the Ultimate Life attribute, granting him immense vitality.

If an ordinary person bled this much, they would have died from blood loss long ago.

Within the fountains of blood, Ye Lan clenched his teeth tightly, as if he were about to crush them.

At this moment, Ye Lan was enduring pain at the cellular level. His soul, warped by the influence of his body, had twisted beyond recognition.

Just as Ye Lan was about to break down, he finally sensed the change in his martial soul.

Crack!

It was as though something within the Blue Silver Grass had shattered. Ye Lan felt the Blue Silver Grass's upper limit being unsealed.

As the Blue Silver Grass's limit was released, the intense pain instantly faded away.

Ye Lan's consciousness was finally able to awaken from the pain.

In truth, Ye Lan had heard this shattering sound the first time he absorbed a soul ring as well.

Ye Lan had not known what the shattering meant that time. This time, due to the cellular-level reconstruction, his understanding of the body differed from before.

Ye Lan finally understood what the sound of shattering represented.

The shattering did not mean there was a problem with the Martial Soul. It meant that the Martial Soul's restriction had been lifted.

This made Ye Lan understand why Soul Rings were absolutely necessary upon cultivating to level ten, level twenty, level thirty...

Only after absorbing a Soul Ring could a Martial Soul continue to rise in level.

This was because Martial Souls had limits at every stage, and the limit of each stage was locked.

If that restriction was not removed, the Martial Soul could not improve. No amount of cultivating to increase Soul Power would be of any use.

And the key to unlocking it was the Bloodline Factor of soul beasts. A Martial Soul could absorb the Bloodline Factors and Soul Power contained within a Soul Ring.

The absorbed soul beast Bloodline Factors would transform the Martial Soul's own Bloodline Factors.

Soul Skills were formed through the combination of a Martial Soul's Bloodline Factors and those of a soul beast.

Some Martial Souls had overly inert Bloodline Factors, so their Soul Skills were primarily based on the Martial Soul's own Bloodline Factors.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda and the Nine Heart Begonia were examples of this.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda only had those dozen or so Soul Skills. The Nine Heart Begonia was even more extreme—its Bloodline Factors were completely inert, and its only Soul Skill was group healing.

Other Martial Souls possessed exceptionally active Bloodline Factors. The Soul Skills of these Martial Souls either came from soul beasts or from a combination of the Martial Soul and the soul beast.

Blue Silver Grass was one such example, possessing great plasticity.

The evolution of a Martial Soul was related to Bloodline Factors. The Bloodline Factors of soul beasts could stimulate those of a Martial Soul.

Each stimulation was equivalent to an evolution.

This was also related to Ye Lan's speculation regarding the origins of Beast Martial Souls.

If one repeatedly absorbed the same type of soul beast, persisting through generation after generation, the Martial Soul would evolve into a Beast Martial Soul.

This was because the Martial Soul's Bloodline Factors had been assimilated by those of the soul beast.

Ye Lan guessed that the Beast Martial Souls existing in each era of the Douluo Continent would differ. Perhaps inert Beast Martial Souls would continue to be passed down, while active Martial Souls constantly mutated into all kinds of different Martial Souls.