The Mad Experimenter

Lor Diarra's scholarly impatience was instantly replaced by sharpness. He hadn't even fully released his Martial Soul, merely exerting force with his feet, Whoosh!

his figure turning into a blurred afterimage. In the blink of an eye for Chen Li, he had already crossed dozens of meters, appearing beside the Thunder-Pattern Teng Snake!

His speed was far beyond that of an ordinary Soul Emperor!

Only after he stopped did six Soul Rings suddenly appear on his body.

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black!

Chen Li's eyes narrowed. This Lor Diarra, who crazily researched like a human, was actually a six-ring Soul Emperor! From his appearance, one couldn't tell at all. He hadn't expected his strength to be so formidable...

At the same time, Lor Diarra suddenly clenched his right hand. A narrow, cold-gleaming surgical knife-shaped tool Martial Soul quietly appeared, its blade flowing with pale green wind-attribute Soul Power.

The Thunder-Pattern Teng Snake didn't even have time to react before the surgical knife in Lor Diarra's hand transformed into a faint green line, precisely slicing through its vital point at the seven-inch mark!

Chii!

The wound was extremely thin but deep enough to expose bone. The Thunder-Pattern Teng Snake's body stiffened abruptly, the light in its eyes rapidly dimmed, and it slid limply off the rock wall, nearly dead.

The entire process was clean and efficient, without any wasted movements, demonstrating that Lor Diarra was not only a researcher but also a Soul Emperor with rich combat experience, skilled at acquiring "experimental materials" effectively.

"Come, finish it," Lor Diarra said to Chen Li.

A flash of lightning passed, and Chen Li personally killed the Thunder-Pattern Teng Snake.

A bright yellow Soul Ring slowly rose from the Teng Snake's corpse.

"Quick! While the energy is most active!" Lor Diarra instantly switched back to researcher mode, staring intently at the Soul Ring and Chen Li while holding his recording board up, his pen tip hovering, ready to take notes.

"Touch it with your Soul Power, try to absorb it! I want to see the complete disintegration process!"

"Yes." Chen Li quickly stepped forward, directly extending his finger to guide his Soul Power, touching the yellow Soul Ring.

The moment they made contact, the familiar repulsion and the disdain from the Rumble-Rumble Fruit within him arrived as expected.

Buzz... Bang!

The yellow Soul Ring vibrated violently, its light flashing chaotically, then, as if detonated from within, it exploded into a patch of golden mist, rapidly dissipating into the air without a trace.

"As expected! Direct disintegration of the energy structure! It's not repulsion, it's... a destructive incompatibility!" Lor Diarra muttered as he rapidly recorded, his eyes behind his glasses widening, filled with the excitement of discovering a new world.

"Record: Subject contacted target Thunder-Pattern Teng Snake, 362-year Soul Ring instantly, the Soul Ring's internal stable structure was impacted by an unknown force, collapsing from the inside out, leaving no absorbable energy residue.

Hypothesis: The Martial Soul's origin rank or energy nature far exceeds the bearing capacity of the Soul Ring, leading to an explosive phenomenon... Interesting, very interesting!"

Meanwhile, in Chen Li's mind, the system's prompt also sounded:

[Ding!]

[Acquired Hundred Year Soul Ring *1 (Quality: Flawed)]

A good start, acquired one... Just need seven more, and I can upgrade the quality of the Thousand-year Soul Ring to [Good].

Chen Li's finger rubbed lightly in his sleeve, suppressing the anticipation in his heart.

"Not enough! Too few samples! Not enough variables!" Lor Diarra suddenly looked up, his gaze sweeping towards the beast pens like a hawk searching for prey.

"Continue! Switch to different attributes! Different years! I want to see if all Soul Rings are the same! Or if it only targets specific attributes or years!"

In the following time, Chen Li almost became Lor Diarra's human Soul Ring destroyer. With the assistance of this fanatical researcher, one Hundred Year Soul Beast after another was quickly and precisely killed.

Chen Li merely had to step forward to deliver the finishing blow, then use his Soul Power to attract the Soul Ring, and finally witness them shatter and disappear one by one.

Lor Diarra was completely immersed in data collection. He recorded rapidly, sometimes frowning in deep thought, other times exclaiming excitedly, completely ignoring Chen Li's presence, treating him merely as a device that produced precious phenomena.

"Earth attribute, disintegration speed slowed by 17%... Wind attribute, disintegration form is diffuse... Light attribute, there was a brief brilliant glow before disintegration! Wonderful! Each attribute has subtle differences! What does this indicate? It indicates that his Martial Soul doesn't simply reject, but is performing some kind of extremely high-level appraisal and negation!!"

Chen Li silently collected system prompts: [Acquired Hundred Year Soul Ring *1 (Quality: Inferior/Flawed)]...

Unknowingly, the raw materials he needed had quietly been gathered.

Finally, after the Soul Ring of another Soul Beast disintegrated, Lor Diarra stopped writing. He scratched his already somewhat messy, graying hair, his face a mixture of confusion and extreme excitement.

"Strange... Truly unprecedented strangeness! Theoretically, Martial Souls and Soul Rings are complementary and coexistent. Even with conflicting attributes, absorption is mostly difficult or the effect is poor. This situation, which directly causes the Soul Ring's basic structure to collapse... is unheard of!"

Lor Diarra suddenly turned his head, his gaze fixed intently on Chen Li, as if he wanted to dissect him and study him closely.

Suddenly, Lor Diarra seemed to have thought of an extremely bold, even crazy idea. The eyes behind his glasses instantly erupted with terrifying brilliance!

"Kid! Have you... ever tried a Thousand-year Soul Ring before?" His voice was slightly distorted with excitement, and he leaned forward slightly, exuding an undeniable pressure.

Chen Li's mind raced. He appropriately showed a hint of hesitation on his face... "A Thousand-year Soul Ring? Sir, I only have level ten Soul Power. According to common sense in the Soul Master world, it's impossible to withstand the soul shock and energy impact of a Thousand-year Soul Ring. Wouldn't that be courting death? I haven't tried it."

"Common sense? Hahaha!" Lor Diarra suddenly let out a few short, sharp laughs, full of disdain for common sense. "In the face of unknown phenomena, common sense is meant to be broken!

Your situation itself has already exceeded common sense! It's common sense that a level ten Soul Master cannot absorb a Hundred Year Soul Ring, but you're now exploding even Hundred Year Soul Rings! So, when facing a Thousand-year Soul Ring with a higher energy level and a more stable structure, will your Martial Soul explode it just the same, or... will there be a different reaction?

For example, due to the increased strength of the Soul Ring, it might actually reach a temporary stable state at some critical point? Even a moment of stability would be enough to prove one of my hypotheses!"

The more he spoke, the more excited he became, gesticulating wildly, completely lost in his own theoretical deductions. "Yes! We must try a Thousand-year Soul Ring! This will be a crucial control experiment!

It will greatly advance my understanding of the essence of your Martial Soul! It might even overturn part of the foundation of current Soul Ring absorption theories!"