Thousand-Year Soul Ring (Quality: Excellent)

Lor Diarra gripped his hair and paced back and forth, muttering under his breath, completely swept up in his own academic storm.

"Lord Lor Diarra?" Chen Li spoke softly at just the right moment.

"Go back first! Right now! Immediately!" Without even looking up, Lor Diarra impatiently waved a hand, all his attention already buried in his notebook.

He frantically recorded every detail he had just observed, sketching out all kinds of hypotheses and follow-up experimental plans. "I need time to analyze this data! Once I have the results, I'll come find you! Someone, escort him back!"

Before long, a steward waiting outside entered and respectfully led Chen Li away from the high-level Soul Beast area.

After returning to his room, he locked the door behind him.

All the disappointment and exhaustion on Chen Li's face vanished in an instant, replaced by a sharp, hawk-like gaze and a slightly quickened heartbeat.

He hurried to the bedside and sat cross-legged. After taking a deep breath to calm himself and mentally preparing for what was to come, he decisively sank his consciousness into the system space.

Inside the space, the Soul Ring reserves had already been updated:

Two Thousand Year Soul Rings shimmering with purple light, along with eight Yellow Soul Rings from Hundred Year Soul Rings arranged neatly beside them.

"Eight Hundred Year Soul Rings should be enough as the final nourishment." Chen Li murmured inwardly, determination flashing through his eyes. With a thought, he connected to the dormant black hole within him—the power of the Munch-Munch Fruit.

Guided by Soul Power, the Thousand Year Soul Ring that served as the core, originally of [Ordinary] quality, was brought out first and floated before him. Immediately afterward, the eight Hundred Year Soul Rings flew out one after another, circling the Purple Soul Ring.

"Munch-Munch Fruit, activate!"

The dark phantom emerged behind Chen Li once more.

This time, it resembled a genuine black hole, generating a tremendous suction force.

The eight Yellow Soul Rings flew into that profound darkness one after another like birds returning to their nest.

Then, the Purple Soul Ring was slowly drawn in as well.

This time, Chen Li could clearly sense a far more violent transformation taking place within the Munch-Munch Fruit than ever before.

The essence of the many Hundred Year Soul Rings was swiftly stripped away and refined, turning into streams of pure energy that surged like countless rivers flowing into the sea, pouring madly into the Thousand Year Soul Ring at the core.

Like land parched by drought receiving sweet rain, the Thousand Year Soul Ring greedily absorbed that essence. Its internal structure began undergoing a fundamental optimization and sublimation. Its purple glow grew deeper and purer, even faintly carrying an indescribable sense of majesty.

His Soul Power was draining rapidly, but Chen Li gritted his teeth and endured. He did not know how long it lasted—perhaps only a moment, perhaps as long as years.

[ Ding! ]

A crisp system notification rang through his mind like heavenly music.

The phantom of the Munch-Munch Fruit gradually settled. With a flash of dim light, it expelled a brand-new Soul Ring, which floated quietly before Chen Li.

The Soul Ring was still purple, but its color was no longer the somewhat thin, luminous violet from before. It was a deep, heavy dark purple, containing an inner radiance!

It was as though a miniature thunderstorm cloudscape had been condensed within it, slowly churning. Just looking at it was enough to sense the vast, pure lightning power contained inside!

The system information displayed clearly:

[Thousand Year Soul Ring (Quality: Excellent)]

It had worked! Its quality had risen from [Ordinary] to [Excellent]!

Chen Li slowly drew in a deep breath, trying to suppress the surging excitement in his chest. The path had been proven viable, and the conversion of materials had succeeded. Now, only the final—and most crucial, most dangerous—step remained: absorption!

The question stood starkly before him: would the Rumble-Rumble Fruit acknowledge this [Excellent]-quality Thousand Year Soul Ring?

And this was a Thousand Year Soul Ring.

According to the Soul Ring age-limit theory proposed by Master Yu Xiaogang, which would later gain widespread acceptance, the absorption limit for a first Soul Ring was approximately 423 years.

Beyond that limit, the immense energy contained within the Soul Ring and the spiritual shock caused by the lingering remnant will of the Soul Beast would be enough to burst the meridians and shatter the mind of a level-ten Soul Master.

"Theory is theory. I am me..." Chen Li's eyes flickered intensely. His reason told him the risk was enormous, but the fire in his heart that refused mediocrity and yearned for strength, the frustration accumulated through countless failures, and his faith in this one-of-a-kind path all converged into an almost insane resolve!

"There's no other choice! If I don't stake everything on this, am I really supposed to cling to someone else?!"

"Risk? Opportunity has always gone hand in hand with risk!"

"Absorb it!!!"

The last trace of hesitation in Chen Li's eyes was completely extinguished, replaced by a desperate madness and unwavering determination. He hesitated no longer, controlling the [Excellent]-quality Thousand Year Soul Ring that radiated a dark purple glow as it slowly descended toward the top of his head.

The Soul Ring fell, and purple light completely engulfed him.

The instant the Purple Soul Ring touched his body, Chen Li felt every inch of flesh and every meridian in his body being forcibly stretched open and torn apart by an incomparably violent torrent of lightning!

This was no longer the gentle rejection he had experienced during his previous attempts at absorption. It was a destructive impact formed from the immense energy accumulated by a Thousand Year Soul Beast and its unruly lingering will!

His bones seemed to groan under unbearable strain, and the blood vessels beneath his skin bulged as though they would burst the very next second.

Yet unlike before, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit within him—always proud and indifferent, always disdainful of inferior food—reacted on its own initiative for the first time!

It did not resist. Instead, like a glutton that had caught the scent of a delicacy, it began greedily devouring and converting the violent energy pouring into him!

Streams of pure lightning power were stripped away and fused into the origin of his martial soul, allowing Chen Li to clearly feel his strength rapidly growing and his control and understanding of lightning deepening at a frenzied pace.

But this process of absorption and enhancement came with even more intense pain! The energy of a high-quality Thousand Year Soul Ring was too vast and too pure; the speed at which it could be absorbed and converted was far slower than the speed at which it surged into him!

The excess energy, along with the Thunderclap Eagle's remaining savage will, rampaged through his body, wreaking havoc without restraint.

"Urgh!" A pained groan escaped through Chen Li's clenched teeth. Veins bulged across his forehead, cold sweat instantly soaking his clothes before evaporating beneath the lightning raging across his body.

If he had not trained without pause during this time, using the faint lightning power he gained after obtaining the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to temper his body little by little and build a foundation far beyond that of others his age, his meridians would likely have shattered in the first wave of impact, reducing him to a cripple.

I can't fall! Absolutely not! The agonizing pain nearly drowned his consciousness, but the obsession deep within his soul—the refusal to yield, the unwillingness to accept defeat—held him up like a pillar that steadied the sea...