Controlled Sacrifice

"Soul Masters should respect death, but they should not fear it."

Chen Ming shook his head, unable to explain any further.

In truth, during these past few years of cultivation, Chen Ming had vaguely sensed that he did possess some sort of special advantage. Yet it was far too abstract, and even now, he had not figured out what it was. He only knew that it seemed to be a trait of his soul. That was why he had paid particular attention to such "spirituality" over the years.

He had indeed taken a liking to this Bilin Seven Absolute Flower at first sight. At the time, it had not even been a Soul Beast, merely a plant with Soul Power Fluctuation. While cultivating, Chen Ming had watered its roots with his blood and nourished it bit by bit with Soul Power. Only then had it transformed into a Soul Beast several months ago. Its cultivation was probably around five hundred years.

Because he had infused it with Soul Power and watered it with his blood, Chen Ming could sense that this plant already bore his mark to some extent. Though he did not know what that mark could do, at the very least, it would not cause any negative effects.

Chen Ming believed that he could absorb its Soul Ring.

Seeing that persuasion was useless, Chen Shijie and Chen Tianyun said nothing more. They merely clenched their fists, their bodies trembling slightly as they looked at Chen Ming with pleading eyes, hoping he would change his mind.

Chen Ming had no weapon capable of dealing with the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower. Even after Martial Soul Possession, he would be unable to inflict fatal damage on it.

And that was assuming his actions would not provoke a chain reaction from this Bilin Seven Absolute Flower, or even the other Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers within the cave.

The Bilin Seven Absolute Flower had an extensive root system. Even if the leaves above were destroyed, it could not be completely killed. It was not something an ordinary Soul Master could handle easily.

Yet Chen Ming closed his eyes at that moment and summoned his Martial Soul. As though he had sensed something, his Spiritual Power and Soul Power merged within him, transmitting a certain trait into the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower.

A force came from the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower, resonating with Chen Ming's Martial Soul and bloodline. Within only a few breaths, the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower bloomed rapidly, and its previously calm Soul Power was utterly ignited in an instant.

Sacrifice—an extraordinary ability that could originally only be initiated voluntarily by a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast—was forcibly activated at this moment in a manner that even Chen Ming himself did not understand.

This Bilin Seven Absolute Flower began devouring the others around it. The Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers that had become Soul Beasts could barely resist through instinct, while those that had not yet become Soul Beasts could only obediently pass all the energy they had accumulated to it.

If that energy had been absorbed and retained as a foundation, this Bilin Seven Absolute Flower's cultivation could likely have surpassed a thousand years in a short time. Yet not a trace of that power remained; in the blink of an eye, it burned completely.

The flower bloomed as Life Force and Soul Power surged. Between the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower, burning at its utmost limit, and Chen Ming, a visible emerald-green pillar of Soul Power appeared, linking them together.

Just as Chen Shijie and Chen Tianyun were too shocked to think, the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower finally bloomed to its peak, producing an illusory eighth petal that should never have existed.

Then, in an instant, the enormous plant seemed to have had all its Life Force drained away and turned to ashes. The Soul Power within the flower gathered together and poured into Chen Ming's body. Chen Ming instinctively sat cross-legged to meditate, and a deep yellow Soul Ring emerged beside him.

"Sacrifice? Isn't that only..."

Chen Shijie's mouth hung open as he barely managed to force out a few words. Even using all the thinking ability he possessed in his entire life, he could not continue.

It was said that Sacrifice was a special ability possessed only by Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, and it could only occur when a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast willingly gave everything it had to someone.

On Douluo Continent, such a thing was practically mythological. It had appeared even fewer times than manifestations of the Angel God. If Douluo Continent had not always upheld the saying that ancestral rules could not be changed, something like Sacrifice, which no one had ever seen, would have long been removed from books as a rumor.

But what had they seen today?

A hundred-year plant-type Soul Beast had performed a Sacrifice for a Quasi Soul Master who had not even absorbed his First Soul Ring?

This could no longer be described as merely having flaws in the logic...

It was a hundred, a thousand, even ten times more absurd than the Angel God descending and bestowing a Soul Ring!

But Chen Ming had no attention to spare for what they thought. At that moment, under the Sacrifice of the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower, he had already entered a state of deep meditation that ordinary Soul Masters would find difficult to encounter.

If the previous Chen Ming had been locked away, then the instant this Soul Ring appeared, he could feel that one layer of the shackles binding him had been broken through by it.

At that moment, realization dawned on him.

Soul Masters and Soul Rings were laws of the Douluo World. Every advancement of a Soul Master was equivalent to using a Soul Ring as a medium to intersect with the laws of Douluo Continent, completing a transformation.

A Martial Soul was a manifestation of the world's essence, a Dao of the Douluo World, while Soul Rings were derivatives of that Dao.

Both were flawed. Only by combining could they achieve perfection and obtain a true derivation from the world.

Using the Soul Ring as a medium, Chen Ming's consciousness entered a profound and mysterious realm. He could sense that he could actively obtain something.

At his will, one scene after another unfolded before him. They were the laws hidden within the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower, the imprints carved into the most fundamental origin of the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower race.

Soul Masters with different Martial Souls could see different things, and no two people would see the same thing. Yet strictly speaking, the only person who had ever been able to perceive such abstract concepts was Chen Ming.

"Poison Arrow Technique... Poison Light Technique... Vicious Poison Entanglement... Vicious Poison Shot... Vicious Poison Enhancement... Vicious Poison Pincers..."

"These... these are not enough. They are merely transformations of Soul Power, not fundamental enough..."

After absorbing a Soul Ring, other Soul Masters could only randomly obtain one Soul Skill among several suitable ones. Chen Ming, however, had now opened every ability of the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower that could potentially become a Soul Skill. He browsed through them one by one and modified them to a certain extent, making them more suited to his own desires.

Chen Ming only glanced once or twice at Soul Skills such as entanglement and growth, which did not suit his Martial Soul, before ignoring them. Instead, he focused his attention on something more important.

Soul Rings and Soul Skills were like spell slots or skill slots. Soul Masters could use them, but the vast majority would never understand how they actually used them, much less approach the essence of Soul Rings.

Skills such as fireballs and fire lines were fundamentally the same, yet most people could not alter them in any way. Some Soul Skills with simple principles could actually be acquired through later training, without wasting a precious Soul Ring slot.

Chen Ming explored the essence of the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower within its Soul Ring. In the end, scene after scene overlapped before him, and a Soul Skill that, in theory, only a Soul Master with the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower Martial Soul could possibly obtain after absorbing a Bilin Seven Absolute Flower appeared before him.

"Poison Cloud Technique..."